SC menorah lighting returns to Columbia, with Biden nominee Deborah Lipstadt to speak
The 16th annual Isadore E. Lourie Memorial Hanukkah menorah lighting at the State House will return later this month after the previous two year’s events were canceled due to weather and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event is scheduled for 6 p.m., Nov. 29 on the second day of Hanukkah.
Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt will be the keynote speaker.
“Dr. Lipstadt’s appearance in Columbia, along with the recent opening of the Anne Frank House, represents the perfect opportunity to raise statewide awareness of the rising incidents of anti-Semitism in the U.S.,” said Rabbi Hesh Epstein, the executive director of Chabad of South Carolina.
Lipstadt, who served as an advisor for the U.S. Holocaust Museum, was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as a U.S. special envoy to help combat anti-Semitism.
“She’s the person to point this out, call it out and say this cannot be allowed to happen,” Epstein previously told The State discussing the event.
Last week, she testified in a trial regarding the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, attack where a ‘Unite the Right’ rally ended with a white supremacist driving his vehicle into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring 19 people and killing a 32-year-old woman.
Hannakuh, also known as the festival of lights, starts on the night of Nov. 28 and runs through Dec. 6. It centers around the retelling of how an under-militarized Jewish people reclaimed Jerusalem and defeated Syrian Greeks who took over Israel and wanted to limit Jewish customs and prohibit their practice of religion.
State Rep. Beth Bernstein and former Sen. Joel Lourie, son of the late Isador Lourie, will chair the event, where more than a hundred members of the Jewish community are expected to gather.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and Gov. Henry McMaster are also scheduled to appear.
“This has been an event that has pulled people together,” said Epstein, adding that the program is helped put on by the Columbia Jewish Federation. “It’s created a center piece for people of all religions to come together.”
A VIP reception for all sponsors will immediately follow the lighting event at the Anne Frank House on the University of South Carolina campus.
Reporter David Travis Bland contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 11:52 AM.