Hate Letter Found Laced With Unknown Substance

No Injuries Reported

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A hate letter laced with a unknown substance set off an emergency situation at a Jewish community center.

The incident began at about 3:30 p.m. at the Schottenstein Chabad House. According to Columbus fire officials, someone at the house opened the letter, releasing a white powder.

Decontamination units were called, but the person did not appear to have any adverse reaction to the powder. The chief at the scene said the letter contained hate messages. They are conducting tests on the powder.

Important Message to those who are learning Smicha in 770

On Thursday Yud Alef Shvat [February 9th] will be the test by R. Yitzchok Yehuda Yeruslavsky for those that are learning Smicha in 770, you must register in advance. For more information and registration please call (718) 968-5888.

Aventura Teens Spend Shabbat With Chabad in New York

Because of its efficacy as a teaching tool, experience-based learning is now being advocated as a strategy in classrooms from preschool through college. When twelve girls from Aventura, Florida’s Bat Mitzvah Club spent January 20-22 in the Brooklyn neighborhood surrounding Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, they got to know how the day of rest feels when the entire community is keyed into its celebration.

Bat Mitzvah Club offers a year of well-planned experiences and lessons that help girls grow into their Jewish womanhood with an understanding far deeper than that provided by frantic planning of a thematic bash. At Club meetings, members do more than holiday crafts. Through texts and guided discussion, they explore the lives of Jewish women past for meaning in the present. One group has been keeping a scrapbook and journal to dig for personal relevance from the lives of famous Jewish women. From its start in the 1990’s, Bat Mitzvah Clubs International has sprouted 270 branches from Albany and Montreal to Hong Kong and Berlin.

Shluchim’s kids ‘hookup’ for Chof Daled Teves

In honor of the Yortzeit of the Alter Rebbe, home schooled Yaldei Hashluchim around the world enjoyed playing a special ‘phone game’, designed and hosted by the Homeschool Department at The Shluchim Office. An international conference call united young Shluchim from over 40 cities.

After a short roll-call, the children learned about Chof Daled Teves and then played “Chof Daled Teves Bingo”.

The children were very enthusiastic. For most of them, it is the date they looked forward to on their calendars. It is not every day that they get this sort of ‘classroom’ experience. Parents said they were looking forward to other upcoming events. As well as being educational and fun, they feel it helps keep their children’s hiskashrus strong and gives them a sense of belonging to a larger whole. “You have no idea what chayyus you are giving our children”, said one Shliach, “thank you for organizing such a beautiful event.”

State of Terror

One can usually tell what someone thinks from their speech and their actions – and sometimes from their silence. As far as one can tell, the USA is against terrorism. What they say and their behaviors lead us to think that given the chance the USA would eradicate terror from the face of this earth.

A bi-Partisan USA is fighting terrorism in Iraq. They are fighting terror in Afghanistan. Americans are on an all-out search for bin Laden. We now know, that even before 9/11, the USA government has used sweeping powers to listen to phone conversations, read e-mail and tail people who they feel might lead to terrorist activity. Much as in the fight against communism so many years ago, the USA has sent the world a message: We are against terrorism. We will fight it. We will help all who need help to fight it.

Judge says rabbi can continue home services

An Orlando rabbi held a celebratory prayer meeting at his house Monday after winning a court battle over neighbors who complained the meetings caused traffic congestion.

The judge ruled last week that Rabbi Joseph Konikov could continue services at his home despite a county policy prohibiting such gatherings.

“My grandfather ran away from communist Russia for doing the exact same thing we were doing, praying in his home. It was chilling,” Konikov said. “But we had faith in our Constitution and in our Torah and the Bible and we know in our country we’re allowed to practice our religions freely.”

New Jewish Community Center Opens in Kazakhstan

In the past few years, more and more people have been returning to their Jewish roots in this largest city in the country with 1.2 million residents with estimated 15,000 Jews. The only existing full-fledged Jewish Community Center in the region happens to be located far from the city’s center and has already become so popular that it is running over-capacity.

It is for this reason that the Jewish community of Almaty has launched yet another institution – a Chabad Jewish Community center which rounds out a series of other Jewish institutions in this Kazakhstan city. Here, there already exists the Ohr Avner Chabad Day School and Kindergarten, a Synagogue, a dormitory for children studying at the Jewish school from outlying settlements, and offices of the local Jewish community.

Food bank helps Philly Jews

Andrew Klazmer had an important delivery to make, but he couldn’t find apartment B11. Toting a heavy box of canned goods, the 12-year-old scanned hallway after hallway, peering at faded apartment numbers in vain.

Then he spotted the mezuzah.

“Mom, it’s over here”, Klazmer called out excitedly, tapping the door.

In addition to acting as an ad-hoc navigational device, the mezuzah pointed to the bond that giver and receiver share — their Jewish identity.

The Jewish Relief Agency, a Philadelphia-based food distribution outfit organized by Chabad-Lubavitch, helps the Jewish community address the poverty in its own backyard.

Stranded in the Brutal Cold: Chabad to the Rescue

Some claim that the last time the mercury fell to 30 below zero in Russia, it was 1927; others say it’s a ten year cycle. All agree, however, that it’s brutal. News reports tell of more than thirty people who died in recent days from exposure to the arctic temperatures blanketing the country where staying warm indoors has become a challenge.

It was at about three a.m. during one of these frigid nights last week that 10 Israelis traveling along an isolated road got stuck when their car broke down. The group of two families were on a pilgrimage to the tombs of Chasidic Rebbes buried in remote, Russian backwaters.

Uzi maniac shot by cops

Tied to 3 attacks on city’s Finest

A trigger-happy cop hater – who once owned the pistol used to kill Officer Dillon Stewart – fired an Uzi machine gun at police in Brooklyn early yesterday, sparking a wild shootout that left him wounded and whimpering, authorities said.

Multiple bullets tore into Damian Henry, 25, but the bloodthirsty hoodlum somehow survived the gun battle outside a nightclub in East Flatbush, police said.

“There were lots of flashes,” Al Zirini said after watching footage of the shooting caught by his restaurant’s security camera on Utica Ave. “He was just spraying it. Who carries around an Uzi, anyway?”

David Walentas Vs. Shaya Boymelgreen: Rivals Rumble In Dumbo

CALL it extreme real estate, Brooklyn style.

Two rival developers in the fast-gentrifying Dumbo neighborhood in Brooklyn have gone to battle across the lot line of their properties. On one side is David Walentas, the tenacious visionary who helped remake Dumbo as a residential hot spot. On the other is Shaya Boymelgreen, a relative newcomer with deep pockets who has become a major player in the neighborhood in only the last few years.

The two have clashed over projects before, but now their feud has blocked condo buyers in a converted industrial building at 57 Front Street, owned by Mr. Boymelgreen, from closing on their apartments. And even if they do close soon, some of them may find something else is blocked – their views – because Mr. Walentas has vowed to erect a steel barrier in front of the windows in his rival’s building.

Chabad warns of possible impersonator

Chabad of Cobb wasn’t taking any chances after one of its members informed its administration that someone was impersonating a Chabad rabbi and going door-to-door in east Cobb neighborhoods soliciting funds for Israel.

“One of our congregants was told by a friend — who wants to remain anonymous — about what was happening,” said Rabbi Ephraim Silverman, Chabad of Cobb’s spiritual leader. “Once we learned about this incident, we wanted to quickly set the record straight,”