Massive menorah installed in New York City ahead of Hanukkah

NEW YORK (RNS) — The Chabad-Lubavitch movement of New York installed a 36-foot menorah on Wednesday (Dec. 10) at Grand Army Plaza near Central Park. The menorah, which the Chabad chapter believes is the world’s largest, is among 15,000 public menorahs to be installed around the globe by the international Chabad movement to celebrate Hanukkah, this year from sundown Sunday to Dec. 22. 

Hanukkah commemorates the Jewish people’s victory over the Syrian-Greek army and the rededication of Jerusalem’s Temple. Chabad’s public menorah tradition began in 1973, with an initiative by its spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, to showcase Jewish pride and encourage the observance of Hanukkah in public spaces. 

Members of the Hasidic Jewish organization, which aims to engage all Jews, including nonobservant ones, have set up menorahs at prominent secular locations such as the White House, the Eiffel Tower and the Great Wall of China. Since the campaign’s debut, in New York, where the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is headquartered, the group’s giant menorah has been displayed in Midtown, across from Manhattan’s famed Plaza Hotel. 

Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, launched the campaign as a reminder that Hanukkah was “a holiday that needs to be celebrated outside … sharing the holiday and sharing that light with the world,” said Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for Chabad. “The natural way of celebrating Hanukkah was always out facing the street or on the street.” 

Early on Wednesday, a dozen construction workers began assembling the 4,000-pound steel structure, set up right next to a Christmas Nativity scene. Designed by Israeli sculptor Yaacov Agam, the menorah was commissioned by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the late 1980s and first presented in 1986. It is inspired by a drawing of the influential Jewish philosopher Maimonides.

Workers assemble a 36-foot-tall menorah, Dec. 10, 2025, at Grand Army Plaza in New York, ahead of Hanukkah. (RNS photo/Fiona André)

Although it has never been replaced, the menorah is repainted in gold occasionally, Seligson said. In 2006, Guinness World Records certified it as the world’s largest.

Over the course of eight nights, each of the menorah’s branches will be lit during ceremonies that attract Jews and curious visitors alike. The events will feature traditional Hanukkah delicacies such as sugfaniyot (fruit-jam-stuffed deep-fried donuts covered in powdered sugar) and hot chocolate. A handful of local community and political leaders are also expected to attend lighting ceremonies. 

As the country celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding in the coming year, the installation of New York’s large menorah holds particular significance for American Jews, Seligson said. The event offers an occasion to celebrate both Jewish and American freedom.

“We’re grateful to be living here in America, which is a country that celebrates liberty, which is the theme of the menorah,” Seligson said. “Where it says that our rights are endowed by the Creator, and that’s unique in human history as being the foundation of a country.”

As “a universal symbol of liberty,” the menorah holds an “important place not only in Jewish life, but in the life of the American people,” said the Lubavitch Youth Organization’s Rabbi Yossi Butman, in a press release, reflecting on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings on the symbolism of the menorah. 

On her way to work Wednesday, Jodi Golinsky stopped by twice to check whether the large menorah was already set up. She said the display of such a huge menorah at a time of rising antisemitism meant a lot for Jewish New Yorkers like herself. 

“It shows that we are here. We celebrate our holidays, and we should be able to do so freely — like all other religions, are able to practice freely,” she said.  

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the American Friends of Lubavitch, a related Jewish organization, expects thousands to attend the lighting of the National Menorah at the Ellipse, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, diplomats and ambassadors.