Lighting the first candle for Hanukkah

Just hours after the horrific news broke of the deadly terrorist attack on a Hanukkah party in Australia that killed 15 people, the Bonita Springs Chabad was lighting the menorah for the first night of Hanukkah with an assist from an Australian whose family narrowly survived the attack.

Henry Vyalikov, a local dance instructor from Australia whose sister and her family escaped the onslaught from two gunmen, joined Rabbi Mendy Greenberg to light the large menorah in front of a crowd that included the Jewish community as well as Bonita Springs Mayor Mike Gibson and Estero Mayor Joanne Ribble.

While normally a joyous occasion for all, the celebration on Sunday night was more subdued than normal in the wake of a shooting that left a child as young as 10 dead as well as two rabbis, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, whom Vyalikov knew from his Chabad in Australia.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger, an Australian, had put Vyalikov into contact with Greenberg after the death of Vyalikov’s father earlier this year. Their family had attended the Chabad in Australia where Schlanger was the rabbi.

Greenberg said he and his family were very close to the family of Schlanger. “My father was very close friends with his father-in-law,” Greenberg said.

Greenberg said he and Schlanger had shared ideas about helping their respective Jewish communities. “He was a very smart person,” he said.

The attackers have been described by the Australian government as having ties to Pakistan and who were followers of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

Australia has been experiencing a number of anti-semitic incidents and demonstrations since the 10/7 attack against Israel by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas from the Gaza Strip in 2023. Jewish communities in Australia have been calling for more security protection since 10/7 following vandalism and arson attacks against synagogues in Australia. Greenberg said the attacks in Australia felt like “another Oct. 7. Being attacked on our holiday just for the fact that they are Jews,” he said. “The irrational hatred shows the evil we are facing.”

Instead of being in a festive mood for Hanukkah this year, Greenberg is somber.

“We’re grieving. It’s a very difficult pill to swallow,” Greenberg said. Greenberg said the best way to honor Schlanger’s memory is to celebrate Hanukkah. “He would not want us to despair. We want to do something to counteract the evil our enemies are doing to quiet us. They want to destroy Jews and Judaism.”

A threat to Judaism more than 2,000 years ago forms the origin of the story of Hanukkah. More than 300 years before the Common Era, the land of Judea (in present day Israel) was controlled by the Seleucid Empire (a Greek-Syrian kingdom). After a change in the monarchy, Jews faced repression of their religion in Jerusalem and rebelled under the Maccabees. They defeated the Greek-Syrian army and drove them out of Jerusalem, earning independence and regaining control over Jerusalem. Upon re-entering the sacred Second Temple, they found only enough oil to light a lamp for one day. Hanukkah celebrates that the oil lasted a miracle of eight days, which is why the holiday is celebrated for eight nights with the lighting of an additional candle each night on a menorah.

“The message of Hanukkah is to increase what we are doing,” Greenberg said. “The light (of the menorah) represents good deeds to make extra commitments, to do an extra mitzvah, an extra act of kindness.”

The Bonita Springs Chabad will be lighting their menorah each day through the rest of the holiday, with lightings at 6:15 each night. On Friday, the lighting will be at 5:15 p.m.

The Jewish Federation will be holding a community menorah lighting at Bell Towers Shops in Fort Myers from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.