Last Thursday’s public menorah lighting ceremony drew the largest crowd ever for this annual public celebration on the Common to mark the start of Chanukah.

It was a heartening response in the wake of the horrific Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis by the terrorist group Hamas. Most of the victims were civilians and many were children. The barbaric attack has been followed by hate marches and other displays of anti-Semitism on college campuses and in major cities.

At last week’s menorah lighting on the Common, organizers and leaders made indirect but unmistakable references to the recent horrors visited upon innocent Israelis and the troubling rise in anti-Semitic hate since. But they wisely tried to keep the focus on the positive Chanukah theme of “bringing the light.”

Rabbi Yossi Lipsker, director of Chabad of the North Shore, welcomed those in attendance.

“We are praying for Israel and our hearts and minds are slightly numb with what we are encountering,” he said. “But Chanukah is the festival of lights, so let’s bring a little light and a little song.”

Rabbi Sruly Brook, also of Chabad of the North Shore, thanked town officials and all in attendance “for joining in this incredible show of Jewish pride.”

Then he posed a question.

“Are we safe today in America? Are we safe as Jewish people?”

That such a concern even needs to be raised in 2023 America is beyond troubling.

Organizers from Chabad of the North Shore and town officials in attendance agreed that last week’s crowd was the largest ever for the annual menorah lighting celebration on the Common.

It was almost as if, in the absence of any local human rights organization holding an event or even issuing a statement condemning the Hamas atrocities, local residents wanted to make it clear that they stand with Israel and the Jewish Community.

Meanwhile, at their November meeting, our guardians of social justice on the Wakefield Human Rights Commission decided that they need to develop a “policy” to guide how they will react to future events like Oct. 7.

The HRC apparently didn’t need such a policy in 2019, when they sponsored a vigil on the Common for the 50 victims of a massacre at two New Zealand mosques. But the brutal massacre of more than 20 times as many Israeli civilians is met with silence.

Why is it that so many, from university presidents on down, have such a hard time condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and the subsequent rise in anti-Semitism?

Here’s an idea. How about a policy that simply says, “Do the right thing”?

It shouldn’t be that hard.
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[This column originally appeared in the December 14, 2023 Wakefield Daily Item.]