Daily Herald opinion: ‘We carry on’: Embracing light in times of darkness an important lesson in wake of Hanukkah massacre

A holiday symbolized by light arrived Sunday under a cloud of darkness as two men opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, killing 15 people and wounding many others.

Authorities there say the suspects, one now dead, were a father and son and the attacks were inspired by the Islamic State group. Among the dead are two rabbis, a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl — targeted for their religion at a time of growing antisemitism.

With Australia hours ahead of the U.S., American Jews woke to the tragic news Sunday morning, before Hanukkah began here. When sundown came, they would light their own menorahs, haunted by the carnage.

How, you wonder, do you celebrate a holiday about hope and resilience in the presence of such hate?

How do you set aside your sadness and your fear?

And how do you balance moments of light amid the darkness?

Two examples from this difficult week come to mind as we ponder those questions.

The first emerged in Australia, with heroism in the shadow of horror.

Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Muslim Australian born in Syria, is being hailed a hero after video footage showed him grabbing and disarming one of the attackers. Wounded by gunfire, this courageous man is now recuperating in the hospital.

Boris and Sofia Gurman did not survive, but in their final moments the Jewish couple tried to protect others by taking a weapon from one of the shooters who used another gun to end their lives.

Their selflessness should never be forgotten.

Another reminder of courage and faith came this week closer to home, when Judith Raanan spoke at a Vernon Hills synagogue of another attack on Jews, the most deadly since the Holocaust.

Raanan, of Evanston, was in Israel to celebrate her mother’s birthday when Hamas terrorists attacked Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Oct. 7, 2023. She and her daughter Natalie, then 17, were taken hostage — hands bound and forced at gunpoint to walk past dead bodies to captivity in Gaza.

They were released on Oct. 20 of that year, the first of the 251 taken from Israel to return. For others, the ordeal would drag on much longer, with the last of the hostages held for more than two years.

Speaking Monday, Raanan identified her two goals while in Gaza. One was to protect her daughter. The other was to remain faithful to her Judaism.

She did so by praying in Hebrew and following Jewish dietary rules, she said.

“I never lost for one second the connection with Hashem,” she told the crowd, using a Hebrew reference to God.

Raanan and the heroes at Bondi Beach remind us that light endures over darkness.

But, we have to acknowledge, what happened there did not unfold in a vacuum. In the year following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent devastating war in Gaza, antisemitic incidents in Australia hit an all-time high.

Just hours after the Australia attacks, protesters chanting antisemitic messages set off smoke bombs near where a Hanukkah concert was to take place in Amsterdam. And that same weekend, a Jewish family’s home decorated for the holiday in California was sprayed with gunfire in a drive-by shooting from a man spewing antisemitic slurs.

We must all speak out about such horrific acts. Displaying a menorah in your window should not put your family at risk, nor should celebrating peacefully at the beach.

Hanukkah is meant to be a celebration of miracles, faith and light — themes that resonate regardless of our differences.

As Howard Kleinstein, Mount Prospect’s director of digital communications, told our Steve Zalusky at a Hanukkah event in the village Sunday, it is important to move forward and, yes, to celebrate.

“Life takes precedence over death in the Jewish religion, and so while we think about it, we carry on,” he said. “And that's the story of Hanukkah, carrying on.”

Even — or especially — in the face of tragedy.