By Barbara Mutnick and Mark Satinoff

NEW YORK CITY — It was a sober marking of Hanukkah Thursday night, December 7, as close to 1,000 Jews and our allies stood in the dark and cold to demand a ceasefire in Gaza on the first night of the holiday. Filling Columbus Circle, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, participants held menorahs, candles, and “Let Gaza Live” signs. We surrounded a giant menorah, 14 feet high, configured with the letters “CEASEFIRE” burning from the nine candles.

Full of grief for the thousands of people killed in Gaza and Israel in the two months since the October 7 gruesome assault on Israel by Hamas, and the ongoing brutal massacre by Israel of Palestinians in Gaza, the vigil-goers found solace in unity, songs, chants, prayers, and the messages of the speakers.

The protest was led by Rabbis for Ceasefire. It was endorsed by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, IfNotNow, and Shoresh.

As each candle was lit on the menorah, a new speaker, including a number of rabbis, many of them women, addressed the crowd. Other speakers included actor/playwright Wallace Shawn; NYC Comptroller Brad Lander; Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour; Peter Beinart,  Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents; and NYC Council Member Shahana Hanif, a Bangladeshi American Muslim who represents neighborhoods that are home to many Jews.

The gathering drew substantial mainstream news media coverage, including an article in the New York Times.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ben Sullivan told the Times, “As a Jewish person, my identity is being used to kill innocent people. It makes me really upset, but it gives me a lot of hope to see so many other Jewish people who feel the same way.”

Similar Hanukkah ceasefire events were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the largest of the U.S. Jewish groups calling for a ceasefire, claims 300,000 supporters and one million followers on X (formerly known as Twitter), according to PBS News. On its Facebook page, JVP describes itself as “Jews organizing for Palestinian liberation and Judaism beyond Zionism.”

The group has rapidly grown since the current Israeli-Gaza conflict began October 7. One sign is that JVP organizers were surprised when nearly 400 people joined a new-member orientation meeting on Zoom, Wednesday, December 6. The leaders had hoped to divide into break-out sessions, but Zoom parameters didn’t permit doing so. Nonetheless the meeting was well organized and inspiring.

We were among the new members. Mark’s father, Irving Satinoff, was an early leader of JVP in the New York area.

Participants were asked to use the Zoom chat feature to post their reasons for joining JVP. A professor wrote, “I am here out of sheer desperation and wanting to connect with others.” Another individual new to activism said, “I am eager to hear ideas on how to organize.” A woman named Lila added, “I’m struggling with rage and grief. Coming together and acting is shaking me out of hopelessness.”

“I want to fight like hell!” wrote another. A senior who said she has been fighting for 60 years wrote “The best antidote for despair is action.”

A JVP leader brought the meeting to a close saying, “Our chapter moves at the speed of trust.” He was referring to the tightly coordinated mass demonstrations that recently took place at Grand Central Terminal, the Statue of Liberty, and the Manhattan Bridge. These actions included some demonstrators participating in civil disobedience, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

JVP holds regular workshops called Hard Conversations. The term refers to the often sharply differing opinions about the war in Gaza that divide many Jewish families today. “Instead of moving away from families,” a JVP leader said, “we want to talk with them. We don’t want to break with them. We want to bring them in.”

Also noteworthy is a public statement by Rabbis for Ceasefire, which ends with the following:

The voice of the Jewish people, now more than ever, must be clear and united: 

Never Again is Now. 

Never again for anyone. 

Not in our names. 

Ceasefire now!

From RABBIS4CEASEFIRE statement

The statement has been signed by 196 rabbis.

The headline of this article was updated on December 11, 5:15pm EST, from the original “Celebrating Hanukkah…” to “Marking Hanukkah…” as a more appropriate term for the occasion.

Barbara Mutnick and Mark Satinoff are longtime political activists and socialists in New York City. They recently joined Jewish Voice for Peace.

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