By Leslie Palma-Simoncek – SIlive.com
Lucas Lerner could barely contain himself.
“Today is the first night of Hanukkah,” shouted the 5-year-old from New Springville. “It’s one of the Jewish holidays. On the first day we light only one candle and every night we light a new candle.”
Lucas was in the crowd at the Staten Island Mall in New Springville for the 28th annual lighting of the Hanukkah menorah, an event sponsored by the Council of Jewish Organizations of Staten Island and Chabad Lubavitch of Staten Island.
Hanukkah celebrates the victory of “a handful of God-fearing Jews who were fighting those who were trying to terminate us,” explained Chabad’s Rabbi Moshe Katzman before he lit the first candle on the nine-branch menorah.
Referring to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, last month that killed more than 165 people at random and targeted Jews in the Chabad center there, Rabbi Katzman said Jews will fight back by lighting candles, and he urged everyone to join the effort.
“We’ll bring light to this world,” he said. “Slowly we will make the world a better place to live, and we hope it will be imminently.”
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