APPROPRIATE OUR KULTURE , PLEASE

Op-Ed: Everything is different this year, so why not add a ninth night to Hanukkah?

The ninth candle on the menorah is the shamash, or “helper” candle.

 In 2020, this candle deserves its own night to shine.
(Los Angeles Times)
By ERICA S. PERL
DEC. 10, 2020

Hanukkah, like so many other holidays, is poised to look a little different this year.

Usually my synagogue in Washington, D.C., invites congregants to bring their menorahs into the sanctuary for a huge communal candle-lighting. This festive fire hazard is not exactly made for Zoom. Meanwhile, the invitation for my neighbors’ annual latke fest has not arrived, which is no surprise. While inviting friends over to spin dreidels, sing songs and commiserate about this dumpster fire of a year is tempting, it also screams “superspreader.”

It’s understandable but more than a little depressing. It makes me want to rip December off the calendar. Enough, already! Forget Hanukkah — bring on 2021.

Instead, I have a counterintuitive proposal: This year, we should start a new tradition and extend Hanukkah from eight nights to nine. The reason? To honor the helpers.

There is a direct connection between Hanukkah and helping. A Hanukkah menorah, also known as a hanukkiah, has nine branches. Eight are for the candles representing the nights of the holiday, which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple after it was defiled by King Antiochus’ soldiers and the miracle in the temple of a small amount of lamp oil burning for eight days when it should have lasted only one.

The ninth branch is reserved for a special candle, the shamash, or “helper.” The shamash is used to light the other candles: one on the first night and an additional one each subsequent evening until all nine burn on the eighth and final night.

But think about it: The shamash is so busy giving its light to others that it never gets its own night to shine. And isn’t 2020 the perfect year to start an annual Hanukkah tradition of honoring the people who, like the shamash, give of themselves to help others?

I can think of lots of those people this year, starting with the friends who delivered toilet paper (and tofu, of all things) when I couldn’t find these items in any store. The hospital staff who cared for my mom when she needed emergency surgery. The teachers who juggled and pivoted to keep my kids connected and learning. The online fitness instructors, doctors, nurses, therapists and DJs. (D-Nice’s Club Quarantine got me through the month of April.) The journalists, who kept reporting, no matter how many dragons they had to slay in the process. The mail carriers, delivery people, grocery store clerks, trash collectors and so many others who, without fanfare, helped in ways great and small.





LIFESTYLE
Eight crazy nights: Local Hanukkah activities you can enjoy from afar this year
Dec. 2, 2020

The best part is, it’s easy to do — if you’re Jewish, you probably finish the holiday with extra candles you can use. And if you’re not Jewish, this is a celebration that everyone can take part in. First, make a list of the helpers in your life, and invite friends and family members to do the same. Then, on the ninth night of Hanukkah (in 2020, it will be Dec. 18), light the shamash (or any candle as an honorary shamash, if you don’t have a menorah) in honor of the helpers on your list, and let them know.

You can go big — throw a virtual Shamash Night party! — or go small, sending cards, texts or emails. Either way, you are likely to make your honorees feel acknowledged and appreciated, which means you’re helping them, too.

Like the shamash, individual people have the power to brighten the lives of those around them. That’s why Hanukkah, especially in the year 2020, is the perfect time for all of us to show appreciation for those who help us, help others and help heal the world.

And if it means eating jelly donuts and potato pancakes for one more night — well, it’s been a rough year, so who’s going to argue with that?

Erica S. Perl is an author of books for children and young adults. The most recent is “The Ninth Night of Hanukkah.”

Hanukkah Is About Resistance. Let’s Resist This COVID Spike Through Mutual Aid.

Volunteers from a nonprofit organization provide food supplies to people who line up ahead of Thanksgiving amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on November 20, 2020.TAYFUN COSKUN / ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

BY Brant Rosen, Truthout December 10, 2020

With Hanukkah now upon us, the internet is abuzz with articles offering guidance on how to celebrate the holiday in the age of COVID-19. While most of them focus on practical issues such as socially distanced Hanukkah parties and Zoom candle lightings, I’ve been thinking a great deal on what the story of Hanukkah might have to offer to all of us as we gear up for a winter like none we’ve ever experienced in our lifetimes.

Hanukkah, of course, is based upon the story of the Maccabees, the small group of Jews who successfully liberated themselves from the oppressive reign of the Seleucid Empire in 167 BCE. The legacy of this story, however, is a complex one because the Jewish struggle against religious persecution took place within the context of a bloody and destructive Jewish civil war. In contemporary times, the meaning of Hanukkah has become even more complicated given its proximity to Christmas, subjecting it to the uniquely American religion of unmitigated commercialism.

Beyond all these complications, I’d argue that the essence of Hanukkah is the theme of resistance. At its core, the Hanukkah story commemorates the victorious resistance of the people over the power and might of empire. On a deeper level, we might say that the festival celebrates the spiritual strength of our resistance to an often harsh and unyielding world.

In this regard, it is significant that Hanukkah takes place in the winter. Apropos of the season, the festival prescribes resistance to an increasingly colder and darker world by lighting increasing numbers of candles during this eight-night festival. Those of us who celebrate this holiday are instructed to place our menorahs in our windows as an act of “spiritual defiance,” directing the light outward into the night where it may clearly be seen by the outside world.

There have indeed been moments in Jewish history in which lighting the menorah was literally an act of resistance. One powerful example can be seen offered in a single image: the famous photograph taken in 1932 Germany showing a menorah on the window sill of a Jewish home, with a Nazi flag clearly visible across the street. Another well-known moment of Hanukkah resistance occurred in 1993 when, after a brick was thrown through the window of a Jewish home in Billings, Montana, scores of citizens showed their solidarity with the Jewish community by taping paper menorahs in their windows. More recently, on the Hanukkah after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, one local Jewish leader commented that the menorah is “not just something that we display in our homes for ourselves … but something we light so that passersby can see. For us, this year that feels like an act of resistance.”

In 2020, we find Hanukkah arriving amid a winter that medical experts are calling “the darkest days of the pandemic” and “COVID hell.” In a recent interview, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said, “the next three to four months are going to be, by far, the darkest of the pandemic.” Another expert has predicted that more lives will be lost in December than the U.S. saw in March and April combined.

With such an unprecedented and terrifying winter bearing down upon us, I’d suggest that the ideal of Hanukkah resistance is more powerfully relevant than ever. This resistance, of course, presents us with profound challenges. After living with the pandemic for the better part of a year, so many throughout the U.S. are succumbing to “COVID fatigue” — following months of social isolation and anxiety, increasing numbers of people are becoming less vigilant about the pandemic practice of masking and social distancing, even as infection rates spike precipitously.

With the darkest days of the pandemic ahead of us — even as we agitate for rent cancellation, eviction resistance and universal health care — we have another form of resistance at our disposal: We can resist government inaction/abandonment of its citizens by participating in the grassroots, self-organized networks of support known as mutual aid.

While these community-based efforts are not new, they have proliferated widely since the onset of the pandemic. As Jia Tolentino pointed out in a New Yorker article last May:

[Mutual aid] is not a new term, or a new idea, but it has generally existed outside the mainstream. Informal child-care collectives, transgender support groups, and other ad-hoc organizations operate without the top-down leadership or philanthropic funding that most charities depend on. Since COVID, however, mutual aid initiatives seemed to be everywhere.

The concept of mutual aid was coined in 1902 by the Russian anarchist/scientist/economist/philosopher, Peter Kropotkin, who argued that mutual aid could be traced to the “earliest beginnings of evolution.” Kropotkin posited that solidary provided the human species with the best chance of survival, particularly given the emergence of private property and the rise of the State:

It is not love and not even sympathy upon which Society is based in mankind. It is the conscience — be it only at the stage of an instinct — of human solidarity. It is the unconscious recognition of the force that is borrowed by each man from the practice of mutual aid; of the close dependence of every one’s happiness upon the happiness of all; and of the sense of justice, or equity which brings the individual to consider the rights of every other individual as equal to his own. Upon this broad and necessary foundation, the still higher moral feelings are developed.

Some of the most well-known examples of mutual aid in U.S. history, in fact, were the survival programs created by the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the community-based initiatives organized by the Puerto Rican Young Lords Party in the 1960s and ’70s. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover himself grasped the radical power of these mutual aid projects. In a now infamous internal memo, he wrote that the Black Panther breakfast programs represented “the best and most influential activity going for the BPP, and is as such, the greatest threat to efforts by authorities.”The true miracle of resistance occurs when we show up for one another.

Another important aspect of mutual aid is the understanding that disenfranchised people cannot ultimately depend on state institutions to save them. According to Puerto Rican scholar Isa Rodríguez, “‘Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo’ — ‘Only the people save the people,’ became a rallying cry for Puerto Ricans following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 as multiple organizations — mostly based on grassroots groups that existed prior to the hurricane — quickly organized to channel aid.”

The community-based solidarity of mutual aid is also fundamentally different from the approach of private humanitarian charities in which the needy are “saved” through the beneficence of those of greater means. And it must not be viewed through the lens of “crisis response.” Mutual aid, rather, is rooted in long-term alliances between people engaged in a common struggle. As historian/writer, Elizabeth Catte has observed:


Mutual aid can be a form of resistance, but the practice itself requires discipline. We can’t do it because it helps us sugarcoat our trauma, or because it lets us say we have claimed goodness in a world where it is often lacking. Mutual aid is incompatible with charity and should offer no pleasure to the well-resourced person or do-gooder who hopes to find worthy recipients of their kindness, because the practice of mutual aid is intended to destroy categories of worth.

Since mutual aid is rooted in the ideal of solidarity, the first step for anyone interested is to cultivate genuine and accountable relationships within their own local communities. This will be undeniably challenging in a time of pandemic, when our mutual safety literally depends upon socially distancing from one another.

Mutual aid projects, however, are adapting to meet these challenges through creative use of commercial internet platforms, online databases and toolkits. Additionally, mutual aid projects in the age of COVID insist on strict adherence to public health protocols.

In the words of anarchist organizer Cindy Milstein: “While ‘social’ aka ‘physical’ distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing are necessary tools to help stop the spread of this virus, they will only be effective if it’s grounded in an ethics and practice of social solidarity and collective care.”

The most famous Hanukkah story says that when the Maccabees entered the Temple to relight the menorah, they only found enough oil to last for one day. Miraculously, however, the menorah burned for eight days. At the core of this seemingly simple parable are profound lessons about the power of sustainability and resilience. We know from history that popular movements of resistance have the ability to succeed even against the most daunting of foes.

The prospect of the coming winter — and the new year ahead — are undeniably daunting. Amid it all lie fundamental questions: Where will we find the strength to meet these challenges? How will we keep the fire of our commitment to each other from burning out? Who can we depend upon to see us through the coming season and beyond?

The resistance embodied by mutual aid provides us with a compelling answer — in the end, we have each other. As Dean Spade, who recently published a book titled Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next), so aptly puts it, “what happens when people get together to support one another is that people realize that there’s more of us than there is of them.”

True resistance can never occur as long as we expect an external human force to somehow show up to save us. In the end, the true miracle of resistance occurs when we show up for one another.

 

Ahead of White House Hanukkah celebration, a wave of faith-led cease-fire demonstrations

The demonstrators, who were later arrested, noted the ongoing Jewish holiday, shouting, 'No Hanukkah to celebrate, cease-fire cannot wait!'

A group of Jewish women chain themselves to the fence in front of the White House and call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, in Washington. The Jewish Voice for Peace affiliated activists timed their protest with the White House Hanukkah celebration, which also occurs Monday. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

December 11, 202

By 

Jack Jenkins

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The nation’s capital played host to another wave of faith-led protests on Monday calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, hours before the White House’s scheduled Hanukkah celebration.

One of the more dramatic demonstrations took place around midday, when a group of 18 older Jewish women affiliated with the activist organization Jewish Voice for Peace chained themselves to the White House’s fence and unfurled a banner calling on President Biden to “stop the genocide, ceasefire now!”

Calling themselves “elders,” the activists noted the ongoing Jewish holiday as they demonstrated, shouting, “No Hanukkah to celebrate, cease-fire cannot wait!”

The White House Hanukkah celebration, scheduled for Monday evening around 7:00 p.m., is slated to feature appearances from Biden as well as second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish. Emhoff is expected to help light menorah candles with descendants of Holocaust survivors.

In an interview with Religion News Service, Esther Farmer, a JVP spokesperson, said the group chose to protest today to “be here at Hanukkah to let some light into this, because this is a really dark thing that’s happening.”

Demonstrators also read the names of Palestinians killed during Israel’s ongoing assault into Gaza, which resumed this month after a roughly weeklong pause. The military advance followed the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and resulted in hundreds more kidnapped. Activists in the U.S. and elsewhere, however, have expressed outrage at the scale of Israel’s response, with at least 17,700 Palestinians killed during the Israeli operation, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In addition, the United Nations estimates 85% of the region’s 2 million residents have been displaced in what human rights advocates warn is a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

Shortly after the demonstration began, police cleared the area in front of the White House. Officers then began slowly arresting all 18 participants, leading them away one by one after shearing them loose from the fence using bolt cutters.

A police officer escorts a chanting protester away from the White House fence, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

As they departed, the group — as well as a small band of supporters nearby — chanted, “Biden, Biden, pick a side, cease-fire, not genocide!”

The protest comes ahead of a larger event planned for later in the evening, when hundreds are expected to participate in a “Chanukah for Ceasefire” service outside the White House at the same time officials are celebrating the Jewish holiday inside.

“We are Jews calling for a cease-fire because we believe in the equal sacredness of all human life,” Eva Borgwardt, a spokesperson for If Not Now, a Jewish activist group organizing the event alongside Jewish Voice for Peace, told RNS. “The only way to secure that is through a cease-fire, a de-escalation, a hostage exchange and an actual political solution that will secure freedom and safety and a thriving future for all.”

In addition to Jewish voices, the event is expected to include speeches from lawmakers such as Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, a Christian and former pastor, who introduced legislation last month calling for a cease-fire.

Borgwardt argued there was a “clear divide” between the dueling Hanukkah events.

“While we are honoring the sacredness of every single human life, President Biden, as well as many members of Congress, are pushing for billions of dollars in unconditional weapons funding for Israel to continue committing war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza,” Borgwardt said.

A Jewish woman holds a placard and a candle as Jewish rabbis and members of the community gather demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, during the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Both demonstrations come on the heels of a separate cease-fire protest that took place at the Hart Senate Building on Capitol Hill earlier Monday morning. There, police arrested 49 people who held a banner that read “Aid to Israel = bombing Palestinians,” as they stood around what appeared to be bags of fake money splattered with red paint. One of the participants also scaled a sculpture in the building’s lobby before eventually climbing down, where officers arrested the protester, according to NBC News.

Yet another cease-fire-themed event is scheduled for Monday evening, when a group of Christians plan to host a prayer service at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in downtown Washington before leading a prayer walk over to the White House. 

“We grieve and stand in solidarity with Christians in Bethlehem and the Middle East who will worship Jesus but not have Christmas celebrations this year,” the Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, head of Churches for Middle East Peace, said in a statement. “We remain steadfast in our call for a comprehensive ceasefire and an end to all violence.”

The event is sponsored by an array of Christian denominations and groups, including the CMEP, the American Baptist Churches USA, American Friends Service Committee, Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Franciscan Action Network, Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church (USA), Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc., Sojourners and the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society.

In statements, multiple participants in Monday’s planned Christmas vigil referenced that Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, which is in the occupied West Bank, have been largely canceled in solidarity with those killed in Gaza. A delegation of Christian leaders from the city visited Washington last month, where they met with White House staff and members of Congress and presented them with a letter signed by Bethlehem churches calling for a cease-fire.

But at a vigil in November, convened at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church just two blocks from the U.S. Capitol, the Rev. Munther Isaac, a member of the delegation and a pastor of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, suggested their group struggled to rally policymakers — including Biden, who is Catholic, and members of Congress, who are overwhelmingly Christian — behind their cause.

The Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, addresses a vigil at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

“We had meetings at the Hill and the White House, and it feels like speaking to a judge who neither fears God nor has respect for people,” Isaac said, referencing the Gospel of Luke.

A White House National Security Council spokesperson told RNS their staff “valued the opportunity to meet with the group of Palestinian Christian leaders and to hear directly from them their perspectives on the current crisis.” The spokesperson added that officials conveyed to the faith leaders how the Biden administration backed the deal that led to the recent humanitarian pause, which allowed for the release of hostages and flow of aid into Gaza.

Even so, Isaac’s frustration was still evident on Sunday. In a post published on X, the pastor and theologian referenced last week’s United Nations Security Council vote on a proposal to demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Thirteen of the 15 council members voted in favor, while the United Kingdom abstained. The United States cast the lone “no” vote.

“I was asked today by a journalist if we received a response from the white house to the letter we sent from the churches in Bethlehem asking for a ceasefire,” Isaac wrote in his post. “I answered that the response was the veto vote in the UN. They celebrate Christmas in their land, and wage war in our land.”

Protesters chain themselves to White House fence demanding Gaza cease-fire

'As Jewish elders, we know what genocide looks like, and we know what it feels like,' says demonstrator

Michael Gabriel Hernandez |11.12.2023 - 

A group of Jewish elders chained themselves to the White House perimeter fence Monday in protest of US President Joe Biden's policies during the war in the Gaza Strip in Washington DC, United States on December 11, 2023.

 Photo : ( Celal Güneş - AA )

WASHINGTON

A group of Jewish elders chained themselves to the White House perimeter fence Monday in protest of US President Joe Biden's policies during the war in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The group of about a dozen protesters read aloud the names of those killed in Gaza during the over two-month war there, reciting a Jewish chant asking that their memory be a blessing after each name was called out.

"We're here today because as Jewish elders, we know what genocide looks like, and we know what it feels like. It's in our memories. It's in our bodies," Esther Farmer, a spokesperson for the group Jewish Elders for Palestinian Freedom, said during a brief interview with Anadolu. "We are here to tell Biden he needs to stop funding and arming this genocide."

Police ultimately broke up the demonstration, using bolt cutters to sever the chain that affixed protesters to the White House fence. Many were escorted away with their fists raised in a sign of defiance.

The protest took place just hours before Biden and First Lady Jill Biden host the annual Haukah party at the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are slated to host another holiday reception at the Naval Observatory on Monday evening.

Activists calling for Gaza ceasefire protest in US Senate office building

US Capitol Police said they arrested 51 people in total as a result of the demonstration.

By REUTERS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

 

Activists engage in civil disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building, part of the U.S. Capitol complex, to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and redirection of military aid for Israel, in Washington, U.S. December 11, 2023.(photo credit: ALLISON BAILEY/REUTERS)

Several dozen activists calling for the United States to push for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas briefly protested in a US Senate office building on Monday before police ended the protest and took dozens into custody.

Groups, including the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest, which called for the US government to divert funds to domestic priorities such as affordable housing and childcare instead of further arming Israel with US weapons.
Arrests made during the protest

One activist was arrested after he climbed up onto a 51-foot (15.5 m) high black steel sculpture by artist Alexander Calder. Others chanted "ceasefire now" and wore shirts with the slogan "invest in life" as they linked arms.

US Capitol Police said they arrested 51 people in total as a result of the demonstration. Reuters images show activists engaging in civil disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building, part of the US Capitol complex where many senators and committees have their offices.

Activists engage in civil disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building, part of the U.S. Capitol complex, to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and redirection of military aid for Israel, in Washington, U.S. December 11, 2023. (credit: ALLISON BAILEY/REUTERS)

"Funding more death and destruction of human life...makes no one secure, and instead fuels hatred and continued war," Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, one of the groups involved in the protest. "The Senate must heed our urgent demand to stop funding militarism and instead invest in life."

The Gaza health ministry said 18,205 people had now been killed and 49,645 wounded in air strikes on Gaza since Israel attacked the territory in retaliation for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which led to the deaths of roughly 1,200 Israelis.

Savannah Archives: Hanukkahs past and present feature chocolate gelt drops, menorah lightings and dreidel games

City of Savannah Municipal Archives staff
Sun, December 5, 2021
Savannah Morning News

Chag Samaech! Monday December 6th is the last night of Hanukkah.

“Chanucah,” Savannah Morning News (December 4, 1874), page 3, column 6. Available online through the Georgia Historical Newspaper Database at:

 https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82015137/1874-12-04/ed-1/seq-3/

Hanukkah is most commonly celebrated at home with fried foods, songs, dreidel games, and of course lighting the menorah. In Savannah, one of the earliest mentions of Hannukah in the Savannah Morning News appeared in 1874.

“Menorah and Advent Wreath Are Used in Christmas Program” Southern Cross (December 2, 1965), page 6, column 3. Available online through the Georgia Historical Newspaper Database at: https://gahistoricnewspapers-files.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn22185748/1965-12-02/ed-2/seq-6.pdf

In the 1940s, public celebrations of Hanukkah became popular nation-wide and, as a 1965 article about the Christmas program at Sacred Heart Parish demonstrates, celebrations of Christmas and Hanukkah were often combined into one Christian-Jewish celebration.

Chanukah party at the Jewish Education Alliance, circa 1953. Pictured from left to right, Earnest Siegel, Edith (Green) Fodor, Fannie (Ehrenfeld) Rabhan, and Tillie Simon. Savannah Jewish Archives collection, The Breman Museum.

Recollections by Savannah’s Jewish citizens include celebrating the holiday modestly. The Savannah Jewish Archives’ oral history collection preserves memories of Hanukkah in Savannah.

Bertha Freedman recounted how “the children…wore a little cloth sack that had a ribbon…through it… For the eight days you wore that and anybody that wanted to give you Chanukah gelt would open up your little bag and put money in it.” Norton Meleaver recalled “having latkes for Chanukah. We didn’t get all the presents that they get now… but just having latkes with applesauce and sour cream was just wonderful.” Savannah’s synagogues and the Jewish Educational Alliance celebrate the Festival of Lights with a range of activities.

The City of Savannah, in partnership with Chabad of Savannah, hosts “Chanukah in the Square,” featuring a Great Chocolate Gelt Drop and a nightly lighting of a public menorah in Ellis Square.

City of Savannah Municipal Archives, Archives@savannahga.gov, Discover the Archives: savannahga.gov/MunicipalArchives.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Archives: Hanukkah's past and present feature gelt drops, menorahs and dreidel games

Polish MP Rails Against 'Satanic' Jews After Extinguishing Menorah

Dec 12, 2023 
By Thomas Kika
Weekend Staff Writer
NEWSWEEK

A far-right politician in Poland railed against "satanic" Jewish people after using a fire extinguisher on a Hanukkah display in the country's parliament building.

The incident took place at approximately 5 p.m. local time in the Polish capital of Warsaw. A large menorah had been set up in the parliamentary building to celebrate the Jewish holiday. As seen in videos circulating online, Grzegorz Braun, a Polish MP and member of the far-right Konfederacja party grabbed a fire extinguisher and used it to put out candles on display, prompting the current government session.

Braun followed up the incident by calling Judaism a "satanic cult" after onlookers in the building told him, "You should be ashamed."

"Those who take part in acts of the satanic cult should be ashamed," Braun said.

Skandaliczne zachowanie Grzegorza Brauna w Sejmie pic.twitter.com/wWTO8vGP6F— Sebastian Napieraj (@sebastiantvn24) December 12, 2023

Szymon Hołownia, speaker of the Sejm Polish parliamentary chamber, confirmed in the aftermath of the incident that a complaint has been filed against Braun with the prosecutor's office. It has been reported that he will be excluded when the Sejm resumes its current session.

Newsweek reached out to the office of the Polish prime minister via email for comment. Attempts to reach Braun's office for comment were unsuccessful.

In the wake of the incident, Braun said that he was inviting his fellow lawmakers to take part in a "theological" debate and characterized his actions as "spontaneous." He also took to his official account on X, formerly Twitter, sharing a post from another account decrying the presence of Jewish iconography in the parliament building and spreading an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jewish people controlling the Polish government.

Numerous figures and groups have come forward to denounce Braun's actions, including his own Konfederacja party, which released a statement online saying that it "condemns" his actions. Donald Tusk, the incoming Polish prime minister who had delivered a speech just prior to Braun's actions, also released a statement calling the MP's behavior "unacceptable."

Above, a photo of the menorah display targeted by a far-right Polish MP on Tuesday. The lawmaker followed up the incident by referring to Judaism as a "Satanic cult."

OMAR MARQUES/GETTY IMAGES

"This is unacceptable," Tusk said. "This can't happen again. This is a disgrace."
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Rafał Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, called Braun's actions "scandalous."

"There is no place for anti-Semitic attacks neither in the Polish parliament nor in Poland in general," Trzaskowski said. "I trust that the prosecutor's office will think similarly."

Mark Brzezinski, the United States ambassador to Poland, also released a statement decrying the incident.

"I am outraged by the nasty antisemitic act committed today by one of the Polish members of parliament," Brzezinski said. "The United States stands against anti-Semitism and this outrageous act must be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

Far-right Polish lawmaker uses fire extinguisher on Hanukkah candles in parliament

By Anna Koper

December 12, 2023

Grzegorz Braun, far-right Polish lawmaker from Confederation party, interacts with the media after using a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles at the parliament in Warsaw, Poland December 12, 2023. 

Dawid Zuchowicz/Agencja Wyborcza.pl 


WARSAW, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A far-right Polish lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in the country's parliament on Tuesday during an event with members of the Jewish community, provoking outrage and leading the speaker to exclude him from the sitting.

Footage posted on the website of private broadcaster TVN24 showed Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation party take the extinguisher before walking across the lobby of the parliament to where the candles were, creating a white cloud and forcing security guards to rush people out of the area.

Members of the Jewish community, including children, had gone to parliament at speaker Szymon Holownia's invitation for its annual Hanukkah celebrations.

The footage showed people in the vicinity covered in powder from the extinguisher.

Afterwards Braun took to the podium in the chamber where he described Hanukkah as "satanic" and said he was restoring "normality".

Asked just after the incident if he was ashamed, Braun replied: "Those who take part in acts of satanic worship should be ashamed."

Magdalena Gudzinska-Adamczyk was present at the scene and footage showed her challenging Braun as he extinguished the candles.

"I feel very short of breath and have trouble speaking," she told TVN24, her face covered in white powder. "I have stopped feeling safe in this country."

Holownia excluded Braun from the sitting of parliament ahead of a confidence vote in newly appointed pro-EU prime minister Donald Tusk and said he would inform prosecutors about his actions.

He later said that Braun would lose half of his salary for three months and all parliamentary expenses for six months.

"There will be no tolerance for racism, xenophobia, antisemitism ... as long as I am the speaker of parliament," Holownia told reporters.

Braun, who has previously caused a ruckus by approaching and shouting at lawmakers as they address parliament, left the chamber, shaking hands with other far-right lawmakers.

His Confederation party had been tipped to hold the balance of power after the Oct. 15 election after a campaign in which it focused mainly on economic issues and criticising the extent of Poland's aid to Ukraine. However, in the end it only won 18 seats, up from 11 in 2019.

Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Reuters by telephone that Braun's actions were not representative of the country and that he was "embarrassed" by them.

"Someone extinguished the Hanukkah candles and a few minutes later we relit them," he said. "For thousands of years our enemies have been trying to extinguish us, from the time of the Maccabees right through to Hamas. But our enemies should learn, they cannot extinguish us."

Cardinal Grzegorz Rys of Poland's Catholic church said in a statement posted on social media platform X that he was ashamed of Braun's actions.

"(I) apologise to the entire Jewish community in Poland," he wrote.

Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Alison Williams

New PM Tusk read out a manifesto by PiS critic who died by self-immolation

TVN24 | TVN24 News in English
12 grudnia 2023, 16:08
Autor:
Źródło:TVN24 News in English, Reuters


Poland's newly-appointed Prime Minister Donald Tusk quoted a manifesto in a speech before parliament on Tuesday (December 12) written by a critic of the former ruling party, who died after setting himself on fire in protest in 2017.

Piotr Szczęsny died on Oct. 29, 2017 after distributing his manifesto to people in front of Warsaw's Palace of Science and Culture and then setting himself on fire two years after nationalist conservatives Law and Justice (PiS) took office.

The manifesto was a protest against PiS policies, with Szczęsny saying the party was damaging the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, deepening divisions in society and discriminating against minorities.

"I will now read something that in a sense could replace my speech today. I wouldn't change much in this text, which may have already escaped our attention and memory. I really want us to remember this man and the words he wrote before he passed away. It was a manifesto, I will read it in its entirety. I am convinced that the majority of you here in parliament, just like the majority of Poles, could probably sign onto it," Tusk said before reading out the manifesto.


Piotr Szczęsny set himself on fire after distributing his manifesto in WarsawSzymon Pulcyn/PAP

PiS cast itself as a defender of Poland's sovereignty and identity that also improved living standards for millions by boosting social benefits and the minimum wage.

Critics, however, say PiS undermined judicial independence, turned state-owned media into a propaganda outlet and fomented prejudice against minorities such as immigrants and the LGBT community.

After reading Szczęsny's manifesto, Tusk appealed for unity on issues such as the rule of law, the Polish constitution and the safety of Polish territory.

"Everyone is deserving of respect. Everyone is deserving of their rights. What really builds a community is the rule of law, the constitution, and the principles of democracy, the safe border and safe territory. These are the issues that we should not argue or fight about under any circumstances. These are something that we must respect without exception, in order to be able to differ on other matters, to be able to differ safely, with respect," Tusk concluded.

Autor:gf
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: PAP/Paweł Supernak

Tusk in exposé: Poland will regain an EU leader status and maintain strong ties with U.S.

12 grudnia 2023, 
Autor:
gf
Źródło:TVN24 News in English, Reuters


Poland's newly appointed prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Tuesday (Dec.12) his country will demand the full mobilisation of the West to help Ukraine, adding it will regain a leadership position in Europe and will be a strong part of NATO.

Presenting his government's plans to parliament, Tusk said Poland would be a loyal ally of the United States and a committed member of NATO, and signalled his determination to mend Warsaw's ties with Brussels after years of feuding over issues ranging from judicial independence to LGBT rights.

"Poland will regain its position as a leader in the European Union... Poland will build its strength, the position it deserves," said Tusk, later promising to "bring back billions of euros" from Brussels.

The European Commission, the EU executive, put significant funds earmarked for Poland on hold when the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party was in power because of concerns over the rule of law.

Poland has gained approval to access 5.1 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in advance payments as part of an EU programme to encourage a shift from Russian fossil fuels.

But the rest of a total of 59.8 billion euros in green transition and COVID-19 recovery funds is frozen until Warsaw rolls back a judicial overhaul implemented by PiS which critics say undermined the independence of the courts.

Despite his pro-EU line, Tusk, who was also prime minister form 2007 to 2014, said he would oppose any changes of EU treaties that would disadvantage Poland.

"Any attempts to change treaties that are against our interests are out of the question ... no one will outplay me in the European Union," said Tusk, a former president of the European Council, which groups the leaders of EU member states.

Tusk, 66, also promised his government would make defence a priority and honour previously signed arms contracts.

PiS came first in an Oct. 15 election and had the first shot at forming a government, but lacked the necessary majority to do so after all other parties ruled out working with it.

Tusk is expected to win a vote of confidence later on Tuesday, enabling his government to be sworn in by President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday morning.

But, in a post on X, PiS lawmaker Mariusz Błaszczak called Tusk's speech a "festival of lies", criticised it for lacking specific policy details and said: "This is a bad time for Poland."

Ukraine ties

The final months of Mateusz Morawiecki's PiS government were marked by a souring of relations with Kyiv, mainly over Warsaw's extension of a ban on Ukrainian grain imports.

With concerns growing in Kyiv about its Western allies' commitment to funding its defence against Russia's invasion, Tusk said Poland would advocate for continued support.

"We will ... loudly and decisively demand the full mobilisation of the free world, the Western world, to help Ukraine in this war," he said.

Ukraine also faces the possibility that Hungary will not give the green light for it to start EU accession talks at a Brussels summit this week.

Ties between Warsaw and Kyiv have been strained by a protest by Polish truckers who have blocked some border crossings in a dispute over Ukrainian trucking firms' access to the EU.

Tusk said he would quickly resolve issues behind the protest, and that Poland would ensure its eastern border -- an external border of the EU -- is secure.

Poland has accused Belarus of orchestrating a migrant crisis on their mutual border. But human rights activists have accused Poland of mistreating migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, who have sought access from Belarus.

"You can protect the Polish border and be humane at the same time," Tusk said.

He said that after he returned from this week's EU summit he would meet the leaders of the Baltic states in Estonia to discuss the Ukraine war and safe borders.

Richard III archaeologists strike again with Roman mosaic


This undated photo issued on Thursday Nov. 25, 2021 by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services shows a Roman mosaic unique to Britain and depicting one of the most famous battles of the Trojan War. Nearly a decade on from uncovering the remains of King Richard III under a car park near Leicester Cathedral, the university's archaeological team have unearthed a Roman mosaic featuring the great Greek hero of Achilles in battle with Hector during the Trojan War — this time in a farmer's field in Rutland, England. (University of Leicester Archaeological Services via AP)


PAN PYLAS
Thu, November 25, 2021

LONDON (AP) — A team of archaeologists from the University of Leicester in central England certainly appear to have the golden touch.

Nearly a decade on from uncovering the remains of King Richard III under a car park near Leicester Cathedral, the university's archaeological team have unearthed a Roman mosaic featuring the great Greek hero of Achilles in battle with brave Hector during the Trojan War — this time in a farmer's field about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of London.

The mosaic is the first depiction ever found in the U.K. of events from Homer's classic 'The Iliad.'"

John Thomas, deputy director of University of Leicester Archaeological Services and project manager on the excavations, said the mosaic says a lot about the person who commissioned it in the late Roman period, between the 3rd and 4th century.

“This is someone with a knowledge of the classics, who had the money to commission a piece of such detail, and it’s the very first depiction of these stories that we’ve ever found in Britain,” he said. “This is certainly the most exciting Roman mosaic discovery in the U.K. in the last century."

In light of its rarity and importance, Britain's Department of Culture, Media and Sport on Thursday granted the mosaic the country's oldest form of heritage protection. It is now a scheduled monument, which makes it a criminal offense for anyone to go digging around the site or even metal-detecting.

“By protecting this site we are able to continue learning from it, and look forward to what future excavations may teach us about the people who lived there over 1,500 years ago,” said Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England.

The mosaic in the county of Rutland was found by Jim Irvine, whose father Brian Naylor owns the land, in the midst of last year's lockdown during excavations of an elaborate villa complex made up of a host of structures and other buildings. Irvine then notified the authorities, leading to an excavation by the university's archaeological team.

He described how what started as “a ramble through the fields with the family” led to the “incredible discovery."

“The last year has been a total thrill to have been involved with,” he said.

The archaeologists discovered remains of the mosaic, measuring 11 meters (36 feet) by almost 7 meters (22.9 feet). Human remains were also discovered in the rubble covering the mosaic and are thought to have been interred after the building was no longer occupied.

The dig, which remains on private land, has now been back-filled to protect the site and work will continue to potentially turn over the field to grassland to lower the risk of future damage from ploughing.

There's little time for the team at the university to rest up following their latest excavation success. In January, they are due to start digging near Leicester Cathedral, in what is expected to be the city's deepest ever excavation, in the hope of finding long-lost treasures from medieval times and ancient times.

The team is best-known for its search of the lost grave of Richard III, which began in August 2012. In February of the following year, the university announced that they had found the remains of England's last Plantagenet king and the last English monarch to have died on the battlefield. He died in 1485.

Archaeologists find 800-year old mummy in Peru

Fri, November 26, 2021, 

LIMA (Reuters) - A team of experts has found a mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old on Peru's central coast, one of the archaeologists who participated in the excavation said on Friday.

The mummified remains were of a person from the culture that developed between the coast and mountains of the South American country. The mummy, whose gender was not identified, was discovered in the Lima region, said archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna.

"The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be part of the local funeral pattern," said Van Dalen Luna, from the State University of San Marcos.


The remains are of a person who lived in the high Andean region of the country, he said. "Radiocarbon dating will give a more precise chronology."

The mummy was found inside an underground structure found on the outskirts of the city of Lima. In the tomb were also offerings including ceramics, vegetable remains and stone tools, he said.

Peru - home to tourist destination Machu Picchu - is home to hundreds of archaeological sites from cultures that developed before and after the Inca Empire, which dominated the southern part of South America 500 years ago, from southern Ecuador and Colombia to central Chile.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Discovery of 2,100-year-old fortress bears witness to historic holiday of freedom, Hanukkah


Brad Bloom
Thu, November 25, 2021, 

\
When I lived in Israel many years ago as a student studying to become a rabbi, our class participated in an archaeological dig in the Negev desert. We were supervised by world class archaeologists at the biblical town of Aroer, east of the Dead Sea on the north bank of the River Arnon (See Deuteronomy 2:36).

With specific tools we dug down each day into the mounds of history. As we excavated the site, we discovered artifacts from different time periods. We unearthed pre-Roman pottery shards and pieces of Roman glass, among other finds. One of the greatest lessons was touching remnants of the Biblical past and using tools to bring to light the memory of our biblical ancestors.

Now news reports from Israel bring us another major archaeological discovery, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Israeli archaeologists unearthed a 2,100-year-old fortress that may provide evidence of and corroborate the historic holiday of Hanukkah, which begins Sunday night.

The Israeli Antiquities department announced that this fortress was constructed by the Greek Seleucid Empire post 556 BCE (Before Common Era) to protect Maresha, a biblical iron age city. The evidence of ancient artifacts demonstrates that the Jewish rebellion against the Greek occupation of ancient Judea in 165 BCE led to an attack against the fortress and the eventual defeat of the Greek encampment.

The Maccabee family formed an insurgency to expel the Seleucid Greek forces from the entirety of Judea, and when they succeeded in 165 C.E., they reconquered Judea and reestablished the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. They became the Hasmonean dynasty and ruled Judea under the Romans until about the first century of the Common Era.

After the Maccabees and their forces retook Jerusalem, they lit the Menorah in the Temple. The oil, which was supposed to last one night, lasted eight.

To this day Jewish families worldwide display in their windows a facsimile of the menorah, dedicated to and in remembrance of the miracle of the oil lasting eight nights.

The fact that we will one day be able to visit an actual fortress where archaeologists say that the Hasmoneans fought and defeated the Greeks fortifies the historic basis of this famous holiday.

The truth is that Hanukkah is not just about a miracle of a menorah or candelabra that stayed lit in the temple for eight nights.

Hanukkah has always been a holiday about the fight for freedom and self determination of the fate of the Jewish people — and to throw off the yoke of the Seleucids, who had turned the Temple into a Greek pagan temple.

The word Hanukkah means to rededicate, and that is exactly what the victors did when the land of Judea, including the Temple, returned to Jewish sovereignty.

The Israeli archaeological achievements — like this one and the Dead Sea Scrolls and many more — corroborate the presence of the Jewish people in ancient Judea, which would one day be called Israel.

It is one thing to read in the Sacred Scriptures or post biblical ancient texts such as the Book of Maccabees about events that were recorded for future generations.

It is another to actually stand in a place and see where people lived in those times. One can imagine by looking at the artifacts of pottery, coins, weapons and wooden beams how our forbearers lived and how they fought heroically for freedom.

Hanukkah has become a major holiday in American life. Not everyone knows the actual history, but they know about the Menorah story and the giving of gifts and the spinning of the dreidel.

It’s also important that the history is being resurrected before our eyes. The archaeologists in Israel are modern-day detectives of ancient history who uncover it, bring it to our attention and prompt our spiritual awareness of Jewish history.

When I read about the archaeological discoveries, I recall the dreidel, which on each side of the spinning top has a letter that represents the phrase, “A great miracle happened there.”

Modern Israelis changed one letter on the traditional spinning top of the dreidel to say “here” instead the word “there.” The events happened in Israel, so saying “here” makes total sense if one lives in Israel.

Maybe the miracle is not simply the menorah. It’s also seeing how the artifacts of this history still bear witness to ancient Israelite and Jewish traditions. Could that be the miracle this year on Hanukkah?

History matters.

Happy Hanukkah.

Christmas in Israel

Culture war over the Christian holiday

Christmas is becoming increasingly popular among secular Israelis. It spreads a festive atmosphere that promotes understanding between people of different faiths. Orthodox Jews, however, view the holiday as a threat. By Joseph Croitoru

Setting the tone is the major supermarket chain Tiv Taam (Good Taste), which reports that sales of Christmas goods have increased almost every year. Customers are particularly keen on purchasing Christmas trees, which in Israel are usually artificial products made of brightly coloured plastic.

The rising popularity of the Christian festival of lights is also evident from the growing number of Christmas markets in Israel. More and more markets have opened in recent years in Arab-Christian towns, especially in Galilee. Thanks to an upswing in the number of Jewish visitors, they are often overcrowded.

When Israelis were unable to travel abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, the town of Nazareth even felt compelled to extend the Christmas season to fifty days to cater to the crowds.

The Christmas atmosphere helps promote a feeling of understanding in both Arab and mixed Jewish-Arab towns and cities. Efforts are now being made to combine the Jewish Hanukkah festival with Christmas under the new Hebrew portmanteau "Chanuchristmas" not only in mixed Jewish-Arab towns and cities, but also this year in Haifa, Jaffa and the city of Acre, a centre of the medieval Crusades.

Indeed Christmas markets and related events have long been marketed as "Chanuchristmas" events in quite a few predominantly Jewish cities and at universities.

"The rising popularity of the Christian festival of lights is also evident from

 the growing number of Christmas markets in Israel. More and more markets

 have opened in recent years in Arab-Christian towns, especially in Galilee," writes Joseph Croitoru

Criticism of "Chanuchristmas"

From religious quarters, however, the new secular "cult" of "Chanuchristmas" is coming under serious fire for blurring the "Jewish identity". Although the secular camp has become inured to such criticism, this year the mood of Christmas cheer among liberal Israelis has been dimmed by growing concerns about the incoming, strongly right-wing new Netanyahu government. Fears are that the country's cultural diversity will be threatened by policies aimed at limiting its culture and identity to what is Jewish.

An appeal by Anat Kamm, an editor at the liberal left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, recently made waves. She called on Israelis to celebrate Christmas and demonstratively put up Christmas trees on their balconies and terraces as a symbol of protest and "civil uprising" against the country's renewed political shift to the right.

However, her appeal was not applauded everywhere, even in secular circles. Orly Noy, chair of the board of the prominent Israeli human rights organisation B'tselem, accused Kamm of indulging in "commercialised kitsch", saying she should display a Palestinian flag on her balcony rather than a Christmas tree. 

In the right-wing media, Kamm's appeal was cast as part of a development that is corroding the country's Jewish culture. Very recently, there was an outcry in the Hebrew-language Twitter community when a female member of the ultra-nationalist Israeli organisation Im Tirzu posted a complaint about a branch of the supermarket chain Tiv Taam.

Sweet treat at the centre of a culture row: very recently, a member of the

 ultra-nationalist Israeli organisation Im Tirzu caused an outcry on Twitter when she 

complained that a supermarket chain had a prominent display of Christmas good while

 "Sufganiyot" (filled doughnuts that are eaten during Hanukkah) were relegated to a corner

Christmas items or Hanukkah baked goods?

She had been angered by how the shop displayed a broad assortment of Christmas articles in its entrance area, while only a few sufganiyot (doughnuts with various fillings which are eaten during Hanukkah) were on offer in a small corner. Tiv Taam responded to the criticism with a campaign of full-page ads (in Haaretz, for example), wishing the public a "Happy Chanuchristmas". 

Another right-wing activist, this time from an NGO that agitates against "illegal immigration", expressed outrage that the Tel Aviv-Jaffa city administration was offering "Chanuchristmas city tours". "I just want to remind people," she wrote on Twitter, "that for generations Jews were persecuted, abused, murdered and massacred in the name of the man whose birth the Tel Aviv city fathers are now celebrating under the sycophantic label 'Chanuchristmas'."

But Tel Aviv-Jaffa, which has held an increasingly well-frequented Christmas market under the "Chanucristmas" label for the past five years, was not daunted by these reactions. The city administration parried the fierce attacks posted on its Facebook page, where it was accused of heretical and unpatriotic behaviour, with the statement: "Tel Aviv-Jaffa is home to Jews and Christians, and we celebrate the holidays of different religions with the conviction that all have their place – this is what pluralism looks like."

"Right-wing populist fear-mongering" over a Christmas tree

The dispute over the enthusiasm for Christmas among the secular population also reached the Knesset, Israel's parliament, this year. It all began with criticism voiced by Yinon Magal, a radio journalist who is popular in right-wing nationalist and religious circles, that a Christmas tree but no hanukkiah (Hanukkah candelabrum) had been set up in the entrance hall of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll of the liberal "There Is a Future" party felt compelled to respond to the criticism in a speech before the Knesset. He said that the outcry by right-wing populist fear-mongers over a Christmas tree was an expression of an exaggerated Diaspora mentality that had long been out of place in a consolidated Jewish democratic state like Israel. Those who are secure in their faith, he went on, cannot be scared or put on the defensive by a Christmas tree.

"On the contrary," the deputy minister appealed, "go out and have a look at the Christmas celebrations, which are beautiful and colourful. And it can only be a good thing to learn about and respect other religions." Roll posted his speech on Twitter, setting off a storm of mostly hateful comments. They raise fears that the dispute over Christmas could mushroom into a full-blown culture war under the incoming government. 

Joseph Croitoru

© Qantara.de 2022

Translated from the German by Jennifer Taylor