LARGEST WORLWIDE OBSERVANCE OF CHANUKAH FESTIVAL EVER!
Houston to Join Worldwide Chanukah Celebration
20-Car Menorah-Parade to Light Up City’s Streets

HOUSTON - 20 eight-branched traveling candelabras, known as Menorahs, will parade through the streets of the greater Houston area on December 29 to spread the Chanukah holiday message of religious freedom to tens of thousands Houstonians.

On Thursday, December 29th, at 5:00 PM, the Menorah parade will commence with at the Jewish Community Center at 5601 S. Braeswood Blvd. in Houston and travel through the Meyerland, Galleria and Memorial areas culminating with a Chanukah Wonderland celebration at Memorial City Mall Ice Rink and an Ice Menorah lighting ceremony with Houston dignitaries at 6:30 PM (see route & map).

The 20 traveling Menorahs will complement the 15 nine feet tall Menorahs, erected throughout the state in locations such as the Houston City Hall, State Capitol in Austin, Texas Medical Center and many other locations. These Menorah candelabras help to make the holiday’s universal message of religious freedom tangibly accessible to the tens of thousands of state residents across Texas.

Hundreds of Houstonians will dance, sing and eat the Chanukah nights away at large public Menorah-lighting celebrations each night of the Chanukah holiday at locations ranging from Houston City Hall to the Texas Medical Center (see calendar of events). The Chanukah holiday begins this year on the eve of December 25 and culminates on January 2.

Houston’s menorahs join a national and worldwide tradition of public Chanukah menorah displays and candle lighting ceremonies inspired by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. They have become commonplace from the White House to the Kremlin, from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the Eiffel Tower and Universal Studios’ theme parks.

Hundreds of these worldwide celebrations can be discovered by clicking on www.chanukah.org/events, available locally also at www.chabadtexas.org/holidays/chanukah/Lighting_listing.asp. These listings are ideal for locals and travelers alike.

According to the Lubavitch World Headquarters, Chabad-Lubavitch will ignite more than 11,000 large public Menorahs throughout the world this Chanukah, reaching more Jews than ever before. This in addition to distributing millions of Chanukah Menorahs and brochures and holding a multitude of educational events to help children and adults of all walks of life discover and enjoy the holiday and its message.

In launching the Chanukah campaign in Texas, Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Texas stated, “The eternal message of the Menorah lights has particular significance in light of current world events which remind us all too starkly that the forces of oppression and darkness are still present. 

“Chanukah reminds us that a little light can defeat an empire of darkness, human goodness can defy terror and brute force, and life and spiritual vitality can overcome destruction.

“Especially in America, founded to vigorously protect the right of every person to practice his or her religion free from restraint and persecution, the Menorah takes on profound significance, embodying both religious and constitutional principles.

“The menorah parade and the numerous menorahs placed throughout the state proclaim the commitment of the people of Houston to uphold the personal and religious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution.  They are also symbols of our community’s dedication to preserve and encourage the right and liberty of all its citizens to worship G‑d freely, openly, and with pride,” Lazaroff concluded.

In describing her anticipation for the Chanukah celebrations Andrea Schultz said, “As a mother of a young Jewish child it is hard to instill pride into my child when so much of the surrounding culture, including the lessons and decorations at school, seem to indicate that my Hava is not normative. I want her to grow up with pride in her Jewish heritage and a feeling of equality and self-assuredness as an American. Lubavitch’s Chanukah Menorahs are arguably one of the most important developments ever to help Hava’s education. I wish they had this where I grew up.”

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, recalls the victory more than 2100 years ago of a militarily weak but spiritually strong Jewish people, over the mighty forces of a ruthless enemy that had overrun ancient Israel and sought to impose restrictions on the Jewish way of life, prohibit religious freedom and force the Jewish people to accept a foreign religion. 

During the occupation of Jerusalem and the temple, the Syrian Greeks desecrated and defiled the oils prepared for the lighting of the menorah, which was part of the daily service in the Temple, and rendered them unfit for use.  Upon recapturing the Temple, the Jewish People found one lone jar of undefiled oil, enough to burn only one day, but it lasted miraculously for eight days until new, pure olive oil was produced.  Ever since, in commemoration of this event, the Jewish people celebrate Chanukah for eight days by lighting an eight-branched candelabra known as a Menorah.

Beginning in the ‘50s, the Lubavitcher Rebbe launched a vigorous international campaign to help bring the practice and awareness of the Chanukah holiday to the heart and doorstep of every Jew, and the eternal message of the holiday to every human being. Today, more than 50 years later, there is hardly a community in the world that doesn’t have some form of Chanukah celebration, whether created directly by a Chabad-Lubavitch center or brought to fruition by others who were inspired by the Rebbe’s example.

The menorah is placed on a window or a doorpost facing the outside in order to publicize G‑d’s miracle, with its message of hope and religious freedom, to all. Today, to people of all faiths, the Chanukah holiday serves as a symbol and message of the triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness.

Chabad Lubavitch of Texas is a branch of the international Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the largest Jewish educational and social services organization in the world.  It operates in 70 countries worldwide and in 46 of the fifty United States. 

For more information about Chanukah or about Chabad Lubavitch of Texas, visit:  www.chabadtexas.org