"GENTILE" LUBAVITCHER?

Gentile Lubavitcher refused conversion (JPost)
If you believe that a dead man is the messiah, does that disqualify you from converting to Judaism?

Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar will be asked to decide this weighty theological question and in the process pass judgment on thousands of members of the messianic stream within Chabad Hassidism who believe that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in 1994, is the messiah.

About two weeks ago a young FSU immigrant to Israel, who was eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return but was not considered Jewish according to halacha, appeared before a rabbinic court in Jerusalem to convert to Judaism.

He had become interested in Orthodox Judaism through Chabad and was learning in a Jerusalem yeshiva. He wore a hat, a suit and tzitzit and meticulously adhered to the commandments.

Prof. Binyamin Ish-Shalom, head of the Joint Institute for Jewish Studies, where the young man prepared for his conversion, said that the rabbinic court, impressed with the high level of adherence exhibited by the young man, was on the verge of converting him.

"Suddenly, one of the rabbinic judges asked him if he believed that the rebbe [Schneerson] was the messiah," recounted Ish-Shalom.

"He answered, 'Yes, that's what I've been taught,' or something like that. And that was it; at least one of the judges refused to convert him."

Ish-Shalom rejected the notion that believing the deceased Schneerson was the messiah constituted a form of forbidden worship.

However, a source in the State Conversion Authority said that at least two leading religious Zionist rabbis ruled that messianic Chabad was beyond the pale of normative Jewish belief.

"They [messianic Chabad Hassidim] attribute to him supernatural powers years after he passed away. That is not Judaism. It's something else."

CHABAD SCHOOL TORCHED IN UKRAINE

Chabad school burned in Ukraine (JTA)
Vandals set fire to the Simcha Chabad Day School in Kiev.

Wednesday afternoon's fire was set to the emergency door. It caused damage to a hallway and the electrical supply.

Ukraine law enforcement agencies are investigating. No arrests have been reported.

told JTA that students at the school this week were threatened with anti-Semitic slogans.

Ukraine has been hit by a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in the past two months. Ukrainian law enforcement has been criticized for its lax response.

"Ukrainian authorities must take strong measures to stop the activities of all groups that incite interethnic and interfaith hatred in the country," said Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, one of the chief rabbis of Ukraine.

MATISYAHU LEAVES LUBAVITCHERS

Matisyahu: Sitting Here In Limbo? (Jewish Week)
Could it be that Matisyahu — the genre-bending poster boy for all that is cool and kosher — is off the derech? At least the Chabad derech?

It sure looks that way after the chasidic reggae star told the Miami New Times last week before a concert, “I felt boxed in.”

“My initial ties were through the Lubavitch sect. ... At this point, I don’t necessarily identify with it any more,” Matisyahu told the Miami weekly. “I’m really religious, but the more I’m learning about other types of Jews, I don’t want to exclude myself.”

The news that Matisyahu appears to be distancing himself from Chabad, the outreach-oriented group that helped transform him from a Reconstructionist-affiliated suburban kid to the chart-topping hipster he’s become, lit up the Orthodox blogosphere.

Some bloggers even expressed fear that the 28-year-old Crown Heights resident and father of two — who last year was crowned Billboard’s top reggae artist and was referenced in the hit film “Knocked Up” — would lead young people away from religious life.

NEO-NAZI SMASHES WINDOWS AT TORONTO CHABAD

Windows smashed at Toronto Chabad (JTA)
A 20-year-old man wearing Nazi insignia was arrested after three windows were smashed early Thursday morning at a Chabad center in Toronto. Chabad's Midtown Jewish Community facility also functions as a Jewish daycare center. A bus driver witnessed the vandalism, which occurred at 1:15 a.m., and notified police, who soon arrested Jason Belfiglio. Conditions of his release are that he abide by a curfew and keep at least 100 meters from Jewish establishments. Police have described the incident as a hate crime.