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Weekly Letter: The Deeper Meaning of Shalach Manos

This week, we present a letter from the Rebbe written shortly after Purim in 1951 (a little over a month after he accepted the Nesius), in which he thanks a group of students for the Shalch Manos they sent him. The letter, written originally in English, is from the archives of the Rebbe’s personal trusted secretary, Rabbi Nissan Mindel.

WSJ: Rabbi Brings Kosher to Stalin’s ‘Siberian Zion’

There’s only one place in the world where Yiddish is an official language, and that’s the Jewish Autonomous Region in the far reaches of Siberia, Russia. Established by Stalin in the late 1920s, the region was presented as the Communist answer to the Jewish Question. But in the region’s capital of Birobidzhan, The Wall Street Journal reports, the top concern of its 3,000 Jews is kosher food.

Teens Thank Crown Heights for Life-Changing Shabbaton

“Just when you think that CTeen can’t get any better, they pull this off,” shared Ben Bursk with a smile. The teen president from Manchester England was referring to the 9th annual International Shabbaton, organized by the Chabad Teen Network. CTeen, the fastest growing and most diverse Jewish youth organization in the world, hosted a four day event in New York, which drew in a record breaking twenty-three hundred people.

Picture of the Day: Five Towns, NY

A Chabad of Five Towns’ 22nd Anniversary Gala Dinner, New York State Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach, second from left) presents a proclamation to founder and director Rabbi Zalman Wolowik (center) and to Chabad’s honorees for all their volunteer work on behalf of the community.

5 Things to Tell Your Kids About the JCC Bomb Threats

For more than a month, dozens of bomb threats have been called into JCCs and other Jewish institutions around the country. We’ve witnessed the overturning of tombstones in Jewish cemeteries along with other anti-Semitic acts and threats. It’s always good for parents and their kids to sit down for a discussion of the events of the day; so renowned author and educator Rabbi Tzvi Freeman compiled a list of five points to cover.