As the Israel Air Force struck terrorist targets in the Hamas-controlled Gaza
Strip Wednesday night, enemy rockets continued to rain down on civilian centers,
sending citizens scurrying into shelters, killing three residents of Kiryat Malachi.
If Rabbi Shneur and Rocha Turkov would have bet on the prospect of entertaining a standing-room only crowd this High Holiday season in a stunningly adorned, newly renovated synagogue, their odds would not have been favorable.
Kaylee Andrusier’s Bat Mitzvah celebration wasn’t about the party or the gifts. For the Bal Harbour, Fla., resident, it was about bringing happiness to fellow 12-year-old girls living in the shadow of Palestinian rocket fire.
More than 6,000 men, women and children danced and sang their way through the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City Wednesday, celebrating the completion of a Torah scroll written in the name of peace and the merit of Jewish children the world over.
Thanks to the help of Kiryat Malachi resident Ephraim Mor and the Israeli city’s Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yeruslavsky, Georgian-immigrant families in the southern town received new backpacks filled with notebooks and writing utensils.
Mother of six Chaya Kaplan remembers two tasks she and her husband, Yisroel Ber Kaplan, faithfully performed after the birth of each of their children: They signed each child up as a member of the international Chabad-Lubavitch children’s organization Tzivos Hashem and purchased a letter for each in Torah scrolls commissioned by the Chabad-run Children’s Torah Scroll campaign.
Jesse Frankel, 21, recently returned from a trip he didn’t want to end. A participant in a Taglit-Birthright Israel project made possible as part of a partnership between trip provider Mayanot and the Friendship Circle, he spent 10 days touring the Holy Land with his peers.
Deriving inspiration from its role in the recovery of six stolen Torah scrolls, the Safed branch of the Israel Police has established a synagogue in the local police station and arranged for the use of one of the scrolls belonging to the holy city’s historic Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue.