Howard County Executive Ken Ulman joined other members of the county?s Jewish community Sunday at Centennial Park to light Hanukkah candles.
“It?s nice to be able to bring everybody together,” Ulman said.
Ulman, a member of the Bet Aviv congregation in Columbia, helped light a giant menorah on the third night of Hanukkah. For the second year, dozens of residents gathered on the lawn to say Hanukkah prayers and sing.
There are an estimated 12,000 to 16,000 Jews in the county and seven congregations, said Rabbi Hillel Baron, of the Lubavitch Center of Howard County.
Nationwide, there are roughly 5.8 million Jews, or about 2 percent of the population, according to the Association of Religion Data.
The eight candles on the menorah and eight nights of Hanukkah represent a miracle in Jewish history. When the Jews reclaimed Jerusalem and their temple from the Syrian army, they found what they thought was enough oil to burn a menorah for only one day. The oil lasted for eight days.
Lighting the menorah in the public park in Columbia allows the Jewish community to share an important celebration with each other and the rest of the county, Baron said. The menorah also sends the message of a “positive spiritual vision,” he said.
“It?s a message that really resonates today in fearful times,” Baron said. “The way to approach it is with joy and happiness and to share it with others.”
For Howard Feldmesser, the event represents Jewish unity.
“We are differently observant, but we are all Jewish,” he said. “And we need to hang together as a minority in the county and the country.”
