LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Christmas is still a couple of days away, but the celebration of Hanukkah has already started.
Sunday night Chabad of the Bluegrass lit the
first candle on a 10-feet-tall menorah standing in the Lexington-Fayette
Government Center.
It’s one of 15,000 public menorahs worldwide.
While celebrating the first night of the eight-day holiday, Rabbi Shlomo Litvin also honored police Chief Lawrence Weathers with The Star of David for the department’s support and protection of the Lexington Jewish community.
“It’s to honor the debt that we always carry for police for always protecting and serving and for caring so much, especially for the minority communities in our community and for those endangered communities,” Rabbi Litvin said. “So, we were able to celebrate with the chief of police, thank him for his service, thank him for his attention to the community and thank the police in general over the last month.”
The group wanted to show its appreciation for being able to safely celebrate its religion in public, especially following several anti-Semitic shootings in the United States and across the world.
“The idea to shy away because of darkness just succeeds your area to the darkness,” Rabbi Litvin said. “You can’t give in to the darkness, you have to be a light, so we’re here, we’re showing up, we’re proud to be here, we lit one candle tonight, we’ll light a second tomorrow night, a third the next night and we’ll continue to create more light across the city of Lexington and across the world.”
There will be two more grand menorah lightings in Lexington this week, as well as other celebratory events throughout the week.
To find out more information on those you can checkout chabadbluegrass.com.
