At the conclusion of the speeches and after the five memorial candles were lit – one for each Israeli slain at Har Nof – Adath Israel school students lit the hanukkah candles and led the crowd in the brachot.
Rabbi Yanoff said of the evening: “Across denominational and communal lines, the sentiment behind the commemoration has been emraced. It was a strong statement of how solidarity with Israel can have a unifying, bolstering effect on the Jewish community, as well it should.”
A number of local organizations co-sponsored the observance along with Adath Israel: the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, the Consulate General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region, Friends of Israel Defense Forces, Philadelphia I-CARE, Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, Jerusalem U., Jewish National Fund, Maccabi USA, StandWith Us and the Zionist Organization of America.
A private funder paid for everything, including the advertising and the dozens of latkes and sufganiyot which were served at the conclusion of the event.
