Chabad of Greenwich Builds Lego Menorah

GREENWICH, CT — “It’s a creative way to celebrate the holiday — For several years, the Chabad of Greenwich has placed a giant menorah outside their building on Mason Street, but this year they outdid themselves, building a giant menorah out of Legos at the Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy.

a way of engaging the public in a new way,“ said Chabad Rabbi Yossi Deren.

More than 75 children helped build the approximately 8-foot menorah out of Legos on the first night of Hanukkah, before a dinner and concert.

”We built a 7-by-8 base and built it up,“ said Simon Bass, 7, a member of the Chabad of Greenwich.

Simon said he and his brother Owen were responsible for helping build the base.

Another Lego engineer, Jake Karetsky, 7, said, ”The hardest part was we just had to make sure it was even.“

It took the group only about 30 to 45 minutes to construct it.

”It’s the power of the community. One of the messages for the children is that once we all get together, it works very quickly,“ said Rabbi Menachen Feldman.

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago following the looting of the temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Syrian king who persecuted Jews.

According to Jewish scripture, despite only having a small amount of oil for the temple’s menorah, the candles miraculously stayed lit for eight days, giving rise to the ”miracle of Hanukkah.“

The children were excited to celebrate ”the miracle of Hanukkah,“ according to Daniel Rosenblatt, 7.

”(We are celebrating) that the oil lasted 8 days and that the Jews were saved,” he said.

The tradition is to light one candle each night.

Yesterday, more than 250 people came out to do so. The children sat on a stage adorned with fake flames made of hand-painted paper on their heads to represent the flames on the candles, prepared to help with the three blessings that are said as the candle is lit on the first night.

As the lights went down in the auditorium, the children were joined by First Selectman Peter Tesei and Rabbi Deren to light the Shamash, or the middle candle, which is used to light the other candles throughout the holiday. Before lighting the candle, Deren spoke about how the candle represents light both physically and spiritually in Jewish traditions.

After the ceremony, families snacked on hamburgers, hot dogs, latkes, and donuts, and then were entertained by music in English and Hebrew by the band Schlock Rock.