15/10/2026
A Menorah in the Heart of Stonnington
This past Monday, Stonnington Council passed a motion confirming its new Civic Recognition Garden, which will include a Council-sponsored Chanukah menorah every year.
Cr Kate Hely - Stonnington captured the significance of this decision beautifully:
“Last December, I said our policies should be the pavement we walk on, not the walls that block us. For years, Chabad Malvern asked this Council to light a menorah in our civic heart, nearly every year, and the answer was essentially that it was too hard. Last December, Council committed to settling that question properly, through a Civic Recognition Policy. Tonight, we have that policy, and it’s pavement.
It puts a menorah in our civic recognition garden every Chanukah. Not once, and not as a favour, but as a standing part of our civic calendar, which only this Council can change.
…I look forward to standing in our civic recognition garden with our Jewish community in December, and with the whole Stonnington community, when the menorah is lit. " Thank you to everyone who made a submission, and to the officers for their work. You are seen, you are valued, and you belong.”
We are deeply grateful to the Mayor and councillors who supported this initiative, particularly Cr Tom Humphries, who initiated the proposal, and Council Officers Rhys and Xavier, who helped bring it to fruition, and we look forward to the inaugural lighting of the menorah this December, at a special community event held in partnership between Chabad Malvern and Stonnington Council.
