History was made today in Kathmandu, Nepal when a new Sefer Torah was completed and a massive procession made its way down the main street. The new Torah was dedicated in memory of a 22-year-old hiker who disappeared, his body later found after massive searches.
There was something surprisingly calm about the tiny Brooklyn courtyard of 770 Eastern Parkway, the address of the international headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch. Groups of Hasidic men passed by talking, clutching cellphones, laughing, carrying boxes of books. One morning this past March, I knocked on a heavy wooden door; someone inside the building buzzed me in.
The heart of Boston was home to a Sukkah during this year’s Sukkot holiday, thanks to the joint efforts of Chabad of Boston, the Jewish Center and Central Synagogue of Boston.
A new letter from the Rebbe to President Ronald Reagan sheds light on the Rebbe’s approach to education – not just for Jews, but for all humankind.
“Excuse me, are you Jewish?” It’s a question heard on the streets of New York and other cities this time of year as members of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement approach other Jews and ask them to shake the lulav and the etrog — a sheath of palm fronds and a citrus fruit — in observance of Sukkot.
Only 19 percent of the voters in the New York city mayoral primary on September 10 were Jewish.
The library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad (Aguch), located adjacent to 770, was broken into this past Friday night by two Lubavitcher Bochurim. The Aguch Library houses a priceless collection of books and artifacts vital to Chabad history, most of which was amassed by the Lubavitcher Rebbes over several generations.
Since its inception over a year ago ago, the Betzalel Gallery has become known as the definitive source for fine Judaic art. The gallery’s distinctiveness is evident both in the stature of its artists and a rare quality, reflecting the richness and warmth of Jewish heritage, that is recognizable in its art.
Zachary Ruttenberg first connected with Chabad last year in Mumbai, India, where he was living at the time. Two young rabbinical students from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., showed up at the synagogue where he was praying—Magen David in Colaba—and said if he was ever in Brooklyn, he should look them up. A year and several countries later, Ruttenberg did just that; he reconnected with one of them.
Rabbi Levi Edri, acting as liaison between the Ukrainian Jewish community and the Israeli government, delivered a letter from Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich to Israeli President Shimon Peres, wishing him a happy 90th birthday.
An in-home visit with two young rabbis from Brooklyn left Sioux Falls resident Aloma Graham with a sense of connection to her Jewish roots.
An agency that has been offering interest free loans to those in need for over 100 years has recently set its sights on a particular demographic, Brooklyn’s chasidic community, lending over $1.5 million dollars over the past several years to locally owned businesses.
Rabbi Dr. Jacob Immanuel Schochet, a Chabad scholar and academic, and a preeminent defender of traditional Jewish belief, passed away on Shabbat, the 20th of Av 5773, July 27th 2013, following a long illness. He was 77.
Each Friday afternoon, students of the Rabbinical College of Australia (YG-Melbourne) and Mesivtah take part in Mivtzoim, and this past Sunday, the eve of the 15th of Av – 21 July, over 50 people regularly visited on Mivtzoim gathered to thank their Friday volunteers.
Delivering his most explicit and candid appraisal yet, David N. Dinkins says in a forthcoming memoir that he barely won the New York City mayoral election in 1989 and lost four years later for one reason: because he is black.
With the grand opening of the Alaska Jewish Museum recently, the story of Alaska’s role in Operation Magic Carpet finally gets its due. At a July 4 reception, state officials and philanthropists involved in the project enjoyed a preview of the Museum’s permanent exhibit,On the Wings of Eagles: Alaska’s Contribution to Operation Magic Carpet.
On a Sunday evening in early June, thousands of Hasidic men in long coats and black hats braved the heat to attend two outdoor anti-Internet asifas (or gatherings in Yiddish) organized by leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, N.Y. Women were forbidden, but the real temptation for the men was already in their laps, where they covertly thumbed their smartphones.
