The first night of Hanukkah will coincide with Thanksgiving, the first time the two holidays have fallen on the same date since 1888.
Joe Goldwasser, a retired dentist who practiced for nearly 40 years in Kinston, said he plans on celebrating the two holidays together.
“I call it Thanksgivukkah,” Goldwasser said. “I’m combining the two of them.”
Goldwasser is one of a handful of people who are Jewish and live in the city. Most celebrate Hanukkah with family and friends, as the synagogue in Kinston, Temple Israel, is open on limited occasions due to the small population and inability to hire a full-time rabbi.
“Our community is dying off, so we have services the first Friday night of each month at 8 p.m.,” Goldwasser said.
Hyman Stadiem, owner and president of H. Stadiem, said he’ll be celebrating with his wife’s family, something they have done because Temple Israel isn’t open that day.
“We don’t have a large congregation at the synagogue anymore, and not much goes on there, so we just celebrate it at home,” Stadiem said.
Stadiem also noted the population decline in Kinston over the past few decades due to a lack of jobs also hurt.
“Most of the congregation is older, and a lot of the kids grew up and moved away,” Stadiem said. “There weren’t jobs available here. A lot of them graduated high school, went to college and couldn’t find employment.”
Hanukkah, also known as “The Feast of Dedication,” is a holiday commemorating the Maccabees’ victories over the Syrians, providing religious freedom and national independence for the Jewish people.
Faith Pearson, a retired English instructor at Lenoir Community College, said the holiday is historic for the concept the Maccabees fought for.
“It’s a commemoration of the first time in written history any group fought for idea,” Pearson said. “Before then, people fought for power, slaves, money or land. This was where the idea of religious freedom came in.
Pearson also acknowledged the lighting of the menorah, a well-known symbol of Hanukkah, as well as other traditions.
“The actual lighting of the candle signifies the temple desecrated by the Syrians. The Hebrew people took back the temple and rededicated it, but had enough oil to last for just one night. Instead, it lasted for eight.
“Traditionally, we’ll eat potato pancakes because it’s fried in oil,” Pearson said. “Also, we’ll exchange gifts each night, and on one night gold coins called Hanukkah gelt.”
The next time the holidays come together may be in the year 79,811.
Jonathan Mizrahi, a quantum physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, told Business Insider writer Steven Perlberg in October he calculated the figure because the Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out of sync with the solar calendar at a rate of 4 days per 1000 years.
Mizrahi also said if the calendar is modified, the two holidays will cross paths again roughly every 133 years — still longer than many people’s life span.
Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.