12/22/2025
Federation Lights Menorah in Support of Sydney Jews
Alan Rosskamm, chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s community relations committee, lights the menorah on stage as cantor Vladimir Lapin of Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood sings the Chanukah blessings during the Federation’s Shine a Light vigil on Dec. 19 at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood. CJN Photo / Jimmy Oswald
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News.
by Jimmy Oswald
Ilana Isakov Katz, vice chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s board of trustees, said lighting a menorah during Chanukah, gathered with friends and family, “should never be an act of courage.”
But the sentiment at the Federation’s Shine a Light vigil, hosted at its Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood on Dec. 19, is that it feels exactly that way and that this year, the holiday and its meaning, feel different for many in the community following an attack in which two gunmen attacked a Chanukah celebration on Dec. 14 on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, killing 15 people and injuring at least 40. A 50 year-old father, who was killed, and his 24-year-old son committed the terrorist act on the first night of Chanukah.
“We stand together in the face of incomprehensible pain, united by our grief and our commitment to remember each soul lost,” Katz said while opening the vigil which had 150 people registered to attend the event. “We speak their names today, not as distant figures, but as family. Their losses felt deeply in our community, in our homes, and in our hearts.”
Clergy members from around Cleveland attended the event with several taking to the podium to speak about the massacre and discuss the importance of the Jewish community staying united and strong in the face of ongoing attacks on its people.
Alan Rosskamm, chair of the Federation community relations committee, lit a menorah presented on stage at the end of the vigil as Cantor Vladimir Lapin of Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood sang Chanukah blessings.
The event was originally to be held outdoors, but due to cold, wind and snow was moved inside.
“We refuse to let this moment pass in silence,” Katz said. “While we mourn, we will light the Chanukah menorah to affirm. We affirm that love is stronger than hate, that unity is stronger than fear and that the memory of those we have lost will continue to inspire us to stand together, speak out and never be silent in the face of violence or intolerance.”
The attack hit especially close to home for Rabbi Alex Rosenbaum of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike as three of her cousins along with her aunt and uncle recently moved to Sydney from South Africa.
“They moved for many reasons, but one that so many people move to Australia for is the perceived safety, the future they believed could exist there for their family that didn’t seem possible in their home country,” Rosenbaum said. “As they acclimated, I would hear about my cousin’s intensive training on the CSG, the community security group, in Sydney, a Jewish group so many people have joined in recent years. I was taken aback that the Jewish community in this extraordinarily safe country felt this kind of self-protection was necessary. And then Bondi happened.”
Rosenbaum said her aunt, in a reflection written to the family, described the attack as a “blinding sense of betrayal” similar to what the family experienced in South Africa after Oct. 7, 2023, with antismetic hatred and violence on the rise. It was the same pain that helped spearhead the move, a feeling that “fundamentally shifted my feeling of belonging.”
“There are so many stories emerging of people who threw themselves over their children and children who weren’t even their own,” Rosenbaum said.” Stories of people outside the Jewish community, across race and religion, who saw what was happening and tried to help. There are moments of light, good and extraordinary heroism in this dark story, and we must hold on to that light.”
Rabbi Zushe Greenberg of Solon Chabad called the attack “a tragedy on many levels” and said it shook a Jewish community that has been present in the area for over 100 years. He then spoke of a video circulating of an interview with the mother of one of the victims.
“This couple has a big electric menorah on their front lawn that has stood there for Chanukah even before Oct. 7,” Greenberg said. “They were planning to light the candle and the kids told them, ‘Please don’t light it,’ because they were afraid. They started to cry and said, ‘We don’t want to be a target.’”
Greenberg said the mother gave in, but got a visit from the neighbor, who isn’t Jewish, that said his daughter was in tears after seeing the dark menorah.
“She said it means the terrorists will win,” Greenberg said. “They are scared to celebrate their holidays and that means terrorism is going to win the fight. We cannot allow it. They decided to light it and be proud of it.”
Dr. George Jaskiw, president of the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio’s board of directors, said the Ukrainian community stood with the Jewish people in “horror, mourning and anger but also with resolve.” He said while Jews were the target of the attacks, it was a tragedy that struck all who share a sense of value in “respect for life, defense of liberty and a commitment to resolving differences through dialogue and negotiation rather than bloodshed.”
“We understand all too well how violence inflicted far, far away hurts us in our hearts here,” Jaskiw said. “From this experience, we’ve learned something essential: evil must never be normalized, irrespective of the target, whether in Australia, in Israel, in Ukraine or in our United States.”
Touching on the themes of Chanukah, Lapin said that the question at the heart of the holiday isn’t whether darkness is out there but whether we can still bring light.
“And we do. Not because it’s easy or guarantees safety, but because Jewish life has always chosen presence over disappearance,” he said. “We’ve always chosen light over darkness.”
Rabbi Binyamin Blau of Green Road Synagogue in Beachwood led a prayer of the 130th Perek of Tehillim and said one of the most poignant ways to respond to such a violent act is “with the saying of the words of psalms.”
“They are often said in a sense of mourning, but they’re also in a sense of hope as we pray for the well-being of all those who are injured and for the safety and security of Jews around the world,” Blau said.
