More Than A Dozen Hanukkah Celebrations Planned Over the Holiday

DUBAI – Thousands are expected to attend Hanukkah events held in the United Arab Emirates, between Sunday, November 28 – December 5. Participants hail from all over the world, including: Bahrain, Canada, Israel, Europe, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South America, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States. Many Emiratis – including government officials – will be participating as well.

In this video, Bahrain’s Ambassador Houda Nonoo lights the menorah at the Bahrain pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai.


Last December, it was estimated that 70,000 Israelis visited the United Arab Emirates, and the Jewish community is looking forward to hosting close to that amount of Jewish and Israeli tourists this year. As a result, there was a need to create many more holiday programs so that everyone can join in the festivities. Programing is geared toward all ages, including dynamic youth programming.

Particularly exciting are the different Jewish organizations that have chosen to travel to Dubai to hold their events, including the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Chabad and others. Additionally, there are a plethora Hanukkah events planned to take place in different country’s pavilions at Expo 2020.

“The volume of Hanukkah events taking place in the UAE this year speaks to the tremendous growth we have seen over the past year and how it is quickly becoming the center of the Jewish world which has led to organizations outside of the UAE traveling here to hold their Hanukkah celebrations,” said Chief Rabbi Yehuda Sarna.

“This is another example of the blossoming of Jewish life in the UAE that there is a need for a multitude of programs to host everyone as compared to the handful of planned programs,” said Senior Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie.

For those who will be in Dubai for Hanukkah and would like to join the community for Shabbat, they are welcome to visit: https://shaareimizrah.ae/.