Television Stations Throughout Illinois Broadcast Chabad Menorah Lighting with the Governor

SNS EXCLUSIVE REPORT
1:05:AM Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich joined more than a dozen Chabad Rabbis and close to one hundred community members to inaugurate the Festival of Chanukah. In the atrium of the State of Illinois Building in downtown Chicago the Governor kindled the eight-foot Menorah on the first night of Chanukah. Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, regional director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, welcomed the governor, Israel Consul General Moshe Ram and numerous state senators in a ceremony spiced with the sweet melodies of the Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch Boys Choir.

The ceremony was covered on major television stations throughout the state of Illinois including the entire Chicago area and by stations in Harrisburg, Mt Vernon, Peoria, Bloomington, Rockford, Champaign Springfield, and Decatur. The coverage was played on Tuesday evening and in most cases again on the early Wednesday morning shows.

At a meeting with the Governor in his office last year Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois arranged for this year’s ceremony as well as the placement of a similar Menorah in the State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. The Governor fondly recalled the Rabbis visit and happily agreed to participate in the event.

The Governor expressed his appreciation for the wonderful leadership and work of the Chabad Rabbis around the state and stayed to take photographs with the Rabbis. After the event Rabbi Moscowitz received the Governor’s assurance that he would tour the twenty-two Chabad centers throughout Illinois from as far north as Gurnee to as far south as Peoria.

Attending the event were: Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, regional director of the State of Illinois, Rabbi Baruch Epstein of the central office, Rabbi Yosef Posner and Rabbi Yochanan Posner of Skokie, Rabbi Moshe Perlstein and Rabbi Mendel Moscowitz of the Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch, Rabbi Sholom Tenenbaum of Gurnee, Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein of Evanston, Rabbi Dovid Flinkenstein of Wilmette, Rabbi Yishaya Benjaminson of Glenview, Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman of Niles, Rabbi Meir Chai Benhiyoun of the Loop, Rabbi Shmuel Notik of F.R.E.E., Shmuel Katz of Buffalo Grove, Rabbi Zalman Kudan of the Chabad Youth Center and Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov of neighboring Indiana.

The Menorah will be lit each night of Chanukah in the State building joining dozens of similar Menorahs throughout the state including the first ever Menorah in the State Capital arranged by Rabbi Yosef Moscowitz.