Chanukah on Pearl Draws Big, Fearless, Proud Crowd

Blessed with clear skies and (for December) a warm evening, hundreds of celebrants turned out on Boulder’s Pearl St. Mall for the annual Grand Menorah lighting, featuring Holocaust and Boulder firebombing survivor Barbara Steinmetz as Shamash lighter. Sina Simantob read the prayers and lit the remaining two lights.

Host Boulder County Center for Judaism debuted their new and beautiful Grand Menorah, crafted by artist and rabbi Yitzchok Moully, to great acclaim. Rabbi Moully’s origins in Australia proved to be a poignant intersection with the terrorist attack on a very similar Chanukah celebration in Sydney, Australia barely a day earlier.

Speakers, including Jonathan Lev of the Boulder JCC, Mayor Aaron Brockett of Boulder, Rabbi Moully and Rabbi Pesach Scheiner all alluded to the attack and the solidarity and support offered Sydney by the Boulder Jewish community, who rather than be intimidated, showed up tonight in force, with a visible police presence, to celebrate Chanukah, the holiday of Dedication.

Mayor Brocket, in fact, was accompanied by virtually the entire Boulder City Council, offering support to our community and exclaiming that in fact, hate and antisemitism have no place in the City of Boulder.

Beloved Denver musician Steve Brodsky entertained with his vast store of Chanukah songs, as he has countless times on Pearl St. and elsewhere in the Denver-Boulder community. Sufganyot were distributed, and there were two special appearances on the Mall: Judah the Maccabee, and Fiddler on the Roof!

The local cast of “Fiddler on the Roof” made a surprise “flash mob” sort of appearance and previewed the introduction to the show, which runs January 15-25th at the Dairy Center for the Arts. The role of Tevya is played by Rabbi Marc Soloway of Congregation Bonai Shalom, a part that many have said Rabbi Marc has been destined to play his whole life.

Please enjoy the entire album of pictures from tonight’s event by clicking on the image below: