Benzinga Hosts Menorah In The D Event With Danny Fenster As Special Guest

Hanukkah began sundown Sunday with the lighting of the first candle of the Menorah.

At its One Campus Martius office in Detroit, Benzinga hosted a reception to kick off the eight-day festival.

In attendance was Danny Fenster, a 37-year-old magazine editor who was recently freed from a Myanmar prison after being arrested in May and held for his journalistic work in the country in the wake of a violent military coup. 

What Happened: The Benzinga reception coincided with the 11th Menorah in the D event.

Alongside Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated HBAN Chairman Gary Torgow, Burns & Wilcox CEO Alan Kaufman and many others, Michigan State Sen. Jeremy Moss was in attendance.

Moss praised the community’s collective pursuit of justice in seeking Fenster's release from unsubstantiated charges of disseminating information that could be harmful to the military, unlawful association with opponents of the regime and violating immigration law.

“A wrong has been righted,” Moss said at the reception.

Why It Matters: Hanukkah — the Festival of Lights — is the commemoration of how a small revolt led by the Maccabees liberated the Jewish people, as well as the rededication of the Second Temple over 2,000 years ago.

“It was just an incredible display of organizing, of communicating, of getting everyone together,” Moss added in reference to the joyous sentiment pervading the offices at Benzinga, a large media and data service providing its users a platform to better themselves financially.