In what is being called the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, a gunman with multiple weapons at his disposal, stationed in a high-floor room at a Las Vegas hotel, rained a rapid-fire hail of bullets on outdoor music-concert-goers Sunday night, sowing death and pandemonium. Rabbi Mendy Harlig, a chaplain with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said it has been a long and harrowing night for law enforcement.
For the first time ever, passengers at JFK Airport this Chol Hamoed will be able to take advantage of a sukkah on the way to their flights.
During a mid-winter night in 2006, shortly after Rabbi Yisroel and Shayna Freeman moved to Sudbury, Mass., to open a Chabad center, the rabbi woke, chilled to the bone. In the morning, he discovered he’d left their front door wide open.
Chartered planes filled with food, water, medical items and cleaning supplies have come to Puerto Rico, organized by Chabad-Lubavitch representatives and headed for Chabad of Puerto Rico, co-directed by Rabbi Mendel and Rachel Zarchi. A slew of volunteers are working to meet the basic demands of residents in San Juan and other parts of the island, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Friendship Circle of Los Angeles, a Chabad-Lubavitch-affiliated organization that provides support to more than 300 Jewish children and adults with developmental disabilities and special needs each year, as well as their families, has been awarded a $250,000 grant by The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles.
The explosion of a hot water boiler in the mikvah of the Chabad House in Bulgaria has left the site unusable. The powerful blast rocked the Chabad House, according to Shliach Rabbi Yossi Solomon, who explains that almost the entire Beis Chabad was destroyed as a result of the explosion.
Rabbi Shalom Greenberg has celebrated Sukkot in Shanghai every year since 1998, but this year’s the first that he’s been able to legally import the traditional arbaah minim—four species—into Mainland China.
The Jewish community of Veliky Novgorod, Russia, welcomed a new children’s center earlier this month, which became home to the city’s first Jewish kindergarten. The center, called “Aleph”, will also provide a spacious, clean and secure environment for other youth activities and become, what the organizers hope, a “second home” for the city’s youngsters.
As Hurricane Irma bore down on South Florida last weekend, Rabbi Pinny Backman was making arrangements. Backman, who directs Chabad at the University of South Florida with his wife Chava, had more than just his family to worry about; as a community leader, he wanted to ensure the safety of community members as well.
“A child, a youngster, should know why certain things are good and why certain things are evil,” Rabbi Mendel Dubov of Chabad of Sussex County said at a rally after antisemitic graffiti was found on a local diner, then noted that the current political climate has put pressure “on our being, our identity.”
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, met with the Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar on the eve of Rosh Hashana. In what has already become a yearly tradition, he sent special greetings to the Jews of the country.
The newly-inaugurated mikvah in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic looks like any other Jewish ritual bath. Bricks of Jerusalem stone line the walls, the water is blue and clear, and the decor features light pastels. But as you can learn from the plaques on the wall, this mikvah, a first for the island, has been seventy-seven years in the making.
In two letters to his friends and supporters, the Shliach to the island of Puerto Rico, Rabbi Mendel Zarchi, reveals the challenges he, his family and his community faced spending Rosh Hashana as a catagory 5 hurricane Maria bore down on them, as well as the humanitarian effots they spearheaded once it had passed, leaving devastation in its wake.
The Chabad Centre for Jewish Life and Learning on Vancouver Island, co-directed by Rabbi Meir and Chani Kaplan, celebrated the second season of holidays in a state-of-the-art new building, complete with a brand-new mikvah.
Rabbi Chaim Lazer Hershkovich is the co-director, along with his wife Rivky, of community outreach at Chabad and F.R.E.E. of Niles, a suburb of Chicago. Yesterday, his car broke down, and he was forced to call a cab. What happened next was a truly-amazing story of Hashgacha Protis.
Chabad of South Broward hosted their 36th Annual Dinner this past Motzai Shabbos, with dinner proceeds benefiting those still affected by Hurricane Harvey, which has left 10,000’s still without power. Following the dinner the congregation recited the customary Slichos at 1:15am.
Faced with the indescribable destruction of Hurricane Irma, a Chabad shliach to the Caribbean has refused to evacuate to a more stable location, remaining behind to help with the rescue efforts on the devastated island.
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