A new Jewish community center opened in Moscow yesterday, targeting students of the prestigious International Relations Institute situated next door. This is the first “on-campus” Jewish center in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), where most JCCs are family-oriented and located in residential areas.
The Sefer Torah that was stolen from the Chabad Shul in the Shaarei Chessed neighborhood of Jerusalem was found and returned to its rightful owners.
When Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sunday, Oct. 2, members of Chabad of South Austin/Young Jewish Professionals will hold their first minyan since last Yom Kippur. Together, they will celebrate not only the start of the Jewish New Year, but the welcoming of a new Sefer Torah.
Building on a longtime family tradition, one esrog vendor shares the history that brings him back to Calabria, Italy, year after year in order to provide great-quality Esrogim at unbeatable prices.
From Bobruisk in Belarus to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and everywhere in-between in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), the new 2017 EuroStars season officially opened last week. Over 1,800 Jewish college students signed up for the program ahead of the new year, with clubs opening in 44 cities and 9 FSU countries.
Renowned for kangaroos and boomerangs, Australia is not usually first to mind when thinking of the Rebbe and Chabad. However, Australia possesses a treasure trove of people with close relationships with the Rebbe and myriads of encounters and stories of the Rebbe.
Nestled within Canada’s Selkirk Mountains, the city of Nelson, British Columbia, has neither synagogue nor rabbi. But there are Jews there.
Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan spent Sunday evening after a day of 9/11 ceremonies explaining Israeli survival skills and resiliency to a gathering of more than 70 residents in the Basil restaurant in Crown Heights.
Heritage Quest, CTeen’s groundbreaking summer trip through Poland and Israel, recently concluded its first annual trip, offering a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Jewish teens from around the world to explore the roots of their Jewish heritage at the source. Teens traveled in time, through the tragic history of Poland, leading all the way to visiting and learning about Jewish life in Israel. The effect of Heritage Quest is one that will go down in history.
Lawrence Rekblatt, 22, is getting ready to ride in a bike-a-thon to honor senior citizens. Organized through Chabad’s United Jewish Generations program in North Miami Beach, Fla., the ride will bring different generations together on Grandparents Day, which is celebrated annually on the first Sunday after Labor Day. This year it falls on Sept. 11, marking the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and U.S. Pentagon.
On Monday, over 7,000 Jewish students across the Former Soviet Union (FSU) started the new learning year in FJC’s Or Avner schools and kindergartens. Even though some have already had the “First Bell” openings on Thursday, for most the festive ceremony, customary in the post-Soviet education system, took place on Monday. And in a unique Or Avner tradition, the ringing of the first bell came alongside the blowing of the Shofar, highlighting the Jewish character of the schools and underlining the idea of an education aimed at excellence in both general subjects and Jewish heritage.
This is the story of how a handful of young Chassidim set out to build a global communications network in the era before Periscope, Skype, VoIP, or even satellite or Cable TV. Their actions would sow the seeds for dozens of future Chabad-led forays into digital communications.
Like their counterparts in the West, most Jewish campers in the former Soviet Union receive the most extensive, joyous and impactful encounters with their heritage and traditions during the summer months. What makes some of the 5,000 campers in the 61 Chabad-Lubavitch Gan Israel camps in the FSU so different than others, though, is that many of them have suffered through the trauma of war, displacement and even witnessing death, while many others come from families whose connection with their Jewish roots was severed during decades of Soviet oppression.
Thousands of NYPD officers and light towers did not deter the violence at last night’s J’ouvert festivals, where two people were shot dead and another four were injured from gunshots and stabbings.
What’s a Chabad rabbi to do if he wants to help Jews in the in the Amazon Rainforest keep kosher? Rabbi Arieh Raichman, Chabad representative to Manaus, Brazil, has been chewing on this conundrum for some time now.
In honor of the upcoming Shloshim of Mrs. Chaia Mushka Stiefelmann, OBM, beloved Shlucha in S. Paulo, Brazil, and loving mother to four children, we present the English transcript of a lecture delivered by her husband, Rabbi Avraham Stiefelmann, in loving memory of his wife.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is a struggle faced by most people in the workforce. For Shluchim whose entire lives are dedicated to the Rebbe’s work, this challenge is all the more poignant.
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