Hours before the beginning of Hanukkah on Thursday, a menorah outside the Chabad synagogue in Olney, Maryland, was tipped over with damage to lights and one of its arms.
Cops were called to the synagogue by an eyewitness at around 4:30 p.m. after receiving word of the vandalism, the Montgomery County Police Department told WTTG, the District of Columbia Fox affiliate.
“I rushed over and was very distraught and disappointed; it was very clear that the menorah was vandalized,” Rabbi Bentzy Stolik told WTOP-FM.
Pictures posted on Facebook by synagogue co-director Devorah Stolik, the rabbi’s wife, show that while the rightmost arm of the menorah was still lit, the next arm over was broken.
Other lights on the menorah were bent, and the centermost light on the tallest arm, representing the shamash candle used to light the others each night, had also gone out.
The synagogue has been working to get security cameras installed, a reflection of two months of rising tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war.
“The fact that we’re getting cameras up is absolutely a response to the mood of what’s going on. … But that being said, in terms of the heart and soul in the spirit of the holiday, Hanukkah is all about overcoming challenges, and these challenges don’t stop us,” Mr. Stolik told WTOP.
In her post, Ms. Stolik struck a defiant tone befitting the holiday, which commemorates the miraculous eight-day preservation of holy oil for the menorah in the Second Temple of Jerusalem amid the 167-160 B.C. Jewish revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
“The world still has pockets of darkness, but we fight with more light!! … shine your menorah and shine it strong, don’t be afraid!! Now more than ever the world needs our light!” Ms. Stolik wrote.
Police are investigating the incident but don’t have a suspect in custody, the department told WTTG.
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