Congregation Sinai helps our community celebrate all Jewish holidays with special events and virtual services. Congregation Sinai has been serving the Jewish Community of Central Florida for the past 17 years. Many services and annual holiday events are open and free to the entire community.
A Special Chanukah & Friday Night Shabbat Service will be held on Friday, the second night on December 11 starting at 7:15 PM. There will be a Chanukiah Candle Lighting service that evening at the synagogue for a limited number of attendees who pre-register to safely attend in person with masks and safe social distancing. Virtual attendees will be able to safely tune in live from home, while also lighting their Chanukah candles. The Sinai Sunday School children will be there to recite the holiday blessings. This will be followed by a series of Chanukah holiday songs with our Sunday School children and a special Torah reading. Everyone will be encouraged to eat latkes that night. Chanukah will end on the following Friday, December 18th at sunset. Sinai will begin their normal Friday night Kabbalat service that final Chanukah night starting at 7:30 PM which will include singing some extra prayers and festive songs to usher out this celebratory holiday.
Chanukah Celebration! This Jewish festival commemorates the rededication of the 
Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is also known as the Festival of Lights. Chanukah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew Calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabra with nine branches, called a menorah or a hanukkiah. One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the Shamash. Each night, one additional candle is lit by the Shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival. Chanukah festivities include playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and jelly donuts also known as sufganiyot, with dairy foods.
Congregation Sinai! Joe Goldovitz provides distinctively unique spiritual leadership. This organization serves as a house of prayer, assembly and study in which the spectrum of Jewish expression is cultivated, protected and nurtured. They provide educational programs for children and adults, bible study groups, bar/bat mitzvah study programs and group tours to Israel. They strive to educate adults and children in Judaism’s rich heritage with contemporary significance while sharing Jewish culture, rituals, traditions and values.
Celebrate Hanukah, Jewish Holidays & Traditions! For more information about their holiday services, new membership, educational programs, Friday night Shabbat services and their special events; call: 352-243-5353. Email info@congregation-sinai.org and visit their website at: www.congregation-sinai.org. Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/2022346804470513. Affordable annual memberships are available. Congregation Sinai is located at: 1200 West Broad Street, Groveland, FL 34736. The mail address is: 4327 South Highway 27, Clermont, FL 34711.
