Lancaster Jewish community approach Hanukkah with 'different sense' this season

GAYLE JOHNSON | For LNP and LancasterOnline
Dec 7, 2023
Dec 7, 2023

Hanukkah 2023 starts after sundown tonight with a bittersweet taste for many local Jews.

The Festival of Lights celebrates dedication and endurance, and the celebration includes fun traditions with singing songs, opening gifts and enjoying delicious food, such as potato latkes, sugary doughnuts and lots of chocolate.

But this year’s eight-day celebration of how one day’s worth of sacred oil miraculously burned for eight days more than 2,000 years ago comes amid renewed fighting in the Mideast after an October attack by Hamas on Israel.

America has seen an 388% increase in antisemitism in the two weeks following the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group. Hatred also has found Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, reported a 216% increase in requests for help and reports of bias in the month after the Hamas attack, compared with the same time frame a year ago.

Tensions around instances of hate have sparked fear and resilience, often at the same time, Lancaster County residents said.

For instance, the Jewish community pulled out of ExtraGive Fest + One World Festival on Nov. 17. “We didn’t want protests or to be a distraction,” said Rabbi Jack Paskoff, who leads Congregation Shaarai Shomayim, a reform temple in Lancaster.

“Jews are approaching this holiday with a very different sense,” Paskoff explained. “We are being vigilant.”

One of his congregants agreed.

“I am holding multiple opposing emotions,” said Jaci Hoosier of Mountville. “The entire Jewish world changed on Oct. 7.”

Hoosier’s three children, ages 17, 14 and 12, will celebrate Hanukkah knowing that Hamas still holds Israeli hostages. Still, the family will celebrate with food, presents and songs.

Aron Safran of Lancaster shared his experience balancing joy and sadness.

“Jews and Israelis learned to flip the switch between sorrow and mourning to happiness and celebration many generations ago — we really had no choice but to learn that life must go on despite anything else,” said Safran, who served in the Israeli military during the 1980s.

Safran said a friend in Israel buried his son about three weeks ago, yet he expects to feel joy during Hanukkah.

“In modern Israel, this is exemplified by the switch made between our visiting the graves and families of lost friends and loved ones on Israeli Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror and celebrating like crazy the very next day on Israeli Independence Day,” Safran said.

For Safran’s daughter, Stephanie, it took time to lessen her anxiety after the attack. The younger Safran graduated from Penn Manor High School in 2017 and served two years in the Israeli Defense Forces before returning to the area in 2021 to recover from a back injury. She considers herself an Israeli.

Two soldiers Stephanie Safran trained with in Israel died Oct. 7 at her former military base in Zikim, near Gaza. Another army friend remains hospitalized after being shot at an Israeli music festival where 364 people died.

“I stopped wearing my Star of David necklace for a while because of fear,” said the 24-year-old, who was born in Israel but moved with her family to Lancaster when she was 4. She said she’s encountered instances of antisemitism in Lancaster, in New York and abroad in Amsterdam, where she traveled last month.

Stephanie Safran put the necklace back on a week ago, after deciding “not to cower in fear.” She explained being able to handle the dichotomy of feeling fear for Israel while celebrating the joys of Hanukkah.

“There’s a lot of fear being Jewish,” said Cantor Carol Chesler, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El, a conservative congregation in Lancaster. Increasing antisemitism is “like a wild bull let out of the pen in a rodeo, roaring its head.”

“For most Jews, our focus is what’s going on in Israel,” Chesler said. Hanukkah “is a fun holiday. You’re eating chocolate, singing songs – it’s very difficult to wrap your head around, to muster up the feeling to celebrate. It’s hard to feel joyful when you are so anxious.”

For Grace Celley, who converted to Judaism in 2015, recent hate toward Jews feels scary.

“I don’t feel safe at my university,” said the 25-year-old, who attends Millersville University. She mentioned swastikas discovered inside and outside of a dormitory. Swastikas were widely used as a symbol of the German Nazi party during the Holocaust.

However, another convert, Melissa Dagen, “decided not to change anything,” she said. She will again display her menorah in the same side window of her house in Manheim Borough and said she feels both fear of antisemitism but also a resolve to celebrate the holiday and her faith. Dagen said she wished her furniture arrangement allowed her to display the candelabra in a more prominent place, such as her front window.

“Part of me wants to be a little but more visible,” she said. As a medical professional, she wears no jewelry during the week but wears her Star of David necklace on weekends.

“Now, more than ever, I want to show who I am and who I choose to be,” said Dagen, who converted to Judaism eight years ago.

Paskoff said he continues to look toward the future for Israel and for local Jews. “I’m personally feeling determined,” the rabbi said. “I’m certainly not depressed. I hope to rediscover the joy.”

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MEANING OF THE MENORAH

People will gather tonight at Penn Square as the community lights the first candle on a giant menorah to celebrate the 8-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

The menorah lighting, sponsored by the Jewish Community Alliance of Lancaster, continues each evening through Dec. 14.

About 166 years before Christ was born, a priest named Judah Maccabee, his brothers and other soldiers led a successful revolt against much larger Syrian and Roman armies, liberating the Second Temple of Jerusalem. To purify and rededicate the temple, Jews needed to burn holy oil for eight days. Maccabee found only one day’s supply before leaving to secure more.

Then a miracle occurred, according to the Jewish faith. Oil that should have lasted 24 hours instead burned until Maccabee returned over a week later with more sacred oil.

Each year, Jews celebrate Hanukkah by lighting one candle on the first night of the holiday and then adding a successive candle each evening, using a candelabra called a menorah.

Lancaster County Jews have noticed the coincidence between the 8-day festival of Hanukkah and the current war between Israel and Hamas.

Both include soldiers fighting. Both talk about darkness and light. And while Hanukkah celebrates a Jewish victory and miracle more than 2,000 years ago, many Jews pray for a parallel ending to the current war.

“I am struck by the connection to the Maccabees,” said Grace Celley, who attends Millersville University.

The festival, considered a minor religious holiday, gained popularity because it usually occurs near Christmas, rabbis say.

“Hanukkah has always been an afterthought for me,” says Celley, who focuses on the fall celebrations of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the most holy days in the Jewish calendar. “By the time Hanukkah rolls around, I’m tired.”

This year, Celley now feels a new relationship toward the holiday.

“The Maccabees had to fight to be Jewish,” said Celley, who converted to Judaism in 2015. “I’m fighting for my self-identity as a Jew.” She will celebrate Hanukkah for the first time with her fiancé. They both will bring menorahs to spread the light.

Aron Safran, a Lancaster resident who served in the Israeli Army in the 1980s, compares Israel to a phoenix rising from ashes, again and again. “There is light in the darkness,” he explained.

“We will celebrate Hanukkah and light a menorah in my own window,” Safran said. “I’m going to do it proudly. I’m not going to hide anything.”

Jaci Hoosier said the candles her family will light this year should chip away at the sadness she feels knowing Israel again is at war. “During the celebration of lights, we’re feeling more of that light. We will celebrate our Jewish life,” the Mountville resident said.

The idea of being joyful and fun, exchanging presents seems an odd juxtaposition,” said Cantor Carol Chesler, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El, a conservative Lancaster congregation. “These are tough times. I’m very concerned about Israel right now.”