South Dakota
Annual Chanukah celebration provides new spin on traditions
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Tradition and symbolism of freedom, peace and hope carry the holiday known as the Festival of Lights.
For Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz of the Chabad Jewish Center of South Dakota, Chanukah has always been a joyous time.
“The best memories I have as a child growing up are of Chanukah, lighting those candles, those colorful candles, spinning that dreidel,” recalled Alperowitz.
The eight-day celebration is observed annually to remember the rededication of the Jewish temple following an important battle between the Assyrian Greeks and the Maccabees. It’s often called the Maccabean Revolt, which took the temple back for the Jewish people, and the word Chanukah means “dedication.”
Every year, the Jewish community of South Dakota holds an event to celebrate together. Notably, the biggest change of this year’s celebration event was the new location to accommodate a growing Jewish community in South Dakota. Last year was hosted at the Empire Mall, but this year was hosted at the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance.
They were grateful for local leadership who they believed helped to foster the growth of the community and partnering with different faiths. The Chabad Jewish Center of South Dakota brought in Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken to help light the menorah.
“I think it’s very important when we can have events like this just to remember how different we are, but how alike we are at the same time and to be able to come out and just publicly express that we are one Sioux Falls,” TenHaken explained. “I use that term all the time whether it’s our Jewish community, our Muslim community, our Christian community or people who practice no religion at all. We’re all part of one community. We coexist together.”
The menorah was one of many fun touches to this year’s gathering. The gelt drop, where chocolate coins are dropped for children, was done with assistance from Sioux Falls Fire Rescue. The seven-foot menorah itself was made out of Legos by children of the South Dakota Jewish community.
“It was exciting to watch them build it and it’s going to be very exciting to light it this evening,” Alprerowitz said.
For Rabbi Alperowitz, there was an emphasis on creating something for the whole family and involving youth in their longstanding traditions of the Jewish faith.
“Like so much of Judaism, Chanukah is really all about the children,” described Alperowitz. “It’s a time for families and children especially to gather, to learn the traditions, learn the sacred ideas of our heritage and our faith and to keep that going for the next generation. ”
Copyright 2024 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota
Rounds, Office of the Inspector General requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A squishy stress toy that’s been sitting on store shelves for years is suddenly becoming one of the hottest items in South Dakota, thanks to the power of social media.
NeeDoh, a line of sensory squeeze toys made by Schylling, has exploded in popularity on TikTok, where videos of people squeezing, stretching, and collecting the colorful toys have racked up millions of views. The viral attention is now translating into real-world demand, with retailers across the country struggling to keep them in stock.
At Child’s Play Toys in Sioux Falls, owner Nancy Savage recently announced a new shipment during a Facebook Live video.
Within hours, both Sioux Falls locations had sold out.
“So I’ve been in business, this November will be 17 years, and I have never seen anything like this,” Savage said. “It is the craziest thing.”
The frenzy isn’t limited to Sioux Falls.
At Black Hills Rally & Gold in Sturgis, manager Madison Bestgen said the store ordered what they believed would be enough inventory to last through the summer.
Instead, the shipment disappeared in less than two days.
“We made an order that we thought was going to get us all the way to the end of summer, and then when we got it in at the end of February, it lasted like a day and a half,” Bestgen said. “At that moment, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, this has blown up. This is something bigger than we thought.’”
The toys themselves aren’t new.
Both stores have carried NeeDoh products for nearly a decade and have built a steady customer base among children and adults alike.
But that changed once the product gained traction online.
“We had them out for people to play with, we’ve shown them to people, people with arthritis, we’ve sold them to so many adults, but all of a sudden, it went viral,” Savage said.
The surge in popularity has become a textbook example of what retailers call the “TikTok Effect,” where a single viral trend can transform an ordinary product into a sensation.
“It can change anything overnight into something absolutely wild,” Bestgen said.
The demand has been so intense that customers are traveling significant distances in search of the toys.
“We have people coming from everywhere,” Bestgen said. “We have people from Rapid City, Spearfish, Gillette, even, that are driving just because they want these NeeDohs.”
Savage has seen similar enthusiasm in Sioux Falls, especially when she goes live on Facebook to tell everyone.
“This is kind of a funny one, but at one of the salons downtown, somebody was getting their nails done, and the light popped up, and both the nail tech and the person getting their nails done ran down to pick up NeeDoh,” she said with a laugh.
NeeDoh’s popularity has also sparked a treasure-hunt mentality among collectors as stores wait for new shipments to arrive.
Savage believes that’s creating something positive beyond the sales numbers.
“It’s a fun, fairly inexpensive summer activity for people to go on a NeeDoh hunt and go around town looking for NeeDoh,” she said. “I think that is building community.”
Whether it’s the stress relief, the satisfying squish, or simply the influence of social media, retailers say the craze shows no signs of slowing down.
More information on Black Hills Rally & Gold Inc. can be found here.
More information on Child’s Play Toys can be found here, and the upcoming drop on Savage’s Facebook live can be found here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
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