On El Camino Real in Tustin, an inflatable dinosaur wearing a yarmulke greets customers, like Isaac Bresnick, scurrying into the Golden Dreidle, a brightly lit store filled with menorahs of different styles and sizes, intricately carved mezuzahs, colorful dreidels and greeting cards for bar and bat mitzvahs.
Bresnick, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident, is here to pick up candles, gifts and menorah-adorned pajamas for his kids for Hanukkah.
Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of light’s triumph over darkness, begins at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 18. But for some in Southern California, the bright holiday is marred by recent spikes in antisemitism seen locally and across the country.
While celebrations will continue within the confines of his home, Bresnick said he is feeling “a little discomfort at putting things up in our window.”
And he is not alone in this feeling.
Shahrokh Ghodsi, owner of the Golden Dreidle, a religious goods store, said customers have told him they “toned down” public displays and decorations of the holiday.
“People are afraid of showing that they are Jewish which is awful,” Ghodsi said. “In this amazing, beautiful country, it shouldn’t be like that.”
Jews experienced the most religiously motivated hate crimes in 2021, according to the latest FBI Hate Crimes Statistics Report released this month.
That’s in line with recent reports from the Orange County Human Rights Commission and the Los Angeles County Commission of Human Relations; both studies found that Jews were the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in 2021. And an analysis of LAPD data from last year shows a spike in antisemitic hate crimes across the county.
In October, police in Beverly Hills investigated the distribution of antisemitic flyers that blamed Jewish people for gun control. This was after an anti-Jewish group hung banners on the 405 Freeway expressing agreement with antisemitic remarks made by the rapper Ye, also known as Kanye West. Those demonstrators also raised their arms in a Nazi salute.
Given these brazen acts of hate as Hanukkah approaches, Jewish community leaders are taking precautions.
“Security and safety is always our No. 1 priority,” said Julie Holdaway, vice president of the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County, adding this has been the case since the facility opened 18 years ago. Employees work closely with the Irvine Police Department and Department of Homeland Security and have a visible security presence on their campus, Holdaway said.
In Los Angeles, Rabbi Edward Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom said the safety at his synagogue has been strengthened. But while it is essential to take precautions, he said, “the most important way we can respond to antisemitism is to assert how much we appreciate and love our traditions, celebrate our holidays, educate our children and worship God.”
The Hanukkah festivities celebrate two miracles: the first being the triumphant victory of a small band of Jewish fighters.
The other is the miracle of light. When the Jews entered the Temple of Jerusalem, they found enough oil to light the menorah for only one night but, as the story goes, that the oil burned for eight.
“The deep pride and joy we take in our faith is all represented in that little flicker of flame in a big, great dark world, ” said Feinstein. “It’s a happy, sweet holiday celebrating the miracle that over four millennia, we have survived as a community of faith.”
Ghodsi and his wife say they will not be changing their celebrations in spite of the recent spike of hate.
“I am a native Californian, and I always have something that says I am Jewish on,” said Julie Ghodsi, pointing at the colorful, bejeweled menorah dangling on one ear and dreidel on the other.
The Ghodsis plan to celebrate with their four children, eating deep-fried latkes and jelly-filled sufganiyot (doughnuts) and sharing gifts.
In Riverside, Rabbi Shmuel Fuss of the Chabad Jewish Community Center is also excited for latke, especially hot out of the pan. He is gearing up for one of the largest Hanukkah celebrations in Southern California at the Riverside Historic Courthouse on Monday, Dec. 19, where more than 3,000 people are expected.
“Hanukkah is about to be celebrated for the 2,161st time. We are not about to cower or hide or change our celebrations for some hateful people,” Fuss said, noting that still some precautions will be taken.
At the Merage Jewish Community Center, celebrations span the eight days of Hanukkah, with staff prepared to welcome between 350 and 450 kids each day. Festivities kicked off with an event on Dec. 15, free and open to everyone, including non-Jewish community members, with carnival games, music and gifts.
Holdaway worries about extreme violence — such as the 2018 attack on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue when 11 worshippers were killed — and she is also concerned about what she sees as the normalization of antisemitic tropes.
Steven Windmueller, interim director of Union College’s Zelikow School and professor emeritus of Jewish communal studies, attributes these tropes as one of the reasons for a spike in antisemitism.
As people’s mistrust in governmental institutions grows, this “has generated a huge pushback against groups that are somehow perceived as having too much authority or power,” Windmueller said.
Jonathan Jacoby, director of the Nexus Task Force, an organization that analyzes issues at the intersection of Israel and antisemitism, attributed an increase in antisemitism tied to fringe groups, especially White supremacist groups that felt emboldened in recent years.
“These groups got to be more public, and as a result of that, they were able to attract more adherence,” Jacoby said. “Social media played a strong role in these groups gaining traction and gaining supporters.”
Instead of focusing on the recent spike in hate, Fuss tells his community to “always remember that a little light can dispel much darkness.”
Feinstein, the rabbi in Los Angeles, echoed those sentiments: “The brighter we shine the light, the more we dispel the darkness.”