Chanukah celebration on Broad St, Oxford

Chabad of Oxford celebrated the 1st night of Chanukah with the lighting of a 12 ft Menorah in the centre of Oxford city centre, on Broad St. The Menorah was lit by the Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr Susanna Pressel, and Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, in the presence of about 150 people, including students, faculty and community members.

The lighting ceremony was followed by an address by Rabbi Brackman. He spoke of the unique celebration this year of it being the 8^th year since the tradition was established in 2001. This is symbolic as the Menorah has eight branches, he said. When setting up the Menorah last year, he related, someone opened the window of Balliol College, in front on which the Menorah was being erected, and shouted that we had got it wrong as there should be only seven branches. Rabbi Brackman explained that he was right in the sense that the Menorah in the Temple had indeed seven branches but the Chanukah Menorah had eight branches marking the miracle of the lights when a small cruse of spiritually pure oil, which was only sufficient to burn for one day, burned for eight.

This miracle came as a response to the Jews of Judea in 2^nd century BCE who stood up to the Syrian Greeks and maintained their faith and Jewish observance. A small band of Jews, called the Macabees, were able to drive out an entire battalion of Greek forces, allowing for the restoration of the Temple and the kindling of the candelabra. Therefore, although the Temple Menorah had seven branches, to mark the miracle that lasted for eight days, we light a Menorah of eight branches.

The lighting of the eight branched Menorah after dark is to symbolise the ability for light to dispel the darkness of this world.

The lighting of the Oxford Menorah was dedicated this year to the Mumbai victims , including the murdered Jews and dear colleagues, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, directors of the Mumbai Chabad House, where six Jews were killed.

It was most poignant that the day the hostages were found killed at the Mumbai Chabad House on 28 Nov, 2008, the Menorah was set up in Oxford, indeed a month early, before the holiday of Chanukah.

The city council hosted on that day a major “Winter Lights” celebration coinciding with the dedication of Bonn Square. They kindly requested Chabad of Oxford to erect the Menorah as part of this celebration, attended by thousands of people throughout the city centre, including Broad St.

It was while darkness was at its most intensity with the killing of the hostages in Mumbai that the Menorah for the Festival of Lights was erected across the world in Oxford. It was a message of consolation that ultimately the power of light and good will dispel the forces of darkness and evil.

The lighting was also dedicated to the late principal speaker for the Green Party of England and Wales, and Leader of the Green Party Group on Oxford City Council, Cllr Dr. Mike Woodin. Dr. Woodin was author of the book Green Alternatives to Globalisation: A Manifesto.

Mike, who tragically died of cancer at the age of 38 in 2004, was a member of the Oxford Jewish community and also a Fellow at Balliol College.

When Rabbi Brackman proposed in 2001 to put a Menorah up in central Oxford for the celebration of Chanukah, there was considerable opposition from members of the city council. They objected on the grounds that it was a religious symbol and the lights would have been a distraction to the traffic. As soon as the correspondence was sent to Mike, within a few hours he had managed to get his colleagues at the city council to agree for the Menorah to be placed on the widest street in Oxford on St Giles.

The following years, moderate size crowds would come out for the lighting and it became a tradition that the Lord Mayor would be invited to light the menorah together with other dignitaries.

In 2005, the Menorah was unfortunately vandalized during Chanukah, making front page news in the local papers. The following day, the Menorah was patched up by a city council worker, and when lit again the following night, it made headline news again with “Defiant Flames” blazoned across the front page of the local Oxford Mail with a more extensive write up in the weekend paper.

This was the catalyst for the Menorah to be moved to a more central location on Broad St, where it would be under surveillance and in a more visible location. Broad St is in the heart of the city, down the road from the famed Bodleian library, which has one of the largest and most important Hebraica manuscript collections in the world, together with the autograph of Maimonides. The Menorah is located outside one of the oldest colleges in Oxford, Balliol College, where Mike was Fellow.

The ceremony this year was also addressed Leader of the Green Group, Cllr Craig Simmons, who paid a tribute to Mike Woodin, and deputy Lord Mayor, Cllr Elise Benjamin.

The event concluded with professional entertainment by a fire juggler and unicyclist.