Accra, Esquel, Pervoo . . . Jews Connect Despite Distance

ACCRA, Ghana — It was a rocky start for two of the hundreds of Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students dispatched by Merkos, the Lubavitch educational division (with the support of regional Chabad centers) to create a Passover experience for Jewish people in some 150 locations exotic and obscure. Among them: Esquel, Argentina; Nipawin, Canada; Hong Kong; and Pervoo, Finland.

Young couple brings Jewish life to Krakow

KRAKOW, Poland — In Krakow, Poland, where Jewish life was nearly destroyed by Nazism and communism, Rabbi Eliezer Gurary and his wife Esther are hoping to bring it back, one Shabbat at a time.

Eliezer and Esther, granddaughter of Devorah and Rabbi Leibel Alevsky, who run the Chabad House of Cleveland, recently opened Chabad-Lubavitch of Krakow. The young couple was living in New York and decided they “were ready to go wherever” to open a Chabad center to help Jews, Esther explains. The rabbi at the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters offered them the chance to build a Chabad community in Krakow from the ground up.

Texas Students Benefit From Passover Dining Program

The Chabad Jewish Student Center serving Texas A&M University managed a special Passover dining program, providing students with meals throughout the eight-day holiday.

Passover TV Special Filmed in Volgograd

VOLGOGRAD, Russia — A new TV program has been working on a feature on the Jewish community of Volgograd. Timed well with Passover, this show was aired as part of the series “The Peoples of Volgograd” and hosted by Svetlana Yuriecheva, whose work on the programs “The Saturday Album”, “Anisya” and “My Child” have also focused on everyday heroes within the Jewish community. Her current series, which underlines the life of the various ethnic and religious communities in the region, has been on the air since the beginning of 2008.

Torah Completion Highlight of President’s Polish Visit

WARSAW, Poland — Jerusalem Post reporter Greer Fay Cashman proclaimed last week’s Torah dedication ceremony at Warsaw’s Belvedere Presidential Palace to be “one of the most joyful events” associated with the state visit by Israeli President Shimon Peres to the Polish capitol.

Organized by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Stambler, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Poland, the event saw Peres inscribe one of the Torah scroll’s last letters before it was rolled up and carried outside by Jewish communal officials.