(lubavitch.com) Some 570 rabbinical students will soon be traveling to any of 285 locations worldwide where they will conduct communal seders this Passover, April 8 and 9th. New on the list of exotic locations slated for Chabad’s seders is Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

At Lubavitch World Headquarters, itineraries for the rabbinical students preparing to lead the seders are being drawn up in coordination with regional Chabad representatives, reflecting numbers that surpass last year’s.   

Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos, the Chabad-Lubavitch educational division, says that despite the dire economic climate, “The Rebbe insisted that every Jew be given the opportunity to participate at a Seder, and we will do everything possible to make sure that happens on the largest scale yet.”
 
Funding for the seders comes from several philanthropists including Mr. George Rohr, a long time supporter of Chabad activities, and a gift of $500,000 from energy magnate, Guma Aguiar. This is the second consecutive year that Aguiar, 31, has been a major sponsor of Chabad’s global Passover campaign.

Aguiar became excited about this project last year and contributed towards what is now the world’s largest collective Pesach seder in the world. As a result, he said, "Chabad leaders and I have realized what a truly sacred honor it is to partner together with each other on this project."

The comprehensive list of locations means that Jews—even those in remote points of Africa, Vietnam, China, Chile, Japan, the Caribbean, Ukraine, Russia, Peru and Spain, among many other locations in South America, Central Africa, Europe and the U.S.—will have the benefit of a traditional Passover seder with Chabad.

Conducting seders in some of the backwaters of the Far East and Africa involves often complicated logistics and requires the cooperation of local authorities. Getting vast quantities of matzah, wine, meat and other Passover staples to places that are hard to reach, entails considerable preliminary work to ensure timely deliveries.

With seders hosting anywhere from 20 to 2000 (Nepal), accurate figures for the total number of people who will be participating at Chabad seders are hard to come by, but 500,000 would be a safe estimate, say coordinators.

These seders are in addition to those hosted by Chabad representatives in their respective communities worldwide.

To search for the Chabad-Lubavitch center closest to you, click here.

(lubavitch.com) When the lights dimmed at Congregation B’nai Avraham Sunday night, the audience settled in with fresh popcorn and coke for a night at the movies.

The Brooklyn Heights Jewish International Film Festival screened its second of three movies Sunday. “Orthodox Stance” provided an intimate look at the success and challenge in celebrated boxer Dmitry Salita’s life.

Festival curator Rabbi Simcha Weinstein selected the series’ three films in order to convey a “positive message with healthy Jewish role models.” 

In choosing films about Salita, Hannah Senesh, and Israel Lifshutz, Weinstein hopes to counter what he describes as rampant “negative portrayals of Jewish people, especially Jewish women, in the media and Hollywood.”

Weinstein is no stranger to the arts himself. He attended the Manchester Metropolitan University where he received a degree in film history. After graduation, he worked as a film location manager in England. Then he encountered Chabad and altered his own life’s script.

“Today,” says the lively rabbi whose Chabad center serves five Brooklyn campuses including Pratt Institute, “I straddle two worlds. I started off at art school and I am back here again as a rabbi. My goal is to use my background in the arts to spread Judaism.” In addition to this festival, Weinstein has hosted a spiritual art show where students expressed their Judaism through various art mediums. 

That fusion is important to 25-year old filmmaker Saul Sudin an expert on the Jewish role on the silver screen. “There has been a plethora of Jewish filmmakers over the years (one can even say Hollywood was created by Jews),” he explains. “But those Jews changed their names and produced films with Americanized ideals like romances and westerns. It was only in the last 30 years or so that people started to say, ‘Here I am. I’m Jewish. I’m not afraid.’ My generation needs to take that a step further.

“Jewish films have become synonymous with Holocaust films,” continues Sudin. “I believe there are millions of other aspects of Jewish life that are meaningful and beautiful. There are so many more places we can go.” The movie aficionado has incorporated Jewish themes into the documentaries, feature films, commercials, and television programs he has created.  

Yisrael Lifschutz brings Chasidic flavor (including a bona-fide beard) to hundreds of movies, including several blockbusters. He is also the go-to-guy when movie producers need a Chasidic character or advice. In founding the Hassidic Actors’ Guild (HAG), Lifschutz aimed to “safeguard the proper image of the Jew in Hollywood.

Over the years,” he says, “I have continually locked horns with producers and directors about the image of a Jew, that they shouldn’t always be the foil.” His mocumentary, about HAG’s founding, will screen Sunday at the festival.     

At last night’s event, filmmaker Sudin manned the projector, ensuring that the audio and visual were up to par. “Here is a documentary that talks about this balance that we have,” he said. “We can have our Jewish life and be proud of it while still achieving success in any professional area we choose.”  

For Jason Hutt, the Brooklyn producer of “Othodox Stance,” his three and a half years trailing Salita with a hand-held recorder left a powerful impact on him as well. The film explores Salita’s rise from secular Russian refugee to religious boxer in tolerant America. 

“When I started filming in 2002, I didn’t know where I wanted to go with it,” explains Hutt. “But the film quickly became about how Dmitry Salita manages to balance his observance of Judaism with his unusual occupation.

“At the time I was exploring my own relationship with Judaism,” Hutt continues. “And I have become more observant myself since meeting and working with him.”

Salita’s punch scores a knockout out of the ring as well.

(Lubavitch.com) On June 21, 2002 Israel soldier Kfir Levy’s Givati unit was operating in the Gaza strip, responding to terrorist rocket strikes and artillery fire, when a rocket-propelled grenade designed for use against armored vehicles and buildings struck him directly in the face.

Known as “Israel’s worst Gaza injury”, Kfir was in a coma for four months, underwent 130 surgeries, is blind in one eye, requires hearing aids, needs mechanical assistance to walk and is paralyzed on his right side.

During the next few days, he’ll try skiiing the slopes of Aspen, Colorado.

Kfir and nine disabled Israeli soldiers will hit the Snowmass ski slopes in Aspen, Colorado as week-long participants in the second annual Challenge Aspen Chabad project to show appreciation for the veterans, boost morale, and share inspiration with the local Jewish community.

Having arrived Friday morning, the group will celebrate Shabbat with Chabad of Aspen before  tackling the slopes with Challenge Aspen instructors and adaptive ski equipment, including harnesses and even wheelchair skis. The program helps the physically impaired go beyond their limitations, to experience the exhilaration and renewed confidence that comes with tackling hurdles.

 “After all he’s been through, this represents another level of overcoming the odds and I’m sure the people he meets will be inspired,” said Tzion Levy, Kfir’s father who accompanied him on the trip. “He’s very excited. He carved a special mezzuza holder out of wood in his day program to give to Rabbi Mintz.”

Originally conceived by Rabbi Mendel Mintz of the Chabad Jewish Community Center in Aspen, the project partners with Chabad’s Terror Victims Project in Israel, UJA Aspen Valley and Challenge Aspen, whose instructors will spend the week helping the soldier’s learn how to ski. The group will also visit the Jewish community and members of a disabled American veterans group also at Challenge Aspen for the week.

“Challenge Aspen is known for the inspiring and impactful work they do teaching the disabled to ski,” Mintz told lubavitch.com. “After seeing them work with disabled American veterans, I approached them about working with Israeli solders. They were thrilled.”

Mintz said the project was “obvious” considering that the Israeli soldiers had “made the ultimate sacrifice”.

“We are all citizens of Israel. These are our brothers.  The sacrifices they made, the bullets they took, the shrapnel they absorbed, the loss of limb and mobility they suffered, they made on behalf of us all.  Giving them back an experience like this is one of the most gratifying actions we can take,” Rabbi Mintz wrote in a letter inviting the community to participate.

Chabad's Terror Victims Project handles arrangements on the Israeli side, including choosing appropriate candidates who can most benefit from the opportunity. The ski trip represents one of the many services offered to the thousands of disabled Israeli soldiers they work with. It is a connection that Director Rabbi Menachem Kutner says was created the moment the soldier was injured and never ends.

“We’ve been working with these soldiers since their injuries and during the long rehabilitation process to help them return to a normal life,” said Kutner who will be with the soldiers for the week. “To see them ski after all that is incredible and a real statement of their courage to overcome.”

Dubi Genish was invited by Kunter to join the trip along with his wife for support. The father of four from Kibbutz Revadim was a commander during Israel’s war in Lebanon over two years ago when his tank took a direct rocket hit. Lucky to be alive, Dubi was badly hurt, losing his right leg after nine months of surgeries failed to save it.

From the moment he entered the hospital, Kunter and his staff where on hand to provide support and help the family. Dubi’s wife was pregnant when her husband was injured, and gave birth to a baby boy five months after the incident. CTVP arranged for the bris ceremony to take place in the hospital. After months of rehabilitation, surgeries, and procedures, Dubi today walks with the help of a prosthesis and hopes he can use it to ski as well.

“I never dreamed I would walk again, let alone ski,” Dubi told lubavitch.com. “Chabad has been there for me since day one. This trip is a precious gift and a great opportunity.”

Baila Olidort: What are the most dramatic changes to the Jewish landscape here since you’ve arrived to Ft. Lauderdale 19 years ago?

Rabbi MM Lipszyc: When I started here, some laughed, telling me this isn’t the right place for Chabad. Today we have about 150 people at services on Shabbos, we’ve got a beautiful shul, a mikvah, a preschool, and a kosher sushi café.

Café Emunah has been reviewed by culinary mavens and was also named best teahouse. Where’d the inspiration come from?

It’s a good venue for meeting people, introducing them to kosher cuisine, and to Chabad itself. My idea was to create a space where people open up to accepting the possibilities of the inner self. There’s a nice selection of Jewish mystical literature that people enjoy reading over an organic jasmine or a latte.

What’s your toughest challenge?

My health. I’ve had life threatening illnesses more than once.

When you were 19, you were diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. Despite medical prognosis that the treatment would make it impossible for you to have children, you finally did, after 10 years of marriage.

I have been blessed with five children. Two sets of twins and a daughter. Three of my children are severely handicapped.

The children are being cared for at home?

Yes. We have them home, but with full time therapy. Some need 24 hour care.

How has this reshaped your reality, your life-perspective?

It’s made me see people differently. I remember the Rebbe once spoke about children with developmental disabilities as having been endowed with special souls. That’s what I see when I look at my children.

Four years ago, you discovered that you had choroidal melanoma, a malignant tumor in your left eye. How are you today?

The cancer was successfully treated. But I lost sight in that eye.

At the same time, four of Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale’s major funders died.

Yes, I hit bottom then, both in my personal life and in my communal work.

What kept you going?

My belief that everything happens by Divine providence. That means that if G-d has given me this life, with these particular challenges, I should be able to handle them, or at least try to do that.

How are you doing now?

I’m alive, I’m ok. I’m doing what I need to be doing for my children and my community, and with the help of people here who appreciate what Chabad has done here, we’ll keep growing.

Your vision?

I’m happy when people come here and find a place where they feel welcome and comfortable. If they come back again and again, I know Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale is doing something right.

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(lubavitch.com) The Chabad-Lubavitch Sharei Tzedek charity center in Moscow launched a new state of the art computer center on Wednesday, adding internet, email and computing to a list of 30 programs offered daily to hundreds of elderly day program participants. 50 staff members, participants and volunteers joined the grand opening for a tour and computer class demonstration by instructor and computer room manager Iliya Varligen.

The geriatric day program participants who attend the center from 9am to 5pm for meal, sports, crafts, skills training, health workshops and Jewish educational programs, expressed a desire to learn computer and internet usage.

“Most places in Moscow offer information on their websites and grandkids want to send their grandparents emails and pictures,” said Executive Director Shiye Deitsch who spoke at the event about the power of computers to improve the quality of life for elderly.

“This facility, with a capacity for 10 users at once, enables us to teach them to use computers, connecting them to family and increasing their independence.”

Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar secured funding for the project which he deemed “very important” and “a natural step” for Sharei Tzedek’s growing programs.

Located in the Marina Roscha neighborhood near the Moscow Jewish Community Center, Sharei Tzedek helps 15,000 elderly, sick and handicapped Jews each year, offering a full medical center, medicine and medical equipment, a soup kitchen and the day program. In addition, staff regularly delivers food and assistance to 1000 home bound residents in the area.

Opened in 2007, the center is a project of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.

Chabad of Korea is planning to open the country's first Jewish library.

Rabbi Osher Litzman, who opened the country's first Chabad House in Seoul in April, 2008 said he was moved to open a library, and dedicate it to Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, after learning that the bookshelves were the only part of Mumbai's Chabad House not destroyed in the terrorist attacks.

The library is scheduled to open in time for Shavuot. "It will be a source of knowledge, information and enlightenment to the country's growingly active Jewish community," said Litzman.

(lubavitch.com) At a meeting Wednesday with religious leaders in Russia, President Dmitri Medvedev promised to instruct his staff and heads of security regarding policies of foreign clergy in Russia.

“Government officials should not be interfering in religious life unless security concerns are involved,” said Medvedev at the meeting. 

Medvedev spoke at a meeting by the Council of Ties with Religious Organizations in Tula, Russia. For the first time, Medvedev chose to chair the Council. His remarks were in response to a query about the recent expulsion of foreign chabad rabbis from Russia, raised at the meeting by the country’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.

Last week Rabbi Tzvi Herschovitz from Stavropol was expelled from Russia, and a week prior to that, Rabbi Yisroel Silberstein from the Primorye region. On both occasions, immigration authorities expelled the U.S. rabbis on technicalities concerning their visa applications.

“For the first time in many years,” said Rabbi Lazar at the meeting, “Jews are beginning to worry about the future of religious life in Russia.

“As financial problems worsen here, there is a tendency among some to look for scapegoats, which leads to xenophobia and fascism. It behooves the government to take effective action,” he said, imploring Medvedev to correct the matter to facilitate the service of foreign rabbis in Russia.  

(lubavitch.com) Along with the three-cornered hamantashen and heaps of candies, Purim gives children one raucous day during which they can express their alter egos in masquerade. But for Jewish inmates, their identical jumpsuits fail to disguise feelings of depression and entrapment. Prison protocol dictates that this joyous holiday must be observed like any other day.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, raised awareness of the needs of Jewish prisoners and encouraged outreach in their behalf. While there are many mitzvoth they cannot perform, he said, the mitzvoth of Purim are feasible, and should be made accessible. The four commandments of the day—the megillah reading, charity giving, a gift of food to a friend, and partaking in a festive meal. 

This Purim, Spark of Light, a division of the well-known Aleph Institute, helped prisoners perform all four. They sent mishloach manot to 3,000 Jewish inmates. Roughly 300 yeshiva students and Rabbis visited prisons across the country, with megillahs, snacks, and infectious spirit in tow.

Spark of Light, which reaches out to prisoners year-round, is the only national program ensuring that imprisoned Jews stay connected to their families and Jewish heritage. The organization advocates for their religious rights, provides them with study materials and classes, and ultimately helps them reenter into society. But it is their holiday programs, perhaps, that mean the most to inmates.

“Can I just say one word,” exclaims Daleffio Dalaciou, “Wow.” Dalaciou spent eight months in Miami’s MetroWest prison last year. “It was such a relief to find someone who gave us a little time and cared about us.”  Rabbi Menachem Katz, who directs prison and military outreach for Aleph, visited Dalaciou each week. “When he [Katz] came in and helped me, it turned everything around.

“As soon as I was arrested, I requested Jewish services. They told me that they could not register me; I would have to wait for a rabbi to come find me. It took three months.” During that time, Dalaciou subsisted on bread and juice and whatever he could trade other inmates for with his non-kosher food. “I lost 45 pounds. As the only Jewish inmate in my unit, the officers always acted like it was such a bother to help me. They look down on you for being Jewish, and treat you poorly.”   

Katz arranged for Dalaciou to get on the kosher meal plan. He visited weekly to check up on him and helped him put on Tefillin on Friday mornings. Though he was not incarcerated over Purim, Dalaciou says that Passover was “smooth and impressive. It was so nice getting together with everyone for the seder. Katz also arranged for me to have kosher for Passover food, which is good because I wouldn’t have eaten the bread and I was doing heavy labor at the time. I was really worried that I should have appropriate foods to sustain me, otherwise I would have been in real trouble.”

Zalman Brackman is a rabbinical student in Morristown, New Jersey. He has visited several prisons in the past, and this Purim found him at a Colorado jail. Aside from the three megillah readings he conducted, he distributed mishloach manot and spent time individually with the prisoners.

“Every Jew, no matter his circumstances, has the right and need to connect with G-d,” explains Brackman. “When we enter a jail, we bring a piece of the real world to someone who has no connection with anything beyond his cell.”

Though Brackman says he has a “sad feeling” when the gates are locked upon his exit, he is looking forward to spending the holiday behind bars. “It is a chance to bring to other what I have been learning until now,” he says. “It makes it all worthwhile.”

The Lubavitch Youth Organization, based in Brooklyn, likewise cares for the needs of Jewish inmates, particularly around the holidays. Program director Rabbi Kasriel Kastel sent teams of rabbis to 40 New York State prisons to read the megillah, put tefillin on with the prisoners, and throw holiday parties for the inmates.

 “They are Jews and that is why we go. We have the merit to help people who otherwise would not be able to perform these mitzvoth.”

“‘Love your fellow as yourself,’ is Chabad’s motto and the most important law in the Torah,” explains Katz. The Florida rabbi tries to ease the Jewish prisoners’ plight in a setting where he says, “everything is about red tape. When you think you have overcome one hurdle, there is more red tape blocking you somewhere else.”

In New York, Kastel has had to fight to allow prisoners to perform one of the day’s commandments: giving charity. According to prison protocol, coins are considered contraband. To solve the problem, Kastel arranged with many prison wardens that to bring pennies in for the prisoners and later leave with the full charity boxes. 

Today, after spending “the longest eight months of my life” in jail, Dalaciou is using his experience to help other inmates. Soon after he was released, he began volunteering for Aleph and was hired by them several weeks ago. Dalaciou serves as their webmaster and reads and forwards the thousands of letters sent to Aleph.

“When I read each letter, I put myself into their shoes,” he says. “I went through the same thing.” Some of the more frequent letters include requests for intervention with unhelpful chaplains, prison officials, or violent cellmates. “And of course there are so many thank you letters.”

The prisoners may not have paraded in costume this Purim, but neither were they forgotten.

“I am so grateful for the path that Rabbi Katz put me on,” says Dalaciou from his new desk at Aleph. “It is the path that I am staying on.”