Eight-day Hanukkah celebration begins

Florida’s Herald Tribune

Rabbi brings his family to light up the life of a member of his congregation who is at Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, third from right, helps Abe Abraham light a small menorah to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah on Sunday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. With Steinmetz is his family, Yossi, 3; wife Sara, holding Shmuli, 1; Levi, 11; Zev, 13; and Mendy,

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz began his Hanukkah tradition 15 years ago, when both Sarasota and his family were much smaller.

Shortly after moving here from California in 1990, Steinmetz, unfamiliar with the area and hampered by a lack of street lights, and with his wife and two infants, got lost on the way to the nursing home where they planned to light a Hanukkah menorah with a resident who had fallen ill.

On Sunday, Steinmetz easily found his way to Sarasota Memorial Hospital to pay his annual Hanukkah visit — in the company of his wife and six of their eight children.

“Most people have their holidays at home, but we go out,” said Steinmetz, whose congregation is Chabad of Sarasota.

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Families celebrate festival of lights

The Community Chanukah Celebration at Broadway PlazaClick
Contra Costa Times

They came — braving the rain and the cold — to celebrate Hanukkah on ice.

Nearly a hundred East Bay families gathered at Walnut Creek’s downtown ice rink Sunday to commemorate the first night of Hanukkah.

“It’s the story of Hanukkah,” said Rabbi Yacov Kagan with Chabad of Contra Costa, which sponsored the inaugural outdoor “Hanukkah on Ice” event. “The brave and the few who came out despite the rain. It reminds me of the brave few who came out of the bitter darkness to fight for the Jerusalem Temple.”

Moscow Greets Chanukah by Lighting Giant Menorah Near the Kremlin

fjc.ru
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, right, and Russia’s chief rabbi Berel Lazar, light the first candle at the menorah marking the start of Hanukkah organized by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in front of the Moscow Kremlin, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2005, with the Kremlin’s Troitskaya (Trinity) Tower in the background. Dozens of people huddled together in below-freezing temperatures on Sunday outside the Kremlin to watch the lighting of about 8-meter (24-feet) high menorah. The lighting of a menorah begins an eight-day commemoration of the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to put statues in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Chanukah celebrations get underway in Moscow on the evening of Sunday, December 25th at 4:30 PM. At that time, Manezhnaya Square, located just opposite the Kremlin, will feature the lighting of a giant 24-foot Menorah, ushering in the holiday in Russia. The Menorah lighting ceremony will be graced by the presence of Moscow Mayor Yuri Lushkov, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and Federation of Jewish Communities President Lev Leviev, along with other celebrities, dignitaries and hundreds of Moscow Jews.

The Menorah lighting will be followed by a festive Chanukah concert, which has already been sold out, at the ‘Russiya’ concert hall. 2,500 persons will enjoy this festivity, featuring performances by leading Russian artists.

From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Great Wall of China: Chabad Lights Up the Skies

Lubavitch News Service
Performer at the Man of the Year Ceremony in Moscow

It’s hard to litigate against light, which explains why despite scattered attempts around the country by church and state purists to take down the eight-armed menorahs from public spaces, America’s skies are illuminated with the Chanukah lights beginning tonight, the first night of Chanukah.

Millions are by now accustomed to the menorah display in their respective town squares, and, Jewish or not, they welcome the light, often joining in the festivities celebrating the message of Chanukah. After all, the menorah’s message is universal, which explains why governors and mayors and councilmen nationwide are eager for the chance to get into those ubiquitous cherry pickers and put flame to wick.

National Menorah lighting to mark start of Hanukkah

Washington Post
Rabbi Levi Shemtov (R) lights the National Chanukah Menorah as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff (2nd R) and Rabbi Avremel Shemtov (3rd R) looks on at the Ellipse in Washington December 25, 2005. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)

Click Here for a Newscast of this story

Hanukkah begins the same day as xmas this year, and the District will mark the Jewish festival of lights celebration with one of the biggest menorahs anywhere.

The holidays are close every year, but rarely are they on the same day, said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of the D.C. office of American Friends of Lubavitch.

The menorah symbolizes the Jewish Maccabean army’s defeat of Syrian enemies for the right to practice their religion more than 2,000 years ago. It has eight candles to represent the miracle of how one day’s supply of purified oil burned for eight days when the Jews were rededicating their temple in Jerusalem after the victory.

A comprehensive picture gallery of the event can be seen in the Extended Article!

Israelis, Chinese Jews light Hanukkah candle at Great Wall of China

Haaretz
Chabab Rabbi Shimon Freundlich prepares to light the menorah during an event held to mark Hanukkah at the Great Wall of China near Beijing, China, Sunday, Dec 25, 2005. The menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum, is used to celebrate the Sabbath and holidays including Hanukkah. The annual jewish holiday starts this year on Sunday, and lasts eight days. The event is organized by Israeli embassy in Beijing for the Jewish living in China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Click Here for a Newscast of this story

The flame of the Hanukkah candle crossed roads for the first time in its millennia-long tradition Sunday evening with the symbol of a second ancient cultural symbol: the Great Wall of China.

Some 200 Israelis and members of Beijing’s Jewish community gathered at the Mujianyu site of the wall outside the Chinese capital to light the first candle of Hanukkah against the backdrop of the winding wall.

The Israeli Ambassador to China, Dr. Yehoyada Haim, hosted the ceremony, saying at its onset, “This is an historical moment where two great and ancient civilizations come together.”

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Chabab Rabbi Shimon Freundlich carries a child as he attends a ceremony to mark Hanukkah at the Great Wall of China near Beijing, China, Sunday, Dec 25, 2005. The annual Jewish holiday starts this year on Sunday, and lasts eight days. The event is organized by Israeli embassy in Beijing for the Jewish living in China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Shliach R. Metzger on FoxNews Homepage

With Chanukah just a few hours in, the world media seems to not be able to get enough of it. FoxNews’s homepage has the picture of R. Metzger Shliach in Manhattan and family lighting the Menorah as the picture leading the article it ran on Chanukah.

Stay tuned to CrownHeights.info for coverage on all the world media coverage Chanukah will get.