Dancing, singing, laughing, worshiping — all common sights among the local Jewish community, especially during this time of year.
Hanukkah, an eight-day celebration, is from the evening of Sunday, Dec. 18 to the evening of Monday, Dec. 26 this year.
“To me, the second candle tonight means that we are not alone. It is very powerful to be one candle in a room full of darkness,” Rabbi Doron Aizenman of Chabad in Myrtle Beach said outside of the Myrtle Beach Convention Center on Monday evening where locals gathered to witness the lighting of the menorah.
Hanukkah is when Jewish people celebrate the “rededication of the Holy Temple,” according to the Chabad website.
“It is beautiful and we broke through the ice and it is accepted and the community loves it,” Aizenman said of the menorahs being openly lit throughout the city. “Coming to a new country, America, it was very difficult to bring our values here.”
When addressing the crowd, Aizenman said he was thankful to the city of Myrtle Beach and to Mayor Brenda Bethune, councilman John Krajc and councilman Gregg Smith for not only attending the event, but for “representing a community that stands beside [the Jewish community] to illuminate the world and make this world a better place.”
During the Dec. 13 Myrtle Beach City Council meeting, a resolution “to oppose antisemitism in all of forms, as well as other types of religious intolerance, racism and discrimination,” passed unanimously.
“The City of Myrtle Beach unequivocally rejects antisemitism, along with other forms of racism, religious intolerance and discrimination, both here and around the world, and welcomes people of all religions and faiths – or none at all – to our community as residents, businesspeople and visitors, in keeping with the religious freedoms expressed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” the agenda read.
Bethune, during the meeting, welcomed leaders and children of Chabad to take part in the resolution and she also made mention of recent antisemitic propaganda having been recently discovered in parts of the city.
This propaganda, most commonly found typed on paper inside of a baggie weighed down with rice or rocks, has been littered throughout Horry County.
The city of North Myrtle Beach released a statement on Dec. 14 detailing “anti-Jewish fliers being shared within City limits and across the nation.”
The statement noted that the fliers are non-threatening, but a “nuisance.”
Police departments throughout the county are investigating.
“If you find a flier in your yard or on your property, throw it in the trash, where it belongs,” the statement read.
Yosi Benezra, a Chabad member in Myrtle Beach, echoed much the same sentiment.
“Our greatest power is the ability to throw it in the trash and get on with our life and move on,” he said with a look of contentment on his face as Aizenman nodded in agreement outside the convention center on the second night on Hanukkah.
That night, the emotions in the atmosphere were not of fear, but of joy, as rabbis, boys in yamakas, women enjoying sufganiyot (jelly donut-like Jewish pastries) and other Jewish people gathered at the menorah in joyous celebration.
“The forces of good have kind of rallied at this point,” said Alan Todd, a lecturer in religious studies at Coastal Carolina University. “We’re turning a corner because so many of us are actually starting to reach out to all of our neighbors and lawmakers, educating them when necessary, and working together for the common good, which will help address the symptoms of a broken soul, which is what these fliers are–symptoms of misinformation and broken souls.
“I am not really concerned about our local antisemitic acts. I am concerned as a rational human being simply because who knows what could happen, but at the same time, I am seeing the light a little bit,” he said.
In reference to the people littering the fliers, Todd said that “there is something broken within them.”
“I don’t know how to help them other than by educating them before they get to that point," he said. "It’s why I teach."
The Jewish community in Horry County will continue celebrating Hanukkah without fear of anti-Jewish hate.
“We are very happy to celebrate Hanukkah,” Aizenman said Monday night.
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