Why Do You Matter?

Considering the devastating news from Sydney, Australia, I am reaching out with one simple message: please come out and be present this Shabbat. 

Chanukah teaches that a little light dispels much darkness. Darkness grows when people retreat; light grows when we show up, stand together, and refuse to let fear define how we live as Jews. This is not a time to pull back—it is a time to gather, carefully and proudly, and fill our community with light. 

That is why you matter. When we come together publicly to light the menorah, we are doing more than celebrating a holiday. We are affirming Jewish life, pride, and resilience. Every person who attends adds another flame. 

Please be reassured that safety is being taken extremely seriously. We are in close coordination with the Nassau County Police Department and the Kings Point PD, and additional professional, armed security will be present at all events. Every responsible measure has been taken to ensure our gatherings are safe, secure, and well-managed. 

Chanukah was born in a time of fear and devastation, yet the Jewish response was to seek light and to light it publicly. That same courage lives within us today. 

We invite you to come with your family, bring a friend, and stand shoulder to shoulder with your community this Shabbat. 

We all experience moments in life when we feel trapped, confined, powerless, and tested. It is precisely in those moments that we remember that G-d is with us at every step. When we thank Hashem for what we have and for the mission we are given today, that itself is true, real, authentic success. 

I was thinking of this as I watched the newly released and startling footage of the hostages known as “The Beautiful Six” observing Chanukah while held captive in Hamas tunnels in Gaza. 

The video, released by their families ahead of Chanukah, shows Alex Lobanov (33), Almog Sarusi (27), Carmel Gat (40), Eden Yerushalmi (24), Hersh Goldberg-Polin (23), and Ori Danino (25), taken about eight months before they were murdered by Hamas in August 2024. 

Inside a dark tunnel complex, they recite the Chanukah blessings in Hebrew, sing Ma’oz Tzur and Haneirot Halalu, and light a makeshift menorah fashioned from paper cups. Yerushalmi can be heard saying, “Make a wish, friends.” Another adds, “We need to ask for good things—to ask for miracles.” 

Despite starvation, injuries, and despair, they smile, joke, pray, and bless one another so that they can return home. One asks, “Where are the sufganiyot?” Hersh Goldberg-Polin replies, “We’re waiting for Roladin in Israel.” 

Friends, this is staggering. We have heard stories like this from the Holocaust and throughout Jewish history—but here it is on video. Six Jews, mostly secular, trapped underground in the hands of murderers, knowing death surrounds them, and on Chanukah they choose faith. They choose mitzvah. They choose light. 

These are the Josephs of our generation.  

If six Jews could light Chanukah candles in a Hamas tunnel using paper cups, then every Jew living freely must light candles this year. There is no excuse. 

Hersh himself compared their situation to Jews in Nazi Germany, referencing the famous photograph from 1931 in Kiel, Germany. Rabbi Akiva Baruch Posner lit the Chanukah menorah in his home while, across the street, a Nazi flag waved over party headquarters. His wife, Rachel, photographed it with light facing darkness. 

That photograph, like this video, tells the same eternal story: 

They rise. We light. We endure. Am Israel Chai!

Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov, and A Happy Chanukah,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky