For the Jewish community in America, celebrating Hanukkah this year is "almost an act of resilience as much as it's a festival," considering the fight Israel is under and the rising reports of antisemitism in the United States, Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the managing director for the Coalition of Jewish Values told Newsmax on Thursday.
"The truth is when you go back to history, what is Hanukkah all about?" Menken told "Wake Up America." "Hanukkah is about a few, a small band of dedicated Jews resisting Greek oppression, the Greeks invading their homeland, telling them how it's going to be."
But, he pointed out that the Jews told the Greeks that "you don't get to defile our temple" and "they have a stunning victory, including a purification of the temple and the fact that the oil lasted for eight days."
Hanukkah is the eight-night Jewish holiday, beginning Thursday evening this year, that marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century B.C., after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.
Meanwhile, Jews in New York City are being encouraged not to put menorahs in their windows this year out of fears they could be targeted by people who oppose Israel, and Menken said it is "outrageous" but that one should look at history.
Traditionally, a menorah is lit in each household and placed where it can be seen from the outside, such as a doorway or windowsill, to symbolize the spreading of God's light to all nations.
"Look back in the books and it talks about what you do in a situation of oppression, where you're afraid that somebody's going to break your window if you put [the menorah] in your window, and you're allowed to put it on the table if necessary," said Menken. "But you still celebrate that holiday."
And it "doesn't matter" that people outside "think you're a bad person for being Jewish," he said. "Just the fact that people are canceling Hanukkah celebrations because it would be viewed as taking sides in the war, tell me again how anti-Israel has nothing to do with people being Jews?"
Menken also commented on this week's congressional hearing and comments made by university presidents concerning the rise of antisemitism on their campuses, including calls for University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill to resign for declining to say if advocating genocide violates school policy.
Magill said in an online video statement that she should have focused more on the "evil" of advocating genocide instead of framing the matter as an issue of free speech and traditions of campus debate, and promised to review the university's code of conduct.
"In her so-called apology, first of all, she never said 'I'm sorry,'" said Menken, agreeing that she should resign. "Second of all, she never said firmly and clearly that, of course, the obvious fact that calling for genocide against any minority is targeted harassment of the individuals of that same minority. I mean, that's crazy. It's like saying you can march through campus and say that every black person should be shot, and that's not going to be called harassment of the black students. That's unbelievable. Of course, she has to go."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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