(Courtesy of Chabad of Englewood) Chabad of Englewood will light a public menorah at City Hall on Sunday, Dec. 18,, the first night of Chanukah. The community will be joined by Englewood dignitaries including Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes. The event will feature the BPY and Moriah choirs, an exciting gelt drop LED show and robot and delicious latkes and doughnuts. Complimentary Chanukah menorahs and candles will be distributed for participants to light at home.
“Everyone is especially excited about Chanukah this year,” said Rabbi Konikov, director of Chabad of Englewood. “People are preparing to celebrate with family and friends, to fill their homes with the light of Chanukah, and there’s a palpable joy. The public Chanukah celebration is about sharing this light and joy with the broader community and the entire Englewood community.”
Chanukah emphasizes that each and every individual has the unique power to illuminate the entire world. It was to encourage this profound idea that the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, launched the Chanukah awareness campaign in 1973, of which Englewood’s public Chanukah activities are a part. The menorah faces the street, the Rebbe notes, and so bypassers immediately feel “the effect of the light, which illuminates the outside and the environment.” In the half-century since, the Rebbe’s campaign has brought Chanukah into the mainstream and altered awareness and practice of the festival, returning what some mistakenly dismissed as a minor holiday to its roots as a public proclamation of the triumph of freedom over oppression and a mainstay of Jewish cultural and religious life.
Chabad-Lubavitch’s annual Chanukah campaign has distributed millions of menorahs to Jews around the world and erected thousands of public menorahs to share its universal message of light over darkness with humanity at large. This year’s Chanukah campaign will be one of unprecedented light and joy, seeing Chabad reach eight million Jews in more than 100 countries. For the first time in two years, energetic crowds will once again be gathering on streets and thoroughfares, in great metropolises and small towns alike, to participate in the more than 15,000 large public menorahs Chabad will place worldwide. Even as crowds gather again, the Chanukah parades and drive-in events that ensured safe events last year will go on, and this year more than 6,500 Chanukah menorah-topped cars will hit the road in Chabad menorah parades to share the Chanukah message of hope and joy around the globe.
An estimated 10 million unique visitors will use the practical how-to guides and discover the many layers of meaning at Chabad.org’s popular Chanukah.org website. Chabad will help bring the light and celebration of Chanukah into homes everywhere by distributing approximately 64 million Chanukah candles, more than 700,000 menorah kits, and 2.5 million holiday guides in 17 languages.
Chabad’s grand menorah lighting will be held at Englewood City Hall, 2-10 N Van Brunt Street, on Sunday, Dec 18 at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.ChabadEnglewood.com or call Rabbi Konikov at (201) 519-7343.
