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| Traces of a colourful history London, ON December 2023 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
In years past, I likely would have done the same, as the Jewish Festival of Lights has always represented just that to me: a light that banishes darkness, a flame that projects hope.
But this isn’t just any year.
Not when a wave of antisemitism doesn’t just wash over the world - but it comes directly to where we live, with hordes of marchers walking down streets, unchallenged, echoing 1930s Germany, and any number of inquisitions and pogroms before that.
Or when my wife asks whether she should wear her Star of David around her neck when she goes out, or whether it’s advisable to put Chanukah decorations on the front door. Or whether I should even write about the fear of being a Jew in 2023.
I’m well aware of the risks we face in daring to challenge a global narrative that seeks to put Jew-hatred in some kind of perverse context. I’m well aware that Jew-haters may read this, too. I’m used to it. And silence is no longer an option.
So instead I present this chanukiah after the candles have flickered out. In this frame, there is no light, no banishment of the darkness, no flicker of hope.
But look more closely. At the layers of wax from years past, clinging stubbornly to the metal.
They signal moments when there was indeed light. When we gathered around and shared moments just as our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years. When we gathered to remember what it felt like to overcome adversity and survive against overwhelming odds.
There may not be light in this captured moment, but there is a story of the history that led up to it. And the promise that tomorrow there will be more light, and even more afterward.
The caked on wax telegraphs a simple message to anyone willing to lean in and hear it: there’s too much history here for us to simply put our candelabras away and call it a day.
We’ve fought the darkness before, and we’ll do so now.
#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #chanukah #hannukah #howeveritisspelled #jewish #holiday #stilllife #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded
Related:
Chanukah ends. The light shouldn't. December 2022
Light always wins over darkness, December 2022
May the light never go out, December 2021
My Chanukah non-wish wish, November 2021
Gelt to the rescue, December 2020
Let the light return, December 2020
Light vs. hatred, December 2019
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