9-foot Hanukkah menorah lights up Elgin as Jewish community gathers once more
Chabad Jewish Center of Elgin will light a 9-foot public Hanukkah menorah at The Centre, on Tuesday, Nov. 30, the third night of the eight-day Festival of Lights.
The community will be joined by Elgin Mayor David Kaptain who will be attending, and the event will feature a dancing LED Robot, and latkes and donuts.
Celebrants will witness a "Gelt Drop." Local Elgin firefighters will be climbing up on their ladders and showering down chocolate gelt.
Complimentary Hanukkah menorahs and candles will be distributed as well for participants to light at home.
The in-person public Hanukkah celebration returns to Elgin after a nearly two-year hiatus, and record numbers of participants are expected to join Chabad of Elgin's menorah lighting this year.
"Everyone is especially excited about Hanukkah this year," said Mendel Shemtov, Rabbi of Chabad Jewish Center of Elgin. "People are preparing to celebrate with family and friends, to fill their homes with the light of Hanukkah, and there's a palpable joy. The public Hanukkah celebration is about sharing this light and joy with the broader community and the entire Elgin."
A global Hanukkah awareness campaign
Hanukkah 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 Hanukkah awareness campaign in 1973, of which Elgin's public Hanukkah activities are a part of. 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 Hanukkah 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 Hanukkah 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 Hanukkah campaign will be one of unprecedented light and joy, seeing Chabad reach 8 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 Hanukkah parades and drive-in events, that ensured safe events last year, will go on, and this year more than 6,500 Hanukkah menorah-topped cars will hit the road in Chabad menorah parades to share the Hanukkah 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 Hanukkah.org website. Chabad will help bring the light and celebration of Hanukkah into homes everywhere by distributing approximately 64 million Hanukkah candles, more than 700,000 menorah kits, and 2.5 million holiday guides in 17 languages.
Chabad's growing impact
This year's Hanukkah campaign comes amid a growing awareness of Chabad-Lubavitch's indelible impact on Jewish life. Pew Research Center's 2020 survey of Jewish Americans showed that 38 percent of all American Jews have participated in Chabad activities and services, of whom more than 75 percent do not identify as Orthodox.
The menorah's power is especially felt when it is lit with joy and enthusiasm, as it will be this year, with added appreciation for the blessing of being able to gather once again as a community and celebrating together.
Throughout the State of Illinois, Chabad will be presenting scores of Hanukkah events and celebrations, public Menorah Lightings, Menorah Parades, Giant Menorahs made out of ice and candy, Latke Parties and more.To find a local event in Illinois, or practically anywhere throughout the world, visit the international Hanukkah event directory at www.Chabad.org/HanukkahEvents.
For more information about Hanukkah and a local schedule of events, visit ElginChabad.com/hanukkah
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EVENT RECAP:
What: Hanukkah Menorah Lighting
Where: The Centre of Elgin, 100 Symphony Way
When: Tuesday. Nov. 30, 5:30 pm
Cost: FREE
RSVP: www.elginchabad.com/chanukah21
ABOUT HANUKKAH
Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins this year on the evening of Sunday, November 28 and concludes the evening of Monday, December 6. It recalls the victory of a militarily weak Jewish people who defeated the Syrian-Greeks who had overrun ancient Israel and sought to impose restrictions on the Jewish way of life and prohibit religious freedom. They also desecrated and defiled the Temple and the oils prepared for the lighting of the menorah, which was part of the daily service. Upon recapturing the Temple only one jar of undefiled oil was found, enough to burn only one day, but it lasted miraculously for eight. In commemoration, Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days by lighting an eight-branched candelabrum known as a menorah. Today, people of all faiths consider the holiday a symbol and message of the triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness. Additional information about the Hanukkah holiday is available at www.ElginChabad.com/Hanukkah.
ABOUT CHABAD JEWISH CENTER OF ELGIN
Chabad Jewish Center of Elgin offers Jewish education, outreach and social service programming for families and individuals of all ages, backgrounds and affiliations. For more information visit ElginChabad.com.