11 Jul
Culture

There's a New Hillel in Town

by Gabi P. Remz For a newly arrived freshman seeking a Jewish community on campus, the choice used to be obvious. There was just one place to go, and while it might not have been perfect, it was Jewish. When the first Shabbos at college came around, you would mosey on over to Hillel for dinner and maybe even some services. But times have changed, and while Hillel is still an extremely popular and vital source of Jewish life on campus, alternatives are popping up all over the country—and thriving. Most notably, Chabad has developed an extremely strong presence on many campuses, sometimes eclipsing attendance figures of Hillel and being considered the primary source of Jewish life on campus. But lately, smaller communities and movements have created names for themselves. Perhaps the strongest of these is a group called...

Continue reading

11 Jul
Culture

There’s a New Hillel in Town

by Gabi P. Remz For a newly arrived freshman seeking a Jewish community on campus, the choice used to be obvious. There was just one place to go, and while it might not have been perfect, it was Jewish. When the first Shabbos at college came around, you would mosey on over to Hillel for dinner and maybe even some services. But times have changed, and while Hillel is still an extremely popular and vital source of Jewish life on campus, alternatives are popping up all over the country—and thriving. Most notably, Chabad has developed an extremely strong presence on many campuses, sometimes eclipsing attendance figures of Hillel and being considered the primary source of Jewish life on campus. But lately, smaller communities and movements have created names for themselves. Perhaps the strongest of these is a group called...

Continue reading

25 Jun
Latest

Watch out for Wolpo

By Jeremy Gillick The right wing group SOS Israel, led by Rabbi Sholom Dov Wolpo, leader of Chabad's messianic wing in Israel, has published the first in a series of English-language newsletters that includes a vaguely threatening message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accuses him of selling out his nation and country to "High Commissioner Hussein Obama." The newsletter comes in advance of the 15th anniversary of Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson's death. The pamphlet includes an excerpt from an interview with 83-year-old Geulah Cohen, a former Knesset member who was an outspoken opponent of Ariel Sharon's 2005 disengagement from Gaza: The Lubavitcher Rebbe warned Mr. Moshe Katsav 17 years ago...that he, personally will be the first to fight with all his forcefulness and might against Shamir so that his government will fall. The fact remains that any...

Continue reading

01 Dec
Latest, Religion

Mumbai Attack, Jewish Angle

By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler All our Thanksgiving weekends were touched with sadness as news from Mumbai interrupted what should have been cheery days watching football and spending time with family. The details of the perpetrators' motivation and planning are still being worked out, but we know a number of attackers landed via boat at Mumbai on Wednesday and attacked specific locations around the city, from malls to cafes to train stations. The most publicized was a siege at the Taj Mahal Hotel that lasted until the weekend. In all, at least 179 were killed and 239 injured. We at Moment were particularly aghast when we heard that one location the attackers targeted was the Lubavitch Chabad center. The bodies of six Chabad center victims--Chabad emissaries Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Yocheved Orpaz, Ben-Zion Kruman, Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and Norma Schvartzblat-Rabinowitz--were...

Continue reading

06 Oct
Culture, Latest, Religion

New Voices goes Inside Chabad

Chabad, the ubiquitous Jewish movement best known among American Jews for its outreach on college campuses, is in many ways a mystery. Why, unlike most ultra-Orthodox, do the Lubavitch reach out to rather than reject secular Jews? What do they get when you put on t'fillin? Are they Zionist or anti-Zionist? What do they think of mainstream Jewish movements and what do those movements think of them? Do all Lubavitchers even share the same views on these issues? A new issue of New Voices, the national Jewish student magazine, addresses these questions, exploring the less known—and often troubling—aspects of Chabad. "As one JTA staffer noted," writes Ben Harris of the JTA, "it’s pretty 'ballsy' of NV to take on Lubavitch, though takedown is probably a more accurate description." Takedown or not, New Voices has done what no...

Continue reading