Religious freedom is theme of Monroe Hanukkah event

MONROE TOWNSHIP, NJ — While the hundreds of public menorah lightings in New Jersey alone this year showed the state’s Jews’ commitment to fulfilling their obligation to publicize the miracle of Hanukkah, the Jewish community of Monroe Township celebrated the fact that those public lightings were miracles all their own.

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“There are a lot of Jews in Monroe that, going through World War II, and coming from other countries, didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate Hanukkah in the open, even if they wanted to,” said Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky of the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe. “And how wonderful it is, being in this country and having the opportunity to celebrate Hanukkah on the outside — that’s truly something that people are very excited about and find very meaningful.”

That religious freedom was the theme of the Monroe Chabad’s Dec. 9 Hanukkah party. Zaklikovsky said that one local person told him that when they were in a concentration camp, they saved oil from margarine and used potatoes as cups for a makeshift menorah.

“So being able to come outside on the front lawn and have a party with hundreds of people is a little bit different from that,” Zaklikovsky said.

About 150 people attended the Chabad’s annual Hanukkah party, which featured a speech by Rabbi Moshe Herson, the dean of the Rabbinical College of America, in Morristown, as well as the Chabad’s Hebrew school choir leading the crowd in singing along to classic Hanukkah melodies.

Township Mayor Richard Pucci, who attended along with Councilman Gerald Tamburro, was moved enough by the scene to speak. He told the crowd that growing up in Perth Amboy, he had seen Jewish suffering, and eventually came to the realization that the Jewish people had been chosen to be a beacon of ethics, morality, and strength and faith in the face of great odds and persecution.

“Today I come out to say thank you,” Pucci said. “Thank you for being that one party selected, more than anyone else, to show us the way. So today I say happy Hanukkah, and may God bless you all, and God bless America.”

Zaklikovsky said Pucci’s comments were inspiring and an affirmation of the freedom they were celebrating.

“He spoke very strong, very eloquent,” Zaklikovsky said. “And he didn’t prepare because, to be honest, he didn’t even know that there was going to be a formal program. So this was really straight from the heart.”

Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein also spoke at the event. She said when she was a child, she would light the menorah and get some Hanukkah gelt from her parents, generally a low-key celebration.

“But by doing something like this, you are really celebrating and you’re making more of the holiday; you’re making it into a holiday because of the ג€˜people’ part of it,” Greenstein said. “And that’s what’s so exciting about this — when we can dance and sing and celebrate, and suddenly a minor holiday becomes a major holiday. So this is really what it’s all about.”

Zaklikovsky said the children’s choir had a tangible effect on the partygoers, raising everyone’s spirits.

“And the kids loved it,” he said. “They were in awe to be able to sing in front of the mayor.”

Then, of course, there was the outdoor menorah lighting — one of 200 public menorah lightings in N.J. this year organized by the Chabad movement. Pucci lit the shamash, and Herson, Stan Edelman, Leonard Posnock, Jacob Roitman, and Monte and Jerry Block lit the candles.

“It was just a very, very uplifting evening,” Zaklikovsky said.

The party was also a celebration of the Chabad center’s new synagogue, which will be dedicated this spring.

“We never were able to have a formal (Hanukkah) program because it was so cold outside,” Zaklikovsky said. “I think the whole event took on a more permanent feel and it was just very nice. It brought the celebration to a new level.”

The Chabad center also held a menorah lighting at the Brandywine assisted living facility, Jamesburg’s Triangle Park, and the new shopping center on Englishtown Road. They also took a bus trip to Trenton to Governor Jon Corzine’s menorah lighting, had special olive oil press demonstration for children the Sunday before Hanukkah, held a women’s Hanukkah luncheon, and had groups of yeshiva boys go to hundreds of different homes to give out menorahs and help people light them.

But the Dec. 9 Hanukkah party struck a chord with the community, and people have been raving about it to Zaklikovsky since. The recognition of religious freedom and the warm welcome Monroe Township has extended to Chabad and the Jewish community sparked a “special electricity” in the new shul, Zaklikovsky said.

“We take it for granted, and we really don’t realize how blessed we are, and how blessed our country is,” Zaklikovsky said. “And Rabbi Herson pointed out that the reason why America is blessed is because it’s so forthcoming to all different religious freedoms; God showers them with blessings for that reason. So definitely, it was a time to kind of focus, zoom in on that fact, which we don’t really think about every single day. That was really the theme. And it was reflected in what the mayor said as well.”