Nearly 200 people gathered on Ho Plaza Sunday evening to join Cornell Hillel, Chabad at Cornell and President David Skorton in lighting the candles on the Hanukkah ice menorah on Ho Plaza.

"I was actually hoping for snow last night, but sleet was just as good," quipped Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, executive director of Cornell Hillel. "We got a real winter wonderland feel. There were latkes, doughnuts and hot chocolate ... it was a nice, nice program."

Skorton was an honored guest at the lighting on the sixth night of the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, which marks the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees after their victory over the Syrians in 164 B.C.

Student volunteers have had the honor of lighting the ice menorah on most nights of the holiday, but Roald Hoffmann, Cornell's Nobel laureate in chemistry and the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, was the guest lighter the first night, and Skorton received the honor Dec. 9.

Hanukkah can fall anywhere from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendar, but it is fairly rare for it to fall early enough so that students are still on campus for the holiday. "We haven't had Hanukkah on campus for at least three years," Rosenthal said. "We really wanted to get it out to the students, and we really were able to take advantage of it this year."

Cornell Hillel took that opportunity to celebrate "Hanukkah Across Cornell" this year, sponsoring parties and menorah lightings on and off campus in residence halls, fraternities and sororities, engaging hundreds of students in Hanukkah celebrations. Hillel also gave free menorahs and candles to hundreds of students leading up to Hanukkah. As part of "Hanukkah Across Cornell," they had planned a party on Ho Plaza as part of the event and realized that Chabad had moved its menorah from Collegetown to Ho Plaza this year, setting the stage for a collaboration.

This is the first time that Cornell Hillel has joined with Chabad to sponsor the tradition of Chabad's lighting of a community menorah. The ice-sculpture menorah was created by a company from Scranton, Penn.

Rabbi Eli Silberstein of Chabad at Cornell said Hanukkah's early calendar placement and the co-sponsorship with Hillel made for a larger celebration this year.

The ice menorah has been attracting a lot of attention, as well, Silberstein said. "Throughout the day and night, people come and take pictures," he said.

The menorah also will be lit Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 for the seventh and eighth nights of Hanukkah, with the ceremony beginning at 5 p.m.

In an environmental, lighting-themed coda to the evening, the Dec. 9 lighting was followed by a program sponsored by Cheryl '91 and David '91 Einhorn and the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust. Students were educated about their own environmental impact and were given compact-fluorescent light bulbs as a part of the yearlong "Hillel Turned Me On" initiative to distribute energy-efficient bulbs on campus.

"An integral part of the story of Hanukkah involves the miracle of the oil in the Holy Temple," said Linda Schwaber '07, Cornell Hillel's Jewish Campus Service Corps fellow who implements the program and brings it to residence halls and fraternity and sorority houses. "We wanted to focus on oil use today and encourage people to think about conservation and their personal interaction with the environment."