What happened on the New Haven Green during a march and rally last weekend has appropriately been decried by political and faith leaders of all backgrounds as “the desecration of the Hanukkah menorah.” But after bearing witness to such a deeply painful incident, is it possible to nonetheless find some solace in the events that followed?

Last Saturday afternoon, at a march and rally in New Haven organized by American Muslims for Palestine CT, We Will Return Palestine, UConn Students for Justice in Palestine and Yalies 4 Palestine, a man, his faced covered, approached the New Haven Green menorah, which has been displayed publicly every year during Hanukkah for the last 42 years.