On a dark, frigid winter’s night in Fairbanks, Alaska, as the mercury descended to 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, a light shone forth from the city’s first-ever public menorah. As the rabbi kindled the menorah’s wicks, icicles clung to his face and beard. By the time he invited the crowd to enjoy the Chanukah donuts, they were frozen solid.
The sun barely rises in Fairbanks at this time of year, hovering on the horizon for no more than four hours each day. Rabbi Heshy Wolf, who moved with his wife Chani in September of this year to establish the Chabad-Lubavitch Fairbanks Jewish Center, knew this when he and his wife started planning for which events to circle on their calendars.
Not despite the short days but because of them, Chanukah was at the top of their list.
“In December, Fairbanks is shrouded in darkness,” Rabbi Wolf told Chabad.org. “It’s freezing cold, and sunsets happen as early as 2:30 in the afternoon. We knew that amid such literal darkness, the physical and spiritual light of the menorah is all the more vital.”
It’s not just the sky that is dark at this time of year. Wolf says that for local community members, the winter months are emotionally and psychologically challenging because of the dark and cold. Social gatherings are also far and few between.
“We honestly didn’t think too many people would come to the menorah lighting,” Wolf admitted. But come, they did. Some 80 people souls braved the cold to show up for the menorah-lighting and Chanukah celebration, although he conceded that he couldn’t verify that number as his glasses kept fogging up as he addressed the crowd.
The gathering at 64 degrees north was a half-hour affair, taking place at the Golden Heart Plaza in the center of town. Fairbanks’ first public menorah was fittingly made of ice and will be placed outside the Chabad center until temperatures thaw and the menorah melts, which Wolf says likely won’t happen for another five months at least.
Alaska’s Jewish Holiday
For Wolf, even more meaningful that the first ever public menorah lighting was what he describes as the true “northernmost menorah lighting.” Before Chanukah began—the holiday commenced on Dec. 25 and continues through Jan. 2—he gave a menorah to local community member Benjy Gibson. Gibson is an “Ice Road Trucker” who braves Alaska’s famous ice roads twice a week when he journeys from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coast. And so on the first night of Chanukah this year, Gibson lit the menorah in Prudhoe Bay (70.3256°N, 148.7114°W.)
“The menorah spreads the light of Chanukah to the outside,” Wolf said. “The ultimate goal is that each and every Jew should light a menorah themselves. To see Benjy taking that to the extreme, after a 15 hour drive, was truly remarkable.”
The public menorah in Alaska is as old as Chabad’s presence in the state. Rabbi Yosef Greenberg—who established the Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska in Anchorage with his wife, Esther, in 1991—recalls lighting the menorah to much fanfare that year. In the most central intersection in the whole of Alaska, Greenberg was joined by Gov. Wally Hickel, Sen. Ted Stevens, Sen. Frank Murkowski, Mayor of Anchorage Tom Fink, as well as Rep. Don Young.
“It was a grand event,” Greenberg remembered. “I was dressed as Judah the Macabee, we had a dreidel house for children and the community came in large to celebrate. Jews and non-Jews.”
At the time, some community members were worried that such an overt display of Judaism might be antagonizing to the local non-Jewish community.
“When they saw the governor, senators and all the politicians in attendance, those concerns quickly quieted,” the rabbi said about the 150 or so people who attended the historic event. “Each official wrote a proclamation and they all read them at the lighting. It was quite a scene.”
Today, Alaska has 20 public menorahs, many of them in Anchorage, including one at the airport; across the Mat-Su Valley; and of course the newest one in Fairbanks. Chabad’s premier Chanukah event in Anchorage, held at the convention center, welcomed more than 700 people for kosher food, Jewish music and fun for the whole family. Sen. Lisa Murkowski followed in her father’s footsteps and attended.
“In some places of the world they have ‘High Holidays Jews,’ in Alaska we have ‘Chanukah Jews,’” Greenberg said. “But this is only the beginning. We will continue to add and do more.”
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