After deadly Hanukkah attack abroad, local Jewish community chooses to gather

A terrorist attack at a Sunday Hanukkah celebration in Australia has cast a shadow over the holiday for Jewish community members in Lane County.

Two gunmen killed 15 people and injured at least 40 more in a mass shooting targeting Jewish people at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14. Hundreds had gathered there to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish “Festival of Lights” also known as Chanukah.

Jewish community members in Lane County grappled with the news when they awoke hours after the attack, some questioning whether it would still be safe to attend Eugene’s menorah lighting at Valley River Center scheduled for that night. 

“How do I explain to my kids, like, ‘Yes, this did happen,’ but we’re still going to go?” Anni Katz, a spokesperson for the Jewish Federation of Lane County, recalled asking herself.

Katz said the Bondi Beach attack didn’t come as a surprise, and in fact felt “inevitable,” given rising antisemitism over the last couple years. She said she steeled herself by remembering the message of Hanukkah: The holiday is not only about creating light, but banishing darkness.

“It’s about being proudly who we are,” Katz said. 

That message was shared by those who arrived at Valley River Center for the menorah lighting later that night, she said, which had a “great turnout” despite the local Jewish community’s small size. It was hosted by the Chabad Jewish Center of Eugene, a local chapter of the national organization for Jewish education and community. 

There are about 6,000 Jewish people in Lane County, according to 2022-23 estimates. Other than Chabad, there are two synagogues in Eugene — Temple Beth Israel and Ahavas Torah — as well as Oregon Hillel, which offers some holiday services.

Chabad co-directors Rabbi Berel Gurevitch and Rivky Gurevitch brought boxes of free menorahs, candles and dreidels to the Sunday menorah lighting so that people could celebrate Hanukkah at home. Law enforcement and K-9 units patrolled the celebration, a presence that Katz said has become “completely normal” at Jewish community events. 

“We cannot and we will not allow the darkness of terror to extinguish our light,” the Chabad co-directors wrote in an Instagram post Sunday morning, adding: “Standing together tonight sends a powerful message that our spirit is indomitable.”

The leaders wrote that a colleague — Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a 41-year-old husband and father of five who organized the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach — was among those killed. The post recounted Schlanger’s teachings: “Be more Jewish. Act more Jewish. Appear more Jewish.”

Chabad bought an extra menorah to publicly display in Eugene to honor the Australians who were killed and injured in the attack, the post states. 

“We grieve together with the families of the victims, those who were injured, and the Jewish community out of Sydney,” Chabad’s post continued. “We say Tegillim, pray for healing, and cry out together: enough of this darkness.”

Rabbi Ozer Moszkowski, formerly affiliated with Eugene’s Ahavas Torah, now of the Bushey United Synagogue of England, responded to the terrorist attack in a statement that the synagogue published on its website. 

He urged readers to think of the ancient story of Hanukkah — how, more than 2,000 years ago, a small band of Jews known as the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem after years of war with the Seleucids to reclaim the Holy Temple, only to find a single cruse of olive oil remaining to light the temple’s menorah. 

Moszkowski said his instinct would have been to turn his back and walk away. But, as the story goes, the Maccabees stayed, choosing to light the menorah despite their insufficient supply of oil. The menorah miraculously stayed lit for eight days.

“I cannot imagine the sheer inner strength it took — not only to move forward after such a crushing disappointment, but to choose light when darkness would have been understandable,” Mozkowski wrote. 

He added: “So yes, this morning I feel different than I expected to. I am less excited, less ready to step into eight days of oily doughnuts, crunchy latkes with sugar, and easy joy. But I also know this: standing tall and proud and lighting the Menorah tonight is doing exactly what the Maccabeim did on that first Chanukah.”