Rubashkin Faces New Charges

By Grant Schulte for Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, IA — Prosecutors have added wire and mail fraud charges to the slew of allegations against former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin, according to a seventh federal indictment filed today.

The new, 163-count indictment adds nine mail-fraud charges to the allegations against Rubashkin, and 14 counts of wire fraud.

Mazal Tov's View More

Chabad Neighbors Go to Court: Hope to Enforce Land Covenant

By Fay Abrahamsson for the Guilford Courier

GUILFORD, CT — Neighbors to the proposed synagogue and day care center on Goose Lane will go before a judge in two months regarding a civil land use suit filed in New Haven Superior Court.

Op-Ed: A Letter from Nobody

Dear Crown Heights,

I am a procrastinator, and should’ve written this letter about a year ago when I needed to, but I did not. I am ashamed, this was always my plan, to thank him publicly, but I have not. And now, I believe, is the perfect opportunity to do so.

My wife and I were down in the dumps financially. I’m not a gezhe nothing, my parents aren’t rich, she doesn’t get discounts at any of the crown heights stores because our parents know the owner, or because our families donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to the yeshivas and girl schools. In fact, we’re nobody’s. We’re both BT’s and we really didn’t have much money on either of our side.

Fateful Setbacks – Don’t Fret The Past. . . Transform It

By Yoseph Kahanov Jax, Florida

Not far from the twin towers, in a makeshift Synagogue, Jewish professionals meet each morning for daily prayer services. Hardly is there a problem obtaining a Minyan. However, on the morning of September 11th things were different.

Perhaps they had decided to remain at their local Shuls for the important Selichos services that precede the High Holidays. Whatever the reason, on that fateful morning, two hundred men were late for work at the World Trade Center. This explains why the nearby Minyan fell short.

Time was not on the side of the nine men present. They all had to be at their desks well before 9:00 a.m., but now they needed a tenth for the Minyan. “What do we do?” they asked, impatiently tapping their wristbands. “Where is everyone?”

Chabad Challah Workshop Brings Back Childhood Memories

By Jacob Kamaras for the Jewish State

MONROE TOWNSHIP, NJ [CHI] — In what was both a blast from the past and a new beginning, the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe took members of the active adult community back to the smells of their childhood kitchens with a challah-baking workshop July 14.

About 30 women made challah for the first time and learned about the specifics of the mitzvah from Chanie Zaklikovsky, Chabad co-director. Many of the women reminisced about the challah of their mothers and grandmothers during their formative years in New York, and said that the challah Zaklikovsky serves at Chabad dinners inspired them to make their own.

Road Sage: Rabbis Cruise For A Cause

Lubavitch.com

The decorated Dodge Sprinter promises to be a traffic stopper this summer as it makes its way from New York to California, three Chabad rabbis in tow.

On a road trip that will take them through 22 states, Rabbis Dovi Barber, Meir New, and Levi Dubrawsky may be headed to popular places, like art festivals, sporting events, and concerts, but this is no leisure trip.

Photo Gallery: Winter Boys Day Camp in Sydney

SYDNEY, Australia [CHI] — Yeshiva Centre – Chabad Headquarters of NSW, Australia; are very proud of an amazing one week “Gan Israel” WINTER boys day camp! (In Australia it is now winter!)
 
The boys camp had Bli Ayin Horo 50 boys between ages 5 to 13. (there was also a girls day camp held at a totally separate location which had 40 girls).

Technicality Holds Up Sale of Agriprocessors Slaughterhouse

POSTVILLE, IA — A technicality has held up the sale of a struggling kosher slaughterhouse in northeast Iowa, but the trustee charged with overseeing the plant is confident the sale will be completed soon.

The Weekly Sicha of the Rebbe – Parshas Mattos-Masei

The Rebbe says:

1. This week’s Torah portion tells us how the Tribes of Re’uvain and Gad had an extraordinarily large amount of livestock and they wished to remain in the lands that the Bnei Yisroel (the children of Israel) had just conquered, rather than crossing the Jordan River with their brothers into the Land of Canaan. They came to Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) and said, “This land which G-d defeated in front of the congregation of Israel is a land suitable for livestock and your servants have a lot of livestock. If it finds favor in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants as a heritage. Do not take us across the Jordan”.

Moshe Rabbeinu’s initial answer to this was, “Your brothers should go to war while you stay here?! Why are you discouraging the children of Israel from crossing over to the Land which G-d has given them? This is exactly what your fathers (the spies) did when I sent them from Kadesh-Barne’a to explore the Land. They went up to the Valley of Eshkol, saw the Land, and then they discouraged the children of Israel from crossing into the Land which G-d has given them”.

The Tribes of Re’uvain and Gad responded and said to Moshe Rabbeinu, “We’ll arm ourselves quickly and go ahead of the children of Israel and fight until we’ve brought them to their place. We’ll not return to our homes until each member of the children of Israel has taken possession of his inheritance”.

Jewish Ritual Finds Home in Big Sky Country

By Susan Gallagher

Rabbi Chaim Bruk and his wife, Chavie, stand outside their Bozeman home. An extension built onto the home houses Montana’s first modern-day mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath.

BOZEMAN, MT [AP] — In one of the least Jewish states in the country, a traditional Jewish group working to revive religious observance has built a mikvah, a ritual bath for spiritual purification.

“No Deal Yet with the Shuk Sale”

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — With over $400,000 in collections, the Shuk has been struggling to stay afloat. “There have been many bounced checks… We have given credit to customers who have failed to pay their balances,” said the Shuk’s owner, Shloime Ifergan. “It has come to the point where we cannot pay suppliers for new products.”