One of the hallmarks of Chanukah is public menorah lightings. With Chanukah’s celebration of light and the mitzvah of sharing the holiday’s message of Jewish self-determination, setting up a large menorah in a public space, and kindling the light of the season makes perfect sense. Numerous public lightings take place in the Portland area throughout the festival, typically hosted by the local Chabad – you can find one close to you on the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Chanukah Happenings page at jewishportland.org/ourcommunity/chanukahresources25.

But Beaverton, the second-largest city in Washington County, lacks a Chabad Center, and had not had a public menorah lighting for decades.

Enter Dana Brookmire.

“I moved here from Atlanta 13 years ago and found out that Hillsboro and Tigard were lighting their own menorahs in their cities, and Beaverton was not,” Brookmire said. “I didn’t quite understand why.”

Eight years ago, she went to ask the city why. They ignored her. That just served as motivation.

“I began to try to push the issue because I don’t like being ignored,” she said.

Eventually, staff for then-Mayor Denny Doyle met with Brookmire, telling her that the menorah lighting was a religious event, and they couldn’t host the event on public property. Brookmire pointed out that the city already hosts a public display of a winter religious symbol in the form of a Christmas tree, but Doyle’s office was unmoved.

A year later, Brookmire went back to it, this time with the help of Rabbi Menachem Rivkin of Chabad of Hillsboro.

“She pulled some strings, and I have to tell you that with Beaverton, it was a little more difficult with the permits and with getting the city involved,” Rabbi Rivkin said.

This time, the city cooperated – sort of.

“They wouldn’t advertise it anywhere because they said that it was a religious event, but they did say that the mayor wanted to come and make an appearance,” Brookmire said.

Brookmire borrowed a menorah from Rabbi Rivkin and bought 15 bags of chocolate gelt – 10 of which came home with her after the event, she said. Brookmire recalled Chabad of Oregon Director Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm amongst the small crowd of attendees for the first lighting.

“There were probably six people there that came out,” she said. “We lit the menorah for the first time in 50 years in the middle of Beaverton.”

A sparsely attended mitzvah is a mitzvah all the same.

“It was about my children seeing themselves in their community,” Brookmire said. “I came from Atlanta. The Jewish community there was very large, and I didn’t have to worry about my children seeing themselves. It was right there.”

Just a month after that first menorah lighting, Doyle stepped down and was replaced by Mayor Lacey Beaty. When Brookmire went to meet about continuing the menorah lighting tradition, she received a much different reception from the new administration.

“They said, ‘you might actually qualify for a grant to get the menorah,’” Brookmire recalled. “Now they are advertising it. They are reaching out to me now instead of me reaching out to them every year in September. Every year [Beaty] comes, she talks about how important it is to continue to focus on the diversity of our city, and this is just one of many ways to do it. She has just been amazing.”

That grant came though, and a 12-foot menorah now lives in Brookmire’s garage. The crowds that watch its illumination in Beaverton City Park each winter now number closer to 100. The process leading up to the annual event has become, in Brookmire’s words, a “well-oiled machine,” a pun on traditional menorah lamps she acknowledged and apologized for, but an apt one all the same.

“I bring the menorah to the park, I meet the electrician, I arrange for security, I fill out the right forms, I get the right insurance,” she explained. “All of that stuff happens seamlessly now.”

It is a big undertaking for one mitzvah, and Brookmire is happy to chat with anyone interested in helping with the process moving forward. But it’s a big, impactful mitzvah – a light in the dark days of winter.

“Share the light. Encourage people to add another good deed, another mitzvah for everyone,” Rabbi Rivkin said. “The way you fight darkness, it’s just with a little bit of light; you don’t need a lot of light to fight darkness, just a little bit.”

Six lights will shine from the menorah in Beaverton City Park this year – Beaverton’s menorah lighting is set for the fifth night of Chanukah on Thursday, Dec. 18 at 5 pm.