Wilhelm, Motti

As the summer months near their conclusion, some can already hear the echoes of the upcoming Rosh Hashanah prayers. The High Holidays are the focal point of the year for many, and the start of a new year gives the opportunity to step back, reconsider and ...

Throughout the long, difficult months of the coronavirus pandemic, many have said that a bulwark against worry each day was their study of Torah—particularly, the daily study of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah—a connection to eternal wisdom in a time of uncerta...

Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Schwei served in many positions throughout his life, including as a teacher, summer-camp rabbi and serving on the rabbinic court of the Crown Heights Jewish community in Brooklyn, N.Y. But throughout it all, say those who knew him well...

“To the Sons and Daughters of Our People of Israel, Everywhere.” It was with these words that the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of righteous memory—began his public letters, which were transcribed and published before major Jewish holidays each y...

In the book of Exodus, we are first introduced to the prophetess Miriam, sister of Moses. There, the Torah—referring to her and her mother as Shifrah and Puah—tells us of their self-sacrifice to defy Pharaoh’s decree to murder all Jewish newborn boys. Ins...

The Crown Heights Jewish community was in the middle of celebrating the strangest Passover in its history. Schools had long been locked, synagogues were shuttered and Seders had no guests. Yet the community shone bright with countless acts of caring, kind...

Mordechai Chein, a printer by trade whose ceaseless Chassidic dedication turned him into a communal mentor and activist by example, passed away on March 31 from COVID-19-related complications. He was 81 years old. Reb Mottel, as he was affectionately know...

The two weeks before Passover are usually one of the busiest times of the year for Rabbi Menachem Altein, co-director, with his wife Mussy, of Chabad at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. A large public seder for students needs to be arranged, packages of handmade s...

Mrs. Dusia (Dvosha) Rivkin, matriarch of a large Chabad-Lubavitch family with hundreds of descendants around the world, passed away on March 29. She was 93 years old. Born in Kharkov , Soviet Ukraine, in 1927 to Mendel and Hinda Deitsch, Dusia absorbed th...

Rabbi Mordechai Gurary, a prominent Torah scholar who served as the rabbi of the Chevra Shas synagogue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., for many decades, passed away on March 28 after being infected with the coronavirus. He was 84 year...