Merrick Jewish Centre dreams big

For the second time in recent years, the Merrick Jewish Centre drew hundreds of people to share in the joy of Hanukkah by lighting menorah candles together at the synagogue. There would be no record this time, however.

MJC fell short in its Dec. 18 attempt to recapture the Guinness World Record for “most people lighting menorahs.” The synagogue previously set the record with 782 participants in 2011, but the following year, The Jewish Center in Princeton, N.J., mustered 834 menorah-lighters. Rabbi Charles Klein, MJC’s spiritual leader, estimated the attendance at last Thursday’s record attempt at 800 — just shy of Princeton’s mark.

Klein emphasized that MJC succeeded in gathering hundreds of congregants, friends and loved ones for a jubilant holiday celebration. “Any time you can bring … about 800 people together to celebrate Hanukkah and to experience that kind of moment together is really an extraordinary moment,” Klein said.

The rabbi said he originally came up with the idea for the mass menorah lighting to underscore Hanukkah’s “powerful message.”

“The message is, to a large degree, found within just a few little candles that we light every night,” Klein said. “We light these candles in an effort to fight the darkness in the world. To fight the darkness of inhumanity, to fight the darkness that would … lead to the persecution or oppression of people because of their religion … And my thought was ‘what a great moment it could be if we could have hundreds and hundreds of people together lighting up the evening and therefore proclaiming in a very loud and clear way that light can overcome the darkness in this world.’”

MJC named its 2011 record-setting event “Light the Night,” and it dubbed its recent effort “Light the Night 2.” Both times involved a “massive process of organization,” including the synagogue’s staff, congregation and community outreach, Klein said. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, State Senator-elect Michael Venditto and Assemblyman David McDonough took part in Light the Night 2.

All that was needed for admission was a menorah and candles, and the event was open to community members of all faiths. Perhaps nothing symbolized that better than the Celtic bagpipers who helped formalize the occasion while wearing kilts and yarmulkes.