Pittsburgh’s Menorah Parade traveling an alternate route

Look for the festive line of vehicles with illuminated menorahs driving through Pittsburgh at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The annual Menorah Parade to celebrate Hanukkah will go on, but with some changes to its destination based on Pennsylvania’s latest covid-19 restrictions.

The procession will begin at Rodef Shalom in Shadyside and travel to the Jewish Association on Aging’s Charles Morris Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Squirrel Hill. In past years, the parade ended at the Waterfront in Homestead.

Attendees will remain in their cars.

There will be no festival, short ceremony or lighting of the menorah because state officials limiting outdoor gatherings to 50 people through Jan. 4.

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop | Tribune-Review

The Menorah on a car from the 2019 annual Menorah parade which begins at Rodef Shalom in Shadyside. This year, the parade will be held on Dec. 15. The route has been changed to accomodate Gov. Tom Wolf’s recent covid-19 orders.

The light of the menorah can still be spread safely on the sixth night of Hanukkah said Rabbi Elchonon Friedman of Bnai Emunoh Chabad in Greenfield, organizer of the parade sponsored by Chabad of Pittsburgh.

“There is an importance to the parade in that light produces warmth and each day a candle adds to that light,” said Friedman. “When it is cold and dark this time of the year, we need a miracle. The menorah shows that in a dreary place God is bringing light and warmth. We need to spread the light and make the miracle grow.”

Friedman said he is pleased the event can still happen so the Jewish community can “take the light to the streets, so others can see it and realize we are all connected with God.” He said the pandemic has required making some changes to the event but that he is “using the situation God has given us.”

“With us driving past Charles Morris the elderly people there can see the parade,” Friedman said. “Sometimes you have to adjust and this year has taught us that.”