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From Kibbutz Be’eri to the White House, menorahs retrieved from Oct. 7 wreckage light up for Hanukkah
(JTA) — When New York City’s mayor lit Hanukkah candles with some of his Jewish constituents this week, he didn’t turn to a menorah with a long local history. Instead, he used one crafted from materials reclaimed from the Israeli music festival ravaged on Oct. 7, in what one person on hand called “a symbol of light, unity, and the perseverance of the Jewish people.”
The mayor, Eric Adams, wasn’t the only person to turn to the wreckage of Oct. 7 when lighting candles during Hanukkah, a holiday that celebrates an ancient Jewish victory over foes who sought to extinguish them. In the wake of the attack and in the shadow of the war it began, as well as a reported rise in antisemitism, Oct. 7-related menorahs have taken on special significance.
Here are the stories of three menorahs with ties to Israel’s devastated communities that have been lit up for Hanukkah this year.
From Kibbutz Be’eri, a rescued menorah offers a sign of hope
Tamir Hershkovitz lit his family’s menorah in the ruins of his childhood home in Kibbutz Be’eri on the first night of Hanukkah, Dec. 7. His parents, Maayana and Noah Hershkovitz, as well as his grandmother Shoshana Karsenty, had all been killed in the massacre.
The menorah belonged to his late grandfather, Yosef, who was a Holocaust survivor and partisan during World War II. An artist from Tamir Hershkovitz’s community created a large, golden replica of the family menorah and presented it to him and his sisters ahead of the candle-lighting in Be’eri, but they used the original that night.
In videos shared on social media, Hershkovitz sang traditional Hanukkah songs including “Maoz Tzur” and “Al Hanisim,” as well as “I Believe,” a song based on a poem by the turn-of-the-20th-century Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky. For years, many have said that “I Believe” could be an alternative national anthem to “Hatikvah“, and the song has taken on new meaning for families of those killed on Oct. 7.
החנוכייה החרוכה שהופיעה על שער “ידיעות אחרונות” ביום שבו נחשפו תמונות החורבן בקיבוץ בארי, נותרה כעדות אילמת לתופת. אתמול חזר תמיר הרשקוביץ לבית ההרוס, והדליק נר ראשון של חנוכה לזכר הוריו, מעיינה ונח ז”ל, שנרצחו ב־7 באוקטובר pic.twitter.com/BEktLtjImc
— ידיעות אחרונות (@YediotAhronot) December 8, 2023
“Once I sing, I’m happy. And now I’m happy,” Hershkovitz told Yediot Ahronot about lighting candles at the site of his family’s great tragedy. “I choose, for my parents, to be happy.”
The Hershkovitz menorah is not the only one to take on special significance at Be’eri, which was hit particularly hard on Oct. 7. In late November, with Hanukkah approaching, an Israeli photographer captured a man lifting the mangled remains of a family menorah from the ruins of a home on the kibbutz. From details the photographer offered in a Jerusalem Post essay, it is likely that the menorah came from the Avigdori-Shoham-Kipnis family. Two members of the family were murdered that day, as well as their caretaker; seven were taken hostage, of whom six were released last month.
Family member whose father was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, searches in the rubble of his home for memories, in Kibbutz Be’eri, Nov. 30, 2023. (Chen Schimmel/Flash90)
“As the man cradles this symbol of his family’s past, the scene captures the heart of the Hanukkah spirit. It is a reminder that even in the depths of despair, the indestructible light of hope, tradition, and resilience flickers on,” wrote the photographer, Chen Schimmel. “In the discovery of this hanukkiah, we see a reflection of our own ability to find strength and light, even when surrounded by the ashes of destruction.”
A menorah from the rubble of Kfar Azza makes the rounds in Washington, D.C.
This menorah, which is on display at the White House Hanukkah party, was recovered from the rubble of the home in Kfar Azza. pic.twitter.com/AjSdB1UjMt
— William Daroff (@Daroff) December 11, 2023
President Joe Biden proudly announced during the White House’s Hanukkah party on Monday that the menorah to be lit was the presidential residence’s first permanent one, fashioned from one of its beams. But he also acknowledged another menorah on display that night: a glass candelabra that a man had retrieved from his home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, another hard-hit southern Israeli community.
“Like the ancient Hanukkah story, buried [in] piles of shattered glass, burned debris, and bullet-riddled walls, he pulled something from the ashes fully intact: a menorah,” Biden said, calling it “a symbol of the Jewish people that not only survive but heal, rebuild and continue to shine their light on the world.”
The menorah came from the home of Shai Hermesh, a former member of Israel’s parliament who spent 20 hours in a safe room with his wife and daughter and lost his son Omer, 47, during the attack. When Hermesh returned to the rubble of his home some time after the attack, he found his tefillin and the menorah, which was still intact.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog lent the menorah to Biden. On Tuesday, the menorah was used during a second D.C. ceremony, at the Israeli embassy.
A menorah found in the rubble of Kfar Aza shines at a Hanukkah reception held at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Dec. 12. 2023. (Shmulik Almany, Embassy of Israel)
A mangled license plate becomes a source of light in New York
It wasn’t just the menorah that made Oct. 7 a presence at Gracie Mansion, New York City’s mayoral residence, during its Hanukkah ceremony. Adams vowed to keep the city’s Jewish population safe amid a subsequent spike in reported antisemitic incidents.
“The evils of our October 7th, it broke all of our hearts,” he said. “And now we must go to a real place of healing each other and healing our city. And to my Jewish community, I want you to know you’re not alone.”
Then he helped light a menorah whose origins lay at one of the most piercing symbols of Israel’s loss, the Nova music festival where 360 young adults were murdered.
Eliyahu Skaist, a Jewish metalworker in the city, fashioned the menorah from the license plate of a car burned at the festival site, where many people were killed while trying to flee. He mounted the seared plate on Jerusalem stone, which was inscribed with a biblical verse from the prophet Micah vowing to rise again after a defeat.
The menorah used at the Gracie Mansion Hanukkah ceremony Dec. 12, 2023, was fashioned from a license plate retrieved from the site of the Nova massacre in Israel. (Courtesy Mayor Eric Adams via X)
“Melding remnants of heartbreak with the bedrock of tradition, this menorah is not merely a commemorative piece, but a bold declaration,” tweeted Dovi Safier, an Orthodox writer who played a role in retrieving the plate. “It loudly proclaims the everlasting miracle of Jewish survival and hope, affirming the commitment to life and light over the forces of terror and darkness.”
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The post From Kibbutz Be’eri to the White House, menorahs retrieved from Oct. 7 wreckage light up for Hanukkah appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Treasure Trove explores the curious case of a stamp from an imaginary land
This 1 V. postage revenue stamp from West Refaim was postmarked in Virikoso in South Giantsland 100 years ago. Problem is—none of these places ever existed. There is a second […]
The post Treasure Trove explores the curious case of a stamp from an imaginary land appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Israel Has Told ICC It Will Contest Arrest Warrants, Netanyahu Says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: ABIR SULTAN POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has informed the International Criminal Court that it will contest arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant over their conduct of the Gaza war, Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.
The office also said that US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had updated Netanyahu “on a series of measures he is promoting in the US Congress against the International Criminal Court and against countries that would cooperate with it.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants last Thursday for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
The move comes after the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on May 20 that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
“Israel today submitted a notice to the International Criminal Court of its intention to appeal to the court, along with a demand to delay the execution of the arrest warrants,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Court spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah told journalists that if requests for an appeal were submitted it would be up to the judges to decide
The court’s rules allow for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that would pause or defer an investigation or a prosecution for a year, with the possibility of renewing that annually.
After a warrant is issued the country involved or a person named in an arrest warrant can also issue a challenge to the jurisdiction of the court or the admissibility of the case.
The post Israel Has Told ICC It Will Contest Arrest Warrants, Netanyahu Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Girls Attacked in London With Glass Bottles in Antisemitic Outrage
Shomrim officers at the scene of a hate crime in London in which Jewish girls were struck with glass bottles. Photo: Shomrim Stamford Hill/Screenshot
A group of young Jewish girls were the victims of an “abhorrent hate crime” when a man hurled glass bottles at them from a balcony as they were walking through the Stamford Hill section of London on Monday evening.
One of the girls was struck in the head and rushed to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, according to local law enforcement.
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the Woodberry Down Estate in the city’s borough of Hackney following reports of an assault on Monday evening at 7:44 pm local time.
“A group of schoolgirls had been walking through the estate when a bottle was thrown from the upper floor of a building,” the spokesperson said. “A 16-year-old girl was struck on the head and was taken to hospital. Her injuries have since been assessed as non-life changing.”
Police noted they were unable to locate the suspect and an investigation is ongoing before adding, “The incident is being treated as a potential antisemitic hate crime.”
Following the incident, Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and serves as a neighborhood watch group, reported that the girls were en route to a rehearsal for an upcoming event. The community, the group added, was “shocked” by the attack on “innocent young Jewish girls,” calling it an “abhorrent hate crime.”
14-year-old girl rushed to Hospital with head & facial injuries following an attack in #StamfordHill.
Young Jewish girls on their way to a rehearsal were pelted with glass bottles by a male on a balcony at Woodberry Down Estate N4.
This… pic.twitter.com/MzHPHusgyX
— Shomrim (London North & East) (@Shomrim) November 26, 2024
Since then, another Jewish girl, age 14, has reported being pelted with a hard object which caused her to be “knocked unconscious, and left feeling dizzy and with a bump on her head,” according to Shomrim.
Monday’s crime was one among many which have targeted London Jews in recent years, an issue The Algemeiner has reported on extensively.
Last December, an Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted by a man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, two attackers brutally mauled a Jewish woman, and a group of Jewish children was berated by a woman who screamed “I’ll kill all of you Jews. You are murderers!” A similar incident occurred when a man confronted a Jewish shopper and shouted, “You f—king Jew, I will kill you!”
Months prior, a perpetrator stalked and assaulted an Orthodox Jewish woman. He followed her, shouting “dirty Jew” before snatching her shopping bag and “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing.” That incident followed a woman wielding a wooden stick approaching a Jewish woman near the Seven Sisters area and declaring “I am doing it because you are Jew,” while striking her over the head and pouring liquid on her. The next day, the same woman — described by an eyewitness as a “serial racist” — chased a mother and her baby with a wooden stick after spraying liquid on the baby. That same week, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f—king Jew.”
According to an Algemeiner review of Metropolitan Police Service data, 2,383 antisemitic hate crimes occurred in London between October 2023 and October 2024, eclipsing the full-year totals of 550 in 2022 and 845 in 2021. The problem is so serious that city officials created a new bus route to help Jewish residents “feel safe” when they travel.
“Jewish Londoners have felt scared to leave their homes,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan told The Jewish Chronicle in a statement about the policy decision earlier this year. “So, this direct bus link between these two significant communities [Stamford Hill in Hackney and Golders Green in Barnet, areas with two of the biggest Jewish communities in London] means you can travel on the 310, not need to change, and be safe and feel safer. I hope that will lead to more Londoners from these communities using public transport safely.”
Khan added that the route “connects communities, connects congregations” and would reassure Jewish Londoners they would be “safe when they travel between these two communities.”
However, it doesn’t solve the problem at hand — an explosion of antisemitism unlike anything seen in the Western world since World War II. Just this week, according to a story by GB News, an unknown group scattered leaflets across the streets of London which threatened that “every Zionist needs to leave Britain or be slaughtered.”
Responding to this latest incident, the director of the Jewish civil rights group StandWithUs UK Isaaz Zarfati told GB News that the comments should be taken “seriously.”
“We are witnessing a troubling trend of red lines being repeatedly crossed,” he said. “This is not just another wave that will pass if we remain passive. We must take those threats and statement seriously because they will one day turn into actions, and decisive steps are needed to combat this alarming phenomenon.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Girls Attacked in London With Glass Bottles in Antisemitic Outrage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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