As the saddest day on the Jewish calendar draws to a close Thursday night, the Jewish community of Western Monmouth County, N.J., will gather at its local Chabad-Lubavitch center to hear a tale of courage, hope and perseverance from Zvi Bielski, son of one of the famed partisans that saved more than 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.

Bielski’s father, Zus Bielski, joined his brothers Tuvia, Asael and Aron to flee deep into the Polish forest and offer protection to other Jews. They were liberated by the Russian Army in 1944.

Their story was the subject of the 2008 film “Defiance.”

The talk at the Chabad House will cap observances of Tisha B’Av, a full-day fast that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. …