Harlem Jews asked to add a menorah to a park’s Christmas display. They got a community celebration.
"Amid the bitter cold on Tuesday evening, 100 or so neighbors — many of them clutching tiny cups of hot chocolate, holding dogs on leashes, or chasing after small children — gathered in Harlem’s tiny Montefiore Park..."
"Amid the bitter cold on Tuesday evening, 100 or so neighbors — many of them clutching tiny cups of hot chocolate, holding dogs on leashes, or chasing after small children — gathered in Harlem’s tiny Montefiore Park to watch the neighborhood’s annual Christmas tree lighting.
But this year, the blue spruce — a landmark at the north end of the triangular park that’s been illuminated for Christmas every year since 1992 — wasn’t the only holiday decoration in the park. For the first time, the Christmas tree lighting was accompanied by the kindling of a large electric menorah, in honor of the third night of Hanukkah.
'We’ve lived in the neighborhood for a long time, and we walk by that park every single day,” said Erica Frankel, who with her husband Rabbi Dimitry Ekshtut is the co-founder of neighborhood Jewish community group Tzibur Harlem, which co-sponsored the lighting. “And we’ve been dreaming that one year there would also be a big public display for Hanukkah in the park alongside the tree.'"
