Sukkos in Minnesota

Although the weather forecasted snow in St. Paul, Minnesota, the conditions changed due a Brocho of the Rebbe. Chief Shliach, Rabbi Moshe Feller, sent a request for a blessing to the Ohel, and as a result, not even a drop of rain hindered the event.

Despite the forecasts, over 200 arrived, most of which are not observant, and recited the Blessing over the Arba Minim and enjoyed barbecued treats in the Sukkah. The main event was for children who enjoyed a variety of amusement attractions, mini-golf, a petting zoo, horseback riding and more. The entire celebration was made possible thanks to assistance of Tmimim who had arrived to Minnesota to help the Shluchim for the holidays.

Abbas Must Act

What is the price of trying to make life easier for the Palestinians? A simple answer: murder most foul. Israel voluntarily removed roadblocks; so terrorists in a Fatah group, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, put stolen Israeli license plates on a car, sped by a crowd at a hitching post, and opened fire with automatic weapons. Three young Israelis, including a 15-year-old, were killed, and four others were wounded. Now the entire Palestinian population will have to bear the burden of tighter Israeli security. To protect its citizens, Israel has to ban all private Palestinian cars from the main roads, rebuild roadblocks and barriers throughout Judea and Samaria, and end the turnover of West Bank towns (especially Bethlehem) to the Palestinian Authority.

Simchas Torah in 770

With people being “happy” and showing “happiness” across Crown Heights this will surely be a Simchas Torah to remember.

This year the Gabboim arranged a more organized (and may we add, civilized) form of kissing the Rebbe’s Sefer torah, making a special entrance from the “Farbrengen Bimah”.

Although the Yom Tov was quite short-lived (it’s much later than on a regular year) many people still found the time to get the spirit, which takes a double meaning upon itself.

Mayoral Candidates Enter Final Two-Week Stretch Run

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Democratic challenger Fernando Ferrer continue to press the flesh as the candidates for mayor now have just two short weeks left before Election Day.

Last week it was former President Bill Clinton, and on Monday Ferrer had another big name Democrat at his side. Ferrer held a roundtable discussion and lunch today with Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry.

Celebrating the Torah on Sukkot

A piece of New Orleans and Jewish history now rests permanently at a two-story corner home along Gravel Hill Road.

The home belongs to Rabbi Eliezer and Chanie Zaklikovsky, directors of the Chabad Jewish Center in Monroe. And the piece of history, a white Torah with golden script, traveled a long way from New Orleans to their doorstep.

Chabad members Freida and Leonard Posnock brought the Torah from Congregation Beth Israel in New Orleans, days before Hurricane Katrina destroyed the historic synagogue. The synagogue’s remaining Torahs were buried in hardened mud and ruined.

How an Outsider Told a Hasidic Story From the Inside

Over coffee one day with Shuli Rand, a friend who had given up acting for a life of prayer and study among Israel’s strictly Orthodox Hasidim, the director Gidi Dar, a secular Israeli Jew, was struck by a way to close the widening gap between them.

“What if I do a movie on your turf, with your rules, in your world?” Mr. Dar recalled asking Mr. Rand.

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Isaiah and the prophets Rock Chabad Of Harlem

On the first day of Chol Hamoed Sukkos, Chabad of Harlem arranged an event on the CUNY College campus, and was attended by over 100 students and staff members.

The ‘Sushi in the Sukkah’ happening was held in the picturesque Beaver park in the campus and was funded by Rabbi Shaya Gansburg, Chabad House director of Harlem. The Sukkah, built with the help of Yosef Gansburg, Mendy Nagel and Yossi Margolin hosted at least 100 who said the blessing over the ‘Arba Minim’.

A large crowed gathered when the band “Isaiah and the Prophets” led by Shaya Lieberman began playing Chasidishe music with a rock twist.

Anti Semitism Closer To Home

A Bochur on his way back to Crown Heights from doing Mivtzoim in Queens, had a rock thrown at his car and a racial slur yelled at him. This disturbing even took place at the Nostrand Ave. & Fulton St. intersection.

Familiarity With The Festival Grows

Kenneth Alan Spector’s mother’s medical bills were such a puzzle that when the insurance company’s telephone rep read the record she could not help but sigh, “Oy vey.”

Spector, a new congregant at Chabad of Northridge heard her classic Jewish groan and replied, “Chag Sameach!” After a beat, the rep returned the happy holiday greeting. As the two chatted about the Jewish New Year, Spector asked if the rep had fulfilled the Sukkot observance of waving the four plant species: palm, myrtle, willow and citron, known as lulav and etrog. When he got a negative reply, Spector – who bought his first lulav and etrog set this year – explained the practice and its message of Jewish unity.

excerpt from todays Daily News

The crowd was thick around Bloomberg yesterday as he walked the streets of Crown Heights and picked up the endorsement of the Crown Heights Political Action Committee.

There may have been one person he wished wasn’t in the crowd: Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council.

Rubashkin, who served time in prison for passing more than $300,000 in bad checks, didn’t speak at the endorsement event but was recognized by Chanina Sperlin, chairman of the Crown Heights PAC, as “my colleague.”

Bloomberg campaign aides noted Rubashkin is not a member of the Crown Heights Political Action Committee and had no official involvement in the event.

Chabad Recognized By UCM

Eight years after arriving at Columbia, Chabad has finally been recognized as an official campus group.

Chabad, an organization led by Hasidic Jews, has unofficially been a part of campus for years but was just granted recognition under United Campus Ministries as Columbia’s newest Jewish organization, after first applying in 2003.

“Everything is a process and this wasn’t going to happen overnight,” said Rabbi Yonah Blum, who runs Chabad out of his 110th street apartment. “It took a while but sometimes that is how life works. Not everything is simple and immediate.”