OMEK: A Fruitful Beginning

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Last Thursday night marked the launch of OMEK: a new center for in-depth transformational learning for women. Over 75 women of all ages and backgrounds – from Crown Heights, Long Island, New Jersey, Park Slope and even Maryland – came together at F.R.E.E. to be inspired. In addition to its primary mission to provide in-depth transformation learning for women, OMEK is also focused on naturally enhancing the physical wellbeing. The, the wholesome and elegant organic buffet served as a foretaste of upcoming programs on the holistic approach for to our bodies, as partner to our souls. Following the buffet, enlivening talks from multi-dimensional Olivia Schwartz and internationally acclaimed Shimona Tzukernik aroused the soul and awakened the mind.

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Oldest Living Jew Celebrates 107 in Moscow

Chabad.org

Boris Efimov, left, who just turned 107, chats with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar.

MOSCOW, Russia — Caricaturist Boris Efimov celebrated his 107th birthday this week at the Beit Menachem Chabad-Lubavitch Marinah Roshtza synagogue in Moscow. Efimov, who etched political caricatures until the early 1980s, received Soviet State Prizes twice and was People’s Painter of the USSR in 1967.

On the Catwalk with Chabad

Jessica Freiman – Jerusalem Post

BROOKLYN, NY — At this summer’s Brooklyn Best outdoor fashion show, organized by Borough President Marty Markowitz to feature the dress and culture of all of Brooklyn’s local ethnicities, nobody had volunteered to represent the hassidim.

Chabad to Open Jewish Outreach Center

The York Daily Record

Pittsburgh native Rabbi Elazar Green, 30, is the local emissary of Chabad-Lubavitch, a small branch of Hasidic Judaism. His organization, Chabad Jewish Enrichment Center of Lancaster & York, has purchased a house in Spring Garden Township near York College that will serve as an outreach center of sorts.

LANCASTER, PA — Rabbi Elazar Green believes the most important building in the Jewish faith isn’t the synagogue. It’s the home.

“It’s where people can come and experience and live Judaism,” he said.

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Lech Lecha

The Rebbe says:

1. Our Sages tell us that Avraham Avinu (Abraham our father) had ten tests.

The first test clearly stated in the Torah is in this weeks Torah portion ;
“Vayomer Hashem El Avram Lech Licha May’artzecha Oo’me’mo’laditecha Oo’me’bais Avicha El Ha’aretz Asher Areka – Hashem said to Avram ‘Go (further) away- for your (own benefit)- from your land, your birthplace and your father’s house, to the land which I will show you’ ”.

2. The Rebbe now points out something interesting:

Video of the Day – the Weekly Living Torah Clip

This weeks Living Torah, titled “On Faith, Part 1” (Volume 41, Episode 162).

Living Torah is a member supported project Become a member today at LivingTorah.org

Available in Hebrew, French and Russian in the Extended Article.

A 28th Commemoration: The Murder of Rabbi Dovid Okunov Leads to the Establishment of FREE’s Yeshivat Ohel Dovid

Ray Kestenbaum – Russian Jewry

Reb Dovid as a student in the Lubavitch
underground Yeshiva 1920’s

BROOKLYN, NY — October 16th marked the 28th yahrzeit of Rabbi Dovid Okunov, who was brutally gunned down at the age of 68 on his way to the morning shacharit service on Montgomery Street. On Thursday, October 25, 1979 (Daled Cheshvan) at 7 a.m., Reb Dovid, as he was affectionately known, was shot in the head with one bullet. A much beloved Torah teacher and community worker, Reb Dovid died at the scene. The entire Lubavitch community and Jews in New York were in a state of shock when the murder story appeared in the New York Times and Daily News.

Over 3,000 Lubavitch chassidim attended his funeral later on that day, and he was laid to rest at the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens not far from the resting place of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Over 500 Attend Education & Parenting Seminar

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Over 500 men and women gathered on Wednesday evening at Oholei Torah’s Grand Ballroom to attend a community-wide lecture on education and parenting delivered by renowned psychologist Dr. Norman Blumenthal. A project of Iggud Menahalei Hayeshivos, the evening was coordinated by the Mintz family and was dedicated to the memory of their father, the noted Mechanech Rabbi Isaac Mintz on his 14th Yahrtzeit. Rabbi Yossi Simpson, principal of Lubavitch yeshiva Crown St. chaired the event.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

A Chabad Tradition Takes Off in Daytona

Rebecca Rosenthal – Lubavitch.com

Community members linger on at a farbrengen

DAYTONA, FL — How a city known for NASCAR, Harley Davidson rallies, and spring brea shenanigans came to need a 25,000 square foot Chabad-Lubavitch center i quite a story.

Bias Lawsuit Against Cooper City can Proceed in part

Miami Herald

COOPER CITY, FL — A federal judge decided this week that parts of a religious discrimination lawsuit that an Orthodox Jewish synagogue filed against Cooper City can move forward.

Chabad of Nova, an outreach center now operating in Davie, filed the lawsuit in May, saying city zoning laws forced the congregation out of the city by unfairly limiting where the center could operate. Until October 2006, houses of worship were generally limited to the agriculturally zoned areas in western Cooper City. And they are still banned from most shopping districts and from most residential neighborhoods.

Finding Meaning Closer to Home

Gary Soulsman – The News Journal

At the Chabad Center of Delaware, Rabbi Chuni Vogel (center) reads from the Torah during morning prayers, assisted by Jay Kogon (left) and Shmuel Yosef.

WILMINGTON, DE — At sunrise, men drift into the Chabad Center of Delaware and welcome the day, like Abraham, with prayers of joy and gratitude.

Attempted Mugging on President Street

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — A young woman on her way to work this morning was accosted by a large Black male who tried to steal her phone. The incident took place at around 8:30am on President Street between Brooklyn and New York Avenues, where the perpetrator approached her, blocked her path and demanded her phone.

She immediately began calling for help and fled, the perp did not follow. The perp was described to be in his early 20’s and heavyset. Following the incident the woman called 911 to file a police report and after waiting for an extended period of time she left the scene without filing a police report.

Shluchim from 8 Australian Affiliates Gather to Launch JLI in Australia

In this photo, left to right, Rabbis, Shalom White (Perth), Chanoch Sufrin (Brisbane), Eli Feldman (Young Adult, Sydney), Pinchas Feldman (Head Shliach of Sydney), Nochum Schapiro (North Shore, Sydney), Ben-Tzion Malecki (South Head Synagogue, Sydney), Yanky Berger (Double Bay, Sydney), Shmuel Kopel (Shliach Torah, North Shore, Sydney),and Shmuel Feldman (Yeshiva Centre, Sydney).

SYDNEY, Australia — Unveiling JLI as the largest adult education network in Australia. For the first time, the Australian JLI affiliates gathered for a regional conference to launch the new JLI semester for 5768. Unveiling JLI as the largest Australian network for adult education, the program was held at the Chabad House of the North Shore in Sydney, where its director, Rabbi Nochum Shapiro is the Chairman of JLI in Australia.

Congressman Nadler, Closet Superhero?

Washington Post
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, center, at the Feast of the Tabernacles event at the Capitol. (Ron Sachs, CNS)

WASHINGTON, DC — Maybe he gained a lot of chutzpah when he lost 100 pounds. Whatever the case, even those who have seen firsthand the incredible transformation of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) from 338 pounds to somewhere just upwards of 200 may still be surprised to learn that he can scale high walls like a pole vaulter.

Town Modifies Definition for Houses of Worship

News Transcript

FREEHOLD, NJ — The Township Committee recently adopted changes to the municipality’s land use code to modify the words “church” and “churches” and the phrase “places of worship” to read houses of worship.”

The change stems from an ongoing legal case involving Rabbi Avraham Bernstein, a member of Chabad Lubavitch, a worldwide Jewish organization headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y., who has lived on Stillwells Corner Road directly across from the municipal building since 1998.