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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.
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The post 8 snapshots of Hanukkah celebrations from around the world appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.