Sunday evening, student Rabbi Erik Uriarte will light the nine candles on the menorah at Billings' Congregation Beth Aaron to commemorate the last night of Hanukkah.

It's a public ritual that, 25 years ago, some members of Billings' Jewish community weren't sure they should do in public.

A paving stone thrown by high-schoolers on Dec. 3, 1993, through the bedroom window of 5-year-old Eric Schnitzer — the glass decorated with stickers depicting the Star of David and the menorah — left many in the community shaken and uncertain about what could happen next.

Two weeks before the Schnitzers' window was shattered, Rabbi Uri Barnea, then the music director of the Billings Symphony, found anti-Semitic literature tucked into his Sunday newspaper. A few days later, he came home from conducting the symphony to discover the front door of his home had been smashed in.

{snip}
What happened next reverberated around the nation, launching a movement and was the focus of an award-winning PBS documentary. Residents across the city hung printed images of the menorah in the windows in their homes — the entire community united in a show of solidarity with their Jewish neighbors.


https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/the-nation-celebrated-billings-response-to-antisemitism-years-ago-but/article_948ac1e2-62b5-5460-83b4-d4314a659c16.html