Tel Aviv Shliach: Israeli Jews Are Assimilating

In an address to hundreds of senior officials at the Education Ministry in Jerusalem, including Education Minister Shai Piron and the Director General of the Ministry, Rabbi Yoseph Gerlitzky, the head Shliach to Tel Aviv-Yaffo and Chief Rabbi of Central Tel Aviv, bemoaned the education system in Israel, saying that “the existence of the State of Israel alone is not the solution to assimilation. Only an authentic Jewish education instilled with Jewish pride can stem the tide of assimilation.”

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Story: Yom Kippur with Boris

For many years, Rabbi Col. Fishel Jacobs has served as Chabad’s emissary to Israel’s prisons, where he visits incarcerated Jews and provides them with refreshments, words of encouragement and the opportunity to perform several Mitzvos. The following is an excerpt from his soon-to-be-released memoir, titled Coffee Melts Bars, in which he recounts a Yom Kippur encounter with a hulking middle-aged Russian-Jewish convict named Boris.

The Story of a Young Family’s Survival of Deadly Storm

“For almost two days, I couldn’t contact my brother Benny,” writes Zvi Hershcovich, editor-in-chief of Bill 613, a Montreal Jewish community news website. Zvi describes in great detail the harrowing ordeal of his brother and sister-in-law, Rabbi Benny and Sonia Hershcovich, who recently survived a devastating hurricane that ravaged the town of Cabo S. Lucas, located at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, where they serve as Chabad emissaries.

Released Time Instructors Instructed

For most Americans, Labor Day is an annually anticipated day of fun and barbecuing. For many Brooklynites however, it is just one of those dreaded days when the city is gridlocked, leaving those in it grounded until all the chaos is over. But for one group, this year’s Labor Day had a pleasant surprise in store: a surprise that would prove to be both entertaining and empowering for the unique task which lies ahead of them this year.

Uruguay Jews ‘Lunch & Learn’ with Former President

In April 1936, as Nazi persecutions were battering the Jews of Germany and active anti-Semitism was on the rise throughout Europe, the Jewish community of Montevideo, Uruguay, founded the “Inca Shul,” formally known as Asociación Religiosa Israelita Beis Hakneseth Harischona. It attracted community residents and, over the next decade, appealed to hundreds of Jewish families fleeing Europe.

Letter & Spirit: Betrayal of the Ukrainian Socialists

In this week’s edition of Letter & Spirit, we present a letter of the Rebbe in which he describes the betrayal which Jewish socialists in Ukraine suffered on the part of their non-Jewish compatriots in the aftermath of the Russian civil war. The letter was written through the Rebbe’s trusted secretary Rabbi Nissan Mindel, and was made available by his son-in-law Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro.

JLI Teens Teaches What’s Relevant to Jewish Youth

Amid the gleaming, densely populated towers of Hong Kong, a dozen Jewish teenagers from various backgrounds were in full-swing class mode at the headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch of Hong Kong. The conversation grew more animated as the subject matter jumped from bullying to honesty to issues of privacy. The teens were excited, engaged. They tried individually to express their own opinions, grappling to apply the core Jewish principles they had been discovering to the topics at hand.

Op-Ed: Is Jewish Inferior?

We’re in one of the rooms in the Pediatrics Department at Downstate Medical Center. My brother, 16, was suffering from severe stomach pains, and our doctor sent him for some tests and rest until they’ll have it all figured out. I’m sitting beside his bed scribbling on the margins of a Sudoku book; he’s watching a video on my phone. While contemplating my future summer plans, an official looking guy – dressed casually, but definitely working for the Hospital – with a big smile walks in, and explaining that his job is to ensure that the Hospitals patients don’t fall behind in their studying for the upcoming high school Regents, asks if my brother will be needing any help.

by Meir Yedidya