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| Tickets/Registration: 212.415.5500 |
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| Media Contact: Meryl Wheeler, 212.413.8841, email |
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| 92nd Street Y FAMILY HANUKKAH FESTIVAL |
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| HOLIDAY PERFORMANCES ♦ PUPPETS ♦ STORYTELLING ♦ DANCING ♦ FOOD ♦ CRAFTS |
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Sunday, December 2, 10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Tickets: $20 adult/$15 child (Children under 2 - Free) |
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| New York, NY, November, 2, 2007—The 92nd Street Y's annual Family Hanukkah Festival returns on Sunday, December 2, from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm. This year's Festival boasts five different holiday performances, featuring interactive storytelling, puppets and music (each performance runs at least twice). Between shows, families can enjoy Hanukkah arts and crafts (dreidels, menorahs, coins), latke-cooking and dancing. |
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Activities at the festival are ideally suited to families with children between the ages of three and eight years old; children under two years old are admitted free.
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In the spirit of tzedakah (helping the needy), families are encouraged to bring a small unwrapped gift (valued up to $10) to be donated to children in need.
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| PERFORMANCES, PUPPETS & STORYTELLING |
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THE GOLDEN DREYDL — Award-winning fantasy author and public radio host (Sound & Spirit) Ellen Kushner, joined by a puppet peacock, performs a musical show based on her new illustrated book The Golden Dreydl. The story is inspired by a Hanukkah/klezmer version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite by the band Shirim, whose music is featured in the show.
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THE KLEZMER BUNCH — Children's book writer/illustrator Amalia Hoffman (Purim Goodies) performs her one-woman show, The Klezmer Bunch, the comedic tale of a band of traveling klezmer musicians on their way to a Hanukkah party. Participate by singing along and making suggestions for the story!
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HANUKKAH STORIES — Acclaimed Israeli children's performer Rivi Dror acts out favorite Hanukkah stories with music, festive costumes, and help from the audience (of course!).
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HANUKKAH PUPPETS & SONGS — The 92nd Street Y's director of Jewish arts and culture Karina Zilberman and her puppet pals perform a selection of interactive Hanukkah songs.
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THE AMAZING HUMAN DREIDEL — It's the return of Gershon Resnick, the Festival's beloved "dreidel on stilts"! Between performances, Resnick-as-dreidel clowns around, juggles and entertains all over the festival.
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| DANCING |
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Do your "little dreidels" need to twirl, hop and blow off steam? Bring them to Music and Movement or Israeli Dancing and let them go! (See schedule below.)
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| HANUKKAH OLIVE PRESS |
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Returning to the festival this year is the hands-on Hanukkah Olive Press, presented by Rabbi Yisroel Fried of Chabad of the West Side. Children can see and feel fresh olives, help to operate the wooden press, and produce oil that will be lit in a Hanukkah menorah right before their eyes.
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| CRAFTS — All Day Long! |
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♦ NEW! ♦ Dress up as a Maccabee — Have your picture taken and decorate a picture frame.
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♦ NEW! ♦ Decorate your own Dreidel — Start with a blank wooden dreidel, choose your markers and make it your own! Learn what the Hebrew letters mean and how to write them.
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CANDLES: Children can make a Shamash — the "helper" candle that is used to light the other candles in the Hanukkah menorah — by rolling strips of soft beeswax around a wick and decorating the candle with paint and scraps of soft wax.
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COINS: Children can experience the joy of stamping coins, which is exactly what the Maccabees did to announce their victory over Antiochus and establish their sovereignty in ancient Israel. Working with foil-covered disks, kids "engrave" and stamp holiday symbols on their very own "coins." (Modern-day Israeli coins, which still have some of the ancient symbols on them, will also be on display.)
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CLAY MENORAHS: Using fast-drying clay, kids make clay oil-lamps that they can take home and light with a real oil "candle." For pre-schoolers, there's a simple design that's perfect for little hands; children 6 and over can make one that's a bit more challenging.
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| SCHEDULE of PERFORMANCES AND ACTIVITIES |
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*10:30* | HANUKKAH STORIES with Rivi Dror | MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
*11:00* | KLEZMER BUNCH with Amalia Hoffman | HANUKKAH SONGS with Karina | HUMAN DREIDEL | ISRAELI DANCING | HANUKKAH OLIVE PRESS
*11:30* | HANUKKAH STORIES with Rivi Dror | MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
*12:00* | HANUKKAH SONGS with Karina | HUMAN DREIDEL | GOLDEN DREYDL with Ellen Kushner | ISRAELI DANCING | HANUKKAH OLIVE PRESS
*12:30* | HANUKKAH STORIES with Rivi Dror | GOLDEN DREYDL with Ellen Kushner (12:45 pm) | MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
*1:00* | HANUKKAH SONGS with Karina | HUMAN DREIDEL | ISRAELI DANCING | HANUKKAH OLIVE PRESS
*1:30* | HANUKKAH STORIES with Rivi Dror | KLEZMER BUNCH with Amalia Hoffman | MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
*2:00* | HANUKKAH SONGS with Karina | HUMAN DREIDEL | ISRAELI DANCING
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| FOOD and HANUKKAH SUPPLIES |
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What would Hanukkah be without LATKES? In Bubbe's Latke Kitchen, kids can watch a variety of different latkes (potato pancakes) cooked in oil and then eat the results (for a small fee). And of course, jelly donuts will be also available for all, along with kosher food for purchase in the Hanukkah Café.
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The Hanukkah Boutique in the lobby sells dreidels, menorahs, candles, holiday books and games, chocolate Hanukkah gelt, and other goodies.
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| "HOUSE RULES" OF THE FESTIVAL |
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The Y provides a free coat check and stroller check, since strollers are not allowed into the festival. Parents are encouraged to bring their baby carriers and backpacks! All children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
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| ABOUT HANUKKAH — THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS |
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Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the Maccabees' victory over the Syrians (around 165 BCE). The Jews, under the Syrian King Antiochus, had been suffering religious persecution. So the Maccabees organized a revolt that ultimately led to the reclamation and rededication of the Jewish Temple, which the Syrians had desecrated. (The word Hanukkah means dedication.) According to the legend of Hanukkah, only one jar of oil was left uncontaminated, and although it only contained enough oil to burn for one day, miraculously, the oil lasted eight days — long enough to make more oil for the Temple's menorah. This explains the eight days of Hanukkah and the connection to light and candles (the modern-day version of the ancient oil lamp). The miraculous oil in the story is commemorated with delicious holiday foods like potato latkes (pancakes) and sufganiot (jelly doughnuts). This year, the first candle of Hanukkah is lit on the evening of Tuesday, December 4; the last day of Hanukkah is Wednesday, December 12.
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y |
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The 92nd Street Y Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, generously endowed by the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, is the spiritual center of the Y and welcomes everyone seeking a better understanding of Jewish culture. The Center presents New York City's premier Jewish lecture series featuring renowned thinkers as well as cultural and public figures like Elie Wiesel (celebrating his 37th year at the Y), Susannah Heschel, Arthur Hertzberg, Alan Dershowitz, and Anne Roiphe. Classes and holiday celebrations introduce adults and children to the values and rituals of Jewish life. The breadth of the Bronfman Center's offerings and their egalitarian, nondenominational nature make the 92nd Street Y New York's premier address for Jewish learning.
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Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit each year — both in person and through the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 8,000 public school children through fully-subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org.
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