Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, along with U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and his family, lit the first Chanukah candle this evening at the Western Wall Plaza with Rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, and the Director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Mordechai (Suli) Eliav.
The Prime Minister said, “New decrees are being created against the Jewish nation. The anti-Semitic decrees of the international court that says that the Jews standing here next to this wall in this city in this land have no right to live here, and if we live here, we are committing a war crime. Anti-Semitism for its own sake. We will not bow our heads before this injustice, and we will fight it with everything we have. I say this here on this festival of Chanukah, against all the decrees, against all this new anti-Semitism. Just as we were victorious then, we will be victorious today.”
The Ambassador said that he “is happy to be here as the ambassador of the United States government that sends its blessings for a Happy Chanukah to Jews around the world. Chanukah is the “festival of light”, every day we make the light brighter. This is not just symbolic. It is our essence that we illuminate the world with the values we have, and this is very special to light a Chanukah candle adjacent to the site of the miracle where the Maccabees purified the Temple. Being here with the Jewish nation saying the same prayer they did 2,000 years ago, in the same language, in the same place where those prayers were recited. There is no better place at which to begin the Chanukah festival.”
Rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, said, “Two-thousand and three hundred years ago, the greatest empire in the world wanted to erase Jewish identity, and the Jewish nation fought valiantly, right here, in order to preserve Jewish light in the world. The light of Chanukah, the light of freedom, and the light of faith that were lit here, illuminate powerfully today all around the world. It sheds light in the State of Israel. It sheds light in the United States of America. It sheds light wherever there are people who believe in the Blessed be He, believe in freedom, and believe in hope.”
VIDEO:
Lighting of the Kotel Menorah
Address by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ambassador Friedman
