Behind the scenes of the 770 stamp in Israel

At first the Postal Authority had offered Chabad to issue a stamp with a picture of the Rebbe but Chabad rejected the offer because the Rebbe himself had once rejected such an offer.

The Hebrew news site NFC has disclosed the negotitations behind the scene that led up to the issuing of the special 770 stamps in Israel. At first, NFC writes, the Postal Authority had offered Chabad to issue a stamp with a picture of the Rebbe but Chabad rejected the offer because the Rebbe himself had once rejected such an offer.

The Rebbe’s refusal to such a stamp goes back to the time when an offer was made to issue a stamp with the Previous Rebbe’s picture but the Rebbe refused, apparently because when you paste the stamp you sometimes smack it, NFC writes.

Farbrengen Celebrating The Hilula Of The Baba Sali

Today, the 4th of Shevat marks 22 years to the passing of R. Yisroel Abuhatzeira also known as the Baba Sali. The Sephardic Community in Crown Heights will be making a Farbrengen at 7:30pm in Lubavitcher Yeshiva on the corner of Crown St. & Albany Ave. with the participation of various Rabonim and other important People. Speeches will be in both English and Hebrew.

Museum, Jewish Groups Get Federal Security Aid

A museum in Balboa Park and five Jewish institutions have received $320,885 from the federal Department of Homeland Security to enhance security against terrorism, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Monday.

Receiving the funds are the San Diego Natural History Museum; Congregation Beth Israel; Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, Jacobs Family Campus; Chabad Center; Chabad of Poway; and the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County.

Plenty Of Parking, Says Chabad

In yet another heated session, the Chabad of Southampton Jewish Center came before the Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals last Thursday. The applicants are seeking a special exception permit from their designated residential zoning status in order to continue operating as a house of worship and community center.

Representing Rabbi Rafe Konikov and Chabad, attorney Jeff Bragman addressed traffic, parking, and design issues.

Among other variances, Chabad is seeking relief from the requirement to provide total onsite parking. With the driveway and existing parking area being used by residents of the house, Bragman argued that the remaining 13-23 spaces needed by congregants could be handled via on-street parking.

Friendship Circle Virtual Conference

The Friendship Circle a division at The Shluchim Office hosted it’s fourth international phone conference yesterday (Monday January 30th).

The Friendship Circle established in 1994 by Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan, to date there are 30 worldwide. The Friendship Circle has a unique approach to helping families of children with special needs. It’s innovative programming and activities fosters a relationship between community teenagers and the children by drawing on the love, energy and dynamics of our teenage population.

NASA assesses strategies to ‘Turn off the heat’ in New York City

The “heat is on” in New York City, whether it’s summer or winter. This is due to a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect that causes air temperatures in New York City and other major cities to be warmer than in neighboring suburbs and rural areas. And, in a big city, warmer air temperatures can impact air quality, public health and the demand for energy.

Recently, several innovative approaches developed by scientists, public officials, environmental activists, community organizations and others have been put in place to take a bite out of the Big Apple’s temperature problem. NASA researchers, using NASA satellite observations, weather pattern data and computer models, have recently assessed how well those strategies are working. Their study results will be discussed during the 2006 American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 29 through Feb. 2.

More Targeted Arrests

Tonight [Monday] at approximately 8:00pm a silver Toyota SUV was seen driving down the service lane of Eastern Parkway bet Troy and Albany Avenues. As it passed in front of the Chovevei Torah building an unmarked Chevy Impala behind it lit up in warning lights as the police inside sounded their sirens. The SUV then pulled over allowing the emergency vehicle to pass, while another unmarked police car approached from the island on the left side of the SUV. After a thorough search of the driver, the other male passenger, and the vehicle, the two female passengers were asked to exit the SUV and the two males were arrested. The police then parked the SUV and drove off with the two suspects in their unmarked cars, without lights and sirens, as if nothing was wrong.

Interestingly enough, the two female passengers, who were not searched or questioned, seemed to be in a rather happy mood notwithstanding the circumstances, and were even seen joking with cops as they left the scene. This may lead you to believe that this was all part of a larger sting operation, which ended in the arrest of the two male passengers.

Israel to evict West Bank squatters

HEBRON, West Bank – Tzipi Schlisel pours over the well-thumbed pages of a book on the history of Hebron’s Jewish community – a collection of documents, deeds and sepia-toned photos of 19th-century rabbis and victims of a massacre of the town’s Jews by local Arabs in 1929.

“I feel the deep roots of the ancient Jewish community here,” said Schlisel, 40, the mother of 10 children ranging in age from the 6-month-old son sitting on her lap to a 20-year-old son.

The Schlisels and eight other families have been squatting illegally in Hebron, in a Palestinian fruit and vegetable market, embarrassing the government and enraging the Palestinians whose property they took over.

So the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who has expressed impatience with the settlers, has decided to put an end to the affair.

24 Hours of Bossi LeGanni in Ottawa

For the first time in the History of “Yeshivas Ateres Menachem” of Ottawa, established in 1997, in honor of Yud Shvat, the Shluchim of the Yeshiva decided to organize something that was never done, its goal was to have “24 Hours of Bossi LeGanni”, its idea was to Learn any Bossi leGanni Mammor, with Shiurim and One-on One classes offered by their Shluchim of the Yeshiva. The Bochurim spent every free moment learning Bossi Legani and getting tested by their Shluchim, and if you were to walk in at 4am, you saw the “Zal” rocking with “Bossi LeGanni” as if it was in mittle of the day. “What a great Idea, Kol HaKavod to the Bochurim” said Rabbi Berger, the Rosh Yeshiva, during his address following Mincha to the Bochurim. Hundreds of Oissios were going through out the entire Twenty-four Hour Period, a real success was seen in everyone eyes.

For each Oiss of the Maamor learned Baal Peh, the Bochur together with another four Bochurim will receive a chance in a gorel and spend Yud Shvat in NY and go to the Ohel. The Hanhala were overwhelmed with the success of the program and would like to thank the Shluchim for their dedication to the program and learning and testing the Bochurim.

Chabad dinners draw diverse crowds

From its beginning a few years ago as a weekly gathering of two rabbinical students and two sophomores for Friday night dinners at unit 3M in the Taft apartment building, the Shabbat dinner hosted by the group “Chabad at Yale” has grown into a full-blown dinner party that hosts upwards of 100 students each week.

The Jewish organization, which was founded at Yale about three years ago, has multiplied fivefold from the approximately 20 students it started with this year. Now, co-founder Rabbi Shua Rosenstein and his wife, Sara, plan to expand the popular center beyond the homey dinners it has always offered to include additional educational programs, such as kosher cooking and Kabbalah classes, “poker, cigars and Torah study” sessions and programs for graduate students. The group already offers interactive Saturday morning services and Hebrew lessons.

Jewish Children of Rome Get A New Preschool Facility

With a continuous presence of Jews from classical times to today, Rome’s Jewish community may well be the oldest one in the world. At approximately 13,000, its numbers constitute less than 0.4 percent of Rome’s total population of three million. Nevertheless, the Jews of Italy’s capital city make up a distinguished and highly visible segment of the population.

Chabad @ Super Bowl XL

First-ever stadium-adjacent Jewish fan outpost to serve Ford Field crowds during the Motown Winter Blast and Super Bowl XL

WEST BLOOMFIELD — They are everywhere. One of the oldest contemporary Jewish quips is that two things can be found worldwide, Coke and Chabad. Even at this years Super Bowl? You bet!

The Shul of West Bloomfield, a popular Detroit Chabad synagogue noted for its diversity and unique programming, has secured a prime storefront location a stone’s throw from Ford Field. Located at 1515 Woodward Ave. at the center of the Winter Blast between Clifford and Park, Chabad at Super Bowl XL, sponsored by Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan, will serve visitors with food for body and soul.

“We’ll be asking men to put on Tefillin, and giving out Shabbat candles to woman along with brochures, in addition to selling kosher food and snacks, and a Judaic gift shop” smiles Rabbi Yudi Mann, a rabbi of The Shul.

Mourners flood Jerusalem for funeral of Jewish mystical rabbi

Almost a quarter of a million mourners from Israel and around the world have taken part in the funeral in Jerusalem of Kabbalist rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri who died at the age of 106, police said.

The crowd, ferried in by hundreds of buses, gathered near the rabbi’s home in the ultra-Orthodox Bukhara area before being escorted by 1,000 police to his final resting place in the Grand Cemetery at the western entrance to the Holy City.

More pictures in the Extended Article.

Rabbis go ‘RARA’: Jewish re-connect heritage

Two young rabbis, Yosef Muchnik from New York and Eli Gescheit from Sydney, will be in Goulburn this week to make contact with Jewish men women and children living in the district.

The two rabbis volunteered for the five-week tour of inland and coastal NSW to make contact and share their faith during a break in their studies.

The outreach program has come from a tour more than 30 years ago when three young rabbis drove around Australia in a ‘Mitzvah Tank’- caravan, finding Jewish people and reconnecting them with their heritage.

This trip laid the foundation and in July 2000, Chabad of RARA – (Rural and Regional Australia), was established as a non-profit organisation to care for the spiritual and general needs of Jewish men, women, and children outside the main cities.