The likely first public menorah was lit on Independence Mall on this week in Philly history

Outside the front door of Independence Hall, amid a wet and mild December in Philadelphia, a handful of devoutly orthodox Jews decided to add their light to the world.

Four men of the Lubavitcher sect of Hasidic Judaism, including renowned Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, gathered on Independence Mall on Dec. 14, 1974. Together they lit what is believed to be the first menorah, or Hanukkah candelabrum, ever illuminated on public property.

And together they watched their light spread.

“Philadelphia is where we started,” the now-88-year-old Rabbi Shemtov told The Inquirer in 2014. “Now it’s everywhere, in too many places to count.

“So, the idea caught fire,” he said, smiling through his long, gray beard.

Hanukkah is the Jewish celebration of light over darkness, and of faith and freedom over oppression and persecution. While it’s not the biggest holiday in the Jewish faith, its themes of perseverance and hope have been as synonymous with the winter solstice as any Christian tradition.

The most obvious reason that menorahs were traditionally not lit outside was because the flame would go out.

So on that breezy evening in mid-December, the flame stayed lit against all odds. Some might even call it divine intervention.

“What you need to understand,” Shemtov explained, is that Jewish tradition dictated that the candelabrum be lit at home, and placed “at the spot the house shares with the outside,” typically at the front door.

“Our sages say outside is better,” he said with a shrug. “So, we brought it outside a step further.”

In the years since, public menorahs have sprouted up across Europe and North America, from Revolution Square in Moscow to the White House in Washington.

“The simple lighting ceremony in Philadelphia,” wrote The Inquirer’s longtime religion reporter David O’Reilly, “became the foundational story of public menorahs for most of the world’s Jews.”

For centuries, menorah lighting had at times been a covert domestic ritual.

“We lit the first candle. There was some singing and dancing. It was a private event in public,” Shemtov said in 2014. “But even so, in concept we were sharing the thing with the world.”