Mayor Karen Bass and several other city officials are scheduled to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah on Sunday, lighting the menorah at sundown at a citywide ceremony on L.A.’s Westside.
The ceremony, which is scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m., will be held on Pico Boulevard between Doheny and Wetherly drives.
The lighting is part of a larger celebration that runs throughout the afternoon and features a street fair, carnival and performances that include Benny Friedman, Yoni Z and the Cheder Menachem Boys Choir.
Pico will be closed between Doheny and Livonia Avenue for the celebration, which is hosted by Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin and Chabad of California. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the Pico-Robertson area, is also scheduled to attend the ceremony, along with several other community leaders.
Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, is celebrated over eight nights and marks the Jews’ recapture and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, following their victory over the Syrians.
Chabad, a nonprofit group whose work is rooted in traditional Jewish values, offers programs to help needy people regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs. The organization’s representatives have joined with mayors and city officials to illuminate the menorah on Hanukkah each year since 1985.
Bass also attended a Hanukkah event on Thursday in downtown Los Angeles, appearing with the Los Angeles County supervisors and other elected officials.
During that event, she spoke about growing up in the heavily Jewish Fairfax District and pledged to combat antisemitism in the city.
