Crowdsourced Menorah Lights Up Needham Common

This holiday season is lighting up Needham Town Hall.

In October, the Chabad Jewish Center partnered with Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) to host a Menorah design contest. Contestants built a virtual Menorah using PTC's Creo product design software and submitted it for judgement.

The Center chose one menorah to be made and lit on the Town Common next week, during the Jewish holiday of hanukkah. The winner, Levi Krinsky, 12, chose the prize of $500 cash (and declined an iPad).

"The shape of the menorah actually ties into the message of the light of the menorah: that the light of the menorah of the Temple of Old, and the light of our hanukkah menorah is about spreading light into the street, and into the dark places of the world." Rabbi Mendy Krinsky director at Chabad Jewish Centerexplained, "So, a cup is the same way, if you want the liquid to spill out, you turn the cup over."

Krinsky explained that the design was made using PTC's Creo software, but is based on a drawing of the menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem. Needham's menorah has three shapes which look like updturned cups on each arm.

PTC Business Development Director John Stewart explained that the software, formerly called ProEngineer, is used by companies such as Raytheon and John Deere, and was used this year to make a Menorah.

Throughout the years at Hanukkah, Needham's Chabad Jewish Center has a reputation of making a memorable, unique menorah--in the past, they have used LEGO bricks, toys, ice, and people.

He added that they had competitors from as far away as Spain, but ultimately chose the design which was built using a 3-D printer in Toronto, shipped from Buffalo, N.Y. to Needham and assembled in an hour for last night's lighting ceremony.

See a Globe Gallery of Needham's menorah lightings throughout the years here.