It’s been a year since my wife and I got married and chose to settle in the nice and friendly neighborhood of Crown Heights. Since then, we’ve been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, who brings much light and joy into our new home. But, one thing has changed for the worse since this wonderful gift has come into our lives: every Shabbos, my wife and I are stuck in our apartment, as if it has become our jail cell.
Out of 1,548 raffle entries two lucky winners were chosen late Wednesday night. The winners are going to the 8th Day Concert this Motzai Shabbos along with three other family members or friends!
It’s ironic that after growing up so close to the large Jewish community in Skokie, Illinois that I would finally get my Jewish education from a Hasidic Rabbi in Cancun, Mexico. The Jewish community that I stumbled across in Cancun is an oasis of familiarity for Jews in Mexico. Not only do Rabbi Mendel Druk and his wife Rebbetzin Rachel Druk provide one of the only kosher meals in Cancun; they also offer an opportunity for their fellow Jews to reconnect with their faith and heritage by bringing them closer to each other and to God.
You needn’t look far for evidence of great rifts in Israeli society, fractures whose beginnings stretch back generations.
Various non-mainstream Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities in Israel and in the U.S. are clashing with western values embraced by less religious Jews. Daily reports are breaking out of Haredi sects imposing forced gender segregation on buses, spitting on women in the streets who are deemed immodest and rioting against anyone who is perceived different.
Bentzion and Sarah Chaya Elisha (Crown Heights)
Dovid and Chana Slava (nee Eidelman) Perl (Crown Heights)
Chaim and Shaina (nee Turk) Lipsh (Crown Heights)
Last year it was livery cabs, and this year it could be fingerprinting for food stamps.
The words of the song “Wherever you go there’s always someone Jewish” by Rabbi Larry Milder, have stuck with me since I first heard them as a child. I was reminded of them over winter break when I connected with a Jewish community during my recent trip to Vietnam.
Eliezer Tatuk (Maimi, FL) and Chaya Mushka Elbaz (Paris, France)
Lechaim tonight, Wednesday 510 Crown Street #3C
[between Kingston and Albany Ave]
Ari Levy (Flatbush) and Rochel Ahern (Crown Heights)
L’chaim Motzei Shabbos at 1498 President St.
[between Albany and Troy Ave.]
In this 13th installment of the series, Rebbetzin Chana describes how she and her husband Reb Levik managed to acquire bread for Shabbos at the last moment.
As the nation’s political attention pivots from Iowa to New Hampshire this week, Rabbi Levi Krinsky, the emissary of Chabad Lubavitch in Manchester for the past 22 years, is feeling a little lonely.
“Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.” (Proverbs 3:17)
King Solomon, the wisest of all men, thus defined and described the ways of Torah. These words are as true today as they were in his day.
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