Sydney’s Yeshiva Launches a $1.5 Million Kosher Kitchen

Sydney, Australia — Rabbi Dovid Slavin (center), of Sydney’s Yeshiva, at the launch on Tuesday night of its $1.5-million kosher kitchen, which is to offer food to the non-Jewish community and to personnel from the emergency services. Rabbi Slavin is the chaplain to the NSW Ambulance Services.

Chabad Center Breaks Ground for Expansion

Houston, TX — Mendy Donin, 9, and Nicole Harari, 6½, were among the cast of several hundred at the Feb. 4 groundbreaking for the Chabad Lubavitch Center’s expansive building renovation project. Master of ceremonies Stuart Nelkin, president of Chabad Lubavitch Center, provided the diverse audience with the history of Chabad’s 30-year presence in Houston.

Speakers included Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, who read a coveted letter from Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, of blessed memory; Mayor Bill White; Consul General of Israel to the Southwest Asher Yarden; Houston City Council member Anne Clutterbuck; and Alan Gover. Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar of The Shul of Bal Harbour, Fla., delivered an impassioned keynote address, which emphasized the importance of Jewish values of goodness, mitzvot, holiness and Torah. Following the ceremonial groundbreaking by rabbis and dignitaries, guests of all ages were invited to take a shovel and turn some soil.

New home for Chabad at ASU

Phoenix, AZ — The Chabad Jewish Student Center at Arizona State University, with Chabad of Arizona, is in the midst of negotiations to purchase two properties near ASU’s Tempe campus.

Chabad will receive a $350,000 grant from the Rohr Family Foundation to assist with the purchase, according to Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel, director of Chabad at ASU. The name of the new center will be the Rohr Chabad House-Jewish Student Center.

The properties, located at 969 and 971 S. Ash Ave., house Praxis Church and are a few blocks away from Chabad’s current home on Mill Avenue.