On State Dept. Missions, Nuclear Scientist Checks in With Chabad

His travels are related to preoccupying concerns of international political leaders, but this nuclear scientist says that it’s his encounters with Chabad around the world that inspire him in his travels.

SANTA FE, NM — Steven Gitomer’s State Department funded missions to prevent nuclear scientists from selling their knowledge to rogue states takes him to distant outposts of the former Soviet Union. Whether his plane lands in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, or Russia, Gitomer makes a point of spending Shabbat with Chabad.

Montreal Day School Singled Out for Academic Excellence

MONTREAL, Canada — Canada’s Fraser Institute named Beth Rivkah Academy of Montreal, a Jewish day school operated by Chabad-Lubavitch, as one of the top performing secondary schools in Quebec.

Donetsk Citizens Commemorate Holocaust Victims

DONETSK, Ukraine — In the lead-up to the Day of Catastrophe and Heroism, which is marked in Ukraine in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust, the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk hosted a solemn meeting.

Multiple Jewish organizations operating in this industrial region united forces with local authorities to organize this event. Among them were the Jewish community of Donetsk – a member of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine – the regional Chesed, the ‘Ukraine-Israel’ Society, the Donetsk City Administration, and the Regional Administration.

From North London to Brighton via New Zealand

Walking down Western Road in Central Brighton on a Friday night often attracts surprised looks, as revellers are taken aback by the sight of a bearded rabbi clad in black, usually flanked by a few Kippah-wearing guests. To me, the surprised looks are not unusual. In fact, I often get similar astonishment from residents of my home community in Stamford Hill, when they learn that I live and work in Brighton.

Although Brighton is only 50 odd miles south of ‘home’, Passover in Brighton is worlds apart from the experience I had when I was growing up at home. That’s not to say that the rituals or meaning have been altered, on the contrary, to me things are very much the same, yet altogether different at the same time. At my father’s Seder table, one could not help but notice my father’s passion for education, as he engaged us kids in lengthy conversation about the slavery and exodus. Time stood still at those Seders, and I often find myself wandering down memory lane, as I picture my late Bubba expertly pouring the contents of Elijah’s cup back into the wine decanter. The ritual, accompanied by a moving melody, was often held somewhere between three and four in the morning.

Students Rave About New Center Coming to University of Georgia

ATHENS, GA — Most capital campaigns take some time, but when Rabbi Michoel and Chana Refson, co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch serving the University of Georgia, approached supporters about purchasing a vacated bank as the new home for their three-year-old Chabad House, they raised the money in just six weeks.

With the deal on the building done, thanks in large part to a generous grant from the Rohr Family Foundation arranged by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation and vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the education arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, the Refsons have now turned their sights to the necessary renovations. After another round of fundraising for that project, they hope students will be able to use the facility – just a hop, skip and a jump from the Athens, Ga., school’s freshman dormitories, football stadium, and track field, and just across the street from the local chapter of Sigma Delta Tau, a Jewish sorority – by September.

Miami Beach Synagogue’s Lost Torah to be Replaced

Scores of people gathered Sunday to collect money for a new Torah for Miami Beach’s Chabad Shul, which was damaged in a suspicious fire last month. Its Torah was apparently stolen.

MIAMI BEACH, FL — With a goose quill in his hand and a black ink pot at his side, a young New York rabbi Sunday began writing the words of the Hebrew Bible on parchment, the first step in a long rehabilitation for Orthodox Jews whose synagogue burned down last month in a suspicious fire.