Synagogues around the world to remember Kristallnacht by keeping their lights on

Over 1,000 synagogues and Jewish institutions worldwide are expected to leave their lights burning overnight Monday to mark the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, as part of the annual 'Spread the Light' campaign led by the Religious Kibbutz Movement and Yad Vashem.

More than 1,000 synagogues and Jewish institutions worldwide are expected to leave their lights burning overnight Monday to mark the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, as part of the annual 'Spread the Light' campaign. The initiative commemorates the Nazi pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, when Jewish homes, businesses and institutions across Germany and Austria were attacked, hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands were sent to concentration camps. Historians view the pogrom as a precursor to the Holocaust. Participants are encouraged to photograph their illuminated buildings and share the images on social media with the hashtag #SpreadtheLight. The project is jointly led by the Religious Kibbutz Movement and Yad Vashem. Coordinator Dalia Yohanan, who runs the project through her organization Or Dolek, said it is not exactly clear how many institutions participated last year, but it was at least 1,000. The idea was launched in 2008 by Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman. Yohanan described how her father, Naftali (Kurt) Wertheim, survived Kristallnacht as a boy by hiding under a table as neighbors threw stones at his family's windows, and was later sent on a Kindertransport rescue to Britain. Today, Yohanan said, the anniversary is a time to celebrate the strengthening of Jewish identity, especially in a post-October 7 world fraught with fear and growing antisemitism.