This Sunday marks the first night of the eight-day Jewish "festival of lights," Hanukkah. Families across the East End will gather to light the first candle of the hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah), exchange gifts, play with a dreidel, and eat traditional foods like latkes and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts).
This 1989 photograph from The East Hampton Star's archive shows Rabbi David Greenberg and Cantor Debra Stein lighting three candles to celebrate the third night of Hanukkah at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, where a party was held inside.
The first known East Hampton Hanukkah celebration took place in 1956, three years before the J.C.O.H. officially opened. Before that, Jewish residents here attended services at Sag Harbor's Temple Adas Israel and eventually the Session House at the Presbyterian Church. Seventeen families were able to establish the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in 1959 with the help of Evan M. Frankel (1901-1991), a real estate mogul, and Jacob M. Kaplan (1893-1987), a philanthropist.
David Greenberg (1924-2013) was rabbi at the J.C.O.H. for 10 years, arriving in East Hampton in 1980. During Rabbi Greenberg's tenure, the center grew by nearly 300 families, expanding its cultural and educational programming and physical footprint. The growth prompted the construction of a new sanctuary, which was completed in 1988.
Cantor-Rabbi Debra Stein is a familiar face to many who attend the center. She has served as its cantor since 1986, after Rabbi Greenberg saw her potential as a student cantor in 1985 and requested that she return the following year. She will mark 40 years there next year.
This year, the Jewish Center of the Hamptons will celebrate with pop-up Hanukkah events throughout the week, bringing light and holiday cheer to East Hampton.
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Megan Bardis is a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.
