City of Vaughan Celebrates Chanukah with Menorah Lighting Ceremony

“The City of Vaughan is proud of its diversity and pleased to join with the Jewish community in celebrating Chanukah,” said Mayor Bevilacqua. “The message of Chanukah is a universal one of peace, tolerance, and perseverance. It teaches us the importance of religious freedom and human dignity and that by lighting a candle we are also lighting a beacon of hope that can conquer darkness and shine a light into the future.”

 

Chanukah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day holiday celebrated each year to commemorate the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BCE. The Menorah, or holiday candelabra, is the most recognizable symbol of Chanukah.

 

Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, the founder and spiritual leader of Chabad @ Flamingo, presided over the ceremony and was joined by Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum, Executive Director of Chabad of Southern Ontario; Rabbi Yona Shur, the Executive Director of Cheder Chabad; and Rabbi Baruch Zaltzman, Principal of the Shmuel Zahavy Cheder Chabad. The children's choir Shmuel Zahavy Cheder Chabad provided the entertainment. Special jelly donuts called “sufganyot,” traditional treats celebrating Chanukah, were enjoyed by everyone attending the event.