Berkeley Chabad House Wins Over Students With Welcoming Warmth

BERKELEY, CA — Friday night: A time for family, a time for unity, a time for food, a time for 50 people to cram into a one-bedroom apartment … at least for Rabbi Gil and Bracha Sara Leeds of the Chabad Jewish Student Center at the University of California at Berkeley.

Chabad to Bring Chanukah Light to Recovering Substance Abusers

READING, PA — When Jewish substance abusers in recovery receive permission to light up, it’s usually a cigarette – one of the few vices allowed in treatment centers – they think of.

Women’s Only Shabbat a Source of Community for Students

NASHVILLE, TN — When Nechama Rothstein arrived as a new Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Nashville, Tenn., last week, her husband, Rabbi Shlomo Rothstein, soon left for New York to attend the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries. In typical fashion, she saw his absence for the first Shabbat as an opportunity to reach out to local college students: Instead of preparing for a quiet family affair with her 10-month-old Mendel, she had another idea.

World’s Largest Dreidel at Chabad of Somerset County

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The largest Hanukkah dreidel in the world stands 18-feet tall in front of the Chabad Jewish Center in Basking Ridge, generating stares and smiles from passers-by.

The dreidel has become a local landmark during the holiday season, rising over the busy intersection of Valley Road and King George Road.

Mountain Region Chabad House Symbol of Exurbs’ Growth Nationwide

STROUDSBURG, PA — For at least the past decade, demographers across the nation have been chronicling a new form of suburban flight: the booming relocation of city-dwellers and suburbanites to the exurbs, the furthest extremes of the population bands surrounding major metropolises.

Chabad Conference Initiatives: Jewish Adult Education Goes Online

BROOKLYN, NY — If online MBA programs and YouTube got together and had a smart Jewish baby, i would probably bear a striking resemblance to Chabad-Lubavitch’s newbor distance learning venture.

Three-Year-Old Lights Up Ancient Tradition

MONROE TOWNSHIP, NJ — Three-year-olds usually take small steps, but on her third birthday Matti Zaklikovsky — together with her family and the Monroe Jewish community — took a giant leap forward for Jewish continuity.

Chabad Jewish Center Gaining Strength

MOUNT OLIVE TWP, NJ – With interest growing and a core group returning, the Chabad Jewish Center in Flanders is establishing a strong foundation for its future.

Chabad House for Seniors Taps Into Often Overlooked Resource

MONROE TOWNSHIP NJ — When most people hear of a Chabad House, images of college students, young professional couples with kids or even backpackers traipsing through the mountains of Asia or South American flit through their minds. Senior citizens usually do not appear in such split-second conceptions.

KINUS: Smile On Seniors (SOS) New Initiative at Conference

BROOKLYN, NY — The following is one of the many new initiatives to be launched at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim which begins tonight, at Lubavitch Headquarters in NY.

As an outreach activity, visiting seniors is even older than the people it serves But Chabad’s new “Smile On Seniors” approach to bonding with the elderly is spry young program, getting ready for it’s breakout moment at the Internationa Shluchim Convention.

Chabad of the Beaches Expands

PONTE VEDEA BEACH, FL — Chabad of the Beaches is proud to announce that we have purchased the home adjacent to Chabad. The home will serve as a residence for the Kurinsky family. This much anticipated purchase will allow for Chabad to make full use of our current Chabad House. The new Chabad center is sponsored by Mr. Michael and Fiona Scharf.

Parks Panel Allows Menorah

KENOSHA, WI — A menorah can be displayed in a city park under newly created standards.

The city’s Board of Park Commissioners established a new set of polices for placing religious symbols in Civic Center and Veterans Memorial parks on Monday.

Children from 4 Cities Benefit from Jewish Aid Project headed by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — A new humanitarian project organized by the Synagogue in Rostov-on-Don has resulted in the distribution of food aid to more than 400 children from the southern Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Novocherkassk and Cherkassk.

Israeli Children Immerse Themselves in Their First Torah Lessons

RISHON LEZION, Israel — In what has become a tradition, Israeli second graders again began their year of learning the book of Genesis by attending a program run by the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization. Called Chagigat HaChumash, or Torah festival, the now 25-year-old program will welcome over the course of a month some 20,000 seven-year-olds from across the country at Chabad centers and in the village of Kfar Chabad.

Yeshiva Founder Honored

WORCESTER, MA — Rabbi Hershel Fogelman and his wife, Rochele, who improbably began an Orthodox Jewish school here 65 years ago that has grown into a Hasidic education center for New England, were honored last night by several hundred school alumni, family and friends with a dinner and memories at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

“We are their miracle,” said Rabbi Martin Schloss, director of the division of school services for the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York and an alumnus of the school. “Look at this room. Graduates of the Yeshiva make a difference in the world.”

Liberty Torah Dedicated in Oxnard Handwritten Scroll Honors US Military

OXNARD, CA — A Jewish scribe, using a feather quill, wrote the final words in a torah Sunday, fulfilling a mother’s dream.

The Liberty Torah, handwritten in tiny letters on a scroll, honors members of the U.S. military, present and past.