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Chabad’s 15-Foot, 2000 Pound Menorah Lights Up Universal Citywalk At Southern California’s Largest Chanuka Event!

Chabad of the Valley had another smashing success at its fifth annual Chanuka extravaganza at Universal Studios Citywalk. “Look at this gigantic menorah”, exclaimed an onlooker as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa, U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman and former Boston Redsox outfielder Gabe Kapler ascended the lift with Rabbi Yossi Malka of Chabad of Encino to kindle the 15 ft. menorah.

“Last night’s lighting ceremony was one of the highlights of the Chanukah festival. Plenty of dancing and live music!” said The Daily News. According to Rabbi Yossi Baitelman, spiritual leader of Chabad of Studio City and one of the event coordinators, this event had the participation of Jews from all walks of life including orthodox, conservative, reform and unaffiliated. In fact, many temples, day schools and other organizations encouraged their members to participate.

More in the Extended Article! (Photos By: Ari Greene)

According to another one of the event’s coordinators, Rabbi Nachman Abend of Chabad of North Hollywood, on any given day, some 10,000 people find themselves visiting CityWalk. This, on top of the thousands that flocked there specifically for this event, once again created the largest Chanuka celebration Los Angeles has ever seen. For 4 hours, from 5:00 p.m. till 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, Universal Studios CityWalk was transformed into a “Chanuka Wonderland” with top notch Jewish entertainment, face painters and kosher food galore. The onstage performers included Chassidic superstar Avraham Fried, the rousing music of “8th Day” and the Southern California debut of Hassidic Hiphop artists “Ta Shma”.

Also on hand were the Executive Director of Chabad of the Valley, Rabbi Joshua B. Gordon and the Associate Director of Chabad of the Valley, Rabbi Mordechai Einbinder who shared words of blessing and inspiration. An enormous roar of applause was heard as Rabbi Mayer Greene of Chabad of Tarzana, the emcee of the evening, introduced and thanked Rabbis Yochonon Baitelman and Yanky Kahn of Chabad of Tarzana, Mendel Lipsker of Chabad of Sherman Oaks, Yossi Spritzer of Chabad of Chatsworth and Eli Rivkin of Chabad of Northridge who also worked tirelessly planning and coordinating this amazing event.

The enormous Jumbotron Astrovision screen, which is the central focal point of CityWalk, displayed all of the onstage entertainment throughout the four hour event. The highlight of the evening, however, clearly was when the Rebbe was repeatedly shown on the giant screen. “Now I know Moshiach is coming”, said a participant. “To see a place like this so completely taken over by the light of Chanuka is more than I could have ever imagined!”

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24 Comments

  • Velly Boy 95

    Great job guys keep up the good work.its nice to see the next generation at work.

  • Avremi Joseph

    Good on u guys.. well done.. wish i was there! Good work rabbi greene, gordon, einbinder , malka and of course, Rabbi Yanky!!!
    Avremi

  • big fans in NY

    Go Rabbi Greene!!!!!! Great pictures, Ari. It looks even more amazing than last year. But the white sweatshirts make all you Rabbis look fat. Gotta find something better for next year! They say black is slimming…

  • joseph azan

    yum the pop corn was great and the service was so fast with only two kids managing it…how impressive!

  • canadian grl

    it was ok-kinda nice n all but i thought it would have been alittle better.
    but it was still cool
    thanx too whoever organized it

  • CH-er forever

    I was there! It was fantastic,, The crowd was loving it! A Fried was his usual fantastic self. 8th day definitely following as a close second! Of Course Rabbi Green, the MC was hartzig! What a Kiddush Hashem! You all made the Rebbe Kvell!

    All except ta shma. They were boo’d. Serious cheap immitation of Matisyahu! (like a rinestone instead of a flawless diamond!) I dont understand how they could take a song, like the Rebbe’s Rachamana, and turn it into a rap. To me that says, they have never seen Slichos with the Rebbe. Go learn more chasidus before you start preaching it in public!

  • dunno

    wow!! it looks amazing…was it more amazign than last yr ing fl? cuz that was amazing so i cant imagine wat this was….except that there were better singers than last yr…but it looks amazing…keep doing these kinda things and there will only be frum jews in this world and moshiach would be here.
    Amen

  • Ta shma rocks!

    To CHer… get off the couch and find something to do besides insulting the performers! Ta shma was awesome, the crowd loved them, especially all the teenage boys who are in such need of positive, frum role models. I have their CD and I think they’re gonna go very far.

  • bewildered

    To Ch er forever. Just wondering if you were actually there…
    I didn’t hear anybody booing ta shma…
    and All the Rabbis, including Rabbi Green, were seemingly very happy with their performances. They appeared twice you know.

  • dovid 0

    the pop corn was so good and 2 kids were making it I brought 8 bags and boy did I get it 1 hr later!