Watch the video below of the cast of the Broadway musical Harmony celebrating the first night of Hanukkah with a special post-matinee menorah lighting outside the Barrymore Theater.  Zal Owen, who plays Harry Frommermann, one of the Comedian Harmonists, welcomed the crowd and lit the first candle and sang the first two blessings for the holiday.  Julie Benko, who plays Ruth, concluded with the third blessing, the “Shehecheyanu”.  Completing the ceremony, the cast performed the classic Hanukkah song “Maoz Tzur”.

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated for eight days with a nightly lighting of candles on a menorah (a multi-branched candelabrum), to commemorate a miracle. After the Maccabean Jews regained control of Jerusalem from the colonizing Seleucids 2,300 years ago, they rededicated the Temple, lighting the only oil they could find, a small jar, that was supposed to last only a single day. But it lasted eight.