A photographic memory, humble spirit and panoramic mastery of Torah sources JERUSALEM—Automobile traffic was shut down in much of central Israel on March 20 as hundreds of thousands of mourners traveled from around the nation by bus and train to Bnei Brak as Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky, one of the generation’s leading Lithuanian Torah […]

In 1942 Rabbi Sholom Ber Gordon was called into the offices of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and given a one-way bus ticket to Newark, New Jersey. His pioneering work filled some of the first pages in the annals of Chabad’s outreach efforts and he would devote the next sixty years of […]

Celebrating the holiday far from home Late on Tuesday, Miriam Moskovitz, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Kharkov, Ukraine with her husband Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz, received a text from a woman in her community and a photo of fresh-baked hamantaschen. Given that it was a day before Purim, that wasn’t particularly remarkable. What was remarkable, though, was […]

Holiday goes on in cities under attack Wearing a wide-brimmed sombrero and colorful poncho, Kherson’s Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff, stood in the city’s beautiful renovated synagogue clutching a megillah. All around the Russian-occupied city, there were bombed out buildings, food shortages, and restrictions on movement, but for a few brief moments on Purim eve, there […]

In-person celebrations return, with commitments to Judaism stronger than ever Last year at this time the world was still struggling with a pandemic. This year, hearts and minds are turned towards the people of Ukraine. Nevertheless, Jewish people around the world are celebrating the holiday of Purim, as they have ever since they faced extinction […]

They welcome refugees, distribute food and lead religious services As soon as a river of Jewish refugees began streaming out of Ukraine, it became clear that Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in Europe needed more manpower—and fast. In response to the urgent pleas for help, the Ukraine Jewish Relief Fund opened a relief desk, which as part of […]

READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF ESTHER’S STORY Purim celebrates a familiar plot: A nation threatened with destruction is saved at the eleventh hour when its enemy’s plans are miraculously thwarted. Deliverance comes through Esther, introduced to us in the Megillah as a young, shy maiden, at first, unprepared when called upon by Mordechai to take […]

Other communal buildings are also damaged; Chabad vows to rebuild A boys yeshivah in Kharkov, Ukraine, that also serves as a synagogue was damaged on Tuesday after it was hit directly by rocket fire— the third Jewish communal building to be damaged in the city. Chabad-Lubavitch of Kharkov’s kindergarten, Ohr Avner Jewish day school and […]

Ramping up mass evacuation efforts from east Ukraine Jewish capital For two weeks of the war in Ukraine, the eastern city of Dnipro—Ukraine’s fourth-largest city with almost a million people and an estimated 50,000 Jews—was a haven of relative calm amid the heavy, daily bombardment of other cities. With its advanced Jewish infrastructure, including the […]

Under constant attack, Daniel fields calls for help around the clock The Chabad.org/News team wishes to introduce you to Daniel, a 21-year-old staffer at the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish community in eastern Kiev, who has been devoting night and day caring for the elderly and other vulnerable people in Kiev’s eastern flank, known as the “Left Bank.” […]