Rabbi Eli's Blog - Chabad of Oxford

A Call To Help Sholom Rubashkin

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 7:03 PM

A Call To Help Sholom Rubashkin

Dear Friend,

In sending you this email, I am joining thousands of other Rabbis and organizations who are urging their communities to voice their concerns.

Mr. Rubashkin, a father of ten including an autistic child, will be sentenced on April 28 and faces the possibility of life in prison and the probability of a 27 year sentence, far beyond the sentences imposed on others whose crimes were significantly more severe than anything Mr. Rubashkin may have done.

In issuing this call, we are in no way condoning any criminal conduct. Rather, we are asking that Mr. Rubashkin be treated like any other American. We urge you to communicate your respectful concern over t… Read More »

Over 1,000 Students Attend Passover Celebrations at Chabad on Campus Across the UK

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 7:03 PM

More than 1,000 students attended Passover Seders run by Chabad on Campus centers across the United Kingdom. All told, holiday celebrations took place on 11 campuses from Edinburgh to Brighton, despite the fact that winter terms ended last month.

The largest such meals filled were hosted by Chabad at Imperial College in South Kensington, where 300 people representing Imperial and Ithaca Colleges attended Seders. On the second night of the holiday, special guests included Jewish members of the Royal Deaf Society, who participated in sign language and with the help of an interpreter.

“It was a very warm atmosphere”, reported Rabbi Mendy Loewenthal, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of South Kensington. “Each per… Read More »

Record Number of People Attend Oxford Chabad Seder

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - 7:03 PM

Oxford Chabad Society hosted a record number of people in vacation period, close to a hundred people, for the first Seder night of Passover and over forty people for the second Seder night at the David Slager Jewish student centre in Oxford.

The Seder was led by Rabbi Eli and Freidy Brackman who began the evening explaining that the Seder night is about reliving the Exodus from Egypt and the renewal of the Jewish people as a whole. At the same time, the Exodus is also about individual freedom which despite the freedoms that are a given in the West, is a constant struggle on the personal level.

Freedom is subjective. For a fish to live out of water or a tree not to be able to grow naturally is oppression. The highest level … Read More »