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‘All about light overcoming darkness’: How US Jews are celebrating Hanukkah with Israel at war
(JTA) — When tickets for Los Angeles’ Infinite Light Festival went on sale in October, just a week after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, sales were brisk. In fact, tickets sold out to the annual Hanukkah celebration held by the local Jewish federation’s young adult division, NuRoots, faster than in any other year.
“I truly believe that that’s because people are just craving to be in community, to celebrate, to be given permission to have a sense of joy, and to show up and have fun,” Chelsea Synder, vice president of NuRoots Community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Joy has felt hard to come by in Jewish communities since Oct. 7, as grief, fear and anxiety have been the prevailing emotions in the wake of the attack, Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza and a global explosion of antisemitism. Yet the arrival of Hanukkah — the first holiday since Simchat Torah, the date of the assault — has required Jews and their communities to figure out how to balance sadness and celebration.
For many, the symbolism of Hanukkah offers a handy way to thread the needle.
“It’s a difficult time, but Hanukkah is all about light overcoming darkness,” said Rabbi Aryeh Kaltmann, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Columbus, Ohio.
Hanukkah is a major event for Chabad, which is known for its public displays of Jewish practice surrounding holidays. The movement’s rabbis organized what it said were more than 15,000 public menorah lightings last year, including what its teen network said was the first-ever Hanukkah candle lighting at an NFL “Sunday Night Football” game.
Kaltmann has put together an expansive program called “Eight Nights of Fun” that includes someone dressed as Judah Maccabee skydiving from an airplane to light a menorah, a cannon shooting edible dreidels, a menorah lighting at a Columbus Blue Jackets NHL game and more. The over-the-top agenda was by design.
“The more we could do to bring out celebration and unity between Jewish kids and the community, the better,” Kaltmann said.
“Although it’s hard to celebrate Hanukkah when we know that there are brothers and sisters who are in prison for no crime of their own, just because they happen to be Jewish… we can ignite hope and love and a sense of camaraderie,” he added, referring to the 138 people still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. “When we do a good deed, that joy and that celebration can make a difference for our brothers and sisters in Israel.”
While Kaltmann’s plans are a turbocharged version of what he does every year, the war has given rise to a new set of just-for-wartime Hanukkah plans as well. A fundraising campaign called “Light of Strength” aims to raise $3.5 million to send Hanukkah gift cards to 75,000 Israeli children who have been displaced from their homes.
“When we think of Hanukkah, we think of the lights of Hanukkah, right? Bringing light into the darkness,” said Tali Reiner Brodetzki, an Israeli who lives in Pennsylvania and is leading the campaign. “A lot of the Hanukkah songs are about this: getting rid of the darkness, bringing light and joy. And this is what it’s all about — bringing light and joy to these kids’ lives.”
Young Jews celebrate Shabbat during the 2022 Infinite Light Hanukkah festival in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of NuRoots)
In New York, UJA-Federation is hosting a handful of Hanukkah events that also draw a direct connection to the war. Its Dec. 7 “Evening of Music and Light” is a benefit concert for Israel, while the event page for its Dec. 12 candle lighting reads: “With our focus on the war in Israel and the rise in antisemitism, most of us are seeking the comfort of our community and a reprieve from the alarming headlines.”
Those alarming headlines have included a spike in reported antisemitic incidents that have some Jews wary of showcasing their Jewish identity in public — a key requirement of the holiday. Adam Kulbersh, an actor and father in Los Angeles, launched the “Project Menorah” initiative to encourage non-Jews to display menorahs in their windows out of solidarity.
“We’re in a time of awful antisemitism, historic levels,” Kulbersh told JTA. “I think the idea of inviting our non-Jewish allies to add their light to ours in a time of darkness has really moved people.”
Some Jews who oppose the war are using the holiday to call attention to their cause. A group called Rabbis for Ceasefire is holding a Hanukkah candle-lighting in New York City on the first night of the holiday, for example.
But even as war and loss have reshaped some Hanukkah events, many others are proceeding largely along the same lines as they have in the past — with raucous fun layered upon a history that has included struggle and overcoming great odds.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, the local Chabad is hosting “Unite with Light: A Jewish Solidarity Chanukah Concert” with American-Israeli singer Nissim Black. The Bronx Jewish Center is also holding a Hanukkah concert with the Jewish a capella group The Maccabeats. The Chicago Loop Synagogue will put on a performance of “Hershel & the Hanukkah Goblins,” a story about a man who outsmarts a procession of goblins and saves the holiday for one shtetl.
And in Los Angeles, where NuRoots has planned a full slate of events to engage young Jews during the holiday — including L.A.’s sizable Israeli population — Snyder said the focus is on bringing the community together during “our darkest moments,” as the event page puts it.
“Hanukkah is the symbol of hope,” she said. “I think all of us can really lean into what hope means for us, regardless of how you affiliate yourself politically. I think the world is hard. And I think that hope and light and this idea of celebrating and coming back to joy, and donuts and latkes, it makes us connected on a level that’s deeper than ourselves.”
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The post ‘All about light overcoming darkness’: How US Jews are celebrating Hanukkah with Israel at war appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel Says Its Missions in UAE Remain Open Despite Reported Security Threats
President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities.
This includes, the statement underlined, ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, reports appeared in Israeli media that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country for fear of an Iranian or Iran-sponsored attacks.
“We are emphasizing this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organizations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” the NSC said in a statement.
After signing the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the UAE has been among the closest regional allies of the Jewish state.
Israel is concerned about its citizens and diplomats being targeted in retaliatory attacks following its 12-day war against Iran last month.
Earlier this year, the UAE sentenced three citizens of Uzbekistan to death for last year’s murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Cohen.
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Hamas Says It Won’t Disarm Unless Independent Palestinian State Established
Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard on the day of the handover of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Hamas said on Saturday that it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established – a fresh rebuke to a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.
Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza war and deal for the release of hostages ended last week in deadlock.
On Tuesday, Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating ceasefire efforts, endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia outlining steps toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and saying that as part of this Hamas must hand over its arms to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
In its statement, Hamas – which has dominated Gaza since 2007 but has been militarily battered by Israel in the war – said it could not yield its right to “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” is established.
Israel considers the disarmament of Hamas a key condition for any deal to end the conflict, but Hamas has repeatedly said it is not willing to lay down its weaponry.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described any future independent Palestinian state as a platform to destroy Israel and said, for that reason, security control over Palestinian territories must remain with Israel.
He also criticized several countries, including the UK and Canada, for announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state in response to devastation of Gaza from Israel’s offensive and blockade, calling the move a reward for Hamas’ conduct.
The war started when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.
Israel and Hamas traded blame after the most recent round of talks ended in an impasse, with gaps lingering over issues including the extent of an Israeli military withdrawal.
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US Envoy Witkoff Visits the Gaza Aid Operation That the UN Calls Unsafe
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy visited a US-backed aid operation in Gaza on Friday, which the United Nations has partly blamed for deadly conditions in the enclave, saying he sought to get food and other aid to people there.
Steve Witkoff visited a site run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah in the war-shattered Palestinian territory, where Israel has been fighting the militant group Hamas.
Humanitarian organizations and many foreign governments have been strongly critical of the GHF, which began operations in late May. A global hunger monitor warned this week that famine is unfolding in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it was still looking into the incident in which soldiers fired warning shots at what it described as a “gathering of suspects” approaching its troops, hundreds of meters from the aid site.
The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.
The Israeli military has acknowledged that its forces have killed some Palestinians seeking aid and says it has given its troops new orders to improve their response.
The UN has declined to work with the GHF, which it says distributes aid in ways that are inherently dangerous and violate humanitarian neutrality principles, contributing to the hunger crisis across the territory.
The GHF says nobody has been killed at its distribution points, and that it is doing a better job of protecting aid deliveries than the U.N.
Israel blames Hamas and the U.N. for the failure of food to get to desperate Palestinians in Gaza and introduced the GHF distribution system, saying it would prevent aid supplies being seized by Hamas. Hamas denies stealing aid.
Indirect negotiations between the sides aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal ended last week in deadlock.
Hamas on Friday released a video of Israeli hostage Evyatar David in one of its tunnels appearing skeletally thin. Its allied Islamic Jihad militant group released a video on Thursday of hostage Rom Braslavski, crying and pleading for his release.
CRAFTING A PLAN
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who traveled with Witkoff to Gaza on Friday, posted on X a picture showing hungry Gazans behind razor wire with a GHF poster displaying a big American flag and the words “100,000,000 meals delivered.”
“President Trump understands the stakes in Gaza and that feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority,” GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay said in a statement accompanied by images of Witkoff in a grey camouflage top, flak jacket and “Make America Great Again” baseball cap with Trump’s name stitched on the back.
Witkoff said on X that he had also met with other agencies.
“The purpose of the visit was to give @POTUS (Trump) a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza,” Witkoff said.
He visited Gaza a day after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel is under mounting international pressure over the devastation of Gaza since the start of the war and growing starvation among its 2.2 million inhabitants.
MALNUTRITION
Gaza medics say dozens have died of malnutrition in recent days after Israel cut off all supplies to the enclave for nearly three months from March-May.
Israel says it is taking steps to let in more aid, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
The worsening crisis has prompted France, Britain and Canada to announce plans to potentially recognize a Palestinian state, a move already taken by most countries but not by major Western powers.
On Friday, the Israeli military said that 200 trucks of aid were distributed by the U.N. and other organizations on Thursday, with hundreds more waiting to be picked up from the border crossings inside Gaza.
The United Nations says it has thousands of trucks still waiting, if Israel would let them in without the stringent security measures that aid groups say have prevented the entry of humanitarian assistance.
Israel began allowing food air drops this week, but U.N. agencies say these are a poor alternative to letting in more trucks. On Friday, the Israeli military said that 126 food packages were airdropped by six countries, including for the first time France, Spain, and Germany.