Yisrael Deren

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Oct 28, 2022, 8:58 PM

They didn’t call him Menachem

Of all the outsized characters in the Bible, it seems Noah is one of the most underappreciated. He almost singlehandedly rescued humanity and all animal life from destruction – yet he is hardly celebrated. We talk about Noah's Ark,...

Oct 9, 2022, 11:50 PM

Can I have a hug?

A friend once told me, "My dad says his favorite time of the year is the night after Yom Kippur – because Yom Kippur will never be so far away again!" I suspect that is a sentiment shared by...

Sep 22, 2022, 10:31 PM

Where In the World Are You?

Have you ever noticed the difference in how we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and how we prepare for Pesach and Shavuot? Pesach, celebrating our Freedom seems all about Hashem and His Mitzvot. Preparing for Rosh Hashanah and...

Jun 13, 2020, 2:56 AM

Don’t Burn it Down – Burn it Up!

“Burn baby burn” is not something I thought we’d once again be hearing on streets in cities across America. That it has come in response to a horrific and revolting event, itself just one more in a history of...

Mar 16, 2020, 6:31 AM

Coronavirus reflections

While this was not the first time I've faced the prospect of a Shabbat at home and relatively alone, this certainly was the first time (and hopefully the last!) that it was for this reason. I'm sure I'm not the...

Feb 28, 2018, 7:40 AM

One Nation under Gd – invisible

As a six-year-old reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, I marveled that even non-Jewish Americans knew what Abraham the first Jew taught - that G-d was “invisible”. Some sixty years later, having...

Feb 11, 2018, 12:09 PM

It’s February and in the United States, that means it’s tax season. Whether you identify with the one percent, the 99% or even the “47” %, this is the time of the year that virtually all of us spend...

Dec 10, 2017, 12:04 PM

Comforted but Not Comfortable

A Thought for The Week: There was a custom – in the pre-translated Chumash days – that on Shabbat afternoon people who could barely read, and certainly understood no Hebrew, would gather in Shul to hear someone repeat (in...

Dec 3, 2017, 8:42 PM

Don’t Let the Turkey Get You Down

Ok, I’ll admit it. Our family didn’t do turkey Thanksgiving. It’s not that we’re not thankful Americans – America has lots to be grateful for, and I have many reasons to be thankful. But less than two months ago was...

Nov 26, 2017, 6:37 AM

The animals in men

Jacob's Dream by Adam Elsheimer (via Wikimedia Commons)

Setting an example for all men, the biblical patriarch, takes steps to protect himself from...himself

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About Me

Yisrael Deren serves as Regional Director of Chabad Lubavitch in Connecticut and Senior Rabbi of Chabad of Stamford. Born in Davenport Iowa, raised in Pittsburgh, and educated under the Rebbe's supervision in Brooklyn and Israel, he, together with his wife Aviva, have been Shluchim of the Rebbe for close to 50 years.