Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. Children smiled as they lit candles together, passing that joyous light to their neighbors. After the menorah was lit, attendees joined together in song and mingled over refreshments.

With the Jewish Festival of Lights happening while Indiana University students are on break, the celebration was at the courthouse for the first time.

Five Chabad rabbis erected the first public menorah in Philadelphia in 1974. Now, 50 years later, there are roughly 15,000 giant menorahs lit annually in public squares from Washington, D.C.,