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Chabad-Lubavitch in the Media
Stories and reports that have appeared in the media during the past two weeks
| Chabad Naples starts new Kitchen of Kindness program to provide meals Fort Myers News-Press and Naples Daily News,Friday, July 17, 2026 |
| Chabad Naples has launched a Kitchen of Kindness at its headquarters. The new initiative kicked off on June 28, with an outpouring of support for the first event. More than 30 volunteers participated. Chef Shabo of 5 Star Catering, with more than 20 years of culinary and event experience, helped guide the effort. The program is designed to bring community members together to cook, pack and deliver fresh kosher meals to local residents and families in need. "This is about more than meals," said Rabbi Fishel Zaklos of Chabad Naples. "It is about people coming together to do something good." |
| Kitchen of Kindness delivers kosher meals to Portland residents in need WMTW - Portland Maine,Thursday, July 16, 2026 |
| A new program from Chabad of Maine is bringing volunteers together to prepare and deliver kosher meals to people in need. The Kitchen of Kindness serves residents who may be unable to cook, facing financial hardship or going through a difficult time. “Some people are not able to cook,” Rabbi Levi Wilansky said. “They’re going through something difficult, and they don’t have the time and headspace to do that, or they can’t afford it.” Wilansky said the program is about more than food. “It’s the fact that people know they’re not alone,” he said. |
| Chabad launches 'Born to Be a Yid' billboard campaign in NYC The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com,Wednesday, July 15, 2026 |
| Chabad has launched a new billboard campaign, titled "Born To Be A Yid," aiming to confront Jew-hatred with Jewish confidence and joy. At the heart of the new campaign is a message by the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: "Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism." This insight, which Sacks credited to the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, argues that the most powerful response to Jew-hatred is not to engage with the haters, but to invest in strengthening Jewish identity and Jewish life itself. |
| Jersey City man finally has his bar mitzvah at age 83 North Jersey Record,Wednesday, July 15, 2026 |
| He reached out to Rabbi Yisrael Bennish of Chabad of Bayonne. The two men began studying Jewish texts together. Soon Woods was attending services on the Sabbath and holidays. He was invited to Sabbath meals. The other men taught him how to put on tefillin, small black boxes containing scrolls with Torah verses that men traditionally strap on during morning prayers. Bennish said he learned a lot from his new student. "He taught me that there's no such thing as too old or too late or missed your chance. We have to use every opportunity we have to do good and keep on growing." |
| Rabbi Shmuly Altein, 43, was on a mission to bring new life to Chabad of Winnipeg The Canadian Jewish News,Monday, July 13, 2026 |
| Rabbi Shmuly Altein grew up in Winnipeg then returned to his hometown as a second-generation Chabad rabbi, to revitalize a community through initiatives designed to rekindle Jewish life. “He was a Jewish leader of impact in this country,” his friend Rabbi Levi Gansburg told The CJN. “He and his wife were the ‘Jewish invigorators’ of the next generation in Winnipeg.” Rabbi Altein died from cancer on June 18. He was 43. |
| Iceland welcomes its first historic permanent Jewish community center The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com,Monday, July 13, 2026 |
| Although Jews have lived in Iceland for more than 100 years, the community there has been informal and has functioned by word of mouth. The Chabad-Lubavitch couple saw an opportunity to create a thriving hub of Jewish life in Reykjavik, and a year later, in 2018, they relocated to the island. “Our first priority was just to connect with people on a personal level, on an individual level, and find out what people felt was missing,” Rabbi Feldman told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. |
| Iceland Opens First-Ever Jewish Center, Marking Historic Milestone for Country’s Jewish Community Algemeiner Journal,Sunday, July 12, 2026 |
| The Beit Shvidler Jewish Center of Iceland was inaugurated on July 7 in downtown Reykjavík, the capital. Housed in a renovated three-story building of roughly 9,000 square feet that previously operated as a bar, the center will serve the country's small Jewish community — estimated at between 100 and 300 people — as well as the thousands of Jewish visitors who travel to Iceland each year. It is named for philanthropist Eugene Shvidler, among the donors who funded the project. |
| Iceland Chabad Opens First Jewish Center in Reykjavik YeahThatsKosher – Kosher Restaurants & Travel,Sunday, July 12, 2026 |
| For years, Iceland has sat near the top of the kosher traveler’s bucket list and near the bottom of its list of practical destinations. Glaciers, black-sand beaches, and the Northern Lights on one side; no synagogue, no mikvah, and no reliable place to buy kosher food on the other. That equation changed this week. Iceland’s roughly 300 Jews now have a permanent home for the first time in the country’s known history, and Jewish visitors finally have a real anchor in Reykjavik. |
| Europe’s smallest Jewish community gets a home of its own — complete with geothermal mikvah Jewish Telegraphic Agency,Thursday, July 9, 2026 |
| That began to change in 2018, when the Feldmans relocated from the United States to Reykjavik to establish a Chabad-Lubavitch presence, becoming Iceland’s first permanently stationed rabbi and his wife in the country’s documented history of a thousand years. The couple started small, hosting Shabbat dinners and holiday services out of their living room. Estimates of the community’s size hover around 300 self-identified Jews, out of Iceland’s total population of about 400,000. |
| Everybody can Make Friends, Drinks and Fun at this Inclusive Cafe TMJ4 News,Wednesday, July 8, 2026 |
| Everybody can Make Friends, Drinks and Fun at this Inclusive CafeFriendship Circle Cafe PrevNext Posted Learn to make the classic iced vanilla lattes with Friendship Circle Cafe and find out about their employment training program! Training is a year-long program where participants learn job skills and important lifeskills to thrive upon graduation and find a job. Friendship Cafe provides jobs for those living in our community. |
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