Amid the bitter cold on Tuesday evening, 100 or so neighbors — many of them clutching tiny cups of hot chocolate, holding dogs on leashes, or chasing after small children — gathered in Harlem’s tiny Montefiore Park to watch the neighborhood’s annual Christmas tree lighting.
But this year, the blue spruce — a landmark at the north end of the triangular park that’s been illuminated for Christmas every year since 1992 — wasn’t the only holiday decoration in the park. For the first time, the Christmas tree lighting was accompanied by the kindling of a large electric menorah, in honor of the third night of Hanukkah.
“We’ve lived in the neighborhood for a long time, and we walk by that park every single day,” said Erica Frankel, who with her husband Rabbi Dimitry Ekshtut is the co-founder of neighborhood Jewish community group Tzibur Harlem, which co-sponsored the lighting. “And we’ve been dreaming that one year there would also be a big public display for Hanukkah in the park alongside the tree.”
The event arose following an inquiry by the couple to the Montefiore Park Civic Association, asking if they could install a large menorah in the park. Instead of a simple “yes,” a broad coalition of civic, Jewish, Black, Dominican and interfaith organizations came together to create the first “Harlem Festival of Lights,” a cross-denominational celebration of both Christmas and Hanukkah. (A Kwanzaa celebration was initially on the lineup, too, but the lighting of the kinara, the seven-branched candelabra that is part of the modern pan-African holiday, was ultimately rescheduled to coincide with the seven-day celebration that begins on Dec. 26.)…