Radnor Township Parks & Recreation, Temple Brith Achim and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia are teaming up to bring a Chanukah festival to Radnor for the first time.
Officially called the Light Up Wayne Hanukkah Festival & Menorah Lighting, named for the unincorporated downtown center of Radnor, the festival will take place on Dec. 14 from 12:30-2 p.m. It will feature the lighting of a 9-foot tall menorah, a musical performance from Cantor Tifani Coyot of Temple Brith Achim and her youth and adult choirs, a Chanukah-themed photo booth and food from the King of Prussia location of The Kibitz Room, among other activities.
Coyot took over in July as spiritual leader of Brith Achim, a King of Prussia-based congregation that draws from more than 20 towns in the area, and the menorah lighting was originally her idea. She worked with Tammy Cohen, the Jewish director of Radnor Parks & Rec, to bring the festival to life.
Once they had the idea, they reached out to the Federation because they needed a 9-foot menorah.
“Not everyone has a 9-foot menorah just hanging around,” said the Federation’s president and CEO, Michael Balaban. “Doing an event like this, where we light up the train station with a chanukiah, that’s what this time of year is all about. It’s about putting a menorah in your window. It’s about light,” said Coyot.
Radnor and Wayne are technically part of the Main Line, an area with more than 10,000 Jewish households, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s 2019 population study. But the area of southern Montgomery County and northern Delaware County, in which King of Prussia also sits, has fewer Jewish institutions to serve its many Jewish residents than other parts of the Main Line.
Temple Brith Achim is the only major synagogue in the area. The Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood is about a 30-minute drive to the south.
This core problem was one of the reasons Coyot left Temple Beth Am in the Miami area, a congregation with 1,800 families, to take the job with Brith Achim. It was the main reason why, after conducting a population study, the Kaiserman JCC decided to open a preschool at the temple in the fall of 2024. It even helped lure The Kibitz Room, which has its original location in Cherry Hill, to the area.
This gradual development of the Jewish community sparked Coyot to ask around about a menorah lighting. When she moved to the area, everyone, including her Jewish real estate agent, told her she had to check out “Christmas in Wayne,” a two-day holiday festival in Wayne’s downtown.
The cantor thought the event would make a good fit for her menorah lighting. But “Christmas in Wayne,” run by the Wayne Business Association, had its own specific layout and schedule to follow. It would have been hard for a Chanukah event to light up the train station, offer a musical performance and feature Jewish food.
Coyot understood, and the Wayne Business Association encouraged her to launch her own festival. They also promised to advertise it.
“It could have been something very small. It’s been able to become its own thing,” the cantor said.
(Courtesy of Tifani Coyot)
Coyot created a promotional video and flyer, and Cohen and the Parks & Rec team put it out on social media and on their website.
“People started to see, ‘Oh, there’s going to be a menorah lighting,’” said Cohen.
Next, the cantor and Parks & Rec director reached out to the Federation for the menorah and to Kibitz Room owner Brandon Parish for the food. A few days later, Coyot, Cohen and Parish were sitting in The Kibitz Room, eating Reuben sandwiches and discussing logistics when people started approaching them.
They had seen posts about the event on Facebook, they said.
“It surged,” Cohen added. “A lot of businesses are owned by Jews here in Radnor, and we didn’t even know it. A lot of people came forward wanting to be part of it. I had residents reach out saying they’re third-generation Holocaust survivors. ‘Give me a stack of flyers; I’m going to put these out at businesses.’”
Balaban called this type of public expression “a meaningful act.”
“They should be out there; they should be public; they should be vocal. Radnor has a strong Jewish community; Wayne has a strong Jewish community. But in terms of numbers of the population, it’s a little smaller than other areas we might think of,” he said.
Coyot is hoping to make this an annual event.
She said her children went to day school in the Miami area in a “huge Jewish community.” Since moving here, though, they’ve been hesitant about sharing their identity. They’ve even asked their mom if it’s OK to do so.
An event like this can make it OK.
“I feel like this is a gift that I’m giving my children,” Coyot said.
