SARANAC LAKE — On Wednesday, the seventh day of Hanukkah, a group of Jewish celebrators of the holiday met in the Harrietstown Town Hall auditorium to light menorahs, play dreidel and eat jelly donuts called sufganiyot.
Sue Semegram, president of the Lake Placid Synagogue, said as Israel is engaged in a brutal war with Hamas in Gaza — which has been ongoing since Oct. 7 — to her, this holiday has been about looking at miracles of the past and hoping for one now.
In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel Defense Forces have said around 100 soldiers have been killed in the fighting since. After the deadly attack, the IDF began bombing the Gaza Strip and has killed more than 18,000 people there, including thousands of children, according to the region’s Palestinian Health Ministry.
Semegram said Hanukkah is all about a miracle — oil meant to only burn for one night burned for eight.
“Now, in this time, we’re hoping for miracles always,” Semegram said. “We need a miracle right now. We need the miracle of stopping the war, desperately.”
NO EASY SOLUTION
It will take a miracle, she said, because she does not see it happening through humanity.
“There’s not an easy solution,” Semegram said. “The biggest problem is Hamas. They don’t just want the land. They want to eradicate the Jews. As long as they want to eradicate Jews there’s going to be fighting.”
This conflict has been ongoing and growing for thousands of years, she said.
“Israel was created as the Jewish homeland but technically that area has been the Jewish homeland ever since the Israelis were kicked out of Egypt,” Semegram said. “I had somebody say to me, ‘The Palestinians have been persecuted for 70 years.’ Well, the Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years.”
She sees peace in the past and believes it can happen again in the future.
“I want a peaceful solution. I don’t see why we can’t live, Palestinians and Jews, as it has been,” Semegram said.
HELPER CANDLE
She said Jewish people in the U.S. are glad they are safe here, but many know someone — friends or family — who are in danger in Israel.
“Almost every Jew knows someone who has been affected by this war,” Semegram said.
She personally has friends and family there.
As Semegram looked around the town hall auditorium, watching students from Mountain Lake Academy eating pastries, children gambling for Hanukkah gelt with a dreidel on the floor and adults talking over the glowing embers of menorah lights, she commented on how nice it is to see children enjoying the holiday.
Earlier, town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach had led the group in a tutorial for lighting the candles, starting by using the shammash, the “helper candle,” to light all of the other candles.
“The amazing thing about the helper candle is that when the flame from the helper candle goes to light all the other candles, it doesn’t take away from the flame of the helper candle at all,” Mallach said.
The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabean Revolt, a war in response to Syrian armies desecrating the temple from 167 to 160 B.C.