On Sunday (December 21) at 4 p.m. outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, the tallest Chanukah candelabra in Canada will be lit in memory of the brutal November attack at the Chabad House-Lubavitch centre in Mumbai, India.

Late last month,  gunmen who’ve since been linked to the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba stormed the Jewish sanctuary in South Mumbai and murdered Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah, along with four guests. A nanny saved the couple's two-year-old son Moshe.

"Our community is mourning the loss of a colleague and devoted couple, Rabbi Yitzchak Wineberg, director of Chabad Lubavitch in B.C., said in a statement.   “The terrorists specifically targeted the Chabad house in Mumbai which raises security issues for the more than 4,000 Chabad houses around the world, including the Chabad houses here in B.C. In lighting this Chanukah Menorah, we make a statement that with these lights we will overcome the darkness of the terrorists and their unspeakable acts of brutality and carnage. The only way to fight such darkness is by increasing acts of light and good. Darkness cannot exist where light shines!"

Chanukah is an eight-day Jewish festival. It celebrates  a miracle that took place in Jerusalem 2,300 years ago, in which one jar of untainted pure olive oil that should have lasted one day lasted eight days. It’s  commemorated as a symbol of the triumph of good over evil.