After hearing about the Bondi Beach terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration Sunday morning, Anni Katz, the spokesperson for the Jewish Federation of Lane County, reached out to her mom.
“How are we going to get through this? How do we celebrate the holiday tonight? How are we there for my kids, her grandchildren?” Katz had asked. The answer: “We have to be proud of who we are. We have to not shrink away when people say things. We have to correct them.”
That day, members of the Jewish community gathered at the Valley River Center to light the candle marking the first night of Hanukkah.
Joined by Eugene mayor Kaarin Knudson and faith leaders, they ate traditional foods and played games while law enforcement and K9 units kept watch.
Katz said the celebration felt joyful, but the officers’ presence reminded community members that they were not entirely safe.
“We want to be able to send our children to the preschool at Temple Beth Israel, or Hebrew school, and to be able to celebrate our holidays without a guard outside,” she said. “We don't want to have to disappear behind walls so that we can be safe there. But if this kind of stuff continues to happen, how do we go forward?”
In Eugene and Lane County, antisemitic incidents at synagogues and schools in the past years have also made Jewish community members feel unwelcome and unsafe.
Katz said similar attacks across the world have created environments of fear for Jewish people everywhere, and they are looking for support and community.
At the same time, they’re looking for active change to increase safety and awareness.
“There's a lot of work we need to do in that area of working to build a world in which Jews are able to practice being Jewish without fear of violence,” Katz said, “but also in which we are extremely proud of who we are and showing that to the world.”
