Congregation Beth El distributes jelly donuts and coffee at the South Orange Train Station on December 19, 2014. Courtesy Rabbi Jesse Olitsky.
Congregation Beth El distributed jelly donuts and coffee this morning to commuters at the South Orange Train Station in celebration of Hanukkah.
Cait & Abby’s Bakery supplied the baked goods and coffee.
“Jelly donuts, or sufganyot in Hebrew, is one of the commonly eaten fried foods associated with Hanukkah,” wrote Rabbi Jesse Olitzsky of Congregation Beth El, in an email. “Fried foods are eaten on Hanukkah because of the story of the Hanukkah miracle in which the oil for the Temple’s menorah continued to last for eight days.”
Rabbi Olitzky helped spread the word through social media, tweeting the news tip to The Village Green and posting to the Congregation’s Facebook page, nicely echoing the motto attached to his email signature “Congregation Beth El — Preserving Tradition… Embracing Change.”
