Just over a week after a New York State Education Department spokesman defended its decision to include content that some felt cast Israeli soldiers in a negative light on a recent statewide test, the agency has backpedaled and apologized for the political cartoon.
This week, in honor of Tu B’Shvat, we present a letter from the Rebbe on the significance of the New Year for Trees and its connection to Yud Shvat and Bosi L’gani. The letter, written originally in English, is from the archives of the Rebbe’s personal trusted secretary, Rabbi Nissan Mindel.
Rabbi Shmuel Lesches, Maggid Shiur in Yeshiva Gedola of Melbourne, Australia, has compiled a guide to the laws and customs of Tu B’Shvat for the benefit of the wider Lubavitch community.
Mothers and Fathers Aligned Saving Kids (MASK), an organization dedicated to helping families struggling with all mental health issues – including alcohol and drugs, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this Sunday in Brooklyn, which will be attended by New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray.
Who hasn’t experienced bullying in one form or another—as a kid on the playground, an adult at work and even among family, right at home? With a national spotlight focused on bullying—mostly in school environments but in other places as well—events at Chabad centers around the country have given people of all ages some tools to address the issue in their lives.
Leibel and Esti Baumgarten (Crown Heights)
After an unusually warm day yesterday where temperatures reached a spring link 60 degrees, New Yorkers awoke to a city covered in snow. As the day progressed some 12 inches of snow fell, grounding many flights, cancelling schools and wrecking havoc on the roads.
Such cooperation could happen only in Russia: At a food expo currently taking place in Moscow, Muslim businessmen are marketing products certified as Halal, for which they are relying entirely on the kosher certification of RK, headed by Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.
In the first maamar of the Rebbe, Bosi Lgani 5711, the Rebbe cites examples of how each of the Rebbeim occupied themselves in Ahavas Yisroel. In Beth Rivkah Montreal, the students practiced Ahavas Yisroel on Yud Shvat by visiting senior-citizens residences, and directing special programs for young children. This also fulfills the Rebbe’s directive to utilize Yud Shvat to reach out to other Yidden.
Rabbi Chaim Herzog , Director of Chabad in Melbourne’s Central Business District, greets Rabbi Marvin Hier, who last month became the first ever Orthodox rabbi to give a benediction at an American president’s inauguration.
Alternate Side Parking (street cleaning) regulations will be suspended Friday, February 10, and Saturday, February 11, due to snow operations. All other regulations, including parking meters, remain in effect.
John F. Kennedy International Airport implemented a full ground stop on all flights this morning, as a powerful, fast-moving storm sweeps into the Northeast with the potential for more than a foot of snow.
Mrs. Riva Cohen and her husband, Rabbi Binyomin Cohen, have served as Chabad emissaries in Melbourne, Australia, since 1974. Mrs. Cohen presently teaches at the Adass Israel Girls School and is the coordinator of religious instruction for the United Jewish Education Board in Melbourne, where she was interviewed by JEM’s My Encounter with the Rebbe project in July of 2016.
As the sun set on Friday night, January 20, mothers, fathers, and children throughout the world joined together for an unforgettable celebration of family, unity, and shabbos.
Yitzchock and Chana (nee Blachman) Shimshoni (Crown Heights)
Noach and Devorah Leah (nee Lubin) Evers (London, England)
Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida, delivers his insights on this week’s Parsha – Beshalach. This week Rabbi Minkowicz answers the question: How can we become strong?
