Uncategorized
8 snapshots of Hanukkah celebrations from around the world
(JTA) — Hanukkah may be considered a “minor holiday,” as rabbis will say, but its resonance and unique traditions offer a great window into Jewish communities around the world.
We’ve rounded up eight images, one for each candle of the menorah, that give a snapshot into how Jews — and, in a couple instances, how a few notable non-Jews — are celebrating the festival of lights this year, from Chile to Ukraine to Taiwan.
Kharkiv, Ukraine
Rabbi Moishe Moskovych lights the first Hanukkah candle. (Vyacheslav Madiyevskyi / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Most of the Jews of Kharkiv, formerly one of Ukraine’s hubs of Jewish life, are believed to have left since the start of the Russian war in February. But on Sunday, residents of the city in northeastern Ukraine found some respite on Sunday night at the Kharkiv Choral Synagogue, where, in an event led by a local chapter of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, participants made wax candles, wrapped tefillin and ate latkes with applesauce.
Denver, Colorado
(Image courtesy of Aish of the Rockies)
The Denver chapter of NCSY, the Orthodox Union’s youth group, unveiled a Lego menorah on Sunday that was built by over 425 teens and constructed from 25,000 Lego bricks. Standing at more than 24 and a half feet tall, the structure will be taken apart and the bricks will be donated to children in foster care in the United States and in Israel.
Denver NCSY’s leader, Rabbi Yonatan Nuszen, claims it is the largest Lego menorah in the world, will be taken apart and the bricks will be donated to children in foster care in the United States and in Israel. Another Lego menorah, though, claims it deserves the title of the largest in the world — this one in Israel.
Tel Aviv, Israel
A Lego menorah in Tel Aviv is in the running for a Guinness World Record. (Lego Store Israel/Instagram)
North Miami Beach-based artist Yitzchok Kasowitz claims that his Lego menorah at the Lego Store in Dizengoff Center, built with around 130,000 pieces, is the largest of its kind. According to the Times of Israel, it took a group of “Lego experts” just two marathon days to put it together.
Santiago, Chile
Chilean president Gabriel Boric lights the menorah accompanied by president and vice president of the Jewish community in Chile, Gerardo Gorodischer and Ariela Agosin, and chaplain of La Moneda, Rabbi Eduardo Waingortin. (Courtesy of the Chilean Jewish Community)
Chile’s far-left president Gabriel Boric has a complicated relationship with most of his country’s Jewish community, and he sparked a minor diplomatic crisis with Israel in September when he rebuffed the credentials of an Israeli envoy.
But on the Friday before Hanukkah, he attended his first official candle-lighting ceremony as president, in what has become a tradition at the La Moneda presidential palace for the last 14 years.
Speaking on Boric’s behalf, Chile’s Secretary General Ana Lya Uriarte said, “This celebration reassures the right that everyone has to practice their faith anywhere, anytime. Lighting these candles means illuminating us during easy and hard times.”
El presidente de la República, señor Gabriel Boric, el Capellán judío de La Moneda, Rabino Eduardo Waingortin, el presidente y la vicepresidenta de la Comunidad Judía de Chile, Gerardo Gorodischer y Ariela Agosin, encienden la vela servidora de la #Janukia.#JanucaEnLaMoneda pic.twitter.com/34mtWm5wRV
— Comunidad Judía de Chile (@comjudiachile) December 16, 2022
Helena, Montana
For the first time in nearly 90 years, Hanukkah lights shine from Temple Emanu-El. (Courtesy of Montana Jewish Project)
For the first time since 1934, the Jewish community of Helena celebrated Hanukkah on Sunday at Temple Emanu-El, the state’s first synagogue, after a months-long effort to buy back the building from the Catholic Diocese. The interfaith event was attended by nearly 150 guests, who enjoyed a (much smaller) menorah lighting, latkes, a photo booth, arts and crafts, and dreidel-playing. It was the first time in nearly 90 years that Hanukkah lights shone from this building.
Mumbai, India
(Gabe Miner)
Mumbai’s Jewish community, led by the Chabad of Mumbai, lit a large menorah this week at the Gateway of India, an early 20th century monument in the shape of an archway. After the candles were lit, guests were treated to a Hanukkah performance from students at the local Jewish school, featuring dancing and plastic swords. About 5,000 Jews live in Mumbai today.
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(Michelle Bolsonaro/Instagram)
On Monday, public Hanukkah candle lighting ceremonies took place in Brazil’s two most populous cities, where hundreds of people gathered to watch and the ceremonies were televised. Brazil’s first lady Michelle Bolsonaro posted a photo of a menorah and a bible in front of Brazilian and Israeli flags on her Instagram account, which received more than 420,000 likes. Her caption included the blessing for the Hanukkah candles in Hebrew.
Taipei, Taiwan
Members of the Taiwan Jewish Community hard at work on their menorahs. (Courtesy of Benjamin Schwall)
In the weeks preceding Hanukkah, members of the Taiwan Jewish Community in Taipei head to the Yingge district — an area famous for its production of ceramics — to shape and fire their own menorahs in what has become an annual tradition. The menorahs were then used to ring in the first night of Hanukkah on Sunday.
Jordyn Haime contributed to this article.
—
The post 8 snapshots of Hanukkah celebrations from around the world appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Jared Kushner Arrives in Israel for Gaza Talks with Netanyahu, Source Says
Jared Kushner listens as US Vice President JD Vance (not pictured) speaks to members of the media in Kiryat Gat, Israel, October 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
US President Donald Trump’s influential son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived in Israel on Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on implementing the US plan to end the Gaza war, a source familiar with the matter said.
Kushner was expected to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity as the meeting had not been formally announced. The White House and Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump announced a 20-point plan in September to end the two-year-old war in the Palestinian territory, starting with a ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 and the handover of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The militant group has released 20 living hostages and the remains of 24 hostages from Gaza since October 10. There are four deceased hostages whose remains are still being held in Gaza.
The next phase of the ceasefire is supposed to see the standing up of a multinational force that would gradually take over security inside Gaza from the Israeli military.
An Israeli government spokesperson said earlier on Sunday that there would be “no Turkish boots on the ground” in Gaza as part of that multinational force.
Asked about Israel’s objections to Turkish forces in Gaza, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said at a Manama security conference earlier this month that Turkey would participate.
Vice President JD Vance said last month there would be a “constructive role” for Ankara to play but that Washington wouldn’t force anything on Israel when it came to foreign troops “on their soil.”
Uncategorized
Netanyahu Faces Criticism Over Efforts to Block National Inquiry Into Oct. 7
FILE PHOTO: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a visit to the site of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was hit by an Iranian missile barrage, in the central city of Rehovot, Israel June 20, 2025. JACK GUEZ/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met last Friday with Likud MK Ariel Kellner to discuss advancing a bill that would establish an alternative commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre.
According to sources close to the matter, the legislative initiative has made no progress.
The meeting has drawn sharp criticism from opposition lawmakers. Deputy Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) accused Netanyahu of “continuing to mistreat bereaved families and all the victims of the war,” asserting that a national commission of inquiry will be created, period.” Deputy Naama Lazimi wrote on X, “So Netanyahu is sending Kellner as a proxy to pass a law that will exempt him from all responsibility for the massacre that took place under his governance? Who would have thought that Hamas’s financier would act this way?”
The Knesset is scheduled to hold a debate on Monday, at the opposition’s request and in the presence of the Prime Minister, on the creation of a national commission of inquiry to examine the failures of October 7. Yesh Atid emphasized, “765 days after the outbreak of the October 7 war, the Israeli government refuses to create a national commission that would provide answers to bereaved families. We will not stop fighting for them.”
The debate comes just days before the government must respond to a petition filed with the Supreme Court calling for the establishment of a national commission. The court has noted that “there is no real controversy regarding the very need to create a national commission with broad investigative powers.”
Uncategorized
Hamas Says Fighters Holed Up in Rafah Will Not Surrender
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 fighters holed up in the Israeli-held Rafah area of Gaza will not surrender to Israel, the group’s armed wing said on Sunday, urging mediators to find a solution to a crisis that threatens the month-old ceasefire.
Sources close to mediation efforts told Reuters on Thursday that fighters could surrender their arms in exchange for passage to other areas of the enclave under a proposal aimed at resolving the stalemate.
Egyptian mediators have proposed that, in exchange for safe passage, fighters still in Rafah surrender their arms to Egypt and give details of tunnels there so they can be destroyed, said one of the sources, an Egyptian security official.
Sunday’s statement from Al-Qassam Brigades held Israel responsible for engaging the fighters, who it said were defending themselves.
“The enemy must know that the concept of surrender and handing oneself over does not exist in the dictionary of the Al-Qassam Brigades,” the group said.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday that the proposed deal for about 200 fighters would be a test for a broader process to disarm Hamas forces across Gaza.
Al-Qassam Brigades did not comment directly on the continuing talks over the fighters in Rafah but implied that the crisis could affect the ceasefire.
“We place the mediators before their responsibilities, and they must find a solution to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire and prevent the enemy from using flimsy pretexts to violate it and exploit the situation to target innocent civilians in Gaza,” the group said.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect in Gaza on October 10, the Rafah area has been the scene of at least two attacks on Israeli forces, which Israel has blamed on Hamas. The militant group has denied responsibility.
Rafah has been the scene of the worst violence since the ceasefire took hold, with three Israeli soldiers killed, prompting Israeli retaliation that killed dozens of Palestinians.
Separately, Al-Qassam Brigades said it will hand over the body of deceased Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin in Gaza on Sunday at 2 p.m. (1200 GMT).
Since the ceasefire, Hamas has handed over the bodies of 23 of 28 deceased hostages. Hamas has said the devastation in Gaza has made locating the bodies difficult. Israel accuses Hamas of stalling.
Israel has released to Gaza the bodies of 300 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Local health authorities said on Sunday that one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Bani Suhaila east of Khan Younis, south of the enclave. The Israeli military made no immediate comment.