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 […]
Learning How to Trust in Uncertain Times: Ancient Text Is a Modern Guide
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 House In A Car
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 […]
TODAY: 30 Year Impact Event
“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 […]
A Defense Of Torah Judaism
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 […]
A Family Affair In Africa
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 […]
Ep. 10: Finding Beautiful Melodies In Torah-Observant Life
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 […]
Scholars to Apply Rebbe’s Social Vision to World’s Most Challenging Problems
Conference hosted on Zoom from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14 Inspired by sociologist Professor Philip Wexler’s 2019 book, Social Vision: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Transformative Paradigm for the World an international group of scholars and practitioners in various spheres of research and social work will convene this week on Zoom to share new insights and ideas […]
Tomsk Educational Center Heralds Jewish Renewal
Deep in Siberia, Russia, the city of Tomsk has long been home to a storied Jewish past. With the inauguration of its new Children’s Сultural and Educational Center on September 12, the city’s Jewish community celebrated a bright future. Standing next door to the Tomsk Choral Synagogue, the new center boasts twenty-five thousand square feet […]
A Double Bar Mitzvah Celebration in Remote Northern Australia
A community comes together after a canceled celebration in Israel Daniel Azoulay is among a handful of Jewish kids living in a radius of hundreds of miles of his hometown of Townsville, Australia, and his parents, Eyal and Anat, wanted to give him a memorable bar mitzvah. The planning began well before his 13th birthday: […]