Who’s the Largest Toy Menorah

By Skokie Review

It’s always easy to tell when Hanukkah is approaching at Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School in Skokie, Illinois.

Students and faculty start to stir and to whisper. They all want to know what kind of Hanukkah and menorah project Rabbi Avraham Vernai and his fourth grade class will come up with this year.

Six years ago, the rabbi urged his students to work with him in creating an imaginative Hanukkah project. They came up with a doozy; using 10,000 popsicle sticks and two gallons of glue, Vernai and his students created a large improbable menorah that was suitable for lighting.

The students were enthralled even if they didn’t know at that time that they had started a new tradition at Cheder Lubavitch.

“They get very excited about it,” Vernai said. “It just makes school more exciting for them at this time of year. It’s the winter months and we need something that’s fun and joyful.”

The project has also sparked learning in that it sirs the imagination of students and gives them a hands-on exercise in problem solving, Vernai said.

The annual Hanukkah project took a new turn two years ago when the group decided to make the menorah a fund-raiser as well. In 2007, students and staff collected 770 cans of food, which were used to create their annual menorah. The food was then donated to a pantry.

“I think the project had a whole new dimension at that point,” Vernai said. “The (students) gave of their own time and collected food for the food pantry. They really have made this project what it’s become.”

The students have had a way of surpassing their teacher’s expectations. Last year, students decided to make a menorah from collected pennies. The group ended up with 100,000 pennies — $1,000 — which eventually were donated to terminally ill children. This was more than what Vernai thought they’d raise.

This year, the donation is toys. For weeks, students have been collecting all kinds of toys or money to buy toys to build their menorah. Vernai figured that 100 to 150 toys could be used to create a nice tabletop menorah.

Like usual, he was in for a surprise. More than 1,500 toys have been collected for the menorah already. The menorah was scheduled to be lit on Wednesday.

“The reaction has been unbelievable,” Vernai said. “This will be the largest toy menorah ever built.”

After the holiday the class will donate the toys to Chai Lifeline — an organization benefiting terminally ill children as well as to Children’s Memorial Hospital, NorthShore Health System and other local hospitals.

What strike some as surprising about the project are the different materials used to create a menorah. It isn’t every day that popsicle sticks or pennies or boxed toys are transformed into Hanukkah menorahs.

“There’s a lot of trial and error in building the menorah every year,” admitted Vernai.

Vernai and some of his 20 students have come in during holiday time to begin building the menorah, a telltale sign of the excitement that the project has generated.

When Vernai first decided on this year’s project, he told only his fourth grade class. Even though other students, faculty and the community wanted to know, he said, he thought the fourth graders should be the ones who spread the word to parents and friends.

So the project always begins with “a secret.” And it always culminates in the lighting of the special menorah. This year, Rep. Lou Lang, D-16th, was scheduled to the light the menorah at the school ceremony.

Then it’s another long wait to next year’s Hanukkah. You always know when that holiday is approaching at Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School because of the whispering: “Has anyone heard what the fourth grade class is up to this year?”

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