Twenty passionate educators came together last month at a conference in Plano, Texas. Hosted by Rivkie Block, Chabad’s representative here, together with Chabad’s Early Childhood Education Network (CECE), the conference united directors for workshops, classroom tours, and networking.

The public menorah has become a ubiquitous symbol at shopping malls, parks and public spaces the world over. But arguments over holiday displays and the religious nature of their symbols have been waged in town halls, on city boards and have even reached the Supreme Court.

It smells like a cafe ought to. The rows of eclairs and tarts and cupcakes line the glass counter in perfect, high-caloric formation. Light streams in through large windows, dimpling the whipped cream on the flawlessly frothed drinks.

“Hey Rabbi, getting ready for takeoff at Newark. Found four other Jewish guys on board. Think we can get a minyan?” At 4:00 A.M. last Monday, Moshe Rosenblatt pressed send on the text, turned his phone off and settled in for the three-hour flight to Omaha, Nebraska.

The thirty-first annual International Conference of Shluchim is taking place this weekend in Brooklyn, New York. Among the 5,800 directors and lay leaders of Chabad centers in 100 countries who are expected to attend, over 130 of them are new emissaries.

Village Chabad Stony Brook just built a new $4.6 million, 13,000 sq. ft. Jewish center in the heart of the New York town. “We are optimistic that this will invigorate and rejuvenate the Jewish community,” says Stony Brook resident and SUNY Professor Emeritus, Dr. Bernie Dudock.

Chabad of Indiana University’s new home is only a short block away from its predecessor, but its central location acts as a magnet to the school’s 3,000 Jewish students. The new building boasts 7,000 square feet, almost double the space of its previous quarters, across tall-ceilinged, light-filled rooms. In most ways, it far surpasses Chabad’s home of 30 years

Together with Yossi Posner, Goldshmid spent the month of August visiting Jewish inmates in 32 prisons across the American South. The pair, both 25 years old, brought Judaism and hope to inmates on behalf of the Aleph Institute.

Today, the government of Hungary officially recognized EMIH, the Orthodox Jewish Communities Association, the umbrella organization of Chabad of Hungary, granting them “special status.