Sen. Cory Booker lights candles on Hanukkah at home for the first time: ‘It was very emotional’
On the same day 15 Jews were murdered on Bondi Beach in Australia, Sen. Cory Booker lit Hanukkah candles at home for the first time.
Senator Cory Booker, a Black politician who is not Jewish by birth, married real‑estate agent Alexis Lewis—whose mother is Jewish—during an interfaith ceremony on November 29. The couple decided to incorporate some Jewish customs into their life together, such as lighting Shabbat candles at least once a month and keeping a menorah lit each Hanukkah.
“In my professional life, I’ve lit Hanukkah candles often, but I’ve never done it in my own home,” Booker told the Jewish Press in an interview at the U.S. Capitol. “It was very meaningful, very emotional in fact, to light them with her.”
“I know the beginning of the prayer, but I don’t even know the whole way through, so for her to sort of lead me in that ceremony, it was amazing,” the senator said. “I have to say it was very moving, very emotional to me to light the candles.” (Posted on X)
Booker often cites the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in his speeches and on the campaign trail. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that,” he uses King’s words. “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
Following the mass shooting in Australia, the glow of Hanukkah candles in Booker’s home seemed to personify the idea that “light can banish darkness” and that “good can overcome evil.” “During this season, especially after the horrific antisemitism that has surfaced again, the meaning of Hanukkah feels even more profound and emotional,” he said to the Jewish Press.
He noted that the rise in anti‑Jewish sentiment, which has intensified since the Hamas‑led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, culminated in the tragic incident at Bondi Beach.
“Look, the fight against antisemitism for me has always been a fundamental urgency to my life because of the infectiousness of hate,” he told the Jewish Press.
“My parents—my brother and I—were taught about the ancient evil of antisemitism and the urgency to fight it. But now that I’m married to a Jewish woman and we will—God willing, b’ezrat Hashem—have Jewish children, it’s taken on an even deeper, more personal sense of urgency.”
“There is no bystander in hate. You’ve got to be an activist, or in many ways you become complicit in the end, the moral obscenity of hatred and of bigotry,” he added. “In no way does my marriage make me more in this fight, but it does make it a lot more personal.”
During his time at Oxford, Booker began studying the Torah and continues to learn under the guidance of Chabad rabbi Rabbi Baruch Shalom Davidson from the Philadelphia area.
“I have a deep affection, deep love for the faith, and I think God has a sense of humor,” he told the Jewish Press. “I met this extraordinary woman who’s also Jewish. When we got dating and started talking about marriage, we decided we would have a household where we celebrated Jewish holidays and honored Shabbat.”
“But as someone who, even before I met Alexis, truly had a great love and admiration for the Torah and the faith, it was just a natural thing that when we decided to get married, we would honor Jewish traditions in our home as well,” he said.
“I just feel very blessed that I’m on this journey with Alexis. I feel so much more whole, but also I feel the blessing of, as we bring our traditions together. You know, b’ezrat Hashem, our marriage in and of itself can maybe bring some more light into the world.”
He reflected on the crucial role Jews have played in the civil‑rights era, from the lawyer who helped his parents integrate a New Jersey municipality to the activists Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—who joined civil‑rights worker James Chaney to register Black voters in Mississippi and paid with their lives.
He remembered figures like Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, who partnered with Booker T. Washington to build schools for Black children across the South, and Joel Spingarn, a Jew who co‑founded the NAACP and served as its president, whose name graces the organization’s highest honor.
“Here in the United States, deep in the core of the Black experience, there have always been Jewish alliances—from Rosenwald schools that educated so many African Americans during segregation to the shared blood of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner in their sacrifice.”
“That’s something I’ll never forget,” he said. “I know that even the highest award of the NAACP is named after a Jewish man. So I honor that tradition and legacy that I’ve inherited, and it’s another reason why I believe this alliance is so important.”
Stay informed on all the latest news, real-time breaking news updates, and follow all the important headlines in world News on Latest NewsX. Follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter(X), Gettr and subscribe our Youtube Channel.
