Celebrating During Wartime, Jerusalem Residents Express Hope for a Modern-Day Hanukkah Miracle
Residents reflect on the holiday's themes of miracles and light while longing for the return of hostages and peace
On the second Hanukkah since the October 7, 2023 Hamas incursion into southern Israel, residents of Jerusalem are finding meaning in the holiday’s themes of miracles and light amid darkness
With Israeli soldiers still fighting on several fronts, the holiday of Hanukkah has taken on additional meaning in Israel this year. The eight-day festival is both an opportunity to spread light and warmth in the dark winter and a commemoration of a miraculous military victory. Jerusalem residents who spoke to The Media Line described hoping that this year’s Hanukkah would bring its own miracle.
Ron described the difficulty of knowing that hostages are still held by Hamas and that Israeli soldiers are still fighting. “We miss them,” he said. “We think about them every day and every night. I hope this holiday will be the last Hanukkah without them, and I hope that the lights will bring hope.”
We think about them every day and every night. I hope this holiday will be the last Hanukkah without them.
For Toby, who is originally from Ohio, spending Hanukkah in Israel without the hostages brings a collective grief. “I feel like last Hanukkah, I was feeling very hopeless, and I was very worried about the hostages,” she said. “I was very sad, and being so far away from Israel was even harder, because I didn’t know what was going on exactly and the media is very confusing. I was so worried, and I was just sad, and I was just praying and praying for the hostages. And this year, in Israel, you still feel the sadness that the hostages aren’t here, but I feel so much hope and so much unity with all the Jews here and how Hanukkah is a time of connection.”
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
Noam Roth, the CEO of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Jerusalem, highlighted the military victories of the past year alongside the difficulties of the continued hostage crisis. “We experienced a string of victories, and, thanks to God, we’re witnessing major miracles that the nation of Israel has experienced over the past year,” he said. “If God wills it, with the help of these miracles, we want for this miracle to continue and be perfected, for all the hostages to return healthy and in one piece, for our soldiers to succeed in their missions and also return healthy and in one piece, for the wounded to get well soon.”
People want to be together more
Assaf, a born and bred Jerusalemite, said that connections among people in Jerusalem have increased since the war began. “What’s changed here is the connection among people. They’re more connected. I think it might be related to October 7, to the war,” he said. “People want to be together more. I see it at the piano, more than I did last year. I want to say to all the Jews from around the world, have a happy Hanukkah, we are strong together, and it will be OK.”
The nation of Israel lives and exists, forever and ever
Yosef Yitzhok Slonim, a Chabad rabbi in central Jerusalem, compared the current situation to that of the Hanukkah story. “Just as then there were the Greeks who wanted to make the Jews forget God’s Torah, to make the Jews be forgotten, and it didn’t work out for them, similarly such a thing will not happen now,” he said. “To the contrary, the nation of Israel lives and exists, forever and ever.”
Speaking at a menorah lighting ceremony, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs described Hanukkah as “a holiday when we truly pray for the light amid so much darkness.”
“Let us all pray together, both for total victory on all fronts and for the return of all the hostages,” he said.
