Posted to Chanukah on

‘Menorah Wars’ Return to Brooklyn

by Shavana Abruzzo – The Brooklyn Paper

Oy-vey-izmir, here we go again. Park Slope and downtown Brooklyn was a bissel verklempt when it kicked off Hanukkah on Tuesday with twin menorah lightings that celebrated an ancient miracle — but also re-ignited one of the fiercest feuds since Nimrod and Abraham. And it all boils down to size — what else?

The simmering “Brooklyn Menorah War” — an annual soap with enough kvetching to give bubbeh a headache — bubbled over on Dec. 20, famously re-pitting a pair of spiritual leaders over bragging rights and the most hotly-contested question of the season: Whose glistening pricket is Brooklyn’s gonzamacher?

One has courted the inky skies for the past 26 years at Grand Army Plaza, compliments of Rabbi Shimon Hecht of Chabad of Park Slope, who proudly calls his menorah “the world’s largest.”

The other — or “Brooklyn’s official menorah” — has glowed in front of the state Supreme Court building near Borough Hall for around 16 years courtesy of Hecht’s nephew, Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham of Brooklyn Heights.

To make matters more interesting — just because — Raskin named his menorah after Rabbi Jacob J. Hecht, a prominent rabbi who just happens to be Shimon Hecht’s father!

Let’s not forget a few mensches who play supporting roles in this drama: Mayor Michael Bloomberg lit the first candle at Uncle Shimon’s gig while Borough President Marty Markowitz performed the honors at Nephew Raskin’s revel — a jolly simkhe attended by state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D–Brooklyn Heights) with entertainment by Uncle Moishy, and an after party at Borough Hall.

Both cool illuminations — each featuring knees-ups and latkes — celebrated the Festival of Lights, but the real bolt of enlightenment was the sudden growth spurt the feuding fixtures went through over the last year: Hecht’s piece rose from 22 feet to 32 feet this year, while his nephew’s taper towered to 29 feet from 25 feet. Hmmm.

Both men didn’t return calls for a comment, although in the past they haven’t been shemevdik (“shy” to you goys) about tossing down the gauntlet on these very pages.

“We’re the official menorah,” Raskin’s associate, Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, alerted us a few years back. “We’re the menorah that Marty Markowitz uses in official photos. Perhaps ‘official’ isn’t the right word, but we’re more official than they are.”

At the time, Hecht countered by mumbling that his menorah was here longer.

This holiday season, make sure to gaze equally at both of these awesome beacons of light or you could end up being the butt of that old Jewish joke — the one about a mother who gave her son two sweaters for Hanukkah, and when he proudly wore one on his next visit to her, she inquired, “What’s the matter? You didn’t like the other one?”

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15 Comments

  • Why fight?

    Stupid question but….why the fighting? If you build it they will come. Each make his own and whoever comes, comes. Whats with the name calling and fight over whos is bigger? Mine is bigger just for the record!

  • me

    frankly I know them both – well – I don’t think either one gives a rats a– who’se menorah is bigger whatever. That’s the weirdest thing I’ve heard about either one..really!

  • mendoza

    i cant figure out which part of the artical is more crazy .

    but the writer is a big anti jew ,, just looking to make of any thing jewish and trying to be funny at the same time .
    at the end of the day who cares ,
    yad chasidem ………

  • eeeech

    The more public menorahs there are, the more yidden will have a chance to see, participate, and light at home. We need 29 in Brooklyn, not 2. The point is persumi nissa, not anyone’s ego. If it’s gone so far, both these holy clowns should be taken off ‘menorah duty’ and replaced by people that want to put up the menorahs for the reasons the Rebbe started the mivtza in the first place. One is the biggest, one is official, with attitudes like that, both (shluchim? ha!)aren’t worth a thing

  • Milhouse

    #11, “taken off”?! By whom? Who do you think could take either of them off anything?

  • kinas sofrim

    i think you all need to take this with a big pinch of salt its probably just for publicty im sure they get on fine and as we all know that they both do great work