The Rebbe is on the National Museum of American Jewish History’s online poll for Jewish figures who will appear on their new $150 million building is set to open on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall in the fall of 2010.
MONROE, NJ — The synagogue in the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe has taken on a new air of spirituality with the installation of 18 new stained-glass windows.
Ten large windows and several smaller ones depict a portion of the Sh’ma prayer and contain allusions to mitzvot associated with the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
CONEJO, CA [CHI] — On Wednesday evening, June 10th, Chabad of the Conejo marked its 30th anniversary with a gala banquet at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel – a celebration described by many participants as one of the most moving, entertaining and inspirational they’d ever attended. Entitled “Celebration 30: Gateway to the Future”, the evening was highlighted by poignant tributes, side-splitting comedy, stirring music, an historic dedication and a momentous announcement.
Homegrown wedding: Bay Area Chabad first: Raised in Berkeley, now husband and wife
First and foremost, the wedding of Rivkie Ferris to Rabbi Dovid Feld is a great love story.
Ten years ago, at the age of 11, Rivkie was told by her heart that Dovid was going to be her future husband, and it was at that moment — at Dovid’s bar mitzvah — that she decided precisely how she was going to bring about their union: By avoiding him for the next 10 years.
WASHINGTON [CNN] — The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist from Maryland, two law enforcement officials told CNN.
Von Brunn served six years in prison on federal attempted kidnapping, assault and firearms charges after what he called a citizen’s “legal, nonviolent citizens arrest” of members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
This new portrait revealed Tuesday is said to be of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. The portrait has been passed over from family to family in the last 200 years.
The disputed elections have taken place, and it remains to be seen what will be on June 3rd. If the plaintiffs drop their claim, then these are the people we will live with for the next three years.
What’s particularly disturbing to me in all this are not the disagreements but the vitriol with which they’ve come to be expressed. The comments made on community websites, particularly CrownHeights.Info have been especially nauseating. The wisdom of posting them aside, the feelings revealed by these postings are irrational to the point of borderline dangerous.
Rabbi Osdoba has been vilified in the most vile terms. Therefore I feel a need to express my opinion.
Let me begin by saying that I have no doubt as to the sincere motivation of all who are serving in community posts today. That includes the rabbonim as well as the netzigim, gabboyim and vaad hakohol, Shomrim and Shmira etc.
However, something is just not working in Crown Heights. I have not lived there in some time, but even when I left, the beauty and kedusha of Kan Tziva Hashem es haBrocho, of the Rebbe’s Dalet Amos, was obscured by physical decline that mirrored the societal and spiritual decline which is sadly gaining a greater and greater foothold in Crown Heights.
We are beset by problems of children going off the derech, of adults who are barely hanging on physically as well as spiritually, of rising crime, and of a general atmosphere of decline. Then there is the problem of tznius which deserves separate mention, though sadly it is a problem throughout Chabad and not only in Crown Heights.
Who’s who you ask, allow me to tell you but first let make an introduction – Politics.
Crown Heights has a history in politics, to the average Crown Heightser its “let them fight” and “who cares” or “I’m not interested” is that so? In politics there are a couple of aspects – rumors, propaganda, and fact.
Rumors come from one party and spread from a misunderstanding of the whole situation and without any fact backing and no one wanting to stand by their own statement.
Propaganda is when a party would like the community and its residents to believe that they are the right and just cause, and that they are fighting for your rights and in turn they receive your support.
Dear Crown Heights Residents:
My name is Reina Ezagui.
I used to live in Crown Heights with my wonderful husband Eliyahu and our four children–but now live in Israel because there was nowhere else to go.
Make no mistake: I stand by my husband 100%–which is exactly why you need to hear what I have to say. Forget the rumors. I want to tell you what Eliyahu’s ongoing legal battles are doing to our family.
Unused newspaper racks clutter a storage yard in San Francisco.
Almost since I can remember, I’ve wanted to go into the newspaper business. Specifically, I’ve wanted to be a journalist. I’ve always felt a connection to the written word: book report assignments in elementary school thrilled me and I often finished them the same day they were assigned; I am a voracious reader, probably utilizing my library card more often than I do my credit card; and I rarely leave the house without a book or two tucked away for long train rides or delays at the doctor’s office. Watching my father flip through the New York Times every morning when I was a little girl made quite an impression on me: whatever could demand his attention first thing in the morning, as well as the attention of millions of readers around the world, was something I wanted in on. And let’s face it, there was probably no cooler heroine when I was growing up than plucky Lois Lane, who went after her story without thought of safety or consequence (though admittedly, not every reporter has a superhero to rescue her from any potential peril).
Little Moshe has passed through the time of danger. He is healthy and clever, and if he’s sometimes clingy, that’s fine with Rivki. Staying busy with him, with all her work, keeps difficult thoughts at bay. Such as: Why are she and Gabi here, amid the stench and chaos and otherness of Mumbai? They could have been in Brooklyn or Israel instead, with family and comforts nearby to ease their sadness.
But why think about what can’t be helped? They are here because that’s what the Rebbe inspired them to do. And look at the blessings their sacrifice has brought them, just as he said it would: Moshe, their miracle, and now another child on the way. God willing, the family will grow and bring honor to their mission.
Sixth of eleven,the middlest of middle children, Rivka Rosenberg, born in 1980, grows up in Afula, Israel, in a Lubavitcher home: a smiler, a laugher, knowing how to fit in yet managing to be heard. Everyone calls her Rivki. “Not meek,” a friend says. “Not recessive. Full of life. Always looking to connect. That’s the secret.” The friend pauses. “And that’s the problem.”
NEW YORK, NY [CHI] — In effort to win Black votes in the coming city elections for mayor, Mike Bloomberg said that he was a fan of controversial activist and politician Al Sharpton. Al Sharpton is known in the Crown Heights Jewish community circles, as the force who riled up residents in Crown Heights during the 1991 riot. The following is a piece by Eizabeth Benjamin for the NY Daily News Blog.
Appearing at the National Action Network’s annual meeting at the Sheraton New York in midtown this afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg was full of praise for the organization’s founder, the Rev. Al Sharpton.
In a small apartment on a busy Crown Heights intersection you can find 92-year-old Reb Mottel Lifshitz. Affectionately known as “Reb Mottel the Shochet,” he spends his days quietly studying, writing, and … still enjoying herring. Born during the final years of Czar Nicholas II’s reign, Lifshitz not only survived two world wars, the Russian gulag, and Communist rule, but also lived to see his enemies perish.
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Crown Heights community activist Devorah Benjamin will be among a group of women being honored this Thursday, March 26 by State Senator Eric Adams as part of Women’s History Month.
The event will be held tomorrow, Thursday March 26, at the T-Building Auditorium of Kings County Hospital, 451 Clarkson Avenue, 2nd floor (at New York Ave). The event will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a reception at which kosher food will be served. The awards presentation will be held at 8:00 p.m.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn was the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe (widely known as the Frierdiker – Yiddish for “previous” – Rebbe). He served in that position for 30 years, from 1920 until his passing on Shabbos morning, January 28, 1950. He was buried at Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York.
Recently, someone sent me a link to a video clip of his levaya. From the clip one can see a number of external differences between Orthodoxy circa 1950 and Orthodoxy today.
CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — JEM is pleased to announce the release of a much-anticipated new DVD, The Blessing of the Sun, about Birchas Hachama – the special once in 28 years Mitzva which is upcoming shortly.
The new 90-minute disc includes:
11
