Corsica held first public Hanukkah celebration, island rabbi says

Corsica saw its first public celebration of Hanukkah in its recorded history, according to the French Mediterranean island’s only rabbi.

The event took place in the central Foch Square of the capital Ajaccio on Tuesday, the last of the Jewish holiday’s eight days, the Corse-Matin daily reported.

Several hundred people attended the candle lighting, including Jews who traveled there especially for the ceremonies from the southern mainland city of Nice, located 120 miles north of Ajaccio.

La ville d'#Ajaccio célèbre la première #Hanoukka publique de #Corse https://t.co/IhDmkgQ1Dw pic.twitter.com/rgblcru4oh

— Corse-Matin (@Corse_Matin) December 18, 2017

“This has been the first time in the history of the Island of Beauty that the Hanukkah menorah was lit in public,” Rabbi Levi Pinson told the daily, adding it is “a historic moment.” Pinson, 27, and his wife, Mushky, opened the country’s first permanent Chabad community center and synagogue last year.

Ajaccio Mayor Laurent Marcangeli said he was “proud to be the first mayor of any city in Corsica to permit the lighting of candles in public.”

He said it was “an important message of tolerance.”

— with JTA