PARKSVILLE – In light of these difficult times, especially after the mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, the lighting of the Menorah in Parksville on Sunday was a welcome message of peace. Although state and county police were on guard for the event, neither the cold nor what happened in Australia deterred the handful of faithful. Organizer Hope Blecher lit the menorah with the flip of a switch.
“I started this project. When we received this grant, it was just me,” said Blecher. “It was me reaching out to Frank DeMayo to say, can we have a menorah in Parksville? And basically they said, sure, if you can make it, we can have it. And literally, it was not supposed to be this big.”
It has grown over the past three years, and people have wanted to know more about it.
“So the people asked, when is it going up and how long it will stay up afterwards,” she said. “And it’s been nice that we’ve been able to have people ask, and it’s grown in terms of we now have a permanent plaque there and a QR code so people can learn about what each of the symbols means when someone’s not here to explain it to them.”
Lighting the menorah “really shows us in the community that we can come together and share something and share food, share songs, and share what this means. And I think that’s the beauty of it. And seeing it lit at night. It is a unifying feature,” Blecher said.
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