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Letter and Spirit: Wiping Out Amalek

In honor of Purim, we present a letter from the Rebbe in which he responds to a law professor who asked “How can a humane, civilized person today accept the Biblical commandment to wipe out the entire nation of Amalek?” A second letter is presented as well, in which the Rebbe derives a lesson from Queen Esther. The letters are from the archives of Rabbi Nissan Mindel, OBM, personal secretary to the Previous Rebbe and the Rebbe, and were made available by his son-in-law, Rabbi Sholom Ber Schapiro.

Montessori Schools Surge in Popularity Among New Generation of Jewish Parents

In the boys’ classroom at Lamplighters Yeshivah in the Hasidic Jewish stronghold of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Montessori number-counting boards and decimal beads share space with Hebrew-learning materials. A colorful timeline on the wall shows two strands of world history in parallel: secular on the left, Jewish on the right. A photo of the grand rabbi of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement hangs above a list of tasks that children perform individually: make a fractions poster, practice cursive, learn about the moon’s phases.

New York Times

National Russian Shabbaton Draws 1,000 Participants

With the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, the Jews of Soviet Russia found themselves in a dire situation. Religious life had been stifled for decades, and with rampant food and supply shortages, both their spiritual and material selves were in danger. It was then that a small group of Chabad activists stranded behind the Iron Curtain in Samarkand—today, Uzbekistan—decided that they had to do something to assist their fellow Jews. A few men banded together, and the Chamah organization was born.