Rabbi Steve Weisman of Temple Solel in Bowie wants his Hanukkah to be more important to him this year. He needs it to be more important this year.

The discussion of anti-Semitism wasn’t invited, but is banging on the door.

“Yeah, I can be afraid. Yeah, I can be angry. What does it get me?” he said. “Not because I’m trying to make it go away by wishing it away, but how do I maintain my balance and my sense of who I am at a difficult time? I get that from Hanukkah.”

In any given year, one of the biggest lessons of Hanukkah, which began Sunday, Dec. 22, is the development of the story itself, he said. Its origin is the Maccabean Revolt in 167 BCE, in which Judah Maccabee led a Jewish army to victory over the Seleucids, then spent eight days rededicating the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

The piece about one night’s worth of oil lasting eight wasn’t added to the story until hundreds of years later, as rabbis sought to project pacifism in the face of potential conflict with the Romans, Weisman said. A celebration of a military victory was like a sore thumb, and when rabbis couldn’t completely diminish the holiday, the story of the oil was added to frame Hanukkah as a religious miracle, rather than a militaristic one, he said.

“You end up with this really neat story about how to live properly as a smaller culture within the larger culture. How to recognize what’s important for your own personal identity and maintain it and do it in a way that is appropriate to your own needs and your own history and values and everything else, but that doesn’t cause your problems within the world you work,” he said.

He views the history of Judaism as a sine wave, which rises and falls amid huge peaks of other cultures, like the Roman Empire. Periods of anti-Semitism seem to correspond with periods of Jewish success and openness, he said.

“When a minority group succeeds they put themselves in the position to be scapegoated by those who would use the fear, the divisiveness, to rally the downtrodden. And that’s where anti-Semitism comes in, tactically, historically over and over again,” he said.

Because of everything that’s going on, Weisman said, this year there is a little more emphasis on the idea of survival. An anti-Semitic attack in Jersey City on Dec. 10 left six people dead, a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October of 2018 that left 11 dead.

Now they’re challenged with questions like how to remain a welcoming congregation, after having spent tens of thousands of dollars on security equipment, and with a guard at the door of each service.

“This is the tightrope that we walk being in a minority group in a larger majority culture. On the one hand you have to be welcoming in order to survive and succeed, but you also have to maintain the boundaries physical and otherwise, otherwise you risk assimilating and disappearing,” he said.

People join a community because they like the people there; they are looking for meaning, focus and structure, and they are looking for joy, Weisman said. Those are the foundations he wants to strengthen in the face of anti-Semitism.

“We will try to understand the complexities of being the target of the behaviors of others and how we could and should best respond,” he said during the service.

He plans on discussing recent anti-Semitic attacks, as well as the positives and negatives of the recent Executive Order made by President Donald Trump that states a goal of targeting anti-Semitism.

“The discussions that follow will be healing and helpful and lead us in a new direction. It can help us to make the world a better place. Because isn’t that one of the reasons why we pray and do everything that we do?” Weisman said. “With Hanukkah coming will it be God’s will to give us the strength to be the light in the darkness.”

Rabbi Josh Wohl of Kol Shalom Annapolis said it is important to fight against all forms of hatred, and not to be passive, and to show love, support and respect for all people created in the image of God. Dec. 21 is the shortest and darkest day of the year.

“When you see darkness in the world, it’s our job to shine light,” he said.

Rabbi Nochum Light of the Chabad of Anne Arundel County said Hanukkah is a time to bring light to the darkness, to show Jewish pride, and for people who aren’t Jewish to show solidarity.

“It is pure evil people have, we have to combat it with light and holiness and love,” he said.