Hanukkah commemorates events that occurred more than 2,100 years ago, but it especially is pertinent now.
The Festival of Light recalls a vastly outnumbered Jewish force recapturing the Temple in Jerusalem from a Greek force that had seized and defiled it. They had a one-day supply of oil for candles, but it provided light for eight days.
Today, Hanukkah includes lighting an additional candle each day over the eight days of the observance. The menorah, which holds the candle, is a symbol of strength and defiance against injustices suffered by Jewish people across those millennia.
This year’s observance takes place amid an appalling rise in antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League reported 2,717 confirmed attacks in 2021 against Jewish people and institutions. Attacks on synagogues and Jewish community centers increased 61%; attacks on K-12 schools increased 106%.
President Joe Biden clearly is on the mark in creating an antisemitism task force, including domestic and national security agencies.
Several athletes and celebrities publicly have revealed their bias. Former President Donald Trump proclaimed U.S. Jews to be disloyal to him after his support for Israel, then publicly dined with the Holocaust deniers and vicious antisemites Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes.
Hanukkah occurs across the year’s darkest days and often overlaps the Christian Christmas observance, which also is bathed in light. All Americans should embrace the Festival of Light not for its physical defiance of darkness, but for its insistence on casting spiritual light upon dark souls.
— Tribune News Service
