On Sunday, Dec. 14, Chabad of Oro Valley was excited to hold its 14th annual Northwest Chanukah Festival, a celebration of the Jewish holiday of light and hope.
Congregants woke to horrific news. Early that morning, on the other side of the world, two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, killing 15 worshippers and wounding another 40.
Immediately, people within the 300-family Chabad of Oro Valley began calling Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman, worried about “what you might call copycat violence,” he said. While the Chabad had hired private security, and members of the congregation have permits to carry weapons, people said they were hesitant to attend the celebration at Oro Valley Marketplace.
“People told us straight out, ‘I will not be coming,’” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman, rattled himself, sensed their fear, and wondered if proceeding with the celebration was in “the right spirit.” For a half-hour or so, he considered canceling that evening’s celebration.
After the Sydney attacks, “the thought crossed my mind that perhaps maybe they would cancel it,” said congregant Marilyn Anthony, a Canadian snowbird who winters in SaddleBrooke with her husband Willy Halpert.
Hanukkah, widely celebrated in Judaism, is the eight-day, wintertime festival of lights, celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods like potato-pancake latkes. The Hebrew word means “dedication,” and the celebration marks the miracle of the jug of oil, expected to light but one night, only to illuminate eight otherwise dark days under the threat
of death.
Hanukkah is the holiday “we feel carries the most universal message,” Zimmerman said. And “if we cancel, if we buckle, it is entirely the antithesis of Hanukkah. You do not allow light to be snuffed out.”
“I knew if it was taking place, absolutely 100% I would be there,” Anthony said. “It was one of those fleeting thoughts. But I never had any doubt we would be attending.”
Painfully aware of attacks on Jews in history and around the world, Zimmerman wondered how to proceed. “The question really becomes, given history, given the way people are feeling, what are we going to be doing? And we don’t have a lot of time to make this decision.”
Weeks earlier, Zimmerman met Oro Valley Police Chief Kara Riley, and they exchanged phone numbers. Early on Dec. 14, “I called her,” he said. “‘People are concerned,’” he told Riley. “What can we do about making people safe?”
“I got you. I got you. Don’t worry,” Riley responded. OVPD officers, already aware of the Hannukah festival, would be fully present, she assured.
Mayor Joe Winfield reached out to Riley as well. “There has been police presence in the past, but because of the horrific event in Australia I wanted to make sure we were prepared,” the mayor said.
Assured, Zimmerman and others got the word out to congregants. And they came, hundreds of them, to celebrate Hanukkah even with sadness in their hearts.
“To be able to have the chief say ‘I got you,’ and the mayor says, ‘I’m standing in solidarity with you,’ is astounding, absolutely astounding,” Zimmerman said. “It definitely was a key element in the decision to proceed.”
Zimmerman and Anthony reflected upon Hanukkah, and its significance.
The story of Hanukkah began when Jews were being killed for practicing their faith. “While there are haters coming … to extinguish the light, we will not allow the light to go down in the face of darkness,” Zimmerman said. “It’s risky, but we will continue to shine light, even when there is that kind of oppression on top of it.”
“You have to take a stand, and not let somebody, anywhere, keep you from being who you are, or living the life you have every right to live,” Anthony said.
In some respects, the Bondi Beach killings emboldened more people to attend Hanukkah celebrations, she believes. It’s about having “a presence. You can try to keep us from living a normal life like everybody else, but you are not going to succeed.”
And, in fact, across the world there were more than 15,000 public Menorah lightings on the first day of Hanukkah. “There was a lot of pain, a lot of suffering and sorrow,” Zimmerman said. “The response was to wipe your tears and get up, and celebrate regardless. This is the best way to fight back, to be more light.”
When they arrived at the Oro Valley festival, Anthony and Halpert asked friends if they were “slightly on edge or ill at ease.
“We were all slightly, I don’t want to say nervous, but wary,” Anthony said. “We were looking more carefully at all the people around us. We tend to know our community.”
Police presence helped. “I don’t want to say it gave a feeling of security,” Anthony said. Rather, she knew police “would make our adversaries think twice about coming. They know it would not be to their benefit in the end if they tried something, because they would get hurt.
“It’s a rather interesting situation to find oneself in,” Anthony said. “You’re hoping they’re there as a deterrent as much as anything else.”
Attacks on Jews are “sadly, nothing new,” Anthony said. “People take aim at Jewish groups, especially Chabads, because we’re out there, on the streets, and quite obvious.”
The Northwest Chanukah (the traditional spelling) Festival celebrates Jewish pride and unity, complete with craft booths, activities, jumping castles, live music, free latkes and donuts, and food for sale. The Grand Menorah lighting ceremony and the gelt drop of chocolate coins culminated the celebration. It was “very festive, a big to-do,” Zimmerman said.
As the festival progressed, “we all relaxed into it,” Anthony said. “We all started to feel completely safe. It was so much fun, it really was. It was wonderful for us, and wonderful for all the kids that were there.
Zimmerman said speeches were “more emotional, more powerful, instead of less” after the Sydney attack.
“It was a very powerful sort of moment as we stood on the stage lighting this Menorah,” Zimmerman said. “There really is a Jewish message in terms of the response to darkness. It’s not really fighting back. The Jewish response is increasing the light. We can’t chase away darkness with sticks. You kindle, and the darkness flees.”
He is a grateful Oro Valley resident and American.
“The United States of America is such a blessed land in the freedoms they have given to American Jews, but also as a source of inspiration for the world,” Zimmerman said. “To be able to have a blessed land that is a shining example for what it means to grant its citizens … these rights, is very novel, and welcome. The government protects you, and you can call your local law enforcement for support.”