Chabad of Wall Street to Launch Fundraiser With New Torah Scroll

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(lubavitch.com) Chabad-Lubavitch of Wall Street has disclosed plans to launch a fundraiser and dedicate the writing of a new Torah scroll in memory of the late Mrs. Charlotte Rohr, of blessed memory, matriarch of the philanthropic Rohr family.

The first letters in the Torah scroll will be inscribed at a black-tie fundraising drive for the Chabad center, March 16, at the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York City.

Situated on Fulton and Nassau streets, Chabad of Wall Street is in the heart of the financial district. Nowhere is the impact of the economic crisis more pervasively felt than here, say Chabad representatives to the area, Rabbi and Mrs. Shmaya and Rachel Katz.

“We are in daily contact with friends, community members and businesspeople who’ve been devastated by the downturn and are holding on for dear life,” says Rabbi Katz.

The Chabad center, which is also at Ground Zero, has become a symbol of light in this community, twice hit. With increased numbers of people coming to their doors in search of spiritual nurture, the need for larger facilities has grown, prompting this fundraiser.

“During these difficult financial times,” says Mr. George Rohr, “it is so important to support the growth of a joyful Jewish presence in this area. I have been closely involved with Chabad of Wall Street for many years now, and have seen their vital contribution to Jewish life here.”

The Katzes say they are honored by Mr. Rohr’s support, and feel that dedicating a new Torah scroll, to be inscribed in memory of his mother, herself an exemplar of Jewish virtues of tzedaka and education, “is a most suitable way to help advance our work here.”

The Rohr name is well known in the broader Jewish community for the family’s support of Jewish causes and the varied Chabad-Lubavitch educational and outreach programs under their sponsorship. Many of the Chabad centers in communities worldwide, and on college campuses across the country, were opened thanks to their support.

Chabad of Wall Street not only serves the immediate residents with the full offering of educational and social programs, but is also sought out regularly by many Jewish visitors to the area. On a recent Friday afternoon, about 25 minutes before candle-lighting, the phone rang with a request for Rachel Katz. A group of 30 Jews were in the area for the weekend, and could they join Chabad for Shabbat dinner?

“They joined us Friday night for dinner, and then came back to services Shabbat morning, and lunch. They sat at the table with us through the end of Shabbat,” says Rachel, adding that this is not unusual. “I’m always prepared for these last minute calls,” she says.

Many who’ve heard about the March 16 fundraiser, says Rabbi Katz, have responded enthusiastically and have asked to participate in this new Torah with a letter of their own. Opportunities to share in the creation of the new Torah scroll are available by clicking here, beginning at $18.00 a letter.

“What can possibly be more a beautiful way of perpetuating the legacy of Mrs. Rohr, who gave so much in her own lifetime to promote the values  yiddishkeit,” asks Rabbi Katz, “than a Torah scroll that will be used at our Chabad center, symbolic of the collective participation of the Jewish people?”
 

Welcome To A New President

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(lubavitch.com) The idea of “e pluribus unum” (out of many – one) that appears on U.S. currency, sums up the American democratic process. A government is installed when the "pluribus," the many, participate in free and true elections, thus ensuring a smooth transition of power from one administration to the next. The entire purpose of any election is the unity that will be its consequence; for once the majority has expressed its choice, even the dissenting minority must unite behind that decision.

In the case of Presidential elections, those who cast their ballot for a different candidate, representing different policies, must now, after the elections, also accept the victorious candidate as their President. And the reverse is also true: The victorious candidate is not only the President of the majority that elected him, but also of the minority which opposed him. He must fulfill his Presidential duties with complete integrity, not differentiating between those who previously voted for or against him. He is the President of America—of all Americans.

[With regard to the outgoing president, even a defeated incumbent] Torah bids us to be grateful and to acknowledge those good things that he accomplished.

In beginning his new term in office, the President must work vigorously to reinforce our foundational values. The first of these is plainly stated on every dollar bill printed in the U.S.A: “In G-d We Trust.”

The use of the word trust in this context, where belief or faith may have alternatively been used, suggests a personal relationship with G-d. One might believe in G-d- but not to the extent that one puts his trust in G-d. As in the business world, where assets are given to another to be held in trust, so too, our relationship with G-d must evoke a sense of trust and confidence that every detail of our lives can be safely entrusted to G-d.

In leading the nation, the President shoulders the responsibility to foster unity, respect and peace among its citizens. These values are ultimately most effectively cultivated where trust in G-d prevails. The only way to assure that such conduct will become second nature is through the proper education of our children.

In the U.S., the state is responsible for the education of its citizens. It is thus the respon-sibility, and indeed privilege, of the public school system to instill in their charges the knowledge that G-d is not only the Creator of the world, but a Being in Whom we trust. It is this knowledge which is the foundation for a life of productivity and morality.

In no way does this challenge the principle of separation between religion and state, which was never meant to imply antagonism, or even indifference, to religion. Historically, the founding fathers were refugees from religious persecution, and hence, when founding this country, sought to ensure that there would be no interference by the state in the religious beliefs and practices of its citizens. Their intention was to safeguard against any form of religious intolerance or persecution.

Today, however, separation of religion and state has been taken to extreme, if not absurd lengths. Any attempt to help parents defray the costs of educating their children in the way they feel proper is met with outbursts of protest and condemnation. But actually the reverse is true; such financial aid is not incorrect. It is not illegal. It is perfectly within the boundaries of the Constitution. Indeed, to withhold finances from religious schools is tantamount to religious persecution! For it is the inalienable right of every parent to give his child a true education. And since in public schools one cannot receive any religious education whatsoever parents are forced to build their own schools. Yet they are still required to pay, through their taxes, for the public schools.

And surely all excuses are invalid when it comes to the question of helping religious schools pay for the cost of non-religious components of schooling-e.g. travel, health, secular subjects, etc. Refusal to help defray the cost of religious schools, or at least to grant tax rebates to those parents whose children attend the religious schools, is thus a subtle form of financial persecution.

But even financial help such as that described above is not enough. Every child, including those attending public school, must be inculcated with that belief printed on our currency- "In G-d We Trust,” a principle that is common to all faiths. This should be the very foundation of education, with each day beginning with a non-denominational prayer affirming our trust in G-d.

Real life experience proves that children absorb moral values by daily acknowledging this axiom. Trust in G-d, knowledge of G-d, helps children check their temptations to do wrong, and ensures that as they grow, they negotiate choices and make decisions with a higher awareness. The consequences of a generation reared without any knowledge of G-d are obvious: Today's adults, products of public schools, feel no responsibility to train or influence their children, resulting in the frightening state of our society.

May it be G-d's will that this nation conduct itself in all its matters with truth, peace, and well being.

Reflections: Return to Mumbai

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(lubavitch.com) What had changed since last August, when I had first visited Mumbai? The Indian Army squad in a sandbagged position in front of the Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue, where Gabi Holtzberg had served as rabbi. The Shabbat meals being held in an “undisclosed location,” necessitating some sleuthing before I came, to get approved. And of course, after long hours of the Shabbat meal, singing, talking and sharing, and after a long walk through Mumbai’s nighttime street and finally up the alleyway, familiar from last time, the battered Chabad House of Mumbai, the place the Indian TV and the locals called Nariman House.

I had breezed in there in August, breathless, with barely half an hour left before Shabbat. My driver, though a native and long experienced in the twisting maze of Mumbai’s roads had had to stop four different times in the neighborhood to find where Chabad was. It was and is not a place you just stumble upon.

I was welcomed warmly but quickly by Rabbi Holtzberg and shown to a clean, crisp room, as nice as one in a decent hotel. During the course of that Friday night, I had a glimpse into Reb Gabi’s remarkable personality and that of his wife, Rivka.

That evening, Chabad had been filled by an extended family from France, about forty strong, all off on an August vacation in India. And where else to spend Shabbat in Mumbai but at Chabad? They said the Friday night prayers right there in Chabad, and waited expectantly for dinner.

But Rabbi Holtzberg had his regular obligation in the Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue and it took some time to get back, so the crowd was a little restive and not in the best mood when Reb Gabi got back to get the meal under way. He stood up and started to speak a little, apologizing for his inability to speak French. He suggested we get in the mood by singing a song, and suggested a song that the Chasidim had adopted a long time ago as one of their own. As he sang the first bars of what was formerly known as La Marseilles there was a happy roar of recognition and everyone joined in with gusto. Within thirty seconds, Reb Gabi had won everyone’s heart—and the evening had just begun. Behind it all, Rivki was constantly attentive, whether to see that all were properly served a delicious and bountiful meal, or to be engaged in animated talk, now serious, now smiling, with any number of people.

Now two young recently ordained Chabad rabbis, and not yet married, have flown out to Mumbai to keep the Holtzbergs’ work alive and to carry it on further. A New York-born Israeli businessman, stationed in Mumbai for two years, said it simply: “They are mature beyond their years.”

Rabbis Mendel Shputz and Mendel Kessler have the respect and affection of the small congregation of native Mumbaikurs and they handle the many visitors with the good humor, affection and sense of loving purposefulness that show the best of what Chabad offers to the world. They not only have to fill large shoes, but they must also comfort a community shocked by the senseless loss of such good people, greet foreign dignitaries, such as the Canadian Immigration Minister who toured the destruction of Chabad House with them and spoke at the synagogue, as well as deal with the continuing stream of tourists and Israelis fresh out of the army looking for something warm and Jewish, a home far away from home. The two Mendels do this all with aplomb.
Friday night, Rabbi Shputz began by following a tradition that Reb Gabi had instituted—each person around the table would introduce himself and then say a Torah thought, a story or a song. So it went late into the night.

Some South Africans and an American, here to study from an Indian sage, yet eager to keep in touch with their Judaism, shared an exercise of clapping and laughing that lifted everyone’s spirits. A native-born family shared their sadness over the loss, their confidence that G-d is giving the Holtzbergs a heavenly reward, and their dedication to help carry forward their good work. Another Israeli who has long been a resident here spoke passionately about our strong obligation to support the Holtzberg’s orphaned son Moshe. During the course of the evening, he and others discussed practical ways to raise funds see to it that not only would he have the necessities of life, but the things that a loving parent would like to give their child that makes life special and exciting—a new bike when he is old enough, a computer, a trip to the U.S . . .

The next day, at the morning services at the Knesset Eliyahu, I watched three birds who were perched in the rich gingerbread ornamentation of the synagogue high above us. They had been there last night, too. The many windows of the synagogue are open and the ceiling is lofty and three birds had come in and walked about, or sat and perched and seemed to look down on the prayers attentively. I had a thought then on Friday night which I did not share.

But on Saturday morning, at a lull in the services, a French-born resident, who was close to the Holtzbergs, pointed up to the birds and whispered to me, “Do you see? There are just three of them: Gabi, Rivki and Moshe.” I said nothing at first. After some minutes, I came back to him and said: “Last night, I had seen those birds, and I had thought the same thing.”

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz To Lead Jewish Unity Lectures

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(lubavitch.com) With Israel at war, the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks, and other threats facing our people, Jewish unity has emerged as a potent theme and a wake-up call, challenging Jews to unite across every divide.

10,000 worldwide are expected to participate on January 25th, at a Jewish unity lecture by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.  Sponsored by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, A Division of Merkos L"Inyonei Chinuch – The Educational Arm of the Worldwide Chabad Lubavitch Movement, this is to be the first in a series of four unity lectures featuring influential Jewish voices, heard and seen through live video at 800 Chabad centers internationally.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz plans to explore the broader ramifications of the theme of unity from his Jerusalem-based Steinsaltz Center. The noted author, Talmudic researcher, and philosopher, will offer those plugged into his lecture, the experience of a 21st century hakhel.

Every seven-year cycle following the Sabbatical (Shmittah) year during Temple times of old, the Jewish people participated at unique assembly called hakhel. The study of Torah was the object of these gatherings, where the king read relevant parts of Deuteronomy that reinforced basic Jewish values.

While no longer a practiced mitzvah, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory, had called on marking the seven-year cycle with hakhel events. This year being a hakhel year is an auspicious time to focus on unity through Torah study.

“The idea of hakhel unity is especially achieved through the study of Torah,” explains Rabbi Levi Kaplan, coordinator of the Unity Lectures. “Torah brings peace and peace brings unity.” January 25th was chosen because it is the first Sunday this winter without any sports, explains Kaplan.

Hailed by Time magazine as a “once-in-a-millennium scholar,” Rabbi Steinsaltz is recognized as unique and independent voice, and his presentation is sure to draw wide participation

Rabbi Elie Estrin, whose program at the University of Washington is exclusively for faculty and staff, expects that the Sunday lecture and brunch will be well-attended, as many of the Jewish professors at the Seattle campus are familiar with Rabbi Steinsaltz’s articles and 60 books. While most of Chabad on Campus’ activities focus on the student body, Estrin is often approached by faculty members looking for a spiritual fix.

“It is beautiful when the academics realize that traditional Judaism is neither cold nor dusty,” he says, “but alive and energetic.” Estrin hopes that the event will encourage a “powerful intellectual discourse,” spawning future advanced learning on campus. 

Organizers have prepared a detailed summary of the speech to familiarize Estrin and the other hosts with the lecture’s ideas. Following the televised speech, each community will participate in its own question and answer session.

Rabbi Ephraim Levine of Watford, England says his Hertfordshire city includes 200 Jewish families. “We come together quite often, but community members are particularly excited to be a part of something so far-reaching as this,” he says. In their small town just outside of London, they “will be uniting on a local as well as a global level. The name of Watford will go down with all the other cities across the world.”   
Like the other hosts, Rabbi Menachem Blum of Ottawa hopes the event “will push people to involve themselves in more learning opportunities.” For him, though, it is the gathering itself that is so appealing.

“The idea of hakhel harks back to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. We are reminded to connect with Torah and G-d, wherever we may be. And the fact that we will be achieving this connection on a global scale is very powerful.”

At Argentine Consulate, Hundreds Bid For Art and Orphans

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(lubavitch.com) Thursday night’s frigid temperatures did not factor in at all at the Argentine Consulate of New York City, where hundreds of guests mingled jovially over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at an evening fashionably dedicated to art and a good cause.

The event was a fundraiser for Ieladeinu, the UNICEF recognized child-care agency established by Chabad of Argentina, for children at risk. Paintings of Argentina’s great contemporary artists installed on the townhouse walls of the consulate’s elegant, tall ceilinged rooms—all donated by the artists for Ieladeinu—were sold later that evening at an auction.

Sensi6, established by Maya Abitbol, Daniella Kahane and Nicole Kavana, organized the fundraiser. The three twenty-somethings who dedicate their event-planning services to good causes chose Ieladeinu as this year’s project because the program, they said, “proves that a little can go a long way through the power of leading by example.” 

The evening was all about ordinary individuals leading by example with the inspiration to share. “It all started with a visit by Avi and Merav Dahan,” Rabbi  Tzvi Grunblatt, director of Ieladeinu and Chabad representative to Argentina, told Lubavitch.com. “They visited Ieladeinu when they were in Buenos Aires, and shared their enthusiasm for the work of Ieladeinu with Sensi6.”

Smartly hosted at the Argentine Consulate with the help of Ambassador Hector Timerman, the donated services and products of all the vendors involved contributed to an experience exemplifying the spirit of Sensi6, which works creatively to appeal to the five senses and cultivate “the sixth sense, the sense of giving,” explained Nicole Kavana.

Among the artwork spanning the variety of themes and media, were four paintings by Ieladeinu’s children, aged 5-11, that generated tight bidding from $3,000 to $6,000 a painting.

Jennifer V. Roth, an auctioneer for Sotheby’s led the bidding, ultimately garnering $28,000 for a Mondongo (Manuel Mendanha) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Rabbi Grunblatt, who founded Ieladeinu, greeted guests at the bidding. Surveying the standing-room only crowd, Grunblatt said that for all the talk about the economic crisis, “we are only in crisis when we are short on values.”

With the right values, he said, “we are empowered to overcome any crisis.”

Korean Prime Minister Thanks Chabad at Buy Korea 2009

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(lubavitch.com) Earlier this week, Jewish business people finally had the opportunity to participate fully at “Buy Korea 2009,” Asia’s largest business expo.

Korean Prime Minister Han Seung Soo, visiting the COEX exhibition center where some 1000 international businesses were represented, personally greeted Chabad-Lubavitch representative to Korea, Rabbi Osher Litzman, thanking him for accommodating the needs of observant Jews so that they too, could participate.

With Chabad now in Korea just under a year, Kotra (Korea’s Trade Promotion Corporation) representatives approached Rabbi and Mrs. Mussie Litzman shortly before the Wednesday exhibition was to open.

Working on short notice, the shluchim opened their Chabad House with kosher meals, daily services and warm hospitality.

“We had businesspeople from Mexico, Israel, the U.S.—many who said they only came because they heard that we’d be there for them,” Rabbi Litzman told Lubavitch.com in a phone conversation.

Others, he said, much to their delight, only learned that Chabad was there for them once they arrived.

Many stayed on, and will be joining Chabad for Shabbat meals and services, said Rabbi Litzman. “We had scores of people at our Chabad House all week, and many will be celebrating Shabbos with us.”

In his greetings, the Prime Minister said he was “happy to see the Jewish community growing in Korea,” and invited the Litzmans to meet with him privately.

Evening Learning Group Members Bring Torah to the Soldiers

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(lubavitch.com) As part of his efforts to share Chasidic philosophy with Israel’s many yeshiva students, Rabbi  Moshe Shilat created the Lev Ledaat network of evening learning programs. Six months ago the students expanded on the concept, sharing their learning and inspiration to soldiers by making weekly visits to local army bases.

Lev Ledaat’s students meet with soldiers once a week in addition to four evenings of learning as a group. Classes on the bases are engaging and exciting, covering the Torah portion of the week, Chasidic philosophy and Kabbalah, and Jewish law. Once a month, the students arrange special gatherings to celebrate holidays and special events on the base.

The program enjoys the full support of the IDF’s Rabbinate who praised the students as “special young men who express the dedication and commitment of a soldier via their studies.”

Tens of bases throughout Israel host Lev Ledaat classes each week, including three in the south close to war-impacted Sderot and Gaza. At all five centers the program has continued despite many participants signing up to fight in Gaza.

Community Rallies in France; Chabad Remains Open

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(lubavitch.com) The Chabad center in St-Denis, France was attacked with nine Molotov cocktails on Sunday night, breaking a window and charring the walls of a pizzeria on the bottom floor. Rabbi Mendel Belinow and other people were inside the synagogue when the fire broke out, but no one was injured.

A week after a synagogue in Toulouse was attacked with a flaming car, the explosions occurred just as evening prayers had finished and Belinow was making the rounds of the building to close up for the night. Witnesses called the police and reported seeing several people fleeing the scene. Many more cocktails were found abandoned on the ground outside the building.

“It’s a miracle no one was hurt with that many bombs. And the timing, it was like they knew when we were leaving and specifically wanted to hurt Chabad or Jews,” said Rabbi Belinow who condemned the act and called on officials to find the criminals, bring them to justice and add security at all Jewish institutions until the situations quiets down.

Rabbi Belinow told Lubavitch.com that he has been participating in several meeting with prosecutors, press and local officials for the past day discussing the criminal investigation and police proposals for improving the buildings security.

St-Denis Mayor, Didier Paillard said the attack was “unbearable” and called upon the city’s residents of “to express their condemnation”. In an effort to quell the fears of the Jewish community, Chabad hosted a rally on Monday night with over 200 people, including local politicians and religious representatives in front of the center.  
 “We’re not going anywhere and we’re not stopping,” said Rabbi Belinow. “The center is taking steps to ensure safety and everything is open as usual.”

Son of Chabad Representative, Newlywed, Injured in Gaza Operation

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(lubavitch.com) The fighting in Gaza hit very close to home today when IDF Corporal Nechemia Rubin and his commander, IDF Combat Officer Aharon Karov, were wounded early Tuesday morning when a mine exploded in a house they were searching for terrorists. Nechemia is the son of Rabbi Yehuda Rubin, director of Chabad of Alon Moreh.

Nechemia and Aharon were standing next to each other as they cleared a house outside Gaza City when a mine went off and shrapnel filled the air.

“It’s just miraculous that his injuries are moderate considering how close he was to a mine explosion,” said Rabbi Rubin who has four other sons in the army.

He is being treated at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva where he underwent emergency surgery to remove shrapnel from his eye and was treated for burns on his face and arms. Nechemia Rubin’s bride of two months, Meital, and his mother Orlin are at his bedside.

Aharon, who left the Gaza front to get married and returned to fighting the next day, remained in critical condition at the same hospital.

“One of the soldiers told me that after the boys were hurt, the first and only thing Aharon asked was ‘is everyone okay?’” said Rabbi Zev Karov, Aharon’s father.

Rabbi Rubin asked everyone to say pray for Aaron Yehoshua ben Chaya Shoshana and his son Nechemia Shalom Dovber ben Orlin. 

Three Years Later, Israel’s Evacuees Dodge Rockets, Long to Return

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(lubavitch.com) The IDF’s incursion into the Gaza strip has many in Israel taking a painfully hard look at Israel’s disengagement from the area three years ago and its failure to herald peace. A scathing report issued by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss faults the government for its treatment of the evacuated Israelis, a majority of which live without bomb shelters and within Hamas rocket range in Nitsan.

As the IDF took up positions on the ruins of the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, the State Comptroller’s report examined the three year plight of the Gush Katif evacuees.

“The evicted families paid a heavy price following the disengagement,” the report states, “and continue to pay it even today. The process of relocating them could still take years.”

While welfare services were found to have been carried out professionally, a “lack of preparatory work on the part of the authorities” was blamed for the fact that “hundreds of families are forced to continue living in temporary housing and in temporary sites that the authorities do not maintain properly.” As a result, “The residents are thus suffering and are in danger.”

NO BOMB SHELTERS

Specifically built to accommodate Gush Katif residents after their evacuation, Nitsan is a caravan-community between Ashdod and Ashkelon. Over 500 families and a few schools and public buildings are housed in flimsy pre-fab structures that “are characterized by severe infrastructure faults, including wet walls, broken floor tiles, and frequent electricity outages.” Not a single bomb shelter was erected in the community and, because the homes were supposed to be temporary, they include no reinforced rooms that offer protection against rocket fire.

“These plasterboard houses aren’t safe against a rocket,” said Rachel Saperstein of Nitsan who moved to Gush Katif in 1997 as part of her belief that all of Israel belongs to the Jews. “Every morning the siren goes off and a few explosions. In pajamas people run out to the sewer pipes that couldn’t take a direct hit. I keep a winter coat next to the front door at all times.”

In response to expellees’ protest, “You threw us out of our homes, at least protect us from rockets,” the government provided Nitsan’s families with large concrete sewage pipes, which offer cover, but not protection from a direct hit.  While children can stand in them, adults find it uncomfortable and insufficient.

“There are still no safe, permanent homes here. The government plays games with us,” said Mrs. Saperstein.

FORMER SETTLEMENTS WERE A BUFFER

facing rockets is not a new experience for the former Gush Katif residents. In the three years prior to the disengagement, Hamas launched more than 16,000 rockets at the Jewish settlements which Israeli military officials now acknowledge acted as a buffer for the rest of Israel’s southern communities that are now coming under fire.

“The Jews of Gush Katif went through a lot and now they live in boxes and have to dodge rockets again,” said Rabbi Yigal Kirschnzaft of Nitsan who was the Chabad representative in Gush Katif since 1982.

“We warned everyone of the dangers of disengagement. The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught us that simply speaking about giving away land creates a dangerous situation for Jews, how much more so here that they actually did it.”

Rabbi Kirschnzaft told Lubavitch.com that it was traumatic for the expellees to see tractors and Arabs destroy the very places where they prayed and had community functions together. The pain continues as many of the residents of Nitsan are out of work, struggling both physically and spiritually.

“With that many rockets from such close range, everyone has a rocket story. There are many injuries and people can’t work or don’t have work,” he said. “We went through eighteen years of rockets, since the first intifada. Terrorists attacked our kids on the streets and my car was broken into so many times. These people have gone through so much.”

Now Chabad of Nitsan, Rabbi Kirschnzaft has stayed busy and involved with supporting the residents as they struggle to put their lives back together. His mobile lending library and warm smile is a comforting fixture to locals, and the center offers classes, and Shabbat and Holiday celebration in addition support and social services.

While some of the IDF soldiers currently fighting in Gaza are expelled former Gush Katif residents, many are speaking out about the connection between the disengagement and the Hamas terrorist build-up that resulted in the current war.

NO PEACE, NO DEVELOPMENT

“They took us out of our homes and communities we worked so hard to build up, all for nothing,” said Mrs. Saperstein. “We didn’t get peace for it.

Mrs. Saperstein, whose husband was injured in fighting during the Yom Kippur war as well as from a rocket attack when they lived in Gush Katif, told Lubavitch.com that she would move back “in a second” and build it back up from the rubble. Furthermore, she said the current Arab residents are desperate for a Jewish return to the land.

“Nothing grows there anymore. Arabs call their former Jewish employees complaining that they are farming the same way as when the Jews were there but nothing grows and bugs are out of control. Factories which supported agricultural projects were retooled by Hamas to build rockets and weapons.”

She said that it is frustrating watching the country getting bombed. “We told you, warned you and begged you that this would happen.”

In 1988, Rabbi Kirschnzaft sent in a report of his many Chanukah activities to Lubavitch Headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. “The Rebbe responded with a note saying that our job was to make people happy. At the time, I didn’t understand. But it’s clear now.”

Editorial: Where Wills Collide, Israel Survives

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I have a fantasy that I can’t resist, and it returns to me with enhanced details whenever I see Israel get squeezed by the darlings of the double standard.

In my fantastic scenario, hi-tech geeks at the Weizmann Institute are developing an anti missile device that has the power to turn rockets launched into Israel, back from whence they came, in this case Gaza. I imagine Israel employing this marvelous technology as the next round of rockets is aimed at her cities.

And then I imagine the outcry by those who always cry out when Israel protects itself.

What might they possibly say? “Disproportionate response . . . striking at innocent targets . . . killing civilians and children . . .”

To be sure, my scenario would pose a perturbing conundrum to those who live unperturbed by the constant exposure of Israel's civilians to the enemy’s lethal missiles. As if Israel owes its neighbors protection from the bloodthirsty terrorists who might come to their doorstep, by offering up Jewish children as fodder for terrorist aggressions.

While Israel fights Hamas, Sudan bombs Darfur. To date, 400,000 innocent victims were murdered there, and 2.5 million displaced by the violence. Yet this humanitarian catastrophe did not provoke the same kind of self-righteous indignation we see surfacing every time Israel exercises its right to defend itself.

The rush Saturday night for an emergency meeting by the UN Security Council hoping for a resolution criticizing Israel, was hardly inspired by the deaths of civilians used as human shields by Hamas. Few of those who jumped on their moral perches could bear the scrutiny of messes of their making in their own backyards. Yet they protest. They do protest too much, I’m afraid, the better to deflect attention from their own local abuses.

None of these countries were bothered when, after Israel tore its own people out of their homes in Gaza in response to demands of land for peace, the Palestinians promptly delivered rockets. Who cried out with horror, earnest or feigned, that instead of developing their infrastructure, the Palestinians used their newly acquired autonomy in Gaza to reach further into Israel with their terror?

Sixty years later, the suggestion that the world prefers its Jews dead or dispossessed rings with frightful veracity. The idea that we Jews today have not only the hypothetical right and the moral obligation to defend ourselves, but are empowered by the means to do so, is still fundamentally upsetting to the classic stereotype of the Jew: needy, compliant and helpless. That’s the way the world likes us.

That’s too bad, really. Because Israel is remarkably strong, militarily and morally. No other state in the world with a military as powerful as the IDF and an existential threat as imminent as the one Israel confronts daily, would go to the lengths Israel does, to protect the lives of an enemy population that weans its children on death and hate and annihilation, as life-values. And yet others may argue that herein lies Israel's moral failure: endangering its own people by exercising restraint instead of decisive action.

Alas, Israel is on a short leash, even with its friends, and soon it will cave into pressure to end its military defensive strike. It will not have brought an end to the terror, but Israel’s citizens will gain some respite from Hamas’s rockets, at least for a while. Realistically, that’s the best we can hope for in a region of the world that wants no peace with Israel.

So we will continue to look on in frustration as a new crop of peace brokers embarks in the days ahead, on different peace initiatives with repackaged platitudes about a new reality in the region. No matter how many times its enemies unabashedly and unequivocally declare that they will never accept Israel, our friends don’t want to listen.

The Jewish people, better than anyone else, know that until our destiny finds its fulfillment in the final redemption, Palestinians will keep trying to terrorize Israel. They will do so on the pretext of Israel’s "occupation.” And they will laugh all the way to the rocket launchers as foreign ministers pressure Israel with demands for more land, ostensibly for peace but actually for smuggling and stockpiling rockets, hoping to aim them yet deeper into Israel.

But they forget. They forget that the people of Israel are survivors. They forget that this tiny nation that has brought the world disproportionate blessings, is itself Divinely possessed of a will to life and a joi de vivre more potent than the hateful passions of all her enemies. They forget that it is they, not Israel, who celebrate suicide and dance with death.

In these sobering circumstances, Israel has no choice but to live by the sword. But it is by God's blessings and miracles that this indefatigable lamb among the lions survives, and it will be, I pray, by His ever watchful eye that Israel will ultimately prevail.

In the meantime, I’m hoping that our friends at the Weizmann Institute are hard at work developing my fantastic anti-missile device before Hamas launches a rocket their way.

Rockets Rain on Israel’s North, Residents on Alert

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(lubavitch.com) Four Katyusha rockets slammed into the northern coastal city of Naharia Thursday morning, one of them landing directly on a senior citizens’ facility.

Piercing the roof and causing a meter-diameter opening, the rocket exploded in a bathroom that was unoccupied at the time, shattering water pipes and extensively damaging the facility. Two residents of the facility were wounded, as were four civilians.

Falling without warning sirens, but after Home Front Command warnings throughout the week to be on alert, the strike realized Israel’s fears that it would be hit from a second front in the north .

Since the Gaza war’s beginning, the IDF has been on alert in the north for rocket fire from Hizbullah and responded immediately. An IDF spokesman confirmed retaliation of artillery fire aimed at the source of the rocket firings and a continuing investigation. Meanwhile, schools in Naharia were closed and residents instructed to head for shelters.

“I was walking out the door with my kids to take them to school when a rocket suddenly fell across the street, maybe 200 feet away,” said Chabad of Nahariya director Rabbi Yisroel Butman. “There was a general feeling in the city that something was going to happen, but it’s still shocking.”

Rabbi Butman visited the old age facility to lend support and assistance after first securing Chabad’s six preschools in the city where school starts at 8am and kids arrive as early as 7:30am, right around the time the rockets fell.

“Kids are walking to school or in transport at exactly that time of the morning.”

School director Rabbi Chaim Kvishevsky said he heard the noise, saw smoke from a rocket that fell near his house, and immediately contacted each of the classrooms to ensure the safety of teachers and students.

“The teachers did a great job of keeping the calm, reassuring kids and frantic parents until every child was picked up and brought home.”

A tour of all school sites was conducted confirming the status and safety of all locations. He said that many parents, in a panic, responded immediately, while others know this situation all too well. “Some parents called me to see if school would be closed. They were surprised by the rockets, but we’ve been through this before.”

Rabbi Kvishevsky told Lubavitch.com that during the Lebanon war in 2006, “rockets were falling all the time, like rain.” Then, the Chabad center ensured that frightened, hungry residents stuck in their homes had food by delivering food packages throughout the war. Since then, all school sites have been updated and protected as necessary.

“Our teachers, unfortunately, are very skilled at handling this kind of situation.”

At 7:30am, Chabad preschool teacher Aliza Chayut was riding the train to Naharia when the rockets struck. She was unaware anything had happened until after she arrived at school and parents started showing up and calling.

“The kids were happy, playing and singing in their own world, totally unaware anything had happened.”

She checked in with Rabbi Kvishevsky and began contacting all parents to assure them everyone was fine and to facilitate getting the children home. Mrs. Chayut moved the class into the protected room, leading the kids through their regular routine of prayers, songs and giving charity, maintaining the calm until the last child went home.

“Some parents were totally shocked and hysterical. They were happy their kids were okay and we were on top of the situation.”

On his way to the Home Front Command center of operations in the municipality building to put Tefillin on soldiers and other outreach activities, Rabbi Kvishevsky said the next few days are critical.

“If it remains quiet and calm, then good. But if the rocket attacks continue, things could really escalate.”

At this time, Hizbullah has not taken responsibility for this morning’s rocketing. Israeli sources are concerned the terrorist organization has smuggled in as much as three times more rockets than it possessed before the Second Lebanon War two years ago. Meanwhile, northern Israeli’s are playing a waiting game.

“The general feeling is tense, waiting to see what will happen next and hoping for quiet,” said Rabbi Butman. “It is a time to encourage faith and mitzvahs, as well as many prayers.”

According to an investigating police officer at the scene of the old age home, “It was a miracle that the rocket landed on the roof of the old age home.” All residents have been evacuated from the building.

Chabad in Action as Grad Rockets Slams into Gedera

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(lubavitch.com) A three-month-old girl was injured by shattered glass and several people were treated for shock Tuesday morning when a grad rocket struck the city of Gedera. Miraculously falling in between two homes full of people, it represents the longest-range attack to strike southern Israel in the Gaza war.

“It was a miracle – no one was on the street and it didn’t directly hit the house,” said Chabad of Gedera director Rabbi Binyomin Karniel  “From warning siren to the loud boom, it all happened very fast and shocked people.”

The rocket was packed with ball bearings and pounded walls, blew out windows and tore to pieces a dog walking on the street.

Director of programming, Rabbi Yoel Baitch, has been on the scene for most of the day with the family next to where the baby was injured, on the other side of the rocket’s path.

“They were in total shock. But they didn’t want to leave their home and give in to terrorists. I offered to help the father clean up the mess, but he said my presence was helping them persevere.”

Rabbi Baitch delivered ready made food and provided constant support to the family with which he had recently celebrated Chanukah in his home and six months earlier tutored their son for his bar mitzvah.

Rabbi Karniel told Lubavitch.com that the rocket landed a few minutes’ walk from his daughter’s home and that his kids at home are still fearful from this morning’s explosion. Despite the Gedera Chabad center being in the city’s southern most point, closest to Gaza’s rockets, Rabbi Karniel looks to faith and trust for security.

“You don’t need to be a statistician to see how disproportionate it is to have over 10,000 rockets fall in the region with so few casualties and direct hits. Call it what it is, these are miracles and we need to be grateful all the time.”

On Monday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that sixty percent of the missiles have fallen in open areas while 40 percent exploded in built-up areas. However, only 10 percent partially struck buildings while two percent slammed directly into buildings.

Dozens of eyewitnesses have reported that rockets landed several feet from where they were standing or from where they had been several minutes before the time of impact.

A city of 18,000 located between Rehovot to the north, Ashdod to the west, Gedera has embraced Chabad’s activities which include two thriving synagogues, several well attended weekly classes, a preschool for children, extensive programming for the city’s many elderly housing units and holiday events for the 5000 children in the local school district. For Chanukah, three large menorahs lit up the city and were featured in several grand lighting events.

“It’s a diverse community that’s very close, very tight knit, where everyone thinks about having a positive impact on their neighbors and others,” said Rabbi Karniel.

Arson Attempt Latest in Antwerp’s Anti-Semitic Response to Gaza War

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(lubavitch.com) On Saturday night, unknown perpetrators shoved rags with lighter fluid into the mailbox of a Chabad family’s home in Antwerp, Belgium and lit them on fire. Luckily the fire did not catch on and the home sustained only minor smoke damage.

A family member told police they were awoken in the middle of the night by a burning smell and discovered the fire upon investigation. Police and fire teams responded immediately and promptly put out the blaze. The house, bearing a sign on the door with a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, is clearly recognizable as Jewish, and with a frightening increasing in anti-Semitic event since the beginning of the Gaza war, members of the local Arab population of 40,000 remain prime suspects.

“There is great concern over safety since the war started,” said local Chabad Rabbi Shabtai Slavaticki whose outdoor menorah display was destroyed by vandals on the day the war started. “We are weighing ways to increase security.”

Rabbi Slavaticki told Lubavitch.com that Jewish schools in Antwerp have long employed Israeli trained security guards, but that synagogues are patrolled by local security services.

On Saturday nearly 100 youngsters were detained by the police for questioning after attempting to take part in an unauthorized demonstration in the heart of Antwerp against Israel.

“They were screaming ‘death for Jews’ and reports said many were armed with weapons,” said Rabbi Slavaticki.

In Five Towns, Jewish Community Rallies Behind Chabad

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(lubavitch.com) Sometimes it takes a little darkness to shed light on something so remarkable. News reports on December 25 spoke of the wreckage that a BMW X3 caused when it plowed through the windows of Chabad of the Five Town’s annual Chanukah Wonderland. Images of the crushed glass and ruined exhibits made people shudder even as they kindled the fifth Chanukah candle that night. 

But Rabbi Zalman Wolowik, director of the Five Towns, leapt into action, visiting patients, consoling the horrified onlookers, and lighting the public menorah at Cedarhurst Park several hour later. His quick response impressed other community activists, and rabbis, therapists, and lawyers offered their services and comfort.

“This past week,” Wolowik told Lubavitch.com several days after the accident, “we learned more than ever how amazing our community is.”

On the surface of things, Chabad of the Five Towns, located on the south shore of New York’s Long Island, is like any other Chabad center around the globe. Inside its welcoming doors is a burgeoning preschool with a sizeable waiting list, a class of women learning about the weekly Torah portion, and energetic volunteers preparing for an upcoming Friendship Circle event.

But beyond the predictable is something that few in the community dreamed of when Rabbi Zalman and Chanie Wolowik moved here in 1994. “People didn’t understand what I was doing here,” recalls the salt-and-pepper bearded Wolowik. “It was an established community with schools and synagogues. People expected Chabad to be found in the Far East, not here.”

“It is important for people to understand that yes we have the shopping and the food,” explains Hadassah Geisinsky, “but there are still so many people who we reach out to.” Geisinsky, a coordinator at Chabad, lives near Cedarhurst’s main drag, Central Avenue, where all the trappings of a vibrant, established Jewish community are in evidence. Traditionally-dressed Jews frequent the Judaica stores, chain restaurants also found in Brooklyn, and even a Gap with modest clothing.

But it is “precisely because there is so much going on here, that people are getting left by the wayside,” believes Wolowik. “Other Orthodox communities are not trained like Chabad is to recognize those in spiritual need.” 

Chabad has found its niche. Its list of programming is immense, with literally something for everyone. A Wednesday morning class was filled with women of varied religious observance (some came in slacks while others covered their hair with a scarf or wig) learning Torah together. Children’s clubs offer sports, activities, and study for youth from across the area’s Jewish and public schools.

“It is great to see children from so many different backgrounds becoming friends,” says Geisinsky, “when before they would have never even met.”

Within the broader community it is understood that, “Chabad does holiday events,” which people from every Jewish organization attend. Thousands from across the Five Towns gather in the local park several times a year to listen to live music and dance on Sukkot; to watch the menorah be kindled each Chanukah; and to sit by a blazing bonfire come the spring festival of Lag B’omer.

Marcie Kramer discovered her local Chabad during the High Holidays. “It was soon after my 18-month old son was diagnosed with autism,” she recalls, “and I was searching for a Yom Kippur service that would allow me to connect with G-d and cry and beg for my son’s life.”

Even though the neighborhood is filled with synagogues (at the latest count there were 45 Orthodox congregations in the Five Towns), “this is the one place where I can feel holiness during prayer,” states Kramer.

Since that auspicious Yom Kippur morning, Kramer’s children have participated regularly in Chabad’s varied programming. Both children have Friendship Circle friends who visit regularly, providing friendship for the kids and a bit of respite for mom. Despite the fact that finding a babysitter is tricky, Kramer tries to attend every “Mom’s Night Out,” an evening for parents of disabled children to share resources, comfort, and good food.

It is in the homey Chabad center, where Kramer and her family attend weekly services, that she found her place.

“The Rabbi knows everyone in shul,” says Kramer. “He doesn’t pass anyone by—even a child—without wishing him a good Shabbos by name.” Continues Kramer, “whether you have been here before or not, they make you feel like this has been your home forever.”

Emails and calls are still flooding the Chabad center with requests to help following Chanukah’s accident. Despite harsh economic times, people are sending in donations and professionals are offering their services. “It is an amazing community,” says Wolowik, “everyone is pulling through and joining forces.” 

For her part, Kramer insists, “I would do anything for Chabad. They are angels.”

Visit to Israel Confirms Mayor Bloomberg’s Support of Israel’s Strike Against Hamas

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(lubavitch.com) Returning Monday from a solidarity visit to Israel, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference with the media and representatives of Jewish organizations in which he shared his impressions and personal feelings about the situation in Israel.

The Mayor visited Ashkelon and Sderot, two of Israel's southern cities that are daily targeted by Hamas missiles, and met with city and state leaders, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Likud Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Bloomberg said he will personally remember the appreciation of the people in the street, the military and government representatives, “who were genuinely pleased that someone from the U.S. came to express understanding and solidarity” with them at this time.

Accompanied by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Representative Gary L. Ackerman of Queens, Bloomberg visited a safe pediatric ward in Barzilai hospital, where, among Israeli children, he also met two Palestinian children evacuated from Gaza to receive medical care in Israel, and other “Palestinian women who were pleased with the care they got from Israeli medical teams.”

In response to a question by Lubavitch.com about whether there are increased security risks to Jewish institutions in the U.S and New York in particular, given the anti-Israel sentiments expressed at recent protests, Mr. Bloomberg said that protestors represented “a handful of people out there,” and that the city does work with relevant parties whenever there is even “a remote chance” of any kind of terrorist threat.

 “We are doing everything we can to prevent anything terrible from happening,” he told Lubavitch.com.

The Mayor spoke empathetically about the challenge to Israelis living with incoming rockets for years. “How would we adjust living in a war zone trying to raise a family?”

He was unequivocal about Israel’s need to use all its resources to defend itself. He was asked numerous times, he said, whether he thought it right that Israel should strike at innocent Palestinians. “It’s not Israel, but Hamas striking at innocent Israelis and using their own people as human shields,” he said.

Just trying to envision rockets coming into the U.S. without a response by the government, the Mayor offered, is “inconceivable.”

In answer to questions about a “proportional response,” Bloomberg said, “This is not a game, this is not theoretical,” and added that the first rule of going after terrorists is for a government to “use all their resources quickly and decisively.”

Rabbi Shea Hecht, of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education asked the Mayor whether he was speaking as a Jew or as the Mayor of New York City.

“I don’t think you can separate the two,” said the Mayor. “The important thing,” he said, is that in visiting Israel, "I represented 8.3 million Americans, and perhaps the country, not just Jews.”

As Gaza Ground War Intensifies, Chabad Steps Up Support Activities

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(lubavitch.com) As Israeli Defense Forces began the long anticipated ground operation to end rocket fire into the Southern communities, its soldiers are penetrating Gaza's dangerous interior and Chabad representatives are intensifying their own support efforts both for the soldiers and Israel's southern residents.

IDF sources confirmed one fatality, St. – Sgt.Dvir Emmanueloff, 22, of Givat Zeev. Emmanueloff died of wounds sustained in a mortar shell attack near Jabalya in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. 

Chabad's representatives in Givat Ze'ev, Rabbi Chaim and Ayelet Bachar received the news of Dvir's death with shock. They knew him personally, as Dvir was a student of Rabbi Bachar's in elementary school. "He was an outstanding student," says Rabbi Bachar. Emmanueloff will be buried Sunday night at Mt. Herzel.

WITH THE IDF

IDF reports that 54 soldiers were injured, including four seriously, during Sunday's actions. Twenty one Israeli soldiers were hospitalized in Siroka Hospital in Beer’sheva and Tel Hashomer outside Tel Aviv. Chabad’s Terror Victims Project's Rabbi Menachem Kutner was joined by Rabbi Zalman Gorelik of Beer Sheva and Rabbi Levi Gopin of Tel Hashomer, making the rounds among the soldiers, providing services to family members, and offering support. Rabbi Kutner emailed the names of the wounded soldiers to Chabad representatives worldwide, who are leading prayers in their communities for their speedy recovery.
“The soldiers are recovering and in good spirits,” said Rabbi Kutner after his visit to Siroka. “We helped them and their family members with whatever immediate needs they had." Kutner also said he and the other Chabad representatives "let them know how appreciated they are,” at this critical time. Indeed, the strike against Hamas has widespread popular support in Israel, after frustrations at the mounting rocket attacks on its civilian population by Hamas.
The advent of ground fighting is particularly difficult for the parents of soldiers, who have not had contact with their children since the army collected soldier's cell phones prior to the ground incursion to prevent security leaks. Margolit Mogilevsky of the Chabad community in Thornhill, Toronto said she last spoke to her son, Levi Yitzchok, a 19 year old soldier with the special forces and paratroopers, before Shabbat.
“He said we wouldn’t be able to reach him for a few days. I know we are doing what we have to do, but, for me, it’s not a good experience,” she said. “All I can do is pray to G-d.”
Mrs. Mogilevsky told Lubavitch.com that her son and many other soldiers received extra clothing, food packages, and various other needs from the many Chabad representatives visiting the front lines in the days leading up to the ground invasion.
Many Shluchim have increased their supportive efforts since Saturday night, travelling up to the front lines. Rabbi Mendy Ofen of Ohr Lachayal, a Chabad agency which provides religious services and products to soldiers, has been outfitting soldiers with a specially crafted prayer book, Tehillim, Torah and mini charity box combination that soldiers can tuck into their gear for extra protection.
“We bring them food and emotional support, offer them an opportunity to put on tefillin, and show them with our actions that we are with them every step of the way,” said Rabbi Ofen.

ON THE HOME FRONT

On the home front, the Chabad Terror Victims Project sent hundreds of gifts to the children of hard hit Netivot on Friday. Confined to shelters since the war began, children and parents rejoiced as Rabbis Isser Edrei, Benyamim Fodorovski, Yisrael Lipsch made the rounds of the city’s shelters to deliver the gifts which included games and children’s stories of faith in difficult times.
Throughout the Sabbath and on Sunday, residents of the South stayed in shelters away from the missile onslaught. In heavily hit Ashkelon, Rabbi Menachem Liberman met with the mayor Benny Vaknin and local officials on Friday to discuss the status of the city’s shelters and what additional services are needed. Last week, Rabbi Liberman bused his local yeshiva students north to Kiryat Atta to continue their studies in an alternative facility. Younger children, however, have been learning in various shelters throughout the city.
“We are trying to stock up in the shelters for times when kids and families need to be there for extended periods of time,” said Rabbi Liberman. “We’re gathering food, games for the kids, getting ready since the home front command raised the alert level.”
 Rabbi Liberman told Lubavitch.com that the synagogue was almost empty on Shabbat and the streets quiet. While the rockets increased, so have the miracles, including a rocket which went through the window of a Russian immigrant family’s apartment. Despite the damage and explosion, the family, who was in another room, escaped harm.
“People are scared and nervous. Some hear the sirens and panic each time that they are going to be hit.”

Editorial: And the living shall take heart . . .

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(lubavitch.com) The terrorist siege of the Chabad House and the brutal murders of our Shluchim in Mumbai have made Chabad-Lubavitch the object of an extraordinary outpouring of support and friendship. Letters, emails, contributions, and all forms of condolences continue to pour into our offices. They come from Jewish institutions of every kind, and they come from a great swath of humanity, Jews and non-Jews of every persuasion. Invariably they ask: “What can we do to help?”

Many of the condolences include belated and bittersweet thank-yous for the hospitality perfect strangers found with our Chabad representatives (shluchim) throughout the world. People who never met Gabi and Rivka Holzberg sent their sympathies and offers of help because of their own encounters with other Chabad shluchim. Through personal experiences, they have come to know, to depend upon, and to appreciate the ubiquity of this movement and the trademark goodness freely offered by shluchim like the Holtzbergs.

Well-wishers acknowledge the difference, often memorable, sometimes life-affirming, made in their lives by a Chabad representative who greeted them—at home or in their travels, in Cusco, Peru or Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the Indian tsunami or Hurricane Katrina—with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for family.

That Gabi and Rivka were murdered in their own home, a sanctuary for Jewish travelers and seekers in need of a warm welcome and nurture for body and soul, wreaks profound havoc with our sense of justice and the conviction that good begets good.

Rivka’s and Gabi’s idealism should not have cost them their lives. The tragedy raises questions that elicit no satisfying answers, only stunned speechlessness. The deafening silence of Aron, the high priest, grief struck at the sudden death of his two sons in the Sanctuary, reverberates with us today.

Still, Jewish people, no strangers to persecution, are skilled at teasing out thin rays of light, even where they seem most indiscernible. Here too, the men and women of Chabad-Lubavitch sift through the debris of shattered remains in search of goodness.

Like all depraved criminals, the Mumbai terrorists were shortsighted. The savage violence they inflicted against Gabi and Rivka, and all their victims, has awakened a spirit of unity among an often fragmented Jewish people. Their brutality evoked a visceral disgust towards the evil they represent, and galvanized a heartening response of solidarity among Jews and non-Jews, spurring so many to participate in positive, holy and joyful activities.

Thousands of Jewish women have begun to kindle Shabbat candles to perpetuate the peace and light that Rivka and Gabi shared. People the world over are choosing to engage in daily mitzvahs, from the universal to the particular, in a decisive move towards a more purposeful, compassionate and G-dly society. Perfect strangers have named their babies born after the Mumbai tragedy for Gavriel and Rivka. 

I can think of no better riposte to the terror inflicted against Gabi and Rivka. Since this fateful tragedy, this young couple and the ideals that defined their lives have come alive to millions.

Chabad-Lubavitch will rebuild in India and keep the hospitality and outreach of Gabi and Rivka going. Their life-work will be emulated in the many new Chabad Houses we will open. We will do our best to ensure that they are secure and safe for Shluchim and travelers. We will answer attempts to intimidate Jewish life and Jewish values with  enhanced activities and opportunities to identify proudly as Jews. 

To those who ask what they can do to help: Join hands with the men and women of Chabad-Lubavitch, hard at work in the nooks and crannies of the world with a passion for good that surpasses any for evil.

Make contact with your nearest Chabad-Lubavitch representative and offer to put your individual resources, your skills, and your contacts, to work.

The momentum for the empowerment of the good beckons our unified, resolute response.  Together, we can turn popular mantras about a kinder and gentler world into indisputable facts on the ground, even in Mumbai.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky is Chairman of the worldwide Educational and Social Services arms of the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement

Israelis Targeted in Danish Shopping Mall

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(lubavitch.com) Two Israelis were shot Wednesday while managing their booth at a shopping mall in Odense, Denmark. According to Copenhagen's Chabad Rabbi Yitzchok Loewenthal, one of the victims is undergoing surgery for his wounds.
 Friends of the victims met with Copenhagen's Chabad Rabbi Yitzchok Loewenthal within minutes of learning of the attack. "They are concerned, of course," says Rabbi Loewenthal, but grateful that they are alive. 

 Rabbi Loewenthal was in contact with security at Denmark's Israeli embassy and police authorities following the attack, and says that police have recovered the black Audi getaway car, but have yet to apprehend the shooters.
 No one is confirming that this is related to Israel's defense operation in Gazan, but Arab demonstrators protested in the center of town yesterday, and at the Israeli embassy. Otherwise, says Loewenthal, things are generally quiet in Copenhagen. Denmark's Jewish population numbers roughly 8,000, with the majority in Copenhagen,
 By contrast, Odense, about 105 miles west of Copenhagen, has a strong Muslim population, and the victims were reportedly dealing with daily harassment by Muslims. Several years ago, recalls Rabbi Loewenthal, Chabad rabbinical students who had gone to Odense on outreach missions, were practically "stoned out of the city by local Muslims."
 Rabbi Loewenthal  told Lubavitch.com that he has confidence that the police will find the gunmen, but that he is beefing up security at the local Chabad House in Copenhagen anyway.  He will be visiting the victims in the hospital tomorrow.

  

Chabad Centers in Beer Sheva, Ashkelon Double as Bomb Shelters As Children, Adults Wait Out the War

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(lubavitch.com) Following a quiet night of silent and empty streets in Beer Sheva and Ashkelon, the sun came up Wednesday morning to the terrifying sound of rockets that continued intermittently throughout the day. An influx of reserve soldiers in both locations helped prevent chaos on the streets as countless numbers of locals flocked to Chabad centers for support.

Still reeling from their first ever rocket attack on Tuesday, residents of Beer Sheva, the largest city in Israel’s Negev area, were on edge as incessant air raid sirens and explosions filled the air. An empty girl’s school near the municipality took a direct hit. Because of the city-wide school closure, no one was injured by a Grad rocket that penetrated the building’s roof and caused severe damage.

Beer Sheva

Operating from his Chabad center built in a large, centrally located bomb shelter, Rabbi Zalman Gorelik of Beer Sheva has opened his doors and increased programming to accommodate locals, many who have no shelter.

Gorelik is also reaching out to IDF soldiers. “The soldiers started arriving last night and we were prepared to address their needs, distributing food and books of Tehillim, [Psalms],” said Rabbi Gorelik. “Today, we gathered several community members to reach out to soldiers in the nearby base. People want to do something about the situation and the soldiers are so grateful when we come.”

With air raid sirens and rocket explosions in the background, local Ben Gurion university Professor Velvel Greene led his normally scheduled class on science and Torah last night. Other classes were set to take place, including impromptu programs for children since all schools are closed.

“It’s a new situation. Parents and children are still adjusting,” said Ariella Edry, a volunteer at Chabad of Beersheva. “We’re doing what is needed. Kids from all over the neighborhood are here. Parents are dropping off their children with us here as they run out quickly to the stores. Everyone is working together.”

Ms. Edry told Lubavitch.com that she arranged a class for women on Tuesday night to bolster their morale. She said that many braved the situation to participate in the program which included group recitation of Tehillim and distribution of prayer books. Walking home she said “there wasn’t a person or car anywhere to be found.”

“This is the safest place,” said Ms. Edry. “Physically it’s a bomb shelter, spiritually it’s a place of prayer and learning. The whole neighborhood feels comfortable here.”

Today, two women suffering from shock turned to the Chabad House for help. After an hour in the secure, supportive environment, they seemed to regain their composure and chose to remain in the safety of the Chabad House.

The center, which has begun serving breakfast and snacks throughout the day, is now teeming with children watching videos and participating in improvised programs.

Neve Zeev

In Beer Sheva’s Neve Zeev neighborhood of 5000 families, Rabbi Nitzan Chalak has his Chabad center open full time, providing every form of support to locals including literature and books of Tehillim from the center’s Judaica store.

“We’ve given out tons of Tehillim books and various literature,” said the Judaica store’s director, Ofir Gozlan. “Even the Police came to us to get inspirational learning materials to distribute amongst themselves.”

Ashkelon

In Ashkelon, a rocket barely missed Chabad’s special education center – Shalvim – and hit an empty building across the street. Despite several sirens and rockets Wednesday morning, Rabbi Menachem Liberman is conducting classes and programs in several bomb shelters across the city for local children, many of whom have no shelter of their own.

“Our shelters are used for sleeping at night and learning during the day,” said Rabbi Liberman. “We are managing and doing all we can.”

Several of the rockets fell without triggering the warning system, and the city has suffered through periodic outages of cellular and phone service. All public gatherings outside of a shelter have been banned in the city. A plan to bus children out of the city was denied at the last minute by city officials. Rabbi Liberman told Lubavitch.com that there is a steady stream of traffic going out of the city as residents seek safer ground.

To better serve locals, Chabad of Ashkelon has gone mobile, forming a rapid deployment team of rabbis that visits the bomb shelters and responds to rocketed sites and trauma victims. They spent much of Wednesday visiting the classes in the various shelters, distributing gifts, sweets, and Tehillim. Mid-conversation an air raid siren went off and a loud explosion could be heard nearby. Rabbi Liberman ran out of the office with the responders to attend to the scene.

“We are dealing with it,” said Chaim Becker, a resident of Ashkelon helping in the Chabad office. “I have a shelter in my house, but I can’t stay at home all day. I am emailing and calling as many friends and family as I can to keep them updated about the situation.”
Mr. Becker said that his son’s army unit was just repositioned to the North over concerns that a second war front might break out.

The response team returned to the office and described the miracle they had just witnessed. The rocket landed between two large apartment buildings full of people and exploded in the back parking lot. No one was injured. It fell about 2000 feet away from the Chabad center.