The Israeli American Council and the Bender JCC of Greater Washington marked the third night of Chanukah with a talk from the chair of the Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, Leo Terrell, on Dec. 16.
“We’re very grateful to our friends in the higher positions, and we wanted the community to feel that we are not alone,” said Tamar Pinto, senior manager of educational content and community engagement for IAC.
“Especially after what happened in Bondi Beach in Australia, to know that we are not alone, that we have friends, that we felt very grateful for Mr. Terrell to come and light the Chanukah candles with us, showing his support,” Pinto added. “Chanukah, of all the holidays, was a good opportunity to light the candle together, increase the light and reduce the darkness that we are sometimes surrounded with.”
Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, was the location where at least 15 people were killed when two gunmen opened fire on a crowd gathered to celebrate the first night of Chanukah.
“[Leo Terrell] came to respect us and to be part of us, and to show that even though he’s not Jewish, he is absolutely supportive of the Jewish community,” Pinto said. “He will do everything in his power to make sure that we are protected.”
The night included a candlelighting followed by a conversation led by recent George Washington University graduate Sabrina Soffer.
“I asked him about how he got involved with the DOJ. He really talks about how he was a civil rights attorney for many years, and for him, it’s not really a Jewish question, per se; it’s really a matter of the law and upholding the standards of the law. For him, this is a no-brainer issue,” Soffer told Washington Jewish Week in an interview.
“Another thing I asked him was about the antisemitism on the far left and antisemitism on the right. We spoke about Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and how to contend with the surge of antisemitism,” she said.
Pinto said that watching Soffer interact with Terell “was very powerful and very … it was right. A younger generation speaking to the more experienced [generation].”
Terrell, 70, was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the new Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in February.
“I think the most important thing that stood out was how passionate he is in supporting us,” Pinto added. “How the IAC was able to bring him to the community and the friendship and being together, that was a very strong message that we got from that evening. … Which goes back to the IAC mission, which is to build communities and to build bridges between communities. I think it was a very important bridge that was already built. We just built on it.”
According to Pinto, roughly 80 people were in attendance.
“Getting the opportunity to interact with different people who were there on an intimate level, it felt very homey and warm,” added Soffer. “Everybody really was welcome to share and interact with Leo as if it was like a dinner conversation. It felt very, very homey, and less like one of these big conference special events. … I think that they felt seen and heard, and they could express all their questions. So, that was really what was special about it.”
“We come from bringing people together, exposing them to content or to figures or people that maybe they would not be able to meet in any other opportunity,” Pinto said of the IAC. “We are very grateful. [Terrell] was extremely passionate and friendly about connecting to the Jewish community, and we needed that to make sure that the community hears that message that we’re not alone.”
“For me, when you want to impact the world, people always talk about making a global impact, you start with the small communities, and I think that’s really, for me, what this event felt like,” Soffer added.
