The added burden I wish my non-Jewish neighbors understood this time of year (Opinion)

If Chanukah is a festival of lights why don t we put them on our house my child in recent weeks required me I ve often wondered the same question After all one of the obligations of Chanukah is to publicize the miracle of a small Jewish group successfully resisting the surrounding oppressive heritage The Talmud one of the the bulk sacred sources of Jewish wisdom argues that a menorah should be placed outside of one s home ideally at the busiest time of day This way the general populace will see the candles and learn about the miracle The Talmud builds in a backup plan For Jews living during times of persecution they should light a menorah inside their homes where it isn t visible to outsiders I wish I could tell you that this precaution is antiquated and no longer necessary But unfortunately that isn t the incident In fact over the past ten years the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States has increased by almost I feel far less safe publicly showing my Jewish identity now than I did when I was a kid growing up in Centennial At that time my fear was of White Supremacists This past summer s attack in Boulder however illustrated that threats exist from both the far right and the far left While I do not believe that everything anti-Israel is anti-semitic it is a very nuanced and blurry line often with overlap Every time I consider wearing a shirt with Hebrew on it or a yarmulka in spaces other than synagogue or responding to strangers who wish me Merry Christmas that my family in fact celebrates Chanukah I calculate whether or not these actions are safe To be sure this caution is not restricted to Jewish people Rather all minorities calculate how to show up in the world to stay safe and most of face far greater physical danger than the Jewish public I ve inevitably assumed my neighbors knew the additional mental and emotional gymnastics required to be Jewish in a practices rooted in Christianity and White Supremacy But the past insufficient months it s become clearer to me that my well-intentioned neighbors likely don t know the added stress that Jewish people carry This fall I launched a new Jewish group in South Denver called Karov As our numbers have grown past the size of gathering in homes I ve started reaching out to local businesses about renting space In these conversations I request that the host please not post anything online about dates we are holding Jewish events in their venue to prevent the possibility of someone doing harm to our group At which point the manager will say something like I am so sorry you have to think about such things I had no idea Related Articles Hanukkah will shred with menorahs made from skis snowboards Get your gourmet holiday dinner to go at these Denver restaurants Recipe A vegan chopped liver for everyone at the Hanukkah table Things to do in Denver Martini party jazz concert and a brewery opening Why doing good also makes us feel good during the holidays and beyond An even more pronounced example came last weekend when participating in a conversation at a nearby church I described how the greater part Jewish people I know carry the fear that at particular point it will no longer become safe to live as a Jew in the place we have called home because that same experience has played out time and again throughout history I looked around the room to see faces of complete shock They had no idea that it was part of the Jewish experience It was so far from their own Driving away from the church it occurred to me that most of non-Jewish people wouldn t know this insider view because it s not often shared I ve been happy to expose my friends of other faith traditions to the beauty of Shabbat and holidays but I ve saved my fears about being Jewish for those within my public And thinking about depictions of Jews in pop society Jewish characters are not portrayed as deliberating over whether it s safe to wear a Star of David necklace There s an expression in Hebrew HaMevin Yavin which essentially means When you know you know My hope as we enter this holiday season is that by sharing various of my fears that stem from my Jewish identity my non-Jewish neighbors will now know particular of the added weight I and my area carry year-round but especially during this time of year Amanda Schwartz is a rabbi in Centennial where she also grew up She is the founder of Karov Collective a burgeoning egalitarian Jewish area in Southeast Metro Denver Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail