[VIDEO & PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull lit and held the Shammos in Sydney’s Central Synagogue before declaring that the message of Chanukah is not confined to the Jewish community.

Cantor Shimon Farkas used the Prime Minister’s Shammos to light he menorah in front of 500 members of the community.

Introducing the Prime Minister, the Central’s spiritual leader Rabbi Levi Wolff said: “The Menorah is a symbol reminding us that light outshines darkness and every Menorah has a Shammos which is one candle which sits marginally above the rest of the candles and is used to ignite all the other candles. Each candle we light encourages us to do more than what we did yesterday. Addressing the Prime Minister, he said: “To us, you are our Shammos. You keep the 24 million candles in this nation representing the population sparkling and shining.” Rabbi Wolff went on to describe the Prime Minister as “one of the dearest and most compassionate friends of the people of Israel”.

Turnbull opened his address by saying that there were members of the Central community whom he had known most of his life adding “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be your Prime Minister.”

Signalling the end of the mining boom and the boom to come in innovation, Turnbull said that the boom to come is based on a path that Israel has trodden for us and set such a great example. He said: “It is a boom which is limited only by our imagination and our determination…the IT boom.”

Following his address, the Prime Minister sat down with a group of children to try his luck at playing with draidels.

Rabbi Levi Wolff told J-Wire: “He scored a few gimmels.”

REPORTING BY J-WIRE