Car-Menorah Parades: The Latest Covid-Safe Chanukah Experience

But come Chanukah, celebrated this year from Dec. 10 to Dec. 18, Gordon plans to get out of the house and celebrate by driving around town with a menorah on the top of her car, waving to friends and acquaintances, and sharing the light of Chanukah with others. Along with her husband and children, Gordon is among the thousands of people who will strap a menorah on top of their vehicle during the course of the holiday to participate in one of hundreds of menorah parades organized by Chabad-Lubavitch centers all over the world.

“There have been friends and coworkers whom I have not seen since February,” says the mother of two, who has lived in Greensboro for 21 years. “It’s going to be very exciting to actually see each other in person even through the window panes of our cars.”

Last year, an estimated 5,000 car-top menorahs hit roads all over the world. This year, the numbers are expected to rise exponentially as synagogues and community centers capitalize on the menorah parade. It is expected to be the latest iteration of coronavirus adaptation that began with Zoom classes, workshops and events last spring, and has since spawned a wealth of creative and new expressions of Jewish life outside the confines of the sanctuary, classroom or social hall.

The Greensboro parade, which typically includes 40 vehicles, will wend its way from the local Chabad center, directed by Rabbi Yosef and Hindy Plotkin, to downtown where a giant menorah will be lit.

In addition to a car-top menorah, each vehicle will be supplied with Chanukah music to blast over their speakers, a bag of Chanukah snacks and a custom Chanukah T-shirt for each passenger.

Since each family remains seated in their own vehicle for the duration of the celebration, the parades are COVID-safe—a relief for those families that include immunocompromised individuals or senior family members.

A Ubiquitous Element of Jewish Life

In recent decades, car-top menorah parades have become a ubiquitous element of Jewish life and a source of pride in communities from Budapest to Buenos Aires. The concept was launched in 1973 by a group of New York yeshivah students who wanted to get as many people as possible to light actual menorahs, which they distributed to anyone who stopped to look at the unusual sight of a giant menorah attached to the top of a station wagon they parked in Manhattan.

The students’ activism was a direct response to a call issued by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—to ensure that no Jew miss out on celebrating the festival of lights, and that a menorah be lit in every Jewish household. Following that call, rabbinical students, newlywed couples and veteran rabbis jumped at the chance to disperse throughout their respective communities each year, knocking on doors and standing on sidewalks to distribute holiday fliers and portable menorah kits, and erect menorahs in public spaces.

Many of Chabad’s various innovative Chanukah outreach methods were introduced in the 1970s and early 1980s. Public menorah-lightings began sprouting up around the world including the National Menorah across from the White House in 1979. Public menorahs were erected in major cities in Europe and Asia. Since then, public menorahs have become a commonplace presence everywhere, with tens of thousands of public menorahs to be erected this year in public spaces in cities, towns and villages around the world.

In addition to bringing people to public menorah, the concept grew of bringing public menorahs to the people. Mitzvah Tanks—outfitted with Jewish books, tefillin and Shabbat candles, were driven along the streets of Manhattan with self-constructed menorahs attached to the top.

The car-menorah concept grew in popularity and soon became a cherished annual family event in virtually every Jewish community. To meet the growing annual demand, the car menorahs have been mass-produced and distributed to motorists all over the world, often in places where public displays of Judaism were once unheard-of, inspiring and reminding countless Jewish households to light menorahs of their own.

As a result of that initiative launched by the Rebbe in 1973, the public celebration of Chanukah has become part and parcel of Jewish life worldwide.

Riding With Menorahs in Russia

A case in point: St. Petersburg, Russia, where a convoy of 20 vehicles will make its way from the historic Choral Synagogue to several landmarks in the city center, including the Moskovsky Rail Terminal and the Hermitage Museum.

Entrepreneur Evgeny Samus says he looks forward to participating in the parade for the first time this year, hopefully with one or both of his young children.

“It will be a beautiful display of Jewish pride and a new Chanukah experience for me,” says Samus, who has lived in the city for his entire life, save for four years in Finland. “Depending on how the quarantine develops, we will probably not have indoor parties and possibly not even outdoor celebrations, but the parade is something we look forward to and expect.”

While large-scale car-top menorahs parades were once limited to larger centers of Jewish life, such as Chicago or Los Angeles, smaller- and medium-sized communities have since begun arranging parades of their own.

Kindling the menorah each night of Chanukah is the primary observance of the holiday, the “Festival of Lights,” which celebrates the triumph of a small band of religious Jews over the Greek interlopers who aimed to quash Jewish observance and replace monotheism with paganism.

A proper menorah consists of actual fuel-burning flames, often candles or wicks in oil. Yet the electronic car-top menorahs serve a purpose as well, calling attention to the mitzvah in a whimsical manner and reminding passers-by of the message of Chanukah that G‑d performs miracles.

The electronic menorahs are thus more than a cheerful gimmick. “Spreading [awareness of] the miracle,” says the Talmud, is an integral part of the mitzvah of menorah-lighting and these roving electronic displays, as well as their stationery elder siblings, are prime vehicles for the fulfillment of this imperative.

Each menorah, wherever it goes, brings with it the brightness and joy of Chanahah to all who see it.

“That’s what we can all use now,” says Gordon with a laugh, “a good dose of Chanukah happiness!”