Chabad of Yonkers Rabbi Mendy Hurwitz leading the Hanukkah parade starting at Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano’s office, winding through Yonkers, with brightly lit Happy Chanukah signs topping almost all two dozen cars.
Photos (c) Robert Kalfus 2024
By Robert Kalfus
The Hanukkah celebration started at Yonkers City Hall on Tuesday night, with Mayor Mike Spano lighting the shammash, and other dignitaries kindling other lights, followed by a plentiful kosher dinner, latkes and sufganiot.
Leaving the Mayor’s office, Rabbi Mendy Hurwitz led a Chanukah procession of almost two dozen cars, each with a brightly lit “Happy Chanukah” sign and a lit electric menorah on top, illuminating Yonkers with a wonderful parade of menorahs, circling Yonkers streets, stopping first at Yonkers Dept. of Public Works for speeches from Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and other officials. The Yonkers Police Dept. assured safe transit for all the Chanukah decorated cars, which then proceeded to end back at Yonkers’ Nahmias et Fils Distillery, for pizza, traditional warm latkes (potato pancakes fried in oil) to all, and traditional sufganiot (jelly donuts).
Yonkers Distillery Nahmias et Fils was founded by Dorit Nahmias and her husband Master Distiller David Nahmias, a former computer-software engineer, who was raised in the small Moroccan town of Taznakht. His parents Joseph and Tamou, and grandparents, Saada and Moshe, were also distillers and they created Mahia, a unique Jewish alcoholic beverage, made entirely from figs, dates, or grapes. David Nahmias and his wife Dorit hand-craft their award-winning spirits with the finest, natural ingredients and are proudly the sole producers of Mahia in the United States, produced at Nahmias et Fils at 201 Saw Mill River Road, building C.
