Events

Chabad is working to provide support for the 1,000 IDF soldiers in their area while they search for the 3 kidnapped boys. In the past few days, many volunteers have been added to the staff to help handle the needs of the close to 1,000 soldiers now in the area. The team is making constant rounds to ensure that every soldier is taken care of physically and spiritually.

Last night CTVP director, Rabbi Menachem Kutner, received an urgent phone call from the father of Ayal Yifrach, one of the kidnapped boys asking him to meet with him. When he arrived the father asked him, on behalf of all the parents, that Chabad Shluchim worldwide should please encourage women and girls around the world to light Shabbos candles in the merit of the kidnapped students.

Chabad of Hebron is working to provide support for the 1,000 IDF soldiers in their area while they search for the 3 kidnapped boys. In the past 72 hours, many volunteers have been added to the staff to help handle the needs of the close to 1,000 soldiers now in the area. The team is making constant rounds to ensure that every soldier is taken care of physically and spiritually.

Captain Ziv Shilon, who was critically injured on the Gaza border and made an amazing recovery, was the guest of honor at an event saluting Chabad in Israel. Ziv spoke about CTVP who escorted him from his injury to his return to life, and about his life-altering meeting in New York with the Rebbe's image and virtues.

Jewish students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire learned about the love of the Land of Israel by a special talk organized by CTVP by Golani fighter Ziv Yitzhaki who was wounded in the second Lebanon war. The meeting was held in Jerusalem and and left a deep impression on the students . Ziv's message to them was " Do not be afraid. Be proud of being Jewish "!

Six months ago, when Odel Biton was just two years old, terrorists hurled rocks from above at her mother’s car as she was driving toward home, causing the car to veer off the road.
Her father went with Rabbi Kutner to pray at the grave of the Baal Shem Tov on behalf of Odel who was named for the Baal Shem Tov's daughter. It was a powerful moment as he stood there beseeching help for his daughter. Afterwards, Rafi said: "We pray that the New Year will bring with it new beginnings, and that we will see ongoing improvements in our precious Odel’s condition.”

The United States Embassy in Israel held a memorial service today marking the 11 years since the World Trade Center attacks in New York City. Rabbi Menachem Kutner, Director of CTVP opened the ceremony with a moving prayer for the souls of those who lost their lives and to comfort their bereaved families.

Eva Sandler, the French widow and mother who lost her husband and two of their children in the Monday’s attack outside the Ozar Hatorah high school in Toulouse, implored people around the world to carry on the victims’ memories by doing good deeds and recommitting themselves to Torah study.

“This meeting is important to me, because until now I have only known about terror attacks through dry reports,” Baird said during his sit down with terror victims coordinated by the Chabad Terror Victims Project. “But now, [I know of terrorism’s effects] through the pain worn on the faces of the living.”

CTVP joined with the staff of the United States Embassy in Israel that organized the event with others at a site in the cedar forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem to memorialize this most black day in history. Memories of the World Trade Center towers falling and the anguish and grief that were felt around the world on that day formed the centerpiece of the highly emotional ceremony.

A month after the Carmel Fire claimed 44 lives, sent 17,000 people fleeing their homes and torched more than 12,000 acres, Israelis from all walks of life and their government representatives are collectively remembering a natural disaster that laid bare the country’s inability to fight a massive forest fire. Today, recriminations and accusations echo throughout all halls of power, while non-profit efforts – backed by public and private money – help people get back on their feet.

On the 30th day since the tragedy of the fire on the Carmel Mountain, the Jewish National Fund hosted a deligation of Chabad Rabbis on a tour of the fire damage to the Carmel. The Rabbis got their hands dirty while phisically working on the rehabilitation of the forest. Afterwards, the participators held a prayer in memory of the 44 fallen prison warders and policemen at the site of the tragedy of the bus of prison wardens.