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Photos: Putin Visits Western Wall with Rabbi Lazar

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s chief rabbi Berel Lazar visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem today, June 26, 2012. After saying a prayer at the wall as customary, Mr. Putin requested a tour of the temple mount tunnels, which they were promptly given by the Kotel’s rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch.

Israel’s Missile Shield Aces First Serious Test

AP

Israel’s Iron Dome rocket shield has aced its first serious test. Gaza’s Hamas rulers have been careful to stay on the sidelines. And Islamic Jihad — now closer to Iran than is its larger rival Hamas — is taking the lead in this round against Israel.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Visits Western Wall

Arutz 7

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Konstantin Grishchenko, visited the Kotel (Western Wall) on Sunday. He was accompanied by Israel’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Reuven Dinel, and Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel, Hennadii Nadolenko. The three were led by Rabbi Mordechai Elihav, the Director-General of the Wall Heritage Foundation and Rabbi Yossi Kurzweil of Chabad, who was recently appointed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to oversee the relations between the Jewish organizations in Ukraine and the Foreign Ministry.

Amidst ’91 Coup, Russian Jewry Kept Summer Camps Open

Children and their counselors pose for a group photo at a Chabad-Lubavitch run summer camp outside Moscow in the early 1990s.

As the world watched hard-line Communists make their last-ditch effort 20 years ago to reclaim control of the fracturing Soviet Union, a young Rabbi Berel Lazar was due to return to Moscow. Lazar, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary who was then rabbi of the Russian capital’s Marina Roscha district, had been in New York attending to his wife and newborn baby. The August coup of 1991 – known popularly as the Putsch – began a day before their scheduled return.