South Tampa mom, friend launch 'Project Menorah' in support of Jewish communities

TAMPA, Fla. - A South Tampa mom and her friend in California marked the first night of Hanukkah on Thursday by discussing a campaign they launched to show support for Jewish communities across the country.

The campaign is called "Project Menorah," and it urges families of all faiths to place a menorah or a picture of one in their windows to show their support for Jewish communities.

"It's just a very simple way to say that I support my Jewish friends and my Jewish community," said Jennifer Marshall, who has been trying to get the word out about the effort.

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Marshall, who isn't Jewish, was talking with her friend, Adam Kulbersh, who is Jewish and lives in Los Angeles. Kulbersh told her his 6-year-old son asked him to decorate their house for Hanukkah, but Kulbersh balked at the idea due to a nationwide rise in antisemitism.

According to the Anti-Defamation League last month, antisemitism has gone up 388% since early October when Israel was attached by the terrorist group, Hamas.

"I don't think I realized how heavily the antisemitic violence around the world lately had been weighing on me," Kulbersh said. "Because of this historic rise in antisemitism, I wasn't sure that I felt safe making a big public display of our Judaism."

When Marshall heard that, she decided she wanted to support her friend.

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"'You know what? I'm going to buy a menorah, and I'm going to put it in my window,'" she said she told him during that conversation. "There comes a time where you can stand up and say this is wrong. And I think that a lot of people don't know how to support Jewish families right now. And this is a very simple way."

"In this one moment, this friend did just the most honest expression of kindness, right from her gut, just an instinct, and I breathed deeply for the first time," said Kulbersh.

Kulbersh then came up with the idea of launching Project Menorah, in which people of all faiths are invited to display a menorah and share photos of them on social media.

"The pictures are coming in from Australia, Canada, all across the U.S., certainly England, France, Italy. It's really exciting," Kulbersh said.

For anyone wanting to participate, information and menorah printouts are available at projectmenorah.com.