The American Civil Liberties Union and Anti-Defamation League are backing a bid by Chabad-Lubavitch of Litchfield, Conn., to house an expanded synagogue in a building in the town’s historic district. The groups contend that the Chabad center’s First Amendment rights are being infringed by the town’s historical commission, which has hampered the hoped-for construction. “Chabad-Lubavitch has the equal right to the free exercise of its religion ... under federal and state constitutional and statutory law,” lawyers for the ACLU wrote in a letter to Litchfield’s Historic District Commission. ...

More than 1,000 people took part in Colel Chabad’s Wednesday night gala dinner in New York City. Philanthropists Arthur Luxembourg and Alan Kestenbaum joined Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger for the benefit dinner, which raised funds for the needy and infirm in Israel. The world famous Jesse Itzler – the “100 Mile Man” who ran 100 miles to raise $100 million for 10 charities – gave the organization $100,000 and pledged another $250,000. ...

In conjunction with the completion of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s new course on Israel, The Land and the Spirit, Chabad.org launched a section on its Web site dedicated to exploring the history and significance of Israel. Among many other offerings, the section features profiles of tourist sites, discussions of Jerusalem archeology and video clips and photo galleries on different aspects of the land. ...

A state religious school partly affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch in Binyamina, Israel, was awarded a grant to purchase science-related equipment for the school. Known as the Chabad Hanadiv school, the institution placed second in a contest aimed at enriching children’s knowledge of science and the environment in a challenging and fun way. ...

More than 700 Jewish young adults attended a Chanukah performance by punk rock band Yidcore at the Young Adult Chabad in Sydney, Australia. Lead singer Bram Presser, a tzizit-wearing criminology graduate student, wowed the crowd with his onstage antics, said Rabbi Eli Feldman, co-director of the venue, which provides social, educational and spiritual programming for university students and young professionals in Sydney. ...

The United Kingdom’s Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the public menorah display in Leeds, England last week and was attended to by Rabbis Yirmya Angyalfi and Reuven Cohen, respectively the director and youth director of the Lubavitch Centre of Leeds. The visit was on occasion of the City Square display’s 25th year. ...

A select group of close to 100 Jewish business leaders participated in the closing session of 2007’s Chabad J-Biz, Cape Town, South Africa’s Jewish Business Forum. Held in a conference room of Investec Bank, the evening event honored bank chairman Hugh Herman. J-Biz is operated by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbis Pini Hecht, Aaron Popack, levi Popack and Asher Deren. ...

Chabad-Lubavitch bookstores all over the world marked down their stocks as part of an annual sale of books on Chasidic thought in honor of the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Teves, which fell out this year on Friday. On that day in the Hebrew year 5747, a federal District Court in New York ordered the return of priceless volumes and manuscripts that had been taken from the library of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, the umbrella group of Chabad-Lubavitch. In his decision, Judge Charles P. Sifton ruled that the library’s collections – collected over the years by succeeding generations of Lubavitch Rebbes – belonged to the movement, as did the succeeding Rebbes themselves. Following news of the decision, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, publicly called for more efforts to be expended in disseminating Chasidic teachings. ...

Police estimated that 10,000 people packed Hallandale, Fla.’s Gulstream Park for the 28th Annual South Florida Chasidic Chanukah Festival put on by Chabad-Lubavitch of South Broward. Singer Avraham Fried entertained the crowd. ...

Albany, N.Y.’s Maimonides Hebrew Day School, run by Chabad of the Capital District, held a dedication ceremony Monday at its new home, a former synagogue. Attended by local dignitaries and featuring a menorah lighting, the event followed a fire this summer in a storage trailer on the school’s property that destroyed several historic pews. ...

The Chabad Jewish Center of Longmont, Colo., hosted a bit untraditional Chanukah party Sunday with a few frames of bowling at a local bowling alley. The Dec. 9 celebration, complete with a menorah made out of bowling pins, drew 150 members of the local Jewish community and several politicians, including Mayor Roger Lange and state Sen. Brandon Shaffer. ...

Hans Gert Pottering, president of the European Parliament, greeted an envoy of rabbis at his office in Brussels. Rabbi Gershon M. Garelik, the Milan-based head of Chabad-Lubavitch of Italy, headed the delegation. ...

With Argentina’s new president, Cristina Fernandez de Krichner, recently predicting warm relations with the country’s Jewish community, Rabbi Chaim Boruch Oirechman, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Puerto Madero – a neighborhood in the capital of Buenos Aires – erected a menorah just a short distance from the seat of Argentina’s government. ...