Rabbinical students visit Nyack on educational journey

Nyack, NY — Two rabbinical students have been in the Nyack area for the past two weeks as part of the global Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which aims to educate and unite Jews in all communities.

Chabad House Takes Yeshiva On The Road

Toledo, OH — School may be out for the summer, but not at Toledo’s Chabad House-Lubavitch.

The Jewish outreach center is offering free classes on Jewish studies taught by six students from yeshivas, or Jewish educational institutions, around the country.

Chabad rabbis hit the road to visit Jewish prisoners in Midwest

Leavenworth, KS — Unfortunately, the largest group of Jewish prisoners two young Lubavitch rabbis will have seen on their summer swing through the Midwest was expected Tuesday at the Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas.

Spreading the word

Rawlins, WY — It’s a long way from Crown Heights in Brooklyn to the dusty, antelope-dotted hills of Rawlins, yet Shmuly Feldman and his companion, Shmuel Bendet note that at its core, their mission is the same — to spread the word of Judaism to those rooted in the faith, no matter where they are.

The Rawlins Daily Times in its July 24 edition reported the presence of the two rabbis, who stopped by south-central Wyoming to impart the importance of their faith.

The duo visited the Wyoming State Penitentiary to visit incarcerated Jews.

Bringing the light to the darkest of places, across 50 states

Minneapolis, MN — Last week, they were in Iowa and South Dakota. Next week, they’ll be in Texas and Kansas.

And this week, Rabbis Moishe Raksin and Shneur Pruss are in Minnesota traveling to prisons as part of the group’s quest to visit every Jewish prisoner in the United States this summer.

The two rabbis, along with two dozen other volunteers with the nonprofit Aleph Institute, will visit 450 prisons to advise, console or listen to an estimated 5,000 Jewish inmates in state and federal prisons.

Foundational Chassidic Text Published In Fiji

Suva, Fiji — A pair of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students printed what is suspected to be the first Hebrew book to ever be published in the republic of Fiji.

The two students came to the island nation to reach out to its tiny Jewish community as part of Chabad’s summer peace corps-like program.

Merkos Shluchim ‘Revive Jewish sparks’

St. Louis, MO — Just as many students took John F. Kennedy’s challenge to serve their country by assisting people from developing countries in the Peace Corps, two Jewish student rabbis were on a similar mission in St. Charles for the Jewish Peace Corps.

Mordy Dinerman and Baruch Davidson, both 23, are rabbinic interns from New York who have been helping rekindle Jewish connections in the St. Charles area for the past two-and-a-half weeks.

The two students are part of a summer visitation program with the Jewish Peace Corps and Chabad of Greater St. Louis.

Rabbinical Students Visit Jails, Bringing A Message

Hagerstown, MD — As Avraham Levin and Schneur Yecheilov stepped out their rental car in the parking lot of the Roxbury Correctional Institution last Friday morning, suitcases, garment bags — and boxes of food — bulged from the back seats.

Jewish Sparks in the Land of Stone

Each summer the educational arm of the Lubavitch movement, Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, sends pairs of rabbinic students to small Jewish communities around the globe under its Rabbinical Student Visitation Program, which has become colloquially known as the “Jewish Summer Peace Corp.”

New York Chabadniks tour Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan, Canada — Two rabbinical students from New York’s Chabad Lubavitch movement are in Saskatchewan to meet Jews across the province.

“The main purpose is to electrify Judaism a little, bring in a fresh burst,” Shmuli Raitman, 22, who is originally from Melbourne, Australia, said in a phone interview.

“The Jewish population of Regina is like [the population of] one building on the Upper West Side [of Manhattan],” said his travel mate, Rabbi Yisrael Kugel, 23, who is from New York.

Jewish Students Visiting Local Jewish Community

Grand Bahama Island — The Jewish community of Grand Bahama received a visit from two of their brothers from New York this week. The two are part of a rabbinical group, Merkos Linyonei Chinuch, based in Brooklyn and are students of the Chabas Lubavitch Rabbinical Institute.

About 170 students of that school use their summer break to visit remote parts of the world to interact with the few local Jews who may live there and share with them some learning. Students are currently in China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

Mendel Kalmenson and Chaim Zaklos arrived in Grand Bahama on Sunday and will stay until Thursday. They will then go on to visit the Turks and Caicos, New Providence and Bermuda.

Students on Mission to Jews in Sask

Saskatchewan, Canada — When Shmuli Raitman and Yisrael Kugel found out they were being sent to Saskatchewan for the summer, they didn’t have any idea what to expect.

“I had to figure out how to spell it in order to Google it to find out what it was,” said Kugel, who hails from Manhattan.

Rabbinical Students hit the Road to Visit Jews Across Montana

Missoula, MT — Yankie Shemtov took a deep breath as he stood at the edge of Caras Park earlier this week.

He looked at his traveling partner, Ephraim Zimmerman, psyched himself up a bit and said, “Here goes, we’re going in.”