Lighting of the World’s Largest Hanukkah Menorah
Fifth Ave., at 59th St.; 718-778-6000.
Hanukkah’s answer to the giant Rockefeller Center tree stands 32 feet tall, weighs in at 4,000 pounds, and is lit using a Con Ed cherry picker.
• Dates: Dec. 4–11; Sun.–Thurs. 5:30 p.m., Fri. about 3:45 p.m., Sat. 8:30 p.m.
• Price: Free
Yo La Tengo
Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., at 11th St., Hoboken, N.J.; 201-653-1703.
Tickets to the band’s annual eight-night run at Maxwell’s are sold out, so keep your fingers crossed that someone got you a pair as a Hanukkah gift.
• Date: Dec. 4–11; Sun.–Thurs. 8:30 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 9 p.m.
• Price: $30
The Eight
Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St., nr. Third Ave.; 212-353-1600.
JDub Records’ ambitious multicity Hanukkah soirée touches down in New York with Israeli hip-hop group Hadag Nachash and Staten Island’s Afro-soul collective Budos Band.
• Date: Dec. 8, 7 p.m.
• Price: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
Festival of Choirs
Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 W. 83rd St., at Central Park W.; 212-362-8800.
With more than 100 voices and songs written by Peter Yarrow, the Festival of Choirs is like the Super Bowl of Jewish children’s chorales.
• Date: Dec. 9, 3 p.m.
• Price: Free
Piamenta
Southpaw, 125 Fifth Ave., nr. Sterling Pl., Park Slope, Brooklyn; 718-230-0236.
Yossi Piamenta’s eponymous jam band fuses traditional Jewish sounds with sixties rock, making him the “Hasidic Hendrix.”
• Date: Dec. 11, 8 p.m
• Price: $18
Jewltide
Southpaw, 125 Fifth Ave., nr. Sterling Pl., Park Slope, Brooklyn; 718-230-0236.
Basement Bhangra’s DJ Rekha, a menu of Chinese food, and an inexplicable screening of Wet Hot American Summer make the fifth-annual Jewltide a perfectly irreverent holiday bash.
• Date: Dec. 24, 8 p.m
• Price: $10 in advance, $15 at the door
David Broza
92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., at 92nd St.; 212-415-5500.
A superstar in his native Israel and BFFs with Jackson Browne, Broza returns to the Y for his annual Not Exactly Christmas Eve concert.
• Date: Dec. 24, 8 p.m.
• Price: $45-$65
The 21st Annual Official Matzo Ball Party
Capitale, 130 Bowery, nr. Grand St.; 212-334-5500.
The Matzo Ball is a Jewish mother’s dream come true: hundreds of nice, single, boys and girls in search of finding that special someone.
• Date: Dec. 24, 9 p.m.
Divahn
Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th St., nr. Fifth Ave.; 212-294-8330.
This year’s Winter Spectacular gets in touch with its feminine side when vocalist Galeet Dardashti and her all-female, riq-wielding ensemble jam to Mizrakhi-influenced music from the Middle East and North Africa.
• Date: Dec. 25, 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
• Price: $12