Local Jewish communities look for Hanukkah to bring light in a time of darkness

Howard Feigenbaum plans to celebrate Hanukkah this year with his family “the way we always do” – going to synagogue, lighting the family menorah, saying prayers, making his favorite potato latkes.

“We won’t back down or be afraid. The Jewish people have always had to fight against oppression,” said Feigenbaum, 77, a Hemet resident and member of Temple Beth Am in San Jacinto. “We’re proud of who we are, and we won’t change that because of fear. ”

But for many Jewish American communities in Southern California, and those in the diaspora, there is a different, more somber tone to the traditionally festive holiday that begins this year on the night of Thursday, Dec. 7 and continues through Dec. 15. Jews say there is a weighted, more reflective mood to this year’s Hanukkah celebrations – amid the ongoing Mideast war between Israel and Hamas, increasing local tensions, and reports of rising antisemitism around the world.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported a nearly 400% rise in antisemitic incidents across the U.S. since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In L.A. County, 81% of reported religious hate crimes were against Jewish communities, in a report released late November.

Many Jews, like Feigenbaum and his wife Esther, hope to express their faith openly and with others while still thinking and talking about the war overseas – including Israeli hostages and other war crimes – in which more than 15,000 Palestinians also have died.

“We do talk about what’s happening, and we pray for the people of Israel; we feel even more connected,” Feigenbaum said about his small, older synagogue community. “Threats to being Jewish are not new. We’ve gone through the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust… and we’re still around. We’re God’s chosen people, and God has never failed us. Hanukkah commemorates that miracle.”

For the Jewish people, the holiday has always represented a time of hope and healing — light overcoming darkness; the triumph over past and present struggles.

Hanukkah, also spelled Chanukah or other Hebrew transliterations, marks the holiday known as Judaism’s “festival of lights” – when Jews around the world gather to light the menorah candles, eat traditional foods and remember the rededication of the holy Jerusalem temple that had been desecrated in the 2nd century B.C. The eight-day celebration commemorates the miracle of pure oil found in the Jewish temple, which kept the menorah candle burning for eight days.

The annual holiday dates are based on the Hebrew month of Kislev, usually in late November-December.

Other customs during the Festival of Lights include making latkes and other traditional foods, singing hymns, and playing the dreidel game.

Despite feelings of darkness from ongoing war, or harassment at home, many Jews preparing for the eight days of Hanukkah are celebrating more defiantly than ever.

Rabbi Noah Farkas, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said in a statement that Jewish communities “facing dark and challenging times… must always remember to find light.”

The organization plans a week of celebrations, including its “Infinite Light” Hanukkah festival on Thursday, Dec. 7, the first night, at the Petersen Museum in L.A.

Dr. Ella Ben-Hagai, a social psychologist and associate professor at Cal State Fullerton, has long researched the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ben-Hagai said that being able to honor Hanukkah is a reminder of the resilience Jews have shown throughout history, and the importance of standing together.

“It is the holiday of light, after all,” Ben-Hagai said. “The Jewish story can be interpreted in different ways – based on the idea that we need to be proud of our Judaism and celebrate it, and to also fight antisemitism on the rise. It’s a very anxiety-filled time to be Jewish – you don’t know how people see you, and you’re worried about Israel, about the future of the Jewish people. So the best answer to anxiety from a psychological perspective is to come together with others.”

Being visible during this year’s holiday – to stand together, despite the more somber mood – is more crucial than ever.

“Last year it’s like, we have this Jewish holiday and we should do something about it,” Ben-Hagai said. “This year, there’s a stronger sense of Jewish identity; Jews want to come together and be with each other. But at the same time it’s a somber getting together. I don’t think anybody can be happy right now, when there’s a terrible war going on.”

Ben-Hagai said that it’s hard to celebrate “if you have family living or fighting in a war zone … as long as there are still hostages in Gaza, war crimes happening, and people are dying.”

She said that she can see how younger Jews can also express tensions with “what Israel is doing to Palestinians” during the war.

“For them,” Ben-Hagai noted, “Hanukkah can be interpreted as a moment of creating solidarity with other groups, inside the oppression. It can mean finding solidarity with Palestinians, and organizations of people of color. And that connection is like finding your tribe, and that’s so important.”

Ben-Hagai plans to join an inclusive local Hanukkah celebration hosted by her colleague, Sarah Schrank, an associate professor of history at Cal State Long Beach.

Schrank hosts an inclusive Hanukkah celebration each year inviting friends and colleagues, non-Jews included, to her home to share in the holiday. Schrank said the experience can be educational for those around her who have never celebrated, and enjoys sharing its traditional history with others.

“It’s really important that during this particularly gruesome episode, that we just keep it going,” said Schrank.

Schrank noted that the tradition is “a beautiful one” — for eight days Jews around the world are connected, even though their menorahs may look different. They all have oily foods prepared, excited children, and are eager to partake in an ongoing tradition that has carried for more than 2,000 years.

Feeling the tensions of the times, many Jewish people of color are finding their own ways to openly, or privately, celebrate and reflect on the Festival of Lights.

Michael Soleimani, from the San Fernando Valley, remembers getting Hanukkah presents as a child, eating traditional foods, making jokes about which candles to light on Shabbat nights.

Being raised both Persian and a Sephardic Jew gave him a different perspective on the holiday, which “wasn’t always as emphasized” in his family, Soleimani, 27, said. Many of his family members fled Iran during the regime, so he said they “never knew a time of peace.”

Growing up with both Muslim and Palestinian friends, Soleimani said that he’s had to speak less “about Jewish-related topics;” even having to hide his Star of David, or the fact that he plans to celebrate Hanukkah with his family.

“It hurts not to be able to speak up sometimes, but only where I’ve really wanted and needed to,” he said. “Every day I pray this war ends and we can all find some peace.”

But Soleimani’s family still plans to celebrate Hanukkah together. Being able to celebrate their Jewish faith openly “shouldn’t be taken for granted,” he said. “The people in Israel, who are suffering, will want us to celebrate. Their spirit is like no other.”

Calls for peace

Some local Jewish peace activists, like UCLA doctoral student Benjamin Kersten, are using Hanukkah to highlight their calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Kersten, a fellow at the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, helps run the UCLA chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace; a progressive Jewish, anti-Zionist national organization. Kersten said now is the “most intense and heightened moment it’s ever been” of the longstanding conflict between Hamas and Israel, and personally the hardest time he’s ever experienced.

“That’s first and foremost because I think what we’re witnessing is a true genocidal onslaught,” Kersten said. “Over 16,000 people were killed in Gaza. One person would be too many, one person killed anywhere. But the threats of a full ethnic cleansing are just devastating. And it’s devastating to feel its impact on Jewish communities the way it’s causing such serious ruptures.”

Similar to Hanukkah’s past, this year’s holiday will be a time to reground in the Jewish faith, but what’s different about this year is that it will be centered on social justice and the movement to free Palestine, Kersten said.

The UCLA chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace will have a public candle lighting on campus. Many members are also planning to attend upcoming candle-lighting vigils called “Chanukah for Ceasefire,” hosted by IfNotNow, a partner organization of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Organizers say they plan to celebrate the holiday by lighting candles “for justice, equality and peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.”

Kersten said he is “honored to be a part of a community of Jews who are rising up to demand a permanent ceasefire, but also to build a vibrant Jewish community that is really committed to the principles of equality and justice for everyone, without exception,” Kersten said.

‘Feeling of unity’

Rabbi Levi Begun of the Jewish Community of Culver City Chabad said that, despite growing hate, there is an overall “stronger feeling of unity this year” among Jewish communities. Since the war started in October, Begun said that more people have reached out to him yearning for ways to connect more openly with their faith, so his Chabad has been planning events and collecting donations.

The community plans several public Hannukkah events beginning Thursday night. Begun said that Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday that’s specifically celebrated out in the open, to show unity over fear.

Rabbi Shmuel Fuss, the executive director of Chabad Jewish Community Center of Riverside, said their congregation has its vibrant community festival — with live entertainment and fire jugglers, in addition to lighting the menorah — planned for Monday, Dec. 11 in downtown Riverside. Fuss said that, overall, “more Jews are choosing to celebrate their identity this Chanukah with more confidence and resolve.”

“Chanukah and its menorah have become a part of American culture because of its universal message of freedom of the human spirit,” Fuss said. “For this reason, this year’s Chanukah Festival will emphasize light and joy.”

Both local rabbis — among many Jewish leaders — have also had to think about adding more security to events, so that everybody can feel safe. Rabbi Begun said the community has tailored many of its services and gatherings to focus on the current situation, while sharing positive messages about staying strong in dark times.

“The message of Hannukkah is particularly crucial now — combating darkness and hate not by engaging with the hate, but by focusing on positivity, light, what unites us, and connection to our roots,” Begun said. “We may be outnumbered, but even just a little bit of light dispels much darkness. You can only get expensive wine from a grape when you crush it.”

Staff reporters Hanna Kang, Jordan Darling and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Orange County Register