A large-scale special campaign “Mivtzoim Hanukkah-5786” for spreading the light of Hanukkah took place with great success in the Dnipro Jewish Community. Within its framework, families of community activists and participants of various programs helped the city’s Jews, including the elderly, lonely, and less mobile, to light Hanukkah candles, delivered festive packages, and also explained the importance and meanings of this holiday in popular city locations.
According to the results of the campaign, volunteers and community activists visited over five hundred families, where they lit candles, gifted sufganiyot (doughnuts), talked about the holiday, and presented special Hanukkah packages. These packages included a chanukiah, candles, symbolic Chanukah gelt, literature on the history and meanings of the eight-day holiday, as well as a unique edition of the Five Books of the Torah with Haftarot in Ukrainian translation.
In addition, the Dnipro Jewish Community installed chanukiot in the six largest shopping centers of the city to spread the news of Hanukkah. Next to each chanukiah, a Mivtza-post was organized, where participants of the “Mivtzoim Hanukkah-5786” campaign distributed chanukiot and sufganiyot. Such Mivtza-posts operated in four shopping and entertainment centers in the central part of the city – “Passage,” “Most-City,” “Kaskad Plaza,” “Dafi” – as well as in two shopping centers on the Left Bank – “Karavan” and “Vavylon.” A separate Mivtza-post was also set up on Myru Avenue, where community representatives also worked.
“This was a traditional campaign of our Jewish community to spread the Hanukkah light to the entire city, as the leader of our generation, the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, spoke many times about the importance and great significance of such work. Thanks to our volunteers and activists, Hanukkah lights were kindled in thousands of Jewish homes, and people learned about the holiday and were able to fulfill its commandments,” says Rabbi Reuven Kaminezki. “Many Jewish institutions of our community participated in this campaign: students of the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva, residents of the Bait leBanim and Bait leBanot boarding homes, students of the Beit Chana IHPI, participants of the ‘Stars’ and ‘Menorah Community’ projects, representatives of the families of shluchim and community activists – Kurtzweil, Heifer, Feldman, Noiman, Gurevich, Weber, Engelsman, Nachshon, Romanovsky, Lazarev, Manuilov, Maltsev, Zislin, and Momot. On behalf of the entire Dnipro Jewish Community and its Rav, Shmuel Kaminezki, I want to express gratitude to all organizers and participants of the ‘Mivtzoim Hanukkah-5786’ campaign for the holiday atmosphere they spread throughout the entire city.”
