Daily Archives: December 30, 2005

Compromise reached over Ft. Collins menorah

A down-to-the-wire compromise has prevented a legal battle between the city of Fort Collins and an Orthodox Jewish congregation over the public display of a Hanukkah menorah.

The Chabad Jewish Center of Northern Colorado wanted to display the menorah on city property in Old Town Square, but city administrators denied the request, despite a precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 that likely would allow the display.

The compromise highlights the work of a newcomer rabbi and a mayor wishing to promote Fort Collins as a city that embraces diversity. But it also means that the menorah will not be allowed to remain on city property throughout the eight-day Hanukkah celebration, which began Sunday.

Chabad center lights up Hanukkah

This year’s community Hanukkah event connected, honored and celebrated 2,000 years of history.

The traditional menorah lighting at the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe followed a memorial service for the soldiers from New Jersey that were killed in combat in Iraq.

Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky, who runs the Chabad center, said the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces are fighting for the triumph of freedom over oppression, just as the Maccabean soldiers did in their victorious battle, which the holiday commemorates.

First Rockland Hanukkah parade

CLICK HERE for a Newscast of this event!

More than 55 cars bedecked with large, handmade menorahs departed from Langeris Drive last night for the first-ever Hanukkah parade in Rockland County.

The procession was beginning a trip through Monsey, Viola and New Hempstead before heading south on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, and continuing on Route 303 in Orangeburg and Tappan. It ended at Closter Borough Hall in Closter, N.J., with a public menorah lighting.

“We’re going out to celebrate the idea of good prevailing over evil — of Hanukkah,” Levi Fuss, outreach coordinator at Yeshiva Menachem Mendel Lubavitch in Monsey, said. “We want to be able to invite everybody together in this happy celebration.”

Chanukah. . . Hannuka. . . Hahfuhgedit!

To C or not to C? That is the question.

Hanukkah or Chanuka? Two Ns? Two Ks? An H at the end or not?

There are more than 20 different spellings of the name of the Jewish winter Festival of Lights and, apparently, no one ever sat down and decided on a single way to spell it.

There’s Channuka, Channukah, Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanuko, Hannuka, Hannukah, Hanuka, Hanika, Hanukah, Hanukka, Hanukkah, Kanukkah, Khannuka, Khannukah, Khanuka, Khanukah, Khanukkah and Khanike. Sometimes even Xanuka.