People Making a Difference

Early years of the Jewish internet.

He gave brief descriptions of the people who my parents would be meeting and what their needs were: who needed to have a marriage performed, who needed tefillin, which families needed Jewish toys and candies...

How an evangelical Christian leader came full circle and discovered the beauty of her Jewish roots.

“If you have a child with special needs, you experience similar things, whether it’s grief over losing the dream of having a ‘perfect child,’ or dealing with challenging school systems and difficult grandparents and communities that make them feel excluded,” said Dr. Jeff Lichtman, the national director of Yachad...

I remember coming home crying to my parents, saying, ‘We eat the same foods, watch the same things, why do they hate us just because we’re Jewish?’ They couldn’t answer me.”

Hannah, together with her children as they grew up, was there serving the visitors every single Shabbat, every festival and other important dates in the calendar which brought hundreds, and later thousands, of visitors to Rebbe Shimon’s tomb. She continued her devoted work right until her death four years ago . . .

The Rebbe thought deeply for a few minutes and said, “Keep looking. To sit here, and not look, and say there is nothing out there, is placing a limit on G‑d’s creation. That you can’t do!” . . .

A beautiful true tale of how the meandering path of a Torah scroll—and an act of kindness—comes full circle.

Just three years ago I thought Chabad was trying to “reel me in” to a hardcore religious lifestyle. That’s what they do, right? But no matter how many times I spent Shabbat dinner with them, I never felt pressured to do anything...

Happiness is one of the most sought-after and elusive goals. Everyone wants to have it, but not everyone knows how to find it easily. Why is it so difficult to find? Perhaps because we look for it in the wrong place . . .

“Lights . . . Camera . . . Action!” As the viewer sits mesmerized, his eyes glued to the screen, he is transferred from the reality of his own gray...

With a new baby on the way, how would they survive? An abortion was inconsistent with their traditional values, but they felt there was nothing else they could do. They feared for their future...

Noam was hailed a hero by students and rabbis at the yeshiva for his actions. Had he not locked that connecting door during his final moments, many more people would have been killed that night. After Noam's death, his family discovered a trove of poems in his desk...

This Russian-born, wandering Jewess went from one end of the Soviet Union to another, from Asia to Western Europe, and finally to the not-so-welcoming arms of North Africa. Now in her eighties, Mrs. Pinson is still very much spry, effusive, and well-dressed in clothing with European flair...

After having several healthy children, they discovered that they were a carrier couple when their beloved son Mendel showed signs of Tay-Sachs in his infancy. He died after four years marked by hospitalization and suffering...

The Canadian musicologist and mother of six supported her household and raised a family while almost single-handedly rescuing 3,228 Syrian Jews. "There were no typical days," recalls Judy...

"My first big Broadway act," Dudu Fisher recalls, "was my refusal to work on Shabbat. No Friday night show; no Saturday matinee. No one did it before, to my knowledge, and I honestly don't know if I'd be tough enough to do it again..."

In North Miami Beach, Florida, August 23, 2007, a family barbecue was transformed from simple summer fun to a catastrophic event which would permanently alter the lives of the Schwab family. Four-year-old Aliza Schwab was found unconscious at the bottom of the family pool.

When Shari was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in April 2008, she concluded that there had to be reason she was chosen for this journey. So the 41-year-old mother of four embraced the illness as a gift whose lessons should be shared...