Renee Werbin’s Chanukah Message for 2024
For our Chanukah holiday issue, we invited members of our community to share their responses.
Soon we will celebrate Chanukah and begin eight days of commemorating the Maccabee’s miraculous victory over the tyrant Antiochus and his massive military. We recount the famed story of Judah the Maccabee, his brothers and his battalion of Jewish fighters who led a revolt that defeated a colossal Syrian Greek army. This astonishing victory allowed the Maccabee’s to reclaim Jerusalem and rededicate the Second Temple.
Chanukah begins on the 25th of Kislev. Jews throughout the world will light the first candle on December 25 honoring the miracle of finding a single flask of pure oil that was enough for only one night but miraculously burned for eight. This tiny amount of oil illuminated the Temple’s Menorah bringing light into the Temple, to the Jewish People and to the world.
Chanukah celebrates light, illumination and radiance. As we Jews begin Chanukah this year the fear of anti-Semitism reverberates throughout the world. October 7, 2023, is a day that will live in infamy and the atrocities committed on that day in Israel darkened our world and the light we cherish disappeared. Threats to Jews in the United States have tripled in the one-year period since the deadly October 7 terrorist attack. The ADL has recorded more than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents; the most incidents recorded in a 12-month since the ADL began tracking threats in 1979.
Jews in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, even Dubai have been attacked, persecuted and killed. The past academic year saw more than 1400 anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses and many top tier academics sit idly by and dismiss these virulent and hateful acts of indecency. Our Jewish college students live in an environment of fear and hostility; afraid to show their Judaism when they walk out of their college dorms.
As we usher in the holiday of Chanukah, with so much darkness upon us, rising anti-Semitism, and anti-Israel sentiment, we must remember the light that dwells in every Jew. Chanukah reminds us of how bright that light can shine. May the miracle of Chanukah, our Festival of Lights, ignite us to remain true to our heritage. May we unite together as one to bring more light back into the world.
Renee Werbin is President, SRI Travel; Publisher and co-founder, Travelgirl Magazine.
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