Merkos Launches ‘Share the Lights’ Campaign

Merkos’s Global Jewish Youth Network has launched a new “Share the Lights” campaign, encouraging young Jews to enjoy and share the lights of Chanukah with others for a chance to win enormous prizes.

By sharing photos of themselves lighting the Chanukah menorah, sharing a menorah, or helping someone else to light, anyone from bar mitzvah to marriage can win tickets for two to anywhere in the world, an Xbox One, or an iPad Air. The first 1,000 participants will receive “Share the Lights” t-shirts, and additional prizes will be raffled every night of Chanukah.

In addition to Chanukah programs and public menorah lightings geared to young Jews, mitzvah tanks will be dispatched to high schools and colleges, criss-crossing the country to get students who would never have otherwise lit the menorah to light one, as well as encouraging them to get a friend to do the same and be entered into the raffles.

Those who have attended pre-Chanukah Chabad House events are already expressing their enthusiasm for the campaign. “The message of sharing light really resonates with me,” says Adam Cohn from Montreal, Canada. Rebecca Brown from Atlanta, Georgia echoes his sentiments. “I’ve always been a proud Jew,” she explains, “but this gives me a chance to let others feel the same way.”

While many are concerned about assimilation rates released in the recent Pew study, “much more important is the fact that 94 percent of Jews, regardless of affiliation, are proud of being Jewish,” remarks Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos Suite 302 and coordinator of the “Share the Lights” campaign. “The campaign is meant to bring out the personal pride within every Jew, and a step further, to turn that pride into action.”

“The participants feel inspired to be part of something so revolutionary when they see that thousands of participants and Chabad Houses spanning six continents and hundreds of countries are all taking part in the same campaign,” explains Rabbi Berel Lazar, head shliach to Russia. “It highlights the strength of the Jewish presence around the world.”

“The ‘Share the Lights’ campaign  follows the hachlota taken at the Kinus of ‘tofeiach al menas l’hatefiach,’” explains Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, executive vice-chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, “involving baalei batim in their shluchim’s shlichus. This is but one of the projects we have undertaken to ensure that every Jew stays connected.”

You can share the lights, too! See how many Jews you can help light the menorah or do one more mitzvah. Enter the raffles by sharing your photos with the hashtag #sharethelights on Twitter, Instagram, and facebook.com/sharethelights, or by submitting them on sharethelights.org.

For more information, visit sharethelights.org or facebook.com/sharethelights or follow @sharethelights on Twitter.