A First Dance for the New Year: Jewish Students Bond With the Torah

Minutes to midnight on University of Pennsylvania’s fraternity row, as the ‘Sox were on their way to trouncing the Astros in overtime, the guys at Sigma Nu got a knock at the door. It wasn’t the pizza guy. Chabad of UPenn’s Rabbi Levi Haskelevich and Rabbi Ephraim Levin offered the frat a chance to dance with the Torah in honor of the Simchat Torah holiday.

“In Chasidic philosophy, Simchat Torah propels you into the rest of the year,” said Chabad on Campus executive committee member Rabbi Menachem Schmidt. “You can give a class forever, but when someone takes a Torah and dances with it, that makes a connection that is extremely powerful.”

When Rudy Tossed Arafat

Ten years ago this week, the UN was marking its fiftieth anniversary with a series of events around New York City, including an Oct. 23 invitation-only Lincoln Center concert performed by the New York Philharmonic for a glittering list of dignitaries and diplomats. When Rudy Giuliani spotted Yasir Arafat and his entourage making their way to a private box seat near the stage that evening, the mayor immediately ordered the Palestinian leader off the premises.

The man in the street cheered the mayor’s gutsy move, but the city’s liberal elite was appalled. “The proper role of New York, as the UN’s home city,” sniffed The New York Times, “is to play gracious host to all of the 140 or so world leaders present for the organization’s gala 50th birthday celebrations.”

CIA gets new powers; Jew-haters make hay

On Oct. 26, John D. Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence, released a detailed National Intelligence Strategy for coordinating the nation’s 15 spy agencies. It calls for building up the ranks of intelligence operatives and analysts and delineates new global missions. One of the top three key missions cited is to “bolster the growth of democracy and sustain democratic states.” Reads the 20-page document: “We have learned to our peril that the lack of freedom in one state endangers the peace and freedom of others and that failed states are a refuge and breeding ground of extremism. Self-sustaining democratic states are essential to world peace and development.” The other missions outlined in the document are “defeating terrorists at home and abroad” and “preventing and countering the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

Weathering Wilma: Chabad Is On Call Again

Stuart Katz, general manager of IsraAir, never thought he’d spend an all night session on the phone with rabbis from Chabad. But that’s what happened on Thursday night as members from Lubavitch headquarters’ relief team scrambled to bring thousands of self-heating meals to Florida communities recovering from the wrath of Hurricane Wilma.

By 2 p.m. on Friday, Rabbi Shalom Wilhelm was still burning up the phone lines with Katz as IsraAir used its contacts to find precious cargo space on a flight into Fort Lauderdale. Cargo flights into the stricken area were nearly non-existent, and those flying were already packed tight with Federal relief supplies.

The Weekly Sedra – Bereshit

When the Torah was given 3318 years ago through Moses, he instituted that it be read publicly at least once a week to insure that it never be changed or forgotten (G-d forbid).

So this week marks the 3318th time that we begin reading the Torah since it was given.

The first thing we notice is that the Torah begins with how G-d created the world 5766 years ago (which can be derived by adding the generations listed later on).

Celebrating Simchat Torah, Hurricane and All

As Hurricane Wilma walloped Hallandale, Florida, the local Chabad weathered the storm without wavering from their Simchat Torah holiday plans.

Morning prayer services were postponed until noon, when Wilma was projected to be on her way out, but not canceled. The evening’s grand community dinner and plans to dance with the Torah that night were still on as well. All food had been prepared in advance of the storm, last minute purchases were made yesterday – ahead of Wilma’s winds. Chabad of Hallandale’s representative Rabbi Rephael Tennenhaus expects the dinner and dancing to draw a larger crowd than ever, especially since loss of electricity prevented most from cooking for the holiday. “The mitzvah of the holiday is to be joyous,” Rabbi Tennenhaus told Lubavitch.com via cell phone as the winds roared. “Everyone will be grateful they made it through the storm and are able to celebrate the holiday.”

Wilma Hit Hard

Power is still out out in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and will probably be that way for the next few weeks.

Click Here For The Newscast

NASA’s Coverage and Tracking of Wilma

Sukkos in Minnesota

Although the weather forecasted snow in St. Paul, Minnesota, the conditions changed due a Brocho of the Rebbe. Chief Shliach, Rabbi Moshe Feller, sent a request for a blessing to the Ohel, and as a result, not even a drop of rain hindered the event.

Despite the forecasts, over 200 arrived, most of which are not observant, and recited the Blessing over the Arba Minim and enjoyed barbecued treats in the Sukkah. The main event was for children who enjoyed a variety of amusement attractions, mini-golf, a petting zoo, horseback riding and more. The entire celebration was made possible thanks to assistance of Tmimim who had arrived to Minnesota to help the Shluchim for the holidays.

Abbas Must Act

What is the price of trying to make life easier for the Palestinians? A simple answer: murder most foul. Israel voluntarily removed roadblocks; so terrorists in a Fatah group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, put stolen Israeli license plates on a car, sped by a crowd at a hitching post, and opened fire with automatic weapons. Three young Israelis, including a 15-year-old, were killed, and four others were wounded. Now the entire Palestinian population will have to bear the burden of tighter Israeli security. To protect its citizens, Israel has to ban all private Palestinian cars from the main roads, rebuild roadblocks and barriers throughout Judea and Samaria, and end the turnover of West Bank towns (especially Bethlehem) to the Palestinian Authority.

Simchas Torah in 770

With people being “happy” and showing “happiness” across Crown Heights this will surely be a Simchas Torah to remember.

This year the Gabboim arranged a more organized (and may we add, civilized) form of kissing the Rebbe’s Sefer torah, making a special entrance from the “Farbrengen Bimah”.

Although the Yom Tov was quite short-lived (it’s much later than on a regular year) many people still found the time to get the spirit, which takes a double meaning upon itself.

Mayoral Candidates Enter Final Two-Week Stretch Run

Click here for the Newscast

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Democratic challenger Fernando Ferrer continue to press the flesh as the candidates for mayor now have just two short weeks left before Election Day.

Last week it was former President Bill Clinton, and on Monday Ferrer had another big name Democrat at his side. Ferrer held a roundtable discussion and lunch today with Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry.

Celebrating the Torah on Sukkot

A piece of New Orleans and Jewish history now rests permanently at a two-story corner home along Gravel Hill Road.

The home belongs to Rabbi Eliezer and Chanie Zaklikovsky, directors of the Chabad Jewish Center in Monroe. And the piece of history, a white Torah with golden script, traveled a long way from New Orleans to their doorstep.

Chabad members Freida and Leonard Posnock brought the Torah from Congregation Beth Israel in New Orleans, days before Hurricane Katrina destroyed the historic synagogue. The synagogue’s remaining Torahs were buried in hardened mud and ruined.

How an Outsider Told a Hasidic Story From the Inside

Over coffee one day with Shuli Rand, a friend who had given up acting for a life of prayer and study among Israel’s strictly Orthodox Hasidim, the director Gidi Dar, a secular Israeli Jew, was struck by a way to close the widening gap between them.

“What if I do a movie on your turf, with your rules, in your world?” Mr. Dar recalled asking Mr. Rand.

Click here for the video trailer

Isaiah and the prophets Rock Chabad Of Harlem

On the first day of Chol Hamoed Sukkos, Chabad of Harlem arranged an event on the CUNY College campus, and was attended by over 100 students and staff members.

The ‘Sushi in the Sukkah’ happening was held in the picturesque Beaver park in the campus and was funded by Rabbi Shaya Gansburg, Chabad House director of Harlem. The Sukkah, built with the help of Yosef Gansburg, Mendy Nagel and Yossi Margolin hosted at least 100 who said the blessing over the ‘Arba Minim’.

A large crowed gathered when the band “Isaiah and the Prophets” led by Shaya Lieberman began playing Chasidishe music with a rock twist.

Anti Semitism Closer To Home

A Bochur on his way back to Crown Heights from doing Mivtzoim in Queens, had a rock thrown at his car and a racial slur yelled at him. This disturbing even took place at the Nostrand Ave. & Fulton St. intersection.