(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Eric Adams told reporters he planned to engage in “some spiritual cleansing” during a trip to Ghana this week. Still, the appearance of New York City’s mayor-elect at a Chanukah party Wednesday, Dec. 1, in Accra came as a surprise. Adams joined Rabbi Noach Majesky, a Brooklyn expat who is Chabad’s emissary in Ghana, onstage for an event to celebrate the fourth night of Chanukah.

It was at least the second Chanukah celebration with Chabad this year for Adams.

On Sunday night, he joined Chabad in Midtown Manhattan to light the menorah the movement has erected there, which it bills as the largest in the world. There, he praised Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late rabbi who led the Chabad movement, known among his adherents as the Rebbe.

“As a member of the Brooklyn community, and the rich Crown Heights community, we know what the Rebbe did for all of us and how he spread the importance of Hanukkah, and the celebrations that we are seeing all over the world now,” Adams said from a cherry picker at the top of the 36-foot menorah.

In Accra he said, “My ancestors left these shores in slavery. I came back to Africa with the mayoral team. It is because no matter what pain we experience we must turn our pain into purpose. Nothing personified that more than the Grand Rebbe in Crown Heights,” Adams said.

In Accra, Adams told the partygoers that he had come to the country to “close the open wound of slavery and reconnect with ancestors,” adding that he knows that Jews, too, have open wounds inflicted by history. But he said it is possible to overcome division and trauma. “We’re going to show that we’re members of the greatest race alive, and that’s the human race. Let’s make sure it’s a safe Hanukkah for our families and the children and for humanity,” Adams said. “I’m happy to be here in Ghana with you showing how great we are as a people.”

Main Photo: New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams joined Rabbi Noach Majesky and his family at a Hanukkah celebration in Accra, Ghana, Dec. 1, 2021. (Chabad)