Happy Chanukah in Brooklyn Heights

By on December 20, 2011 8:32 pm in Brooklyn Heights

Photo by Kathryn Kirk


Chanukah began tonight at 5pm when our man in the NYS Senate Daniel Squadron “lit” the giant menorah at Borough Hall Plaza.

Photos by Kathryn Kirk

Not to be out done, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz handed out gelt to all the kids on hand.

As usual, Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham played host. In addition to Sen. Squadron and Marty, Council Member Stephen Levin, Council Member David Greenfield, Council Member Letitia James and Council Member Jumaane Williams attended.


Meanwhile, the wee ones at Kiddie Korner have created their own menorahs to celebrate. Check out more here.

Share this Story:

, , ,

  • Andrew Porter

    What is it with these giant 30 foot high Menorahs with their piddling little lights? Can’t someone get some decent foot-high frosted globes with smaller bulbs inside? Or are they designed by Orthodox rabbis with no sense of design or presentation? (I was bar mitvahed in 1959, so this is not a senseless anti-semitic attack.)

  • GHB

    Why not just use oil and hope for a miracle!

  • Master Of Middagh

    Happy Chanukah to all our Jewish neighbors! May your light always shine bright and strong!

  • AmyinBH

    Nothing puts me in the mood for some latkes like seeing the giant Chanukah menorah at Borough Hall.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    Ah, once again, that candelabrum of surpassing ugliness with its equally ugly sign announcing to the world in whose name the thing is put up. The cheapness of it is breathtaking.

    Since its size is meant to overawe and boast, one would think that the community in whose name it’s erected would take care to make it a lovely addition to the landscape.

  • RemsenGal

    @Topham… Grinch much?

  • David on Middagh

    Ah, let’s face it: it’s an eyesore. But it will go away.

    Happy Hanukkah! :)

  • Topham Beauclerk

    RemsenGal,

    Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of the aesthetic merits of that tired old candelabrum we must endure the sight of every year?

  • Topham Beauclerk

    David on Middagh,

    It is indeed an eyesore. The question is: why does the city permit it to be erected every year when it’s privately owned? There is another candelabrum, much smaller, put up next to the Christmas tree in the garden in front of Borough Hall which, I assume, is city property. We don’t need two of them.

    Another question: why do the citizens of Brooklyn tolerate it year after year?

  • GHB

    Topham, Topham, Topham… Here you go again:
    “The cheapness of it is breathtaking” I’ve missed your special brand of anti-Semitism these last few weeks. Happy Holidays!

  • Topham Beauclerk

    GHB,

    You’re absurd.

    Did you read Andrew Porter’s comment? I suppose he was allowed to speak ill of the candelabrum because he’s a Jew. Or will you now accuse him of Jewish self-hatred?

    The candelabrum is obviously cheap.

  • GHB

    Dude, you have a way of infusing your “beliefs” into every sentence you write. And it’s called a menorah.

  • Happy Hanukkah!

    Actually it’s called a Hanukkiah if you want to be technical about it. A menorah only has 7 lights, and a Hanukkiah has 8 + the shamash.

  • Tony

    Excellent point, GHB.

    Topham, stop infusing your beliefs into your sentences! Tell us your shoe size.

  • David on Middagh

    Now I’m wondering when that concrete prison of a courthouse will reach the end of its useful life. Next to that bit of mar-chitecture, the *Hanukkiah* looks like a bejeweled dragonfly.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    Ah GHB, your many readers can always rely on you for a bit of whimsy.

    Dude?! Are you 12? Grown-ups don’t use such locutions or, if they do, they don’t usually live in Brooklyn Heights.

    My belief is that the candelabrum we’re obliged to see every year is cheap, ugly, and boastful; it perforce reflects the people who erected it, as all art does. Do you disagree?

    Tony, my shoe size is 10.

  • eg

    @Topham…Your hateful bigotry is very offensive.

    The menorah is just a symbol of the holiday and will be gone soon. Sometimes good, smart people show a lacking sense of design. Get in touch with the sponsors and work out a better design for next year (and pay for it).

    I’d like to see how your home is furnished and how you choose your clothes to check out your sense of beauty.. I’m sure it’s lacking.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    EG,

    Is it bigotry to inveigh against a monstrously large private cult object of outstanding ugliness being set up each year for two weeks on public land?

    Ad hominem attacks? Didn’t your philosophy professor teach you that only guttersnipes go in for those? Tsk tsk, naughty naughty.

  • Knight

    Excuse me, Topham, but you started with the ad hominem attacks when you called this object cheap, ugly, and boastful then claimed it “reflects the people who erected it.” Do you follow your own monologues?

  • Master Of Middagh

    What you intended with your remark, Topham, instead of what the other critics have said, was intended to say that Jewish people are, by nature, and on the whole “cheap, ugly and boastful”..

    But a holiday calls for a certain amount of grand expression and there’s no reason for it to be exceedingly expensive, since money isn’t the point of the holiday. As for ugly? That’s a matter of opinion. I really don’t see what’s supposed to be ugly about it. It’s a large harmonious design in a nice color that symbolizes light and hope. I don’t get where the ugly comes in.

    But if we take your implication that our creations reflect ourselves, Topham, what do your remarks say about you?

  • Topham Beauclerk

    Knight,

    For your edification:

    An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack is made against the character of the person making the claim, his circumstances, or his actions (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of “argument” has the following form:

    Person A makes claim X.
    Person B makes an attack on person A.
    Therefore A’s claim is false.

  • Knight

    Edification indeed!

    I sincerely pity you, Topham.

    In a discussion, an “Ad Hominem” attack is any attack against the person making the argument versus an attack against the argument itself.

    When you attacked the people who erected the menorah as art, you made an Ad Hominem attack.

    You are wrong by your own definition. Period.