COLUMBUS, Ohio — Each year, Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann tries to top himself with a Hanukkah celebration for the community that is more fun and exciting than the previous year’s event.
Last year was the first that Kaltmann hired a helicopter to drop dreidels and candy from the sky for children. This year, the dreidel drop will return, but with a twist: a few golden tickets also will fall from the sky, in a nod to “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” And his daughter helped plan a dance battle between hip-hop dancers and Hasidic Jews.
“We just want to make Judaism exciting; we want Judaism to be relevant,” said Kaltmann, executive director of the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center in New Albany. “We try to improve everything we do … so kids feel like they belong.”
Kaltman added that the center doesn’t want Jewish children to feel like, “‘Hey, why don’t I have anything special for the holiday season?’ The idea is to ignite just a spark of hope, a ray of light and goodness.”