On Hanukkah - 12/22/2024

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining me for today’s community kaddish. It has been 442 days since the start of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We are here to mourn Palestinian martyrs, a number likely close to 300,000 people, but a number that only a god would know. With the Zionist Entity further emboldened by yet more arms shipments from the US, and an incoming Trump presidency, it feels like this violence will never end. We will continue to see massacres flash across our screens without being able to end it.

A friend texted me this week that she felt like we should boycott Hanukkah, a holiday based on apocrypha that recounts the overthrow of the Assyrian Greeks by a band of Jewish rebels. Her main arguments were that 1. The candles we light each night are almost all made in Israel, and so you cannot celebrate the holiday in a BDS compliant way and 2. Jews have nothing to celebrate - especially as Zionists are using tropes from Hanukkah as a reason to massacre Palestinians. 

I get her point to a certain extent. Last year, the IOF shared photos of themselves lighting menorahs in Gaza over piles of rubble. Their genocidal rhetoric was grounded in the holiday, showing the worst kinds of bastardization of Judaism. Most Jews, especially those who engage in mainstream Jewish life, certainly are emboldened by this holiday. Yet, I still think there are reasons and ways to mark the 8 days of Hanukkah while staying in solidarity with Palestine.

Let’s talk about some of the ways we can still take on the tasks of observing hanukkah in a moral way. There are now more anti-Zionist Jewish makers than ever. I can think of at least 2 shops that were/are selling BDS compliant candles, and many more who are selling menorahs. Often these makers have pledged to donate some amount of proceeds directly to Gaza or have undertaken additional campaigns to do peer-to-peer fundraising for Gaza. Instead of giving traditional gifts, we can donate e-sims, or make donations to mutual aids or organizations that are working to feed Palestinians or get them medicine or basic supplies. As this is often a holiday where families gather together, especially with its overlap this year with Christmas, we can talk to our families about Palestine.

So that is the practice, let’s talk about why I still want to mark the 8 days of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is ultimately a celebration of the victory of resistors against a tyrant. The Assyrian Greeks banned the Jews from worship, restricted freedom of movement, and desecrated Jewish worship spaces. This is not different from what the Zionist regime is doing now. And, we are seeing resistance. There are those taking that resistance through arms, those taking resistance in spreading Palestinian culture, and those taking resistance through planting crops, harvesting olives, making soap and oil (a substance core to the story of hanukkah). How ironic that Jews celebrate the fact that the miracle of having small amounts of olive oil last for 8 days while they have spent years depriving and blocking essentials from flowing into Gaza. 

In my mind, I see these 8 days as an opportunity to learn more about Palestinian and other Arab lineages of resistance, as well as learn more about the Jewish labor bund and other historic Jewish solidarity movements. During the year, it can be hard to find the time and discipline to take in new information, but for 8 days, this is something I can commit to. 

In addition, we as Jews, non-Jews, and people of any any or no religion, have the obligation to carry the history of resistance. Whether you take that obligation from the Jewish tradition or not, living in a country that has normalized funding genocide, established on stolen land, and facing escalating homegrown fascism, we have to resist and we have to find the strength to do it and we have to find a way to do that together.

My hanukkah celebrations were always intimate, and with the highlight being shared songs and time together. I know that I draw strength from the people around me, whether it is the chosen family, fellow organizers, or all of you who come here week after week. 8 days of lighting candles gives us 8 days to explicitly bring people together who can fortify us and be part of our networks of resistance that can take many forms. We resist imperialism by organizing for Palestine, calling our electeds, fundraising for those directly impacted Zionism. We resist Capitalism, and the isolation it imposes, by helping one another, offering skill trades, sharing a meal, and fostering community. We resist facism and all of the unknowns to come as a community. We cannot do this alone. 

I still place hope in the networks of resistance that exist here and in Palestine and even in the darkest times, I hold it in my heart that we can prevail. And while Hanukkah is tremendously fraught for many reasons, this year, I want to use its messages as a reminder of why I do what I do and how to do it. A community came together to overthrow an empire.