Survivor of the Gulag

By Dvora Lakein for Lubavitch.com

Top right, Reb Mottel performs a bris in Moscow. Top right, Workers in the Gulag. Bottom left, Official KGB photo of Lifshitz from the KGB archives. Bottom left, Lifshitz performs a wedding in Moscow.

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.

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Devorah Benjamin To Be Honored By Senator Eric Adams

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.

A Look Back at What used to be called Orthodox Judaism

By Dr. Yitzchok Levine for the Jewish Press

A still from the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Levaya video

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.

The Once-in-a-Generation Video is Here!

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:

Video – Canadian Prime Minister Addresses Shluchim

Over 100 Chabad Shluchim from across Canada at a reception on Parliament Hill in Ottawa this past Thursday – March 12, 2009. The Prime Minister’s reception was also a tribute to Chabad’s slain Shluchim to Mumbai, India, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holzberg. He applauded the immediate arrival of a new Shliach of Mumbai, saying it “Sends a powerful message”. Read the full article.

How To Resolve Conflict? – A Beautiful Letter from the Rebbe

Conflict? How is it possible to get along? CrownHeights.info and the Avner Institute is proud to present a letter from the Rebbe to a frustrated Jew who had left the Torah path and written him explaining why. To learn more about the Rebbe visit: www.portraitofaleader.org

A Window Full of Hate

CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — People walking past one Crown Heights storefront are exposed to a window with messages full of hate and anger. These messages cover a broad range of targets, including the government, America, the social welfare provision, and Americans as a whole.

More pictures in the Extended Article.

Food Fight: Brooklyn Co-op Mulls Israel Ban

Forward.com

Located in the heart of Brooklyn, near Prospect Park, the Park Slope Food Coop is at the nexus of the borough’s many diverse Jewish populations. From the liberal Jews of Park Slope to the Hasidic Jews of Crown Heights, the coop is one of the few places in Brooklyn where Jews of all denominations converge in a shared mission: to buy natural foods at reasonable prices.

But the co-op’s unusual Jewish character is being tested by a proposal to ban products bought from Israel, such as the persimmons and red peppers that are currently in the produce aisle.

Op-Ed: Noblewomen

By Getzy Markowitz – Jewish Thought in Simple Words

Had Barack Obama not clinched his party’s nomination, and had the democratic ticket still won the election, the outcome would still be overwhelmingly historic. This country would have elected its first female president. Hillary Clinton’s inauguration would have drawn larger than usual crowds and brought women’s liberation to its crescendo.

Our Western superpower has much to learn from a younger Middle Eastern democracy. If exit polls are accurate, Israel has elected its second female Prime Minister in 60 years. To be sure, Golda Meir was her country’s fourth head of state, but she was hardly the first Jewish woman in a leadership position. Israel’s being ahead of its time, is as old as time itself. Throughout our people’s history, Jewish women have not only been looked up to and respected, but followed and revered.

Obama Pushes Ahead with Plan to Rejuvenate Black-Jewish Alliance

By Ron Kampeas for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON, DC [JTA] — Barack Obama’s pledge to use his presidency to revive the black-Jewish alliance starts on Day (minus) One — the day before he becomes president.

The president-elect’s inaugural committee has asked Jewish groups to make black-Jewish dialogue and joint outreach to the poor a focus of Martin Luther King Day commemorations Jan. 19. Renewing the classic civil rights alliance is part of the inauguration’s “big picture,” a senior inauguration official told JTA.

You Can Go Home

By Larry Gordon for the Five Towns Jewish News

The hall closet still has a box of mothballs sitting on the shelf directly over the coatrack. As a result, it still harbors this pungent but otherwise sartorially healthy scent that tells you that the clothes in here are well protected. This is the hallway closet in my mother’s house in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. I’m there often—though not often enough—usually to pick my mom up before Shabbos or drive her back home after Shabbos, but rarely, if ever, am I there to spend a Shabbos there myself these days.

The New York Times on “Hey Teves”

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In connection with Hey Teves, the following is an article from the New York Times, January 7, 1987, titled “Judge awards Rabbi’s Library to Hasidic Unit” written by Ari Goldman. Included is an interesting picture of the Rebbe, Special thanks to the Rebbe Archive For the picture. to learn more about the Rebbe Visit: portraitofaleader.blogspot.com

“It is total loyalty. And therefore, the Rebbe owes the Chassid total loyalty. So, for the community, the Rebbe must have total generosity and compassion. Also, he has even more responsibility. That’s why he is a Rebbe”

– From Elie Wiesel’s Court Testimony

Op-Ed: Magisterial Bigotry

by Getzy Markowitz

Jews have been the target of injustice for centuries. From judges on the bench to the chancellors who might appoint them, our people have enough historical experience to know when it is time to defend ourselves.

Magistrates preside over cases dealing with minor offenses, and over preliminary hearings that deal with more consequential ones. But a statement made by Magistrate Jon Stuart Scoles on Nov. 20, concerning the bail of an orthodox Jew, was a major offense to every American Jew. It must evoke a harsh response from the Jewish community. In his ruling, the Judge cited Israel’s Law of Return as grounds for not permitting a Jewish defendant to be released on bond, even though he had already surrendered his passport.

Rabbi and Wife Killed in Mumbai Attacks Remembered in South Bay

Melissa Evans – Daily Breeze

SOUTH BAY, CA — South Bay Jewish leaders were stunned to hear that their friend and colleague, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivkah, were targeted victims in last week’s terrorist attacks in India.

Rabbi Sholom Pinson of Chabad of the South Bay attended the same school as Holtzberg and lived just a block from his childhood home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Monumental Op-Ed: We Are One

by Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz – Editor and Publisher of Yated Neeman

The following is a monumental Opinion Editorial that was published in this weeks Yated Neeman by its editor Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz about Achdus and Unity.

Two weeks ago, 4,200 Chabad shluchim gathered in New York to celebrate their accomplishments and dedication. This week, no one is celebrating. But they are more united than ever before. After the atrocities in India, all of us are more united.

Today, the shluchim sit in their outposts around the world and mourn the loss of a couple who gave their lives al kiddush Hashem. All disputes between brothers are brushed aside as Jews everywhere join in mourning the senseless slaughter of beloved, exemplary Jews.

Lubavitch, Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok, Bobov and Volover chassidim, along with Mexican and Indian Jews, and unaffiliated Israeli Jews. Jews of all stripes are mourning as one.

Op-Ed: Mumbai: Deadly Media Euphemisms

Abraham Cooper and Harold Brackman – NY Daily News

The international media have already morphed the horrific slaughter in Mumbai into the murky realm of euphemism and apologetics.

Al Jazeera and The Guardian label the terrorists “gunmen”; CNN calls them “militants.” Some analysts identified the underlying cause as the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. Psychological guru Deepak Chopra called it the result of “collateral damage” from the US war on terrorism and the Iraq war.