Hospital staff stand in for family and clergy Chest rising and falling, machines beeping, the hospital room is eerily calm. Nurses flitter in and out, staying just as long as they need to before turning their attention to the next patient. They have so much to do and so little time to do it. The […]
Rebbetzin Rachel Altein, 95, Pioneering Educator, Activist and Editor
An energetic leader and personal mentor to hundreds, she worked under the Rebbe’s guidance for decades The story of Rebbetzin Rachel Altein’s life is intertwined with the history of Chabad in America like that of few others. She served for decades as the English language editor of Di Yiddishe Heim, a periodical by and for […]
The Last Night of Passover, Quarantine Version
How To Do a Traditional Moshiach Feast When You’re Locked Away As the final hours of Passover slip away, Jews in every part of the world celebrate the Feast of Moshiach (Moshiach’s Seudah in Yiddish), a custom of the Baal Shem Tov and his students. Just as we enter Passover with a celebration of the […]
The upside to celebrating in isolation: This might be the holiest Passover ever
NEW YORK (JTA) — Sitting at my Seder table with my two eldest daughters and my wife, I was struggling to find something to say that would provide meaning to this moment. Here we were: alone, beginning a Passover unlike any other we had ever experienced and, please God, will ever experience. Moments before Passover began, […]
With Synagogues Closed, Omer App Sees Spike in Use and New Downloads
With synagogues shuttered indefinitely, Jewish life is evolving to conform with the new home-based reality. When possible, technology is taking a more prominent role, facilitating Torah study, fellowship and more. Perhaps one of the most difficult mitzvahs to fulfill in an ordinary year is the counting of the Omer, which requires that each sequential day […]
Second Synagogue in Alabama City Vandalized With anti-Semitic Slurs Day After First
Chabad of Huntsville was spray-painted with swastikas and racial slurs after a different synagogue was vandalized on the first night of Passover A second synagogue was vandalized in Huntsville, Alabama, days after another one was plastered with anti-Semitic slurs. The Chabad of Huntsville was spray-painted with swastikas and what local media describes as anti-Semitic graffiti and racial slurs […]
Mitzvah Tanks Deliver Matzah to Those Hunkered Down in New York
Repurposed RVs as “Mitzvah Tanks” are a familiar sight on the streets of New York City every year during the days before Passover. Staffed by young yeshivah students armed with shmurah matzah, these “tanks” roll through the city and deliver the traditional handmade discs to thousands of Jews across the metropolis. This year, the repurposed […]
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Groner, 88, Aided the Rebbe for More than Four Decades
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Groner spent decades serving as an aide to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. Over that span of time, Rabbi Groner was a firsthand witness to many of the events that sent ripples of transformation from the Rebbe’s office in New York in ever expanding circles across the […]
Amid Global Crisis, Education Day Brings Ethics to the Forefront in U.S. States and Cities
As the United States and the world combats the global COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. states and cities will follow the lead of the President in taking a moment to mark the 118th anniversary of the birth of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—on 11 Nissan, corresponding this year to Sunday, April 5—as “Education […]
Deliveroo Partners With Chabad in UK to Deliver Seders-to-Go
Helping people celebrate in the As Jews across the United Kingdom prepare for the upcoming festival of Passover, which starts on the evening of April 8, Chabad-Lubavitch of the UK has partnered with popular food-delivery app Deliveroo to ensure that every Jew across the United Kingdom and Ireland can conduct a Seder. The “Seder-to-Go” kits […]