Growing up and coming of age in the Soviet Union, it’s unlikely that Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman could have ever imagined being honored in Washington, D.C., as part of Jewish American Heritage Month.
The first kosher restaurant in the city of Chernovtsy, Ukraine, opened its doors earlier this week, finally providing a place for those who keep kosher in the community to socialize and relax in a comfortable setting, all while having a tasty forshmak or other traditional and healthy treats.
It’s been 55 years since Rabbi Moshe and Mindelle Feller set out to found Upper Midwest Merkos–Chabad Lubavitch in Minnesota in the winter of 1961, a mere month after their marriage. Now, for the first time in a career that has spanned 10 U.S. presidencies and countless meaningful interactions, the couple has agreed to be honored at a gala dinner of the Cheder Lubavitch Day School, which the couple founded 39 years ago in St. Paul.
The Jewish community of Irkutsk, a city in the Russian far north of Siberia, has recently relived an exhilaration like no other: the ancient parochet, the decorative cover for the alcove containing Torah scrolls in the city synagogue, that mysteriously disappeared over a hundred years ago, was returned home through courageous efforts of its rabbi and with the help of no one other than the city mayor himself.
For the first time since its founding in 1949, the village of Kfar Chabad in central Israel has assigned names to its streets.
Delegations from more than fifty Chabad House communities returned last week from JLI’s Land and Spirit trip to Israel. Close to 500 participants from thirty U.S. states, as well as, Canada, England and Australia completed the eight-day inspiring visit.
In the six years since Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, billions of dollars have been poured into the renovation and construction of the city’s transportation system, sporting venues, hotels and urban infrastructure. With the Olympics just months away—the games take place from Aug. 5 to Aug. 21, followed by the Paralympics—Rio is frantically getting itself ready to welcome 10,500 athletes from around the world, as well as the 1.3 million tourists the sporting event is anticipated to draw.
Nissan Mindel Mindel publications, directed by Rabbi Sholom and Frida Shapiro, has released a third volume of the popular series The Letter and the Spirit, containing a wide array of the Rebbe’s letters from the archives of Rabbi Dr. Nissan Mindel, a personal secretary to the Previous Rebbe and The Rebbe, whose responsibilities included the Rebbe’s correspondence in English.
A vibrant 3-day Shabbaton for all of the EnerJew clubs in Ukraine took place in sunny Odessa over the past weekend. EnerJew is the Jewish youth movement throughout the entire former soviet union, a project of Chabad’s Federation of Jewish Communities (FJC).
A part of an apartment building’s facade fell apart and large chunks of bricks and cement came crashing down on a sidewalk four stories below. The building, which is owned by a group of investors, has a history of being neglected and repairs not being made.
An early talk from the Rebbe, delivered at the aufruf kiddush of Mr. Chaim Chanowitz, which took place in 770 on Shabbos parshas Chukas in 1950, was recently discovered with edits of the Rebbe by Lubavitch Archives. The talk was previously published unedited, and is one of a few edited talks by the Rebbe discovered after 3 Tamuz, 1994.
After months of anticipation and preparation, the third annual Jewish heritage ‘Olympics’ quiz for students of Chabad schools across the former Soviet Union has reached its third and final stage.
A shirtless man was apprehended Friday afternoon after he chased a Jewish man while wielding a large knife and shouting Allah Akbar on Montgomery Street.
In this week’s edition of Letter and Spirit, we present a letter from the Rebbe in which he discusses the “why not” of interfaith dialogue. The letter was written in English through the Rebbe’s trusted secretary Rabbi Nissan Mindel, and was made available by the latter’s son-in-law, Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro.
Over two-hundred state and federal judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, scholars and prison officials attended the first ever Alternative Sentencing Key Stakeholders Summit this past week to advance criminal justice reform nationwide. The summit was hosted by the Aleph Institute, the premier Jewish organization that cares for the institutionalized and their families, founded at the express direction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
For the first time in history, Chabad in Russia has printed a Russian-translated Siddur in braille, for the sake of Russian-speaking Jews who suffer from blindness.
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