In the Chanukahs since October 7, a sentence keeps surfacing: “I’m supposed to be festive, but there is so much pain.” The holiday arrives, and so do grief, fear, anger, and emotional exhaustion that can be hard to articulate.

As we write, we are holding the aftermath of the antisemitic terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025. For many Jews, it lands with sickening déjà vu, as if an ancient story is showing up again in real time.

Chanukah has never been only a holiday of light. It is also a story about identity under pressure, and what it costs to remain recognizably Jewish in a world that often prefers assimilation. Perhaps because it falls near Christmas, we often sanitize the story and forget how contemporary it feels.

We usually tell the softened version, the few against the many, and the oil that lasted eight nights. Beautiful, yes, but not the whole picture. The deeper story is about choice, and the price of belonging. 

The Greek decrees targeted Jewish distinctiveness: Shabbat, brit milah, and Torah learning. The message was simple: you can exist, but not fully as yourselves. And the pressure did not come only from outside. Some Jews embraced the surrounding Hellenistic culture; others stood firm and embraced Jewish identity. The argument over how much to assimilate and how much to carry forward is baked into the Chanukah story itself.

Today, the questions are dressed........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)