Style by Mimi G

It feels very important to post my menorahs this year. I had a conversation with my husband before we joined the menorah parade on the first night of Chanukah. "I'm scared to go, but we have to go, otherwise we are hiding and they win." We agreed.

The parade ends at the mall, where everyone gathers inside to light the giant menorah together. There were many police officers on our floor and protecting us from the upper floors that look over the area. The emotions are mixed. Joy of celebrating our holiday, warm connection surrounded by people in my community, deep sadness thinking about the Bondi Beach Chanukah event attack, fear that something may happen at our event. 

Why was I not surprised to wake up to the news about the Bondi Beach attack? Horrified, yes. Brokenhearted, yes. But sadly, not surprised. 

When I was younger, my grandparents who survived the Holocaust, would sometimes warn me that many people still hate the Jews. I didn't accept that. I thought that was coming from their trauma. I thought the world had evolved since then. Now, I wish I was right. 

It feels like every week I am seeing antisemitism. A couple of weeks ago, a young Jewish father in my town was tragically killed by a large fallen branch. The comment section on that news article were nauseating. "Oh good, one less of them." There were many other comments like that, with lots of likes on them. 

Of course, we have many allies and appreciate that there is a large portion of the population that does not have a hateful bone in their body. But it has become increasingly obvious that antisemitic acts are on the rise and that is very disturbing and very scary. 

And yet, I won't hide. I will continue to celebrate my Judaism with pride. I will continue to celebrate Chanukah openly and honor those beautiful people that we lost on that beach, as they celebrated the first day of Chanukah together. 

May their memories be a blessing. May we all do our part to add light into this world and find ourselves in a world that has truly transformed.

Thank you and for hosting a great event! Stunning product and great conversations with fellow design peeps makes a great night!