Date: Sunday, December 9th. Venue: Jewish Center of Jackson Heights
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JREJ) to celebrate the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights” of Chanukah (also known as Hanukkah) with dancing, singing, lighting the menorah and enjoying delicious Latkes. Ocasio shared her experience with the story of Hanukkah, the miracle of the eight days and eight candles symbolizing to her the great reservoir of resilience that is the human spirit, our spiritual growth and transcending. Alexandria also revealed her ancestry, which led back to Sephardic Jews who fled to the island of Puerto Rico during the Spanish Inquisition. There, beliefs of Catholicism, Judaism, African animism and indigenous spirituality united. Ocasio celebrated the diversified DNA of Puerto Rico, “We are a people that are an amalgamation, we are no one thing, we are black, we are indigenous, we are Spanish, we are European.”
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