nyjewishweek
Amid the bitter cold on Tuesday evening, 100 or so neighbors — many of them clutching tiny cups of hot chocolate, holding dogs on leashes, or chasing after small children — gathered in Harlem’s tiny Montefiore Park to watch the neighborhood’s annual Christmas tree lighting. But this year, the blue spruce — a landmark at the north end of the triangular park that’s been illuminated for Christmas every year since 1992 — wasn’t the only holiday decoration in the park. For the first time, the Christmas tree lighting was accompanied by the kindling of a large electric menorah, in honor of the third night of Hanukkah. The event arose following an inquiry by the couple to the Montefiore Park Civic Association, asking if they could install a large menorah in the park. Instead of a simple “yes,” a broad coalition of civic, Jewish, Black, Dominican and interfaith organizations came together to create the first “Harlem Festival of Lights,” a cross-denominational celebration of both Christmas and Hanukkah. (A Kwanzaa celebration was initially on the lineup, too, but the lighting of the kinara, the seven-branched candelabra that is part of the modern pan-African holiday, was ultimately rescheduled to coincide with the seven-day celebration that begins on Dec. 26.) In a year marked by antisemitism, both close to home and afar — most recently on Bondi Beach in Sydney, where 15 people were killed at a public Hanukkah menorah lighting event — the cross-cultural display of holiday cheer felt especially meaningful to many of the participants. As a sign of the times, however, there was a pronounced police presence in the area. “What we are doing tonight, in lighting a menorah publicly in the city of New York, in Harlem, with our friends, with our community members, with our elected politicians, with our police officers here, with all of you here, is nothing short than a reclamation of identity, a reclamation of ancestry and a public announcement that we are here,” Ekshtut said during his remarks.
