A menorah has stood at Martin Place for 30 years, and it again went up this Chanukah with a message of support to a city still grappling with the aftermath of an attack last week.Possibly the first public menorah-lighting of the year was held in New Zealand, where Chabad joined with the Jewish Federation of New Zealand to host a community-wide outdoor celebration in Auckland dubbed “Chanukah in the Park.” Photo courtesy Jewish Federation of New Zealand.The first night’s candle shines boldly and brightly over a Berlin site once marked by Nazi hatred; photo by David Osipov.Directly in front of the Budapest-Nyugati Railway Terminal, the city’s Jewish community gathered for what has become an annual Hungarian-Jewish tradition. The lighting was followed by spirited dancing, capped with a stirring rendition of “Szol a Kakas Mar,” a Chassidic melody that blends Hebrew and Hungarian words poetically to tell the story of the Jewish exile.Trafalgar Square was filled with some 7,500 revelers, who came together to celebrate the Festival of Lights with Chabad Lubavitch UK and the London Jewish Forum; photo by Sam Kaye.Perhaps one of the best-known lightings is that of the “World’s Largest Menorah,” a 32-foot-high, gold-colored, 4,000-pound menorah, in Grand Army Plaza – at Central Park South and Fifth Avenue in front of the Plaza Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
