The Warwick Menorah shines anew

WARWICK — Last Saturday evening, a large crowd of local residents were present in Lewis Park as Moshe Schwartzberg, owner of Forever Jewelers, began officiating at the 19th anniversary of Warwick’s Menorah lighting.

It was the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.

In a departure from previous years and to circumvent the possibility of inconvenience caused by poor weather, Schwartzberg decided to conduct the Menorah lighting outdoors as usual but then host the Hannukah celebration indoors at his new and larger store on Main Street.

The miraculous story

Before lighting the first lamp, he explained the religious significance of the festival.

Schwartzberg retold the story of how the Temple of Jerusalem was about to be rededicated following its recapture after occupation and defilement by the pagan Syrian-Greeks under Antiochus IV.

A small band of fighters, led by Judah Maccabee, he explained, fought to preserve the Jewish religion and culture and their right to worship God.

Although greatly outnumbered by a much larger and more professional army they recaptured the Holy Temple, which had defiled with idol worship and pagan sacrifices.

When the Maccabees sought to rededicate the temple, however, they found only one small cruse of oil to kindle the eternal light.

Miraculously, he explained, because God was pleased with what they had accomplished, the oil lasted for eight days. And that provided enough time for the holy oil to be replenished.

Schwartzberg then lit the center lamp, called the shamas, which is the ninth candle used to light the others, before lighting the first candle of the eight-day festival.

‘Sustained us’

But before doing that he read the sacred prayers, first in English so that everyone would understand, and then in Hebrew, according to the tradition of the ceremony.

“Blessed are you Hashem our God King of the universe,” Schwartzberg read aloud, “, sustained us and brought us to this season . . .”

And then he repeated in Hebrew, “Baruch ata Adonai . . .”

The crowd then headed down Main Street to Forever Jewelers where they were served latkes prepared by Doris Schwartzberg and jelly donuts brought by Rabbi Meir Borenstein from the Chabad Center of Orange County.

The children were also presented with small gifts and then everyone, led by Borenstein, joined in singing traditional Hannukah songs. The rabbi also invited guests to join him in a traditional dance.

Schwartzberg and his wife, Doris, have worked to improve the celebration each year.



By Roger Gavan