Dec 11, 2007
Hanukkah Parade features rooftop menorahs

WORCESTER -- The Hanukkah Parade wound its way through the city last night lighting up the December darkness. About 15 cars, sporting rooftop menorahs and led by Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, mustered at the Yeshiva Achei Trimin Academy on Newton Avenue and traveled from neighborhood to neighborhood.

“We were getting waves and cars honking at us,” said Rabbi Fogelman, the academy’s director of development.

Hanukkah parades were begun by the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, world leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Judaism.

“He wanted to send a message to the world — not just Jews — that a little light dispels a lot of darkness,” Rabbi Fogelman said.

The eight candles on the menorah are lighted for each of the eight days of Hanukkah. Last night was the seventh day, so one light on the rooftop menorahs was left dark. Hanukkah commemorates the restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem by Judah Maccabees after defeating the Greeks. To celebrate, a menorah that had oil for only one day was lighted but it remained lighted for eight days, enough time to press new oil.

The rabbi used the Hanukkah holiday to initiate a campaign to raise money for heating fuel for the academy, which costs more than $340 a day to heat. He calls the campaign Oil for Hanukkah.

Copyright 2007 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.