Photo: Contributed - Brighton Ellis

Lighting of the Menorah in Stuart Park in 2013

Chabad Okanagan will once again light a public 9 foot menorah erected at Stuart Park across from City Hall, followed by a community celebration on Tuesday Dec. 16 at 5 p.m., the first night of Hanukkah.

This is the fourth year the city has supported the erecting and lighting of the menorah in Stuart Park. 

The ceremony will feature Mayor Colin Basran, dignitaries and community leaders.

The community is invited to join in the celebration. Following the menorah lighting ceremony, there will be dancing and singing with a D.J., clown, lots of holiday snacks and heated tent.

This year’s celebration brings added significance as Kelowna joins thousands of communities worldwide in marking 40 years since the first public menorah was lit at the Liberty Bell in 1974.

Today, that unprecedented public display of Hanukkah has become a staple of Jewish cultural and religious life, forever altering the North American practice and perception of the festival.

It all began a year earlier in 1973, when the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory, considered the most influential rabbi in modern history, launched a worldwide Hanukkah campaign, an effort to create awareness and promote observance of Hanukkah. This year, the global campaign the Rebbe launched will reach an estimated 8,000,000 Jews (more than half of the world's Jewish population).

"That we can brighten up the lives of many, many people around us and it will never ever diminish our own brightness, on the contrary.” said Rabbi Shmuly Hecht of Chabad Okanagan, the organization sponsoring the event.

“As we celebrate this milestone with our brothers and sisters around the world we are forever grateful to this country which prides itself with the rights to religious freedom."

Kelowna's menorah is one of thousands of large public menorahs throughout the world, including in front of the White House, which attracts some 4,000 people, and near the Eiffel Tower in central Paris, which has attracted as many as 20,000 French Jews.

Throughout the Country, Chabad-Lubavitch will be presenting scores of Hanukkah events and celebrations, including public menorah lightings, giant menorahs made out of ice and Legos, Menorah Parades, Latkes parties, Giant Dreidel Houses,“Chanukah Wonderlands” and more.