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Shmuel Butman

Rabbi Shmuel Butman (1943–2024), longtime director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization, was the public figure behind the giant Manhattan Hanukkah menorah listed by Guinness World Records at 32 feet high and 28 feet wide.

New York City, New York, United States

Biography

Rabbi Shmuel Butman was a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and longtime director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in New York. He became closely associated with the movement's campaign to bring Hanukkah lighting into prominent public spaces. Chabad reporting says a giant menorah was first placed at the Manhattan location in 1977; the later 32-foot structure was designed by artist Yaacov Agam and became a recurring New York Hanukkah landmark. Guinness World Records lists Butman as the holder of the largest-menorah record. JWR also preserves an important source-quality note: Guinness's structured date field gives 29 December 2006 while the narrative on the same page says the menorah was unveiled on 29 December 2005.

Public links

Records held by Shmuel Butman

World's Largest Menorah on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
JWR VerifiedFounding Record
Jewish Heritage · Ritual ObjectsLargest

Largest Menorah

Record holder

Shmuel Butman

Record value

9.7 m × 8.5 m

The giant Manhattan menorah is a record object, a public ritual structure and a recurring piece of New York's holiday landscape. Rabbi Shmuel Butman spent decades promoting public Hanukkah lightings, and the 32-foot menorah associated with him and designed by Yaacov Agam became the most visible expression of that work. JWR records the Guinness dimensions while transparently flagging the one-year date inconsistency inside the Guinness page itself.

Country represented
United States
Achievement location
New York City, New York, United States
Achievement date
29 December 2006
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