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A Giant First

Downtown hosts its first-ever public menorah lighting.

RONELLE GRIER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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Above: The 6.5-foot tall menorah was carved from 600

pounds of ice.

Left: Greg Newman and Jordan Newman, 5, from West

Bloomfield watch the lighting ceremony.

Below: Lindsey Shaw, just in from finals at U-M, with

her mother Hillary Shaw, both from Bloomfield Hills,

David Flaisher of West Bloomfield and Harriet Cooper

from Waterford watch the menorah lighting.

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Michael Krivichkin, 13, of Farmington

Dana Letvin of West Bloomfield is handed a menorah by Levi

Hills and Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov of

Super of Melbourne, Australia. Super was handing them out to

West Bloomfield prepare to light the

anyone that would take one.

A group of young adults came for the festivities.

menorah.

t was a night of firsts in Downtown
Detroit — on Tuesday, Dec. 21,
the first night of Chanukah was
commemorated by the city's first public
lighting of an ice sculpture menorah in
Campus Martius Park.
More than 200 people attended the
event, which was hosted by The Shul of
West Bloomfield and co-sponsored by
Quicken Loans, CommunityNEXT and Chef
Cari Kosher Catering, who provided an
ample supply of hot soup to offset the frigid
temperature.
"We held a brainstorming session and

I

decided to do something wild, something
that would really attract a crowd," said
Benji Rosenzweig of West Bloomfield, one
of the event's organizers.
After opening remarks by Rabbi Berel
Shemtov, the first Lubavitch rabbi in
Michigan, and Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov of
The Shul, the candles were lit with the
help of David Carroll of Quicken Loans. The
Chanukah blessing was sung by recent bar
mitzvah celebrant Michael (Lev) Krivichkin
of Farmington Hills, who attended the
gathering with his parents, Oleg and Irina.
"I feel like it's a piece of history, and I'm

honored to be a part of it," said Miriam
Silverstein of West Bloomfield, who brought
her 5-year-old son Aryeh to witness the
menorah lighting. "It reminds me of old
Detroit. All of our grandparents and great-
grandparents would be so proud to see
this."
The 6.5- foot tall sculpture was carved
from 600 pounds of ice by four students
from the Art Institute of Michigan in Novi,
under the supervision of culinary arts
instructor Dave Balla.
"This was a wonderful opportunity for
us to create a vibrant Jewish community

event in the city of Detroit at holiday time,"
said Rachel Lachover, associate director
of CommunityNEXT, a Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit program created
for younger members of the local Jewish
community.
After the menorah was lit, some of the
hardier attendees braved the cold to take a
few spins around the nearby skating rink.
"It's nice to see all of my friends in one
place," said Adam Milgrom, 27, a Detroit
resident who attends weekly services at the
Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. Ll

December 29 g 2011

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