'Celebration Of Lights' Takes On New Meaning As Montana Town Fights Anti-Semitism

By Nicky Ouellet / NPR

Published December 30, 2016 at 10:44 AM PST

This story was published more than 7 years ago.

The Jewish community in Whitefish, Mont., has become the target of online harassment by neo-Nazis after Sherry Spencer, the mother of emerging white nationalist leader Richard Spencer, wrote online about being asked to sell her downtown properties and donate the profits to the Montana Human Rights Network.

During this Hanukkah, the people of Whitefish are banding together to fight this anti-Semitism with displays of paper menorahs. They borrowed the strategy from another Montana city, Billings, which pushed back against anti-Semitism more than two decades ago by encouraging the entire town to put menorahs in windows.

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