Ethan Kay, 7, of Howland, left, and Shayna Wilschek, 6, of Liberty, take part in the Hanukkah celebration Sunday at Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom in Youngstown....Staff photo / Bob Coupland

YOUNGSTOWN — Since the merger last month of two local Jewish congregations into Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom, the first major community event was marked with the celebration of Hanukkah on Sunday.

Congregation Rodef Sholom in Youngstown and Congregation Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah in Boardman officially merged Nov. 1 into the new congregation in Youngstown.

Rabbi Paula Winnig, interim rabbi of Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom, said seven years ago, there was a merger with Congregation Beth Israel in Sharon, Pa., with no name change. With the more recent merger of the other two congregations, the three congregation names were combined in order to have recognition of all three.

The final and eighth day of Hanukkah was marked Sunday and included performances by the children, consecration of new students, crafts and activities for children and adults. The meal included latkes, which is a potato pancake in the Eastern European tradition, and soufganiyot, which is the Hebrew word for doughnut, which is a more Spanish North African tradition, prepared by the congregation’s Brotherhood and Sisterhood.

Winnig said the consecration is a tradition to recognize a child’s beginning of formal Jewish education. On Sunday, three children, Ethan Kay, 7, of Howland; Shayna Wilschek, 6, of Liberty; and Rhett Gear, 6, of Ravenna, were recognized.

“It is called consecreation because of the dedicating of the children to their study of the Torah as part of learning and fulfilling the commandments and for doing good deeds,” she said.

The children did a performance, read poems, and led prayers and blessings.

Winnig said Hanukkah was earlier this year and began the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is one of the earliest dates it can be.

She said the reason for this is the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar with holidays sometimes varying by as much as 25 days versus the solar calendar. The lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar, and seven times in 19 years, there is a Leap Month added to the Jewish calendar to make sure the holidays line up with the proper season. Each holiday is according to the season of the year.

“That is why this year everything is early, which is a Leap Year with an extra month added in February to the Hebrew calendar. Next year, all the holidays will be late,” Winnig said.

Sarah Wilschek, executive director of Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom, said this is the fifth year the congregation has hosted a community Hanukkah.

“This is the first large-scale community event that Congregation Ohev Beth Sholom has hosted since the merger last month. This is also the first live in-person event in more than a year-and-a-half since the pandemic shutdown in March 2020. We had to cancel so many other events or hold them virtually,” she said.

The former Rodef Sholom site in Youngstown is being used as the 1119 Elm St. location for the congregation and the former Ohev Tzedek site at 5245 Glenwood Ave., Boardman, will be sold early next year. Items at that site will become part of the new congregation.

Wilschek said last year’s Hanukkah event was done virtually for people to watch from their homes.

She said the theme of this year’s Hanukkah celebration was to highlight the students, including Hanukkah presentations from the religious school classes.

Kandy Rawl of Howland and Sally Blau of Youngstown said the Sisterhood spent many hours preparing the food that included the popular latkes and pizza.

Congregation Rodef Sholom was founded in 1867 and is the oldest temple in the Mahoning Valley. Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah was established in 1925.

Wilschek said the merger came as a result of a conversation that lasted two to three months, following a previous community-wide conversation about bringing together all three of Youngstown’s major Jewish congregations two years ago.

Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah had about 85 members, whereas Rodef Sholom has about 220 members.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com