New Rabbi for Russian Far East Center

KHABAROVSK, Russia – The Jewish community of Khabarovsk, a member of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, is soon to add a new rabbi to its staff. The young rabbi, Israel Noach Kaminetsky, is currently at home in New York preparing to move to this Far East city. He and his family will soon be arriving to this major Russian center, now that he has been appointed as a Chabad Lubavitch emissary.

In Khabarovsk, Rabbi Kaminetsky will aid the region’s Chief Rabbi Yakov Snetkov and provide essential assistance to the local community in organizing and carrying out the work of the Synagogue and Jewish Community Center that were built not long ago. He will be assisted by his wife.

Telephone Torah

New program helps partners study together VIA phone

Chabad Lubavitch has launched a new learning program to help ensure that “every Jew has access to his or her inheritance.”

Rabbi Gershon Avtzon and his wife Frumie came to Portland last month to introduce JNet.org to the West Coast. Avtzon helped create the one-on-one telephone Torah study program that attracted more than 200 participants in the first two months of the pilot program.

The free program matches individuals with someone of similar age and background who has an expertise in Torah learning. The JNet expert will call the student at a mutually agreed upon time each week and spend a half-hour in chavruta (partner) study on any Jewish topic.

Photo Gallery of the Week – Hershel Klein’s Wedding

The Klein-Sharabi wedding was held tonight in the ‘Oz Vehadar’ hall in Bnei Braq. The Chosson is the Rov and Tomim, Hershel, son of Rabbi Efraim Klein, HY”D, who was killed last week. The wedding was attended by hundreds of Chassidim and Temimim who danced and made merry for long hours. Rabbi Avrohom Lieder, director of Ahavas Chessed in Crown Heights, who partially funded the wedding, arrived especially to Israel in order to participate in the wedding.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

ULY’s Gan Temimim revisits Shushan

Dressed in the king’s royal crown and robes, Avrohom Sorkin from Gan Temimim, rides the kings horse through the streets of Shushan, as the young “Tinokos Shel Beis Rabbon” relive the miracle of Purim.

As part of their preparations and learning about the upcoming Yom Tov Purim, the students of Gan Temimim – preschool division of ULY Crown Street, were treated to pony rides and a petting zoo.

As the children’s smiles testify, they were thrilled by the ride and had a great time!

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Video: L’chiam With R. Jacobson On A Cable To A Jewish Life

Click Here to watch the program

The Talmud says that a Jew must get drunk on Purim to the point of not being able to distinguish between the cursed Haman and the blessed Mordechai!

Does Judaism really encourage drunkenness?

Listen to Rabbi Yossi Jacobson describe the partnership between Haman and king Achashveirosh including Haman’s reason’s for plotting to kill all the Jews.

True blue and right

Forget everything you thought you knew about immigrants from the Confederation of Independent States (CIS – the former Soviet Union). Forget the assumption that they are utterly secular, forget the assumption that although they are rightist, they are pragmatic. Start thinking in terms of characters from a telenovela: A beauty queen, an immigrant from Ukraine, who married a nephew of the Baba Sali; a lawyer whose father was a general in the Red Army in Stalin’s day and he, the lawyer, is an ultra-Orthodox Jew who takes his every step as instructed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Igrot Kodesh, and a singer who became a politician and is married to a prisoner who was sentenced to death for an attempt to hijack a plane in Leningrad in order to fly to Israel.

These characters are not imaginary, but rather flesh and blood people who have assembled in the Herut Party, headed by former MK Michael Kleiner. This is the second time that Kleiner, who for four terms was a Likud MK, is attempting to get elected at the head of the Herut list. In the 2003 elections, in which he ran on a joint list with Baruch Marzel, he received more than 40,000 votes, slightly under the electoral threshold.

Megillat Esther now in its ninth edition and revised

FREE Publishing House, has released a new revised edition of the Megillat Esther, featuring the original Hebrew text with the accompanying Russian translation, it has been enhanced in several ways: the whole volume, both Hebrew and Russian, has been reset in a clear, crisp typeface. The Russian translation, while still based on the original edition, has been amended to read more smoothly.

Following the Megillah, there is an additional 30 plus pages that contain the chapter on Purim of FREE’s yet-to-be-published book titled “Jewish Holiday and Festivals”. This chapter includes the story of Purim; the holiday’s background, its history and laws as well as its practical lessons and relevance now, 2300 years later, based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

Chabad VS. Hillel

Now hear this: There is no rivalry between Chabad House and Hillel.

At least that’s the party line here at Harvard. At many other universities, including fellow Ivy Princeton, Chabaders and Hillelians have duked it out in relationships at times openly hostile. At Harvard, however, the atmosphere is rather congenial.

Head to Head

So, what’s the difference between Chabad and Hillel? In the words of Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature Ruth R. Wisse, who is both a Chabad adviser and a Hillel faculty fellow, “Chabad is a religious organization that also functions on campus. Hillel is an organization specifically designed to provide Jewish college students with a chance to be Jews.”

Arsons Fan Flames of Speculation

In the last three months, there have been at least eight suspicious fires in Prospect and Crown Heights, and five resulting deaths.

Four of those deaths occurred two Fridays ago at 5:30 a.m., and those terrible human tragedies have spurred several local politicians and activists to demand serious reform of the way New York City currently investigates arson.

“In 1986,” recalled Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James, “there were about 400 fire marshals and 50 supervisors. By 2001, when Bloomberg entered office, there were about 200 marshals and supervisors. Now, through attrition and head count reduction, there are only about 80 marshals and 20 supervisors. This is not acceptable.”

Purim Festivities for Children With Special Needs

Autism, cerebral palsy, Asperger’s syndrome, Down syndrome, and ADHD are no longer obstacles to Purim fun as Friendship Circle programs, offered at 20 Chabad-Lubavitch centers around the world, sponsor events for children with special needs for the upcoming holiday.

Celebrated this year March 13-15, Purim marks the salvation of the Jewish people in 365 B.C.E. from certain annihilation at the hands of Haman, a prime minister whose evil ways were trumped only by the righteousness of Mordechai, the valiance of Queen Esther and the prayers of Jewish children. Creativity and thoughtful planning are required to ensure that children with special needs are included, but not overwhelmed, by the festivities of the lively holiday of Purim.

OK Kosher Filled to Capacity for Restaurant Mashgichim Conference

On Wednesday, March 8, 2006, the OK held a massive mashgiach training session at its headquarters in Brooklyn. Led by Restaurant and Catering Rabbinic Coordinator, Rabbi Naftali Marrus, the session focused on familiarizing new mashgichim with OK policies and procedures. The OK conference room was filled beyond capacity, with dozens mashgichim who were ready to learn the ropes of the OK.

Rabbi Chaim Fogleman, the Rabbinic Coordinator who oversees Restaurants and Catering Facilities, began the conference with a D’Var Torah that connected Parshas Tetzaveh and kashrus. He explained that Moshe Rabbeinu has a connection and responsibility for every Jew and that is why Hashem spoke through Moshe. Even Hashem’s instructions to Aharon HaCohen came through Moshe. In a similar way, the OK has a responsibility for the kashrus of every Jew who eats in one of its many certified restaurants. Since the OK is responsible for what every Jew eats in its restaurants, its certification must be up to the highest standard of Cholov Yisroel, Pas Yisroel, Bishul Yisroel and Chassidishe Shechita.

Forgetting Terror

Of the many New York Times readers who made their way through this week’s three-part series, “An Imam in America,” one was paying especially close attention.

The series, which ran at the top of Page One on Sunday and Tuesday, focused on the political tightrope walked by Sheik Reda Shata, imam of Brooklyn’s Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, as he tries to reconcile the often conflicting values of America and Islam.

Devorah Halberstam knows full well about the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge. On March 1, 1994, a Lebanese-born man who had just listened to a hate-filled anti-Jewish sermon at that mosque filled his car with deadly weapons and attacked a van filled with Hasidic Jewish children on the Brooklyn Bridge.

For Ari Halberstam

No sooner had the New York Times launched its series on the Imam of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge than the phone rang at The New York Sun. It was Devorah Halberstam, the mother of Aaron “Ari” Halberstam, a 16-year-old rabbinical student gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge on March 1, 1994. She was calling to say that Monday would be the 12th anniversary of the murder of her son and that the mosque the Times was extolling as a seat of peaceable Islam was the place from which Rashid Baz set out on the shooting spree that claimed her son.

As the Times ran out its series, we waited for some mention of this fact. We were interested to read that the Imam at the center of the reporter’s story, Sheik Reda Shata, “is,” as the Times reporter wrote, “neither a firebrand nor a ready advocate of progressive Islam. Some of his views would offend conservative Muslims; other beliefs would repel American liberals. He is in many ways a work in progress, mapping his own middle ground between two different worlds.”

A journey of 304,805 steps begins with one letter

For those who live by the torah, there is plenty to keep them on their toes. Within the pages of Judaism’s sacred text there are no fewer than 304,805 letters assembled into words which make up some 613 commandments, ending with the daunting requirement that every believer must write his or her own torah.

Lest any Jew simply grab a legal pad and begin scribbling, be forewarned that producing a torah fit for use in the eyes of God is a bit more grueling task than it might seem on the surface. A kosher torah must be written on rolls of parchment flayed from the back of a cow or calf, for example, and if any one letter touches another or the ink within a letter cracks, theentire torah is no longer kosher.