LIGHT OVER DARKNESS FLAG TAKEN IN HATE CRIME REPLACED.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

WESTLAKE VILLAGE - Eyes welling with tears, Victoria Monina, a 71-year-old Holocaust survivor, hung a blue and silver ``Happy Hanukkah'' flag over her garage Tuesday, replacing the one vandals burned two days earlier.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department is investigating the vandalism as a hate crime, although Detective Patrick Dain said the motive remains unclear.

``To see something like that all over, it really hurts,'' said Monina, who hid in homes throughout Greece to avoid persecution by the Nazis during World War II. ``I lost all my family in the Holocaust.''

On Tuesday, more than a dozen neighbors and synagogue members gathered on Monina's quiet tree-lined street. They placed a 6-foot-tall menorah in front of her home and watched her light the candles and hang the flag.

``The whole message of Hanukkah is light over darkness,'' said Rabbi Moshe Bryski of the Chabad of the Conejo in Agoura Hills, where Monina studies Judaism.

``An individual tried to create darkness,'' he said during an impromptu news conference. ``It pains every single one of us when an event like this happens.''

``Victoria has seen enough darkness in her life,'' Bryski said.

He handed Monina a second flag to hang alongside the first, a symbol of defiance against hate, he said.

Bryski said the menorah was to stand tall in Monina's yard as a symbol of strength against anyone who would try to intimidate Jews.

Ventura County ranks 10th in the state for hate crime offenses, according to a report released by the state Department of Justice earlier this year.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com