In an effort to promote diversity and religious tolerance, Duke will host what may be the campus's most prominent menorah lighting ever in a Hanukkah ceremony tonight.
The event will take place on the Chapel Quadrangle, near a tree already decorated for the winter holidays, at 5:15 p.m.
Rabbi Zalman Bluming of the Durham-Chapel Hill Chabad organized the event.
"Hanukkah is a special time because the menorah represents the first symbol of religious freedom and the struggle against religious prejudice," Bluming said.
Organizers said that both Duke President Nan Keohane and Durham Mayor Bill Bell will appear at the event, and they hope to attract members of Duke's and Durham's Jewish communities, as well as people of other faiths, to the lighting of the nine-foot menorah.
"It's the most public Hanukkah menorah lighting in Duke's history," Bluming said. "To me, it's very significant. It shows where Duke is today and the type of diversity it wants to display for its students."
Tom Harkins, associate University archivist, said that he could not say whether this would be the most prominent menorah lighting in the University's history, citing that there have been menorah lightings in the past.
"There have been menorah lightings in the Bryan Center and in Von Canon," he said. "In the 1980s, there have been menorah lightings by the Christmas tree on West Campus."
Bluming's Chabad organization is separate from the University's Freeman Center for Jewish Life, the Hillel-affilliated center on Campus Drive that hosts many events for Jewish students and sponsors kosher dining. Jewish students comprise about 11 to 16 percent of Duke's undergraduate body.
Jenny Bell, a junior and Hillel president, said the Freeman Center is also sponsoring menorah-lighting events all week long at 6:30 p.m. in different dormitories on East Campus and in the Alpha Epsilon Pi section on West Campus.
Hanukkah is an eight-day festival that commemorates the victory in 165 B.C. of the Maccabees over Antiochus Epiphanes and the rededication of the Temple at Jerusalem. The holiday, which began Nov. 30 this year, is not the most important religious holiday in Judaism, but is nonetheless one of the best-known, and is traditionally marked by lighting one of eight candles on a menorah every day for each of the holiday's eight days.
Jared Dinkes, a second-year graduate student in political science, who is affiliated with Chabad and helped plan the event, said that traditionally, Hanukkah falls at a stressful time of year for many students.
"Hanukkah comes during finals time," he said. "Because of the time of year... students are busy, trying to plan and get their semesters finished up."
Dinkes, however, echoed Bluming's sentiments about the statement the event will make.
"This is going to be a tremendous source of pride at Duke to see such important people, of not just the University community but the local community, taking part in celebrating Hanukkah," he said.
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