Shining a Light in the Face of Darkness

The iconic photograph was taken in December 1931 in Kiel, Germany.

In the foreground, on an apartment windowsill, is a hannukiah, a Chanukah menorah, displaying nine candles, one for each of the holiday’s eight days, and the shammas, the candle used to light the others.

In the background, seemingly just above the menorah, is a Nazi flag, hanging from the balcony of the local Nazi headquarters across the street, a building that had been a concert hall.

The photo is black-and-white, but we know that the black swastika (a hakenkreuz or “hooked cross” in German) in the white circle was surrounded by a field of red.

The photograph was taken by Rachel Posner, who lived in that apartment. Her husband, Rabbi Akiva Posner, was the last remaining rabbi serving the Jews of Kiel before the Holocaust.

She wrote in German on the back of the photograph (as translated by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem):

Chanukah 5692

(1932)

“Death to Judah”

So the flag says

“Judah will live forever”

So the light answers

[The year 5692 on the Jewish calendar began at sundown on Sept. 11, 1931. Chanukah began at sundown on Dec. 4, 1931. The eighth candle would have been Dec. 11. Per Yad Vashem, the date 1932 likely refers to when the photograph was developed.]

When the Posners and their three children fled Germany in June 1933, three months after Adolph Hitler assumed dictatorial authority, they took with them the menorah, an album that included the postcard-size menorah photo, and the camera that captured the image.

From Antwerp, Belgium, the family emigrated in 1934 to Palestine, to what today is Israel. [The family donated the photograph to Yad Vashem, which opened in 1957, and placed the menorah on permanent loan, retaining the right to use it at Chanukah.]

Chanukah is rooted in resistance to those who would obstruct the ability of Jews to live their lives openly and without fear.

If anyone needed — which they should not — a reminder of the holiday’s message, the Jewish blood shed on Sunday, Dec. 14, on Bondi Beach, four miles east of downtown Sydney, Australia, should be sufficient.

More than 1,000 people had gathered for “Chanukah by the Sea,” a Chabad-sponsored celebration of the beginning of Chanukah. Two gunmen, identified by authorities as a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son, fired on the crowd. [Bondi Beach is 16 hours ahead of Atlanta. The 6.40 p.m. attack there took place at 2.40 a.m. in Atlanta.]

Chanukah is rooted in resistance to those who would obstruct the ability of Jews to live their lives openly and with our fear.

At this writing, 15 people attending the event, ranging in age from 10 to 87, were killed and nearly four dozen wounded were hospitalized.

Australia’s Jewish community, numbering 100,000, has experienced escalating anti-Jewish harassment and violence since Oct. 7, 2023. Comments from within that community expressed more shock than surprise, given what has come before.

Emails that I received from Jewish security organizations included guidance to “only open events to identifiable individuals and prescreened invitation lists (e.g., no mass emails to the broad public” and “particularly for events open to the public, require registration and verification of registrants.”

Given ongoing security concerns in every Jewish community, I was surprised to see in the “Go Guide” of the Dec. 12 Atlanta Journal-Constitution a listing of Chanukah events that included the location and time of outdoor menorah lighting events.

In a video posted on LinkedIn, Brian Davis, the community security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, who works in conjunction with the Community Security Network, said that while there were no known threats against Atlanta’s Jewish community, “law enforcement presence will be increased at local events as an added precaution.”

Even with enhanced security, an event on a beach or other open public spaces is problematic.

In response to my question, Davis offered this recommendation: “I believe we should advertise our events using the date and time only and provide the address at the time of registration. I also recommend that we consistently require attendees to register in advance.”

The Chanukah story involves the miracle of a cruse of oil unexpectedly lasting for eight days and nights. The tradition is to publicize this miracle (“Prisum HaNes” in Hebrew) by placing a menorah so that its lights are visible beyond the home.

A section of the Shulchan Aruch, a code of Jewish law compiled in the 16th century CE (Common Era), states: “One should place the Hanukkah light at the entrance which adjoins the public domain, on the outside. If the house opens to the public domain, he should place it at its entrance. If there is a courtyard in front of the house, he should place it at the entrance of the courtyard. If he lives in the upper floor, having no entrance leading to the public domain, he should place it at a window that adjoins the public domain.”

Rachel Posner, in December 1931, placed a menorah in a window facing a Nazi headquarters as an act of defiance, shining a light in the face of darkness.

The Jews at Bondi Beach were defying the antisemitism in their midst, by welcoming Chanukah in a public domain.

I understand anyone, who, because of security concerns, opts not to display their menorah in a window.

This is a choice that each of us can make individually.