Towering Chanukah Menorah to Glow Opposite the White House

Chanukah in Washington is different this year. Starting tomorrow night, a towering electric “National Chanukah Menorah” will glow in Lafayette Park directly opposite the White House in the traditional numerical order for eight successive days in celebration of the Festival of Lights.

Erection of the all-steel menorah was completed last night and successfully tested in the presence of Lubavitcher Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, who supervised the project sponsored by the American Friends of Lubavitch; the menorah’s designer, Gunther Kilshiemer, a Berlin refugee from Nazism; and a reporter for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Washington’s menorah, fabricated with gold painted square tubing and weighing 5000 pounds, is the nation’s largest, Shemtov said . Its 30-foot-high base is surmounted by a triangle of nine lights, each four feet high, with the top of the “Shamus” the centered light 36 feet above ground The span of the lights is 20 feet wide. Each “flame” is 20 inches high.

A special ceremony of lighting will take place Monday, the fourth night of Chanukah with government and community leaders participating. The menorah will be turned on each evening at dusk and glow until midnight during the holiday.

The Lubavitch movement’s “National Candelabra” is one of many that Lubavitch Friends have installed in major cities across the country, Shemtov said. Among them are menorahs in front of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan and at the foot of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, as they have been on the past three Chanukahs.

Kilshiemer was overjoyed as the lights of his design gleamed, for the first time. He said he was in an orphanage in Berlin when, in 1938, he was removed to Brazil for safety. After nine years there, he came to Washington. Looking at his design he said wistfully: “I did this as a Jew, hopeful of making a contribution to the whole world — to have a menorah in front of the White House.