Chabad Organization

On most weekdays, young boys in yarmulkes can be seen hanging out with friends in front of the new kosher Subway sandwich shop, while Orthodox women in modest dress stroll past Judaica stores and synagogues along Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. Dubbed the "Kosher District" by some planners, this roughly 12-block stretch near Robertson Boulevard has exploded in recent years with restaurants, shops and religious institutions aimed at serving the neighborhood's growing Jewish population.

David Eliezrie is a rabbi -- the head of a Yorba Linda synagogue. One of his sons is a rabbi, and two of Eliezrie's daughters married rabbis. The three children are \o7schluchim\f7, or members of rabbi-and-wife emissary teams sent around the world under the Chabad-Lubavitch banner, a small, growing and controversial Hasidic branch of Judaism.

While it remains out of reach in Russia, a centuries-old collection of Jewish religious books and letters evokes an image of a distant light for Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin.

If the non-Jewish public is even vaguely aware of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, it's probably because its annual telethon draws celebrities including Adam Sandler, Michael Douglas, James Caan, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Hopkins. But within the Jewish world, this small branch of Judaism is generating outsized levels of interest -- and concern.

Beverly Hills and a Hasidic Jewish sect that annually erects a Hanukkah menorah in a city park have the right to a new hearing on the menorah issue, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The majority of the court's judges voted to refer the case to an 11-judge panel for a new hearing.

Chabad of the Conejo's newest facility opened its doors Sunday in the hope of becoming a focal point of Jewish life in the Conejo Valley. Other Chabad houses are located in Westlake and Oak Park. The new center, located on Canwood Street near Reyes Adobe Road, has a worship hall that houses up to 150 people. It was established to serve worshipers of the Chabad Lubavitch movement from Calabasas to Camarillo.

When Moscow's lone matzo bakery closed last autumn, it looked as if Russian Jews might lack the sacred flat bread necessary for Passover, the Jewish holiday of freedom. But thanks to the efforts of a Los Angeles-based Jewish organization and a host of local merchants, Russian Jews will have everything they need--from matzo balls to gefilte fish--for the holiday, which begins at sundown today.