CHESTNUT RIDGE — Nicky Zion waited in a line
Monday night to have a single letter written for her
family and, to her, it was entirely worth the wait.
"I just think it's so special because it's not every day
you get to do this," said the 41-year-old Valley
Cottage resident. "I think it's just a very special thing
to happen to you."
Zion was one of about 100 local Jews to take part in
the completion of the Chabad Jewish Enrichment
Center's new Torah scroll.
Rabbi Chaim Zvi Ehrenreich, director of the Chabad
Center, said that each of the 600,000 letters in the
Torah has a connection to a Jewish soul and that
writing a full Torah is actually considered a mitzvah,
a good deed, required by the Jewish text.
"Most people don't ever do that in its entirety," he
said. "And so today, every family that's here is going
to have the opportunity to have one letter inscribed
for them."
The Chabad Center, at 6 Whitefield Road in Chestnut
Ridge, is part of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch
movement to promote Judaism among all Jews and
was opened in 2001, Ehrenreich said. Since its
inception, the group has used older Torah scrolls
on loan from other Jewish organizations during
their observances.
The Torah scroll completed Monday was donated by
the Tseytin family of Saddle River, N.J. The scroll,
written by a trained scribe in feather and ink, took
about a year to complete. Ehrenreich described the
donation of the scroll as "very, very generous" and
estimated its cost to be between $25,000 and
$50,000.
"The religious meaning of it is beyond that," he said.
"This is the Torah that's handed down from
generation to generation to generation from Mount
Sinai until today. We're going forward now. This is
here for the next 50 years, for the next generation.
It's very, very special."
The ceremony couldn't have come at a more fitting
time. Shavuot, which begins tonight, is the Jewish
holiday during which Moses was given the Torah at
Mount Sinai 3,322 years ago by the Jewish calendar.
Monday's simcha, or celebration, included a series
of traditional Jewish observances such as the
picking up and tying of the Torah. Throughout the
entire event, guests ate and drank, and danced to
music.
Ella Tseytin said she is a spiritual person, but not
overly religious. She said one reason, among many,
that she and her husband, Michael, donated the text
was to honor her father, Yakov Shtivelman, who died
two years ago.
Tseytin said the family wanted to remember
Shtivelman, whom she described as an "amazing
person" who "believed in people," and the family h
oped that the people of Chabad would pray for him
as they read from the new Torah scroll.
She also said that, after consulting with another
rabbi, her family decided that it would be a good
idea to help a Jewish group in need.
"The idea was to do something good for someone
and to feel good doing it," she said. "Maybe it was a
little bit selfish, but the idea was to bring something
good to somebody else."
Showing posts with label chabad house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chabad house. Show all posts
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Graffiti on Jewish sign troubles community
The rabbi of a Chandler Jewish center tagged with anti-Semitic graffiti this week said community members are troubled by the incident, which he hopes was only a lone teenager acting out.
Members of the Chabad of the East Valley learning center, southeast of Ray Road and McClintock Drive, are planning to build and move into a larger facility on a dirt lot to the west. Someone took a black marker Tuesday to a sign advertising the future Chabad House, leaving a couple of swastikas, the letters "WWWP," and a vulgar comment about Jews, according to Chandler police.
Mendy Deitsch, a rabbi at the Chandler Chabad, said the center has been in the area for about 10 years and has had no similar problems. In the wake of the graffiti, some of the center's non-Jewish neighbors called to express concern, he said.
"It's a very nice neighborhood," Deitsch said. "People were very bothered by seeing it, that people could do something like that in this day and age."
Detective Dave Ramer, a Chandler Police Department spokesman, said the incident took place Monday or Tuesday. The person left behind no evidence, and video surveillance from nearby businesses turned up nothing, he said.
Ramer said he's never seen an incident like it in Chandler before.
"Typically, what you do is look at trends. This is the only one that we know of in Chandler," he said.
Bill Straus, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks hate crimes, said the letters WWWP probably refer to "white power," which is associated with neo-Nazism. There has been an increase in the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the Valley in the last several months, he said.
"We see tagging with swastikas on a fairly common basis," Straus said.
Chandler doesn't stand out in the number of such incidents, and police responded admirably, he said. Several motorists had called the Anti-Defamation League after seeing the graffiti.
"Damage was minimal and nobody was hurt. Those are the top priorities," Straus said. "That doesn't mean it isn't serious."
In December, a suspicious package was mailed to the Chabad of Scottsdale that made reference to a terrorist attack in India that left more than 170 dead. A law enforcement bomb squad opened the package to find it contained only harmless papers.
Sgt. Mark Clark, Scottsdale Police Department spokesman, said the mailer turned out to be a former student of the Scottsdale center who had mental problems. No charges were filed.
"They determined relatively quickly after that, that there was no threat to it," Clark said. "He was just venting."
Members of the Chabad of the East Valley learning center, southeast of Ray Road and McClintock Drive, are planning to build and move into a larger facility on a dirt lot to the west. Someone took a black marker Tuesday to a sign advertising the future Chabad House, leaving a couple of swastikas, the letters "WWWP," and a vulgar comment about Jews, according to Chandler police.
Mendy Deitsch, a rabbi at the Chandler Chabad, said the center has been in the area for about 10 years and has had no similar problems. In the wake of the graffiti, some of the center's non-Jewish neighbors called to express concern, he said.
"It's a very nice neighborhood," Deitsch said. "People were very bothered by seeing it, that people could do something like that in this day and age."
Detective Dave Ramer, a Chandler Police Department spokesman, said the incident took place Monday or Tuesday. The person left behind no evidence, and video surveillance from nearby businesses turned up nothing, he said.
Ramer said he's never seen an incident like it in Chandler before.
"Typically, what you do is look at trends. This is the only one that we know of in Chandler," he said.
Bill Straus, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks hate crimes, said the letters WWWP probably refer to "white power," which is associated with neo-Nazism. There has been an increase in the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the Valley in the last several months, he said.
"We see tagging with swastikas on a fairly common basis," Straus said.
Chandler doesn't stand out in the number of such incidents, and police responded admirably, he said. Several motorists had called the Anti-Defamation League after seeing the graffiti.
"Damage was minimal and nobody was hurt. Those are the top priorities," Straus said. "That doesn't mean it isn't serious."
In December, a suspicious package was mailed to the Chabad of Scottsdale that made reference to a terrorist attack in India that left more than 170 dead. A law enforcement bomb squad opened the package to find it contained only harmless papers.
Sgt. Mark Clark, Scottsdale Police Department spokesman, said the mailer turned out to be a former student of the Scottsdale center who had mental problems. No charges were filed.
"They determined relatively quickly after that, that there was no threat to it," Clark said. "He was just venting."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Slain rabbi's kin want to rebuild Jewish centre
MUMBAI: A nauseating smell emanates from the rubble and strewn furniture as Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and his wife Frieda rummage through the belongings of their dead son Gavriel who ran Chabad House in south Mumbai. The house was the city headquarters of the ultra orthodox Hasidic Jews.
The couple and their sons Moshe and Avraham have come to Mumbai from Brooklyn on a two-week sojourn. On Friday morning, the rabbi and his wife visited the deserted Chabad House building, which is more popularly known as Nariman House. During his stay here, the rabbi plans to connect with the local Jewish community, and perform religious ceremonies and duties related to the traditional Friday night meals that his son once performed.
A lone, unarmed security guard lets us in. The tragedy that occurred here a little over two months ago slowly seeps in. On November 26 last year, two Pakistani terrorists targeted the building and killed 29-year-old Gavriel and his wife Rivka, who was five months pregnant.
Accompanied by their hefty Israeli escort, security expert Avi Cohen, the couple inspect the damage to the structure and stare at stains on the walls that appear to be blood. Rabbi Holtzberg picks up stacks of Hebrew books from the floor. His wife Frieda points to a corner and says, "This is where he died." referring to Gavriel.
Earlier, talking to TOI at a south Mumbai hotel, Rabbi Holtzberg said his family's mission now was to seek donations from Indians to rebuild Chabad House. "In our estimate, we'll require at least $ 2 million (approx Rs 10 crore) to get it up and running with enhanced security," he said. "This was a home not only for Jews, but every person, from every other community. Now we need support from the Indian community to come forward and help it start again," he added. The Holtzbergs have already collected some funds from the US and Europe.
Frieda Holtzberg is worried about her two-year-old grandson Moshe, who became a symbol of hope and survival during the terrorist carnage. The boy was miraculously rescued by his nanny Sandra Samuel. They have since moved to Israel. "He is not only a son of Israel, but now of the entire world," his grandparents said. But mundane worries persist, and the couple plan to start a fund to secure his future. "He's happy in Israel, but sometimes still calls out for his parents," says his grandmother.
The rabbi's two sons are however upset that there has been no word of apology from the Indian authorities. "So far we haven't heard from anyone. There is no apology, no support, no statement, no phone calls from the Indian government," said Moshe, adding that both the past and present US presidents had expressed concern.
The couple and their sons Moshe and Avraham have come to Mumbai from Brooklyn on a two-week sojourn. On Friday morning, the rabbi and his wife visited the deserted Chabad House building, which is more popularly known as Nariman House. During his stay here, the rabbi plans to connect with the local Jewish community, and perform religious ceremonies and duties related to the traditional Friday night meals that his son once performed.
A lone, unarmed security guard lets us in. The tragedy that occurred here a little over two months ago slowly seeps in. On November 26 last year, two Pakistani terrorists targeted the building and killed 29-year-old Gavriel and his wife Rivka, who was five months pregnant.
Accompanied by their hefty Israeli escort, security expert Avi Cohen, the couple inspect the damage to the structure and stare at stains on the walls that appear to be blood. Rabbi Holtzberg picks up stacks of Hebrew books from the floor. His wife Frieda points to a corner and says, "This is where he died." referring to Gavriel.
Earlier, talking to TOI at a south Mumbai hotel, Rabbi Holtzberg said his family's mission now was to seek donations from Indians to rebuild Chabad House. "In our estimate, we'll require at least $ 2 million (approx Rs 10 crore) to get it up and running with enhanced security," he said. "This was a home not only for Jews, but every person, from every other community. Now we need support from the Indian community to come forward and help it start again," he added. The Holtzbergs have already collected some funds from the US and Europe.
Frieda Holtzberg is worried about her two-year-old grandson Moshe, who became a symbol of hope and survival during the terrorist carnage. The boy was miraculously rescued by his nanny Sandra Samuel. They have since moved to Israel. "He is not only a son of Israel, but now of the entire world," his grandparents said. But mundane worries persist, and the couple plan to start a fund to secure his future. "He's happy in Israel, but sometimes still calls out for his parents," says his grandmother.
The rabbi's two sons are however upset that there has been no word of apology from the Indian authorities. "So far we haven't heard from anyone. There is no apology, no support, no statement, no phone calls from the Indian government," said Moshe, adding that both the past and present US presidents had expressed concern.
26/11: Rabbi's parents want to rebuild Chabad House
Mumbai terror attack
Mumbai: The parents of the late Rabbi Gavriel, who was killed during the November 26 terror attacks here last year, have announced plans to raise Rs100 million to reconstruct the ravaged Jewish centre in south Mumbai.
Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, accompanied by his wife Frieda, and their sons Avraham and Moshe, visited the Chabad House, the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews, situated inside the better-known Nariman House, near the southern tip of the city.
They examined the belongings of Gavriel and his wife Rivka, who was five months pregnant at the time of the attacks. Their two-year-old son Moshe was miraculously saved from the attacks by his nanny, Sandra Samuel.
Soon after the attacks, they were taken to Israel and now Moshe has become a darling of that country and Jews worldwide. His grandparents and other relatives who look after him say that every now and then, he cries for his dead parents.
The Holtzbergs walked through the mounds of rubble, damaged or broken furniture lying around, books and other household articles gathering dust.
The signs of the November 26, 2008 attacks, and its tragic consequences, are still visible inside and outside the building, guarded now by a single unarmed guard.
Rabbi Holtzberg is hoping for the help of even local Indians for the reconstruction and rebuilding efforts since the place was not just for the Jews, but members of other communities too.
So far, they have raised some funds - for the rebuilding of the Chabad House - from Europe and the US, but will need much more, an estimated Rs100 million, to make it rise again with enhanced facilities and security systems.
The All India Jews Federation president Jonathan Solomon confirmed he had heard about the proposed plans to reconstruct Chabad House. "However, even I have no details and probably, the Israeli consular authorities may be aware of this," he said.
Mumbai: The parents of the late Rabbi Gavriel, who was killed during the November 26 terror attacks here last year, have announced plans to raise Rs100 million to reconstruct the ravaged Jewish centre in south Mumbai.
Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, accompanied by his wife Frieda, and their sons Avraham and Moshe, visited the Chabad House, the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews, situated inside the better-known Nariman House, near the southern tip of the city.
They examined the belongings of Gavriel and his wife Rivka, who was five months pregnant at the time of the attacks. Their two-year-old son Moshe was miraculously saved from the attacks by his nanny, Sandra Samuel.
Soon after the attacks, they were taken to Israel and now Moshe has become a darling of that country and Jews worldwide. His grandparents and other relatives who look after him say that every now and then, he cries for his dead parents.
The Holtzbergs walked through the mounds of rubble, damaged or broken furniture lying around, books and other household articles gathering dust.
The signs of the November 26, 2008 attacks, and its tragic consequences, are still visible inside and outside the building, guarded now by a single unarmed guard.
Rabbi Holtzberg is hoping for the help of even local Indians for the reconstruction and rebuilding efforts since the place was not just for the Jews, but members of other communities too.
So far, they have raised some funds - for the rebuilding of the Chabad House - from Europe and the US, but will need much more, an estimated Rs100 million, to make it rise again with enhanced facilities and security systems.
The All India Jews Federation president Jonathan Solomon confirmed he had heard about the proposed plans to reconstruct Chabad House. "However, even I have no details and probably, the Israeli consular authorities may be aware of this," he said.
Monday, February 09, 2009
House fire in I.V. displaces 6
Flames caused heavy damage to a large two-story home in Isla Vista yesterday, displacing a family of six, fire officials said.
Emergency calls came in at approximately 11:58 a.m. and fire crews arrived on the scene four minutes later, County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said. Smoke and flames were pouring from the windows and deck of the single-family home at 779 Camino Pescadero.
“Firefighters advanced hoselines inside the structure and knocked down the fires on both floors while searching for any trapped victims,” Iskow said in a news release. “Six occupants had gotten out of the house before firefighters arrived.”
Fire crews had the fire under control within 21 minutes, containing it to two bedrooms and an outside deck. However, smoke caused extensive damage throughout the 5,000-plus square-foot building, Iskow said.
Total damage is estimated at $100,000. A firefighter also suffered minor steam burns to his hand while fighting the blaze, Iskow said.
He said the mother of the family staying in the home heard a smoke alarm go off just as she began to smell smoke. After removing their four children from the home, the parents called 911.
“Because of information from the person reporting the fire to 911, during the initial dispatch of County Fire equipment there was mention that possibly a candle was involved in the start of the fire,” Iskow said. “That has not yet been confirmed and the cause and origin of the fire is currently under investigation.”
The family displaced by the blaze will be staying with family, authorities said. Iskow noted that a smoke alarm alerted the residents and urged all community members to frequently check that their alarms are functioning properly.
Emergency calls came in at approximately 11:58 a.m. and fire crews arrived on the scene four minutes later, County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said. Smoke and flames were pouring from the windows and deck of the single-family home at 779 Camino Pescadero.
“Firefighters advanced hoselines inside the structure and knocked down the fires on both floors while searching for any trapped victims,” Iskow said in a news release. “Six occupants had gotten out of the house before firefighters arrived.”
Fire crews had the fire under control within 21 minutes, containing it to two bedrooms and an outside deck. However, smoke caused extensive damage throughout the 5,000-plus square-foot building, Iskow said.
Total damage is estimated at $100,000. A firefighter also suffered minor steam burns to his hand while fighting the blaze, Iskow said.
He said the mother of the family staying in the home heard a smoke alarm go off just as she began to smell smoke. After removing their four children from the home, the parents called 911.
“Because of information from the person reporting the fire to 911, during the initial dispatch of County Fire equipment there was mention that possibly a candle was involved in the start of the fire,” Iskow said. “That has not yet been confirmed and the cause and origin of the fire is currently under investigation.”
The family displaced by the blaze will be staying with family, authorities said. Iskow noted that a smoke alarm alerted the residents and urged all community members to frequently check that their alarms are functioning properly.
Fire Scorches I.V. Jewish Center
A fire torched parts of the UCSB Chabad House yesterday, leaving the rabbi’s residence with extensive damage.
According to Capt. Eli Iskow of the Santa Barbara Fire Dept., the fire began at noon in a bedroom at 779 Camino Pescadero - the new UCSB Chabad House, a local Orthodox Jewish religious center. Parts of the first and second floors were completely scorched by the flames.
“The mother started screaming, ‘the house is on fire!’ and everyone got out in a hurry,” Iskow said. “Smoke alarms had a great deal to do with them getting out in time.”
Iskow said the blaze caused major damage to the structure - one room was entirely charred and most of the possessions throughout the house were ruined by smoke.
Initial reports linked the blaze to a candle, Iskow said
According to Capt. Eli Iskow of the Santa Barbara Fire Dept., the fire began at noon in a bedroom at 779 Camino Pescadero - the new UCSB Chabad House, a local Orthodox Jewish religious center. Parts of the first and second floors were completely scorched by the flames.
“The mother started screaming, ‘the house is on fire!’ and everyone got out in a hurry,” Iskow said. “Smoke alarms had a great deal to do with them getting out in time.”
Iskow said the blaze caused major damage to the structure - one room was entirely charred and most of the possessions throughout the house were ruined by smoke.
Initial reports linked the blaze to a candle, Iskow said
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Behind Chabad Fundraising, A Stealth Security Campaign
by Adam Dickter
Assistant Managing Editor
In the weeks since the Mumbai terrorist attack, the Chabad movement has directed contributions from supporters primarily to two campaigns: One to aid the child whose emissary parents were slain, and another to rebuild the badly damaged outreach center and re-establish operations there, which could cost as much as $1 million, according to a Chabad estimate.
But at the same time, some Chabad leaders are acting on their own to secure funds and resources to make dozens of Chabad houses in far-flung outposts safer.
A group of emissaries in southeast Asia, led by Rabbi Yosef Kantor, who is based in Bangkok, Thailand, has launched a campaign aimed at improving security at their centers, and distributed donation cards at Lubavitch world headquarters in CrownHeights, Brooklyn, last week.
And Rabbi Shea Hecht, a member of a prominent Chabad family well entrenched in the emissary movement, told The Jewish Week he has been working the phones since the tragedy to try to arrange security upgrades and protection.
“Security has to be the No. 1 priority,” said Rabbi Hecht of the Lubavitch-run Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education. “If you are not alive, it doesn’t make much difference if you can put bread on the table. One you stay alive, you can worry about the bread.
“If any of us could spend a million dollars to save just one soul, isn't it worth it?”
Rabbi Hecht, who is one of 12 siblings and has six children, and whose wife also comes from a large family, has more relatives than he can count working as emissaries of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, trying to promote Jewish observance.
“In my family alone we are talking about tens and tens of shluchim,” he said, using the Hebrew word for emissary. “Among my immediate friends, tens and tens [more] shluchim. The Hechts are not people who sit on the sidelines. We roll up our sleeves and get the job done.”
While not in any way criticizing the central Chabad operation, Rabbi Hecht, who has developed many political connections in New York, said he expected many emissaries to reach out to him for advice and wanted to have information available for them.
“When they call me, I want to have a file with a lot of information,” he said.
He said he hoped to meet with members of the security consulting firm run by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and had already spoken with another top consulting firm, Kroll Security Group, for help in securing the centers. Spokepersons for both agencies did not return calls for comment.
The spokesman for Chabad, Zalman Shmotkin, would not comment on any fundraising for security. “It is still, unfortunately, too early to discuss these efforts,” he said on Tuesday night.
Rabbi Hecht said that supporters of Chabad around the world were responding generously in the wake of the Mumbai tragedy and that some of them had requested that donations be used for security. He said one of his sons, an emissary in upstate New York, had received such a contribution.
“It wasn’t exactly earmarked, but it was suggested that some of the money be used that way,” said Rabbi Hecht.
While stressing that no one in the movement believed that Chabad centers were more at risk than any other Jewish organization, he said that individual Chabad centers should assess their own security needs and decide how much of the money they raise should be used for security.
“There is a big difference between those in New York City or L.A. or other places in the U.S. and those in Asian countries or African countries,” he said. “There are some that have to be very careful what they do and how they do it. An assessment has to be made on many levels, and I am doing my own study.”
Since the tragedy, the Chabad movement has conducted an orchestrated marketing and public relations campaign. Chabad officials in New York and emissaries around the world are conducting media interviews, and constituents who have been touched by the movement are reaching out in droves to local and international publications to extol its praises.
Chabad handpicked emissaries to speak with the media that officials believed would best represent the movement to a general public that may have had little or no knowledge about it.
The message was twofold: Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, the emissaries killed in Mumbai, would have wanted their deaths to inspire and bring Jews closer to Chabad and Judaism, and the movement’s late spiritual leader, Rabbi Schneerson, taught that it was a religious obligation to take a dark moment and turn it into a positive.
The strategy is to help the audience to “become a continuum of the holy world of Gavi and Rivkah so that they have a way to channel their own personal grief in a manner that makes this world a better place,” Shmotkin told JTA. “A shaliach has to be able to sensitively and articulately convey the basic messages of urging people to increase their own acts of goodness and kindness” in response to tragedy.
Within a week of the attacks, Chabad had raised about $1 million through mailboxes it had opened on Chabad.org.
“[The fundraising] is an opportunity to connect more and more Jews to the mission, and to the Rebbe’s mission of getting every Jew involved. And part of that is channeling the empathy people are now feeling,” said Rabbi Kantor, the director of the Chabad of Thailand, who helped establish the movement’s presence in Mumbai prior to the Holtzbergs’ arrival.
“I see this as being a big package or opportunity to be able to inspire and direct Jews on how they can channel their outpouring of support and sympathy, their emotion, rage, outrage and frustration,” he said.
While the immediate fundraising was geared toward helping the toddler and rebuilding in Mumbai, the stepped-up publicity may also prove to be a boon for Chabad houses. Chabad emissaries usually receive minimal seed money to start their outposts, but each house is responsible for raising its own budget each year. Though Chabad does not keep a formal database on how much each outpost raises, officials estimate that the emissaries combined take in more than $1 billion per year.
JTA contributed to this report.
Assistant Managing Editor
In the weeks since the Mumbai terrorist attack, the Chabad movement has directed contributions from supporters primarily to two campaigns: One to aid the child whose emissary parents were slain, and another to rebuild the badly damaged outreach center and re-establish operations there, which could cost as much as $1 million, according to a Chabad estimate.
But at the same time, some Chabad leaders are acting on their own to secure funds and resources to make dozens of Chabad houses in far-flung outposts safer.
A group of emissaries in southeast Asia, led by Rabbi Yosef Kantor, who is based in Bangkok, Thailand, has launched a campaign aimed at improving security at their centers, and distributed donation cards at Lubavitch world headquarters in CrownHeights, Brooklyn, last week.
And Rabbi Shea Hecht, a member of a prominent Chabad family well entrenched in the emissary movement, told The Jewish Week he has been working the phones since the tragedy to try to arrange security upgrades and protection.
“Security has to be the No. 1 priority,” said Rabbi Hecht of the Lubavitch-run Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education. “If you are not alive, it doesn’t make much difference if you can put bread on the table. One you stay alive, you can worry about the bread.
“If any of us could spend a million dollars to save just one soul, isn't it worth it?”
Rabbi Hecht, who is one of 12 siblings and has six children, and whose wife also comes from a large family, has more relatives than he can count working as emissaries of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, trying to promote Jewish observance.
“In my family alone we are talking about tens and tens of shluchim,” he said, using the Hebrew word for emissary. “Among my immediate friends, tens and tens [more] shluchim. The Hechts are not people who sit on the sidelines. We roll up our sleeves and get the job done.”
While not in any way criticizing the central Chabad operation, Rabbi Hecht, who has developed many political connections in New York, said he expected many emissaries to reach out to him for advice and wanted to have information available for them.
“When they call me, I want to have a file with a lot of information,” he said.
He said he hoped to meet with members of the security consulting firm run by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and had already spoken with another top consulting firm, Kroll Security Group, for help in securing the centers. Spokepersons for both agencies did not return calls for comment.
The spokesman for Chabad, Zalman Shmotkin, would not comment on any fundraising for security. “It is still, unfortunately, too early to discuss these efforts,” he said on Tuesday night.
Rabbi Hecht said that supporters of Chabad around the world were responding generously in the wake of the Mumbai tragedy and that some of them had requested that donations be used for security. He said one of his sons, an emissary in upstate New York, had received such a contribution.
“It wasn’t exactly earmarked, but it was suggested that some of the money be used that way,” said Rabbi Hecht.
While stressing that no one in the movement believed that Chabad centers were more at risk than any other Jewish organization, he said that individual Chabad centers should assess their own security needs and decide how much of the money they raise should be used for security.
“There is a big difference between those in New York City or L.A. or other places in the U.S. and those in Asian countries or African countries,” he said. “There are some that have to be very careful what they do and how they do it. An assessment has to be made on many levels, and I am doing my own study.”
Since the tragedy, the Chabad movement has conducted an orchestrated marketing and public relations campaign. Chabad officials in New York and emissaries around the world are conducting media interviews, and constituents who have been touched by the movement are reaching out in droves to local and international publications to extol its praises.
Chabad handpicked emissaries to speak with the media that officials believed would best represent the movement to a general public that may have had little or no knowledge about it.
The message was twofold: Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, the emissaries killed in Mumbai, would have wanted their deaths to inspire and bring Jews closer to Chabad and Judaism, and the movement’s late spiritual leader, Rabbi Schneerson, taught that it was a religious obligation to take a dark moment and turn it into a positive.
The strategy is to help the audience to “become a continuum of the holy world of Gavi and Rivkah so that they have a way to channel their own personal grief in a manner that makes this world a better place,” Shmotkin told JTA. “A shaliach has to be able to sensitively and articulately convey the basic messages of urging people to increase their own acts of goodness and kindness” in response to tragedy.
Within a week of the attacks, Chabad had raised about $1 million through mailboxes it had opened on Chabad.org.
“[The fundraising] is an opportunity to connect more and more Jews to the mission, and to the Rebbe’s mission of getting every Jew involved. And part of that is channeling the empathy people are now feeling,” said Rabbi Kantor, the director of the Chabad of Thailand, who helped establish the movement’s presence in Mumbai prior to the Holtzbergs’ arrival.
“I see this as being a big package or opportunity to be able to inspire and direct Jews on how they can channel their outpouring of support and sympathy, their emotion, rage, outrage and frustration,” he said.
While the immediate fundraising was geared toward helping the toddler and rebuilding in Mumbai, the stepped-up publicity may also prove to be a boon for Chabad houses. Chabad emissaries usually receive minimal seed money to start their outposts, but each house is responsible for raising its own budget each year. Though Chabad does not keep a formal database on how much each outpost raises, officials estimate that the emissaries combined take in more than $1 billion per year.
JTA contributed to this report.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Terrorists' demands were rejected: Digvijay
BHOPAL/MUMBAI: In what seems a political ploy aimed at arguing that unlike NDA, Congress did not succumb to a hostage situation, former CM Digvijay Singh has claimed - contrary to the government's position - that the Centre did not accept demands of terrorists who attacked Mumbai.
The Congress general secretary on Monday reiterated that government had not bowed to demands made by the Lashkar squad, a claim that security sources have dismissed. There were inquiries from Israelis over the claims but these were more to do with the possibility of securing the release of those trapped inside Chabad House.
Throughout the siege of Trident and Taj hotels, apart from Chabad House itself, security forces did not hold any negotiations with the terrorists. In fact, after the terrorists were shot, it was argued that an attempt could have been made to engage them - not to concede any demands but to buy time and possibly negotiate safe release of those trapped in the attack.
Yet, while the Congress spokesperson sought to wriggle out of the situation by claiming that Digvijay Singh had "clarified" the situation, this is not the first time that the former CM has courted controversy. He had previously said that it was "surprising" that when BJP was "in trouble (politically)" bomb blasts happened.
Digvijay Singh on Monday said he stood by his statement that the government had not accepted the demands of terrorists responsible for the Mumbai attacks. Singh sought to place his comments in context of media reports. He said that whatever he had said in Indore was based on these reports and there was no question of retracting his statement.
"I stand by what I said yesterday in Indore," he said. Singh's remark, which came a little over a month after the terror attacks on Mumbai, has created a furore.
He had said that unlike the BJP which gave into the demands of terrorists at Kandahar, the Congress-led government had not negotiated with the militants but had eliminated them.
Again, seeking to make a partisan point, he said there was a big difference between Congress and BJP and added that former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh of BJP had told a TV channel that he would again accept the demands of terrorists if a similar situation arose.
Yet, no just the Centre but Digvijay Singh's own fellow Congressman and Maharashtra home minister Jayant Patil said no demands were made by terrorists during the terror strikes. "From the information made available by Mumbai police, I can say that there were no demands made by the terrorists," Patil said.
"I am not aware on what basis Digvijay Singh has made the statement," the minister added.
Patil's colleague in Nationalist Congress Party R R Patil, who held the home portfolio, resigned on December 1 following criticism of his handling of the home department in the wake of the November 26 attacks.
The Congress general secretary on Monday reiterated that government had not bowed to demands made by the Lashkar squad, a claim that security sources have dismissed. There were inquiries from Israelis over the claims but these were more to do with the possibility of securing the release of those trapped inside Chabad House.
Throughout the siege of Trident and Taj hotels, apart from Chabad House itself, security forces did not hold any negotiations with the terrorists. In fact, after the terrorists were shot, it was argued that an attempt could have been made to engage them - not to concede any demands but to buy time and possibly negotiate safe release of those trapped in the attack.
Yet, while the Congress spokesperson sought to wriggle out of the situation by claiming that Digvijay Singh had "clarified" the situation, this is not the first time that the former CM has courted controversy. He had previously said that it was "surprising" that when BJP was "in trouble (politically)" bomb blasts happened.
Digvijay Singh on Monday said he stood by his statement that the government had not accepted the demands of terrorists responsible for the Mumbai attacks. Singh sought to place his comments in context of media reports. He said that whatever he had said in Indore was based on these reports and there was no question of retracting his statement.
"I stand by what I said yesterday in Indore," he said. Singh's remark, which came a little over a month after the terror attacks on Mumbai, has created a furore.
He had said that unlike the BJP which gave into the demands of terrorists at Kandahar, the Congress-led government had not negotiated with the militants but had eliminated them.
Again, seeking to make a partisan point, he said there was a big difference between Congress and BJP and added that former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh of BJP had told a TV channel that he would again accept the demands of terrorists if a similar situation arose.
Yet, no just the Centre but Digvijay Singh's own fellow Congressman and Maharashtra home minister Jayant Patil said no demands were made by terrorists during the terror strikes. "From the information made available by Mumbai police, I can say that there were no demands made by the terrorists," Patil said.
"I am not aware on what basis Digvijay Singh has made the statement," the minister added.
Patil's colleague in Nationalist Congress Party R R Patil, who held the home portfolio, resigned on December 1 following criticism of his handling of the home department in the wake of the November 26 attacks.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Chabad centre to stay
MUMBAI: Four weeks after the terror attack on Nariman House in which Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka and seven others were murdered by gunmen, emissaries of the Chabad Lubavitch movement arrived here to reaffirm their commitment to continuing their work in the city.
At a ceremony at the Gateway of India Rabbi Kotlarsky who is Vice Chairman of the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Emissaries said, “We are committed to coming back actually, we are not leaving. We are here and we are not leaving.”
With these words he invited Rabbi Rosenberg, the father of Rivka, to light the menorah. Seated in a manually operated crane, the Rabbi lit five of the oil lamps on the towering 15-foot high menorah. The number signified the fifth day of the Jewish festival, Chanukah.
At an earlier ceremony Rabbi Holtzberg, the father of Rabbi Gavriel, had lit a similar menorah installed at the Chabad centre at Nariman House.
Rabbi Kotlarsky described the Chabad centre as a “beacon of light to the whole world. It has been physically destroyed but the spirit lives on and the activities of Gavriel and Rivka will continue. We will not fight terrorism with AK-47s, grenades or guns. We will fight with beacons of light and goodness.” The Rabbi said it was too early to tell if the centre would continue to operate from Nariman house or elsewhere.
Speaking of the spirit of Chanukah the Rabbi said it was the victory of “few over many, weak over strong.” Chanukah, the festival of lights, spans eight days. On the fourth day of Chanukah two-year-old Moshe, the orphaned child of the Holtzbergs, lit a menorah at his maternal grandparents’ home in Afula, Israel. It had been a tradition with his parents to light a menorah during Chanukah at the Gateway of India ever since they came to Mumbai.
At a ceremony at the Gateway of India Rabbi Kotlarsky who is Vice Chairman of the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Emissaries said, “We are committed to coming back actually, we are not leaving. We are here and we are not leaving.”
With these words he invited Rabbi Rosenberg, the father of Rivka, to light the menorah. Seated in a manually operated crane, the Rabbi lit five of the oil lamps on the towering 15-foot high menorah. The number signified the fifth day of the Jewish festival, Chanukah.
At an earlier ceremony Rabbi Holtzberg, the father of Rabbi Gavriel, had lit a similar menorah installed at the Chabad centre at Nariman House.
Rabbi Kotlarsky described the Chabad centre as a “beacon of light to the whole world. It has been physically destroyed but the spirit lives on and the activities of Gavriel and Rivka will continue. We will not fight terrorism with AK-47s, grenades or guns. We will fight with beacons of light and goodness.” The Rabbi said it was too early to tell if the centre would continue to operate from Nariman house or elsewhere.
Speaking of the spirit of Chanukah the Rabbi said it was the victory of “few over many, weak over strong.” Chanukah, the festival of lights, spans eight days. On the fourth day of Chanukah two-year-old Moshe, the orphaned child of the Holtzbergs, lit a menorah at his maternal grandparents’ home in Afula, Israel. It had been a tradition with his parents to light a menorah during Chanukah at the Gateway of India ever since they came to Mumbai.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Finance Ministry May Fund Security for Chabad Houses
MK (UTJ) Rabbi Yaakov Litzman met with treasury official Ram Belinkov, who explained the Finance Ministry is looking into the possibility of funding security for Chabad houses around the world.
Apparently Litzman began seeking funding for Chabad houses around the world before the Mumbai terror attack and he is now pushing the request again, explaining the need to provide funding for the Chabad network. Litzman maintains good relations with a number of senior treasury officials, including Belinkov, who has indicated he is willing to seek a source of funding for the NIS 2 million needed to assist with security in Chabad houses.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Apparently Litzman began seeking funding for Chabad houses around the world before the Mumbai terror attack and he is now pushing the request again, explaining the need to provide funding for the Chabad network. Litzman maintains good relations with a number of senior treasury officials, including Belinkov, who has indicated he is willing to seek a source of funding for the NIS 2 million needed to assist with security in Chabad houses.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
ADL To Argentinean Officials: Concrete Results Needed In Investigation Of Terrorist Attacks Against Jews
Buenos Aires, December 15, 2008
In a series of high-level government meetings in Argentina, top leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed profound disappointment over the lack of resolution in the investigation of two deadly terrorist attacks against Jews carried out by Hezbollah on instruction from Iran in Argentina more than 14 years ago. The Israel Embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed on March 17, 1994 and a suicide terrorist drove a car filled with explosives into the Jewish community's AMIA/DAIA building on July 18, 1994, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds of others.
The League's leaders expressed their concerns on the two terrorist attacks and conveyed alarm over the growing influence in Latin America of Iran the nation harboring the international masterminds of the Buenos Aires attacks as well as the close relationship between Argentina and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.
Following their meetings with high-level government officials, Glen S. Lewy, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement:
While some important progress has been made in recent years on the investigation, we share the frustration of the Argentine Jewish community that the perpetrators and collaborators of these heinous attacks have not yet been brought to justice.
Since 1992, Argentine authorities have said they are making this investigation a priority; but we keep waiting for concrete results. We worry that Argentina has not internalized that these terror attacks occurred in their own territory, killing their own population, and instead dismiss it as a 'Jewish issue'.
We are troubled that the true perpetrators of these evil acts are still at large. In particular, we are concerned that investigators have yet to identify and apprehend those inside Argentina who assisted the terrorists.
Among the government officials who met with ADL were Anbal Fernandez, Minister of Justice, Security and Human Rights; Jorge E. Taiana, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Minister Sergio Massa, Chief of Staff to President Cristina Fernandez; and Alberto Nisman, prosecutor of the AMIA case who gave a briefing on the latest results of the investigation.
The delegation paid tribute to the victims of the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings, visited the Holocaust Museum and attended Shabbat (Sabbath) services at Chabad Lubavitch Argentina, as a testimony of solidarity and tribute to the victims recently killed in the terrorist attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai.
The delegation also met with Dr. Alberto Sileoni, Vice-Minister of Education, to discuss the various anti-bias educational programs offered by the League, as well as with representatives of the Institute Against Discrimination and with religious and Jewish community leaders.
The League's trip was coordinated with the DAIA, the political umbrella organization of the Jewish community in Argentina.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
In a series of high-level government meetings in Argentina, top leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed profound disappointment over the lack of resolution in the investigation of two deadly terrorist attacks against Jews carried out by Hezbollah on instruction from Iran in Argentina more than 14 years ago. The Israel Embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed on March 17, 1994 and a suicide terrorist drove a car filled with explosives into the Jewish community's AMIA/DAIA building on July 18, 1994, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds of others.
The League's leaders expressed their concerns on the two terrorist attacks and conveyed alarm over the growing influence in Latin America of Iran the nation harboring the international masterminds of the Buenos Aires attacks as well as the close relationship between Argentina and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.
Following their meetings with high-level government officials, Glen S. Lewy, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement:
While some important progress has been made in recent years on the investigation, we share the frustration of the Argentine Jewish community that the perpetrators and collaborators of these heinous attacks have not yet been brought to justice.
Since 1992, Argentine authorities have said they are making this investigation a priority; but we keep waiting for concrete results. We worry that Argentina has not internalized that these terror attacks occurred in their own territory, killing their own population, and instead dismiss it as a 'Jewish issue'.
We are troubled that the true perpetrators of these evil acts are still at large. In particular, we are concerned that investigators have yet to identify and apprehend those inside Argentina who assisted the terrorists.
Among the government officials who met with ADL were Anbal Fernandez, Minister of Justice, Security and Human Rights; Jorge E. Taiana, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Minister Sergio Massa, Chief of Staff to President Cristina Fernandez; and Alberto Nisman, prosecutor of the AMIA case who gave a briefing on the latest results of the investigation.
The delegation paid tribute to the victims of the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings, visited the Holocaust Museum and attended Shabbat (Sabbath) services at Chabad Lubavitch Argentina, as a testimony of solidarity and tribute to the victims recently killed in the terrorist attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai.
The delegation also met with Dr. Alberto Sileoni, Vice-Minister of Education, to discuss the various anti-bias educational programs offered by the League, as well as with representatives of the Institute Against Discrimination and with religious and Jewish community leaders.
The League's trip was coordinated with the DAIA, the political umbrella organization of the Jewish community in Argentina.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
`Insensitive' govt continues to ignore Jewish deaths in Mumbai
15 Dec 2008
NEW DELHI: Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg tugs at your heartstrings, crying for his mother who was brutally killed by Pakistani terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai during the three-day terror attacks. In many ways, Moshe is the face of the trauma that wracked the city.
Moshe's Israeli parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his pregnant wife, Rivkah, 28, were killed along with other hostages. His story of being whisked away from his dead parents, soaked in blood, by his nanny has brought tears to most hardened hearts all over the world.
The Indian government, however, has remained completely immune to all this. In a display of crass insensitivity as well as an enduring sign that the government continues to pander to the politics of the Muslim-Jew divide, minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed did not mention the Nariman House attack in his statement to the UN Security Council last week. And this from an India which officially maintains that terror has no religion and all victims are equal.
In his speech to the UNSC asking for the world to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Ahamed referred to "pre-selected targets which included a cafe popular with Indian and foreign tourists and two major hotels". There was no mention of the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch centre, which was specifically chosen by the terrorists to attack Jews.
The Nariman House siege was even more horrific as it was the only one where the entire world was witness to NSG commandos rappelling down from a helicopter and blowing up the building with grenades after a 56-hour battle. It was also the only place where another Jewish leader from New York actually conducted a conversation with one of the terrorists.
While there is no official reason for this omission, sources said it was "inadvertent".
In the aftermath of the attacks, India showed a lot of insensitivity, this was just one more of them. For instance, the Maharashtra government sent official letters of condolence to the families of victims. Singapore found that the name of its lone victim was misspelt badly. The letter had to be returned to get the name right. In Delhi, the Malaysian high commission found that it had not been invited to the government's condolence briefing because its citizen who died in the attacks was of Indian origin, so the government thought he was Indian!
But was Ahamed's omission of the Jewish house in his speech a function of the utterly improbable relationship that India enjoys with Israel or was it a function of the fact that the government didn't want to "anger" Muslims by sympathising with the Jews. Sources said it could be both.
India's relationship with Israel resembles an irresistible, clandestine affair -- where the linkages are growing in many spheres but all below the radar. So, while the government is perfectly happy to have a huge defence relationship with Israel and an intelligence synergy that is seemingly bottomless, a strong fear of angering the Muslim keeps it from acknowledging this relationship openly.
Little Moshe did not even comprehend the nature of his parents' deaths. But for those who hoped for a word of sympathy for an orphaned child, the Indian government has decided not to oblige.
NEW DELHI: Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg tugs at your heartstrings, crying for his mother who was brutally killed by Pakistani terrorists at Nariman House in Mumbai during the three-day terror attacks. In many ways, Moshe is the face of the trauma that wracked the city.
Moshe's Israeli parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his pregnant wife, Rivkah, 28, were killed along with other hostages. His story of being whisked away from his dead parents, soaked in blood, by his nanny has brought tears to most hardened hearts all over the world.
The Indian government, however, has remained completely immune to all this. In a display of crass insensitivity as well as an enduring sign that the government continues to pander to the politics of the Muslim-Jew divide, minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed did not mention the Nariman House attack in his statement to the UN Security Council last week. And this from an India which officially maintains that terror has no religion and all victims are equal.
In his speech to the UNSC asking for the world to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Ahamed referred to "pre-selected targets which included a cafe popular with Indian and foreign tourists and two major hotels". There was no mention of the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch centre, which was specifically chosen by the terrorists to attack Jews.
The Nariman House siege was even more horrific as it was the only one where the entire world was witness to NSG commandos rappelling down from a helicopter and blowing up the building with grenades after a 56-hour battle. It was also the only place where another Jewish leader from New York actually conducted a conversation with one of the terrorists.
While there is no official reason for this omission, sources said it was "inadvertent".
In the aftermath of the attacks, India showed a lot of insensitivity, this was just one more of them. For instance, the Maharashtra government sent official letters of condolence to the families of victims. Singapore found that the name of its lone victim was misspelt badly. The letter had to be returned to get the name right. In Delhi, the Malaysian high commission found that it had not been invited to the government's condolence briefing because its citizen who died in the attacks was of Indian origin, so the government thought he was Indian!
But was Ahamed's omission of the Jewish house in his speech a function of the utterly improbable relationship that India enjoys with Israel or was it a function of the fact that the government didn't want to "anger" Muslims by sympathising with the Jews. Sources said it could be both.
India's relationship with Israel resembles an irresistible, clandestine affair -- where the linkages are growing in many spheres but all below the radar. So, while the government is perfectly happy to have a huge defence relationship with Israel and an intelligence synergy that is seemingly bottomless, a strong fear of angering the Muslim keeps it from acknowledging this relationship openly.
Little Moshe did not even comprehend the nature of his parents' deaths. But for those who hoped for a word of sympathy for an orphaned child, the Indian government has decided not to oblige.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
A home at Chabad
Aaron and Pinchas Herman, brothers and rabbis, work to provide far-flung Jews a sense of connection
By Yonat Shimron, Staff Writer
Like medics, firefighters or police officers, Rabbis Aaron and Pinchas Herman can be considered first responders. When a Jew needs immediate assistance, people turn to them.
Last week, Aaron Herman helped a company in Research Triangle Park find kosher meals for two Orthodox Jewish financial analysts who had flown in for a two-day visit.
Meanwhile, Pinchas Herman was helping a mother who just had triplets find a mohel -- someone trained to perform the ritual of circumcision.
The two rabbis, brothers from Pittsburgh, opened the Triangle's first two Chabad Houses, offering myriad educational, social and religious services. They help people such as the college student from Charlotte whose mother called to ask that they check in on him and make sure he doesn't lose a connection to his Judaism. Or the niece from another state who called to ask that they visit her ailing aunt in a nursing home.
Chabad rabbis provide the glue that keeps far-flung Jews connected.
"You belong here -- that's the hallmark of Chabad everywhere," said Pinchas Herman, 42, the rabbi of the Chabad Center of Raleigh and the Sha'arei Israel Synagogue.
For a brief moment last week, their bearded faces and black hats were in the news after the Mumbai terrorist attacks killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28. The Holtzbergs were among 4,000 families who serve as emissaries worldwide, making Chabad the largest Jewish outreach organization.
North Carolina has seven Chabad houses, including ones in Cary, Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Beyond the Triangle, Chabad houses are in Asheville, Greensboro and Wilmington. The first Chabad House in the Tar Heel state was started in 1980 by Rabbi Yossi Groner of Charlotte.
The seven outposts are part of a faith tradition known as Chabad or Lubavitch -- the words are used interchangeably. The group traces its origins to an 18th century Jewish mystic from the Carpathian Mountains of Poland known as the Baal Shem Tov. This mystical rabbi sought to bridge social divisions between scholarly and illiterate Jews by insisting that all were one.
His legacy lives on in the work of the movement, which for more than a century was based in a Russian town called Lubavitch.
In 1950, the movement's new leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, moved the headquarters to Brooklyn, N.Y. From there, it grew and took on new dimensions. The most important of those was its emphasis on outreach to secular Jews in an effort to entice them to return to the Orthodox fold.
But it would be a mistake to label Chabad an Orthodox sect, Pinchas Herman said.
"Chabad is a movement," he said. "We don't focus on denomination, observance level, educational level. That's not important."
At Sha'arei Israel, for example, only 15 percent of the congregation may be considered Orthodox in their level of observance. The rest are on a continuum -- everything from secular to seeker.
Door is open to all
This sense that everyone is welcome is what leads Jews to Chabad when they find themselves in Azerbaijan or Vietnam, or the 70 other countries in which the movement has pitched a tent. As Pinchas Herman noted, many Israeli backpackers traveling abroad find "it's the place to go when you need to get food you're familiar with."
That open-door policy also makes Chabad an easy target for terrorists. Asked whether the Mumbai attacks made them feel more vulnerable, Aaron Herman said no, but added, "It's a wake-up call. It's a reminder."
He said the organization is reviewing its safety procedures, especially in countries where Jews are not especially welcome.
But there was no talk of closing the Mumbai Chabad post, called the Nairiman House. Instead, people called on Chabad to rename it after the Holtzbergs.
Last week many Chabad rabbis, including Raleigh's Pinchas Herman, held memorial services for the Holtzbergs, who were buried in Israel.
The next day, they went about the business of educating Jews for the next generation. Pinchas Herman showed his fourth- and fifth-grade Sunday school class what he looks for when he inspects food plants -- such as the Mount Olive Pickle Co. -- to make sure its products deserve a kosher stamp of approval. Aaron Herman was preparing two adult education classes.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks, the organization launched an effort to add "mitzvot," Hebrew for "good deeds," to counteract the evil of the attackers. The group's Web site (www.chabad.org) keeps a running score of good deeds Jews have committed to performing -- 8,373 as of earlier this week. They include everything from saying a psalm each day to giving a train set to a needy child.
"When the world takes a step back, we have to take a step forward," Pinchas Herman said. "The attack was an attempt to stamp out civility. Our response is to add to it."
By Yonat Shimron, Staff Writer
Like medics, firefighters or police officers, Rabbis Aaron and Pinchas Herman can be considered first responders. When a Jew needs immediate assistance, people turn to them.
Last week, Aaron Herman helped a company in Research Triangle Park find kosher meals for two Orthodox Jewish financial analysts who had flown in for a two-day visit.
Meanwhile, Pinchas Herman was helping a mother who just had triplets find a mohel -- someone trained to perform the ritual of circumcision.
The two rabbis, brothers from Pittsburgh, opened the Triangle's first two Chabad Houses, offering myriad educational, social and religious services. They help people such as the college student from Charlotte whose mother called to ask that they check in on him and make sure he doesn't lose a connection to his Judaism. Or the niece from another state who called to ask that they visit her ailing aunt in a nursing home.
Chabad rabbis provide the glue that keeps far-flung Jews connected.
"You belong here -- that's the hallmark of Chabad everywhere," said Pinchas Herman, 42, the rabbi of the Chabad Center of Raleigh and the Sha'arei Israel Synagogue.
For a brief moment last week, their bearded faces and black hats were in the news after the Mumbai terrorist attacks killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28. The Holtzbergs were among 4,000 families who serve as emissaries worldwide, making Chabad the largest Jewish outreach organization.
North Carolina has seven Chabad houses, including ones in Cary, Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Beyond the Triangle, Chabad houses are in Asheville, Greensboro and Wilmington. The first Chabad House in the Tar Heel state was started in 1980 by Rabbi Yossi Groner of Charlotte.
The seven outposts are part of a faith tradition known as Chabad or Lubavitch -- the words are used interchangeably. The group traces its origins to an 18th century Jewish mystic from the Carpathian Mountains of Poland known as the Baal Shem Tov. This mystical rabbi sought to bridge social divisions between scholarly and illiterate Jews by insisting that all were one.
His legacy lives on in the work of the movement, which for more than a century was based in a Russian town called Lubavitch.
In 1950, the movement's new leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, moved the headquarters to Brooklyn, N.Y. From there, it grew and took on new dimensions. The most important of those was its emphasis on outreach to secular Jews in an effort to entice them to return to the Orthodox fold.
But it would be a mistake to label Chabad an Orthodox sect, Pinchas Herman said.
"Chabad is a movement," he said. "We don't focus on denomination, observance level, educational level. That's not important."
At Sha'arei Israel, for example, only 15 percent of the congregation may be considered Orthodox in their level of observance. The rest are on a continuum -- everything from secular to seeker.
Door is open to all
This sense that everyone is welcome is what leads Jews to Chabad when they find themselves in Azerbaijan or Vietnam, or the 70 other countries in which the movement has pitched a tent. As Pinchas Herman noted, many Israeli backpackers traveling abroad find "it's the place to go when you need to get food you're familiar with."
That open-door policy also makes Chabad an easy target for terrorists. Asked whether the Mumbai attacks made them feel more vulnerable, Aaron Herman said no, but added, "It's a wake-up call. It's a reminder."
He said the organization is reviewing its safety procedures, especially in countries where Jews are not especially welcome.
But there was no talk of closing the Mumbai Chabad post, called the Nairiman House. Instead, people called on Chabad to rename it after the Holtzbergs.
Last week many Chabad rabbis, including Raleigh's Pinchas Herman, held memorial services for the Holtzbergs, who were buried in Israel.
The next day, they went about the business of educating Jews for the next generation. Pinchas Herman showed his fourth- and fifth-grade Sunday school class what he looks for when he inspects food plants -- such as the Mount Olive Pickle Co. -- to make sure its products deserve a kosher stamp of approval. Aaron Herman was preparing two adult education classes.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks, the organization launched an effort to add "mitzvot," Hebrew for "good deeds," to counteract the evil of the attackers. The group's Web site (www.chabad.org) keeps a running score of good deeds Jews have committed to performing -- 8,373 as of earlier this week. They include everything from saying a psalm each day to giving a train set to a needy child.
"When the world takes a step back, we have to take a step forward," Pinchas Herman said. "The attack was an attempt to stamp out civility. Our response is to add to it."
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Mumbai and the Chabad Movement
Tragedy befalls a place of prayer and comfort.
By LUCETTE LAGNADO
Perhaps the most telling story I've heard about Chabad emissaries is that some will buy burial plots once they arrive at their distant outposts: It is a gesture to the community -- and perhaps also to themselves -- that they have come to stay.
I first discovered this Hasidic movement, which has captured the world's attention since the killing of several of its members in Mumbai, after 9/11. The world no longer felt safe and in the months after the attack, my husband and I would flee to the Hamptons, driving every weekend to the East End of Long Island, long after the glamorous summer crowds had gone.
One of the places we found open -- year round, in fact -- was the Chabad House in Southampton. The congregation was located inside a private house. Prayers took place in a cozy sanctuary the size of a living room as little children scampered about.
It was an Orthodox service but not oppressively so; men and women sat apart, divided by a row of plastic plants. I sat on a chair close to the plants, in the front, where I had full unfettered view of the pulpit, and for the first time in those awful months I felt safe.
I still remember the rabbi's first sermon, about the Valley of Dry Bones -- that amazing biblical passage where the dead come to life again. I thought of the hopelessness I had felt on 9/11, the collective hopelessness, but then, listening to the story of how even a bunch of bones had been brought back to life, I too felt a sense of possibility again. And safety.
I thought of that sense of safety and comfort as I watched the horrific events unfold in Mumbai, and specifically at the Chabad House.
I am absolutely certain that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka, massacred by the terrorists, had also set up a safe-haven. Theirs was a retreat for Jews living in and around Mumbai or even those who were merely passing through.
I would venture that's one of the secrets behind the Chabad movement's extraordinary growth -- that they build little sanctuaries for lost Jews, alienated Jews, secular Jews, Jews who have no interest in traditional religion.
Chabad has redefined religion in part by getting away from the notion of large, formal temples to establishing places of worship that are small, intimate and, above all, deeply comforting; they have made religion personal.
And so, even as some other branches of Judaism and other religions have withered, they have ventured to the far corners of the earth: Siberia, Alaska, Kiev, Odessa, Ho Chi Minh City. But no matter where the Chabad house the philosophy is always the same -- to bring even the most alienated Jews back into the fold.
You go to a Chabad house and you can count on being invited to Friday night dinner by the rabbi and his wife. The model emphasizes old-fashioned notions of community and home -- the sense that religion is not a once-a-year affair but a way of life.
They have made inroads even among the militantly secular, I suspect, precisely because of their sense of conviction. No matter where they are in the world, in the Chabad houses of Siberia or Southampton the rabbis wear the traditional black hats and dark suits, the women long dresses and wigs. There is little attempt to blend in or assimilate.
It can be jarring to run into them on the streets of Southampton or South Beach, strolling in their religious garb, trying to ignore the stares of women in halters and fashionably dressed men in Bermuda shorts and sandals.
Of course, the determination to stay true to their practices may be what endangers the movement most now. They are, it would seem, easy targets.
I attended a memorial for the victims of Chabad Mumbai at my synagogue on Saturday. It was very crowded -- filled with people I had never seen before. Worshippers went up to the pulpit and pledged thousands of dollars.
The purpose? To build a new Chabad center in Mumbai.
Ms. Lagnado, a reporter for the Journal, is the author of "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World" (Harper Perennial, 2008).
By LUCETTE LAGNADO
Perhaps the most telling story I've heard about Chabad emissaries is that some will buy burial plots once they arrive at their distant outposts: It is a gesture to the community -- and perhaps also to themselves -- that they have come to stay.
I first discovered this Hasidic movement, which has captured the world's attention since the killing of several of its members in Mumbai, after 9/11. The world no longer felt safe and in the months after the attack, my husband and I would flee to the Hamptons, driving every weekend to the East End of Long Island, long after the glamorous summer crowds had gone.
One of the places we found open -- year round, in fact -- was the Chabad House in Southampton. The congregation was located inside a private house. Prayers took place in a cozy sanctuary the size of a living room as little children scampered about.
It was an Orthodox service but not oppressively so; men and women sat apart, divided by a row of plastic plants. I sat on a chair close to the plants, in the front, where I had full unfettered view of the pulpit, and for the first time in those awful months I felt safe.
I still remember the rabbi's first sermon, about the Valley of Dry Bones -- that amazing biblical passage where the dead come to life again. I thought of the hopelessness I had felt on 9/11, the collective hopelessness, but then, listening to the story of how even a bunch of bones had been brought back to life, I too felt a sense of possibility again. And safety.
I thought of that sense of safety and comfort as I watched the horrific events unfold in Mumbai, and specifically at the Chabad House.
I am absolutely certain that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka, massacred by the terrorists, had also set up a safe-haven. Theirs was a retreat for Jews living in and around Mumbai or even those who were merely passing through.
I would venture that's one of the secrets behind the Chabad movement's extraordinary growth -- that they build little sanctuaries for lost Jews, alienated Jews, secular Jews, Jews who have no interest in traditional religion.
Chabad has redefined religion in part by getting away from the notion of large, formal temples to establishing places of worship that are small, intimate and, above all, deeply comforting; they have made religion personal.
And so, even as some other branches of Judaism and other religions have withered, they have ventured to the far corners of the earth: Siberia, Alaska, Kiev, Odessa, Ho Chi Minh City. But no matter where the Chabad house the philosophy is always the same -- to bring even the most alienated Jews back into the fold.
You go to a Chabad house and you can count on being invited to Friday night dinner by the rabbi and his wife. The model emphasizes old-fashioned notions of community and home -- the sense that religion is not a once-a-year affair but a way of life.
They have made inroads even among the militantly secular, I suspect, precisely because of their sense of conviction. No matter where they are in the world, in the Chabad houses of Siberia or Southampton the rabbis wear the traditional black hats and dark suits, the women long dresses and wigs. There is little attempt to blend in or assimilate.
It can be jarring to run into them on the streets of Southampton or South Beach, strolling in their religious garb, trying to ignore the stares of women in halters and fashionably dressed men in Bermuda shorts and sandals.
Of course, the determination to stay true to their practices may be what endangers the movement most now. They are, it would seem, easy targets.
I attended a memorial for the victims of Chabad Mumbai at my synagogue on Saturday. It was very crowded -- filled with people I had never seen before. Worshippers went up to the pulpit and pledged thousands of dollars.
The purpose? To build a new Chabad center in Mumbai.
Ms. Lagnado, a reporter for the Journal, is the author of "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World" (Harper Perennial, 2008).
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Rabbi Holtzburg, Killed in Mumbai
By Athol Bloomer
St. Louis, Mo. (Catholic Online) -
As I write this here in the Hebrew Catholic Center in St Louis I am still in shock about the murder of the young Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzburg and his wife Rivka Holtzburg. In recent months I have been following the terrible persecution and killing of Christians in India by Hindu fundamentalists. The media hardly seems to mention what is happening. Now we see such violent Islamist terror attacks in Mumbai (or Bombay as most of us call it).
I learned on Saturday that one of the places attacked was the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai. Then, we heard of the little two year old son of the Holtlzbergs being safe but that his trousers were soaked in blood. Then a Carmelite nun of Jewish ancestry sent me the news report of the death of the Rabbi and his wife. As a Catholic Jew I felt the pain that all Jews are feeling at this time. It may be strange but there is a sense in which Jews share in the joys and sufferings of all other Jews. As someone who has known many Chabad Jews and studied with Chabad Rabbis and been fed by them at Chabad Houses I felt it more keenly perhaps than some.
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were emissaries of the Lubavitch Chabad movement who gave up their homes and families in order to serve in far off India. They ran food programs, drug prevention programs, medical services, prison and hospital visitations and classes on Jewish learning among many other things. Now, this wonderful young couple, are dead and the world has lost two workers for the good and the light in a world growing darker.
While I didn’t know them personally I know others like them.
When I lived in Thailand I would attend the Synagogue and the Chabad House in Bangkok and I saw the dedication and commitment of the Chabad Rabbis and their families. I attend the huge Passover Seders at which everyone was welcome. They helped all in need not just religious Jews – secular Jews and non-Jews with no discrimination. Many Jewish communities around the world would have no Rabbis at all if not for the Chabad Rabbis who will go anywhere in the world to serve God and the Rebbe. For example an orthodox Jewish family I stayed with each weekend in the 1980’s assisted the Chabad in reviving the Jewish community in Tasmania that had almost died out.
They are known as the 'Black Army of the Rebbe' as they follow the teachings of the seven Rebbes of Lubavitch and especially those of their late Tzadik, Rebbe Menachem Schneersohn. A Rebbe or Tzadik is the spiritual leader of a Hasidic group who follows the way of love, joy, simplicity and mercy in worshipping God as taught by the founder of Hasidism - the Baal Shem Tov of the 17th century. The first Lubavitch Rebbe was Schneur Zalman of Liadi known as the Alter Rebbe and the author of the mystical book called “Tanya”. He took the ‘heart’ teachings of Hasidism and introduced a more intellectual approach called Chabad.
Chabad stands for Chokmah(Wisdom), Binah (Understanding) and Daat (Knowledge) which represents the Divine Face of the Divine Man in Jewish mysticism. The seventh and last Rebbe of Chabad encouraged many young people to give their lives in the service of God and Judaism by becoming emissaries (apostles) to the Jews spread throughout the world. Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife were two such young people.
I remember sitting in the 1980’s with Chabad Rabbi Finman in Melbourne Australia [who I was studying with] as he translated the Rebbe’s inspiring teachings from Yiddish into English for the whole Yeshivah. I was inspired that day as Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka were inspired by the Rebbe to give their lives to God’s service. The rebbe inspired in us a devotion to the Mashiach (Messiah). Now through the evil of others they have become Jewish martyrs and given their blood for God and the Jewish people.
I pray that their sacrifice will bring others to God and that from this tragedy will come good fruit. Let us pray for their souls and the souls of all the others lost in this terror onslaught and for their loved ones to be consoled. The Jewish custom is to say Psalms on behalf of the dead so maybe we could all say a Psalm for them too.
****
Athol is an Australian of Anglo-Jewish ancestry who became a Catholic at the age of 24 in 1987. He is involved in teaching the Jewish roots of the Catholic Faith and is a member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics
St. Louis, Mo. (Catholic Online) -
As I write this here in the Hebrew Catholic Center in St Louis I am still in shock about the murder of the young Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzburg and his wife Rivka Holtzburg. In recent months I have been following the terrible persecution and killing of Christians in India by Hindu fundamentalists. The media hardly seems to mention what is happening. Now we see such violent Islamist terror attacks in Mumbai (or Bombay as most of us call it).
I learned on Saturday that one of the places attacked was the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai. Then, we heard of the little two year old son of the Holtlzbergs being safe but that his trousers were soaked in blood. Then a Carmelite nun of Jewish ancestry sent me the news report of the death of the Rabbi and his wife. As a Catholic Jew I felt the pain that all Jews are feeling at this time. It may be strange but there is a sense in which Jews share in the joys and sufferings of all other Jews. As someone who has known many Chabad Jews and studied with Chabad Rabbis and been fed by them at Chabad Houses I felt it more keenly perhaps than some.
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were emissaries of the Lubavitch Chabad movement who gave up their homes and families in order to serve in far off India. They ran food programs, drug prevention programs, medical services, prison and hospital visitations and classes on Jewish learning among many other things. Now, this wonderful young couple, are dead and the world has lost two workers for the good and the light in a world growing darker.
While I didn’t know them personally I know others like them.
When I lived in Thailand I would attend the Synagogue and the Chabad House in Bangkok and I saw the dedication and commitment of the Chabad Rabbis and their families. I attend the huge Passover Seders at which everyone was welcome. They helped all in need not just religious Jews – secular Jews and non-Jews with no discrimination. Many Jewish communities around the world would have no Rabbis at all if not for the Chabad Rabbis who will go anywhere in the world to serve God and the Rebbe. For example an orthodox Jewish family I stayed with each weekend in the 1980’s assisted the Chabad in reviving the Jewish community in Tasmania that had almost died out.
They are known as the 'Black Army of the Rebbe' as they follow the teachings of the seven Rebbes of Lubavitch and especially those of their late Tzadik, Rebbe Menachem Schneersohn. A Rebbe or Tzadik is the spiritual leader of a Hasidic group who follows the way of love, joy, simplicity and mercy in worshipping God as taught by the founder of Hasidism - the Baal Shem Tov of the 17th century. The first Lubavitch Rebbe was Schneur Zalman of Liadi known as the Alter Rebbe and the author of the mystical book called “Tanya”. He took the ‘heart’ teachings of Hasidism and introduced a more intellectual approach called Chabad.
Chabad stands for Chokmah(Wisdom), Binah (Understanding) and Daat (Knowledge) which represents the Divine Face of the Divine Man in Jewish mysticism. The seventh and last Rebbe of Chabad encouraged many young people to give their lives in the service of God and Judaism by becoming emissaries (apostles) to the Jews spread throughout the world. Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife were two such young people.
I remember sitting in the 1980’s with Chabad Rabbi Finman in Melbourne Australia [who I was studying with] as he translated the Rebbe’s inspiring teachings from Yiddish into English for the whole Yeshivah. I was inspired that day as Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka were inspired by the Rebbe to give their lives to God’s service. The rebbe inspired in us a devotion to the Mashiach (Messiah). Now through the evil of others they have become Jewish martyrs and given their blood for God and the Jewish people.
I pray that their sacrifice will bring others to God and that from this tragedy will come good fruit. Let us pray for their souls and the souls of all the others lost in this terror onslaught and for their loved ones to be consoled. The Jewish custom is to say Psalms on behalf of the dead so maybe we could all say a Psalm for them too.
****
Athol is an Australian of Anglo-Jewish ancestry who became a Catholic at the age of 24 in 1987. He is involved in teaching the Jewish roots of the Catholic Faith and is a member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Tehrangeles: Starbucks, Sushi and Chabad House
Starbucks, sushi, Chabad House. Starbucks, sushi, Chabad House. A little Spanish, a lot of Persian, some Hebrew. That’s what Kamran and I experienced when we visited LA last Spring.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Chabad welcomes new torah
June 26, 2008
Members of the Chabad of Glenview celebrated the completion of a new sefer torah for the congregation with music, singing and dancing Sunday.
Virutally all of the torah was written by a scribe in Israel. The scribe filled in the last 70 letters of the scroll, many of which were "purchased" through donations, at the dedication ceremony.
The scroll was then placed in a decorated cloth casing, and adorned with a traditional silver crown and pointer for reading. Congregation members, their families and friends marched, sang and danced around the 1800 block of Glenview Road with the torah.
The torah was made in the memory of Rabbi Nochum Yosef Ben Yerachmiel, grandfather of the Chabad's Rabbi Yishaya Benjaminson. Members of Benjaminson's family, including his father and grandmother, traveled here from New York and other states to take part in the celebration.
Members of the Chabad of Glenview celebrated the completion of a new sefer torah for the congregation with music, singing and dancing Sunday.
Virutally all of the torah was written by a scribe in Israel. The scribe filled in the last 70 letters of the scroll, many of which were "purchased" through donations, at the dedication ceremony.
The scroll was then placed in a decorated cloth casing, and adorned with a traditional silver crown and pointer for reading. Congregation members, their families and friends marched, sang and danced around the 1800 block of Glenview Road with the torah.
The torah was made in the memory of Rabbi Nochum Yosef Ben Yerachmiel, grandfather of the Chabad's Rabbi Yishaya Benjaminson. Members of Benjaminson's family, including his father and grandmother, traveled here from New York and other states to take part in the celebration.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
FAITH-BASED RESPONSES
FAITH-BASED RESPONSES
Chabad House, at 6115 Montezuma Road near San Diego State University is offering emergency shelter.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Rogers Officials Ask For Services To Stop
THE MORNING NEWS
ROGERS -- A religious service in a residential neighborhood is causing traffic and parking, problems for neighbors.
City Attorney Ben Lipscomb on Friday sent a letter to Rabbi Mendel Greisman asking he quit holding services in his residence until a conditional-use permit from the city is obtained.
Greisman owns a house at 5402 W. Redbud St. in the Hunter's Run subdivision. The house is listed as the address for the Chabad of Northwest Arkansas, according to the Arkansas County Data Web site at www.arcountydata.com/search.asp.
Churches are allowed in residential zones in Rogers, but only with a conditional-use permit, which Greisman doesn't have. Griesman also hasn't filed for a permit.
Lipscomb said Greisman maintains he is simply host of a Bible study, which most would characterize as different from a church or worship service.
However, Lipscomb said the photos from the Chabad's Web site look like a worship center, and there are reports of between 30 and 40 cars parked in the neighborhood by people attending the Chabad.
"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and has webbed feet like a duck, then it's a duck," Lipscomb said.
Greisman did not return a message left at the residence on Friday.
Lipscomb said he realizes there is a need for Greisman's congregation to meet, but the city also has ordinances that must be followed.
Dan Brown, chairman of the Rogers Planning Commission, told a woman during a meeting on Tuesday that the commission has never denied a conditional use permit for a church. Brown was speaking with regard to another issue.
The issue of the chabad came to Lipscomb's attention when someone called the Rogers Planning and Transportation Department to complain about zoning violations.
Kevin Butler, 5407 W. Redbud St., filed on behalf of the Hunter's Run Property Owner's Association a complaint with Lipscomb's office citing, "Zoning violations, excessive vehicle traffic with parking congestion and excessive pedestrian traffic ... as a result of the opening of the 'Chabad House.'"
Hunter's Run is a subdivision with only 18 houses along two stretches of road that together total less than 1,500 feet. Upon entering Hunter's Run, Redbud Street takes a 90-degree turn to the south then takes another sharp curve to the west.
Cars are parked along this entrance, making it nearly impossible for a fire truck to get through if a house at the back of the neighborhood were on fire, Butler said.
Butler said the subdivision has covenants regarding acceptable traffic and parking situations and operating a business in a residence, although Butler said the covenants say nothing about a religious service.
Lipscomb did not set a deadline for Greisman's compliance.
"I didn't feel like we needed to be heavy-handed. We just want them to follow the city's zoning laws and obtain a conditional use permit," he said.
"If that doesn't happen in a reasonable amount of time, we will revisit the issue," Lipscomb said.
AT A GLANCE
Chabad
Chabad chassidism is a system of religious philosophy teaching understanding and recognition of the creator through the application of the three intellectual qualities of chochmah (wisdom), binah (understanding) and daat (knowledge). The initials of these three Hebrew words form the word "chabad."
Source: The Chabad at the University of Kansas, www.jewishku.com
Web Watch
Chabad Of Northwest Arkansas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)