As a Jewish child born on December 24, I always found December to be a challenging month. Walking through streets and never seeing a house brightly lit with Chanukah regalia was tough—never a dreidel, never a menorah. It was not so much envy, but a certain longing to see my heritage and traditions publicized on the street along with everyone else’s that inspired me. I decided to make a Chanukah-themed light show, and knew I could use my engineering and computer programming hobby to create it. For the past few years I have been working and expanding my Chanukah light show on my parents’ front lawn in Livingston to combat this seemingly universal lack of Chanukah representation at this time of year.
My first purchase was a radio receiver when I was 12. By compiling music and finding an unused FM radio signal, I put up some blue and white lights around the house and then added some Chanukah music so people could drive by and get some Chanukah cheer. Each year I learned a new skill, and bought more equipment and more complex lights, so now there is a light show that reacts to the music. Each year I add another element, I refine the old technology with a little more sophistication and more complicated programming and just have fun.
The light show goes up every Thanksgiving and stays up until New Year’s. People from New Jersey and beyond come to admire its detail and look for the new additions. It is always a treat to watch the parade of cars that pass in front of my house. It gives me so much pleasure to bring this uniquely Jewish holiday cheer to friends, neighbors and perfect strangers.
Reflecting on the war in Israel and the war against antisemitism here in the United States only strengthen my original motivation. Interestingly, Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights,” is the holiday symbolized by a menorah, a nine-armed candelabra. The concept behind the menorah is Pirsumei Nissa—publicizing the miracle of lights for the world to see. Back then, the light came from oil; today it sometimes comes from LED lights. In my view, the lights we all share in celebrating our respective holidays in December only highlight our ability to find common ground and unity in this time of divisiveness.
The original Chanukah story also occurred during a time of war. I realize that now, just as then, when it comes to war, it is how a person reacts to adversity that really defines their true nature, their character and their strengths.
The light show clearly teaches us where the true miracle and lesson of Chanukah resides—in the publicizing of our communal humanity. My hope is that my passion, and my commitment to a belief system, brings sparks of literal light and joy to the world in a time of darkness.
The Chanukah light show is on display nightly, except for Friday nights, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., until New Year’s Day.
Binyamin Solomon is a senior at the Frisch School in Paramus and lives in Livingston. His plan is to spend next year in Israel and go on to study engineering when he starts college.
