The Art of Connecting With Students At UNLV Merav Gedalia, a senior at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, recalls the circumstances that brought her to Chabad. She was accepted to the university three weeks before the start of the new semester, but two days before orientation, her housing options had fallen through. “I reached […]

$70 Million International Program Spurs Planned Giving When Michael and Gail Frye met Chaya and Rabbi Alter Korf a dozen or so years ago, the couple had no idea that they would all become close friends and an important part of each other’s lives. The Fryes already had a strong network of friends and community […]

Engineering student found a lifelong calling teaching Jewish children At the age of 20, Rabbi Shmarya Katzen was at a crossroads in life. An engineering student enrolled at the University of Maryland in 1964, he was filled with a strong sense of yearning for a deeper sense of purpose in life. After a conversation with […]

High Holidays are a time for renewed spirituality Ari Shortt is looking forward to celebrating Rosh Hashanah with his community. Shortt, a Ph.D. candidate studying psychology in Guelph, Ontario, will head to his neighborhood Chabad center with his wife, Eva, and two sons, ages 5 and 2, to enjoy the holiday alongside students and locals […]

The complex world of honey bees has correlations to Judaism, and not just at High Holiday time Human instinct may be to swat, run away or do a frantic little dance to avoid contact with bees, but like most small living creatures, they have more to fear from us than we them. In fact, they […]

From hatred to hope, and from loss to resolve The Jewish year 5779 was replete with consequential events, and Chabad.org/News covered hundreds of them. We shared uplifting moments of humanity at its best and heart-wrenching stories about humanity at its worst. We were there in Pittsburgh, as a community reeled from a horrific attack and […]

Pre-holiday activities at Chabad centers around the globe Rosh Hashanah is in the air. Hundreds of thousands of adults and children learn about and experience the holidays at Chabad centers each year, with more than 4,000 centers worldwide offering pre-holiday activities for young and old alike. Here are just a sample. Toot Your Horn! Dozens […]

Separate Jewish journeys culminate in a difficult, but rewarding, effort Sixty-seven-year-old Fima Shmulburd was born in Ukraine, during Soviet rule, and the child didn’t know he was Jewish until overhearing a conversation between his grandparents in Yiddish. “My grandfather made a joke about G‑d,” Shmulburd recalls, “and grandmother berated him, yelling ‘You are a Jew!’” […]

City’s first ritual bath in 90 years a certain sign of Jewish revival The Jewish community of Astrakhan has roots that go back to the dawn of recorded history in Eastern Europe. Situated near the salt mines of Lake Baskunchak, northwest of the Caspian Sea in the southernmost reaches of Russia, Astrakhan has experienced the […]

Joe DiMaggio walks into a Chabad synagogue. This is not a joke. Although he died years ago, Joe has become a friend of our center. We even named our social hall in his honor. I’m the rabbi (and cantor) at a Chabad shul in Hollywood, Florida. And this is the story of a how a […]