PHILADELPHIA — Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins Thursday at sundown.
Tension from the Israel-Hamas war is running high right now, and many of our Jewish friends and neighbors are approaching their holiday celebrations with fear.
It’s not a world one father says he wants to live in, so Adam Kulbersh changed that for his family. In turn, he started a global movement to keep the lights shining bright during the holiday.
“I’m just a dad with a kid who wanted to hang up his Hanukkah decorations and I had to tell him no because of his safety. And he was devastated. And I was devastated,” Kulbersh said.
SEE ALSO: Hanukkah 2023: Everything you need to know about the Jewish holiday
Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Kulbersh is an actor in Los Angeles and father to 6-year-old Jack.
This is the first Hanukkah since the war began, and many families, like his, are living in fear.
“Right now, in America, antisemitism is up 400%,” he said.
Kulbersh wasn’t going to decorate until his friend, Jennifer Marshall, stepped in.
“Jen said, without missing a beat, ‘I’m not Jewish, but we’re going to put a menorah in our window in solidarity with you, in the hopes that maybe it’ll give you whatever it is you need to put your menorah in yours,” he said.
This gesture of support inspired his Project Menorah.
“I Googled: ‘How do you make a website?'” he said. “I learned how to make a website over Thanksgiving.”
On his site, anyone, of any faith, can now print a free menorah.
“You show your neighborhood, this is a safe space,” Kulbersh said, “and show them that in your house only love lives.”
This, he said, is the light in the darkness.
“Hanukkah is a celebration of survival,” he said. “It is a celebration of light over dark. Project Menorah is inviting our non-Jewish friends to be allies in this moment.”
Project Menorah has only been live for a week, but people all over the globe have already joined Adam and Jack.
“My son is allowed to just live in the joy of a holiday that should be joyous,” he said.
Click here to find out how you can join Project Menorah to support our Jewish friends and neighbors.
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Source: abc7
