Menorah's lighting carries on legendary music man's legacy

Legendary concert promoter Bill Graham made his mark in the Bay Area by establishing several of The City’s benchmark music venues — including the Fillmore and Warfield — while maintaining nearly as high a profile as the acts he filled them with.
A legacy of Graham’s that endures today, however, started from an act of goodwill in which he was uncharacteristically camera shy.
In 1975, Graham, who as a young child was a refugee from Nazi Germany, approached several well-known Jewish religious leaders and inquired about the possibility of staging a public lighting of the menorah, a Jewish symbol that marks the eight holy days of Hanukkah.
Among those Jewish leaders was Rabbi Yosef Langer, then a man in his 20s who leapt at the idea of bringing the menorah to the masses.
With Graham’s financial backing, Langer and others were able to erect and light a 22-foot-tall menorah in Union Square — the first public display of its kind outside Israel.
“Bill was looking for something to take the spirit of Judaism out to the marketplace,” Langer said. “We organized everything because he didn’t want to be very open with his Jewishness. But without him, none of this would have been possible.”
Although Graham, who died in a helicopter crash in 1991, rarely made any formal public appearances at the lighting ceremonies, he always made an effort to slip in and check things out, Langer said.
“I remember one year where I didn’t see Bill,” Langer said. “It was cold, raining, and after a while it was just me, the seagulls and the homeless. Then, he showed up at the very end and gave me a smile. It was very important to him.”
With Graham gone, Langer is now the chief organizer of the event, which is funded by private donors and draws thousands of people each year. Even though the flamboyant music aficionado is gone, Graham’s spirit lives on with each year that the menorah is lit, Langer said.
“He was a very unique individual,” said Langer. “He believed in the universal symbol of the menorah. It’s the message that a little light pushes out the darkness.”
— Will Reisman


Rabbi Yosef Langer
Age: 62
Birthplace: Oakland
Residence: Richmond district
Education: San Jose State, Hadar Torah/Rabbinical Seminary
Family: Wife, two sons, three daughters
Favorite books: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Discourses
Favorite type of music: Jewish hip-hop, reggae
Favorite sports team: San Francisco Giants
Hobbies: Golf
Favorite thing about the Bay Area: The openness of the people
What he wants to be remembered for: “To fulfill the purpose for why I was sent here by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, while leading my service to the people with my heart.”
Role model and inspiration: The Lubavitcher Rebbe, and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
If you go
What: Annual lighting of the menorah
When: 3 p.m. Dec. 21
Where: Union Square
Entertainment: Isaiah and the Prophets, a Hasidic Jewish hip-hop group
Expected attendance: 3,500-4,000
1 Comments

Rally Rabbi Brings The High, Hard Chabad To Giants Fans

Great story in the San Francisco Examiner Sunday on bearded, motorcycle-riding holy man Yosef Langer, better known to San Francisco Giants fans as the Rally Rabbi.

My favorite Jewish Orthodox baseball fan will be presiding over the annual lighting of the menorah on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Union Square in San Francisco, if you'd like to stop by and see if he has any plans to intercede this season on behalf of that mensch, Barry Zito.

Langer's been a fixture in the Bay Area since he founded a Chabad house of teaching in Berkeley in 1975. He began bringing the word of God to sports fans at Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants games just recently. Craig Solomon, a ticket sales executive with the Giants, first met him in 2005 after a trip to Israel.

In 2006, the two met up again, this time after Solomon suggested that Langer blow the shofar — a ram’s horn that is used as a signaling trumpet in the Jewish religion — behind home plate during the third inning of the Giants’ annual Jewish Heritage Night at AT&T Park.

Langer agreed to the premise and blew the horn to such immense fan appreciation that three innings later he was out behind home plate again. The Giants lost that night, but club officials deemed Langer the “Rally Rabbi” — and soon thereafter issued their own special rabbi bobblehead doll giveaway at the park.

He's the only rabbi I know who wears a Giants logo on his hat and an orange Star of David. He is also often followed by Rabbi Yehuda Ferris, who is lead singer of the Ferris Wheels, shown here performing outside of AT&T Park. Be sure to watch the the end, to see the Yidd’n dance.

That's Sunday at Union Sqaure. Be there or be a nebbish.