MUTED EVENT
Rabbi Yisroel Altein of Chabad of Pittsburgh lights the Hanukkah menorah Sunday evening at the intersection of Beacon Street and Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill on the final night of the eight-day Jewish festival. The occasion also showed support for the victims of an anti-Semitic stabbing attack that occurred during a Hanukkah party at a rabbi’s home in New York on Saturday.
They came despite the rain. They were not deterred by the gloom of the night, nor the darkness of anti-Semitism.
They came to light the menorah on the eighth and final night of Hanukkah.
And, in the end, the flames of the menorah pierced the darkness.
Dozens of people — Jews and non-Jews alike — came together Sunday evening in Squirrel Hill for a gathering that doubled as a celebration of the last night of Hanukkah and a vigil for the five people who were injured a day earlier when a machete-wielding man went on a stabbing spree at the home of a rabbi in Monsey, N.Y.
“It absolutely is a very difficult task to try and be joyous and enjoy Hanukkah while we have such horrific things going on,” Rabbi Yisroel Altein of Chabad of Pittsburgh said. “At the same time, the flames of Hanukkah are constantly increasing — we have the full menorah tonight. It’s a reminder to us that it’s not like we show up and everything’s going to turn well. Everything’s a process.”
The gathering at the intersection of Murray Avenue and Beacon Street included prayers for the welfare of the stabbing victims as well as the lighting of the
menorah. The public menorah lighting was not planned, but some in the community felt it was a necessary response to the attack in Monsey and a show of solidarity with the Jewish community there.
Rochel Tombosky, 43, of Squirrel Hill, who helped organize the gathering, told people in the crowd that they should not give in to the fear that those who perpetrate anti-Semitic violence try to create.
She made the analogy that like the shamash candle, which is used to light all the other candles on the menorah, those in the audience should strive to bring light into the world.
“We should never underestimate our ability to light up other people and to bring light and to create a powerful message that, yes, we will not be overtaken and intimidated,” Ms. Tombosky said. “We will shine bright, and everyone should be proud of who they are.”
The attack in Monsey had particular resonance in Pittsburgh, where a little more than a year ago, 11 worshippers were killed and several other people were injured at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill in the worst atrocity committed against Jewish people in U.S. history.
The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh posted on its Facebook page Sunday morning that members are “saddened and horrified” at the latest attack.
“We stand in solidarity with the Monsey Jewish community and we pray for the wounded to heal quickly and completely,” the post said.
The post referenced other recent attacks and notes that “while it is painful that in this particular incident Jewish people were targeted for celebrating the Festival of Lights, we know that just like the Maccabees our community will persevere and prevail.”
The post noted that the word Hanukkah translates as dedication.
“We are grateful for the dedication of the law enforcement officers who apprehended the suspect shortly after the attack. And this evening we will light our Hanukkah candles with a poignant sense of dedication to the Pittsburgh Jewish community and pride in our Judaism,” the post said.
Reached by phone, the post’s author, Joshua Sayles, the Community Relations Council’s director, said, “We’re devastated — again.”
Mr. Sayles said that, from being in close contact with local law enforcement, there was no elevated threat to Jewish people here. He said his group might have more of a response once staffers return to the office on Monday morning, and he said the Pittsburgh Jewish community might as well, but right now many people are on holiday and traveling until the new year.
In the meantime, he said, “It’s incredibly difficult no matter how often it happens.”
The attack occurred about 35 miles north of New York City in the same area as other recent attacks targeting Jews, in addition to a shooting of three at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month (at which police shot and killed the two shooters).
In the latest attack, police were expecting to charge the suspect with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.
Much of the recent antiSemitic violence has been perpetrated against members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, whose clothing — black hats and suits for men, long dresses for women — makes them recognizable.
Rabbi Altein said it is possible that the reason the ultra-Orthodox community has been under attack lately is because it is easier for people to identify them as Jews.
Still, the rabbi said, an attack on one Jew is an attack on all.
“I don’t even like that word ‘we,’ or ‘the Orthodox community,’” Rabbi Altein said. “Clearly, these anti-Semites know no difference between one Jew and the other. … They most certainly are not looking one Jew to the other, and that’s why we don’t, either. We’re not looking to see one’s different than the other, because we’re all in this as one.”