[Gallery] First Hebrew Lights Menorah at Peekskill Gazebo

Community members gathered at the Gazebo in downtown Peekskill Saturday for to light the Menorah for the first night Hanukkah.

Rabbi Lee Paskind and a member of the congregation lit the first lights on a large menorah, provided by the City of Peekskill. The City has been hosting this ceremony for many years, Paskind said. He has run the ceremony for the four years that he has been located in Peekskill.

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, a holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt about 2,000 years ago, during the second century BCE.

"We lit the Hanukkah Menorah with three special blessings and we sang a number of traditional songs and a couple of not so traditional songs," Paskind said. "But this is really a holiday that is strongly family. "It's a holiday that children enjoy and at the same, it really is a holiday that every generation can adopt in its own way."