Sydney Schips of Cooper City, Fla., isn’t much of a basketball fan. Of course, he did happen to notice when the Miami Heat acquired LeBron James, and won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013.
Still, Schips is more interested in seeing his Chabad rabbi light a menorah on the court on Chanukah than in seeing players make a jump shot. Which is why he has attended Jewish Heritage Night at the American Airlines Arena with his wife and two sons for the last seven years.
“The celebration is meant to be a joyous occasion, and at the basketball game, what makes it unique are the Chanukah customs and singing that goes on before the game,” says Schips, 56. “It’s a really nice way to see our holiday celebrated in a fairly grand style.”
Rabbi Pinny Andrusier, co-director of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Broward in Cooper City, Fla., has organized the Chanukah celebrations at the basketball games for nine years. The event takes place this year on the fourth night of the holiday—on Tuesday, Dec. 27—when the Heat play the Oklahoma City Thunder with NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook.
The eight-day festival recalls the story of how a small group of Jews were able to defeat a huge army of Syrian-Greeks and recapture the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. And how a one-day supply of oil miraculously lasted more than a week.
It also provides a unique opportunity for celebrations like Jewish Heritage Night because there are no religious restrictions on work and travel, so Jews can be out and about during the holiday, and able to go significant distances for the games.
“We specifically always target Chanukah for Jewish Heritage Night,” says Andrusier. “It gives us the opportunity to spread the message of the Rebbe [Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory] to dispel the darkness with light and acts of kindness.”
The menorah-lighting takes place during the actual game on a special platform in Section 124, explains Andrusier, overlooking the basket. During the 90-second timeout separating the first and second quarters, the arena announcer asks everyone “to rise in celebration of Chanukah for the special Miami Heat menorah-lighting ceremony.”
Andrusier has some teammates in his effort to spread the light: Chabad rabbis around the country often hold Chanukah celebrations at NBA and NHL games.
The Brooklyn Nets will host a menorah-lighting ceremony by CTeen, Chabad-Lubavitch’s global teen network, on the court along with a halftime Chanukah concert on Dec. 26. Chanukah events will be hosted at other U.S. sports venues, including the NBA arenas of the Orlando Magic (Dec. 28), Houston Rockets (Dec. 26) and Utah Jazz (Dec. 29); and the NHL arenas of the Arizona Coyotes (Dec. 29), Nashville Predators (Dec. 27), Tampa Bay Lightning (Dec. 29) and Columbus Blue Jackets (Dec. 27).
‘A Positive, Uplifting Message’
In Miami, Jewish Heritage Night typically sells out, with more than 5,000 Jews attending. Like the Schips family, many of these fans return each year.
A former risk-management consulting executive who now describes himself as a “stay-at-home dad,” Schips started going to the Chabad House in Broward County seven years ago to say the mourner’s Kaddish each day for his mother. (It is Jewish tradition to say the prayer daily for almost 11 months after a parent’s death.) He started attending services at Chabad mainly because it was close to his home, though ultimately continued his involvement after his duties as a son had passed.
“Going to say Kaddish for my mother reminded me of the kind of synagogues I went to when I was an observant Jewish boy; it brought it all back for me,” recalls Schips.
Now he is working to build that Jewish connection in his two sons, ages 12 and 14, and he says going to Heat games helps. Some of Schips’ favorite memories include when Heat players such as Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning have participated in the menorah-lighting and when Chabad Rabbi Yossi Lebovics, a cantor and principal of the Chaya Aydel Seminary in Hallandale Beach, Fla., sang the national anthem before the game in 2010. Often, a choir and a band perform Chanukah songs.
“It sends a very positive, uplifting message—not just to the Jewish community but to the community at large,” says Schips.
‘Families Enjoy Being There’
Elana Ostroff organized buses for 250 people to travel last year from Boca Raton, Fla., to Miami for the game. The local director of PJ Library, an organization that sends free Jewish books to children around the country, Ostroff says the game serves as an opportunity for families from different parts of the Jewish community to celebrate together.
“It’s really a public venue that you could go to at any time, but when Jewish families see an opportunity to be with other Jews, it sometimes makes it more exciting,” says Ostroff, a mother of a 10-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.
She has enjoyed seeing her children participate in the “High Five Club,” where they slap hands with players on the court during halftime. This year, the menorah-lighting will take place between the first and second quarters of the game.
Ostroff, who acknowledges not being much of a basketball fan, did enjoy the fact that the Heat squeezed out a win over the Memphis Grizzlies—100-97—during last year’s Jewish Heritage Night.
“I enjoy seeing the faces of all the kids,” she says. “The great reward is seeing how much these families really enjoy being there.”
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