An art and music festival in Williamsburg, Virginia, has canceled a Hanukkah event over concerns about the appearance of “taking sides” in the ongoing war between Israel and the terror group Hamas.
A menorah lighting was scheduled to take place during the 2nd Sundays Art and Music Festival, a monthly event put on by the non-profit Love Light Placemaking. Shirley Vermillion, the event’s coordinator, canceled the Hanukkah celebration over the optics of holding the religious ceremony, especially with the tensions over the war in Israel, according to The Virginia Gazette.
Hosting a menorah lighting with the war in Israel ongoing “seemed very inappropriate,” Vermillion told the Gazette. She has denied requests to hold religious ceremonies of other kinds, as well, to distance the festival from any perceived religious affiliation or partisanship, she said.
“The concern is of folks feeling like we are siding with a group over the other … not a direction we ever decide to head,” she said.
The lighting was scheduled to take place during the festival on Dec. 10. Vermillion said that in addition to the religious context, she canceled the event because it did not logistically fit into the festival’s lineup.
The United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula (UJCVP) condemned the Hanukkah celebration cancelation in a statement, and said Vermillion offered to reconsider the cancelation if the Hanukkah celebration was used to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“To be clear, the menorah lighting, which was to be led by a local community rabbi, had nothing to do with Israel or the conflict,” the UJCVP statement said. “Yet, appallingly, the event organizer claimed that a Chanukah celebration would send a message that the festival was ‘supporting the killing/bombing of thousands of men, women, and children,’ – and even went a step further, by offering to reinstate the event if it was done under a banner calling for a ceasefire.”
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“We should be very clear: it is antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s policies and actions, and to require a political litmus test for Jews’ participation in community events that have nothing to do with Israel. Those standards would never be applied to another community,” the statement continued.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the terror group invaded Israel from Gaza and killed roughly 1,200 hundred civilians and took hundreds more captive, largely Israelis. The Hamas terrorists raped and tortured many during its October 7 attack, which represents the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Love Light Placemaking did not immediately respond to a request for comment.