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Friday December 15, 2006

Pluralistic menorah will light up Sunnyvale mall

by stacey palevsky
staff writer

Chanukah, oh Chanukah, come light the menorah, let’s have a party, we’ll all … go shopping?

This year, for the first time, a menorah will accompany Santa Claus in the Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair Mall in Sunnyvale. The 5-foot-tall candelabra will decorate the upper level entrance to Macy’s, and each night a different Jewish organization will lead the candlighting ceremony.

“We wanted to make sure Jewish individuals, families and children going to the mall during this season would also see a representation of their heritage, religion and culture,” said Rabbi Leslie Alexander, the community chaplain at the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley.

So, about six months ago she contacted the mall about setting up a Chanukah display to complement the annual Santa and Christmas display. They said no.

So she called the corporate offices.

“At first I was told that it was a very nice idea, but that the mall didn’t have any room for [the menorah],” she said. “It wasn’t malicious on their part, just unknowledgeable … When they became more well-versed, I got a more positive response.”

Chabad has for the past 31 years held public candlelighting ceremonies in the Bay Area, but this is one of the first times multi-denominational Jewish organizations have worked together to coordinate a public Chanukah celebration.

“It’s a completely pluralistic effort,” Alexander noted. “The decision was clear to have a spectrum of Jewish organizations host each night of Chanukah. So we have everything from Orthodox day schools to Conservative day schools to Reform congregations to the JCC and [the] federation.”

Each organization will do something a little different. In general, though, prayers, songs and activities — like crafts or cookie-decorating — will accompany the candlelighting ceremony. It will be open to all shoppers.

Though event coordinators are pleased the eight-day celebration will educate non-Jews about the Festival of Lights, that’s not the primary goal, said Rabbi Aaron Schonbrun of Congregation Beth David in Saratoga.

“We need to engage unaffiliated members of the community, and more and more Jewish organizations are realizing that we need to reach out in a more proactive way,” he said. “It’s called public space Judaism, and the idea is to trip over people you might not otherwise see. The goal is not conversion. It’s just reaching out and letting people know what’s available to them.”

Schonbrun also hopes the effort teaches affiliated Jews the importance of thinking beyond tradition.

“We have to go where the people are,” he added. “Then bring them in and engage them with Jewish living, whatever that means for them.”

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