Judaism

F SUPPLEMENT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Rebbe’s Chanukah campaign burns bright

BY DAVID SAFFER

Jews celebrate the start of Chanukah on Sunday and giant menorahs will again be displayed in homes, community buildings and landmarks around the world.

The age-old Chanukiah has been seen against a backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, White House and Eiffel Tower to name just a few famous sites.

Whilst communities in every continent will light the first candle many Jews will be unable to join in the festival. And Chabad will swing into action to ensure as many Jews as possible enjoy the ‘Festival of Lights’.

Chabad have distributed 700,000 menorah kits along with 2.5 million Chanukah holiday guides in 17 languages to homes, schools and businesses globally. And some 5,000 menorah-topped cars will be driven around cities, towns and rural areas.

Chabad’s online presence is continually growing with a vast amount of material. Over 10 million visitors are expected to view a plethora of guides.

Festive programs stem back to the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who was renowned for welcoming Jews of all backgrounds to Judaism.

Chanukah was a time when that philosophy shone particularly brightly. The Rebbe fervently believed that every Jewish home should be filled with the light of a menorah to illuminate the wider world.

“We should listen attentively to what the Chanukah lights are telling us,” the Rebbe wrote in 1982. “The mitzvah of the Chanukah lights symbolises, in a tangible and visible way, all the mitzvot of the Torah, all of which are defined in terms of light.”

“Living Yiddishkeit”, he noted, required a “continuous growth” to enrich one’s “spiritual life”.

For the Rebbe, it was essential menorah candles were seen outside a home to publicise the “miracle of Chanukah”. Symbolically everyone kindling candles had a duty to not forget those “unaware of Chanukah” or their “Jewish identity”.

The Rebbe’s global Chanukah campaign started in 1973 with the aim of sharing the light of Chanukah with families and friends.

Five decades on Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries are continuing this aspiration for new generations.

“There is a pre-eminence in the mitzvot connected with lighting candles, in that the effect of the action, the appearance of light, is immediately visible,” the Rebbe explained in a famous 1973 letter.

“The mitzvah of kindling the Chanukah light is unique in that it is required to be displayed to the outside. Thus, every by-passer, including non-Jews, immediately notices the effect of the light, which illuminates the outside and the environment.”

Twelve months after his public letter, the first public menorah was seen outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, followed by a 25-foot menorah in Union Square, San Francisco in 1975.

By the end of the decade, public menorahs were seen across the United States.

Chabad emissaries distributed tin menorah and candle kits. Initiatives catered for every climate and landscape around the world. Programs included ‘Chanukah on Ice’ and olive-oil press workshops. Creative thinking was needed so a boomerang-themed menorah was available in Queensland, Australia!

The car menorah parade was also part of the Rebbe’s Chanukah-awareness campaign. Thousands of cars of all shapes and sizes have hit the roads in the ensuing decades.

When the Rebbe’s fledgling Chanukah idea started Rabbi Shmuel Lipsker was a student in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

A regular on 47th Street in Midtown Manhattan to attract New Yorkers he recalls building a homemade menorah and placing on top of a station wagon.

“The concept didn’t exist,” he recalled. “It was a huge attraction. We were giving out menorahs. By the time we lit our menorahs with the flares, we had a huge crowd. It was unbelievable.”

Within 12 months a new Chanukah campaign was officially born. And throughout the late ‘70s the parade gained strength and continued into the 1980s.

The mid-90s brought a new development when Nochum Goldschmidt, a yeshivah student in Sydney, Australia, felt that the parade initiative needed a boost so he designed an improved car menorah. In 1998, he started Carmenorah.com for every type of car. A ‘Happy Chanukah’ and ‘Chabad wishes you a Happy Chanukah’ sign will be on display! US sports fans will this Sunday enjoy the annual sight of a giant menorah lit at sporting events. Back in 1987, Rabbi Raphael Tennenhaus, Chabad South Broward County, Florida was in at the start of the boom when he lit a menorah at a packed Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. Days before Chanukah, Rabbi Pinny Andrusier, Chabad Southwest Broward, was attending a farbrengen in Brooklyn and told the Rebbe of a pending lighting at the Miami Dolphins game.

“L’chaim,” the smiling Rebbe acknowledged, knowing the significance of a vast live and TV audience.

It is now the norm for Chabad to host a ‘Jewish Heritage Night’ at games.

Almost 50 years on from the Rebbe’s Chanukah wish to light up the world his dream thrives.

The Rebbe concluded in his famed letter, “May G d grant that everyone of us be truly inspired by the teachings of Chanukah and of the Chanukah Lights, and translate this inspiration into actual deeds, in our everyday life and conduct.”

Chabad Menorah in Brighton

Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson

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