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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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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.