Jewish Youth Seminar Wraps Up in Volgograd

Volgograd, Russia – This week in Russia’s Volga Region, the Jewish community of Volgograd hosted the international seminar ‘Jewish WorldView ‘. The event involved 33 youth from 13 different settlements across Russia and Ukraine, some of whom attended such an event for the first time. Many others were glad to meet up with friends they made at last year’s gathering.

Jewish Community Welcomes its New Rabbi

In a decade of living in the Mexican tourist hub that is Cancun, Samuel Rovero, 40, has dedicated much of his time to building up the local Jewish community. He helped found the community center in 1997, and two years ago, served as president of the 200-strong community.

But there was still something missing for Rovero: the presence of a rabbi, the kind of central authority the businessman remembers anchoring the tightly-knit Jewish community in his hometown of Guadalajara.

Chabad translating Jewish texts into Russian

Moscow, Russia — The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia announced a five-year project to translate 50 Jewish religious texts into Russian.

According to federation spokesman Baruch Gorin, the project, called The Library of Jewish Texts, is aimed at Russian-speaking Jews worldwide and non-Jewish Russian speakers interested in getting acquainted with Judaism.

Chabad Couple Named To New Virginia Tech Librescu Chabad House

Blacksburg, VA — In an exclusive interview with Lubavitch.com, Rabbi Yossel Kranz, executive director of Chabad of the Virginias, named the young couple who formally accepted the offer to head the new Chabad House opening next month at Virginia Tech.

Rabbi Elazar and Rivkah Bloom, both with advanced science degrees and Chabad outreach experience, tied up loose ends with Rabbi Kranz late on Sunday. Earlier in the week, an innkeeper chose Chabad’s bid for her bed and breakfast that stands a block from campus, to become the home of the new Chabad House, named for Liviu Librescu. The inkeeper gave V Tech Chabad six months to secure the funds to complete the purchase.

Belarus Jewish Camp Witnesses Record Turnout

Minsk, Belarus –- The Association of Jewish Communities of Belarus, one of the largest Jewish organizations in the country, will soon be hosting a summer camp for Jewish children. The event gets underway in July in a scenic place on a lakeshore near Pinsk, a city located in the Brest Region.

Sholom Malinkin, the Chair of the Association, explained. “This is the first time ever that we have been able to organize the camp for about 300 children,” explained Sholom Malinkin. “They come from 20 different towns across Belarus, including firstly those cities with a Chabad Lubavitch emissary.”

On the Road with RARA

In the summer of 1977, three Monash University students, barely a year out of Yeshivah, hired an old campervan and embarked on a journey that would inspire a revolution in Chabad’s outreach philosophy.

Led by Saul Spigler, the boys spent two months shlepping through the Outback, finding Jews in remote corners of the country and helping them reconnect with their Judaism.