Despite security concerns in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks that left 130 dead, some 6,000 people gathered in Paris for the public lighting of a Chanukah menorah at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

The annual event is organised by Chabad-Lubavitch in the presence of Jewish community leaders, government and Paris Council representatives.

France’s Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia, who lit the first candle on the giant menorah, said : ‘’For more than 2,200 years, the Jewish people have kindled the lights with hope in mankind and an affirmation of their belief in God.”

After the lighting, he added: “You see beyond the Chanukah lights, the first light that ushers in the possible. Earlier, my friend reminded me that I am the spiritual adviser for a ground army, whose motto is: ‘Anything beyond the possible.’ ”

“This year, Chanukah delivers a particularly relevant message,” Rabbi Chaim Schneur Nisenbaum of the Beth Haya Moushka school in Paris said. “In Paris, we very recently faced terrible attacks intended to put an end to freedom of mind and opinions. In the historical times of Chanukah, the invaders of the land of Israel, the Greeks, had the same intention. But the Jews did not submit.”

The Eiffel Tower event is one of more than 30 public menorah-lighting celebrations that took place across the French capital.

But two of the menorah lighting venues of previous years, on Republic Square and Bastille Square, both sites located near the Bataclan theater – the site of one of last month’s attacks – were not approved.

Public Chanukah celebrations in the French city of Marseille are held indoors this year at the request of public security officials.

The Chanukah events are part of a worldwide campaign set into motion in 1973 by the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who encouraged the establishment of menorahs in the public space to share the message of light and hope with everyone.