{"id":33752,"date":"2016-12-23T08:07:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T14:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=33752"},"modified":"2016-12-23T13:02:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T19:02:29","slug":"why-i-light-my-menorah-in-the-window-and-you-should-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/why-i-light-my-menorah-in-the-window-and-you-should-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I light my menorah in the window \u2014 and you should, too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By EDMON J. RODMAN<\/p>\n<p>LOS ANGELES (JTA) \u2014 In the weeks before Chanukah, with anticipation of the\u00a0holiday brightly filling my mind, the darkening news of rising anti-Semitism in the U.S. began to filter in. As I pictured our menorahs burning in their usual place \u2014 \u00a0the front windows of our home \u2014 a warning light began to blink.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_33754\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33754\" class=\"wp-image-33754 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"Hanukkah\" width=\"300\" height=\"231\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah-1024x789.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah.jpg 1465w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/231;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33754\" class=\"wp-image-33754 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"Hanukkah\" width=\"300\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah-1024x789.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Hanukkah.jpg 1465w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-33754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This year&#8217;s Chanukah stamp provided an unexpected source of inspiration for a writer. (Courtesy of U.S. Postal Service)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Though Chanukah represents a victory of light over darkness \u2014 by the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, which resulted in the rededication of the Second Temple \u2014 recent events were causing me to rethink our\u00a0window menorah lighting, turning me toward sharing our menorah kindling with only family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>But, surprisingly, like finding an extra Chanukah candle in the box, a new U.S. Chanukah postage stamp depicting a lit menorah in a window was an unexpected\u00a0source of inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>For 17 years we&#8217;ve lived on a block where there are no other Jewish families. We&#8217;ve proudly placed our menorahs \u2014 whether lit by candle or by bulb \u2014 in our front windows, publicizing the miracle of the holiday both to our neighbors and ourselves. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myjewishlearning.com\/article\/the-hanukkah-blessings\/\" target=\"_blank\">Saying the blessings<\/a> and lighting the candles is a mitzvah, according to the Talmud, and by doing so, we were also recognizing the blessing of our freedom of religion and expressing our Jewish identity.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, it wasn\u2019t really Chanukah for me until I walked outside and, looking at the lit menorah emanating from\u00a0my own window, affirmed that we had arrived to this time once again.<\/p>\n<p>Why was I worried now? Since the previous Chanukah, nothing had changed in our multi-ethnic and multi-denominational neighborhood, a place where non-Jewish neighbors have wished me \u201cHappy Chanukah\u201d and at Passover \u201c<em>gut yontif<\/em>.\u201d But in the uncertain light of political change in our country, I was worried about what was emerging from the shadows: anti-Semitic iconography online, attacks on Jewish journalists, the re-emergence of Jewish conspiracy stories, Jewish college students being confronted with swastikas. Was this a wise time to let our light shine?<\/p>\n<p>Helping to banish my second thoughts, however, was that new stamp. The design \u2014 a traditional, branched menorah shown burning in a window against a background of falling snow \u2014 seemed innocuous enough, even unseasonably fanciful if you live in California, like me. But there it was, a government-issued reminder that in the window, where your neighbors can see it, is the place from which your menorah should send out its glow.<\/p>\n<p>Even so,\u00a0a statement released by the Postal Service with the issue of the new stamp renewed my concerns when it reminded me that \u201cat times in history when it was not safe for Jewish families to make a public declaration of faith, the menorah was set instead in a prominent place inside the home.\u201d Though the statement went on to say that \u201ctoday in the U.S., many families have renewed the tradition of displaying the menorah in windows during the holiday,\u201d I still wondered if \u201ctoday\u201d was one of those \u201cnot safe\u201d times in history.<\/p>\n<p>Was it a good time to draw the light safely in and bring the flickering candles into the kitchen? After all, that\u2019s the way my mother, who grew up in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1930s, when anti-Semitism in America was on the rise, did it in our home.<\/p>\n<p>What was I afraid of? It wasn&#8217;t as if I&#8217;m expecting a replay of the now famous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/2008\/01\/22\/life-religion\/billings-15-years-after-menorah-incident\" target=\"_blank\">Billings, Montana, incident in 1993<\/a>, when, according to JTA, \u201ca brick was thrown through the bedroom window of a 5-year-old Jewish boy, Isaac Schnitzer, who was displaying a Chanukah menorah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But in an <a href=\"http:\/\/la.adl.org\/adl-audit-anti-semitic-incidents-on-the-rise-nationally-second-highest-levels-in-california\/\" target=\"_blank\">Anti-Defamation League report about anti-Semitic incidents <\/a>issued before the presidential election, California was cited in 2015 as the state with the second-highest level of anti-Semitic incidents. Adding to my sense of Jewish d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, after the election, in mid-November, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/2016\/11\/17\/news-opinion\/politics\/adl-leader-us-anti-semitism-worse-than-at-any-time-since-1930s\" target=\"_blank\">ADL&#8217;s national director, Jonathan Greenblatt<\/a>, had announced at the organization\u2019s yearly conference that the American Jewish community had \u201cnot seen this level of anti-Semitism in mainstream political and public discourse since the 1930s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What these statistics challenged, I realized, was not my faith that miraculous things can happen, like a single cruse of oil burning for eight days, but my faith in another kind of miracle \u2014 freedom of religion and American pluralism.<\/p>\n<p>After national calls to deport Muslims, a recent spike in hate crimes in New York \u2014 with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/2016\/12\/05\/news-opinion\/united-states\/nypd-sees-huge-spike-in-hate-crimes-post-election-jews-targeted-most\" target=\"_blank\">majority of incidents directed at Jews<\/a> \u2014 and closer to home, reports last year of a Jewish student at UCLA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/2015\/02\/27\/default\/ucla-student-government-member-questioned-about-jewish-identity\" target=\"_blank\">being harassed because of her identity<\/a>, I realized that the menorah burning in the window isn&#8217;t\u00a0just a message to fellow Jews \u2014 it&#8217;s a signal to any person\u00a0that this was a free and safe place for anyone to openly identify and show his or her beliefs. If I, or anyone, were to light one candle at Chanukah in full view of neighbors, it wouldn&#8217;t be, contrary to the song, not just for the Maccabee children \u2014 it would be for all.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t make any difference which side you were on in the recent election. What must be decided is how with candles, oil or electric bulbs we would vote now. Recalling that my mother\u2019s parents, Joseph and Rebecca, had been strangers here about a century ago, I felt that the welcoming menorah light represented the freedom for which they had left everything behind.\u00a0Plus, the act of putting our menorahs in the window would be an opportunity to rekindle the core Jewish belief of welcoming the stranger.<\/p>\n<p>To push back the shadows, won\u2019t you join me in a Chanukah show of light? Help light the way for us, and for others: During the eight nights of Chanukah, place your menorah where passers-by can see it. Take a photo or selfie, and post it on social media with the hashtag #menorahinthewindow. Share the city, town or place where you are, and let us know why you are doing it.<\/p>\n<p>The strength of what we can do as a community \u2014 that is a miracle, too.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Be safe with your menorah; light it away from anything that can catch fire and do not leave it unattended<\/em>. <em>Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles. Contact him at <a href=\"mailto:edmojace@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"clickable ClickableEmail inactive\">edmojace@gmail.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Why%20I%20light%20my%20menorah%20in%20the%20window%20%E2%80%94%20and%20you%20should%2C%20too\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[823,3],"tags":[8834,6500,8790,8795,8788,8284],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33768,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33752\/revisions\/33768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}