Rabbi Mendel Weiss and his wife Tzippy Weiss of Chabad Miami Lakes provided a dancing dreidel, fried potato pancakes, kosher donuts and cotton candy for guests who lit a menorah on Main Street on Dec. 18, the fifth night of Hanukkah.
There was also a DJ and a person in a robot costume decorated with LED lights and a sign that flashed a rainbow peace sign, a kitten photo, “Happy Hanukkah” and other messages of good will. One of the Weiss children passed out small candles that people used to light their neighbor’s candle, to brighten the night.
“This holiday is really about freedom of religion,” Rabbi Weiss said. “… A little bit of light can disperse lots of darkness. … Where there is evil, we have to do extra kindness.”
The Jewish Festival of Lights celebrates in part how a small amount of oil in a temple burned for eight days, according to Chabad.org.
The lighting ceremony was a defiant gesture at a time when antisemitism is on the rise. Undercover officers from the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies watched the crowd.
Jews, their friends and elected officials – Mayor Josh Dieguez, Vice Mayor Bryan Morera, Councilmen Ray Garcia, Alex Sanchez, Juan Carlos Fernandez and Steven Herzberg and Fla. Rep. Tom Fabricio – gathered in the heart of downtown.
“This is a very important event to do today, specifically because of what’s happened recently,” Fabricio said, referencing a Dec. 14 terrorist attack upon Jews at Bondi Beach in Australia. “We need to as a community show respect and love and unity…”
Said Dieguez, “This is a time unfortunately of a lot of intolerance and you being here is taking a stand against that. I myself am hopeful that at the end of this dark period, there will be light and respect for human dignity.”