Despite the ongoing war with Russia, Kharkiv in Ukraine still held a menorah parade, with dozens of cars parading through the city with menorahs on the roof. Billboards with the Chanukah message and ten large menorahs in the streets, subway, and shopping centers lit up the city on the frontline for its fourth Chanukah at war.

At the first Chanukah lighting in the shul on Sunday, with the news of the terrible tragedy in Sydney, Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz spoke of the need to add light and good deeds to banish evil and darkness. The hundreds of participants joined in Shma Yisrael in prayer for the martyrs and those wounded in the attack. Igor Terechov, the mayor of Kharkiv, was proud and grateful that the Chanukah traditions can be celebrated today in the city.

The Chanukah program this year featured a powerful film with a soldier on the frontline lighting a menorah and the Jewish school children acting out the story of Chanukah.

And while thousands of doughnuts and hundreds of menorahs were given out in malls and the subway next to the shining menorahs, the shluchim made sure to bring the menorah light also to Jewish inmates in jails, hospitals, and homes.

Even on the frontlines of war, the light of Chanukah cannot be extinguished.

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