German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is slated to help light Berlin’s public Chanukah menorah at the Brandenburg Gate on Thursday evening. This will mark the first time in history that a German chancellor attends a public-menorah lighting ceremony.
The lighting will take place on the first night of Chanukah, ushering in the Festival of Lights at a time when the Jewish people are facing rising antisemitism across Europe and grappling with the horrors of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel that left 1,200 Israelis murdered and 240 kidnapped by Hamas. Families of hostages will attend the ceremony as well as guests of Berlin’s Jewish community. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Chabad.org on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8:30 a.m. (EST)
Other notable figures who will be in attendance include the president of the German parliament, Bärbel Bas and ambassadors from 12 countries, including Israel’s ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor, and United States ambassador to Germany Amy Gutman.
Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Berlin, established Chabad-Lubavitch in Germany’s capital in 1996, and has been erecting the public menorah at the iconic Brandenburg Gate—it is Europe’s largest menorah—since 2003, this year marking two-decades since it first went up.
Chancellor Scholz’s attendance sends a “powerful message of solidarity” with Germany’s Jewish community, as well as Jews around the world, Teichtal’s son, Rabbi Dovid Teichtal of the Rohr Chabad-Lubavitch Center in Berlin, told Chabad.org. Sholz’s presence will also mark the first time a head of state has participated in a public menorah lighting ceremony since U.S. President Jimmy Carter lit the shamash candle of the first National Menorah in 1979.
Standing at 10 meters (33 feet) high, Chabad’s menorah at Brandenburg Gate is one of the 50 menorahs Chabad erects across the city.
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