On December 10, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and the New York City Council Jewish Caucus hosted a Chanukah celebration in the Council Chambers at City Hall. The event was sponsored by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, with catering by Michael Schick. The event honored entrepreneur Charlie Tebele and Jewish comedian Modi, and featured a performance by the SAR Academy Choir.
Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, the Jewish Caucus chair, began: “I love Chanukah; it is one of the best holidays. It is a celebration of joy. We find inspiration from these heroes upon their strength. Fundamentally, it’s about us coming together and shining light in the world.
“I think all of us in this room feel very conflicted a lot of times, particularly since October 7th,” Dinowitz continued. “We have rising antisemitism, and we also have each other. … We are obligated in this season to shine light, to bring joy. We are doing that tonight with all of us coming together. In the council, we are also doing what we can to … bring joy to our city, to shine a light on antisemitism, and to make sure we’re doing what we can to combat it. Dinowitz noted that every public school eighth grader has the opportunity to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “We increased funding in our city’s budget to combat hate crimes, to fund the organizations that do that important work of combating hate.”
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine stated: “This is the second Chanukah where we come together knowing that we have brothers and sisters who are being held in captivity by Hamas, being prevented from observing this holiday. The rest of us have an obligation not just to uphold their stories but to remind the world of their fate, a world that seems to want to forget, but to observe this holiday with extra gusto and pride, publicly and proudly and not hide from this moment where we are feeling under attack. It would be easy to retreat; we can’t do that now. For the 101 brothers and sisters still in captivity, we hope by the time the holiday actually occurs, they will be home.”
Hindy Poupko of UJA-Federation remarked: “I don’t think any of us in this room take any of this for granted; ‘Hatikvah’ being sung in these chambers of the New York City Council in the presence of our deputy consul-general means something.” Poupko reminded the audience, “Many of you were here last year, and I’m sure that … you can’t help but remember the faces of the hostage families who were sitting here last year. I don’t know if you caught those faces when we started singing ‘Maoz Tzur.’ Honestly, I think it was quite uncomfortable for them, because we were here celebrating Chanukah and they were here on their first trip out of the country, trying to make sense of how we are doing this. I think we showed them that night that we’re here for them.”
Poupko added, “As dark as the past 14 months have been, many of you in this room have been our menorahs, our light. … I see many of you every Sunday calling to bring them home in Central Park. I saw almost every one of you at every rally that we did. I saw you in the shiva of the Neutra family. … You were our lights. You enabled us to go on.”
JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger, the final speaker, expressed: “It is an honor being back at a place that means so much to me personally and professionally.” Contrasting his father’s life in the Soviet Union to life today in New York City, Treyger stated, “It is not lost on me that we are in the greatest city in the world, the greatest country in the world, where we can be who we are, and celebrate our identity.
“Jewish values and Jewish identity are so intertwined into the story of New York City. … The story of New York cannot be told without the enormous contributions of many brave and courageous Jewish New Yorkers.”
Treyger concluded: “We pray for that light, even that peace, to reach all our family members, all of our friends, because we are not whole until we are all home. Bring them home!”
