NEW ORLEANS — Thursday the local Jewish community gathered at Spanish Plaza for Chanukah at Riverwalk. A celebration marking the beginning of the eight-day festival of light.
“It’s all about the same idea,” said Mendell Rivkin, program director at Chabad-Lubavitch of Louisiana. “Expressing that light is stronger than hate and a little bit of light has the ability to mitigate a lot of darkness.”
Thursday, the first flames were lit on the state’s largest menorah. Accompanying the lighting ceremony was live Jewish music, a tribute to the Jewish men and women who have served in the military and several crafts and traditional foods for families to enjoy.
“It brought me personal joy to realize here in New Orleans, a very small Jewish community is so well recognized that they are able to put out a presentation like this since 1989 every year,” said Joe Persky, a resident of Florida. “Despite Katrina, despite anything, we don’t let anything bring us down.”
For more than three decades the event has been hosted on the Riverwalk, this year Jewish leaders took extra precautions in light of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“People have expressed an interest in putting a damper on things,” said Rivkin. “People are feeling unsafe, and we wanted that to be a safe environment for people to come and feel like they can celebrate.”
In response, the New Orleans Police Department had a heighted presence on the plaza than in previous years.
“We are very grateful to the law enforcement team that’s here and NOPD especially,” said Rivkin. “For giving us that space to be safe, to celebrate and to express ourselves for our Jewish holiday.”
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