2021 Menorah Lighting at Grand Army Plaza Manhattan

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Menorah Lighting at Grand Army Plaza Manhattan

Lighting of ‘world’s largest' menorah marks the first night of Hanukkah in Manhattan.

Check back for 2022 details.

Hanukkah - the eight-day Jewish wintertime festival of lights - begins on Sunday, November 28th. Witness the lighting of the world’s largest Hanukkah menorah at sundown.

In 1973, Rabbi Shmuel Butman erected the menorah in Manhattan, where it still stands every year on Fifth Avenue at the southeastern corner of Central Park, between The Plaza and The Pierre hotels. It was designed by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, according to a hand drawing by Maimonides that was based on the original Menorah in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. It is 32 feet high, the largest size permitted by Halacha-Jewish law, with candlesticks that rise from the rectangular base and shoot off diagonally.

In 1984, a competition ensued when Rabbi Shimon Hecht built his own version of the menorah at Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope, Brooklyn, as both rival menorahs claimed to be "The World's Largest." The two menorahs are actually the same height, but the central candle in Rabbi Hecht’s menorah is six inches taller than Rabbi Butman’s.

Even so, in 2006, The Guinness Book of World Records certified the Fifth Avenue menorah as the “World’s Largest Menorah." To mark the first night of Hanukkah, both menorahs will be lit.

Manhattan Schedule:

• Sunday November 28th: 5:30 PM
• Monday November 29th: 5:30 PM
• Tuesday November 30th: 5:30 PM
• Wednesday December 1st: 5:30 PM
• Thursday December 2nd: 5:30 PM
• Friday December 3rd: 3:30 PM
• Saturday December 4th: 8:00 PM
• Sunday December 5th: 5:30 PM

Times are approximate, until posted otherwise.

Location: Grand Army Plaza, Manhattan, 5th Avenue between 58th Street and 60th Street

This event is free and open to the public. 

Interested in the Brooklyn menorah lighting as well? You can find details about it here.