Bob CollinsAs 2016 exits, we’ll take hope anywhere we can find it.
Today we find it in Bahrain, a Muslim-majority monarchy.
Jews and Muslims danced together at a Hanukkah celebration, the New York Times reports.
“The positive energy that there was tonight needs to be spread around,” an unidentified Jewish man tells the group in American-accented English before handing over the menorah, which he called symbolic. “The symbol is that hopefully through this night we can bring infinite light to the world.”
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Bahraini officials hosted the Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony on Saturday, the first night of the eight-day holiday, and that it was attended by members of the country’s small Jewish population, foreign businessmen and “other local Bahrainis.”
The identities of the members of either delegation could not immediately be determined, but American Orthodox Jews suggested online that the Jewish group might have been backed by Eliezer Scheiner, a businessman and philanthropist from Brooklyn. Calls to Mr. Scheiner were not answered.
There are fewer than 50 Jews living in Bahrain, the Times says, but the king there has embraced them.
