The Best Cities Around the World to Celebrate Hanukkah

Hanukkah began in Jerusalem, after all. The holiday, which lasts from December 2–10 in 2018, commemorates the victory of Jewish fighters, led by Judah the Maccabee, who defeated the Syrian-Greeks in Israel in the second century B.C. and reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

In Tel Aviv, Hanukkah festivities center on Independence Park (Gan Ha'atzmaut). The quest for new, unique, tall or superlative-in-some-other-way menorahs is ongoing. In 2013, for example, Israeli Electric Corporation made a "crane menorah" in Tel Aviv that reached 28 meters high.

In Rome's Piazza Barberini, the menorah is large and festive. Visit Rome's Old Jewish Quarter for the food, including the Fritelle de Chanuka, a local take on sufganiyot, or jelly doughnut.

Mumbai has a rich (though often hidden) Jewish history—and a handful of synagogues dot the city. Each year, a large menorah is lit at the Gateway to India monument. In India, many Jews eat burfi instead of the traditional latke.

One thing is fairly certain: New York is home to the world's largest menorah. The question is, which one is it? The 32-foot-tall, 4,000-pound menorah across from the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan owns the title, but the 33 1/2-foot-tall menorah in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza has math on its side. In any event, Hanukkah in New York City—a city that's home to the largest population of Jews outside of Israel—is not to be missed. This year, a special menorah that incorporates a piece of the original World Trade Center steel as a symbol of resiliency returns to the Oculus World Trade Center Transportation Hub.

Not to be outdone, the National Chanukah Menorah on the White House Ellipse boasts its own "world's largest" menorah, last measured at 30 feet high. The first president to attend the lighting of the first candle was Jimmy Carter.

Hanukkah celebrations happen all over Los Angeles, in mall after mall, featuring palm trees and celebrities alongside menorahs and rabbis. This year, if you head to the Skirball Cultural Center, the Hanukkah celebration wonderfully coincides with the exhibition "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

Miami Beach's Lincoln Road Mall is home to the famous seashell menorah and dreidel, each made of more than 35,000 seashells. Their creator, musician Roger Abramson, adds and replaces shells each year.

In what was once considered the "heart of darkness" for the Jewish people, Berlin is now home to a massive menorah—one of the largest in Europe—that stands in front of the Brandenburg Gate. It's where Germans celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall. Last year, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal said, "It is exactly at this site that we want to say that we seek a positive and tolerant society."

Do you really need another excuse to see Paris? The public menorah lighting in the City of Lights, home to one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe, is at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

A grand menorah sits in London's Trafalgar Square, next to the Christmas Tree.