Concealing the Symbolic Hanukkah Menorah as Antisemitism Continues To Threaten Liberties
Some Diaspora Jews will forgo public Hanukkah celebrations this year due to antisemitism fears
At a time of record antisemitism, Diaspora Jews are contemplating the best – and safest – ways to celebrate Hanukkah, the fun, family-oriented holiday that begins this year at sundown on December 25.
Many say the hate directed toward Jewish communities in North America, Europe, and beyond has strengthened their Jewish pride and made them more determined to publicly celebrate their Judaism, especially during the eight-day Hanukkah festival. Others have decided to forgo any public demonstration of their Jewish faith this year, fearful that violent antisemites will attack them or their community.
That concern is warranted. In the past month alone, synagogues in Australia and Canada have been targeted by arsonists. The city of Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago, issued a statement saying that while it will permit a menorah lighting ceremony on one night of Hanukkah, “the menorah will not remain” for the entire holiday because the city must “ensure safe public access.” In the UK, a London city council decided it would be “unwise” to display a Hanukkah menorah this year because doing so would “risk further inflaming tensions within our communities.”
In the US, the Anti-Defamation League flagged more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas attacked Israel, and September 24, 2024 – an unprecedented number. The incidents included hate crimes, vandalism of synagogues and other Jewish property, insults, and bullying. Many occurred on college campuses, where Jewish students were targeted for supporting Israel or for simply being Jewish.
The Chabad movement, which lights hundreds of Hanukkah menorahs worldwide in public settings, recently printed a letter from a Jewish woman who was afraid to attend a Chabad-sponsored Hanukkah event.
“A humongous menorah is a lightning rod,” the woman wrote. I used to put my menorah in the front picture window of our house, but since last year, I’ve been scared of having my window smashed. My advice is to lay low until things get friendlier again. See you some other time.”
Melissa Chapman shares this fear.
Of course, I’m concerned. I’m glad that I live in a community that is tolerant, but there is a very real fear of displaying a Hanukkah menorah in my window this year. Will it bring pro-Palestinian supporters to my front door? Will it compromise my safety? These are all real concerns based on what is happening in America when Jews publicly express their Jewish pride and pride in Israel.
“Of course, I’m concerned. I’m glad that I live in a community that is tolerant, but there is a very real fear of displaying a Hanukkah menorah in my window this year,” the New York resident said. “Will it bring pro-Palestinian supporters to my front door? Will it compromise my safety? These are all real concerns based on what is happening in America when Jews publicly express their Jewish pride and pride in Israel.”
Rachel, a proud Jewish East Coast professional, is also ambivalent about outwardly expressing her Jewish faith this holiday season.
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“Last year, I was more open and defiant. Now I’m just …. like I’m retreating a little bit. I hate that, though. Like, am I the kind of Jew that would have stood up for our people in the past? Or am I meek and quiet and acting afraid?”
Rachel, who asked to be identified by her Hebrew name and not her legal name, said she feels like she is reverting to her childhood, where she grew up in an area with very few Jews. She recalled “‘playing along’ with everything Christmas to avoid problems. But I didn’t feel as endangered then as I do now. This feels more like a matter of actual personal safety than just wanting to ‘lay low.”
I swing between wanting to be defiantly, out loud, capital-J Jewish and wanting to hide it all just to be safe.
Since the Oct. 7 attack, Rachel said, “I swing between wanting to be defiantly, out loud, capital-J Jewish and wanting to hide it all just to be safe.” While packing for a recent trip to Western Europe to visit her husband’s non-Jewish family, she decided not to bring her Star of David necklace or anything else overtly Jewish or referring to Israel.
I’m genuinely scared for my safety, and at the same time, I’m constantly keeping an eye out for the antisemitic dog whistles that seem to have become mainstream in the past year, so I can know what and where to avoid. I will continue to light candles for the hostages and the families and victims of Oct. 7 – that has permeated the way I exist as a Jew overall, including during holidays like Hanukkah – but only indoors.
“I’m genuinely scared for my safety, and at the same time, I’m constantly keeping an eye out for the antisemitic dog whistles that seem to have become mainstream in the past year, so I can know what and where to avoid,” she said. “I will continue to light candles for the hostages and the families and victims of Oct. 7 – that has permeated the way I exist as a Jew overall, including during holidays like Hanukkah – but only indoors.”
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, one of the largest Jewish organizations in the US, understands such fears. The OU represents a visibly Jewish population whose acts of antisemitism have disproportionately impacted.
“We fear that antisemitism could become normalized in the United States. There isn’t a Jewish institution that has not adjusted its security protocols. This is since Pittsburgh, and it keeps going up,” Hauer said, referring to the deadly 2018 terror attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue, where 11 of the synagogue’s members were murdered during Shabbat morning prayers.
Despite such attacks, the OU and countless other Jewish organizations, synagogues, and community centers are determined not to allow hate to diminish the joy of Hanukkah and being Jewish. Many offer holiday events, especially for children, single people, and adults.
“This isn’t a matter of bravado; it’s a matter of necessity not just for the Jewish community but for the United States. Americans cannot allow the country to become a place where any faith community or ethnic community feels they cannot be as visible as they are. We carry our Jewish identity on our sleeve, on our heads, and Hanukkah, in the windows of our homes,” Hauer said.
Iranian-born Leora Abdolazadeh refuses to hide her faith.
I will put my menorah on my windowsill and celebrate. I am proud to say I am a Jew. Growing up in Iran, I spent 15 years of my life pretending not to be Jewish so as not to make any waves, and I am done hiding my religion.
Like every year, “I will put my menorah on my windowsill and celebrate,” Abdolazdeh, from New York, said. “I am proud to say I am a Jew. Growing up in Iran, I spent 15 years of my life pretending not to be Jewish so as not to make any waves, and I am done hiding my religion.”
Larry Brook, the Alabama-based publisher and editor of Southern Jewish Life magazine, will be lighting more than a menorah or two. Not to be outdone by his Christian neighbors, for almost two decades, he has built an elaborate blue-and-white light Hanukkah display that features a 14-by-20-foot, 2,500-light 14-by-20-foot menorah, a seven-foot spinning dreide,l and more.
“To respond to that guy on other roofs, I have a Fiddler on ours,” Brook quipped. “We have been a favorite stop on the Wacky Tacky Lights tour for years, and I get on the buses, pass out chocolate gelt”—coins made of chocolate—“and give a short explanation of Hanukkah to hundreds of non-Jews. Throughout the year, people see me and say, ‘You’re the Hanukkah house.’”
Brook said all of this is possible because the larger community welcomes Jews.
Here in Alabama, it is different. Though the Jewish community is fairly small, there is a huge proportion of evangelical Christians who love and support Israel and the Jewish people. So while there has been the occasional small anti-Israel demonstration, there have been few problems.
“Here in Alabama, it is different. Though the Jewish community is fairly small, there is a huge proportion of evangelical Christians who love and support Israel and the Jewish people. So while there has been the occasional small anti-Israel demonstration, there have been few problems,” Brook said.
