Roving Rabbis Light up Georgia
Four yeshivah students from Brooklyn, N.Y., used their Chanukah break to spread light across the state of Georgia.
Rabbi Isser New is associate director of Chabad of Georgia.
Four yeshivah students from Brooklyn, N.Y., used their Chanukah break to spread light across the state of Georgia. They traveled around Atlanta in a rented recreational vehicle, dubbed a “mitzvah tank,” outfitted with large signs, blaring Chanukah music and an oversized menorah. Their mission: Spreading Chanukah warmth and light along their path.
They arrived in Atlanta in the middle of Chanukah, Dec. 5, and joined the 6th annual Jewish Heritage night at State Farm Arena. There, Nick Ressler, coordinator of basketball operations for the Atlanta Hawks, lit the menorah at half court. The rabbinical students brought energy and dancing to the fans, even having a dance off with Harry the Hawk.
On the morning of Dec. 6, they brought the light of Chanukah to assisted living centers and widened the smiles of senior citizens and their families. As afternoon hit, the bochurim (students) headed for Georgia Tech where they held an impromptu Chanukah party with tasty doughnuts and latkes. The university students, who were between finals exams, joined in lively dancing and singing.
Leaving Atlanta, Rabbi Zalman Lipskar, director of Chabad at Emory University, arranged for the students to travel to Oxford, Ga., where Emory’s sister school is located. They brought along a 6-foot menorah for a lighting ceremony at the center of campus, arranged by the Jewish Student Union of Oxford.
“At the Oxford College of Emory University, outward displays of Judaism are few and far between. However, this Chanukah, as we lit the giant menorah on the quad, Jewish and non-Jewish students stood to celebrate this incredible miracle: the miracle of Jewish light emerging from rural Oxford, Ga.,” said Olivia Dietzel, who will graduate Oxford in 2020 and Emory in 2022.
From Oxford, the boys headed back to Atlanta, where Chabad Intown Director Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman organized a grand menorah parade. The “mitzvah tank” led the 30 cars as they displayed religious freedom from the Atlanta BeltLine to Lenox Mall.
“We saw all the vans with menorahs on them and we were so excited. The last van stopped and handed us a menorah for each family,” Suzanne Pichulik Eisenberg texted Dena Schusterman, director of Intown Jewish Preschool.
That night, the bochurim headed for Midtown, East Atlanta and Little Five Points, where nightlife included menorah lightings and games of “Drinks and Dreidels.”
They spent Shabbos in the Sandy Springs area where they were graciously hosted by the Congregation Beth Tefillah community. Saturday night, it was back to the streets, where the cold and rainy weather couldn’t keep the lively bochurim away. But this time, they had reinforcements, as members of the community came out to join and encourage the students on the “tank,” including visiting Rabbi Yossi Friedman of Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters. Hopping from Buckhead to Midtown to Decatur, while fans watched Atlanta United playing for the MLS championship, made the halftime and postgame menorah lightnings more exciting. You could hear chants of Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song” and Rabbi Avremi Slavaticki, director of Chabad of Decatur, thanked the mitzvah tank for stopping in and igniting the Decatur spark.
On Sunday, Dec. 9, children were invited onto the mitzvah tank as they headed out to the malls of Atlanta. The children invited the Jewish mall employees to light the menorah, offered them delicious sufganiyot, and performed a Chanukah dance. “Many of the people working in the malls are from Israel and were so thankful to the children for reminding them how Chanukah is celebrated at home,” said Rabbi Alexander Piekarski of Chabad Israeli Center.
In all, the Yeshiva students handed out 400 chanukiyah to Jews across Georgia who would not otherwise have a menorah to light at home.
Rabbi Isser New is associate director of Chabad of Georgia.
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