READING, Pa.\u00a0\u2013 In the heart of Reading, an event symbolizes unity and hope at a time when tensions are heightened in the Jewish community.<\/p>\n
“This demonstration that we’re doing tonight is really the heart and soul of the difference between darkness and light, and tonight, the light is going to shine in this evening, but very, very bright,” said a speaker.<\/p>\n
At Fifth and Penn streets, the community gathered to light the menorah.<\/p>\n
“We are just thrilled to have everyone with us. There are Jews and non-Jews with us tonight,” said Cindy Gerber Tomlinson, CEO, Jewish Federation Reading\/Berks.<\/p>\n
They were supporting one another in the wake of the tragedy in Sydney, Australia, where more than a dozen people were murdered and several others injured while they celebrated Hanukkah.<\/p>\n
“A holiday which celebrates freedom and light and brightness and goodness,” Gerber Tomlinson said.<\/p>\n
She said this recent attack is an indicator of growing antisemitism worldwide.<\/p>\n
“Antisemitism is higher now than it has been in history, next to the beginning of the Second World War, and we are quite concerned about it,” Gerber Tomlinson said. “We are depending upon our community of other people who are of every faith, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation. We support each other all of the time and especially in times of crisis.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
During Tuesday night’s annual event, a message of strength resonated amongst the community.<\/p>\n
“It takes courage to come out and to be here and to know that in the back of our minds, someone could be a crazy person and do something crazy, but that’s not going to stop us, so let’s give ourselves a round of applause and say, ‘Happy Hanukkah,'” said a speaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa.\u00a0\u2013 In the heart of Reading, an event symbolizes unity and hope at a time when tensions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[33796,33797,128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-63050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-cindy-gerber-tomlinson","9":"tag-jewish-federation-reading-berks","10":"tag-reading-city","11":"tag-reading-city-headlines","12":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}