It should have been a regular Saturday night, albeit slightly busier due to Chanukah preparations, for Rabbi Mendel Super, who leads Chabad-Lubavitch of Lake Havasu, Arizona.
But the normalcy of the night faded away abruptly when the Australian native was jolted awake in the predawn hours local time Sunday morning, and informed that his brother Yanky, 24, was among dozens injured in a cowardly terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia.
Thousands of people had gathered to celebrate the first night of Chanukah at Chabad of Bondi’s annual ‘Chanukah at the Sea’ event, when two terrorists wielding long guns launched their assault. Fifteen people, including Chabad of Bondi’s Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, were murdered while scores more were injured.
Yanky Super, an emergency first responder with Hatzalah, was struck in the back by a bullet, and family members, a number of whom are Chabad emissaries, spread the word of his condition and asked for prayers. Rabbi Super himself quickly opened up a book of Psalms and spent a sleepless night alternately praying and seeking updates on how his brother was faring.
Miraculously, as Sunday dawned over Lake Havasu, good news came through about his brother: Yanky had a successful first surgery to remove the bullet that had only just missed his spine, and while he will require more surgeries, his prognosis is good. He was awake and able to communicate with family members shortly after he was moved to the recovery area.
Rabbi Super is determined that the traumatic events won’t get in the way of his communal plans for tonight, when he and his wife, Itta, will host the annual public menorah lighting ceremony and celebration for their Lake Havasu community.
Despite the attack in Sydney, the Supers and fellow Chabad emissaries around the globe remain undeterred.
“While it might not be easy for me to stand up there and speak tonight,” Rabbi Super told Chabad.org, “we are all resolute: We will not back down.”
Lake Havasu City’s event will go ahead as planned, albeit with heightened security. “They want us to cower in fear. We refuse. We respond to darkness with more light. That’s the message of Chanukah.”
In the tragedy’s wake, Chabad centers worldwide are going ahead with thousands of planned public menorah lightings and community Chanukah celebrations while taking greater security precautions—calling on the Jewish community to drown out hate with greater light and goodness while mourning those lost and wounded in Sydney.
‘Overwhelming Light and Jewish Pride’
Across the United States, in Coral Springs, Florida, Chabad’s annual Chanukah carnival and menorah lighting typically draws upwards of 1,500 people, for a day of family fun and Jewish pride. The event will go ahead as planned tonight, with increased security and law enforcement vigilance.
“This is a shocking tragedy,” says Chabad of Coral Springs’ co-director Rabbi Avraham Friedman. “In the Torah, after the passing of Aharon the High Priest's sons, it says vayidom Aharon, ‘and Aharon was silent.’ We can’t understand G‑d, or His reasoning as to why tragedies like what we saw in Sydney happen. We can only accept G‑d’s judgment, and respond by drowning out the hate and darkness with overwhelming light and Jewish pride.”
He’s calling on his community to participate in public Chanukah celebrations, and to bring the light of the menorah into their own homes with family and friends, and expects a larger crowd than usual in response to the tragedy. “This is the best way to respond to antisemitism and this is the way the Rebbe taught us to live and practice our Judaism,” Rabbi Friedman says.
In Rabbi Eli Schlanger’s native London, the leadership of Chabad Lubavitch in the United Kingdom issued a statement mourning those lost, praying for the recovery of the wounded, and announcing heightened security at all Chabad Chanukah activities across the United Kingdom. “We urge Jews across the U.K. not to withdraw or hide, but to come out and stand together,” they wrote, adding “Every public menorah lit, every Jewish gathering attended, is a declaration that terror will not silence Jewish life.”
Rabbi Chaim Bruk, Chabad of Montana’s co-CEO, sat down at 7:00 a.m. this morning to write his community a message. “Another email,” he reflects, “like the email I had to write after the terrorist attack in Mumbai, like the one I had to write after eleven Jews were killed in Pittsburgh, after four Jews were shot in Powey, after a shliach was killed in Dubai, after a rabbi was attacked in Monsey. . . .”
Chabad of Montana will host eighteen community Chanukah events across the state this year. “We’re not cancelling a single event,” Rabbi Bruk says. “If anything, we’ll add events.”
“This sadly isn’t a new reality,” Rabbi Bruk says. Chabad of Montana has long worked with law enforcement and private security agencies to protect their community. Both Montana’s senators, Sen. Tim Sheehy and Sen. Steve Daines reached out to Rabbi Bruk early this morning to share personal messages of support. On top of that, Rabbi Bruk says, “At some point you have to let go and say, ‘I’m going to stand tall for Judaism, even if there are those working overtime to instill fear in us.’”
“To know that Jews were killed simply for being Jewish, that a fellow shliach is gone, that his wife and six children are left without a husband and father—it's beyond heartbreaking,” Rabbi Bruk says. “Still, as I wrote to my community, we have to do our part and our ultimate protection comes from G‑d.”
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