Chabad of Berlin announced that the grand menorah lighting at the Brandenburg Gate will be dedicated this year to all of the victims of the terrorist truck attack that killed 12 and wounded 48, and called for an increase in menorah lightings and all Chanukah activities in response to the attack.
Daliya Elyakim, 60, from Herzliya, was identified today as one of the victims by her children, who were flown to Germany from Israel. Her husband, Rami Elyakim, remains hospitalized after being seriously wounded in the attack. German police are searching for a suspect of Tunisian descent who they believe is responsible.
At a prayer ceremony on behalf of those killed and injured, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, rabbi of the Jewish community of Berlin and director of Chabad of Berlin, said “the attackers did and do not differentiate between us. They not only attacked Berlin, Germany or the Jews. But rather they attacked all people who believe in a world of democracy, a world full of respect, a world of light, because they, the attackers, believe in a life full of darkness.”
The rabbi called for an increase in light manifested through unity and good deeds, and for an increase in observance of the eight-day holiday of Chanukah, known as the “Festival of Lights.”
At the end of the ceremony community members read from the book of Psalms and prayed for the complete recovery of the wounded. They also lit 12 candles in memory of the 12 murdered in the terror attack.
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