JTA
President Obama’s Chanukah party last week, on the fifth night of Chanukah, was perhaps the most watched since, well, his immediate predecessor’s first Chanukah party in 2001.
The White House Party has gotten the most attention, but it wasn’t the only Chanukah action in town – far from it.
The force behind much of this week’s action was Rabbi Levi Shemtov of American Friends of Lubavitch.
The major Chabad event was the lighting of the national menorah on Dec. 13, the third night, when Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, presided over the festivities. Shemtov also ran events for women, children and university students at his headquarters and at George Washington University, as well as a congressional and a Pentagon lighting.
The Chabad event Dec. 15 on the Hill – formally under the aegis of the “Capitol Jewish Forum” – benefited from motivation: A dozen or so Jewish lawmakers who had just voted to enhance sanctions against Iran were raring to speechify about Jewish survival. Voting on the bill ended at 5:30 p.m., and the candlelighting was scheduled for 10 minutes later in the Capitol’s august Mansfield Room.
Lubavitch also organized a Pentagon lighting the next day, just before the White House party. Headlining the Pentagon event was Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, who spoke of how proud his dad would have been to see him at an event joining his military career and his Jewish upbringing. Defense attaches for the Israeli, Moroccan and Bahraini embassies posed for photos with Schwartz.
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May you both continue to go mechayil el choyel and continue your amazing shlichus, purely devoted to Hashem and the Rebbe, and trying to spread goodness and kindness and making the world a better place for everyone.
kidush hashem
I’m impressed with his jacket button – right on left!