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Op-Ed: A Letter to my Supporters

Note: This is a speech I would have given to my supporters, as a contestant in the Vaad Hakhol elections. This speech is purely hypothetical, as I unfortunately cannot see the value of spending time and effort in running for a seat, being that there is so much politics, name-calling and smearing going on. Please use it as some food for thought.

My Dear Friends & Neighbors,

Thank you for joining me tonight, together with my esteemed colleagues, all running for a seat in the Vaad Hakhol. I am pleased to see that there is a positive move to clear up the internal politics and strife that has been eating away at our community for so many years.

Election Candidates Served with Psak Din and Court Order

CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — In a new development all the candidates for Vaad Hakohol and Gaboim, as well as the disputed members of the Netzigim; were served with a notice to appear in Supreme Court tomorrow afternoon, for a hearing on a motion by the current Vaad to block the elections.

New York Driving Course Goes Online

By Stephen Williams for the NY Times Blogs

NEW YORK — New York drivers now have the option of taking defensive-driving courses over the Internet to qualify for auto insurance discounts and point reductions on their driving records.

A Tank That Brings Judaism to Moscow Streets

By Elizabeth Shockman Special to The Moscow Times

The Mitzvah Tank crew on Tverskaya Ulitsa. The project eventually hopes to have tanks in other Russian cities too.

MOSCOW — As an unusual combination of symbols — a camping trailer painted in synagogue-stone browns with a giant menorah on its side — the Mitzvah Tank was not created to blend into Moscow’s urban environment. In fact, with a back seat full of rabbis, this synagogue on wheels is strategically designed to change the way Muscovites think about Judaism and spur on its revival in Russia.

Shliach Delivers Invocation at CMU Graduation Ceremony

Over 10,000 people including graduates, family, and friends gathered in the Geisling Stadium for Carnegie Mellon Universitys (CMU) 2009 Commencement. At the conclusion of his first year of Shlichus as director of Chabad of CMU, Rabbi Shlomo Silverman received the honor of giving the Invocation at the beginning of the ceremony.