In D.C.’s political maelstrom, Chabad man makes his mark

JTA
<%image(People/Shemtov, R. Levi - Branded.jpg|250|241|R. Levi Shemtov)%>

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Chabad´s representative in Washington, speaks at a Republican Jewish Coalition event on Sept. 21, 2005.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Chabad’s representative in Washington, bears certain similarities to the menorah whose lighting he engineers each year on the White House lawn: big, warm, and impossible to ignore.

What makes Shemtov remarkable is that in his 12 years of dealing with the world’s most powerful power brokers, few seem to consider him overbearing.

“We have nothing in common except love of Judaism and love of politics — and it’s not the same Judaism and not the same politics — but we’re still very good friends,” said Steve Rabinowitz, a former Clinton administration official and a longtime consultant to the Reform and Conservative movements.

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Jewish women find togetherness, illumination

The ladies came one by one to Sharon Mizrahi’s Cape Coral home Wednesday night. They chatted about the house and decorating, traffic and the holidays. They talked about Ohio State football with Mizrahi’s daughter, Tracey, who was home for the semester break.

Then, while the pool fountain bubbled pleasantly on the other side of the open French doors, they settled comfortably onto upholstered sofas and got down to business.

Hanukkah is a symbol, a message of the triumph of freedom over aggression, of light over darkness, said Rivky Labkowski, a petite 24-year-old.

Today, that darkness includes the “insidious erosion of time-honored values and principles that are the foundation of any decent society,” she told the members of the Jewish Women’s Circle of Chabad of Cape Coral.

Olive oil tells the story of Hanukkah

SI Live

“You guys are the Maccabees of today,” Michael Albukerk told his enthralled audience, “the ones who will keep Judaism alive.”

Albukerk and Schneer Friedman of Tzivos Hashem arrived at Temple Emanu-El on Wednesday with baskets of olives, lots of hammers and wooden pegs, test tubes, an olive press, cotton balls and a centrifuge to teach students in the synagogue’s Hebrew School a thing or two — or 100, to be more exact — about Hanukkah.

At the end, there was a quiz (a hard one!) and prizes, and everyone took home a menorah they had made themselves.

Tzivos Hashem is an organization of Chabad Lubavitch in Brooklyn that sends teams to Hebrew schools, day schools, even the occasional public school, to lead holiday-themed workshops on everything from shofars to lulavs. It was olive oil that brought them to Port Richmond this week.

Chabad Menorahs Gain Acceptance

JTA

Ten years ago, the American Jewish Congress sued the city of Beverly Hills, Calif., to block the local Chabad house from erecting a 27-foot menorah in a public park near City Hall.

Displaying the menorah — a Jewish religious symbol — on public property, the AJCongress argued, was unconstitutional.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the city, allowing Chabad to put up the large candelabra. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed the decision.