Hundreds of people are expected for Monday evening's menorah lighting at Omaha, Neb.'s Westroads Mall in memory of the victims of last week's massacre there by a lone gunman.

The ceremony will be led by Rabbi Mendel Katzman, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Nebraska, whose children were in the Van Maur department store Dec. 5 just 30 minutes before Robert A. Hawkins opened fire on shoppers, killing eight. According to police reports, Hawkins then turned the gun on himself.

Besides presiding over the lighting of the Chanukah menorah, Katzman will lead prayers for the victims and their families while participants hold candles, "which is symbolic of the message of the Chanukah menorah," he said. "A little bit of light can dispel a great deal of darkness."

Katzman held a similar ceremony the night of the tragedy outside of the mall, which had been locked down by authorities as a crime scene. The mall reopened Sunday.

"Chanukah is the time we rededicate ourselves to making this world a better and brighter place," the rabbi said last week. There's a "need to come together to pray, to try to console and at the same time give hope."