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 […]
Crown Heights: A Jewish Community Under Attack From Coronavirus
Kindness abounds from behind closed doors, even though its streets are silent The streets of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., during the weeks before Passover are usually busy and boisterous—those of a modern-day shtetl preparing for one of the biggest events of the year. Children ride their scooters and bikes after school, meeting […]
Last-Minute Seder Deliveries to Medical Staff in Chicago Treating Thousands
Some 3,000 patients are being treated at cavernous convention center When the State of Illinois and the city of Chicago decided to transform the largest convention center in North America into a field hospital to stem the flow of patients suffering from the coronavirus (COVID-19), Passover plans for the Jewish personnel was not the first […]