Chabad members return from Israel

Six Chabad Lubavitch members who recently went on a spiritual trip to Israel were welcomed home Friday at a dinner in their honor. The members of the executive mission shared stories about bringing toys and thousands of dollars to victims of terrorism.

“Everything we’ve studied and learned about came to life,” Chabad Member Nathan Zimmerman said.

Friends and members of the Chabad Lubavitch, a branch of Jewish Hasidism that began more than 250 years ago in Lubavitch, Russia, came to hear the stories and songs and enjoy Israeli food at the Liorah Greenberg Jewish Center, 77 Village Green Drive.

Thursday’s Meeting Regarding The Tickets

After the meeting was postponed then relocated, members of the community sat down with the Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct Ins. Frank Vega, Cap. Daniel Sosnowik and Lt. John Cantwell who heard out the communities complaints.

Attendance wasn’t that great, partly due to the schedule changing on everyone at the last minute, around 20 people who were each individually affected by Officers Kennedy and Mintz showed up to voice their complaints. During the meeting Mr. Goldstein of the Community Board 9 came in and told of observations he had of Officers using selective enforcement in Crown Heights and how it’s illegal, and applied it to the allegations that these 2 officers were also selectively enforcing the laws on only Jews, and mentioned that the Department has disciplinary ‘mechanisms’ for officers abusing their authority in such a manner.

The Man Who Could Have Been a Gaon and Became a Chassidic Doctor

Dr. Avrohom Aba Seligson, the Rebbe’s doctor, a’h, whose yortseit falls on the 25th of Shvat, was born in Krakow in 5667, to his father, Rabbi Michoel Aharon, a descendant of the Alter Rebbe, who had the merit to host the Rebbe Rayatz in his home just about the time, Reb Avrohom Aba was born. A few years later he opened a Chassidus class in his house at the expressed wish of the Rebbe Rayatz, and being that there were no Chabadniks in the area, the attendees were Gerer and Belzer Chassidim, who arrived to study ‘Torah Or’ and ‘Likutei Torah’.

Reb Avrohom Aba studied medicine in Vilna and completed his studies successfully to a degree that he was considered an expert doctor prior to World War 2 and he had the merit of having Yechidus with the Rebbe Rayatz in 5696.

During the war he resided in Shanghai, China together with the Tmimim who fled there from the battlefront. With great dedication, he saved many Jews from diseases. After the war, when he received a doctor’s certificate in the U.S. he notified the Rebbe Rayatz about this and the Rebbe, in turn, sent him a letter of blessings in his profession.

Chabad myths

The Lubavitcher (Chabad) Rebbe was undeniably a great man. Many of his followers have done outstanding work around the globe. But sadly as with every large organisation they have their crooks, their swindlers and their charlatans.

Amongst their failings is an exaggerated tendency to maximise miracles the Rebbe performed (while ignoring his limitations) and inventing myths.

For many years there has been a story circulating that my father who died in March 1962 was promised he would be cured by the Rebbe provided he did not tell anyone, but he did and that’s why he died. These stories caused my late mother a great deal of distress. Her very different record of the events was actually published in a Lubavitch book called ‘Challenge: An Encounter with Lubavitch Chabad’ and at one stage she even toyed with legal action.

New Album by Mordechai Ben David – Efshar Letaken

For the first time in three years MBD is releasing a new album, which is going to contain 13 songs. The album was produced by his son Yeedle Werdyger and contains many songs composed by MBD himself along with a song written by Lipa Schmeltzer which also features a performance by The Yeshiva Boys Choir.

The expected release date is February 27th and will be available at major Judica stores.

Click Here to listen to a Demo of the new album!

Finding God Under the Stars

The San Bernardino Mountains play home to West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch’s new Camp Gan Israel Running Springs.

The fog/smog lies heavy over the San Bernardino mountain range, but with a little imagination, it’s still possible to make out Los Angeles — and Catalina — in the distance. Likewise, at an elevation of more than 6,000 feet in Running Springs, it’s possible to envision the great promise of Camp Gan Israel, Chabad’s new sleep-away camp and retreat center, even though the site is still undergoing heavy remodeling.

The synagogue, a former classroom, has been gutted, stained and stripped; nails line the floors ready to fasten down carpeting; a basic square wooden stage faces east toward Jerusalem, ready to hold an arc, its Torah scrolls and serve as the bimah for services three times a day. The gargantuan soccer field lies barren in the wind, bereft of green in the middle of this mild mountain winter. A pool sits covered, laden with puddles.

But come summer — and even to some extent the upcoming weekend — the site will be ready for visitors.

Chabad Of Alpharetta To Expand Camp Facilities Thanks To A Quarter Million Dollar Grant

Chabad of Alpharetta, GA, is adding yet another mainstay to its existing suite of facilities: An aquatic and sports center.

The multifaceted center will be constructed at Chabad’s campus on Jones Bridge Road in Alpharetta. The facilities will include an outdoor swimming pool, a spray pad, and a combo sports field accommodating baseball, football, soccer and other ball sports. The $500,000 project is geared for primary usage by Chabad’s well-attended summer day camp, which attracted 198 campers k”ah in its 7th season last July.

The half-million initiative has received an anonymous $250,000 matching-funds grant, endowed by three anonymous friends of Chabad. The gift was named “The Gimmel Gift” after the Hebrew letter Gimmel which equals three.

Burial in Jewish cemetery is available for unaffiliated Jews

Jews who are not affiliated with a congregation that has a Jewish cemetery can still be buried in a Jewish cemetery in Portland, according to Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm, head of Chabad of Oregon.

Wilhelm said he occasionally gets calls from people wanting information about some aspect of Jewish burial or mourning process and he said it dismays him that some people do not realize there is a local option for Jewish burial even if they are unaffiliated.

Last fall, Chabad of Oregon dedicated a section of Riverview Cemetery as a Jewish burial ground. The Chabad section, which is open to any Jew, is adjacent to a section designated Jewish by Congregation Shir Tikvah and P’nai Or last spring.

A Wider Inquiry, as More People Get Antibiotics and 2nd Apartment Is to Be Checked

The authorities widened their investigation into possible anthrax contamination yesterday to include an apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and medical officials were giving antibiotics to seven people who could have been exposed to the spores.

An eight-member team from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including two epidemiologists, along with F.B.I. agents, took samples yesterday from the Manhattan apartment of the man who had contracted anthrax, the Brooklyn warehouse where he used animal skins to make drums for his African dance troupe and a Dodge van that he is believed to have used to transport the skins, which are a suspected source of the bacteria. The results of the laboratory tests might not be available for several days, officials said.

The anthrax patient, Vado Diomande, 44, has been hospitalized in Pennsylvania since he collapsed after an African dance performance at Mansfield University on Feb. 16. He was in stable condition yesterday at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa. Officials believe he inhaled the anthrax while working with untreated animal hides brought over from Africa.

Caring for Desolate Souls

Books filled to the brim with names of people fill the home of a Lubavitch Chossid, Rabbi Yosef Shugerman, OBM. The names in the books are those of the thousands desolate people who passed away with no family members to recite Kaddish after their passing. For these, Rabbi Shugerman created the ‘Mes Mitzvah’ Gemach, and Rabbi Shugerman used to see to it that these lonely souls would have people to say Kaddish after them.

Rabbi Yosef Shugerman of Petach Tikvah returned to his Jewish roots 20 years ago, and at the time he married his wife Yocheved. About sixteen years ago, he was introduced to Chabad and wholeheartedly embraced its way of life.

Chabad slates luau March 14

As the Book of Esther outlines, Purim has been celebrated thousands of times with charity, a festive meal and intoxicating beverages. But who’s to say the Jews wouldn’t have gone to Hawaii to celebrate their victory over the Persians had they the opportunity?

“Everybody has a good time in Hawaii, from youngsters to elders, that’s why we chose it,” said Simi Mishulovin, co-youth director at Chabad Lubavitch of Oregon and organizer of their Hawaiian Purim Luau.

This March 14 at 6 p.m., the MJCC auditorium will turn into America’s official tourist spot, our 50th state, complete with a sandy beach volleyball court, in celebrating a Hawaiian Purim.

FINAL UPDATE: Did You Get A Seatbelt Or Cell Phone Ticket?

After the whole debacle of where and when this meeting was going to take place, we finally got it down.

If you or someone you know received a ticket of not wearing a seatbelt or using a cell phone while driving from P.O. Kennedy (Car#1474) and feels that you are not guilty let your voice be heard.

Please attend the meeting which will be in the 71st Precinct on the second floor in the Community Affairs Room (Located on Empire Blvd. & New York Ave.) this evening [Thursday] February 23rd at 7:00pm. local officials as well as NYPD 71st precinct officials will be present at the meeting

Please be there and bring a friend. It is important that our voices be heard.UPDATE: Did You Get A Seatbelt Or Cell Phone Ticket?