Finding Light Amid the Darkness
Our Hanukkah celebration and end-of-year video.
One year ago, amid the darkness of December 2024, I was honored to join the final Biden White House Hanukkah party. The decorations and light of the menorah were a warm embrace for everyone who stepped through the door. A military band played klezmer and Hanukkah songs, and we danced the horah on the East Wing Portico.
Today, there’s no East Wing to welcome guests, as it’s been demolished to make way for an opulent ballroom that will soon dwarf the White House. Over at the Vice President’s Residence, JD Vance invited guests to join a Hanukkah reception in honor of the “Golden Noel: Celebrating 50 years of Christmas,” because nothing says “happy Hanukkah” like a little golden Noel.
The country has endured significant change in the past twelve months, largely brought on by the darkness emanating from this White House. But at JDCA, we have found, spread, and even created light ourselves. We refused to sit back as our democracy is eroded, and have engaged in more advocacy, organizing, community convening, and successful election work this year than we thought possible in a non-midterm or presidential election year.
This week was no different, and we celebrated Hanukkah in D.C. with an event that honored our shared successes and wins, paid tribute to many sources of light in 2025 – including in a short end-of-year video, below – and remembered the precious lives tragically lost to antisemitic violence in the past year.
WATCH JDCA’S HANUKKAH VIDEO & SUPPORT OUR WORK
At the Hanukkah party, we stood with our champions in Congress and celebrated statewide election wins in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We recommitted to defending our democracy by ensuring Democrats take back control of Congress, which is the only check on the authoritarianism of this White House, and lifted up our Democratic candidates running in 2026.
We honored the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which did so much for two years to “Bring Them Home,” and celebrated the return of every living hostage from Gaza earlier this year. We also remembered those lost on October 7 and in the two years since, and called for the return of the one Israeli hostage still held in Gaza, Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili z”l, whose family deserves the chance to give him a proper burial.
We paid tribute to Israeli Embassy employees, Yaron Lischinsky z”l and Sarah Milgrim z”l, who were gunned down earlier this year while leaving the Capital Jewish Museum. This horrific act of antisemitic violence stole from our community and world two remarkable people, including Sarah, who joined JDCA’s Hanukkah Party last year.
We started the event with a special video that I want to share with all of you, featuring our collective efforts from the past year. It’s a tribute to the work we did together as a community in 2025 to advocate for – and elect those who share – our values, and an important reminder that, even amid darkness, light can be found.
We are the change we wish to see in this country and world, and at JDCA, we’re doing everything we can to bring about political change consistent with our values in partnership with all of you. Wishing you a happy Hanukkah.
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