Still spinning from Hanukkah - opinion

Hanukkah may be over, but I am still spinning.

Hanukkah is not a one-off. It comes year after year, and it lasts for a full eight nights and eight days.

And yet, the ignorance of people who should know the story of Hanukkah, especially people who have no reason not to know it, is astounding. People like Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, the Jewish husband of US Vice President Kamal Harris. Not only does Emhoff not know the story, he chose to flaunt his ignorance.

This is Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s alternate rendition of Hanukkah, as posted on X (formerly Twitter):“The story of Hanukkah and the story of the Jewish people has always been one of hope and resilience. In the Hanukkah story, the Jewish people were forced into hiding. No one thought they would survive or that the few drops of oil they had would last

“But they survived, and the oil kept burning.”

“During those eight days in hiding, they recited their prayers and continued their traditions. That’s why Hanukkah means dedication. It was during those dark nights that the Maccabees dedicated themselves to maintaining hope and faith in the oil, each other, and their Judaism.

“In these dark times, I think of that story.” 

Remembering the light in dark times

Emhoff’s revisionist history came complete with a picture. Posted on the fifth night of Hanukkah, the second gentleman and the vice president proudly lit their hanukkiah, holding one single candle.

It goes without saying that this is not the story of Hanukkah. And I still can’t figure out what holiday he was describing. Jews hiding? Jews cowering in fear? Jews praying to be saved?

It troubles me that Emhoff, and clearly others on his staff who helped draft this poppycock, think there is a Jewish holiday that commemorates hiding and cowering in fear. They have disseminated a despicable fictional rendition of Judaism. It is ugly, and it is reprehensible – and to think that they sent it out as a message, even as a holiday blessing, is a damning critique of Judaism and Jewish tradition – although it has since been deleted.

The lesson to be learned from Hanukkah is one of Jewish strength and Jewish power. The few defeated the many. A ragtag band of priests defeated the Seleucid Syrian-Greeks. That’s something to be proud of, not to be pitied for.

As an important note, had the Maccabees lost that battle or had they not revolted against the Seleucids, Judaism would have died. The powerful assimilationist trend of Hellenism would have overwhelmed Judaism, and in the end, Judaism would have vanished.

The holiday of Hanukkah is a holiday of Jewish pride. The mitzvah, the duty to light the Hanukkah candles, is a way of displaying the light and publicizing the Hanukkah miracle of the oil (which, was a crucible suitable for one night, not “a few drops of oil”) and the military victory.

In all fairness, while he got the story wrong, the second gentleman did get right the sense of fear – the “darkness,” as he termed it. It was just misplaced. 

THIS YEAR, I noticed markedly fewer public Hanukkah displays than in previous decades, not just years. While I did not do a scientific study, walking through the streets of New York City and driving through the surrounding suburbs, I saw fewer hanukkiot in windows and outdoor displays.

Friends acknowledged that they lit their hanukkiot modestly this year, not wanting to draw attention to their homes. For the first time, many hanukkiot were not visible from their windows or open doorways. In apartment buildings too, very few could be seen, especially in the units on the ground floor.

Some places, even certain cities, canceled or moved their Hanukkiah-lighting ceremonies. As the Chabad rabbi at Harvard made perfectly and publicly clear, he was permitted to hold outdoor candle-lighting ceremonies but was instructed to move the hanukkiah safely inside. Why? For fear that it would become the target of vandalism.

Many people, many institutions, many cities, and many organizations are afraid that the situation in Israel – the war against Hamas – will spill over to their backyards.

To my mind, more troubling than the fear factor are the decisions that were made concerning that fear. As opposed to ensuring that destruction and vandalism of Jewish symbols do not happen, Harvard, among other institutions, suggested that the Jews remove their Jewish symbols. Even before Hanukkah, some schools, like Penn, suggested that Jews not wear Jewish symbols in public.

The convenient response to the backlash being felt in response to Israel’s war against Hamas is that this backlash is against Israel and not against Jews. Hanukkah 2023 proves that point incorrect.

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday, not an Israeli holiday.

This hatred is not limited to Israel. It is a hatred of all Jews and all things Jewish.

October 7 changed the paradigm of the Jewish world. The Jewish world is different after October 7. Jew-hatred is more prevalent than we ever realized. The hatred is neither subtle nor nuanced; it is direct and very ugly.

Our young people are ill-equipped to deal with or confront this hatred.

Our community organizations and institutions have become targets of attack. Offices and synagogues have become fortresses with multiple layers of security and guards.

It is the wrong reaction.

If anything, October 7 should have taught us to stand up and stand proud of our Jewishness, especially in the face of Jew-hatred. That is the real lesson from the story of Hanukkah.

If Second Gentleman Emhoff’s rendition was the true story of Hanukkah, Judaism would have died long ago.

The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Watch his new TV show Thinking Out Loud on JBS.