Photo: Inna Reznik - Getty Images
Lighting menorah candles
Hanukkah is upon us. Social media has been absolutely abuzz with “Hanukkah Sameach” posts of both Jewish and non-Jewish well-wishers. The Jewish festival of lights is timely this year. As it happens, the eight-day celebration from December 18 through December 26 falls during the calendar week that includes Wiccan Yule marking the Winter Solstice on December 21, the last week of Christian Advent, Christmas and the first day of Kwanzaa.
The joyous celebration of Hanukkah is marked by the lighting of the menorah, a nine-branch ceremonial candelabrum. Its candles are lit progressively with each night of the holiday. The days of Hanukkah are filled with traditions and rituals, gift giving, food, music and prayer. Milwaukee has even joined in with “Hanukkah on the Hoan”, the lighting of the Hoan Bridge as a giant, seemingly upside down menorah with its reflection right side up, shimmering on the Milwaukee River.
For Milwaukee’s Jewish LGBTQ population there are two affirming synagogues. Congregation Shir Hadash (shirmke.org) , located in Plymouth Church on the city’s upper east side, is a progressive and inclusive Reconstructionist Synagogue to the LGBTQ community. Congregation Shalom (cong-shalom.org) is a Reform Jewish Congregation and describes itself as a “sanctuary of warmth, comfort and spirituality.”
Special Significance
This year, however, Hanukkah bears a special significance beyond Jewish and interfaith community sharing in celebration of light. It is also a time when we LGBTQs share an unfortunate common bond with the Jewish community, namely as targets of discrimination and hate.
Seven years ago, I wrote a critique of a local celebrity drag queen’s parody of Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Rather than evoking introspection, the article itself was challenged and the Holocaust shtick embraced with defenses along the lines of “drag queens have it tough, too” and “nothing is sacred when it comes to comedy.” Someone compared the Anne Frank bit with the musicals Cabaret and The Producers. Of course, neither of those used the Holocaust itself as comedic vehicle for laughs about its victims. Rather, they provided a setting as parables of warning to show the dangers of ignoring the signs of hate around us or hoping to profiteer from them. Suffice it to say, those videos of drag show Anne Frank impersonations by a number of performers remain online, one accruing nearly 900,000 views.
Meanwhile, just days after billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and his declaring it a haven of free speech, hate speech spiked on the platform with an increase of 61% against gay men, 58% against Jews and 202% percent against Blacks. Closer to home, according to the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center in Milwaukee, between 2015 and 2021 anti-Semitic hate incidents in Wisconsin have increased by nearly 500%.
So, while we share in the festival of lights, we should remember the event that established the tradition of Hanukkah, the assertion of Judaic identity against oppression. The LGBTQ liberation struggle shares a commonality with Jewish liberation history and today we share the same adversaries. Regardless of their target, their dog whistles and blatant clarions of hate are tuned to the same white Christian nationalist ears.
LGBTQ solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters should be a priority not only in this season but always. We can start by deleting those horribly stupid and offensive videos …
