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.
Mendel (ben R’ Binyomin) Wolf (Crown Heights) and Toby Wilansky (Montreal, Canada)
“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.
As expected, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reelected on Sunday to a fourth term in office in her country’s federal election, but many Jewish observers received the results with concern, due to the strong showing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
A very large crowd of Bochurim, who are in Crown Heights as guests for the month of Tishrei, were welcomed in a special Bruchim Haboim ceremony on Sunday evening.
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.
Guests spending time in Crown Heights for the month of Tishrei have not been taking a break from learning, with a detailed daily schedule arranged by the Vaad Talmidei Hatmimim, Bochurim have been sitting and learning in 770 and in study halls around the neighborhood.
Avi (ben Levi) Baumgarten (Crown Heights) and Raizel (bas Moshe) Katzman (Crown Heights)
This week’s edition of MyLife: Chassidus Applied with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Episode 181, will air tonight, Sunday, here on CrownHeights.info, beginning at 8:00pm. This week Rabbi Jacobson will address the topics: Do I Have to Forgive Someone Who Shows No Remorse? What is Healthy Fear of G-d? Is There Such a Thing as Modern Chabad? Why Don’t We Daven the Way Chassidus Expects of Us?
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.
Prior to Rosh Hashana, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJC), headed by Rabbi Berel Lazar, hosted an interfaith congress of religious leaders in Moscow’s Jewish community center, the Marina Roscha Chabad Synagogue.
Choni and Rivka (nee Kastel) Botnick (Sydney, Australia)
After spending an uplifting Rosh Hashana in 770, thousands heard Havdalah in the Rebbes Shul following a Maariv and a video of the Rebbe.
In honor of the 53rd yahrzeit of the Rebbe’s mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, of blessed memory, Kehot Publication Society is pleased to release a never before published letter by the Frierdike Rebbe to Rebbetzin Chana.
Thousands of Tishrei Guests will be spending the month of Tishrei in Crown Heights, seeing to the needs of the many Bochurim, Vaad Talmidei Hatmimim – with the help of many local landlords and philanthropists, provided respectful accommodations to the guests.
