LoveLight Placemaking, the organizer of the Second Sundays Art and Music Festival in Williamsburg, Va., has canceled a scheduled Hanukkah celebration, including the lighting of a menorah, on December 10. The decision follows concerns related to the Israel–Hamas conflict.
Shirley Vermillion, the festival’s founder, cited logistical challenges and sensitivity to the ongoing Israel–Hamas conflict as reasons for the cancellation. “The concern is of folks feeling like we are siding with a group over the other . . . not a direction we ever decide to head,” Vermillion said. She emphasized the festival’s inclusive nature and mentioned scheduling conflicts as well as a reluctance to have the festival engage in religious activities. Vermillion said that past requests from various religious groups, specifically Christian organizations, to perform at the festival were denied — a policy seemingly at odds with the festival’s frequent appeals to inclusivity in its marketing material.
The United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula expressed “shock and alarm” at LoveLight Placemaking’s decision. The UJC organization clarified that the menorah lighting, led by a local rabbi, was not political and had no connection to the Israel–Hamas war. They argued that it’s antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s policies and actions.
According to the UJC organization, LoveLight Placemaking suggested reinstating the event if conducted under a banner calling for a cease-fire, a proposal the UJC criticized as inappropriate.
The statement from the UJC highlighted what they see as a disturbing trend of excluding Jewish individuals and institutions or targeting them, sometimes violently, amid rising antisemitism. The UJC called on LoveLight Placemaking to reconsider the decision and reinstate the apolitical menorah ceremony at the event.
A Canadian city in New Brunswick caused a similar uproar recently when a 20-year-old menorah display was suddenly forbidden; the city justifed the move by citing a 2015 religious-separation law that, until this year, had not been thought to apply to the city’s menorah.