White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the most senior Jewish official in the Obama administration, will participate in lighting the National Menorah in Washington, DC, COLlive.com is reporting.
The annual event on the Ellipse, sponsored by American Friends of Lubavitch, traditionally features a musical performance by “The Three Cantors” and a military band – this year it will be the U.S. Air Force Band.
According to sources, there is unprecedented interest in this year’s Lighting Ceremony, and nearly all tickets for the event – some 4,000 in total – have been distributed.
Only some standing room tickets remain to the Sunday, December 13 event.
Many more can still view the lighting from outside the secured area or by tuning in to XM Satellite Radio at 4:00 pm EST.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Director of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, DC, confirmed this information.
“We look forward to one of our most successful National Menorah events ever, G-d willing,” Shemtov told COLlive.com.
“We have expanded the site and equipment to accommodate the larger crowd this year, and are working through the other necessary logistics as we speak.”
The National Menorah was first lit in 1979 in the presence of then-President Jimmy Carter, and is the most high profile Chanukah event in Washington, D.C. with all major news networks and outlets covering its proceedings every year.
(Source: COLlive.com)
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26 Responses
Will Rabbi Shemtov inform President Shem-ra (a.k.a. Mr. Obama) of the Rebbe’s very shtarke attitude and statements regarding not giving back even one inch to our yishmaeli enemies?!?!?!
Gotta know: what was the real context of that picture?
Great pic of Rachmanus Emanuel. Like they say…
“a picture is worth a thouusand words”!
Seems reasonable, but officially Emanuel is a mere personal employee of the White House (not even an officer confirmed by the Senate), whereas there are several Jewish members of Congress who are substantially higher in rank (in terms of official protocol). Hhoever having the president’s friend is worth something.
Roshei Teivos Reish Ayn.
Was there no other, more appropriate picture of Mr. Emanuel available?
#6 – What do you mean?
What picture could possibly be MORE appropriate?
What happened to Obama? Why doesn’t he come out of the woodwork to light the menorah, as did all his predecessors?–This is a direct insult!
Is there a hidden message here?
“Was there no other, more appropriate picture of Mr. Emanuel available?”–smh1 (no. 6):
THAT IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE PICTURE OF THIS ARROGANT CLOWN.
smh1 !that is the point.
this guy is the symbol of this administration and unfortunately he is a jew.This picture is very appropriate. I wonder how chabad which is so adamant about not giving one inch of land to the palestinians can stoop so low for the PR game.Why is this succesful to flaunt a menorah in our enemies faces? Is this the pirsumei nisa that chazal meant? to have a self hating jew light the menorah as he sells Eretz Yisroel down the river??!!!
The esteemed editors and staff of this honorable website have never heard of darkei sholom? You can criticize him as much as you want but do not portray him pictorially as a fool. And Rahm is Jewish so now you have a question of a chilul hashem too. You’re a public institution and as such should be much more careful about what you put out to the public. I don’t expect this to be printed and I do expect retribution from your editorial staff. I’m sure that when my name pops up in comments that it will be treated as persona non grata. You don’t seem to be able to accept the same level of criticism which you find so easy to dish out to others.
#5 yidlmitdefidle Emanuel in Heb is with an alef
theprof1
Why excactly is it a chilul hashem?Rammy doesnt seem to mind that all the goyim in the senate know that terrible swear words come out of his mouth? Now that is the real chillul hashem.This quy is in a very high position and should be helping klal yisroel like Morgenthau helped Reb Ahron during WW2.If anything its worse for us that he is there.He didnt seem to mind making that face.Why cant The YW publish it?I love when people throw out “The Chilul Hashem” thing!!!
There is talk that Rahm Emanuel will soon be “retiring” back to Chicago due to family obligations and the effect the WH has had on his health (I.e. the W.H. is none to pleased that Obama now has the LOWEST rating of any US President 11 months into his initial term. They will send Rahm-bo packing back to Chicago where he can freely practice his Chicago style politics).
Love him or hate him, this picture downgrades the quality of this website. Can we just have the facts presented without the editorializing?
I think most of your readers are informed enough to formulate their own opinions about Mr. Emanuel.
This schoolboy “Nyah Nyah” really makes YWN look immature and childish.
It makes for a nice Kiddush Hashem when we demonstrate that we are above this sort of taunting and silliness. Show the world that Klal Yisroel are intellectuals.
All I’ll say is that the “Three Cantors” are three bufoons.
If the repeal of Prohibition was itself repealed, Emanuel would take over where Al Capone left off. That’s the Chicago way.
#8 As great as President Obama is he’s still unfortunately not Jewish, but if you think its better for a non-Jew to light the menorah I guess you have a good point. But then again if he were to light it there wouldn’t be much to complain about would there? (Oh besides for the fact that a non-Jew would be lighting the menorah when a Jew could be)
The picture is from obamas inauguration. he is sticking his tong out at the senate. probably since he used to be a congressmen and now he works with the most “powerful” man in the world
Why is anyone upset about the picture? It represents a menora. The Fifte Lechtel, at that.
Rahm is suppose to be known to be tough and get things done. To date, he has failed to impress Obama that we should treat Israel, America’s greatest ally, like an ally.
Also, the picture is taking on a new, creative direction from the usual two-fingeres, or two-fisted pictures of prominent, Jewish public figures.
I think when he and Dick Cheney locked eyes at a ceremonial gathering, the above picture resulted.
Detroit1, so that means that since Rahm, who is a conservadox Jew, whatever that means, does chillul hashem and doesn’t seem to bother him; so a solid frum institution or people can make a chillul hashem using him? Something wrong here. You can’t take revenge on someone by doing a chillul hashem. I dont condone anything that rahm does. There’s no question that he should be more careful in his actions because Americans will view him as representative of American Jews.
Can someone tell me how our current policy towards Israel is different than what it was under Bush?
Rahm hates Bibi and he does not care one iota about Eretz Yisrael. I don’t care who lights the memorah. It is just an attention grabbing item. It is time that both Rahm and he brother another leftist come you their G-d given sheichal to do
the Jewish people and Eretz Yisrael some good. Neither has done anything but for bad
#24, so far it’s not as bad, as exemplified by Bush’s push to “at least divide Jerusalem”, heaven forbid. Good observation, though.