Frigid temperatures gripped Wilmette Sunday as the sun set, and Chabad of Wilmette gathered with community members to light a nine-foot public Hanukkah menorah at Village Hall, honoring the first night of the eight-day Festival of Lights.
Rabbi Moshe Teldon, of Chabad of Wilmette-Center for Jewish Life and Learning, says the menorah lighting is a 31-year-old tradition in Wilmette, which carries added significance this year as Jewish communities worldwide celebrate the Year of Hakhel or “Gathering,” a once-in-seven-years Jewish tradition.
The program began at 4:30 p.m. and featured the menorah lighting, fire juggling dancers, a performance by the Wilmette Junior High School Choir and fresh jelly doughnuts.
Rabbi Dovid Flinkenstein of Chabad of Wilmette also offered his remarks during the program.
Teldon says the public Hanukkah celebration is being heralded as a response to the worrisome rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric online and elsewhere.
“This is a time for Jews to be prouder, to stand taller, and to realize the message of the menorah — that darkness can only be defeated by adding light, just as each night we light candles in celebration of Hanukkah,” Teldon said. “There is no greater display of the literal light it is in our power to bring into the world than to gather together and light the menorah.”
Teldon says, Village Trustee Justin Sheperd attended on Sunday, and the Village of Wilmette has been very supportive in co-sponsoring the event.
“Our response to hatred of any kind must never be to cower or hide our faith,” said Esther Teldon, director of the Wilmette Community Hebrew School with her husband Rabbi Moshe. “The story of Hanukkah is about the tremendous power of light to overcome darkness. We can have no better response to the negativity we encounter than to gather together in even greater numbers and celebrate the light of the menorah in public.”
Gina Grillo is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
