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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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ICE Arrests Pro-Hamas Activist at Columbia University
Illustrative: Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media at Columbia University encampment in New York City, US, June 1, 2024. Photo: Jeenah Moon via Reuters Connect
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday night arrested a male alumnus of Columbia University who was a leading anti-Israel agitator on campus and an architect of the Hamilton Hall building takeover, which took place during the closing weeks of the 2023-2024 academic year.
ICE agents picked up Mahmoud Khalil, who recently participated in another building takeover at Barnard College, on Columbia’s campus at his university-owned apartment, his attorney, Amy Greer, told several news outlets. The agents reportedly explained that they were acting on a US State Department order to revoke his student visa and permanent resident status.
Mahmoud is a Palestinian from Syria. He completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University in December and is awaiting the formal granting of his diploma.
In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security said ICE arrested Khalil “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism.”
The department continued, “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting US national security.”
ICE’s arrest of the student follows an executive order by the Trump administration that calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.” A major provision of the order calls for the deportation of extremist “alien” student activists, whose support for terrorist organizations, intellectual and material, such as Hamas contributed to fostering antisemitism, violence, and property destruction on college campuses. Trump has also said that foreign students who hold demonstrations in support of Hamas “will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”
So far, Columbia University has been the administration’s main focus, as the school continues to be convulsed by pro-Hamas activists.
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Columbia remains one of the most hostile campuses for Jews employed by or enrolled in an institution of higher education. Since Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the university has produced several indelible examples of campus antisemitism, including a student who proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, brutal gang-assaults on Jewish students, and administrative officials who, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting.
Amid these incidents, the university has struggled to contain the anti-Zionist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which in late January committed an act of infrastructural sabotage by flooding the toilets of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with concrete. Numerous reports indicate the attack may have been the premeditated result of planning sessions which took place many months ago at an event held by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) — a literary society, according to the Washington Free Beacon. During the event, the Free Beacon reported, ADP distributed literature dedicated to “aspiring revolutionaries” who wish to commit seditious acts. Additionally, a presentation was given in which complete instructions for the exact kind of attack which struck Columbia were shared with students.
In recent weeks, CUAD occupied two buildings at Barnard College, disregarding threats that doing so would lead to swift and severe disciplinary sanctions, including possible expulsion.
Following the incidents, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia as punishment for its failing to address the issue, executing an ultimatum delivered by US Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
Some groups are unhappy with the administration’s policies on pro-Hamas advocacy, however, and following Khalil’s arrest, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) denounced his detainment as unconstitutional.
“The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil — a green card holder studying in this country legally — is targeted, retaliatory, an and extreme attack his First Amendment rights,” NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said on Sunday in a public statement. “Ripping a student from their home, challenging their immigration status, and detaining them solely based on political viewpoint will chill student speech and advocacy across campus. Political speech should never be a basis of punishment, or lead to deportation.”
On Monday, however, US President Donald Trump defended Khalil’s arrest and said it will be the first of many.
“This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
Trump went on to argue that the presence of those who support terrorism on US soil undermines American national security interests, adding that he expects colleges and universities to cpmply with his executive order.
On Friday, Columbia University, which has been accused of refusing to impose disciplinary sanctions on pro-Hamas activists, announced that is has suspended four of its students who were identified as co-conspirators in the latest storming and occupation of a Barnard College building, which took place on Wednesday at the Milstein Center.
“These students have been suspended and restricted from campus as we swiftly work through the discipline process,” the university said in a statement. “We are a campus governed by our rules, policies, and the law. Any violations of these will not be tolerated and will have consequences.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ICE Arrests Pro-Hamas Activist at Columbia University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Releases ‘New Day Will Rise,’ to Be Performed by Yuval Raphael in 2025 Eurovision Song Contest
Yuval Raphael in the music video for her new song “New Day Will Rise.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
Israel debuted on Sunday night the full song that Yuval Raphael will perform in the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, this May.
Israel’s Kan 11 premiered during a live broadcast the music video for “New Day Will Rise,” a powerful ballad written by singer-songwriter Keren Peles that has mostly English lyrics but with some French and Hebrew as well. Yuval, 24, lives in the Israeli city of Ra’anana — same as Noa Kirel, Israel’s representative in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest – but lived as a child with her family in Switzerland for three years. She is fluent in Hebrew, English, and French.
Raphael sings in the chorus: “New day will rise/ Life will go on/ Everyone cries/ Don’t cry alone/ Darkness will fade/ All the pain will go by/ But we will stay / Even if you say goodbye.” The song has a Hebrew line from the biblical Song of Songs, which translates to: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.”
Raphael survived the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, in Re’im, Israel, after hiding from Hamas terrorists in a roadside bomb shelter. She pretended to be dead and laid under dead bodies for several hours until she was rescued. Terrorists killed 370 people and abducted 44 hostages at the site of the festival.
In the music video for “New Day Will Rise,” Raphael and a group of young people gather together to sing, dance, and enjoy each other’s company in a grassy area, which is reminiscent of what young Israelis did at the Nova music festival before the Hamas-led Oct. 7 onslaught. Red anemones, Israel’s national flower and the flower that is known for growing specifically in the southern region, are seen in the grass in the music video.
In mid-January, Raphael won the Israeli television singing competition “HaKochav Haba” (“Rising Star”), whose winner goes on to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest.
“Throughout the season of ‘Rising Star,’ I chose songs solely from a place of emotion, as soon as I felt a twinge in my stomach,” Raphael told Kan 11. “When I heard this song [‘New Day Will Rise’], I had a twinge in my stomach and said – ‘This is your song.’” She also commented on the song’s connection to her surviving the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
“One of the most exciting things that has happened to me in my life is the very extreme transition from the most terrible event of my life on Oct. 7, to such a great and empowering moment – representing my country at Eurovision. The feeling of personal victory is immense,” she said.
The lyrics and the video for “New Day Will Rise” has been approved by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision Song Contest. Last year, Israel’s original song submission, “October Rain,” was rejected by the EBU for being too political since it referenced the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Kan ultimately rewrote the song and titled it “Hurricane.” It was performed in the Eurovision by Eden Golan, who finished fifth place in the competition.
Israel has been competing in the Eurovision since 1973 and won four times — in 1978 with Izhar Cohen’s “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” 1979 with Milk and Honey’s “Hallelujah,” 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva,” and most recently 2018 with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy.”
Raphael will compete in the second semifinal of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on May 15 and, if she advances, will compete in the grand final on May 18.
Watch the music video for “New Day Will Rise” below.
The post Israel Releases ‘New Day Will Rise,’ to Be Performed by Yuval Raphael in 2025 Eurovision Song Contest first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Two Men Face US Trial Over Iran-Backed Plot to Kill Dissident
Rafat Amirov appears in court charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for his role in the thwarted Tehran-backed assassination attempt of a journalist and activist, who is a US citizen, during his arraignment hearing before Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave at a courtroom in New York, US, Jan. 27, 2023 in this courtroom sketch. Photo: REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
Two men accused of being members of a Russian organized crime group will face trial in the United States on Monday over what prosecutors call an unsuccessful Tehran-backed attempt to kill an Iranian dissident living in New York.
Federal prosecutors say Iran‘s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a US-designated terrorist organization, in 2021 hired Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, members of a “Russian mob” sub-group, to kill an Iranian American journalist and activist who has spoken out against the Iranian government’s treatment of women.
Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, have pleaded not guilty to murder for hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering.
Omarov’s lawyer, Elena Fast, said in a statement, “Mr. Omarov is presumed innocent.” Amirov’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment. In court papers, lawyers for both men have said it was “inaccurate” to refer to them as members of the Russian mob.
Prosecutors have not named the target of the alleged plot, who they have said in court papers is expected to testify at the trial.
Masih Alinejad, a journalist who left Iran in 2009, has told Reuters she was the target of both the alleged murder plot and a previous alleged attempt by Iranian intelligence officers to kidnap her and take her to Iran.
Alinejad has brought attention to women in Iran protesting laws requiring head coverings, as well as accounts of Iranians killed in demonstrations in 2019.
“I am very excited to join the public trial as a witness to testify against those who were hired by the Islamic Republic to kill me,” Alinejad said in an interview on Friday. “It’s like I’ve been given a second life.”
The trial, before US District Judge Colleen McMahon, kicks off with jury selection on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
The charges were part of a broader push by the Justice Department during former President Joe Biden’s administration to crack down on transnational repression, or efforts by US adversaries like Iran and China to silence dissidents on American soil.
The two-week trial could provide a window into alleged ties between Iran‘s government and criminal organizations prosecutors say it hires to do its “dirty work.”
A representative of Iran‘s UN mission did not respond to a request for comment on the trial of Amirov and Omarov.
US prosecutors in 2021 brought charges against four Iranian intelligence officers over the alleged kidnapping plot. They are at large, and Tehran has called the allegations baseless.
The alleged murder plot came to light in 2022, when Khalid Mehdiyev – an alleged co-conspirator of Amirov and Omarov – was arrested outside Alinejad’s New York home with an AK-47 rifle.
Prosecutors say a Revolutionary Guard brigadier general named Ruhollah Bazghandi began monitoring Alinejad in July 2021. They say Bazghandi later hired Amirov, an alleged Russian mob leader living in Iran at the time, to kill her. Omarov and Mehdiyev are also part of the mob, prosecutors said.
Bazghandi was also charged but is not in US custody.
Mehdiyev, 26, pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire charges in February 2023, but the status of his case is unclear. Prison records show he was released from US custody on May 19, 2023.
Neither a Justice Department spokesperson nor a lawyer for Mehdiyev responded to requests for comment.
The post Two Men Face US Trial Over Iran-Backed Plot to Kill Dissident first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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