50,773 Coins Fill Up ‘Charity Box Menorah’

The Chabad Lubavitch Centre of Buckhurst Hill, UK has done it again with another amazing Menorah to feature at their Chanukah party this year. A Coin Menorah containing 50,773 coins totalling £2,009.95!

Built by Paul Benham-Whyte with the help of Desmond Solomon, the Menorah was highly anticipated by the community who over the last few years have seen a Whisky Menorah, Can Menorah, Recycled phones Menorah…

Rabbi Odom Brandman, director of the Chabad Centre, said “think of it as a massive Tzedokoh box, it was a great way to allow lots of people to participate and be doing a Mitzvah at the same time by donating to Charity! The money will be used to support the Centres outreach and educational activities throughout the year.”

A campaign was launched a few months ago to collect in the many Tzedokoh boxes that had been handed out by Chabad of Buckhurst Hill to the wider community over the last few years, many of which had not be emptied for a long time. A number of volunteers went around the community collecting the boxes. As always a great team effort was needed to reach the huge target set and each box collected was carefully counted and a thank you note sent by Yoninah Shaw who works at the Chabad Centre.

Over 150 people came to the Annual Public Menorah Lighting on Sunday at the top of Queens Rd. in the heart of Buckhurst Hill following which everybody was invited back to the Bedford House Hall where there were Arts & Crafts for the Children, Candy floss, a bouncy castle, refreshments and live music provided by Levi Ehrentrei from Montreal, a bochur currently on shlichus at the Lubavitch Mechina in London and an old time friend of Rabbi Brandman.

Participants were given the opportunity to buy bags of change to fill the last branches of the Menorah and then the honour of lighting it was given to Paul Benham-Whyte who designed and built the Menorah.

The Chabad Centre in Buckhurst Hill, run by Rabbi Odom & Henny Brandman has been serving the wider community of Buckhurst Hill and West Essex for close to 6 years now. Originally established in a rented home in Buckhurst Hill, the community now rents a permanent building from which they run a host of social, educational, religious and cultural programs and are hoping to move into larger brand new beautiful premises later in the year.

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