Chanukah Menorah Is Lit at Brandenburg Gate; Site in Berlin Was Once a Symbol of Nazi Power

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency website reports today (December 4, 2010) that Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, the Chabbad rabbi in Berlin, helped set up the towering menorah at the Brandenburg Gate -- once a symbol of Nazi power -- on the first night of Chanukah.

In what was "the cold, dark center," of Nazi Germany, "we are here to say Am Yisrael Chail" -- the Jewish people live, said Teichtal.

The menorah -- lit on December 1 -- will stay up for the full eight days, with a public candle-lighting ceremony held each night of the holiday.

More than 200,000 Jews are now living in Germany -- the majority of them being immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came after 1990.