A group of faith leaders in North Central Ohio are fighting the recent wave of canceled public Hanukkah displays by establishing public displays in their towns and calling on Christians to light menorahs in their homes.
This holiday, menorahs will be displayed on civic property in four area communities. With civic approval, menorahs have been placed for the first time in Fredericktown near municipal hall, and in Shelby, near the Gazebo and Gamble’s Millstone. These two area displays join two other Hannukuh holiday displays at municipal parks in Ontario and Lexington.
The Hanukkah displays stand in stark contrast to the city of Bethlehem in Israel which will be dark this holiday season. Bethlehem, believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus, is normally festive during the Christmas season. But the Bethlehem municipality recently announced that there will be no Christmas celebrations to show solidarity with Gaza. The main churches in Bethlehem have agreed to cancel all Christmas celebrations to show solidarity with Hamas in its war against Israel. The Palestinian Authority will permit only religious ceremonies to take place. No public displays of Christmas trees or decorations will be permitted. It is the first time in modern history that decorations will not be put up in Manger Square.
Amie Mutti, a self-described faith-based advocate for Israel, has led the charge,
“There is currently a campaign going on for non-Jews to show their support for the Jewish people and to stand against anti-Semitism,” says Mutti. “By placing a hanukiah (menorah) in their windows they are showing their solidarity for Israel. I am proud that our surrounding communities have taken this one step further by placing hanukiahs in their public spaces for Hanukkah.”
Mutti emphasized the importance of commemorating Christmas in the Israeli city of Bethlehem.
“Hearing that the Christian community in Bethlehem has canceled its Christmas displays is shocking,” she said. “The officials there would do well to remember that their savior was born a Jew and died a Jew. His message was given to Jews and He will be coming back to the Jewish people in Jerusalem as a Jew.”
The public displays are especially fitting as menorahs are supposed to be lit in a public place to proclaim and make known the miracles that God performed for the Jewish people.
The Ohio faith community strongly supports Israel. Last month, lead clergymen representing one hundred fifty-five congregations gave a joint statement at the Sar Shalom Center condemning the October 7th Black Sabbath attack by Hamas terrorists. The clergymen also supported Israel’s absolute right to exist and to defend itself.155 lead clergymen representing churches and synagogues have been supporting Israel since the October 7th tragedy. In 2019, the Richland County Board of Commissioners began investing in Israel bonds. Earlier this year, nine area mayors and three boards of county commissioners gave formal proclamations recognizing the seventy-fifth anniversary of the rebirth of Israel.
In 2017, a group of over 100 clergymen from North-Central Ohio sent a letter of solidarity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The clergymen later reported to Israel365 News that they “immediately began seeing signs of God’s favor.”
“The economy rebounded and the ecology also responded almost immediately after we sent the letter,” Benjamin Mutti told Israel365 News at the time.
One of the ways the economy bounced back was the approval of a hotly contested Rover Pipeline, a 713-mile natural $4 billion gas pipeline. Although the project would bring jobs and money to the region as well as facilitate the distribution of natural gas throughout the US and Canada, the pipeline was mired in several lawsuits. Its approval came ten days after the clergy sent the letter to Netanyahu. At the time, North-Central Ohio had a stagnant regional economy that was reported as the fifth worst in the country, and Mutti said that the project brought an enormous boost to the region.
In addition, according to Department of Agriculture numbers, the spring turkey harvest in Richland County saw a dramatic twenty-four percent increase from the previous year, whitetail deer harvested was the best in four years, and the cow herd in Richland County, which is estimated in late winter, was at its largest number in over thirty years.
The clergymen decided to take their blessing of Israel even further. In response to the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement that calls for a boycott on Israeli products, 42 Christian clergies petitioned the Richland County treasurer, Bart Hamilton, in May 2017 and requested that he invest community funds in Israel bonds. The standing county policy did not permit such international investments, but at the urging of the clergy, the treasurer looked into the possibility of doing so. They cited the strong performance of these bonds as an economic incentive.
