Obama Pleads With Jews to ‘Have Faith’ in Future at Hanukkah Parties
Image by Getty
WASHINGTON — Pleading with American Jews to “have faith that brighter days are ahead,” President Barack Obama bid emotional farewells to the Jewish community at his final Hanukkah parties as president.
Jewish community leaders, lawmakers, top Jewish Democrats and major backers of Obama’s campaigns attended two separate parties on Wednesday at the White House.
The Obamas will be vacationing in Hawaii for Christmas break, which this year coincides with Hanukkah, so the party was held early.
At both gatherings, Obama alluded to the disappointment that Democrats felt in the loss by Hillary Clinton, Obama’s designated successor, to Donald Trump in the presidential election last month.
“In my last months in office, I want to thank you for all your courage, and your conviction, and your outspokenness,” he said at the second reception, in the evening, to applause. “The story of this community and the work you continue to do to repair the world forever reminds us to have faith that there are brighter days ahead.”
The audience laughed, and Obama’s wife, Michelle, said, “They’re a little cynical.”
“No, no, no, not cynical,” Obama replied, and she corrected herself: “A little doubtful.”
At each reception, guests lighting the Hanukkah candles represented Jewish figures who died this year and to whom the president was close. At the afternoon reception, the widow, son and grandchildren of Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust memoirist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, lit a menorah that had been made by Wiesel’s granddaughter.
In the evening, the son and two grandchildren of Shimon Peres, an Israeli founding father and longtime statesman, kindled a menorah preserved during the Holocaust by the family of Peres’ son-in-law.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
