Friday, December 22, 2006

A Report on the Lego Menorah

Report on the Lego Menorah

By Chaya 

Chaya

 

We had an amazing Menorah lighting in Palo Alto this past Sunday in front of City Hall, featuring our Lego Menorah. It was quite an amazing sight!

As an introduction, we must thank G-d for our very own Chanuka miracle.

Simcha, Chabad's program director checked the weather multiple times daily the week before the event – and there was a grim forecast. Rain. Showers. Storms. Not the ideal weather for an outdoor Menorah lighting. With a failed attempt to get tents and tarps etc… we knew that our fate was in G-d's hands.

We prayed and prayed and G-d heard our prayers! Sunday morning we awoke to the sunniest day in weeks! The weather was clear and we could breathe again and go forth with the preparations!

People started arriving early just to take part in building Palo Alto's first ever Lego Menorah. Kids from all over Palo Alto pitched in to build it, under Yossi Raphaelson's expert guidance.

 

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The crowd was growing and excitement was mounting with anticipation of the completion of the Menorah. By 5:00 o'clock it was ready to be lit. By this time the more than 300 participants were happily supplied with piping hot cider, freshly made latkes, and super sweet cotton candy.   Aryeh Ioffe sang the blessings over the Menorah beautifully and Rabbi Levin lit Palo Alto's masterpiece. Face painting, balloons and a raffle were all exciting features of this program… and we can safely say that every one had a good time.

Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who worked hard and helped to make this happen! And thank you to every one who participated and made this the best Chanuka event ever!

Happy Chanuka!

Chanukah 2006 photographs can be purchased online at http://www.bayareasimchas.com/, click on "Events" and then on "Chanukah 2006"

Chabad's Chanukah 2006 photographs

Chanukah 2006 photographs are now online at http://www.bayareasimchas.com/, click on "Events" and then on "Chanukah 2006". There are two albums. The first covers the lighting of giant Lego menorah in Palo Alto; the second was taken at "The Light of Chanukah after the War in the North" - a meeting featuring Rabbi Yigal Tsipori and photojournalist Erez Ben Simon.

Many of the photographs shown by Erez are available on his web site http://www.erezbensimon.com, click on "Lebanon War II".

Happy Chanukah,

Ilya Ravkin

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Monday, December 18, 2006

Fun Filled Chanukah Party @ Emek Bracha

This past Sunday, EB had a nice Chanukah party for kids. Here are some pictures of the party. A small video will be posted too later on…

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News from Israel

We visited the Bronsteins in Israel. B’H’, they live in Beit shemesh and are very happy there. They are sending a BIG happy smile to everybody in Palo Alto. They live in a beautiful new house with an amazing view to some hills far away. Alex learns Torah every morning at the shul just a few feet away from their house. It felt to me as if the Bronsteins received a little fore-taste of the Geula. May we all join them in Israel very soon…

 

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