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(JTA) — When New York Metropolis’s mayor lit Hanukkah candles with a few of his Jewish constituents this week, he didn’t flip to a menorah with an extended native historical past. As a substitute, he used one crafted from supplies reclaimed from the Israeli music competition ravaged on Oct. 7, in what one particular person available referred to as “an emblem of sunshine, unity, and the perseverance of the Jewish individuals.”
The mayor, Eric Adams, wasn’t the one particular person to show to the wreckage of Oct. 7 when lighting candles throughout Hanukkah, a vacation that celebrates an historic Jewish victory over foes who sought to extinguish them. Within the wake of the assault and within the shadow of the conflict it started, in addition to a reported rise in antisemitism, Oct. 7-related menorahs have taken on particular significance.
Listed below are the tales of three menorahs with ties to Israel’s devastated communities which have been lit up for Hanukkah this yr.
From Kibbutz Be’eri, a rescued menorah presents an indication of hope
Tamir Hershkovitz lit his household’s menorah within the ruins of his childhood house in Kibbutz Be’eri on the primary evening of Hanukkah, Dec. 7. His mother and father, Maayana and Noah Hershkovitz, in addition to his grandmother Shoshana Karsenty, had all been killed within the bloodbath.
The menorah belonged to his late grandfather, Yosef, who was a Holocaust survivor and partisan throughout World Struggle II. An artist from Tamir Hershkovitz’s group created a big, golden duplicate of the household menorah and offered it to him and his sisters forward of the candle-lighting in Be’eri, however they used the unique that evening.
In movies shared on social media, Hershkovitz sang conventional Hanukkah songs together with “Maoz Tzur” and “Al Hanisim,” in addition to “I Imagine,” a tune based mostly on a poem by the turn-of-the-Twentieth-century Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky. For years, many have mentioned that “I Imagine” might be an alternate nationwide anthem to “Hatikvah“, and the tune has taken on new that means for households of these killed on Oct. 7.
“As soon as I sing, I’m comfortable. And now I’m comfortable,” Hershkovitz advised Yediot Ahronot about lighting candles on the website of his household’s nice tragedy. “I select, for my mother and father, to be comfortable.”
The Hershkovitz menorah shouldn’t be the one one to tackle particular significance at Be’eri, which was hit significantly arduous on Oct. 7. In late November, with Hanukkah approaching, an Israeli photographer captured a person lifting the mangled stays of a household menorah from the ruins of a house on the kibbutz. From particulars the photographer provided in a Jerusalem Put up essay, it’s doubtless that the menorah got here from the Avigdori-Shoham-Kipnis household. Two family members have been murdered that day, in addition to their caretaker; seven have been taken hostage, of whom six have been launched final month.
Member of the family whose father was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, searches within the rubble of his house for recollections, in Kibbutz Be’eri, Nov. 30, 2023. (Chen Schimmel/Flash90)
“As the person cradles this image of his household’s previous, the scene captures the center of the Hanukkah spirit. It’s a reminder that even within the depths of despair, the indestructible gentle of hope, custom, and resilience sparkles on,” wrote the photographer, Chen Schimmel. “Within the discovery of this hanukkiah, we see a mirrored image of our personal capability to search out energy and lightweight, even when surrounded by the ashes of destruction.”
A menorah from the rubble of Kfar Azza makes the rounds in Washington, D.C.
President Joe Biden proudly introduced in the course of the White Home’s Hanukkah celebration on Monday that the menorah to be lit was the presidential residence’s first everlasting one, usual from one among its beams. However he additionally acknowledged one other menorah on show that evening: a glass candelabra {that a} man had retrieved from his house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one other hard-hit southern Israeli group.
“Like the traditional Hanukkah story, buried [in] piles of shattered glass, burned particles, and bullet-riddled partitions, he pulled one thing from the ashes absolutely intact: a menorah,” Biden mentioned, calling it “an emblem of the Jewish those that not solely survive however heal, rebuild and proceed to shine their gentle on the world.”
The menorah got here from the house of Shai Hermesh, a former member of Israel’s parliament who spent 20 hours in a secure room along with his spouse and daughter and misplaced his son Omer, 47, in the course of the assault. When Hermesh returned to the rubble of his house a while after the assault, he discovered his tefillin and the menorah, which was nonetheless intact.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog lent the menorah to Biden. On Tuesday, the menorah was used throughout a second D.C. ceremony, on the Israeli embassy.
A menorah discovered within the rubble of Kfar Aza shines at a Hanukkah reception held on the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Dec. 12. 2023. (Shmulik Almany, Embassy of Israel)
A mangled license plate turns into a supply of sunshine in New York
It wasn’t simply the menorah that made Oct. 7 a presence at Gracie Mansion, New York Metropolis’s mayoral residence, throughout its Hanukkah ceremony. Adams vowed to maintain town’s Jewish inhabitants secure amid a subsequent spike in reported antisemitic incidents.
“The evils of our October seventh, it broke all of our hearts,” he mentioned. “And now we should go to an actual place of therapeutic one another and therapeutic our metropolis. And to my Jewish group, I need you to know you’re not alone.”
Then he helped gentle a menorah whose origins lay at probably the most piercing symbols of Israel’s loss, the Nova music competition the place 360 younger adults have been murdered.
Eliyahu Skaist, a Jewish metalworker within the metropolis, usual the menorah from the license plate of a automotive burned on the competition website, the place many individuals have been killed whereas making an attempt to flee. He mounted the seared plate on Jerusalem stone, which was inscribed with a biblical verse from the prophet Micah vowing to rise once more after a defeat.
The menorah used on the Gracie Mansion Hanukkah ceremony Dec. 12, 2023, was usual from a license plate retrieved from the positioning of the Nova bloodbath in Israel. (Courtesy Mayor Eric Adams through X)
“Melding remnants of heartbreak with the bedrock of custom, this menorah shouldn’t be merely a commemorative piece, however a daring declaration,” tweeted Dovi Safier, an Orthodox author who performed a task in retrieving the plate. “It loudly proclaims the eternal miracle of Jewish survival and hope, affirming the dedication to life and lightweight over the forces of terror and darkness.”
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