The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased for the first time since 2004, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit.
As Jewish music legend Mordechai Ben David retires from his long and illustrious career, the ‘King of Jewish Music’ released his very last album titled ‘Kisufim’ (Yearning). The album contains 14 songs, 3 of which are Chabad niggunim: Track 6 – A Song of the Talmidim of the Tzemach Tzedek, Track 7 – An’im Zmiros, and Track 8 – Niggun Rikud.
It’s a brisk fall evening on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a thoroughfare lined with kosher bakeries and restaurants. Tough it is almost midnight, many stores are still open and several blocks have been cordoned off by the police. I am in a crowd of hundreds of women angling for a glimpse of the revelers before us: A sea of men in black and white, most wearing wide-brimmed hats, spinning, beads of sweat dripping from their beards as they match the frenetic pace of the music pumping from a stage in the street. I can’t help but cheer a little. The joy is infectious.
Was Vladimir Putin’s carefully choreographed plan to return to Russia’s presidency in 2012 a big blow to democracy or a victory for stability?
Each week, about 200,000 people around the world sit down to watch the “Living Torah,” a 15 to 20 minute video magazine program built around the teachings and impact of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. Organized to showcase encounters with the Rebbe and his teachings, the unique program draws on archives and the recollections of individuals scattered across the globe to give viewers – many of whom never personally met the Rebbe – a glimpse into the Jewish leader’s scholarship, his deep personal care of human beings from all walks of life, and the revolution in Jewish life he spearheaded.
For the first time in 70 years, a synagogue was opened in Chernovtsy. The Sadovsky Street Synagogue that had been closed by the Soviet Regime, was renovated and reopened in time for the High Holidays.
As the holidays bear down on this city, the war on faith has arrived early. The latest chapter in the religious wars takes place in TriBeCa. Community leaders there went positively postal over a request to the Parks Department by the Jewish group Chabad — to erect a sukkah in tiny Duane Park.
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