Chabad’s public menorahs a constant in Chanukah celebrations worldwide Five Chabad rabbis erected the first public menorah in Philadelphia in 1974. Now, 50 years later, roughly 15,000 giant menorahs are lit annually in public squares from Washington, D.C., to Melbourne, Australia. Dovid Margolin Dec. 26, 2024
Appreciative crowd returns to view 43-year-old tradition of lighting National Menorah “There was a lot of heart here this time that I haven’t heard in a while. I think people are really starting to appreciate what we have here as Jews, compared to where we could be in other countries and stuff,” said Willetta Lee of Virginia. Dmitriy Shapiro Nov. 30, 2021
US Interior secretary tests positive for COVID following National Menorah lighting The diagnosis came less than a week after U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt helped light the National Menorah on Dec. 10 across from the White House in Washington, D.C. Dec. 18, 2020
Interior secretary Bernhardt helps light National Menorah for consecutive year This year’s menorah-lighting in Washington included fewer guests than usual due to coronavirus restrictions with social distancing in place. Dec. 10, 2020
Lighting of National Menorah marks 40 years of publicly observing Hanukkah in DC “The light of religious freedom and tolerance is ever brighter,” said U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. “And so, we gather here in the glow of that light and the Festival of Lights.” Dec. 22, 2019
US interior secretary to help light National Menorah on White House lawn The annual ceremony celebrates its 40th year; it was first lit in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and has been erected and lit every year since. Jackson Richman Dec. 18, 2019