The Shine A Light campaign includes events across North America, aiming to use the light of Hanukkah to fight antisemitic darkness.
(December 12, 2022 / JNS) From Tampa Bay to Edmonton, a campaign intends to Shine A Light on antisemitism this Hanukkah.
“You can’t dispel darkness with darkness. You have to dispel darkness with light,” Adam Teitelbaum, executive director at the Israel Action Network and associate vice president for public affairs at Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS. “The ability to shine a light on the multiple ways in which antisemitism manifests in today’s society is an incredible opportunity for the coordination and collaboration of institutions across not only just the Jewish sector, but society writ large.”
“There’s a phrase that a mentor of mine used all the time that I think is so powerful: Conversations have beginnings, but they need not have ends. This is a good chance to start a conversation. It’s an excuse to start a conversation with people in the wider community,” said Teitelbaum.
This year, that includes the lighting up of menorahs and bridges, and Jewish communal events run in tandem with professional sports teams such as the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
Another event, which will include elected officials, is planned for Los Angeles.
“It’s on every level of community engagement that these programs are happening and it’s across the country with great geographic diversity, from Manhattan to the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass in Louisville, Kentucky,” Teitelbaum said.
Other activities include a youth art competition, seminars, concerts and parties. There is also a virtual event scheduled highlighting the rise in antisemitism in online gaming, which Teitelbaum points to as a particular area of growing concern.
He indicated that this year’s Hanukkah-focused campaign is larger than last year’s, based in part on the worsening climate for Jews. Teitelbaum pointed to JFNA’s work on the LiveSecure initiative and the growth of the congressional-funded Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which has received consistent and significant increases, and JFNA’s existing community-based relationships springing from that work.
“So how do we leverage, supplement and grow what already exists in terms of those community-based capacities and relationships and give them tools and resources, direction, messaging information and opportunities to collaborate across sectors to raise awareness about antisemitism?” asked Teitelbaum. “So, that’s Shine A Light.”
