Some 5,000 people attended the annual Chabad lighting of the National Menorah on the Ellipse, south of the White House, on Wednesday night, the first night of Chanukah, according to organizers, who had to set up extra chairs for the overflow crowd.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, emceed the event, which he and his father, Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, have organized for decades. He told JNS that the turnout and energy at the event show that Jews haven’t given in amid difficult times.
“The Maccabees were also exhausted, but they didn’t give up,” Shemtov told JNS at the event. “They knew that they had to win, and that’s what they did.”
“That’s why I said tonight that those who seek to destroy us are going to meet the fate of those who tried before them,” he said. “Because of the Maccabean victory, we are here and we will also prevail now, as well.”
The National Menorah, whose lighting American Friends of Lubavitch sponsors, is the world’s largest menorah, according to Chabad.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the U.S. secretary of homeland security, and Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, were on hand for the event. Stuart Eizenstat, the State Department special adviser on Holocaust issues, also attended.
“Jewish life is poised on a scale from joy to oy,” Lipstadt told JNS. “We worry a lot about the oy, but today is a night of joy.”
Mayorkas, a Havana-born Jew, donned a blue kippah for the event and gave brief remarks about a post-Oct. 7 “yearning for this beauty, this rooted history” that Jews share. That history spawned “a surge in synagogue attendance, Jewish learning and communal connection,” he said.
“We can lean into our shared tradition and values as a beacon for what we aspire to,” Mayorkas said. “This Chanukah, let us rededicate ourselves to the light that defines us and the better world we seek to build.”
‘We need to be together’
Shemtov praised the brevity of the secretary’s speech, joking that many Jewish congregations might think about hiring him as a rabbi.
The event kicked off with a performance by 8th Day, a California-based Chassidic pop-rock band. Many children and some adults danced at their seats, as a person in an oversized blue dreidel made his way around to energize the crowd.
“We need a lot of light right now. We need to be together,” Rachael Friedman, who came from the Washington suburbs with her husband and infant girl, told JNS.
“There are miracles happening. We don’t always see them,” she added. “The light will hopefully help.”
On the sidelines of the event, staffers offered small menorah kits and helped male attendees wrap tefillin for those who asked.
Shemtov recognized Jewish military service members and veterans seated in the front row of the audience. The military band that typically performs at the annual Chanukah event was given the day off, as it was Christmas and many were celebrating with their families. Instead, a private orchestra performed.
The orchestra and other performers played traditional selections, including an upbeat version of the peace prayer “Oseh Shalom,” and a horn-inflected rendition of the Chanukah poem “Maoz Tzur.”
National essay competition winners, including Tali Levine, a third grader from the Hebrew Academy in Orange County, Calif., read their entries on stage.
“A world without light would be a very sad place,” Levine said. “The oil lasting eight days was an open miracle that we were able to see with our very own eyes. This year, I am hoping that with the extra light, an open miracle will happen once again.”
‘The biggest light ever’
“Our brothers and sisters in Israel will come home safe and celebrate Chanukah together as one,” she read.
Shemtov recognized relatives of Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, who were in attendance. He asked Siegel’s wife, Aviva, who was held in Gaza for 51 days, to wave and be recognized by the crowd.
After a brief private conversation with Shemtov, Siegel made her way to the stage and delivered apparently unplanned remarks, asking attendees to remember the plight of the hostages.
“I hope you all will learn the lesson I just learned,” said Shemtov after Siegel departed the stage. “Maybe it’s not in your program, either. But we can all find a few minutes to do something we weren’t planning to do and help the effort to make sure that we see them all brought back very, very soon.”
Siegel told JNS at the event that “we all, together, should light candles this Chanukah because we need it to be the biggest light ever to bring them back.”
JNS asked what Siegel might be thinking about when she lights her own Chanukah candles.
“I’m just going to imagine Keith coming home and me jumping in the air and screaming, ‘Keith, you’re home. I can hug you. I can be with you,’” she told JNS. “I just can’t wait. I can’t wait to have that miracle of Chanukah. Just please, please, let it happen.” JNS
{Matzav.com}