Rabbi Levi Shemtov is accustomed to leading numerous Chanukah events and lighting menorahs across the District with household names and community members alike. This year, he believes the crowds swelled larger in the wake of the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach shooting.
“I think people decided that they don’t want to be cowed by terrorism,” Shemtov told Washington Jewish Week. “They want to respond by showing up.”
Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), led various celebrations, including the National Menorah Lighting and events at the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, the vice president’s residence, the Department of Justice, the Kennedy Center, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“There was a lot of Chanukah going on,” he said.
His message at each of these gatherings was simple: Continue spreading light and warmth despite hardship.
Shemtov lit the national menorah on the Ellipse less than 24 hours after a father and son opened fire at a Chanukah celebration in Sydney. The tragedy gave some community members pause about attending a Jewish event, but “made it that much more necessary to do,” Shemtov said.
“We don’t cower in fear because of an attack,” he added. “The Lubavitcher Rebbe always taught us that we have to counter this, not with fear, but with strength.”
Shemtov dedicated the Chanukah programs to “those who fell in Sydney,” and in his remarks, he spoke about how the Jewish community can move forward.
“I shared the Rebbe’s approach that in the face of pain and terror, our answer can only be light and strength, and rather than be fearful and thus reluctant, we have to go ahead being bold and confident,” Shemtov said.
The tragedy in Australia on the first night of Chanukah hits close to home for Shemtov, whose cousin was injured in the Sydney attack and other relatives hid as bullets flew.
“For me, Chanukah and Australia together is a very personal combination,” he said.
The rabbi began his work as a Chabad emissary in Australia, partaking in a community service Chabad training program. His first “big event” there was a Chanukah celebration.
“When this [shooting] hit, I knew exactly where it was, and it was blocks away from where I went to [a] yeshiva [program] and a few blocks, just down the street, from where my wife grew up,” he said.
Because of security concerns, Shemtov said he added a “very heavy” police presence, including members of the U.S. Park Police and National Guard, to the existing “tight security” measures at at the National Menorah Lighting. Attendees passed through metal detectors as well.
Elected officials expressed their support to Shemtov both publicly and in private. “Everyone from the president on down said that we have to be encouraged,” he recalled.
“On Sunday at an event at the White House, [President Donald Trump] encouraged Jews all over the country to be proud, to be loud, to be Jewish,” Shemtov said. “At the White House party, he said, ‘I will always be a friend of the Jewish people. You are a very special people.’”
Montana Tucker, a singer, dancer and activist who spoke at the National Menorah Lighting, urged Jewish people to light Chanukah candles, but even after Chanukah, for Jewish women and girls to light Shabbat candles every Friday to help spread the light: “It’s a special privilege for Jewish women and girls.”
These messages are more pertinent than ever in the Jewish community, according to Shemtov.
“I think the Jewish community … find[s] ourselves at perhaps the most challenging point in this generation, and it is specifically at this time that communities and communal leaders need to find a deeper strength and confidence and stronger faith, and move in a direction which sends an unmistakable message to the larger society … that we will not be beaten down,” he said.
Shemtov was encouraged by the fact that he celebrated the holiday with some of the most influential U.S. leaders and hundreds of attendees.
“It felt great to see that Chanukah is accepted at, literally, the highest levels of American society on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “It’s something that should inspire us to dig deeper and do more to be proud of our Jewish identity and not have a weakened one due to increasing threats. That’s not how Jews have survived through the ages. We’ve survived by reacting with greater vigor, and that’s the story of the Maccabees. That’s the story of Chanukah, that’s the story of light over darkness. And that will be our story.”
Shemtov said he hopes that D.C.’s Chanukah celebrations are even larger in 2026.
