In 1977, when I graduated from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, after doing a residency at Maimonides Hospital, I opened an office in Crown Heights. Part of the reason I chose Crown Heights was that, although not being Chabad Lubavitch myself, I had a very nice feeling toward the Chabad community.
As the International Maccabiah Games are well underway in Israel, there is one Holy Land team that participated in its own version of the Olympics far from home, and performed on a level every Jew should be proud of.
I was born in Paris, France, and the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin were the kvatters at my bris. That is, they carried me to the circumcision ceremony when I was eight days old.
The old Shul of Kfar Chabad is torn down to enable construction of the main Shul – Beis Menachem – in 1973.
Rabbi Benny Hershcovich, Shliach in Cabo, Mexico, delivers his brief and hilarious thought on this weeks Parasha, Devarim – titled ‘Happy-Sad-Happy.’
When I was thirteen years of age, I was doubly orphaned. My mother had passed away when I was a child, and then, when I was almost fourteen years old, I lost my father as well. I had to move into yeshiva full-time, as I had no other place to go.
As fate would have it, the two Jewish players who played in this strike-shortened National Hockey League season (Eric Nystrom spent his hockey year in Norway’s GETligan before getting injured after appearing in just six games) both had a fair crack at making the playoffs.
Israel’s National Lacrosse team has a full plate to chew on over the summer months. After posting a solid effort in its first-ever international win – a 13-9 victory over Turkey in Istanbul last June – the Blue-and-White are gearing towards their first open tryout from August 14-18 on their home turf.
The first Lebanon War in 1982 was a unique war, during which the Israel Defense Forces reached Beirut and conquered it, causing the expulsion of the Palestinian forces from Lebanon.
Before the war, my father learned in a yeshiva in Hungary. Although he was not from a chasidic background, he made sure that I got some exposure to chasidism.
Before his historic first meeting with newly-elected U.S. President Jimmy Carter in Washington, Begin asked me to arrange a meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York.
David Schottenstein, the founder of Astor & Black, Swiss Stays, and Viewabill shares business wisdom with aspiring entrepreneurs.
I didn’t consider myself a Lubavitcher, but I lived in Crown Heights for a short time after I got married. I would attend the Rebbe’s farbrengens from time to time, but my relationship was always from a distance.
When my friend Rabbi Daniel Moskowitz, now the Chabad emissary in Illinois, and I were young students in yeshiva, we volunteered for Merkos Shlichus – the Chabad Jewish outreach program by rabbinical students. In the summer of 1976, we were presented with an opportunity to go on a short trip to Sweden. We prepared everything that was needed, and we went to Sweden for about ten days or two weeks. We visited a few small towns, but mainly we stayed in the capital, Stockholm. We gave classes in the local synagogues and we distributed mezuzahs and tefillin.
The accident happened in the early morning of Tisha B’Av, 1982. As I opened my closet door to get ready to go to synagogue, I noticed an old stepladder and a carpet sweeper stashed there temporarily. We were in the midst of construction, and the plumber was running new pipes through my closet up to the attic.
I was a yeshiva student on shlichus in Safed, Israel, in 1984. In addition to our own full-time studies, we were involved in many outreach activities across the city, including running a kindergarten program and giving Torah classes.
I don’t remember how old I was, maybe thirteen years old, when I caught a very bad case of bronchitis. There was a danger of pneumonia and my parents and grandparents were terrified. I guess in Europe, if someone coughed, it meant tuberculosis or worse, and they were beside themselves.
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