Community

"My mother always made the Jewish holidays lots of fun when we were growing up, so is it any wonder I started my own Judaica business?"

The term caravan often evokes images of weary travelers on camelback, nomads crossing through endless desert with no particular aim, and drifters and loners with regard for no one but themselves and the open road.

I was driving home from New York with my family at the end of our vacation when my cell phone rang. Since we were in Tennessee and I wasn't sure if it was legal to talk on the phone, my wife picked it up and said, "Hello."

Weinbaum Yeshiva High School (WYHS), a Religious Zionist Jewish high school in Boca Raton, is participating in the B'Lev Echad Memorial Program for the eight students who were murdered during last year's massacre at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem, Israel.

Through rain, sleet, and snow . well maybe just snow, Jews from all over made it their business to attend this past Sunday night's Big Event at the WaMu Theater in Madison Square Garden. Lipa Schmeltzer, along with other great Jewish entertainers, performed to an energized crowd of men, women, and children.

Twenty-four hours of tragedy turned to joy. A true v'nahapoch hu story for the month of Adar.

Last week Hershel Puretz paid 50,000 shekels [almost $13,000] in bi-monthly heating bills to the Israel Electric Corporation. Does he own several windswept mansions? A large factory? A hotel? No, Hershel, originally from Brooklyn, lives in a modest apartment in Jerusalem's Mattersdorf neighborhood. A full-time yeshiva student, he is 30 years old, married, and has three children. The heating bills are not his at all. They belong to a couple hundred destitute Israeli families.

Last week Hershel Puretz paid 50,000 shekels [almost $13,000] in bi-monthly heating bills to the Israel Electric Corporation. Does he own several windswept mansions? A large factory? A hotel? No, Hershel, originally from Brooklyn, lives in a modest apartment in Jerusalem's Mattersdorf neighborhood. A full-time yeshiva student, he is 30 years old, married, and has three children. The heating bills are not his at all. They belong to a couple hundred destitute Israeli families.

Students from several Queens' yeshivas joined forces in two back-to-back bake sales, and raised over $5,000 to help feed the poor in Israel through the Chickens for Shabbos program.

Students from several Queens' yeshivas joined forces in two back-to-back bake sales, and raised over $5,000 to help feed the poor in Israel through the Chickens for Shabbos program.

The loneliness is overwhelming. Yoel G., Yaakov Yosef G., and Yossi B. have spent ten months in solitary confinement, sitting on a hard concrete floor, their mobility severely restricted.

The loneliness is overwhelming. Yoel G., Yaakov Yosef G., and Yossi B. have spent ten months in solitary confinement, sitting on a hard concrete floor, their mobility severely restricted.

America has been hit by what is likely the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression. Many Jewish communities have been hit hard, with a staggering number of families struggling with joblessness.

America has been hit by what is likely the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression. Many Jewish communities have been hit hard, with a staggering number of families struggling with joblessness.

A TIME is widely recognized and venerated as the nation's leading organization to offer support, advocacy, education, guidance and referrals to Jewish couples struggling with infertility. In order to accurately portray all that A TIME accomplishes on any given 24-hour period, I decided to spend a day with them and take note of the goings on. As an inconspicuous observer, I watched in awe and amazement as this group of special individuals took on all the daunting aspects associated with infertility.

In many ways, the Israel Defense Forces has always been an army for all Jews. But in the war against Hamas that just ceased, American Jews were particularly engaged and aware of the soldiers' plight.

When soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces went into combat against Hamas in Gaza, they were armed with the highest level of military equipment Israel could provide them. Some of the soldiers were also armed with "spiritual ammunition" provided to them earlier this week by the Orthodox Union (OU), which delivered 102 packages consisting of tefillin, tzitzit and a siddur with Tehillim prepared especially for soldiers on the battlefield. The materials were brought to Gaza by Rabbi Avi Berman, director of OU Israel, and represent the first disbursement of the special fund created by the OU to provide the items to soldiers who wanted to add a spiritual component to their armament. Funding for these packages was provided by Beth Jacob Congregation of Beverly Hills, CA. In the next few weeks, hundreds more of these packages will be provided by the congregation to soldiers returning from Gaza. "The IDF arms the soldiers with their military weaponry; the OU's mission is to arm them with spiritual ammunition as they put their lives at risk," said OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb. The fund-raising campaign is taking place in OU synagogues across North America. The tefillin delivered to the 102 soldiers on Sunday cost $33,000. Another 70 soldiers are on the waiting list to receive their packages. "Commanders who have been with the IDF for a long time were telling me that they didn't remember such a spiritual high in the army since the day after the Six-Day War," Rabbi Berman told The Jewish Press. "These tefillin represent Jews in America whose heart is with the soldiers who are risking their lives in Gaza. The soldiers are putting the tefillin on at a critical time in their lives, and the people who contributed are hoping that they will continue to do so forever and ever."

In previous articles, I wrote about what I felt was an excellent way for young people to meet, and that was through setups by recently married couples.

Last year on the seventh morning of Chanukah our phone stopped working. It wasn't completely dead; it was still receiving calls and placing outgoing ones. But there was a funny kind of static on the line.

Miami Rescue Mission and the Broward Outreach Centers in Hollywood and Pompano Beach recently sponsored an unusual event.

The 29th Annual South Florida Chassidic Chanukah Festival is scheduled for the last night of Chanukah, Sunday, December 28, at the Gulfstream Theatre, Hallandale Beach Blvd. and US 1, in Hallandale Beach; at 7:00 p.m. Performing at what is traditionally the world's largest Chanukah event will be child prodigy Ethan Bortnick and the king of Jewish music, Avraham Fried.

The 29th Annual South Florida Chassidic Chanukah Festival is scheduled for the last night of Chanukah, Sunday, December 28, at the Gulfstream Theatre, Hallandale Beach Blvd. and US 1, in Hallandale Beach; at 7:00 p.m. Performing at what is traditionally the world's largest Chanukah event will be child prodigy Ethan Bortnick and the king of Jewish music, Avraham Fried.

The Weinbaum Yeshiva High School is holding a Chanukah Toy and Book Drive this month to benefit Chai Lifeline.

The Weinbaum Yeshiva High School is holding a Chanukah Toy and Book Drive this month to benefit Chai Lifeline.

As readers of this column know, our aliyah experience has been studded with many "firsts." Baruch Hashem, as of a few weeks ago, I can proudly add a new one to the list: my first Sabra.

The 20th Annual Flatbush One-Week Kollel (Yarchei Kallah), a project of Torah Connections, will again be held at Rav Feivel Cohen's shul (Congregation Tomchei Torah), 1966 Ocean Avenue (between Avenues N and O) from Thursday, December 25 - Thursday, January 1.

The 20th Annual Flatbush One-Week Kollel (Yarchei Kallah), a project of Torah Connections, will again be held at Rav Feivel Cohen's shul (Congregation Tomchei Torah), 1966 Ocean Avenue (between Avenues N and O) from Thursday, December 25 - Thursday, January 1.

Jews in South Florida and throughout the United States are taking action. Now, dear readers, if you have not done so yet, please join them.

The 29th Annual South Florida Chassidic Chanukah Festival is set for the last night of Chanukah, Sunday December 28, at the Gulfstream Theatre Hallandale Beach Blvd. and US 1, in Hallandale Beach, at 7 p.m.

A few months ago, Channel 8 (Israel's equivalent of PBS) broadcast a fascinating "reality" program on the life and times of a young Lubavitcher couple that went on shlichut to Vietnam in order to open a Chabad branch in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).