washingtonpost.com

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin is suggesting that a vast collection of Jewish books and documents that is the focus of a dispute between Moscow and Washington be given a permanent home in the Russian capital’s new Jewish Museum.

A U.S. judge in January ordered that Russia be fined $50,000 a day until it turns over the so-called Schneerson Collection to Chabad Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement within Orthodox Judaism headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Russia claims the collection is state property. Putin on Tuesday criticized the ruling, saying “discussion of this problem has taken on elements of confrontation,” Russian news agencies reported. The collection is now held at the state library and military archives.

Putin said he would consider ordering the collection be placed at the Jewish museum, which opened last year.

More: Putin Suggests Jewish Archive Disputed With US Could Go to Moscow Museum

Putin is offering a compromise, I think they should take it! A compromise from Putin is the same as a victory.

Annual Rabbinical Conference Underway in Post-Sandy New York - Chabad-Lubavitch News

My sons are all in this picture, uh, somewhere.

I know they are here somewhere!

Scary Jew Shadows came from far and wide!

Rabbi Mendy Kasowitz, director of the Lubavitch Center of Essex County in West Orange, N.J., had been looking forward to the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries that began Wednesday in Brooklyn, N.Y., with intense anticipation. Focused all last week on relief efforts and community rebuilding following Hurricane Sandy, he needed the several days of workshops, classes and lectures more than ever.

‘I need to recharge my batteries at some point,’ said Kasowitz, one of thousands of emissaries who came to New York from points all across the globe. ‘It’s something I look forward to all year, something that gives me a spiritual boost and a lot of energy.’

Though Sunday’s gala banquet was switched at the last minute from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to the New York Hilton in nearby Manhattan because of the hurricane, organizers reported that the program of both the banquet and the larger conference have remained largely the same.

Read more at Chabad.org.

Many of the participants in this year’s Kinus lost their homes and belongings in Hurricane Sandy, but this did not stop them from helping others.

Photo gallery at Vos Iz Neias.

nypost.com

It’s pay to pray at one Brooklyn synagogue.

Down-on-their luck panhandlers at the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights have to follow the 11th Commandment: Fork over $5 for the right to beg inside.

“If you want to collect, you have to pay. If you don’t pay, you go on the street. It’s very simple,” said one outraged panhandler. “Poor people collecting money have to pay? It’s like extortion.”

The beggars either position themselves by the stairwell, in the lobby, or inside the prayer area of the monolithic, four-story brick temple, which stands alongside the original Lubavitch synagogue.

All said they are unemployed, live nearby, and sometimes attend services at the bustling temple, where hundreds come to pray from morning until night every day.

They say their right to panhandle in the house of worship comes from a higher authority — Jewish law, which allows begging in synagogues and public events, including weddings, where food is set aside for beggars and uninvited guests.

Read more: nypost.com

I personally find these panhandlers very aggressive and intimidating, particularly when they attack in swarms. If you give even one of them a quarter, the others are on top of you like a pack of hounds!

Also, I don’t think it is fair of the Post to blame Chabad for trying to keep out packs of panhandlers. Do they allow panhandlers inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral or Riverside Church or Temple Emmanuel?

I just noticed that this article from the NY Post relies on information about Chabad from the hate blog Failedmessiah, which is the same as relying on information about Muslims from Pam Geller.

hartfordbusiness.com

Holocaust memorial defaced in Hartford, CT

A Connecticut judge has ruled the city of Hartford cannot use its zoning rules to prevent a sect of Orthodox Jews from using a former church as their place of worship, a case observers say had anti-Semitic overtones.

Superior Court Judge Maria Araujo Kahn recently ordered the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals to undo its decision upholding a zoning enforcement officer’s initial “cease and desist” order against Chabad Chevra.

The city has opted not appeal, recently allowing its 30-day filing window for the late December judgement to lapse, authorities say.

City officials, through a spokesman, declined comment Thursday.

In 2009, Chabad Chevra bought 100 Bloomfield Ave., which over the years had housed worshiping Catholics and later Baptists, to hold their worship, and to be a study and residence within walking distance of the University of Hartford campus.

“You have to question exactly why, all of a sudden, the ZEO and the ZBA tried to ban religious activities similar to the activities that had been going on in the same location for 58 years,” said Farmington attorney Coleman Levy, whose firm represented Chabad Chevra in the case.

Read more at Hartford Business.