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Hanukkah Goes Public Worldwide With Stepped-Up Security After Bondi Attack

Leaders cast visible menorahs as resilience in response to rising antisemitism.

A Hanukkah celebration in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland, drew the country's foreign minister, Dec. 14, 2025. (Courtesy Mushky Feldman)
People watch the lighting of the world's largest menorah on Fifth Avenue by Central Park for the second night of Hanukkah, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Yasemin Yildirim, 9, plays dreidel with members of the Bendat-Appell family, during a Hanukkah celebration at the Bendat-Appell's home in Deerfield on Dec. 17, 2017.
Hannah Swerling says lighting the candles with her daughters has taken on heavy significance

Overview

  • In Reykjavík, a downtown lighting drew fewer than 100 people under armed plainclothes police, drones and air support, as Iceland’s foreign minister lit the menorah and condemned the Sydney killings.
  • Rabbis and advocates urge window displays and public ceremonies as expressions of pride and refusal to hide Jewish identity this season.
  • Official tallies for 2024 show elevated antisemitic incidents, with the ADL reporting 9,300 cases and the FBI finding Jews targeted in nearly 70% of religion-based hate crimes in the U.S.
  • The modern tradition of public menorahs is traced to a 1974 Independence Mall lighting in Philadelphia led by Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, later amplified by Chabad’s global outreach.
  • Solidarity campaigns encourage visible support, from paper menorahs in windows to local parades, while New York voices press for safeguarding synagogues after protests at Park East Synagogue.