Israeli writer, actress and activist Noa Tishby is once again lighting the Hanukkah candles with a different celebrity each night. (Last year, her surprise guests included Gal Gadot, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mila Kunis, to name but a few). This time around, Tishby lit the first candle with one of our favorite Jewish stars, Pink.
The “Get the Party Started” singer has never shied away from her Jewish identity. She has shared messages about Jewish resilience and fighting antisemitism, as well as videos featuring her mother’s kugel recipe and her daughter singing the Hanukkah blessings.
“Hanukkah is my favorite holiday. We always have this awesome party, and a lot of our friends are not Jewish,” she tells Tishby in this new video after gifting her a beautiful Hannah Ploskin menorah.
“Even though you’re not supposed to make challah on Hanukkah, I do because the kids like to come over and braid it,” Pink says.
When Tishby points out that there’s nothing wrong with making challah on Hanukkah, especially for Shabbat, Pink replies: “My mom just tells me how wrong I am on each holiday,” which, Tishby then tells her, is just a Jewish mother thing.
Pink’s daughter, Willow, also joins them in the video for a little l’dor v’dor moment — the concept of passing down Jewish tradition from generation to generation. The teen tells Tishby that she started learning more about being Jewish last year. “I didn’t like not knowing anything about who I am,” she says.
Willow tells Tishby about their family’s tradition of incorporating the “Mensch on a Bench” toy into their holiday celebrations. “It’s like Elf on the Shelf,” Pink explains, referring to a popular Christmas toy. But this one, Willow clarifies, is “for Hanukkah.”
Pink also has a quiet moment communing with fluffy sufganiyot. “Baby, get into my belly,” she tells the jelly donuts before shoving one in her mouth and asking everyone in the room not to talk to her while she indulges.
But this video isn’t just about Jewish joy. Pink gets real about how antisemitism has always been a part of her life. The first nickname she got, back in third grade, was “kike dyke,” because she was Jewish and a tomboy.
Then, when Pink first got famous, her mother’s address was put online, and the family was threatened. That’s when her mom, Judith, called her to say, “Honey, I’m so sorry that they know you’re Jewish.” But Pink told her mother, “Mom, I’m so proud of who I am and what I am.”
For precisely that reason, Pink said she adored Tishby’s candle lighting videos last year. She loved discovering people she admired are also Jewish and proud. Honestly, that’s how we feel watching Pink, Willow and Tishby together.
The video ends with the trio singing the Hanukkah blessings, and with Tishby giving the singer-songwriter a beautiful Star of David necklace. (It appears, to this Judaica–lover’s eye, to be a Rachie Shnay mazel necklace, but I could be wrong!)
Amid all the darkness this past weekend, especially in the aftermath of the deadly antisemitic attack on a Hanukkah party in Sydney, Australia, seeing Pink so proudly celebrate her Jewish heritage was definitely the moment of light we needed.
