It’s been a dark year for Kansas Jews in more ways than one, and Chabad wants to bring a little light into it. As has been its custom over the past several years, Chabad of Kansas will bring the Festival of Lights to the people of the state of Kansas and this year, for the second year in a row, the event will take place in the Rotunda at the Kansas State Capitol. It happens on the first night of Hanukkah, Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-director of Chabad at KU, said the Hanukkah celebration has taken place in Topeka for several years, but before last year it was held at Cedar Crest, the governor’s residence. Last year about 60 people attended from the Kansas City area as well as Lawrence, Wichita, Manhattan and Ft. Leavenworth. He said this year’s celebration will be bigger and better than ever.
“This year it’s already tradition. We are expecting more people to take advantage of this opportunity because people are more familiar with it,” said Rabbi Tiechtel, noting that before the event moved to the Capitol Rotunda, it was an invitation-only event. Now it’s open to anyone in the Jewish community from across the entire state of Kansas who wants to attend.
Gov. Sam Brownback, who was recently re-elected to a second term, plans to attend as does Secretary of State Lana Gordon, who is Jewish, grew up in the Kansas City Jewish community and still has relatives living here. Other public officials are also expected to attend.
The event begins at 4:30 p.m. A bus will be leaving the Chabad House, located at 6201 Indian Creek Parkway, at 3:15 p.m. and riders are asked to be there no later than 3 p.m. Reservations for the bus are required and must be made by Sunday, Dec. 14. To sign up visit www.chabadkc.org/capitol. The event is free; the cost of the bus is $20 per person.
Because the Kansas City Jewish community faced so many challenges in the last year, Rabbi Tiechtel said the theme for this year’s event is “Light up the Night.”
“The purpose is to try to send a message of strength, not of weakness. Light and not darkness. Love and not hate,” the rabbi said.
One of the presentations that night, “How the Jewish People Prevail through the Ages,” will be made by a group of students from the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.
“Each child will read from a script sharing a different narrative in Jewish history. It will explain how the Jewish people prevailed and how we will continue to prevail,” Rabbi Tiechtel said.
Only one candle will be lit as it is the first night of Hanukkah. Rabbi Tiechtel said that candle will be lit in memory of all the victims of tragedies connected to the Kansas City area last year — including Dr. William Corporon and his grandson Reat Griffin Underwood, who were killed April 13 in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Campus, and Terri LaManno, who was killed a few minutes later in the parking lot of Village Shalom.
The candle will also be lit in memory of Kalman Levine, who was murdered at the synagogue in Har Nof last month and was a graduate of HBHA and a native of Kansas City. Rabbi Moshe Twersky, the cousin of HBHA teacher Rabbi Meshulam Twersky, who was also murdered at Har Nof will be remembered as well.
Rabbi Tiechtel said it’s very symbolic that a Hanukkah candle will be lit at the Kansas State Capitol.
“This represents the people of Kansas, which shows that power of light over darkness,” Rabbi Tiechtel said.
Rabbi Tiechtel said this event is very sentimental and should be very meaningful to the Jewish people of Kansas because having the menorah lighting in the State Capitol says a lot about the prominence, the pride and the strong presence of the Jewish community in Kansas.
“We expect Jewish people to be there from Wichita, Manhattan, Lawrence and all over Kansas to show that even in Kansas Am Yisroel Chai (the people of Israel live). That’s why I think having a strong participation from the Kansas City Jewish community will mean a lot and we are really encouraging people to come,” the rabbi said.
He continued to explain that it’s important to have the event at the Kansas Capitol because Hanukkah is all about the ability to express freedom of religion and “we are blessed to be in a country where we are encouraged to express and to celebrate publicly our traditions and our religion and our gift to the world.
“So having it in the State Capitol is a very symbolic way of expressing the rights and blessing that we have to live in such a country that supports and encourages the expression of individual religion. It has extra meaning this year and the message I believe the Jewish people need to give to the world is that as a people, we need to respond to hate with love, to darkness with light. The State Capitol is a very prominent, public space that really represents the people of Kansas.”
As part of the program, Chris Kelts of the Kinnor Orchestra is expected to play his viola. Once the official presentation concludes, Chabad is hosting a reception that will include latkes and sufganiot (jelly donuts).
