Display of Lights : Hasidic Jews Organize Public Menorah Ceremonies

That was not your traditional Christmas caroling that was echoing through the Century City office plaza the other night.

True, a magnificent Christmas tree, beautifully decorated and surrounded by gaily wrapped Yuletide gifts served as the backdrop. And the excited children gathered in front, eyes dancing in wonderment, were singing a familiar-sounding tune.

But the holiday season was being rung in on a different note at the ABC Entertainment Center, off the Avenue of the Stars.

“Puff, the Kosher Dragon, lived in the Holy Land,” the youngsters sang out. “And frolicked in the synagogue and drank a Kosher brand.”

A Jewish group was celebrating Hanukkah by singing, dancing and lighting candles attached to a nine-armed candelabrum in the middle of the sprawling high-rise center. The ceremony was one of more than 300 such events that have taken place in the Los Angeles area during the past eight days of Hanukkah, which ends today.

Hanukkah is marked by exchanges of gifts and displays of lights and it is celebrated each December. But that is where its similarity with Christmas ends.

“It can’t be considered a substitute for Christmas,” said Rabbi Chaim Mentz, who led the children in singing “Puff the Kosher Dragon” last Wednesday night. “It’s a holiday that came into existence 2,300 years ago, after Jewish people fought for their independence from the Syrian-Greeks.”

Mentz, 32, heads the 250-family Chabad of Bel-Air congregation. His Brooklyn-based movement of ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews organizes public menorah lighting ceremonies each year. But they sometimes have to battle public officials--and other Jews--to do it.

More liberal Jews argue that public menorahs violate the spirit of this country’s separation of church and state. Members of most reform Jewish congregations say they prefer to celebrate Hanukkah at home.

“The mitzvah of lighting the Hanukkah menorah is in the home. It is a family event,” said reform Rabbi Mordecai Finley, 32, who helps lead the 3,100-family Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel-Air. Finley’s family was lighting the candles on their menorah at their North Hollywood home at the moment the Chabad group was gathering in Century City.

Jews agree that Hanukkah is a special time for children, however. Youngsters are rewarded with gelt --money--for doing well in school or doing good deeds. They play such games as spin-the-top using a square-sided, pointed-bottom dreidel . They eat foods such as potato pancakes and fried jelly-filled doughnuts.

At Century City, Mentz had prizes for children who mounted the stage in front of the plaza’s 50-foot fir Christmas tree and correctly answered multiple-choice Hanukkah questions. A sample: “Where did Judas the Maccabee find oil for his menorah? (A) In the holy temple covered with a lot of dirt. (B) In a Saudi Arabian oil field. (C) At the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevard.”

Four-year-old Albert Andrews of Beverly Hills was among the children who correctly picked the A answer. From the crowd, his father beamed.

It is difficult for Jewish children to ignore Christmas when they are bombarded by symbols of the Christian holiday each year, real estate broker David Andrews said.

“He’s sat on Santa’s lap,” Andrews said of his son. “He gets Hanukkah presents and Christmas presents. But we draw the line at getting a tree.”

A crowd of about 50 watched the proceedings. Onlookers were given bags containing candles and menorah kits to take home. They were urged by Chabad staff member Adele Goldsmith to help themselves to boxes of doughnuts.

Mentz gazed up at twin 44-floor office towers across the plaza’s circular courtyard. In the lighted high-rise windows, he could see curious office workers watching. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” he shouted into a loudspeaker. “Come on down!”

Although 8,000 invitations had been sent to occupants of the twin towers, Mentz was unfazed. The crowd will be bigger next year, he said. In Los Angeles, menorah lighting ceremonies are becoming holiday traditions.