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<\/p>\nRabbi Audrey Korotkin of Temple Beth Israel (third from right) explains the significance of the candles at UPMC Altoona\u2019s annual Hanukkah Menorah lighting on Monday. With her at the ceremony in the hospital\u2019s atrium are (from left) Jewish community members Roz Sky, Joel Hollander, Michael Kline, William Wallen and Rabbi Josh Wohl of Congregation Agudath Achim.
\nPhoto courtesy of Don Clippinger<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the weekend attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia, and in the broader context of the Israeli-Hamas war, there is much darkness and angst in the Jewish community locally and worldwide.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the sort of metaphorical darkness that the feast of Hanukkah is designed to contend with at a time of year when literal darkness predominates in the northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n
The metaphorical darkness of hatred and animosity that seems to be ascendant throughout much of the world is largely the result of widespread failure to follow the key precept of the main western religions \u2014 Christianity, Judaism and Islam \u2014 to love one another, to welcome and be kind to strangers and to care for the poor, according to Bill Wallen, former executive director of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation, who spoke to the Mirror after serving as master of ceremonies at Monday\u2019s annual lighting of the Menorah at UPMC Altoona.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s traditional in Judaism not to shy away from disputation and argument \u2014 as in the old joke, \u201ctwo Jews, three opinions,\u201d Wallen said.<\/p>\n
But the best of that tradition is argument \u201cfor the sake of heaven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
UPMC Altoona President Michael Corso speaks at the annual lighting of the Menorah at UPMC Altoona on Monday while Rabbi Audrey Korotkin of Temple Beth Israel (from left), Rabbi Josh Wohl of Congregation Agudath Achim and William Wallen, retired executive director of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation, look on.
\nPhoto courtesy of Don Clippinger<\/p>\n
That is argument not to burnish one\u2019s ego or to establish dominance or to \u201cwin,\u201d but rather to discover truth and to enable \u201ccollective growth and deeper understanding, honoring both sides\u2019 perspectives,\u201d while ensuring \u201cenduring, constructive dialog,\u201d according to an online source.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost that in our world,\u201d Wallen said. <\/p>\n
Instead, nowadays, each side feels \u201cbacked off into corners,\u201d Wallen said. <\/p>\n
There is too much \u201cdemonizing\u201d of opponents, and respect for the other side has been lost, he said.<\/p>\n
The teaching in Genesis that God created everyone in his image ought to be an antidote to such unfortunate practice, according to Wallen.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bill-Wallen-1-708x840.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
William Wallen, retired executive director of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation, explains the tradition of the annual Hanukkah Menorah lighting at UPMC Altoona on Monday in the hospital\u2019s atrium.
\nPhoto courtesy of Don Clippinger<\/p>\n
But many people have moved away from religion, and many who\u2019ve stayed have nevertheless lost touch with those key precepts, he said.<\/p>\n
He was asked if it is a time that could benefit from the coming of a prophet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would help,\u201d Wallen said, laughing.<\/p>\n
Our time needs leaders who can \u201cshow the way,\u201d he said. \u201cTo get back to the essence of what our religions teach.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough time, but it always seems to be a tough time,\u201d said Neil Port, who played the piano for the event. \u201cWe need more love, more tolerance and more understanding for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Port and his family have been to Bondi Beach, so he has a personal acquaintance with the site of the most recent incident of antisemitic violence that has gained attention worldwide.<\/p>\n
He takes such attacks personally, Port said.<\/p>\n
Wallen, too, has a personal connection with another recent spate of violence that has gotten wide attention \u2014 the attack at Brown University, where his granddaughter is a student, although the motive for that attack isn\u2019t clear, he said.<\/p>\n
The lighting of the Menorah for Hanukkah represents the miracle that attended the rededication of the second temple in the second century BCE after the triumph of the Maccabees over the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who had tried to enforce Greek culture and beliefs on the Jews and who had desecrated the temple, according to Rabbi Josh Wohl, of the Agudath Achim Congregation, and chabad.org.<\/p>\n
The Maccabees found one undefiled cruse of olive oil, enough for one day \u2014 yet the oil from that cruse burned for eight days, enough time to produce additional oil according to the rules of ritual purity, according to Wohl and the website.<\/p>\n
That Hanukkah tradition argues for optimism, in that \u201cwe hope to shine light on the world,\u201d Port said.<\/p>\n
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