The Anti-Semitic Grinches Who Stole Hanukkah

The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement reported 13 incidents where anti-Semites disturbed Hanukkah celebrations or vandalized public displays of menorahs or other Jewish sites across the globe during this holiday season.

By Rachel Avraham

As Jews across the world celebrated Hanukkah last week, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement reported 13 incidents where anti-Semites disturbed Hanukkah celebrations or vandalized public displays of menorahs or other Jewish sites across the globe. The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement noted that five of the incidents were directedly motivated by anti-Israel sentiment and thus were part of the latestwave in anti-Israel violence that has targeted the Jewish Diaspora since the October 7 massacre.

In Oakland, California, on the last night of Hanukkah, a public menorah put up by the Chabad Movement was sprayed with hateful anti-Semitic graffiti which proclaimed, “Israelis are the new Nazis.” The Jewish Community Relations Council tweeted following this hate crime, “This incident follows the destruction of the menorah at the same location last year and a pattern of ongoing antisemitic vandalism.”

In California, a planned Hanukkah concert was canceled due to “heightened rhetoric and potential threats of violence on social media.” The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement reported that online posts and emails accused the Jewish performer Mikey Pauker of being a “terrorist lover” who played “psychotic Zionist genocidal sh*t,” ahead of the cancellation.

Pauker told the Jewish Weekly in response that this has been a trying period for him: “I’ve been canceled from multiple festivals in the past couple years. I’ve had a lot of artists sending death threats, hate messages. All I’ve been doing is putting my head down and just trying to move forward, but I can’t anymore. I need to tell people.” Pauker, who is currently studying to become a rabbi, embraces music that encourages mysticism, spirituality and environmentalism, singing both in English and Hebrew songs that originate in the Jewish mysticism. However, he nevertheless has been targeted by anti-Israel activists, despite the apolitical nature of his music.

In Puerto Montt, Chile, anti-Semitic vandals defaced a public menorah with the word “assassin” written in green and white, while fake blood was spilled over the base of the menorah. The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement declared: “While not explicitly referring to Israel, vandalizing a Jewish symbol with fake blood is a tactic that anti-Israel activists have employed several times this year across the globe, with the apparent aim of implying that Jews are collectively responsible for the supposed crimes of the State of Israel against the Palestinians.”

In Little Rock, Arkansas, a Chabad Hanukkah lighting ceremony that featured former Arkansas Governor and America’s next Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was interrupted by loud anti-Israel chants made by demonstrators from the Little Rock Peace for Palestine group and an anti-Zionist Jewish organization called Taste of Olam Haba. Ambassador Designate Huckabee responded to the protesters: “As you can tell, not everyone is excited that I am here or that you [the Jewish people] are here.”

He continued: “There are people who will never accept, embrace or even believe that [the Jewish people] should have a right to the homeland that Gd gave them 3,500 years ago. One of the reasons that we light the menorah tonight is to say that light will overcome that level of darkness, no matter where it comes from.”

In the city of Calgary in Canada, CTV News reported that four anti-Israel protesters interrupted a public Hanukkah lighting ceremony and were asked to leave by the police, while about a dozen anti-Israel protesters demonstrated outside of the public Hanukkah lighting ceremony. Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith stated at the event: “More than anything, Hannukah tells the story of courage in the face of adversity and that’s a message that should strike a chord with every one of us as conflict spreads overseas and intolerance grows closer to home.” Mayor Jyoti Gondek added: “People like me being here is to make sure we’re standing together with everyone and making sure that all traditions are honored and all cultures are celebrated.” Last year, neither Smith nor Gondek attended the public Hanukkah lighting ceremony, but they attended this year as a statement to the anti-Israel protesters.

In London, England, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement reported that several anti-Israel activists protested a Chabad-sponsored menorah lighting in the Islington borough, necessitating police protection for the participants. The Jerusalem Post added, “a political protest was held within five meters of participants, families, and children being served drinks, leading British Jewish groups to criticize law enforcement about their response to demonstrations of Jewish religious events.”

Additionally, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement noted the existence of a number of Hanukkah related hate crimes that were not related to developments in the Middle East. For example, the Stop Anti-Semitism Organization reported, “The Hanukkah menorah at Chabad in Sherman Oaks, California was deliberately toppled—a chilling act of recurring hate during the Hanukkah season.”

An ice menorah that was put up in the Sante Fe Plaza in New Mexico to celebrate the eight days of Hanukkah in a unique manner created by a local sculptor was shattered to pieces by violent vandals. Rabbi Berel Levertov, the chief Chabad rabbi in Sante Fe, told local reporters that the community was so excited about the menorah sculpted from ice: “A nice crowd gathered to see it, to witness it, to see how she put the final touches on the menorah.” But by the next day, the menorah was destroyed: “All the pieces where there were chunks so it didn’t melt down. It looks like it was pushed over. It’s concerning I don’t know who did it, I don’t know why they would do it.”

In North York, Ontario, in Canada, a car rammed into a menorah, knocking it over and severely damaging it. The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement noted that a Gants Hill Hanukkah celebration in England was interrupted by passersby who shouted antisemitic slurs at the attendees before driving away. The Jewish Chronicle reported that in Bricket Woods, which is also in England, a menorah was desecrated. Rabbi Eliezer Tunk, director of Chabad Bricket Wood, told the Jewish Chronicle: “Every branch of the menorah had been forcibly bent out of place. The support structure was completely broken, and in the process, the culprit also found time to throw a pot of blue paint all over the structure. Someone took the time to cause this damage, it was not done on a whim. The whole thing was completely wrecked.”

In Mykolaiv, Ukraine, the Jerusalem Post reported that anti-Semitic assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue that was celebrating Hanukkah. According to the report, the anti-Semitic attack damaged the synagogue’s door but fortunately caused no injury to the synagogue attendees. In Lviv, also in the Ukraine, a local Hanukkah display was defaced by an assailant, who later on was arrested by the police.

These anti-Semitic incidents highlight how in recent years, anti-Semitic attacks in the Jewish Diaspora have become more brazen, with the local anti-Semites literally turning into the grinches that stole Hanukkah. Throughout most of modern American history, it was considered virtually unheard of for anti-Israel activists and other anti-Semites to target Hanukkah celebrations, which are apolitical expressions of the Jewish faith, totally unrelated to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Since 1979, the United States has lit a National Menorah near the White House in Washington, DC, which today stands 30 feet high. Hanukkah has been incorporated into the political mainstream in the United States, to the level that elementary school children attending public schools in America sing Hanukkah songs alongside Christmas carols and Kwanza songs around the holiday season. However, despite this reality, today such attacks on Hanukkah have become the new normal within the Jewish Diaspora, as in the present reality since COVID and especially since October 7, anything Jewish has turned into a potential target for the haters. This implies that law enforcement agencies abroad must make greater efforts to protect Hanukkah celebrations and public menorah displays.