Chabad in France Resists Government Demands to Cancel Public Chanukah Celebrations
Municipal official in the southern French city of Marseilles have apparently requested that Chabad cancel their annual public Menorah lighting ceremony, due to security concerns stemming from an anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish teacher in the city last Wednesday.
The Jerusalem Post reports that according to Chabad emissary Rabbi Emanuelle Taubenblatt, Jewish community leaders and rabbis are due to meet with police and city staff to discuss the issue on Monday.
However, Rabbi Taubenblat is determined that the event will not be cancelled, noting that in Auschwitz the Jews risked their lives to organize such celebrations. “So will we just hang our heads? No, we will do as we do every year,” he told The Jerusalem Post.
“Light is a symbol of victory,” he says. Last year, some 1,500 members of Marseilles’ Jewish community attended the candle-lighting ceremony in a central location in the city; the event is always guarded by security.
