On a blustery first night of Chanukah in 1975, more than 1,000 Jews crowded into San Francisco’s Union Square to witness the first giant public menorah-lighting in modern history. Here is the story and history.
The eight day Jewish festival of Chanukah commenced in Canberra with festive community events – the highlights being the 6th annual ceremony in Canberra Parliament’s Reception Room as well as a community fair including the lighting of the National Menorah at Chabad ACT’s HQ. This year’s theme was “Bringing World Peace”.
For more than 200 years in Chabad-Lubavitch communities around the world—in the best of circumstances and the worst—these early winter days have been dedicated to preparing for the Chassidic holiday of Yud Tes Kislev, the 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev. here are some examples from throughout Chabad History.
Robin Levin from Lander, Wyoming, drove 3 hours to Jackson Hole to partake in the simcha of young Shlucha, Chayale Mendelsohn, the first Chassidic Bas Mitzvah in the State of Wyoming. Here’s how she summed up her experience in an email she sent to her Shluchim, Rabbi Zalman and Raizy Mendelsohn:
The Yeshiva Gedolah of Greater Miami in Florida announced that it will be traveling to Rostov-on-Don, Russia, to commemorate the 100th yartzeit of the Rebbe Rashab, the 5th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch.
The people of Modi’in have some pretty big shoes to fill come every Chanukah. The city, located in Israel’s center midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is the illustrious epicenter of the Chanukah story and hometown of its heroes—the larger-than-life Maccabees and their emboldened leader and father, Matisyahu, the Hasmonean priest.
Mr. Avi Piamenta is a virtuoso flutist and singer who performs around the world. He lives in Israel, where he was interviewed in December of 2018. The full text of the Rebbe’s letter can be found in Likkutei Sichot volume 38 page 179.
Rabbi Ceitlin, Shliach to Metairie, Louisiana, shares a story of helping a Jewish woman find a proper burial, with lots of Hashgacha Pratis.
JText, a new and innovative method of engaging teenagers, has met major success. With the challenge of competing against the brightly lit screens of today’s technology, JText is a breakthrough.
JLI’s new course this fall, Worrier to Warrior, has struck a chord with the public across the country and the globe with many shluchim seeing unusually high numbers of participants. Multiple shluchim report a significant increase in student enrollment, with some experiencing their largest turnout in JLI history.
Rabbi Mordechai Altein A”H shared some memories at a farbrengen in Boro Park on Shabbos Shmini, 5769, which was later recorded, and now published by Rabbi Chaim Dalfin.
2123 Hebrew school students from 127 cities around the world took the very first test of JewQ 5780. JewQ is the international Torah competition that’s taking the Hebrew school community by storm. Modeled after the popular Chidon Sefer Hamitzvos, kids study and take tests that determine who qualifies for a Shabbaton in Crown Heights—and who will represent their school onstage at the highly-anticipated competition event.
As part of efforts to strengthen cooperation between the Binyamin Regional Council and the Jewish community in Moscow, Russia, dozens of Russian Jews visited ancient Shiloh on Thursday.
At the nearby University of Pittsburgh, the outpouring of support for the Jewish community on campus was instant and firm following the mass shooting at the Tree of Life. The product of a longstanding and warm relationship between university administrators and Chabad, this advocacy was again on display as the university became the first in the world to host a travelling art exhibit and Holocaust memorial.
Anthony Fineberg could think of no better way to honor his slain mother, Joyce Fineberg, and the 10 other victims of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh on its one-year anniversary than to invite the public to lay tefillin on the institution’s grounds.
It is known as the birthplace of the Hippie Movement (and counts some well-known Jewish hippies in its history), and on Sunday, the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco celebrated the opening of its first permanent Chabad center. Chabad of Cole Valley is a $2.2 million project in its first phase, with more to come.
The Jewish community of Astrakhan has roots that go back to the dawn of recorded history in Eastern Europe. Situated near the salt mines of Lake Baskunchak, northwest of the Caspian Sea in the southernmost reaches of Russia, Astrakhan has experienced the historical ebbs and flows of Jewish trade and settlement. But for the last century, Astrakhan has been without one of the most central and important features of any Jewish community: a mikvah.
