New mikvah opening Sunday, Oct. 24, highlights community growth KINGSTON, N.Y.—Rabbi Y. Yitzhak Hecht’s sense of humor is as admirable as his sense of determination. When I arrived at Congregation Agudas Achim, he greeted me enthusiastically and playfully with his smartphone in hand, ready to capture my reaction when he introduced me to my namesake, […]

Pandemic concerns at forefront amid preparations for 38th annual emissaries’ meeting Preparations are underway for the 38th annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim), which will be held this year in a dual virtual and in-person format from Oct. 28 through Oct. 31. Due to ongoing concerns about Covid, there will be changes to […]

An epic endeavor commenced the moment Chabad of Argentina received approval from the La Rural exposition center to produce an avant-garde theatrical production, Aventura en el Templo (Adventure in the Temple) at the venue in Buenos Aires. It typically takes four to six months to prepare a theatrical production. Chabad of Argentina had just four […]

Daily Chassidism podcast in German tops the charts After a few soft bars of a guitar-strummed Chassidic melody, a calm, soothing voice comes through the headphones. “When the Alter Rebbe wished to bless Reb Yekusiel Liepler with wealth,” Chaim Rittri reads in German from HaYom Yom, “the latter said he did not want it; he […]

New volume spurs worldwide study of Shaar HaBitachon (‘The Gate of Trust’) When Esther Hecht walked into a Judaica store during a recent visit to Brooklyn, N.Y., she laid eyes on a book that seemed to be pulling her in. The book was titled Shaar HaBitachon: The Gate of Trust. Hecht was on a visit […]

Chabad of Texas Towns Celebrates the Beginning of its Second Year Rabbi Saadya Kaufmann, director of Chabad of Texas Towns, runs his Chabad house from the driver’s seat of his car. He clocks several thousand miles a month driving across the sprawling state of Texas, and around Jewish holidays, he spends even more time on […]

“Vision Conscious” Hachanah to the Kinus Livestream Launch Today In anticipation of the upcoming Kinus Hashluchim, which is 30 years since the Rebbe delivered the landmark sicha of Kinus Hashluchim 5752,  a unique Zoom organized by the Moshiach Office and the Kinus Office will be taking place today at 3:00 PM NY Time. Thirty shluchim will […]

Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures Moshe Koppel Jerusalem, Israel: Maggid, 2020 About thirty years ago, wandering through the stacks of Cornell’s Olin Library, I found a book of old sermons by a prominent early twentieth-century rabbi. He offered a valiant defense of traditional Jewish practice. He wrote that the prohibition against pork, science […]

Chabad of Ivory Coast This past winter, Debbie Bensaid traveled to her childhood home in Kinshasa to help her parents with their community work. Her mother, Miriam Bentolila, was receiving treatment in Israel, her husband, Rabbi Shlomo, at her side. Debbie, their eldest, brought her husband and two kids to the Democratic Republic of the […]

In Episode 10 of Lamplighters: Stories From Chabad Emissaries On The Jewish Frontier, singerDavid Babinet tells the story of his journey to Torah Judaism, which included stops on opera stages all over the world, and the home of Rabbi Simcha Backman, the shliach at Chabad of Glendale, California, whose friendship helped Babinet find the balance […]