Getting the Chanukah Message Out, Loud and Clear

Chanukah this year has brought out bold new events, exciting twists on holiday fun and some incredibly creative displays of light. At public menorah-lightings, community-wide events and small gatherings in more than 80 nations around the world, Chabad emissaries and volunteers are helping an estimated 8 million Jewish men, women and children celebrate, and also urge them to help spread the message of the eight-day holiday, which concludes at sunset on Thursday.

A new candle is being added to menorahs everywhere each night, with all eight candles being lit on Wednesday night, and Chabad emissaries say they hope that the ever-increasing brightness will have an impact that will last far beyond this week—this month, even. Along those lines, 30,800,000 candles have been distributed, along with 2.5 million holiday guides in 13 languages.

Rabbi Mendel Feller, co-director of Upper Midwest Merkos-Lubavitch House in West S. Paul, Minn., with his wife Nechama Dina, says the holiday is about giving people a message of strength and hope, as well as the power to overcome obstacles. It should also provide inspiration that Jewish individuals can carry into the entire year.

“One candle can provide light for hundreds, and light always increases and spreads,” he says.

Chabad houses across Minnesota have held public menorah-lightings and programs, including a “Chanukah on Ice” skating event, which drew 250 to the Rochester Recreation Center.

There was also a Chanukah brunch last week with activities and games, put on by the Lubavitch Cheder Day School in S. Paul at the Fellers’ Chabad House, attended by 200 students, parents and community members. Some 75 children also got to make menorahs at a Home Depot workshop on Sunday. And the Chabad of Minnesota’s humanitarian-aid program distributed 150 packages of Chanukah toys and foods to benefit area families.

The Rewards of Giving

Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, co-director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois with his wife, Esther Rochel, points to a car-top menorah parade as one of this season’s most exciting events. Sixty-five vehicles made the trip from the North Side of Chicago to the lighting of a menorah in the South Loop. Then cars went on to a family-friendly menorah workshop at The Home Depot, where more than 100 kids constructed menorahs out of wood and washers, screws and glue.

About 75 children made menorahs in a Home Depot in S. Paul, Minn.

New this year is the project of passing out even more menorahs to Jewish men, women and children. Chabad is known for handing out menorahs to those who need them, but this year, it has stepped up the effort—and is asking others to do the same.

“Every person who’s being touched with a Chabad menorah is being asked to share that light, to find someone who does not have a menorah and give him or her one as well,” explains Moscowitz, regional director of Chabad of Illinois. To boost that effort, some 700,000 menorahs will be given out this year by Chabad worldwide.

He adds that it’s a way of getting others involved as agents of change: “The feedback we’re getting is: ‘Wow, not only am I a recipient, but I’m a giver.’ ”

On the Jumbotron

More than 70,000 fans attended the 106th Apple Cup—the yearly game between the University of Washington Huskies and the Washington State University Cougers. Rabbi Ellie Estrin, co-director of the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at the University of Washington with his wife Chaya, was out with another rabbi ahead of time, handing out menorahs at tailgating parties. He also worked with campus officials to get a “Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Chanukah!” dual message on the Jumbotron during the game.

The University of Washington played Washington State University at the new Husky football stadium, and on the Jumbotron, it read: "Happy Thanksgiving & Chanukah!"

“The students loved it,” he said, talking about the pride they felt to see Chanukah represented on the big screen at the first Apple Cup to be held in the school’s new Husky football stadium.

With students returning to campus after the Thanksgiving holiday, the rabbi planned a menorah-lighting for the Greek Jewish student population on Monday night and a Chanukah party in the student union building on Tuesday. Wednesday, they’re teaming up with the East Side Torah Center-Chabad in Bellevue, Wash., for a young professionals’ Chanukah party.

“I guess you really hope that you can connect that warmth that people have toward the holiday into their hearts, and they realize this is something they connect to not just during Chanukah, but the rest of the year as well,” says Estrin. “Judaism is meant to be in the home, so if we can inspire people to bring not just the menorah into their home but a little bit more Judaism as well, then obviously, we have accomplished what we set out to do.”

The Other Side of the Atlantic

Europe—and, in particular, across the pond—was abuzz with holiday activity as well.

In what has become an annual tradition, the Jews of Bristol, England, gathered on the bank of the city’s harbor for an evening of hot chocolate, doughnuts and, of course, a giant menorah-lighting. True to tradition, Peter Main, the deputy lord mayor of Bristol, arrived in full regalia, including a plumed three-cornered hat, fur-lined crimson robe and frilly cravat.

Children in Illinois collected 3,500 cans of food to go to those devastated by recent tornadoes.

After assisting with the lighting—witnessed by approximately 100 people—Main stayed to schmooze with the celebrants, allowing them to try on and snap photos of themselves in his oversized hat. However, he soon got the chance for his own photo-op when he put on the Chassidic fedora of Rabbi Dovid Usiskin—co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bristol with his wife, Leah—and had his picture taken with the rabbi.

And on a more serious note, a new menorah—more than 30 feet tall, the highest in Europe—was constructed this year and lit on the first night of Chanukah, Nov. 27, at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, once the site of Nazi Party spectacles of racism and hatred.

Chabad has lit a menorah there for more than a decade. This year’s event drew thousands of people and was attended by dignitaries such as the president of the German parliament, Norbert Lammert, and Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit. Berlin’s Jews were also out in full force.

“Bringing light to places of darkness is the message of Chanukah,” says Chabad-Lubavitch of Berlin’s director, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal. “There is no greater contrast then lighting a menorah here—in the place that was once the epitome of darkness—and now flooding it with the essence of light.”

This year also marks 75 years since the devastating events of Kristallnacht—the “Night of the Broken Glass.”

“We are sending a powerful message,” stresses Teichtal. “We respond to the evil perpetrated here, but we respond with light.”

Peter Main, the deputy lord mayor of Bristol, England, poses with Rabbi Dovid Usiskin of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bristol after an exchange of head gear.