It’s an annual eight-day festival. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah is being celebrated in synagogues across the world this week after kicking off this past Sunday.

“Hanukkah is initially a celebration of religious freedom and victory over tyranny and the ability to practice one’s religious tradition as one wishes to,” Temple Israel of Albany Rabbi David Eligberg said.

Beyond the joyous occasion this year, though, is the darkness of antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League states there were over 2,700 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2021, the highest number on record since ADL began tracking incidents in 1979.

“The idea that my religious tradition is should have a place in the panoply of society is increasingly threatened,” Eligberg said.

It’s why instilling tradition in their children is a priority for the Jewish community.

“They look at the world and there is this sense of wow and positivity, so we try to build that and perpetuate that,” Eligberg said.

According to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, nearly 60% of young New Yorkers are unable to name a concentration camp, while almost 30% believe the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated.

“We have to combat antisemitism," state Assembly Member Nily Rozic said. "We cannot be silent.”

Rozic spearheaded legislation that ensures schools across the state teach students about the Holocaust as required. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the measure into law this summer.

“If we don’t address the awful history of the past, we know the path of antisemitism, and it won’t be good for Jews and it won’t be good for anyone,” Rozic said.

Still, tradition was alive and well at synagogues across the state.

“This holiday really speaks to the issue of our own era,” Eligberg said.