JACKSON – It is being called “A Pandemic Hanukkah Celebration: Menorah-Topped Cars to Parade Through Jackson” and it will take place starting at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
The car menorah parade will celebrate the 2020 Hanukkah season and is the Chabad of Jackson’s special way of safely celebrating the Festival of Lights.
The event will light up the community through a drive-in celebration at Prospect Plaza, 265 S. New Prospect Road at 4 p.m. on December 13.
Hanukkah, began this year on the evening of December 10 and concludes the evening of December 18. It recalls the victory of a militarily weak Jewish people who defeated the Syrian Greeks who had overrun ancient Israel and sought to impose restrictions on the Jewish way of life and prohibit religious freedom.
Rabbi Shmuel Naparstek of the director of the Chabad of Jackson explained the holiday saying the attackers also desecrated and defiled the Temple and the oils prepared for the lighting of the menorah, which was part of the daily service. Upon recapturing the Temple only one jar of undefiled oil was found, enough to burn only one day, but it lasted miraculously for eight.
In commemoration, Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days by lighting an eight-branched candelabrum known as a menorah. Today, people of all faiths consider the holiday a symbol and message of the triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness.
The Chabad of Jackson is coordinating the event and offers Jewish education, outreach and social service programming for families and individuals of all ages, backgrounds and affiliations.
Rabbi Naparstek said the Chabad of Jackson recognizes the crucial importance of bringing Hanukkah’s message of light and hope to Jackson’s Jewish community amid a dark winter. To safely do so, Chabad of Jackson will be having a Car Menorah Parade departing from Prospect Plaza, traveling to local senior care facilities, culminating in a Drive-In Menorah Lighting at Prospect Plaza.
“While typically, we’re able to invite Jackson’s community to join our Hanukkah menorah-lighting ceremony at The White Butterfly, this year we are inviting them to participate in safety bringing Hanukkah to the homes of those unable to attend due to coronavirus,” Rabbi Naparstek, added.
Rabbi Naparstek said,“the Car Menorah Parade is a perfect way for Jackson’s Jewish community to show our Jewish pride and celebrate Hanukkah during the pandemic.” The parade route will travel via the main thoroughfares of Jackson, including County Line Road. In a unique Hanukkah celebration promoting holiday awareness and bringing a message of light and hope to Jackson. The parade will end at Prospect Plaza for a Drive-In Outdoor Menorah Lighting and Celebration.
“To ensure everyone is safe, the menorah lighting will be a drive-in event, with everyone staying in their cars,” Rabbi Naparstek said. The Car Menorah Parade is part of the worldwide Hanukkah campaign launched by the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, in 1973. The campaign highlights and encourages the central theme of the holiday—publicizing the story of the Hanukkah miracle and the victory of light over darkness, a message of hope greatly needed today.
In the decades since the Rebbe’s Hanukkah awareness campaign began it has revitalized widespread observance of the Festival of Lights and brought it to the mainstream, returning what some have mistakenly dismissed as a minor holiday to its roots as a public proclamation of the ultimate triumph of freedom over oppression.
Rabbi Naperstek noted this year has seen illness, death, quarantine, closures and business collapses, all amidst an overwhelming sense of sheer confusion and despair. In light of this heightened sense of urgency to share the message, spirit and hope of Hanukkah, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement worldwide is preparing the largest Hanukkah awareness campaign in history.
With many events curtailed, others opting for a drive-in model and many people isolating, Chabad will help families bring the light and celebration of Hanukkah into their homes and will distribute approximately 32 million Hanukkah candles, more than 700,000 menorah kits, 350,000 family at-home Hanukkah kits and 2.5 million holiday guides in 17 languages.
Throughout New Jersey, Chabad will be organizing dozens of giant menorah displays. To find more information about Hanukkah or a local Hanukkah event in the state, or practically anywhere throughout the world, visit the international Hanukkah event directory at chabadofjackson.com/HanukkahEvents. You can also contact Rabbi Naparstek, at rabbi@chabadofjackson.com.
