Where Chanukah stops traffic

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of December 11, 2009 / 24 Kislev 5770

When Daniel and Beth Teitelbaum moved to their home on Avenue T and East 63rd in Brooklyn’s Mill Basin section six years ago they continued a family tradition begun in their previous home. Now the couple and their children, Ariel, 15, a student at Shulamith High School and Benny, 8, who attends Yeshiva of Belle Harbor, are used to seeing cars stop short outside to take in the

unusual sight of a home extensively lit to announce the miracle of Chanukah to the world.

Last year’s display was dedicated to Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg and the other victims of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Daniel Teitelbaum said some of the family's Jewish neighbors seem to have responded to the elaborate holiday display; in recent years several have begun to place a menorah in their own front windows.

Many years Teitelbaum begins thinking about Chanukah during the summer, he said. The mostly handmade decorations include a sign wishing passersby a “Chanukah Sameach,” giant dreidels, a five-foot high menorah; even a projector beaming a Chanukah image below the roofline.