Photo: Getty Images
SHREWSBURY, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — It's a light in the dark for one local Jewish community. Residents of Shrewsbury are pitching in to help rebuild a destroyed menorah on the town common in time for the end of Hanukkah.
Rabbi Shmulik Fogelman runs the Chabad of Shrewsbury. He told WBZ NewsRadio the seven-foot candelabra was found wrecked on Monday morning. Police investigated and found that it was just a violent windstorm that had destroyed the menorah, not something more nefarious.
From there, the rabbi had to find a way to get a new menorah for the last four nights of Hanukkah. So he started a GoFundMe.
"We launched it about noontime Monday. By five o'clock, we had the money we needed to build a bigger, brighter, beautiful menorah," Fogelman said.
Around a hundred local residents chipped in more than $3,500, smashing the rabbi's goal of $2,500.
"The town of Shrewsbury came together as a community, as a town. The support was tremendous," he said.
The plan is to dedicate the new menorah on Thursday night, the last night of Hanukkah. There's a ringing double meaning in all this, too. The word Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for "dedication," from the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after the ancient Maccabees defeated the Syrian Greeks.
"We rededicated the temple then, and we're dedicating this new menorah on Hanukkah, so you could say we're "Hanukkah Hanukkah."'
Fogelman predicts this dedication will be the biggest event Chabad of Shrewsbury has ever put on.
WBZ's Chaiel Schaffel (@CschaffelWBZ) reports:
Follow WBZ NewsRadio: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | iHeartmedia App | TikTok