When a shliach saw the police car following him on the first night of Chanukah, he had no idea what to expect.

Rabbi Shneur Majeski of Chabad of East Brunswick, New Jersey, had already come home after spending a busy day on Erev Chanukah meeting with fellow Jews to celebrate the Yom Tov. Together with his wife and two kids, they decided to head out once more to visit a few more Jewish families and bring them the joy of Chanukah.

It was late at night, and as they were on their way back home, a car in the rear window caught their attention.

“My wife was the first to notice the police car following us,” Rabbi Majeski tells Anash.org. “We got really nervous as it continued to trail us for several minutes and kept thinking, ‘What could possibly be happening?’”

The police car followed them all the way to their home. When they finally arrived, Rabbi Majeski got out of the car and asked the officer, who had gotten out as well, if everything was okay.

“He said he had a problem,” Rabbi Majeski recalled. “At first, I thought, ‘Oh no, what did I do wrong?’”

The officer explained that he was Jewish, and after hearing about what had happened to his fellow Jews in Australia, he felt he really needed to celebrate Chanukah and light the menorah this year more than ever -but he didn’t know where to turn.

“As I was patrolling, I noticed the menorah on your car and decided to follow you guys home,” the officer said.

The stunned shluchim quickly invited him out of the cold and into their warm home.

“He joined us for an emotional menorah lighting,” Rabbi Majeski said. “We spoke about the pure jug of oil that the Maccabees found thousands of years ago and the pure essence of every Jew that is eternal.”

The shluchim also offered him donuts and latkes, as well as dreidels for his children, and made sure he would light his own menorah when he got home.

The officer shared that ever since October 7, he had begun feeling closer to Yiddishkeit, and he had recently even purchased a pair of tefillin and had been looking forward to celebrating Chanukah. He was overwhelmed with gratitude to the shluchim who had so warmly welcomed him into their home and given him the opportunity to celebrate.

“We were already done with Mivtzoim and were heading home,” Rabbi Majeski concludes, “but the menorah on the car brought the Jew that needed Chanukah straight to us. If you don’t have a menorah on your car yet, don’t hold back – there are so many Jews that still need to be reached.”