THERE IS NO ACTIVE SYNAGOGUE in Sausalito, but there are Jewish people there. On Monday night, they were joined by over a hundred allies at the city’s first-ever public menorah lighting and Hanukkah celebration.
The 10-foot electric icon was purchased by Councilmember Melissa Blaustein and her husband and erected next to the city’s Christmas tree at Vina del Mar Park. The celebration included music, tributes, prayers, dreidels and latkes.
Blaustein told the crowd how much she was looking forward to the event.
“And then I woke up yesterday morning and everything really changed,” she said, referring to Sunday’s mass shooting in Bondi Beach, Australia, that killed 15 people who had gathered to mark the first day of Hanukkah.
“This event felt so much more important than it had just a few days before. Acts of antisemitism no matter where they happen anywhere around the world cause a serious ripple effect in every single Jewish community. But one thing that we as Jewish people know to be true is that joy is an act of resilience,” Blaustein said.
“We need to lead with joy, we need to lead with light, and I want to invite everybody to spread the light of Hanukkah with us,” said Tye Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
Other speakers at the event included politicians Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, and Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan, as well as religious leaders from San Rafael, Marin City and San Francisco.
Prayers and solidarity
Rabbi Leo Fuchs of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael and Rabbi Ryan Bauer of San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El led the crowd in prayers at the end of the evening before two lights were lit on the menorah. The eight flames on the candle represent the eight days that a small supply of pure oil miraculously burned after the family of the Maccabees rededicated their desecrated temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE.
“Martin Luther King said darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
Rev. Paul Mowry, Sausalito Presbyterian Church
The Bay Area has one of the most diverse Jewish communities in the U.S., according to a study published in 2021 by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.
The survey found that there were 350,000 Jews living in the region, with 13% living in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties. About a quarter of Jewish families were living in mixed race households, and in younger families that figure rose to 40%. Nearly a quarter of Bay Area Jewish households were born outside the U.S., most commonly in the former Soviet Union or Israel. A large percentage of younger Jewish people did not feel a deep sense of connection to the Jewish community, the study found at the time, and emotional connection to Israel was low.
“We live in a culture intentionally designed to put us into opposing groups based on race, class, education, religion and politics,” said the Rev. Paul Mowry of the Sausalito Presbyterian Church. “Martin Luther King said darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
“Where does the light come from?” said the Rev. Floyd Thompkins of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. “It does not come because we’re strong. It does not come because we’re smart. It comes because there is a God who loves us and a God who tells us from generation to generation, that we are not alone, that we shall indeed see a better day.”