✨ From Austin to NYC: A Chanukah Party at Amazon 42 years in the making
#ChaiSociety Dispatch Season V Episode I
✨This month’s #ChaiSociety Dispatch takes us from New York to Teaneck to Austin to London and back to NYC - and gives a look at the power of the public menorah and how it inspired some incredible Jewish events for Jews at Amazon’s offices around the world.
💡 Think:
*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame*
Yep, that's me… with the family at Amazon after hosting the first ever Chanukah party for Jewish Amazonians in NYC.
You may be wondering how I got here.
Now it’s not surprising to see Tech Tribe in tech offices around the city. What’s amazing about this particular party is how we got there…
The Talmud, in defining Chanukah, understands it to be a holiday built around public displays of Judaism - pirsumei nisa in Aramaic. Even the very basic placement of the Menorah is centered around broadcasting it with the world:
The Sages taught1: It is a mitzva to place the Hanukkah lamp at the entrance to one’s house on the outside, so that all can see it. If he lived upstairs, he places it at the window adjacent to the public domain. And in a time of danger, when the gentiles issued decrees to prohibit kindling lights, he places it on the table and that is sufficient to fulfill his obligation.
Perhaps, as forecast by the second half of the Talmudic passage, which worried that fanatical Zoroastrians2 might harm Jews who kindled their menorahs in the public, the menorah turned inward.
Despite its occasional presence by the window, the menorah didn’t always get its deserved spot in the public sphere.
Thus for a myriad of reasons, not the least the inward turn of the holiday, many American Jews have begun to think of Chanukah as a minor holiday, even when its status has traditionally been understood as a major rabbinic holiday3
In early 1970s the Rebbe initiated a campaign for public Chanukah awareness - it precipitated a sea change in the Holiday’s observance.
By 1980 public menorahs had become a common sight - kindled in Midtown Manhattan, S. Francisco’s Union Square and in front of the White House.
That year a large menorah had been erected in the garden of the courthouse in Hackensack, N.J.
"It was beautiful,” recalled4 Rabbi Yisroel Brod. “It was an ideal location. Every night we would get hoisted up by a cherry picker to light the menorah. We had people from the Federation there, and everyone had a wonderful time.”
The following year, Brod wanted to light the menorah in neighboring Teaneck in front of city hall. To his surprise, the Teaneck Jewish Community Council reached a unanimous decision opposing the menorah.
The Teaneck Jewish Community Council had worked to reduce the presence of religious symbols in the public sphere. Thus, they felt5 it “would be ludicrous and ridiculous for the Jewish community to accept the presence of a Jewish religious object on township property.”
Writing to those objecting, the Rebbe noted that power of the Menorah specifically in the public sphere was critical
“Why is it so important for Jews to have a Chanukah Menorah displayed publicly?” he wrote. “The answer is that experience has shown that the Chanukah Menorah displayed publicly during the eight days of Chanukah, has been an inspiration to many, many Jews and evoked in them a spirit of identity with their Jewish people and the Jewish way of life. To many others it has brought a sense of pride in their Yiddeshkeit, and the realization that there is no reason, really, in this free country, to hide one's Jewishness, as if it were contrary or inimical to American life and culture.”
Ultimately, the supreme court ruled that Menorahs could be displayed publicly6. The light of the holiday was here to shine.
This year for example, Chabad emissaries, including Tech Tribe, hosted 15,000 public menorah lightings reaching 8 million Jews in more than 100 countries.
Skip forward to 2021 and Steven Phillips was in Austin, TX for work from his native London. Driving around the city, taking in the vibes, he saw “this huge super bright neon menorah” in front of Austin City Hall. He found a place to park and walked three blocks back to check it out.
Seeing information about about Chabad Young Professionals in Austin, he called Rabbi Mendy Levertov and was soon back for a Friday Night Dinner.
Steven not only works at Amazon, but is co-chair of the company’s Jewish Affinity Group… and so at the suggestion of Levertov, after Shabbat he reached out to Tech Tribe.
For the past year, Steven and I have been trading Tweets and Whatsapp messages about how to best bring more Jewish events and programs to Amazon.
This Chanukah, a year after the initial connection, the time was right. Sending a message to Rabbi Bentzi Sudak, a menorah was arranged for the London office, and messages to NYC connected us with a host of Jewish Amazonians in NYC and across New Jersey who were excited to bring Jewish events this holiday to their offices… Suddenly from one Menorah, sitting alone in Austin in front of City Hall, many, many Jews were being inspired.
In London…
Two locations in North Jersey
… and NYC
🏃 DO:
📅 Registration closes next week! Join the epic Shabbaton on 1.13.23 for an entire weekend of inspiration and fun and save $200 off the list price
Use code: 👉 CYPCHANUKAH 👈
📈 Our year end campaign is over. If you joined, thank you! But if you didn’t yet partner with Tech Tribe this year, it’s not too late!
✈️ Tech Tribe Journeys - Poland: We are taking a deep dive into the deeply touching, spiritual and painful story of the Jewish life, loss and rebirth in Poland. Join us February 15-20th
Scholarships opportunities may be available. If you have any questions about the trip, please reply to this email for more info.
📸 Pic:
Chai Society is an exclusive email, sent throughout the year by Tech Tribe just for you!
Like what you saw? Want more? Please feel free to forward this email far and wide!
Support Tech Tribe in our mission to empower Jews in Tech and Digital Media to explore their Jewish identities.
Follow us on Social: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Find out if your company does employee matching! We’re now listed on Benevity and Bright Funds!
Tech Tribe is an affiliate of Chabad Young Professionals
Tax ID 82-2619676
Shabbat 45a They asked Rav: Can we carry the menorah away from Zoroastrian priests (ḥabarei - either the name of a nation in the Persian empire (Rashi) or an allusion to the biblical term for one who practices idolatrous magic Deuteronomy 18:11) on the Sabbath? He said to them, it is fine.
See Rambam Hilchot Chanukah 4:13 where Chanukah candles are given preference over Kiddush wine in a case where only one can be purchased.
How Can a Public Menorah Benefit the Jews of Teaneck? Part of a series of letters exchanged between the Rebbe and Linda Gissen, President Jewish Community Council of Teaneck
The fight for the menorah in the public sphere transcended political lines, for example Bernie Sanders, as mayor of Burlington, took an active role in fighting for it to go up.