AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Tonight is the seventh night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. And as the holiday comes to a close, Rae Solomon from member station KUNC in Colorado has a story about an artist inspired to infuse Hanukkah with a little Rocky Mountain culture.
RAE SOLOMON, BYLINE: You can't escape the mountains in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. They're everywhere you turn. And it can seem like the entire town is obsessed with the slopes. Artist Randy Salky is no exception. But when he's not skiing, he's tinkering. And you can see the evidence at his house. The yard is decorated with his found object sculptures, built with tent poles and broken pottery. His latest creation pulls from his Jewish identity with a bit of local flavor mixed in.
RANDY SALKY: A menorah made out of snowboards. I affectionately call it "Eight Nights Of Shred."
SOLOMON: A menorah is the special candelabra the Jewish people light during the eight ninths of Hanukkah. For "Eight Nights Of Shred," each candle takes four snowboards mounted at right angles on a rotating base.
SALKY: Each with a light that represent the eight nights of Hanukkah, with the center one, which is taller, the shamash, or the leader. And that's generally the candle that is used to light the other individual candles each night. This is probably the fourth menorah that I've built. There's one that I made a long time ago made out of skis.
KOLBY MORRIS-DAHARY: It's very Steamboat. It's an amazing way to celebrate the holiday but also be truly Coloradan.
SOLOMON: Kolby Morris-Dahary is rabbi of Har Mishpacha, which, until recently, was Steamboat's only synagogue. Salky's large-scale sculptural menarot have long been a holiday symbol for the congregation. And this year his snowboard menorah was at the center of a Hanukkah celebration at the base of the town's big ski mountain.
MORRIS-DAHARY: Woo (ph). Happy Hanukkah, everybody.
SOLOMON: People fresh off the slopes ski up to the group gathered around the snowboard menorah.
MORRIS-DAHARY: ...A special one for Steamboat. Here we go. (Singing) I have a little dreidel. I made it out of snow. Woo. I pushed it down Mount Werner to see how fast it'd go.
SOLOMON: Then the blessings as they light up each snowboard candle.
MORRIS-DAHARY: We'll do two blessings. And then we'll do a shehecheyanu. (Singing in Hebrew).
SOLOMON: Rabbi Morris-Dahary says her community is proud to share this tradition with all of Steamboat Springs.
MORRIS-DAHARY: This time of year, it's darker. We tend to shelter inwards in our own families. But our holidays, including Hanukkah, encourage us to spread our light and to be open to other cultures, other people in our community and in the world.
SOLOMON: She says the snowboard menorah is a beautiful symbol of that connection between the Steamboat ski culture and the small Jewish congregation embedded within. For NPR News, I'm Rae Solomon in Steamboat Springs. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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