Danny Fenster, American journalist freed from Myanmar imprisonment, honored at Detroit Chanukah celebration
An American journalist recently freed from custody in Myanmar following February’s military coup was honored this week at downtown Detroit’s Chanukah celebration.
Danny Fenster, the 37-year-old managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, returned to the U.S. on Nov. 16 and rejoiced with community leaders Sunday night at the “Menorah in the D” event commemorating the start of the joyous Jewish holiday, which lasts for eight nights, The Associated Press reports.
The event, which started in 2011 and includes Jewish leaders and state officials, as well as locals, came roughly two weeks after Fenster, a native of suburban Detroit, was released on Nov. 15 to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped to negotiate his release.
Chanukah honors the release of the ancient Jews, also known as the Maccabees, from the rule of Greek King Antiochus IV, and the discovery of lamp oil that lasted for eight nights as the Maccabees restored the Second Temple violated by Antiochus. As there was only enough oil to provide light for one night, the eight nights of light are viewed as a miracle and celebrated with the annual lighting of the menorah, which holds nine candles — including the Shamash, used to light the other eight.
“It wasn’t a theme I thought about before the timing of my release and the timing of this event, but I think there’s that obvious connection with bringing light to darkness in journalism,” Fenster told the Detroit Free Press Sunday.
Fenster, who was arrested at the airport on May 24 before returning to Detroit to visit family, was among the more than 100 media workers who have been detained in the wake of the widely opposed ousting of elected Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate.
Fenster was convicted and sentenced on Nov. 12 to 11 years in prison with hard labor for spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations.
Fenster faced life in prison if convicted on the additional charges of terrorism and treason.
“The things that I was arrested for, being part of the news organization that’s trying to shed light on a very dark regime, seems obviously resonant to me,” Fenster told the Free Press.
His arrest and conviction — deemed one of the harshest of journalists convicted in Myanmar since the coup — drew the ire of U.S. and rights groups calling for his freedom.
The case against Fenster was “emblematic of the wider plight of journalists in Myanmar who have been facing constant repression” since February, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet told AP following Fenster’s sentencing.
With News Wire Services
