Four times a year, the Sholom Times lands in Jewish mailboxes across Venice & North Port. These are its stories — now finding a permanent home online.
Latest Two days in the nation's capital — from the Senate and the Library of Congress to the State Department and the White House — as the Rebbe's vision met America's 250th year.
Sora Vigorito was three years old in Mengele's laboratory at Auschwitz. She held her twin sister as she died. In February she told 950 people in Venice how a half-remembered melody led her back to her faith.
1,500 at the menorah lightings. 1,000 at Holocaust education. 300 in a royal Persian tent for Purim — with the rabbi arriving on horseback.
The CKids students learned what goes inside a mezuzah. Then they went home and asked their parents a question nobody was quite ready for.
One course on Judaism's blueprint for all humanity. One on the Hebrew Bible's fingerprints on the American founding, timed to the country's 250th.
Rachel Gordon volunteered at nearly every holiday for four years. Her legacy gift now endows a fund whose earnings support community programs — permanently.
A Holocaust Torah pieced together from parchments salvaged across Europe was placed in our Aron Kodesh this High Holiday season — and by Simchat Torah, it danced again.
Is there life after death? What happens to the soul when it leaves the body? A six-part JLI course opens a window into what Jewish wisdom actually teaches.
Twenty thousand letters, written one at a time to people in real trouble. The Women's Book Club is reading the Rebbe's guidance on emotional wellness — and arguing with it, out loud, together.
For the first time, the glow of the menorah comes to one of Florida's fastest-growing new towns — where Jewish life is quietly taking root, one family at a time.
Rabbi Sholom Schmerling and Rabbi Yosef Buchman joined emissaries from over 100 countries at the largest rabbinic gathering in the Jewish world — and brought our community's names with them.
Two years of study, a halachic conversion, and a chuppah in June. Rafael and Rivka Drago on searching, waiting, and the community that kept them going.
You don't need to be a member, you don't need to be religious, and you don't need to have all the answers. What Judaism teaches about burial — and why families are often relieved to learn it.
Four Hebrew School students, 63 finalists, over 4,000 competitors worldwide. "In Venice, sometimes it feels like Jews are so small. But now I know we're really big."
"My counselor knew I was nervous about swimming. By the end of the second week, he'd helped me learn to dive." Josh, 13, on three summers at camp.
He survived twelve camps. A split-second decision to change lines saved him from the gas chambers. At 102 he spoke entirely from memory to 950 people — then put on tefillin and led the room in prayer.
Six in a single year — kids who met at Chabad at two or three years old, now called to the Torah together. Four went on to a world championship in New York.
Purim needed a bigger tent than ever. Centennial Park saw its largest menorah lighting yet. "There's a new energy here, a pride that's contagious."
Her mother told her the yellow star was a badge of pride, not shame. Eighty years later, Helga Melmed has a message for Jewish students hiding their necklaces.
Text messages flew before the storm. Afterward, neighbors with power opened their homes — and the Sukkah-mobile went out through the streets anyway.
The first bearded chaplain in the U.S. Air Force — who once airlifted a kosher meal to a Jewish coast guard in Alaska — leads our High Holiday prayers.
Some people are natural glue — they introduce friends from different circles, invite new acquaintances for Friday night dinner. We're building a program around them.
Sarah sat at the back of the room. Ethan had never attended anything Jewish. Devin went all the way to the University of Florida. Four journeys through Hebrew School, Camp, and C-Teen.
Every name of every victim of October 7th, inscribed on the cloth that encircles the bima — where the Torah is read and where our prayers rise.
The section consecrated in 2018 filled up faster than anyone expected. More burial spaces are now available at Venice Memorial Gardens.
Three C-Teen graduates head off to college — each with a mezuzah for their new door, and an introduction to the Chabad on their campus.
The Mayor and City Manager came to Chabad to present the proclamation — an acknowledgment, Rabbi Sholom said, that fosters pride and belonging.
The biggest community Seder yet, hundreds of shmura matzah delivered by volunteers — and then Sergeant Bluming, straight from the front lines, to a standing ovation.
Chabad of Venice adopted an IDF army base. Financial help, letters from our teens, and the gear their liaisons on the ground actually asked for.
Irene Zisblatt survived Auschwitz. She spoke to 800 people in Venice — for many of them, the first time they had ever heard a firsthand account.
"The World of Kabbalah" and "Jewpernatural" drew over eighty community members into the territory underneath the Torah's surface.
Twenty-five campers, aged 2 to 13. One went home and asked about Shabbos candles — and three weeks later, the family was still lighting.
Helga Melmed survived Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz and the death marches. Seven hundred people came to hear her, and the letters arrived for days afterward.
Hurricane Ian made landfall between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Chabad became a command center — supplies wall to wall, volunteers driving into North Port.
"What's in a mezuzah?" "How am I supposed to pray?" The questions that never quite fit any class finally got one of their own.
160 people in costume for Purim and a kosher Chinese buffet. 120 at the Seder. Chanukah in the park back in full force after two abridged years. And 500 mezuzahs.
The Sholom Times is mailed free to Jewish homes across Venice & North Port before every major holiday.
