HOUSTON, TX — It was unseasonably bright and sunny last Wednesday morning as about 500 people from a string of communities around Texas’ largest city shielded their eyes to participate in a momentous ceremony that occurs just once every 28 years.
More pictures and a video in the Extended Article! (By Dr David Cotlar)
Due to the high demand of players in Crown Heights that want to play softball this season, the Crown Heights Softball League added another team to the league.
We are looking for five really good players to anchor the sixth team of the Crown Heights Softball league.
The deadline is today!!
Please email chsoftball@gmail.com or go to chsoftball.com to see what we are all about.
Little Moshe has passed through the time of danger. He is healthy and clever, and if he’s sometimes clingy, that’s fine with Rivki. Staying busy with him, with all her work, keeps difficult thoughts at bay. Such as: Why are she and Gabi here, amid the stench and chaos and otherness of Mumbai? They could have been in Brooklyn or Israel instead, with family and comforts nearby to ease their sadness.
But why think about what can’t be helped? They are here because that’s what the Rebbe inspired them to do. And look at the blessings their sacrifice has brought them, just as he said it would: Moshe, their miracle, and now another child on the way. God willing, the family will grow and bring honor to their mission.
Sixth of eleven,the middlest of middle children, Rivka Rosenberg, born in 1980, grows up in Afula, Israel, in a Lubavitcher home: a smiler, a laugher, knowing how to fit in yet managing to be heard. Everyone calls her Rivki. “Not meek,” a friend says. “Not recessive. Full of life. Always looking to connect. That’s the secret.” The friend pauses. “And that’s the problem.”
More pictures in the Extended Article!
We would like to wish Mazal Tov to Yakov and Elisheva (nee Raymon) Kirschenbaum (Shluchim to Manhattan) on the birth of their firstborns, a boy and a girl.
May the newborns be a source of Nachas to their parents, grandparents and Klal Yisroel.
Beautiful Photo Gallery in the Extnded Article! (By Shmuli Evers)
Shliach Rabbi Levi Backman from the Chabad Jewish Center in Bellingham, WA, made it to the front page of the Bellingham Herald in their coverage of Birchas HaChama.
Full Scan of Paper in the Extended Article!
Residents of Atlantic county NJ and members of chabad at the Shore observe a rare Jewish Practice of Birchat Hachama, Blessing of the Sun. Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport leads the Ceremony.
In Jerusalem, New York and other major Jewish population centers, thousands thronged to participate in the once-in-28-year Jewish ritual of blessing the sun. In the Democratic Republic of The Congo, there weren’t thousands, not even hundreds. But they rose at the crack of dawn Wednesday morning to conduct their own blessing-of-the-sun ritual on the Congo River.
MIAMI [AP] — Around the Passover table, people drink red wine, swallowing a symbol of freedom, deliverance, redemption and release. But not Joe Nevenansky. Not this time.
On Wednesday he and his family celebrated the ancient Israelites’ liberation from Egyptian slavery, but he drank grape juice instead. Years ago he would have doubled or tripled the four glasses of wine traditionally imbibed during the ritual meal on the first day of the Jewish festival.
CNN’s Barbara Starr talks to the U.S. Navy’s top admiral in the region about the piracy crisis.
UPDATE: Sunday, the hostage has been rescued and 3 of the 4 pirates killed.
TORONTO [JTA] — Palestinian officials have called on Canada to cancel a planned exhibit of the famed Dead Sea Scrolls, saying it would violate international law.
In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and directors of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Hamdan Taha, director general of the archaeological department in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, alleges the scrolls were acquired illegally by Israel when the Jewish state annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.
HONOLULU [KGMB9] — Scores of Hawaii residents from all walks of life gather this morning at Ala Moana Beach Park, to perform the rarest event on the Jewish calendar: They will gather together, peer upward toward the sun, and recite a blessing known as “the Blessing of the Sun.”
Local participants join millions of others across the globe who perform the outdoor blessing ritual at synagogues, schools, beaches, public parks and private homes.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
Hundreds of men, women and children turned out at K’hal Tzemach Tzedek Lubavitch of Monsey today, Wednesday, Erev Pesach 5769, April 8, for the once-in-28-year Birchas HaChama.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
Shliach, Rabbi Yisroel Rapoport officiated at Shacharis services, followed by a Birchas Hachamah ceremony with over 60 participants of all ages. To everyone’s delight the sun came out and shined brightly. Afterwards everyone was invited to a full course breakfast. Matzahs were distributed and chametz was burnt.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
BROOKLYN, NY — Following their recent expulsion from Russia, several rabbis have been working across phone lines and emails guiding their communities in Passover preparations.
Chabad representatives Rabbi Yisroel and Aliza Silberstein were living in Vladivostok, a port city on the Pacific Ocean, until they were forced to leave in February. Now, from their temporary residence in Brooklyn, the dedicated couple is still taking care of their community’s needs.
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