For the fourth year in a row, Hanukkah Rocks will bring a celebration of Jewish singer/songwriter music to Lawrence, Kansas.

Led by Benjamin Cartel, a Jewish singer/songwriter himself, Hanukkah Rocks 4 will be held at The Granada on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 6:30 p.m.

Hanukkah Rocks features songs from Jewish artists such as Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Paul Simon and more. It was started as “a secular appreciation of Judaism. It’s a way to celebrate Hanukkah, but it’s not traditionally religious,” Cartel said.

Cartel, a New York City native, said the idea for Hanukkah Rocks was inspired by rock band Yo La Tengo (whose frontman, Ira Kaplan, is Jewish), which hosts an annual eight-night run of concerts during Hanukkah.

Connections that Cartel formed over decades of touring the U.S. helped him find other musicians who perform with him at Hanukkah Rocks as “The Mavens.”

Though the music is secular, the religious aspects of Hanukkah are not neglected. Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel of KU Chabad has started the past two shows with a menorah lighting and prayer, and the event is supported by the Lawrence Jewish Community Center (LJCC), which has sponsored the production of Hanukkah Rocks t-shirts.

“The LJCC is proud to partner with Benjamin — a beloved teacher in our religious school and an LJCC member — in support of Hanukkah Rocks,” LJCC Director Dr. Lara Giordano said. “This annual concert is always such a fabulous event and a wonderfully inclusive way to involve Lawrence in Jewish culture. It really captures so much of the LJCC’s spirit: joyous, diverse, inclusive — religious and secular.”

“I feel like the Jewish community in Lawrence comes together to appreciate and remember all this great music that Jews created,” Cartel said. “It’s great to represent the community with music, and it’s also great to bring other people into the community.”

Musically inclined from a young age, Cartel, whose real name is Benjamin Rosenthal, was inspired by the musicality of his grandmother.

Benjamin Cartel and KU Chabad Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel at last year’s Hanukkah Rocks concert at The Granada in Lawrence, Kansas.

“My grandmother is a music teacher, and her family was very musical,” he said. “Growing up in New York, family parties always had music, always had guitars, pianos, people singing songs… The songs were usually pop songs or folk songs, and that’s become my musical makeup.”

Originally a drummer, Cartel became a multi-instrumentalist and started his own punk rock band as a guitarist, then still using his birth name. The band, The Heartdrops, recorded two albums and toured around North America and Europe in the late 1990s. The Heartdrops later broke up, and when looking to form a new band later on, the name “The Benjamin Cartel” was suggested. Later, he adopted Cartel as his stage surname.

Cartel later found more success in the duo Kaiser Cartel, which also toured the United States, released multiple albums, participated in music festivals and earned critical acclaim. Now focusing on solo work, Cartel said that duo is on hiatus.

By the late 2010s, Cartel had married Kansan Cheri Keeler and had two young daughters. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, they decided to leave New York City and come to Lawrence to be closer to Keeler’s mother.

“On a really personal level, being a Jew in New York amongst a million Jews, and then coming out [to Lawrence], is a big cultural shock and cultural shift,” Cartel said. “I wanted to inject some of the Jewishness into where I was living.”

Hanukkah Rocks has also drawn people from outside of the Lawrence Jewish community. Keeler recalled speaking to people from St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri, who happened to be walking down Massachusetts Avenue in Lawrence, saw “Hanukkah Rocks” on The Granada’s marquee and decided to attend the show.

“A lot of people come who are not Jewish,” Cartel said. “[Music] is a kind of way to make a bridge, in a way.”

Cartel plans to continue Hanukkah Rocks as a tradition, with a long-term goal of a yearly eight-day series of shows every night of Hanukkah in a different town.

“I want to have it going as long as possible,” he said. “It would be about not only the Jewish community but also the music community.”

Tickets are available at thegranada.com.