It’s one thing to feel holiness when you enter a synagogue on Shabbat or a holy day. You go in expecting holiness. You expect that the rabbi’s sermon will inspire you; that you will have a spiritual experience and connect with God.
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Sara Slavin saw a real need in Mississauga for a Jewish summer day camp. The city’s Jewish population isn’t huge but the closest summer camps for Jewish children are in Hamilton and Toronto.
Believe it or not, at one time, Rabbi Daniel Bortz, a 20-something, energetic, newly ordained Chabad rabbi, wasn’t so Jewishly observant.
At a Friday night dinner in a New York City apartment in mid-July, young professionals celebrated Shabbat around long tables with familiar faces they hadn’t seen since college, and a lively routine led by Chabad campus representatives Rabbi Peretz and Chanie Chein, harking back to the popular campus Shabbat dinners at Brandeis University.
Rabbi Avremy and Chaya Raskin recently returned to Vermont to change lives. They moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Brattleboro – a town tucked away in the southeast corner of the state two hours from where the rabbi grew up – to open up a Chabad-Lubavitch center serving a diverse and liberal community of families and seasonal residents who appreciate locally-grown produce and locally-owned shops half an hour from a popular ski resort.
Adam Douglas, 20, was at his brother Kurtiss’ house in Reno, Nev., on a Saturday morning when the brother came jogging back from synagogue to get him for prayer services.
Leaders of Jewish Organizations in the European Union gathered for their annual meeting. The meetings, which are spread over two full days, are used as an opportunity to discuss issues pertinent to the Jewish Organizations.
The temple and Jewish school at Chabad of Boca Raton were saved from foreclosure by a mysterious company that bought its loan from Wells Fargo.
After spending much time learning about the ins and outs of Shabbos, campers attending Camp Gan Israel of Simcha Monica were treated to a grand Shabbaton. For some campers, it was their first “real” shabbos!
On the 19th of Kislev in 1798, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, a Hasidic leader, was released from prison in St Petersburg. He had been arrested on charges of treason, laid by Jews who opposed the nascent movement of Hasidism (a mystical variety of Orthodox Judaism) as a heresy. In Phnom Penh on the 19th of Kislev last year, a dozen Jews celebrated the 214th “Festival of Redemption” at the home of Rabbi Bentzion and Mashie Butman, the shluchim (emissaries) of Chabad in Cambodia.
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With our awareness of golus ever heightened during the Three Weeks, two organizations are working to bring light to this dark time with a new emphasis on an often-overlooked mivtza. Following the Rebbe’s directives to have weekly mesibas Shabbos gatherings, Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch’s Suite 302 and Tzivos Hashem launched CKids Shabbos and yom tov programming earlier this week.
The Bowery still has a few surprises left. Just when you thought you’d seen the last incredible new thing on old Skid Row — luxury condominiums, fancy hotels, trendy restaurants and precious boutiques — comes something the Bowery has never had: a synagogue.
Rabbi Bentzion Butman got a royal welcome earlier this month when Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni invited the director of the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Phnom Penh to a ceremony in celebration of the Asian country’s version of Arbor Day.
After moving between several temporary locations in Westport in recent years, the Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch of Westport appears to have found a home that is just right.
The Jewish community of Hamburg, Germany marked a festive occassion with the arrival of new Shluchim Rabbi and Mrs. Shmuel Havlin and their two young sons. They will be in charge of the activities of the Chabad House and kehilla after the city’s Shliach Rabbi Yissochor Shlomo Bistritzky was appointed Chief Rabbi of the city.
An organization founded in 2009 to provide financial support and specialized programming for Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries raising children with special needs inaugurated its West Coast chapter with an event at the Cheder Menachem day school in Los Angeles.
More than 50 Jewish women along with 70 children participated in a unique summer camp in Zhitomir, Western Ukraine. The attendees were needy single parents and their children from 24 remote villages in the region.
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