Joined by native dignitaries, greater than 100 members of Oakland’s Jewish group celebrated the start of Hanukkah with the 18th annual Grand Menorah Lighting at Lake Merritt on Sunday.
Three days later, the large menorah was discovered shattered, with components mendacity in and beside the lake — and antisemitic remarks scribbled onto the cement block that had served as its pedestal.
Mayor Sheng Thao, who attended the celebration Sunday evening, stated in a assertion Wednesday that she’s requested the Oakland Police to research the incident as a hate crime. Oakland Police didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Rabbi David Labkowski of the Chabad Jewish Middle of Oakland stated that by 8 a.m. Wednesday, all that was left of the menorah had been bits and items on the bottom and “hateful graffiti everywhere in the space, particularly the place the menorah as soon as stood.”
“We discovered the items throughout,” he stated. “It simply appeared like any individual destroyed it, actually chopped it up into items. That is 350 kilos of metal.”
Thao condemned the vandalism and stated the menorah at Lake Merritt is “a long-standing and essential image of Oakland’s Jewish group.”
“I wish to be very clear that what occurred was not simply an assault on Oakland’s Jewish group however our total metropolis and our shared values,” she stated. “We stand collectively towards hate, towards antisemitism and towards bigotry in any type.”
California State Senator Nancy Skinner, who represents Berkeley and Oakland, known as the destruction of the menorah an act of cowardice and applauded Thao’s name for the Oakland Police to research the incident as a hate crime.
“Destroying a logo of hope and light-weight is a despicable act and is particularly hurtful on this sixth day of Hanukkah,” she stated in an announcement.
The menorah was discovered Wednesday morning shattered on the bottom with components mendacity within the lake.
(Dovid Labkowski)
The rise in antisemitic discourse and incidents seems to have lowered attendance on the annual lighting ceremony, which may see upward of 200 folks, Labkowski stated. The Anti-Defamation League recorded practically 5 occasions extra antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and Oct. 23 of this 12 months than throughout the identical interval final 12 months. Over half of the incidents had been immediately linked to the Israel-Hamas struggle.
Rabbi Mark Bloom, the top rabbi at native Temple Beth Abraham, stated the vandalism of the menorah is gloomy however not sudden, given the rise of antisemitic rhetoric in Oakland.
“I used to be not shocked when you’ve got that sort of rhetoric occurring everywhere in the metropolis: graffiti, vandalism, metropolis council conferences,” he stated. “Phrases flip into actions for some folks.”
In an Oakland Metropolis Council assembly that went viral on social media in November, the council voted 6 to 2 towards condemning Hamas, which some attendees had defended of their feedback.
“There’s sort of a basic panic [in the Oakland Jewish community],” Bloom stated. “We predict we’re going to be okay, nevertheless it’s actually scary.”
“The malicious destruction of a public menorah in Lake Merritt, Oakland, accompanied by hateful graffiti, is simply the most recent instance of rampant antisemitism tearing aside the Bay Space,” Tyler Gregory, chief govt of the Jewish Neighborhood Relations Council Bay Space, stated in an announcement.
The Chabad Jewish Middle of Oakland will maintain one other lighting ceremony Wednesday at 7 p.m., changing the destroyed menorah with one moved from Piedmont Avenue.
“It’s devastating,” Labkowski stated. “It’s actually upsetting and it simply makes our resolve stronger to wish to construct larger.”