Chanukah Under Zionist Oppression

On December 27, 2016, Moshe Chaim Weissfish, age 10, describes how his father Shlomo Zalmen lit Chanukah candles in an Israeli prison, where he is serving time for protesting against the recently enacted Israeli forced draft.

Weissfish and other Orthodox Jews refuse to serve in the Israeli army because of their principled opposition to the State of Israel.

According to the Torah, Jews are in exile and must conduct themselves peacefully and respectfully with their non-Jewish neighbors and are forbidden to wage wars against any nation.


Good evening! 

Tonight I am going to light Chanukah candles the same way my Daddy lit them.

My Daddy is sitting in Israeli prison since before the Jewish new year (October) because he protested against the law of forced conscription of Orthodox Jews.

They [Israeli police] didn’t let my Daddy light Chanukah candles, but they couldn’t control him. My Daddy did light Chanukah candles, even though the bad Zionists didn’t want him to light Chanukah candles. 

I’ll show you how he lit them. 

My Daddy gets food on an aluminum tray. He cut up the tray. I’ll do it with scissors, but my Daddy doesn’t have any scissors. He cut it with the lid of a tuna can. Then he bent the piece of the tray into the shape of a cup, he cut off another piece of the tray to use to hold the wick. Then he poured the oil of the tuna into the cup. He didn’t have any wicks, so he tore pieces off of his shirt and made wicks. He placed it in the cup of oil and lit the Chanukah candle.

Under the Nazis, too, in Auschwitz, that’s how the Jews lit Chanukah candles. They didn’t have tuna, but they collected portions of margarine, until they succeeded in lighting Chanukah candles. 

You know what Chanukah is? 

Once upon a time, two thousand years ago, there were Greeks here. They too didn’t let us follow the Torah, just like the bad people today. And there were even some Jews who agreed with their decrees. Only five people – Yochanan the high priest and his sons - fought against them. But they, the five Maccabees, won. 

We too will win, even though we don’t have weapons, we don’t have a political party, we don’t have anything. We only have G-d, that protects us.

My Daddy is staying in jail for the sake of G-d. They [the Israeli police] gave him a choice to come home with an electronic cuff, but his rabbi told him that it is forbidden on the Sabbath. 
He is fighting for G-d. 

And therefore WE WILL WIN!