Jewish groups in Virginia are expressing frustration and outrage after being told a menorah lighting ceremony would not take place during a festival at Williamsburg because of the war at Israel. Event organizers said the menorah could not be lit because it would be seen as supporting Israel during its ongoing war against Hamas. 

The Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula said on Sunday that the organizers of LoveLight Placemaking’s Second Sundays Art and Music Festival had removed a menorah lighting from the schedule on December 10.

The group is “shocked and alarmed at LoveLight Placemaking’s decision to cancel a menorah lighting scheduled for the Second Sundays Art and Music Festival on Dec 10 in Williamsburg — claiming it did not want to appear to choose sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict,” they wrote in a statement. “To be clear, the menorah lighting, which was to be led by a local community rabbi, had nothing to do with Israel or the conflict.”

The group says they had been told that the lighting of a menorah at the festival would be seen as condoning Israel’s military operations. “Appallingly, the event organizer claimed that a Chanukah celebration would send a message that the festival was ‘supporting the killing/bombing of thousands of men, women, and children,’ — and even went a step further, by offering to reinstate the event if it was done under a banner calling for a cease-fire.”

“It is antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s policies and actions, and to require a political litmus test for Jews’ participation in community events that have nothing to do with Israel,” the group continued. “Those standards would never be applied to another community.”

The founder of the Second Sundays Art and Music Festival, Shirley Vermillion told the Virginia Gazette that the menorah ceremony “seemed very inappropriate” because of the war in Israel. “The concern is of folks feeling like we are siding with a group over the other … not a direction we ever decide to head,” Ms. Vermillion told the outlet.

Ms. Vermillion said that the space designated for the menorah ceremony was not large enough and there would not be enough time for the event to take place. She also told the Gazette that other events celebrating religious and cultural groups will still take place.