For Jewish students on campus at Duke University, the “Israel conversation” often puts them on the receiving end of a whole lot of hate. This past semester, Rabbi Zalman Bluming, director of Chabad at Duke/UNC & Chabad at Durham/Chapel Hill, brought in two wounded Israeli soldiers to speak to the students. “Most students have no […]

Pillar of kindness fled tyranny in Soviet Russia, found material and spiritual prosperity in America Reb Michel Raskin, an unassuming pillar of kindness and hospitality who survived the ravages of Stalinist oppression and the horrors of World War II to become an iconic bridge between Chassidic life in Soviet Russia and America, passed away on […]

Fifty years of Chabad at SUNY Buffalo The year 1971 was a tumultuous one. Think Pentagon Papers. The 26th Amendment. The Vietnam War. Student uprisings and resistance rallies disrupted college campuses across the country. At the State University of New York at Buffalo, a few years before, a group of students protesting the war had […]

Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish Arbor Day that falls this year on January 17, marks the traditional new year for trees. Celebrated annually on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, Tu B’Shevat is held in the season when the earliest-blooming trees in Israel emerge from winter’s hibernation and start to bud. Customarily the […]

People around the world prayed and dedicated mitzvahs in the merit of those held Four hostages were freed and their captor killed at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, after a raid by an FBI hostage rescue team ended a 10-hour standoff, which U.S. President Joe Biden called “an act of terror.” The hostage-taker—who was […]

Kindly family doctor treated Brooklyn residents for decades He was a classic family doctor, in tune with every patient’s needs and quirks, and who took phone calls and made house visits at all hours of the night. And for many streaming through the cluttered offices of Dr. Moshe (Robert) Feldman, there was the added bonus […]

“My zaidy called it ‘di heiliger Shabbos’ (the holy Shabbos); my father called it the Shabbos; I call it ‘the Sabbath,’ my children call it ‘Saturday,’ and my grandchildren call it ‘the day before Super Bowl Sunday’.” This pithy anecdote describes a tragic trend among Jews who came over from the Old World and failed, for whatever […]

The splitting of the Red Sea, the dramatic finale to the Jewish People’s Exodus from Egyptian bondage, began when Moshe heeded G-d’s instruction to lift his staff and stretch his arm over the sea. The Targum Yonasan informs us that this staff was inscribed with the name of G-d, as well as the names of […]

Rabbi Moshe Feller opens a session in the Capitol for the tenth time On the eve of the 10th of Shevat, an auspicious date in Jewish history, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) honored a beloved rabbi from her home state to open the Senate with a prayer. For Rabbi Moshe Feller, longtime director of Chabad-Lubavitch […]