Radiating the Light of Chanukah in Over 80 Countries

With Chanukah beginning this Wednesday evening, Nov. 27, preparations are at a high pitch at Chabad-Lubavitch centers to reach an estimated 8 million people in more than 80 countries through public menorah-lightings large and small, in addition to the distribution of 2.5 million holiday guides, 700,000 menorahs—oversize public ones and those affixed to car roofs for parades—and some 30 million Chanukah candles.

That should add a little light to the world.

In Montreal, Canada, Bruchy Winterfeld and a team of volunteers are busily packing nearly 500 artfully crafted Chanukah kits—each one containing a tinmenorah, a box of 44 candles, a holiday guide and a personal Chanukah greeting.

Winterfeld, who co-directs Chabad of Mile End in downtown Montreal with her husband Yudi, adds that 45 volunteers will each give 10 menorahs to friends who would otherwise spend the Festival of Lights in the dark. The volunteers and recipients will then gather in Winterfeld’s home for a holiday celebration.

At the same time, her husband will be retrofitting a tricycle with a large menorah on the back and pedal the bike-friendly warren of lanes that make up their neighborhood, distributing menorahs all the while.

Chanukah, which runs through Thursday, Dec. 5, celebrates the victory of a small Judean band known as the Maccabees over the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who defiled the Holy Temple and sought to forcefully Hellenize the Jews. Upon entering the ransacked Temple, the Maccabees found just one small jug of pure oil—sufficient to last for only one day. Miraculously, it burned for eight days, enough time for more oil to be made.

The holiday is celebrated by kindling an increasing number of flames every night for the duration of the eight-day holiday. The lights are mounted on a stand known as a menorah or chanukiya. Traditional holiday foods include sufganiyot (donuts, typically jelly-filled ones) and latkes (potato pancakes) fried in oil, in commemoration of the oil that lasted for eight days.

Chanukah is unique in that the lights must kindled in a public spot, so that their presence brings awareness of G‑d’s intervention to the public conscience. Capitalizing on this concept in the 1970s, Chabad centers across the globe began holding Chanukah menorah-lightings in high-trafficked public places, often with specially constructed giant menorahs—towering stories high.

From Freedom and Democracy …

In communities from Milwaukee to Moscow, people will be strapping similar menorahs onto their vehicles for the duration of the eight-day holiday or to participate in Chabad “menorah parades.” While the parades were once common only in larger Jewish communities—especially in New York City—small communities such as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (with a Jewish population of 800), and Almere, Holland, will be hosting their own parades for the first time in history.

In Merrick, N.Y., Alan Stewart Goldman will be driving his 1947 Ford pickup with a 6-foot menorah attached to the back, along with 60 or 70 other vehicles participating in the annual parade organized by the Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Merrick. Since the truck is not equipped with heat, he plans to wear a warm jacket for the duration of the parade, which will culminate with a 6 p.m. lighting of a giant menorah at the Merrick Gazebo—the main site for town holiday celebrations—timed to coincide with the arrival of the daily commuter trains from Manhattan.

There will be 15,000 oversized Chabad-sponsored menorahs in public squares, government houses and shopping malls all over the world.

In Israel alone, 4,500 menorahs will be stationed on pedestrian walkways, malls and public thoroughfares in the very same land where the miracle of the lights transpired more than two millennia ago. Special attention is given to soldiers serving in the Israel Defence Force, with menorah kits (and lots of jelly doughnuts) delivered to troops in even the most remote outposts.

Regardless of distance, however, the observances and the underlying sentiments remain consistent.

From the 4,000 people present at the lighting of the National Menorah on the White House lawn to the Jews of Saskatchewan, who will be lighting for the first time with the premier of the Canadian province, the sentiment and focus remain the same: The Maccabees’ fight for religious freedom resonates with all those who value personal freedom and democracy.

And wherever they may live in the world, more than 3 million unique visitors are expected to visit the Judaism website Chabad.org in the weeks leading up to the holiday, visiting Chanukah.org for its extensive Chanukah menu of guides, videos, songs, insights, recipes, holiday customs and lists of Chanukah events to join around the world.

… to ‘Sharing the Lights’With Others

A new initiative launched this year to heighten the global outreach is a “Share the Lights” campaign, which encourages youth and young professionals to enjoy the lights of Chanukah with others.

Raffles will be drawn each night of Chanukah. Those between the ages of 13 and 30 can win tickets for two to anywhere in the world, and be eligible for other prizes such as an Xbox One, iPad Air and “Share the Lights” T-shirts for the first 1,000 participants. Photos with the hashtag “#sharethelights” can be posted to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or sharethelights.org, where people can register for the raffle.

“The participants can feel proud to be part of something so incredibly large when they see that thousands of participants and Chabad Houses spanning six continents and hundreds of countries are all participating in the same campaign,” explains Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos Suite 302 and coordinator of the “Share the Lights” campaign. “It highlights the strength of the Jewish presence around the world.”

In addition to Chanukah programs and public menorah-lightings geared to youth and young adults, mitzvah tanks will be dispatched this year to high schools and colleges. This will allow students who would not have the chance to light the menorah to be able to do so, as well as encourage them to get a friend to do the same and be entered into the raffles.

“Getting youth excited about the mitzvos and about Yiddishkeit is our response to disturbing assimilation statistics,” states Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, executive vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch. “The ‘Share the Lights’ campaign is but one of the projects we have undertaken to ensure that every Jew stays connected.”

… to Jewish Pride

In Amsterdam, Holland, Rabbi Menachem Evers—who organizes the annual menorah-lighting in Dam Square in front of the royal palace—says the public display of Jewish pride is especially meaningful for a community that is still living in the shadow of the Holocaust. Evers—whose family’s presence in Holland dates back at least 400 years—notes that for most Dutch Jews, until recently, it was simply unthinkable to openly identify themselves as Jewish.

“Last year,” he recalls, “an old lady came to me with tears in her eyes, saying that 60 years ago she never dreamt she would live to see Jews proudly celebrating in the streets.”

Evers says there will be 25 public menorah-lightings in more than a dozen Dutch cities—up from one lighting in a primarily Jewish neighborhood in Amsterdam in the early 1990s.

Some 500 kilometers to the south, the City of Lights will become all that much brighter with 60 menorah-lightings in and about Paris, including one by the Eiffel Tower expected to be attended by 5,500 people. That will be in addition to10 menorah mobiles—stocked with menorahs and Chanukah materials—that will comb the boulevards of the French capital, where, a whopping 25,000 donuts are expected to be distributed during the course of the holiday.

Ads will be taken out in the four national newspapers and on 500 billboards throughout Paris, bringing awareness of Chanukah and Chabad’s many holiday activities to residents.

In anticipation of the holiday—in synagogues, schools and Chabad centers all over the world—Chabad rabbis have been using fresh olives, old-fashioned screw presses and centrifuges to teach children how olive oil is made.

“It was very interactive,” says Mindy Miller, principal of the Anshe Sholom religious school in Olympia Fields, Ill., where Rabbi Schneur Scheiman conducted an olive-press demonstration for nearly 50 students. “They got to touch the olives and participate every step of the way, and then light the menorah with the oil they produced.”

While Scheiman—who directs Camp Gan Israel in Chicago—says he presses olives with 1,000 children every year, Rabbi Dovid Weibaum of Montreal, Canada, estimates that he walks 3,000 kids through the process every year.

Another part of the tradition includes “Chanukah Wonderlands” and other programs for children, teens, students, adults and seniors offered by Chabad. Many of them are listed on the world’s largest Chanukah event directory: chabad.org/HanukkahEvents.

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