from Trenton to Hoboken and all the towns in between Hanukkah celebrations are underway Jews in New Jersey are attending local manur lightings and digging into the traditional treats that make the Festival of Lights a little brighter on this second night of the 8-day observance places like Morristown are hosting Shabbat Services led by a children's choir many say they're feeling a spiritual Revival for what's considered a minor holiday among observant Jews hoping to spread the light during one of the darkest times in recent Jewish history celebrating in the shadow of the Israel Hamas war and Rising anti-Semitism with the Nationwide mourning for the 1200 Israelis killed in the October 7th Hamas attack and renewed hope for the safe return of their loved ones including Ten's 19-year-old Edon Alexander being held hostage in Gaza as Ted Goldberg reports it's all familiar territory for Jews whose holidays are frequent a reminder to be resilient and defiant a spike in anti-semitic incidents isn't stopping synagogues from celebrating the second night of Hanukkah we have a big dinner and we serve potato lotas and suano jelly donuts and we sing hanuka songs Rabbi Joel pakowski says members of his congregation in tck have not been scared off by the recent rise in hate yesterday in Albany New York a man was arrested after allegedly firing a shotgun outside of a synagogue there's no way you could see that as anything but an anti-emetic incident and I feel for those teachers God willing those students were unaware but their parents finding out about this knowing that the place that they bring their children to be educated in a safe and secure environment was threatened from the outside we cannot let outside actors especially people who wish to do us harm uh dictate to us tell us describe for us what our Judaism should look like there's a lot of fear and anxiety and nervousness in the Jewish community and yet you see this determination not to let terrorists win you see this determination not to let hate succeed Dove benone leads the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West New Jersey's largest Jewish philanthropy Jews in this country are a tiny percent of the population but we represent a massive percentage of hate crimes of bias crimes the majority of those incidents reported um have to do with harassment over 50% of approximately 135 total incidents that we've tracked since October 7th that have been reported the FBI special agent in charge in Newark James Dene says those numbers are probably too low and that anti-em medic and islamophobic attacks aren't always counted accurately that's for a variety of reasons people don't know how to report it they don't know they don't think law enforcement is going to do anything about it they fear uh retaliation Rabbi pakowski says Hanukkah comes at a great time for the Jewish Community even as the war between Israel and Hamas has seemingly no end in sight celebrate a holiday that is about religious freedom that is it about the the minority of Jews who wish to remain uh true to some sense of Jewish peoplehood and Jewish tradition uh fighting against a much more powerful foe the ultimate lesson of Hanukkah is one of endurance of resilience and of Hope the knowledge that in the end we co can light our lights and use that light to push back the darkness of Terror a darkness that Jews hope can be overcome by the Festival of Lights for Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg