Politicians across the globe have been issuing holiday greetings in public statements and on social media. It’s a standard practice every December, particularly when Hanukkah and Christmas actually coincide, as they do now.
This year is exceptional, however, with two world leaders conveying much more than conventionally sappy, Hallmark card-like messages to Jews celebrating the Festival of Lights. Yes, U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson each bestowed a gift befitting of the story and celebration of Hanukkah—the defeat of Antiochus and his attempt to Hellenize Jews and wipe out Judaism.
Trump’s present, which he delivered at the annual White House Hanukkah party, was the Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism. Its stated aim is to stamp out the growing Jew-hatred on American college campuses by warning educational institutions that tolerating such behavior would result in the withholding of government funding (i.e., taxpayers’ money) from them.
Though the president’s crucial document is under attack by a number of groups, including Never Trumpers, BDS supporters and left-wing Jews with a convoluted view of the E.O.’s contents, it is about as close to a Hanukkah miracle as one can get these days.