Daily Archives: February 24, 2006

Finding God Under the Stars

The San Bernardino Mountains play home to West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch’s new Camp Gan Israel Running Springs.

The fog/smog lies heavy over the San Bernardino mountain range, but with a little imagination, it’s still possible to make out Los Angeles — and Catalina — in the distance. Likewise, at an elevation of more than 6,000 feet in Running Springs, it’s possible to envision the great promise of Camp Gan Israel, Chabad’s new sleep-away camp and retreat center, even though the site is still undergoing heavy remodeling.

The synagogue, a former classroom, has been gutted, stained and stripped; nails line the floors ready to fasten down carpeting; a basic square wooden stage faces east toward Jerusalem, ready to hold an arc, its Torah scrolls and serve as the bimah for services three times a day. The gargantuan soccer field lies barren in the wind, bereft of green in the middle of this mild mountain winter. A pool sits covered, laden with puddles.

But come summer — and even to some extent the upcoming weekend — the site will be ready for visitors.

Chabad Of Alpharetta To Expand Camp Facilities Thanks To A Quarter Million Dollar Grant

Chabad of Alpharetta, GA, is adding yet another mainstay to its existing suite of facilities: An aquatic and sports center.

The multifaceted center will be constructed at Chabad’s campus on Jones Bridge Road in Alpharetta. The facilities will include an outdoor swimming pool, a spray pad, and a combo sports field accommodating baseball, football, soccer and other ball sports. The $500,000 project is geared for primary usage by Chabad’s well-attended summer day camp, which attracted 198 campers k”ah in its 7th season last July.

The half-million initiative has received an anonymous $250,000 matching-funds grant, endowed by three anonymous friends of Chabad. The gift was named “The Gimmel Gift” after the Hebrew letter Gimmel which equals three.

Burial in Jewish cemetery is available for unaffiliated Jews

Jews who are not affiliated with a congregation that has a Jewish cemetery can still be buried in a Jewish cemetery in Portland, according to Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm, head of Chabad of Oregon.

Wilhelm said he occasionally gets calls from people wanting information about some aspect of Jewish burial or mourning process and he said it dismays him that some people do not realize there is a local option for Jewish burial even if they are unaffiliated.

Last fall, Chabad of Oregon dedicated a section of Riverview Cemetery as a Jewish burial ground. The Chabad section, which is open to any Jew, is adjacent to a section designated Jewish by Congregation Shir Tikvah and P’nai Or last spring.

A Wider Inquiry, as More People Get Antibiotics and 2nd Apartment Is to Be Checked

The authorities widened their investigation into possible anthrax contamination yesterday to include an apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and medical officials were giving antibiotics to seven people who could have been exposed to the spores.

An eight-member team from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including two epidemiologists, along with F.B.I. agents, took samples yesterday from the Manhattan apartment of the man who had contracted anthrax, the Brooklyn warehouse where he used animal skins to make drums for his African dance troupe and a Dodge van that he is believed to have used to transport the skins, which are a suspected source of the bacteria. The results of the laboratory tests might not be available for several days, officials said.

The anthrax patient, Vado Diomande, 44, has been hospitalized in Pennsylvania since he collapsed after an African dance performance at Mansfield University on Feb. 16. He was in stable condition yesterday at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa. Officials believe he inhaled the anthrax while working with untreated animal hides brought over from Africa.

Caring for Desolate Souls

Books filled to the brim with names of people fill the home of a Lubavitch Chossid, Rabbi Yosef Shugerman, OBM. The names in the books are those of the thousands desolate people who passed away with no family members to recite Kaddish after their passing. For these, Rabbi Shugerman created the ‘Mes Mitzvah’ Gemach, and Rabbi Shugerman used to see to it that these lonely souls would have people to say Kaddish after them.

Rabbi Yosef Shugerman of Petach Tikvah returned to his Jewish roots 20 years ago, and at the time he married his wife Yocheved. About sixteen years ago, he was introduced to Chabad and wholeheartedly embraced its way of life.