State-wide Menorah Lighting

Join us for tonight’s state-wide event as we share the story of Hanukkah, highlight our Jewish community and state-wide allies, and hear from Jewish Federations of North America about ShineALight; let’s spread the light of the season to dispel the darkness.

The Shine A Light Initiative

Shine A Light is an international initiative to illuminate the dangers of antisemitism through education, community partnerships, workplace engagement, and community advocacy. Shine A Light draws from the inspiration of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, and seeks to catalyze conversations within and across communities so that people will better understand what constitutes antisemitism and take steps to respond.

2022 is the second year Greenville, through Greenville Jewish Federation, is a Shine A Light community. In 2022, it is also the inaugural year that all three Jewish Federations have come together in a coordinated effort.

PJ Library Greenville held two main programs for Hanukkah. On December 10, PJ Library had a Hanukkah event space at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate “World Wonderland” holiday festival and shared the story of Hanukkah with over 900 participants. On December 11, PJ Library hosted the Family Community Hanukkah party at Roller Sports Skating Rink.

Jewish Federations of South Carolina partnered with Southern NCSY to bring the Hate Ends Now tour with the Cattle Car Exhibit back to South Carolina – the exhibit traveled from Greenville, with Chabad of Greenville hosting, to Columbia with the local JCC as a host. The community reactions and participation in the pop-up exhibit were incredible. Our final stop was in Charleston with the Mount Pleasant library.

Locally, on December 15, our featured Shine A Light program with Ana Sazonov, sharing her story as a Ukrainian, was held at First Baptist Greenville.

December 18 was Chanukkah on Main, and Greenville Jewish Federation expresses our collective gratitude to Rabbi Leibel and Musie Kesselman for an incredible program and for partnering with Shine A Light – Greenville Jewish Federation.

Tonight, December 20, is a virtual State-Wide Menorah Lighting – you can register with the button below – Jewish leaders in Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Hilton Head will be represented. We will also share a 15-minute video of state-wide leaders expressing solidarity and allyship with the Jewish community. The program also features a national guest speaker from the Jewish Federations of North America.

On Thursday, December 22, at 6 pm, a story will air locally on FOX news about antisemitism.

Another incredible effort you might not know about happened on December 12, when our local city council members and Mayor Knox White voted unanimously on a City Resolution on the growing problem of antisemitism.

Thank you, Elizabeth Lapidus, Greenville Jewish Federation Community Engagement, for spearheading the initiative.

RESOLUTION NO. 2022-53
A R E S O L U T I O N
SHINING A LIGHT ON THE GROWING PROBLEM OF ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA, SPECIFICALLY IN GREENVILLE AND SOUTH CAROLINA, AND RECOGNIZING IMPORTANT OUTREACH TOOLS TO ADDRESS IT

You can read the city resolution HERE.

If you would like to thank our City Council members, please click HERE.

Our community is growing and as we spend time with family, friends, and our community, let’s all #ShineALight for love, justice, kindness, compassion, humanity, allyship, and community. Stand united against antisemitism, racism, and all forms of hate.

Happy Hanukkah
Arielle Nakdimon

Register for State-Wide Menorah Lighting