A Menorah 20 Stories High

Here at Stern, we take Chanukah very seriously. The mitzvah of pirsumei nisa, publicizing the miracle, for example, was elevated to a whole different level on the fourth night of Chanukah as students created the largest and brightest menorah for all of New York City to see.

On December 11, the passersby strolling down East 34th Street, one of the most crowded streets in Manhattan just a block away from the Empire State Building, were not only able to peek through the first floor windows of Brookdale Residence Hall to watch the hundreds of students’ Chanukah lights twinkling in the Front Lounge, but were also able to observe the twenty-story-high Menorah towering above them.

Adhering to detailed instructions provided to them by Ms. Rachel Kraut, Director of Beren Housing and Residence Life, Resident Assistants and the students in the Brookdale dormitory collaborated to make the Menorah spectacle. Designated rooms facing 34th Street participated in a creative system of turning on and shutting off lights to create a geometric image of a Menorah from the one-hundred-plus bedrooms.

A vertical row of lighted rooms in the center of the building became the stem of the menorah, and students in other specifically chosen rooms made sure to switch on their lights to create its branches. Every other room was simultaneously kept dark. To complete the effect, the ten windows of the rooms on the 16th and 20th floors were covered in red paper to look like flames of eight candles.

At exactly 7:00 pm, the PA system reminded students to shut off or turn on their bedroom lights as previously instructed. Girls ran downstairs to see the display. “My RA told me that all I had to do was to leave my lights on. I had no idea that everything could come together so nicely,” said Yael Adler, a junior on the 10th floor. Swarms of enthusiastically chattering students stood across the street to gaze at the panoramic view, pointing up and delighting in the menorah spectacle they had cooperated in producing.

Meanwhile, as passersby and tourists stopped momentarily to see what the crowds of excited girls were taking pictures of, Julia Siegel (SCW ’13), Orit Bitton (SCW ’15) and others grabbed the opportunity to explain the scene.

“Do you see the menorah? It’s the Jewish menorah!” said an enthusiastic Julia, co-President of the Mechinah program at Stern. She pointed up, outlining the figure for a seemingly confused tourist who was crinkling her forehead in confusion. “Oh, it is!” the woman said, smiling as realization dawned. “Ohhh!” she smiled. “I didn’t realize what it was until you told me.”

Orit Bitton (SCW ’15), “trying to be like the improv guy on TV”, stood in a circle with some friends, attempting to let her voice carry over to the foreign tourists standing nearby. “What is it?” she half-shouted over the clamor of the busy street, feigning ignorance. “I don’t know,” one of the posse friends answered, playing along. “I heard someone mention something about Hanukkah?” They then turned around to ask the strangers. “Do you know what everyone’s staring at?”

The idea to create a Menorah-shaped image out of dormitory lights was conceived over fifty-five years ago. Usually, the effect is created every other year, so although the Menora was produced just last year, students begged to repeat it again in 2012 as well.

“It was a wonderful way to build community during the holiday and to rekindle a tradition. I’m a little in awe every time I stop and look at it, because it somehow gets better every year,” said Rachel Kraut. She also thanked the students for their overwhelming cooperation in making the “menorah” happen—“without each and every room’s participation,” she said, “it would not have worked.”

Referring to the remarkable feat, Samantha Yekutiel (SCW ’14) was very impressed. “I thought it was a fabulous way of bringing everyone together to appreciate the miracle of Chanukah. And it was really amazing that we were able to pull off such an awesome production!”

Beren students clearly spread the light this Chanukah in a most illuminating and enlightening way. Amidst the sparkling holiday lights in one of the busiest areas of America, Stern students brought Jews and others into the Chanukah spirit.