Thousands of football fans at SoFi Stadium took a break from cheering on Sunday, Dec. 18, to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah.
Rabbi Yossi Mintz, executive director of Chabad of the Beach Cities, kicked off Hanukkah by lighting a menorah inside SoFi Stadium, in Inglewood, during a television time out in the fourth quarter of the game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the visiting Tennessee Titans early Sunday evening.
The 70,000 or so fans in attendance saw Mintz light the first candle on SoFi’s Infinity Screen.
Mintz, beforehand, described the event as the largest viewing of a menorah lighting — and most who witnessed it likely weren’t Jewish.
“For me, the message of Hanukkah, the ‘lighting it up,’ is not just a Jewish thing,” Mintz said. “The most beautiful thing about this is a little bit of light can banish darkness.”
Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday that’s also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the recovery of Jerusalem during the 2nd century BC. Traditionally, Hanukkah, which this year ends on Dec. 26, is marked each evening by lighting a candle on the nine-branched menorah.
The menorah has deep symbolic meaning. But this year, in particular, the universal message of light banishing darkness and hate is particularly poignant, Mintz said.
Antisemitism and hate crimes, against multiple groups of people, have been on the rise for the past couple of years, with Los Angeles County seeing multiple high-profile incidents in 2022 alone.
The community, Mintz said, needs a solution and a salve for the rising hate. And shining a light, no matter how small, can help ease division and heartache, he said.
“This is the most joyous time of the year,” Mintz said last week. “Everyone is celebrating a holiday.”