Given the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine and the frightening rise in anti-Semitism, this year's celebration of Hanukkah is increasingly meaningful and unifying for Jewish communities. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the global Jewish humanitarian organization, ensures that the holiday's message of resilience and hope reaches vulnerable Jews around the world.
In the devastated city of Poltava, Ukraine, endless air raid sirens, power outages, the hum of deadly drones and deadly bombings are commonplace. But Maria Zimina, 17, a local Jewish youth leader, has tremendous determination, especially because her life and those of two others in her community changed for Hanukkah last year.
“I remember last Hanukkah vividly. I visited the homes of people who couldn’t come to our JCC to celebrate the holidays but still wanted the warmth of the candles,” says Maria. She had just become part of a special volunteer initiative run by her local Active Jewish Teens Club, a JDC youth program in collaboration with BBYO, and her JDC-supported local Hesed Social Service Center, which has been providing humanitarian assistance to the local community since the conflict began.
Maria was asked if she would provide assistance to two elderly homebound ladies, Olga Govorova, 85, and Ludmila Shamraevskaya, 76, who both receive social and medical support from the JDC. Maria readily accepted the offer. “That’s how it all started – this whole journey started with Hanukkah,” she says.
Hanukkah's promise of hope in the midst of conflict
For a year, Maria visits Olga and Ludmila several times a week, helping them with grocery shopping and using their smartphones to connect with family, friends and the local Jewish community's online programs, a relief during the frequent air raids and power outages . “They call me their Jewish granddaughter.”
As the holiday approaches, Maria continues to be inspired by it. “Hannukkah is an opportunity to bring more light into someone's home or heart and perhaps dispel some darkness through the connection and warmth it brings. I believe in the miracle of Hanukkah and that a lit candle can truly save a life. I try to bring more light into the world every day.”
From Chernivtsi to Zaporizhzhia, the JDC network of JCCs and Hesed Service Centers is a lifeline not only for humanitarian assistance and vital services amid the ongoing conflict, but also for community resilience through Hanukkah activities and events that empower the very young to the include the very elderly, including Holocaust survivors. Currently, the majority of Ukrainian Jews have remained in the country or returned, including internally displaced persons.
In cities like Odessa, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, local Heseds and JCCs host Shabbatons, cooking classes and intergenerational craft workshops to celebrate the Festival of Lights. And as people grapple with life-threatening crises, fear, and displacement from family and friends, they are also helping their communities emotionally prepare for Hanukkah by conducting group therapy sessions and bringing hundreds of people together online each Hanukkah night to to light candles together. spreading the warmth of candles and community.
Paving the way to resilient communities
In Israel, Hanukkah's message of resilience is particularly impactful for those Israelis touched by JDC's efforts to help them and their communities heal and recover from the October 7 attacks and the ongoing war. More than 550,000 Israelis and 90% of the country's municipalities have been directly affected by JDC's emergency relief work to date.
During Hanukkah, some of the South's most devastated communities find ways to overcome their fears and gather outside again by harnessing the power of the menorah's light. The town of Ofakim lost 52 people on October 7, more than half from the Mishar HaGefen neighborhood. As part of JDC's Mashiv Haruach (Revival of Spirit) initiative, a new Community Resilience Center in the neighborhood will offer programs and events designed to encourage residents to re-engage in public life and restore their sense of personal and community safety to restore. Hanukkah will also feature festive public outdoor candle lighting to bring people together to celebrate.
Community programs like these have helped local resident Lilan Biton recover from the trauma of October 7th. Lilan, along with two of her children and a young grandchild, hid in her attic for hours during the attack and witnessed the horror through a small opening. Originally planning to move away, Lilan began attending and now helps run Beit Mishar, another community center focused on trauma and resilience, founded as part of JDC's Mashiv Haruach initiative and run by women from the neighborhood becomes.
Among her many roles there, Lilan volunteers in the center's specially designed multisensory therapy room, which helps neighborhood children deal with the traumatic events they have experienced. Lilan sees her activity in Beit Mishar as part of her own healing process, transforming trauma into community action. Here she meets neighbors who have gone through similarly stressful events, and together they strengthen each other and their hometown.
In Ashkelon, another southern city that came under siege on October 7, the Fathers and Sons program, also part of the Mashiv Haruach initiative, will light candles and serve sufganiyot on the holiday to support families on their journey Bringing joy and sweetness to recovery.
Saving the Jews from danger
While the JDC provides hope and resilience wherever Jews are in need 365 days a year, in the last four months alone the organization has come to the aid of Jews dealing with floods in southwestern Poland, anti-Semitic attacks in Amsterdam, and emerging trauma of the murder of a rabbi in Dubai.
In September, devastating floods inundated small and aging Jewish communities in Dzierzoniow, Glatzko, Bielawa and Zary in Poland. JDC employees were on site immediately. The response included temporarily relocating families, assisting those who suffered damage to their homes and businesses, and providing food and hygiene supplies. Subsequently, JDC also helped two small businesses reopen, ensuring the livelihoods of those most affected by the disaster.
One of the people the JDC helps is Judyta F., who lives alone in the village of Wloki near Dzierzoniow and works from home as a translator. The floods destroyed the ground floor of her house, which was devastating for Judyta, who is in her 60s and has multiple disabilities. JDC volunteers cleaned up the mud and debris, and the organization funded repairs to her floors and kitchen so she could remain in her home and in her community.
As with Rosh Hashanah, the JDC will help these scattered and mostly older Jewish communities gather to celebrate Hanukkah together. Nearly 80 people will light the menorah, eat traditional holiday foods, including sugar-free sufganiyot since many are diabetics, and attend a concert with a community member's band – all to ensure that Jewish life continues.
In November, violent anti-Semitic attacks occurred in Amsterdam against visiting Israelis attending a soccer match, sending shockwaves of fear through the Dutch Jewish community. The JDC was already working with the community, immediately activating its emergency response team and working with Maccabi Netherlands to support the safe accommodation of the Israelis while they awaited their expedited return home. Now the JDC is focused on expanding a local mental health hotline in the Jewish community to combat stress and trauma caused by increasing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity.
In Dubai, the murder of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan shocked the local Jewish community. The JDC, which integrated a JDC Entwine Jewish Service Corps staff member into the community to help develop programs and services, quickly contacted local leaders and organized mental health sessions for dozens of community members who needed space to communicate with their deal with fears and worries.
JDC's efforts in Israel, Ukraine and 68 other countries around the world are supported by the generous support of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and local Jewish federations, the Claims Conference, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, individuals, Families, foundations and companies.
“In the coming weeks, each of us will observe shamash and light our menorahs to ignite light, warmth and blessings. In many ways, we at JDC are the shamash of the Jewish community, spreading light, hope and care to the places where darkness threatens to destroy the spirit of so many,” said Ariel Zwang, CEO of the JDC. “Over the last year, we have harnessed that light and found a way out of the darkness to build a resilient future for our people. This effort, our largest since the postwar era, is a Hanukkah miracle worth celebrating.”
A great miracle happened here:
Sunday, December 22nd, 7:00 pm EST
Join JDC for a global Hanukkah experience and celebrate the strength and resilience of the Jewish community.
At this online event, celebrated chef Fany Gerson will prepare a delicious holiday meal with guests and artists from Poltava, Kiev, Budapest, Tel Aviv and London.
Register today at JDC.ORG/CHANUKAH