Menorah Lighting

press release: Chabad Madison will light a 9-foot public Hanukkah menorah at Hilldale on the green, on Sunday, Dec 18 at 4:00 PM, the first night of the eight-day Festival of Lights. The community will be joined by Governor Evers, County Executive Parisi and Supreme Court Justice Dallet who will be attending, and the event will feature a Gelt Drop and Latkes. Complimentary Hanukkah menorahs and candles will be distributed as well for participants to light at home.

“Everyone is especially excited about Hanukkah this year,” said Rabbi Avremel Matusof, of Chabad Madison. “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 Madison.”

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.

Indeed, during the pandemic, demand for Chabad Madison’s religious, humanitarian and educational services skyrocketed, and Chabad Madison met Madison’s needs with weekly free food distribution, zoom gatherings and dedicated programming for seniors. “We’ve seen a massive uptick in the level of engagement over the last year and a half,” said Rabbi Avremel.

To that end Chabad Madison is launching a capitol campaign titled “Together we Build'' for a new Jewish center to be built on the 1700 block of Monroe St. The goal is to raise $360,000 over 72 hours, with every donation tripled. More info at ChabadMadison.com/match.

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.

For more information about Hanukkah and a local schedule of events visit www.ChabadMadison.com/Hanukkah.

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 Madison’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.

ABOUT HANUKKAH

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins this year on the evening of Sunday, December 18 and concludes the evening of Monday, December 26. 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.Chabad.org/Hanukkah.