Town hall held a special ceremony on November 4th, in commemoration of Kristallnacht, attended by the oberbürgermeister, the lord mayor of Aachen. Chanukah was fast approaching, and I knew I wanted to hold a public event of some kind, but I had no idea where to begin. I figured meeting the mayor was a good start.
I was extremely nervous before approaching him, but I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I was a shliach of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, approaching a German, whose grandparents were most probably complicit in the world’s worst atrocity in recent history. I squared my shoulders, and confidently requested a meeting.
“Sure. Call my secretary. I have an opening in three months.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s far too late! I need to speak to you about an event coming up in three weeks!” I responded.
Baruch Hashem, the mayor always kept a half hour in the mornings open for urgent appointments, so I was able to meet with him that week. I quickly called a friend whose shlichus was similar to mine, and asked for guidance.
“What should I tell him? What should I ask for?” I asked my friend.
“You don’t need to ask him for anything!” my friend told me. “He’s the mayor! He doesn’t handle permits. Just ask him to be your guest of honor!”
Armed with this information - and a translated book about the Rebbe - I arrived at the meeting. I explained what I wanted to do, and asked him to be our guest of honor.
“That’s not how things run here,” he told me. “I’m in charge of writing permits and arranging police barricades. Leave it all to me. Just let me know where you’d like to put your menorah.”
I learned afterwards that permission for such events must be requested at least six weeks in advance - not the three weeks notice I’d given!
