12 | DECEMBER 24 • 2020 

DANNY SCHWARTZ

On Dec. 10, the first night of 
Chanukah, the JN partnered with 
Chabad in the D, The Shul and other 
local Jewish organizations to livestream 
the annual Menorah in the D lighting 
from Downtown Detroit. 
Because of the pandemic, people 
were advised to watch from home this 
year — and tens of thousands of you 
did, from all over the world. Here is 
a selection of reader responses from 
Zoom and Facebook.

As a newcomer to Detroit, I am so 
very excited to be celebrating with 
you all. Chag sameach, and thank 
you for having me. 
 This is INCREDIBLY well done. 
I am just so blown away! And 
happy Chanukah to all from the 
Detroit Free Press!
— Duane Beddingfield
Arts and Culture Reporter
Detroit Free Press

Television stations in the Great 
Lakes Bay announced this, and 
I wanted to join in. It is so joy-
ous. It brings me to tears. Let the 
lights shine! From a non-Jew in 
Linwood, MI.
— Jennifer Warren

I’ve always wanted to go to the 
Menorah lighting since moving 
here 4 years ago. But just never 
made it. Thank you so much for 
still making it possible for us to 
help celebrate. This has been beau-
tiful, and I’m glad to have joined in.
— Jennifer Bell

Great celebration without feeling 
of distance but with feeling of 
much lightness and happiness! 
Thanks from city of Budweise in 
Czech Republic.
— Lidia Nastashinska

May the lights of each chanukiah 
bring light, positive energy, warmth, 
understanding, healing and peace to 
us, our community and our world.
— Lori Serbin Lasday

Shalom from Puerto Rico.
— Felix Velez

Happy Hanukkah from the UK!
— Stephanie Bellingan McCarroll

Happy Hanukkah from Manhattan.
— Nahid Noorani

Hag Hanuka Sameach! From Cluj-
Napoca, Romania.
— Alexandru Virgil Voicu

Happy Chanuca from São Paulo, 
Brazil!
— Fani Beck Rascovschi

Chag Samayach from Port St. 
Lucie to the entire world!
— Frances Sekela

Feliz Januca desda Ciudad de 
Mexico!
— Erika Pim

Hanukkah Sameach from 
Amsterdam!
— Chaya Brown

distribution for 1,250 
families a month, 
Heather Axe, our 
Accounting Manager 
who assisted Daniella 
in the scheduling 
and the intricacies of 
Excel spreadsheets, 
Jody Kaplan, our 
Administrative Assistant 
who answered the 
constantly ringing phone 
to reassure and update 
clients and volunteers, 
and Josh Gordon, 
our Giving Gardens 
Manager, who, along 
with Stathis Pauls, our 
Giving Gardens Club 
Coordinator, were a great 
help to David in the 
warehouse, packing and 
distributing groceries in 
addition to growing and 
harvesting thousands of 
pounds of a variety of 
produce for our client 
families to enjoy. 

As I write this on 
this fourth day of 
Chanukah, I reflect back 
to those early weeks of 
the pandemic and how 
much has changed in 
how we live our daily 
lives. However, some 
things haven’t changed: 
Thanks to the continued 
efforts of a dedicated 
corps of volunteers, 
board members, donors, 
community partners 
and a small but mighty 
team, Yad Ezra has kept 
its commitment to all 
our client families. And, 
there is a light at the 
end of the proverbial 
tunnel, a vaccine that 
will hopefully end the 
pandemic allowing 
us once again to join 
together to celebrate this 
festival of light and hope. 
A 2020 miracle, if you 
will … 

The Dec. 17 cover 
story (“The Well Digs 
Deeper”) should have 
identified Gyro Creative 
a strategic brand iden-
tity and design stu-
dio, not a PR agency. 
Also, the article should 
have stated that Rabbi 
Jeff Stombaugh and 
Stephanie Belsky had 
been dating for several 
months when he was 
offered the rabbinical 
fellow role at Mishkan 
Chicago.

The feature on The 
Marblespoon Cookbook 
(Dec. 10, page 33) 
should have stated that 
author Vera Newman has 
11,550 Instagram follow-
ers, and incorrectly indi-
cated her book’s release 
party would be with a 
small group of friends 
in her garage. Also, 
the article said one of 
Newman’s grandmothers 
was an artist as well as a 
cook; in fact, one of her 
grandmothers was the 
artist and the other was 
the cook.

Corrections

Online Reactions: 
Menorah in the D

VIEWS

DARKNESS TO LIGHT continued from page 11

