Hanukkah in Scottsdale, in one place
Scottsdale’s December is loud with Christmas: Scottsdazzle, the Princess, the Railroad Park lights. Hanukkah is quieter, but it has a public face too, and it is easy to miss because it moves. The eight-night Jewish festival of lights follows the Hebrew calendar. As the Scottsdale Progress put it in 2024, it “can begin at any time from late November to late December.” In 2026 the first candle is lit at sundown on Friday, December 4, and the last night is Saturday, December 12.
The public lightings happen in two places:
- Scottsdale Quarter, where Chabad of Scottsdale stages a Grand Menorah Lighting. In 2024 it was at 4:45 p.m. on the second night, Thursday, December 26. A Chabad listing gave 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 14, which matches the first night of Hanukkah 2025.
- The Soleri Bridge & Plaza on the Old Town Waterfront, where Chabad of South Scottsdale holds a public celebration around a large menorah. In 2025 the Valley of the Sun J and other community groups added a second lighting at a nine-foot menorah on the same plaza.
Synagogues light menorahs too. The most visible is Congregation Beth Tefillah on Shea Boulevard, where candles are lit every night of the holiday.
Every one of these is free, and as of this writing (fall 2026) none has posted a 2026 date. This page lists the past patterns so you can tell when the new schedules appear.
The lightings, site by site
Scottsdale Quarter (Chabad of Scottsdale). The north-side lighting is held at the Scottsdale Quarter shopping center near Kierland. Past dates show the organizers choosing an early night of the holiday at about sundown: the second night in 2024 (Thursday, December 26, 4:45 p.m.), and the first night in 2025 (Sunday, December 14, 5 p.m., per Chabad’s listing). Chabad of Scottsdale has run a fuller program around it, including Latke Wars, a Chanukah Car Parade and a Glow Party. Which of those return in a given year is on Chabad’s Chanukah events page each November.
Soleri Bridge & Plaza (Chabad of South Scottsdale; the J). The Old Town lighting happens at the Soleri Bridge, Paolo Soleri’s pedestrian bridge over the Arizona Canal at the Scottsdale Waterfront. In 2024 Chabad of South Scottsdale held a “Festival of Lights” there at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, December 29. In 2025 the city’s community calendar listed two free events on the plaza:
- Public Menorah Lighting, Wednesday, December 17, 2025. The program started at 5:30 p.m. around a nine-foot menorah, with the Valley of the Sun J “and other community organizations,” music, singing and kids’ crafts. Candle lighting was at 6:30.
- Public Hanukkah Celebration, Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 4:30 p.m., with Chabad of South Scottsdale around a “larger-than-life” menorah, again with music, singing and crafts.
Both were filed under the city’s Scottsdazzle holiday program.
Shea Boulevard. Congregation Beth Tefillah, led by Rabbi Pinchas Allouche, lights its menorah every night of the holiday on the stretch of Shea that the Progress called “religion row.” The synagogue sits between Chaparral Christian Church and a Latter-day Saints church, a few blocks east of Congregation Beth Israel, with Scottsdale Bible Church down the road.
Kierland. A lighting at Kierland has been mentioned in past listings, but we could not confirm it. If you know it, the organizer is the one to ask.
Practical notes
- Times follow sunset. December sunset in Scottsdale comes around 5:20 p.m., and every past start time has fallen between 4:30 and 6:30.
- Dress for the canal. The Soleri plaza is open concrete beside the water. December evenings drop into the 40s and 50s, so bring layers for children.
- Parking. The Waterfront and Old Town’s free public garages are a short walk from the bridge. Scottsdale Quarter has its own garages.
- Pair it. The Soleri Bridge sits beside the Scottsdazzle tree on the Waterfront. Our holiday season guide covers the rest of Old Town’s December.
What the record shows, and what it doesn’t
Public Hanukkah in Scottsdale is older than the lightings, and less documented than it should be. City historian Joan Fudala found that December 1977 issues of the Scottsdale Progress announced a Hanukkah potluck at the Civic Center Senior Center, an AVIVA/Hadassah luncheon at Eldorado Park that included a slide show about Hanukkah celebrations in Israel, and a Hanukkah boutique at Temple Solel selling gifts and baked goods. Those are the earliest public Hanukkah events we can document in the city, which is why this page gives 1977 as its starting year. That year marks the earliest documented public Hanukkah events, not the first menorah lighting. Fudala also notes that in 1971 Valley volunteers interrupted their “Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations” to stage the first Fiesta Bowl, and that Scottsdale’s resorts have long served Hanukkah as well as Christmas holiday meals.
What we could not find is the first year of the public menorah lightings. Neither Chabad house’s founding year is in the sources we consulted. The lightings at Scottsdale Quarter, which opened in 2009, and at the Soleri Bridge, dedicated in December 2010, can’t predate their sites, but they may have moved there from somewhere else. The Jewish News (jewishaz.com) publishes a Hanukkah calendar every year, and its archive would show the pattern year by year. Chabad of Scottsdale and Chabad of South Scottsdale can say when each began.
Why the Soleri Bridge fits
Of all the places in Scottsdale to light a menorah, the Soleri Bridge suits it best. Paolo Soleri designed the bridge and plaza as a solar calendar: two 64-foot pylons set six inches apart on true north, so a blade of sunlight falls through the gap and marks the solstices and equinoxes. The city dedicated it on December 11, 2010, timed to the approach of the winter solstice. A festival about light in the darkest weeks of the year, held at a structure built to track the sun’s lowest point, is the kind of coincidence a city can make into a tradition.
A note on spelling
Organizers spell it both ways. Chabad uses Chanukah, the Progress and the city calendar use Hanukkah, and you will see both on the same evening. It is the same holiday.