Chabad -

A former Lubavitcher became a scholar of ex-Orthodox Jews. Now he’s telling his own story.

May 14, 2026May 14, 2026Jesse Orine

Memoirs of leaving the Orthodox Jewish world have become a genre with their own familiar arc. The protagonist flees an oppressive religious world, is ostracized by family and former friends, and emerges into secular freedom — damaged perhaps, but liberated. Readers consume these books partly as anthropology, partly as self-help and, critics sometimes complain, partly […]

He sold a house to Justin Bieber. Now this LA investor has given Chabad $100M to build one of the world’s largest Jewish centers.

January 13, 2026January 14, 2026Sara Wood

A Los Angeles real estate investor known for selling homes to celebrities has donated a $100 million office tower to Chabad, the global Orthodox Jewish outreach movement, to create what is slated to become one the world’s largest Jewish centers. Alon Abady and his wife, Monique, transferred the 16-story, 300,000-square-foot complex at 9911 W. Pico […]

New initiative helps children of cancer patients

March 1, 2024March 2, 2024Arsen Mayer

Sylvie Slotkin was already struggling with her mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic when, before her sophomore year of high school, she learned that her mother, Lisa, had breast cancer. Slotkin, now a freshman at Northwestern University, recalls thinking, “Things really don’t need to be worse right now than they already are — and then […]