Let my people glow.
In bold defiance of the antisemitism that’s been raging since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish New Yorkers are putting Hanukkah in the spotlight this year — with bigger and bolder decorations.
“We want to show people we’re Jewish and proud – and this year even more so. You can’t scare us,” said Staten Islander Michelle Goldzal, a 39-year-old mother of four whose Willowbrook front yard and home is blanketed in giant holiday inflatables and a dazzling array of moving lights. “We wanted to go even bigger this year.”
Goldzal’s home has been covered by Israeli flags since Hamas attacked the Jewish state, and a pro-Palestinian hater even made a TikTok video that featured her home as the narrator drove by, slapped a “Free Palestine” sticker on a utility pole on her property and “made anti-Israel remarks,” she said.
“If we let them scare us, they win,” said Goldzal, who will be adding surveillance cameras this year too.
Goldzal is among many modern-day Maccabees defiantly showing pride in their faith ahead of the eight-day holiday that begins the night of Dec. 7.
They are uncowed by the hate and unwilling to remove public displays of their faith, such as taking down their mezuzahs.
“We have to be stronger than ever and show that openly,” said Amy Weiner, an East Meadow, Long Island teacher who put the finishing touches on her annual display, including inflatable lawn menorah and life-size spinning lighted dreidel.
She decided to add extra decorations this year, including an “extremely bright” LED Jewish star to project prominently from the window.
“I am not backing down or hiding and neither will my family. Jews and non-Jews need to know that there’s many of us out there that are proud and unafraid.”
The voice of Weiner’s late WWII Navy veteran dad echoes more than ever for the mom of three grown sons.
“He’d always say, ‘Never deny you’re Jewish,” she recalled, adding that as one of a few Jewish sailors, he learned how to fight in the Navy, “not against the Japanese, but against his own shipmates.”
Lighting up this year hasn’t been such an easy decision for everyone.
“There’s a part of me that feels like I have to do it stronger than ever,” said Gail Fuchs, 67, who has blinged out her Brooklyn home with a sea of blue and white lawn dreidels, a “Mensch on a Bench” inflatable and six-foot handmade menorah made in her husband’s steel fabrication shop. “And there’s a part of me that thinks I’m crazy.”
Despite consternation, including fears from her 90-year-old mother, Fuchs said she “need[s] to put it up this year — I need to see Jewish smiles, even when there’s nothing to smile about.”
Even with a spate of vandalism to Jewish businesses and homes in nearby Hastings-on-Hudson, Beth Blank Dunn, 52, decided to supersize her display and “doubled the amount of decorations this year” at her Dobbs Ferry, Westchester, home, including endless blue and white lights, menorahs in every window, and a giant lawn sign.
“I don’t have to worry about being marked with a swastika – they can see it from the moon,” she joked wryly, adding that her great-grandfather Holocaust survivor inspires her not to back down. “I’m 100 percent concerned about vandalism,” said the mom of one, but is arming herself with ring cameras and paint gun that “has permanent markings. I’m bracing for anything.”
Midwood mom of two, Ellen Levitt, admitted that while her biggest concerns in past years were rain-soaked or stolen decorations, this year’s worries are intensified. “Now, maybe someone might spray paint a swastika.” But that didn’t stop the 59-year-old teacher from adding to her display this year.
“This is New York – we shouldn’t be afraid to spread a little joy,” she said.
And Jewish pride is paying off — Hanukkah business is booming. “It’s been crazy this year,” said Moshie Klar, head of sales for NJ-based Menorah.net, which sells towering menorahs, including some colorful 12-foot LED models that go for $2,600.
“We’re definitely getting lots of calls from people specifically ordering this year to show support and to add more light,” he said of the uptick in “bigger” models mostly catering to New York and Florida clients. “Our main mission is to bring light into the darkness.”
Still, some New Yorkers are using this fraught time to make a bold statement for the first time in the wake of the Israel attacks.
“I know people are hesitant and I understand that given the situation going on now. But for me, the more hate toward us, the more proud I am to be a Jew. Growing up in Iran, we had to hide our Judaism and that’s not something I want to have to do ever again and not something I want my kids to feel,” said Great Neck, LI mom, Dena Melamed, 38.
The displays are a beacon of light for all Jews, said Rabbi Uriel Vigler, founder of Belev Echad, an initiative that supports injured IDF soldiers.
“It’s our duty today to be like the Maccabees of old,” he said. “Because the only way to combat the darkness is by igniting the eternal everlasting flame. Hanukkah teaches us that we will always be victorious, no matter what.”