Siberian Synagogue Erects 10-foot Menorah Made of Ice

A synagogue in Tomsk, a Siberian city in Russia, has unveiled a giant Hanukkah menorah made of ice.

The 10-foot menorah was erected Tuesday inside the synagogue yard. Tomsk, a city of roughly 500,000, is located about 2,000 miles east of Moscow.

The menorah was made by Seva Mayorov, a local non-Jewish artist whose work also features regularly at the annual Tomsk Ice Park exhibition, which attracts thousands of tourists to the city annually.

Tomsk carries symbolism for Russian Jewry. In 1876, it saw the erection of a different synagogue, built by Jews who were conscripted as child soldiers, often against their will, to serve in the czar’s army.

This year is the second time that Tomsk has boasted an ice menorah, but it features some upgrades to last year’s version, including colorful LED lights that run through it and elaborate crown-shaped tips, according to the local rabbi, Levy Kaminetsky, a Chabad emissary who moved with his wife, Gitty, to Tomsk in 2004. (INN / VFI News)

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. - Isaiah 42:16

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