Public menorah

The concept of lighting a large menorah in public was initiated by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe) in 1973.

He launched his Hanukkah-awareness campaign by encouraging his followers and emissaries to reach out to their fellow Jews and give them the opportunity to kindle the Hanukkah lights.

[3] The following year, in 1975, rock promoter Bill Graham sponsored Chabad's menorah in San Francisco.

[12] The world's largest menorah stands at 32 feet (9.8 m) and is lit at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan near Central Park.

[1] A large menorah is located at Toronto City Hall at the south east corner of Nathan Phillips Square during Hanukkah.

On December 23, 2019, was the first Hanukkah candle lighting in Ukraine parliament since the election of Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky.

[19][20] On 18 December 2022, 10 months into the Russian invasion, and days after the most recent targeting of Ukraine's gas infrastructure,[21] the City of Kyiv lit what is claimed to be Europe's tallest Menora, (at 12-meters tall)[22] in Maidan Nezalezhnosti square.

[23][24] Each year in the Plaza Trouville in the Punta Carretas neighborhood of Montevideo a public menorah is held, and the lighting ceremony is attended by city and national authorities.

It complained of the increase in the number of menorahs placed on public lands, arguing that it was causing tension both within the community and with non-Jews.

[29] Raskin appealed the decision on two occasions after an initial hearing 1987 found the display to be unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

[35] In addition, in 1991, in White Plains, New York, the Common Council unanimously rejected the display of a Chabad menorah in a public space in the town with the support of many Jews, affirming a local tradition of keeping parks free of religious and political displays.

[36] On the other hand, in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Rabbi Sholom B. Kalmanson of Chabad of Southern Ohio to light an 18-foot-tall (5.5 m) menorah in Cincinnati's Fountain Square.

Justice John Paul Stevens upheld a lower court ruling that the city could not ban the menorah and other religious displays from the square.

[39] The same year, in Vienna, Austria, a Chabad rabbi was attacked by a Muslim man while leading the candle lighting ceremony.