(Courtesy of Chabad.org) Speaking the first night of Chanukah at the lighting of the world’s largest menorah at the corner of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, Mayor-elect Eric Adams declared, “We know what the Rebbe [Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory] did for all of us.”

The Rebbe was a longtime resident of New York who cared deeply for its state of affairs. When scores of city-dwellers fled to the suburbs beginning in the 1960s, the Rebbe held the line, insisting that neighborhoods not be abandoned, including his own in Crown Heights. When Mayor John Lindsay visited the Rebbe in 1968 amid widespread rioting and societal decay, the Rebbe told him that it was New York City’s “opportunity to show an example” of good governance for the entire “world.”

“I’m proud to be here,” Adams said at the recent menorah lighting, “and participate in this moment as we bring our city back together.”