Binghamton, 'Spreading light': Jewish leaders turn to message of Hanukkah to fight antisemitism:
https://www.pressconnects.com/story/...PS-E-NLETTER11
"As Jewish families across the Southern Tier are lighting menorahs in their homes this Hanukkah, they honor the power of light to defy darkness.
A recent string of antisemitic remarks by celebrities and others has brought its own form of darkness to the Jewish community, prompting local faith leaders to address the subject in their sermons, counsel the faithful and speak out.
Escalating antisemitism “should not and does not impact our work and the expression of our Jewish pride and our Jewish identity in any way,” said Rabbi Levi Slonim, one of four leaders at the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life at Binghamton University. “If anything, it motivates us to work harder to spread light and positivity.”
Slonim and other Jewish community leaders are shining a light on antisemitism in all its forms this season, providing a platform for their congregants to speak out against it and inviting others to join in solidarity.
Shining a light to 'publicize the miracle'
“Antisemitism is something that we as Jews have had to deal with and respond to for thousands of years, quite frankly,” Slonim said. “It’s expressed itself in many different ways throughout our history.”
The latest iteration of mainstream antisemitism has come from Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who drew attention with controversial statements including a podcast appearance and remarks on Twitter that were laden with antisemitism. His comments triggered the loss of major partnerships and widespread condemnation from Hollywood.
“It’s unfortunate what he’s saying and what he’s doing; it’s sucking a lot of energy out of a lot of people,” Slonim said of West’s statements. “It brings a lot of unnecessary hate.”
For Rabbi Barbara Goldman-Wartell of Temple Concord, a Reform congregation on Binghamton’s West Side, turning the other cheek is not enough.
“I can’t look the other way and just walk away when people say outrageous things, because other people will hear them and not think they’re outrageous,” she said, calling her approach “being an upstander.”
“If you hear someone saying these outrageous things and you say nothing, you might as well be supporting it,” she continued. “When you walk away from it, sometimes that’s not enough anymore.”
The question of open expression of Jewish identity is particularly pertinent around Hanukkah, one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays.
One of the tenets of Hanukkah is public visibility, Slonim said. The principle of persumei nisa, or “publicizing the miracle,” celebrates the triumph of a small band of Jews — the Maccabees — who recaptured the Jerusalem temple from Syrian-Greek occupation during the second century BCE.
According to Jewish tradition, when the Holy Temple was rededicated, the golden menorah remained lit for eight days, despite the single cruse of oil available — the miracle of Hanukkah.
“More than any other holiday, Hanukkah promotes the idea of spreading light through the darkness and sharing the miracle of the light with the world — that’s why we light the menorahs in the entranceways to our homes and the windows,” Slonim said. “We light the menorah at night, rather than during the day, because it’s about impact. Wherever there is darkness, it’s about transforming it into light.”
Joining together to attack antisemitism
Goldman-Wartell said she delivered a sermon on antisemitism during the autumnal High Holidays — her first ever in 40 years of ministry.
The message, she said, was inspired by a hostage situation at a synagogue in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb in January. Rabbi Charlie Citron-Walker, a longtime friend and collaborator of Goldman-Wartell, escaped unharmed, along with three others, after an 11-hour standoff with a man demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was being held in federal prison in nearby Fort Worth.
In her sermon, Goldman-Wartell said she was discouraged by the lack of outreach and support from the Southern Tier community in the wake of the hostage crisis, which she said paled in comparison to a memorial service attended by several hundred local residents to honor the 11 victims of the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
That, Goldman-Wartell said, was her wake-up call.
“Antisemitism is alive and well in many places in the world. It is no longer on the fringes and socially unacceptable,” she said. “We can no longer shrug our shoulders, then go on with our lives. We need to take it seriously and join with others in combatting antisemitism, along with other forms of hatred as well.”
Building relationships to expose and fight hate
Goldman-Wartell encouraged unity and collaboration among varying factions of the Southern Tier in an effort to protect the community as a whole against hate and discrimination.
“To me,” she said, “it’s all about relationships.”
She pointed to the Children of Abraham of the Southern Tier, an interfaith coalition that facilitates community discussions and service activities as a means of engaging in what she described as “constructive conflict.”
“How do you talk to people who see the world very differently than you?” she said. “How do you bridge that?”
At Hanukkah, menorahs are put on display in prominent places — in entryways and lighting up front windows — for a reason.
“You cannot chase away darkness with broomsticks. The only way to dispel darkness is by adding light,” Slonim said. “Whenever anything like this happens, our response is that we have to work harder, we have to put up more menorahs, we have to reach out to more Jews, have more publicity – not because we want to stick it in their face, but because that really is the only way to chase the darkness.”
Some more information in the Binghamton area:
https://www.chabadofbinghamton.com/
https://www.binghamton.edu/judaic-st...0Jewish%20life.
https://www.templeconcord.com/?fbcli...J5VRO9xCLa1_zo
https://www.facebook.com/templeconcord/
https://www.interfaithbroomecounty.com/
JCC of Binghamton :: Home (located in Vestal)
Temple Israel (also in Vestal)
https://www.facebook.com/TempleIsraelVestal/
https://www.jfgb.org/
Beth David Synagogue – Broome County’s Only Orthodox Synagogue (also on the West Side of the city)
https://hillelacademyofbroomecounty.org/ (Vestal)
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