These days, Ukraine runs on two currencies — hryvnia and metaphor.

Among the most powerful is the notion of “light in the darkness,” especially urgent amidst rolling blackouts and the billowing black smoke that arises from recently destroyed buildings.

This flourishing trade in allegory is particularly vibrant among the country’s Jews. In November, during my third trip to Ukraine this year, I experienced it at a communal bar and bat mitzvah in Truskavets interrupted by an unexpected electricity cut, though the hotel’s generator eventually kicked in; an art program for preteens in Chernihiv illuminated by a ring light plugged into a power bank; and a bustling Kyiv Jewish community center coming to life just an hour after one of the city’s worst-ever aerial bombardments.

As Chanukah begins, these Jews reminded me anew that light actually matters. When they kindle a flame, they’re literally deploying hope and healing, especially critical as the devastating conflict enters its fourth winter.

These days, everyone in Ukraine is, in the words of a friend from beleaguered Kharkiv, “mixed up in the same mess,” with any prior distinctions between the needy and the professionals serving them flattened against the unbearable daily march of sirens and shelling. And yet the country’s next Jewish generation — young people whose ancestors survived two world wars, the Soviets, and a history of noxious antisemitism — offers lessons in perseverance for a world embroiled in chaos, fear, and uncertainty.

The master class I got from Natalia Havyrliuk, 25, is just one example. She is unflinching and gritty, despite her grief and the multiple sclerosis that she’s developed since the start of the conflict.

The leader of a Jewish teen club in battered Sumy, just 18........

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