FAIRFIELD – Fairfield’s Central Park hosted a public menorah lighting Wednesday to celebrate the seventh night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

The event was organized by Chabad N.E. Iowa with help from Fairfield’s synagogue, Beth Shalom. Retired Rabbi Alan Green of Fairfield had the honor of lighting the 10-foot menorah with a torch, surrounded by dozens of supporters who had come out for the occasion. After the lighting ceremony, guests enjoyed homemade donuts and latkes (potato pancakes) while taking in a juggling act courtesy of Mendel Goldstein of Chabad N.E. Iowa. Goldstein wowed the crowd as he juggled flaming torches and other objects set ablaze. Other members of Chabad N.E. Iowa also entertained guests with music and dancing.

Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer spoke at the event, as did Rabbi Aron Schimmel of Chabad N.E. Iowa. Schimmel said Fairfield was the fourth city the Chabad of N.E. Iowa had visited on its tour of conducting public menorah lightings during Hanukkah.

“We do a different place every night, and this one was the best ever,” Schimmel said about the event in Fairfield. “We had such a nice crowd, and everyone was so uplifted. We’re happy how it turned out.”

This year’s menorah lighting tour featured Cedar Falls on Sunday, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, on Monday, Cedar Rapids on Tuesday and Fairfield on Wednesday. Thursday was the final night of Hanukkah, which lasts eight nights, and Chabad N.E. Iowa held the final menorah lighting in its hometown of Postville.

Fairfield resident Sol Waksman said he and his two younger brothers were in charge of lighting the menorah in his house when he was a boy.

“Another tradition we had was getting presents, though my parents weren’t very big on that because when I was young, they didn’t have much money. Presents weren’t high on their list,” Waksman said. “Unlike Christmas, it was just one present, and it wasn’t anything expensive. It was all done very much at the last moment, like my mom would take me to a store and say, ‘How about this?’”

Waksman said his parents grew up in extremely difficult circumstances, in a forced labor camp in Russia during World War II.

“I was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany after the war,” Waksman said. “My parents met in the displaced persons camp, they got married, I was born a year later and two years later we came to the States.”

Fairfield resident Demerie Faitler said she has wonderful memories of getting a small present on each night of Hanukkah growing up in Detroit. Then, when she got together with a big group of her family, she would get a bigger present.

According to information from Rabbi Aron Schimmel, the celebration of Hanukkah recalls the victory of a “militarily weak but spiritually strong Jewish people,” who defeated the Syrian-Greeks who had overrun ancient Israel and sought to impose restrictions on the Jewish way of life and practice.

“They desecrated and defiled the Holy Temple and the oil prepared for the lighting of the menorah–part of the daily service,” Schimmel wrote. “Upon defeating their enemies and recapturing the Temple, only one jar of undefiled oil was found, enough to burn for one day, but it lasted miraculously for eight. In commemoration, Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days by lighting an eight-branched candelabrum known as a menorah, adding another candle each night. Today, the holiday carries a universal message of the triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness.”