Fashion Island menorah lighting celebrates Hanukkah
Honorary guest Sam Silberberg, 87, a Holocaust survivor, lights candles atop a large menorah during a Hanukkah ceremony Wednesday evening at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.
The Chabad Center for Jewish Life and Fashion Island in Newport Beach teamed up to present a public menorah lighting Wednesday evening to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish eight-day wintertime Festival of Lights.
The ceremony at Fashion Island’s Atrium Garden Court featured a huge menorah lit in honor of author and Holocaust survivor Sam Silberberg, who endured two Nazi concentration camps as a boy.
The evening also included a toy drive and musical performances by a group from the Chabad Center’s Friendship Circle, a network of friends and mentors for children with special needs.
This year’s celebration of Hanukkah began Saturday night and continues through Sunday.
It commemorates the victory in the second century B.C. by a small group of Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, that drove the Seleucid army from the Holy Land and reclaimed and rededicated the temple in Jerusalem.
When the Jews sought to light the temple’s menorah, or candelabrum, they found only a one-day supply of sacred oil. However, it lasted for eight days. The typical Hanukkah menorah has eight branches with an additional branch with which the others are lit.
“It is a holiday that enriches our lives and strengthens our tradition,” Rabbi Reuven Mintz from the Chabad Center said in a statement. “Hanukkah also transmits the universal message that ultimately good will prevail over evil, freedom over oppression and light over darkness.”