The Jewish community of Irkutsk, a city in the Russian far north of Siberia, has recently relived an exhilaration like no other: the ancient parochet, the decorative cover for the alcove containing Torah scrolls in the city synagogue, that mysteriously disappeared over a hundred years ago, was returned home through courageous efforts of its rabbi and with the help of no one other than the city mayor himself.
The first crisis the young Chabad rabbi encountered when he arrived at the University of Pennsylvania was a suicide. The victim was the son of a faculty member and Rabbi Menachem Schmidt, the campus’ new Chabad representative, was called in to help the grieving family. Following that tragedy, Schmidt founded a crisis intervention line for students in distress and opened the doors of Lubavitch House at Penn as a safe haven for everyone.
The NYPD says they will work this week to make bicyclists safer by focusing on dangerous violations in bike lanes, with a crackdown in all 77 precincts on drivers who do not play by the rules. The crackdown began today, Monday, and will continue until the end of the week.
The New York City Health Department is investigating an outbreak of varicella (chickenpox) in the Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. To date, there have been 75 reports of persons with varicella who became ill during or after March 2016. The median age of patients is 3 years (range 0 to 10 years); 72% were not vaccinated against varicella, and 14% had not yet received the recommended number of doses.
In response to public chatter that he might support the idea of Crown Heights Eruv – if done properly, based on a letter he wrote in which he said that any Eruv built in Crown Heights would have to conform to strict Halachic standards, Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba has come out with a new letter today clarifying his position – that he is unequivocally opposed to an Eruv being erected in Crown Heights, and that there is no possible way to do so in accordance with Halacha.
The annual Chidon haTanach, a worldwide teenage competition on knowledge of the 24 books of the Tanach, took place in Israel on its Independence Day, last Thursday. 16 youngsters from 9 countries participated in the final round, one of them Michal Shpilvitz from Belarus, a student of Chabad’s Or Avner schools, which are under the auspices of the Federation of Jewish Communities (FJC).
Following the tragic passing of Shliach Rabbi Moshe Muller, OBM, and another local member of Anash, Rabbi Mendel Gorman, OBM, a wave of sadness and mourning has filled the Lubavitch community of London. Seeking to break through this sorrow and bring light to the subject, Rabbi Levi Sudak of Edgeware, may he live and be well, wrote the following open letter to his fellow Shluchim and Anash in London – and around the world as well.
After recent lull in such attacks, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed an Israeli man in Jerusalem.
Is the secret to fulfilling relationships and powerful intimacy found in a 4,000 year-old tradition? Join an unforgettable lecture by Rabbi Yossi Jacobson on how to remain sane and spirited through the roller-coaster of married life, courtesy of Torah Cafe.
Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Horowitz, renowned Posek and author of bestselling works on Halacha Shevach Yakar and Shevach Hamoadim, delivers a Shiur to the Talmidim Hashluchim in the Chabad Yeshiva of Sydney, Australia, while visiting the city.
Lubavitcher Yeshiva of Ocean Parkway’s 13th Annual Chinese Auction took place Sunday in the Beis Rivkah Ballroom in Crown Heights. Hundreds of friends and supporters turned out throughout the day, enjoying a sumptuous hot buffet and Viennese table, all while supporting the Yeshiva. Winners list added!
Shluchim from across California gathered last Monday evening at Chabad West Coast Headquarters in Los Angeles, California for their annual Farbrengen in honor of Bais Iyar.
This week’s edition of MyLife: Chassidus Applied with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Episode 115, will air tonight, Sunday, here on CrownHeights.info, beginning at 8:00pm. This week Rabbi Jacobson will address the topics: What do we learn from R’ Yisroel Aryeh Leib, the Rebbe’s brother? How Can I Stop My Past From Creeping into My Present? Can a Perfect Life Be Meaningful? How to Respond to Missionaries?
An Associated Press editorial says that the burning of a Jewish school bus by African-American children evokes the tensions that prevailed in Crown Heights during the infamous riots that plagued the community in the summer of 1991.
When participants from 11 Israeli high school robotics teams discovered that they would be competing in St. Louis smack dab in the middle of Passover, they had a feeling that Chabad would be able to help.
One day after four more juveniles were arrested for setting fire to a school bus parked in front of a Crown Heights Jewish girls’ school, the NYPD has dropped hate crime charges against all of the young arsonists.
Five years after he founded Jewish Community Watch (JCW), an organization dedicated to rooting out child abuse in Orthodox-Jewish communities, Meyer Seewald is saying goodbye.
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