Chabad of Midtown’s 8 Foot Beacon of Fire and Ice

As the millions walking up and down 5th Ave. in Midtown Manhattan during this holiday season, tourists and locals alike just had to stop and stare for a moment, it is a Menorah sculpted from ice and stands at an impressive 8 feet tall was lit for all to see at 6:00pm. The Menorah was erected by Chabad Lubavitch of Midtown Manhattan’s Rabbi Yuhoshua Metzger. People from all walks of life stood and looked on in awe while others posed for pictures with it. In a brief conversation with a tourist he said that “this is amazing and can only be an Manhattan, here is this magnificent Menorah and just 6 blocks away is the Rockefeller Center”

More pictures of the construction and more in the Extended Article!

Oholei Torah Bus Crashes into an SUV

R. Dovid Raskin in the Daily News

Chanukah Chabad Style at Camp Victory

The U.S. Army took control of Al-Faw several years ago, but there’s still something surreal about the idea of a grand Chanukah celebration at Saddam Hussein’s palace. Yet that’s precisely what happened on the first night of Chanukah, when 70 troops celebrated around a 12-foot menorah in the palace. “We are celebrating the Festival of Lights in a place once occupied by a man who chose to extinguish light,” Lt. JG Laurie Zimmet told her comrades as she spoke to them about the meaning of the Jewish holiday.

The U.S. Navy reservist serving at Camp Victory was doing the work of Chabad, Chabad style. “I was taught by my Chabad rabbi to think big and pray big,” says Laurie, and when she had the idea to have a menorah lighting at Al-Faw, she determined to do something big. But how to get one of those supersized menorahs to Camp Victory?

A tale of 2 precincts – And Their Crime Rates

As I said it was only a matter of time till major media outlets will pick up on all this that’s been going on in our neighborhood and the polices incapability of doing anything about it. The article only interviewed a few people, and they generally praised the police, I know that the police are not doing their jobs and know of more that agree with me. Please use the comment system and post your thoughts and rants.

Brooklyn’s 71st and 73rd Precinct stationhouses are less than 2 miles apart, but the areas are headed in opposite directions, according to the latest city murder statistics.

The 71st Precinct, which covers the southern part of Crown Heights, has seen the largest increase in homicides in the city. The number of killings has risen to 21 from nine compared with the same period last year.

Although overall crime is down slightly, robberies and shootings have increased in the precinct.

“I regret moving here,” said Luis Rivera, 32, a carpenter, who settled in the area about four years ago. “The police aren’t doing a good job.”

But Marilyn Rosenfeld, an administrative assistant who has lived in Crown Heights for more than 30 years, said she feels safe despite the uptick in killings. “I remember the neighborhood in decline, but now it has come back,” she said.

Gov. Of Illinois Celebrates Chanukah With Chabad

CHICAGO – Governor Rod R. Blagojevich joined Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz of the Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois and other members of Chicago’s Jewish community tonight in a celebration of the third night of Chanukah at the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center in Chicago. Governor Blagojevich lit the menorah to mark the third night of the Jewish Festival of Lights, which continues through January 1st. The program also included performances by musician Ruby Harris and the Cheder Lubavitch Boys Choir.

“Chanukah is a celebration of light, optimism, and hope,” the Governor said. “In the victory of the Jewish people, the rededicating of the Temple and the burning of the oil, Chanukah represents victory against great odds. During this holiday season, we can take the themes and lessons of Chanukah to add hope to our lives.”

Police say menorah desecration was one of many criminal acts

The large menorah that was on display at the corner of Blooming Grove Turnpike and Quassaick Avenue in the Town of New Windsor was not the only item to be destroyed over the weekend.

The large candelabra, which was provided by the Chabad group of the Hudson Valley for the eight day Hanukkah holiday, was destroyed by vandals overnight between December 23 and 24.

That same night there were other acts of criminal mischief to mailboxes located in nearby housing developments.

Chanukah candles lit at the Eiffel Tower

More than 3,000 Jews participated in the lighting of the first Chanukah candle in Paris on Sunday night.

A crowd of mostly children, teenagers and young parents cheered and danced to the loud Hassidic music during the event organised yearly by the French Beit Loubavitch, an organisation attached to the Chabad movement. A film on the organisation’s accomplishments in 2005 was shown by segments throughout the night on a giant screen and young Orthodox men distributed leaflets and newsletters to secular participants.

Through satellite the assembly shared the lighting ceremony with Jewish communities throughout the world in Moscow, New York and Jerusalem.

Prime Minister of Canada Celebrates Chanukah with Chabad

Click Here to watch a Newscast of this event!

Canadian Jews would not have anticipated such a wide scale “Pirsumei Nisa” on Chanukah. Prime Minister, Paul Martin, a friend of Israel and member of the Jewish community decided that his first destination on his election campaign would be the Yeshiva of Tomchei Temimim in Montreal. Broadcasting vehicles of the local television and a busload of journalists filled Westbury Street that was blocked off by the police. “His first stop was in Lubavitch”, mentioned Rabbi Simcha Zirkind, who arranged the event with the help of his son, Mendy Zirkind, Shliach to the government in Ottawa – Canada’s Capitol.

“What Chanukah represents is the continuous struggle of the Jewish nation to preserve and observe Judaism freely”, said the Prime Minister in his speech, while denouncing the contemptuous graffiti sprayed on the wall of local Shul this week. The Prime Minister was honored with lighting the Shamash and he received, as a gift, yarmulkes with his name embroidered on it and was blessed by the Rabbis and Dayans of the city and the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kaplan. Jewish Justice Minister of Canada, Irwin Kotler told the crowd that he Davens on a regular basis in the central Chabad Shul in Montreal. “Since I am on the first year of ‘Aveilus’ after my mother, OBM, I know that I could always find a Minyan in the Lubavitcher Shul”, he said. The prime minister stayed to hear the traditional singing of “Haneiros Halalu” by Anash and the Yeshiva Bochurim that were present.

Chabad Gives Chanukah 2005 Greatest Exposure Ever

A blue Lego piece clutched in his chubby fingers, Zhak Goldemberg-Levy, just 21 months old, built a menorah with a little help from his grandfather Liviu Goldemberg at Chabad of Hawaii’s Chanukah celebration. Later, Hawaii’s Jewish Governor Linda Lingle lit a ten-foot-tall, 5,000-piece Lego menorah at Waikiki’s Gateway Park.

Chabad of Hawaii’s recipe of child-friendly activities, a creative jumbo menorah, and a public figure to light it typified this year’s framework for Chabad-Lubavitch Chanukah celebrations. Spin a globe, plant a finger on a random spot, and there’s likely to be one of Chabad’s 11,000 public menorahs within reach.

Chabad lights up ‘Lego Menorah’ for Hanukkah

What would Hanukkah be without a 12-foot-tall menorah made of Legos? On Monday, Chabad of Santa Barbara continued what has become its tradition of constructing a giant menorah, the candelabrum used to celebrate the Festival of Lights, out of the toy pieces. The finished “Lego Menorah,” towering at La Cumbre Plaza, is composed of more than 4,000 Lego pieces.

At left, Rabbi Mendel Loschak secures the menorah. Top right, Madav Katz lights candles on the menorah on the second night of Hanukkah. At right, sister and brother Jaslyn, 2, and Eric Van Lenten, 5, help with the building, as do Jeff Holden, from left below, Dina Loschak and Jim Stevenson.