COLlive.com’s Top Stories of 5779

Editor’s note: Some tragic passings in the Chabad community were among the most viewed articles, but at the request of many we are not including them on this list so allow the families to grieve.

1. Fake Frum
Frum-Looking Couple Promotes Christianity to Chicago Jews

They were both with head-coverings and dressed modestly, yet their mission was to convert others to Christianity. When a diligent Chabad Shliach exposed a frum looking couple in Chicago, the news shocked the Jewish world.

2. Pesach Bloodshed
Woman Killed, 3 Injured at Chabad of Poway

Pesach concluded with the terrible news of a mass shooting at Chabad of Poway, near San Diego in California. Lori Kaye lost her life, and the injured Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein seized the opportunity to bring light to the world, calling for a Moment of Silence in public schools.

3. Towson Decree
Chabad House to Be Demolished

The public pulled through in showing support for the Chabad center in Towson, Maryland, after a judge ruled that its $1 million newly-built center must be torn down in 30 days.

4. Chicago Tragedy
Bochur Murdered in Chicago

Earlier in the year, another yomtov has ended with the sad news that 24-year-old Lubavitch bochur Eliyahu Moscowitz was killed in a shooting while walking in a park on Simchas Torah. His family has since made meaningful dedications in his memory.

5. Mezuzah Scandal
Lone Crusader Riles Sofer Stams

An impassioned Yisrael Dovid Wolf presented a self-made expose claiming that scribes and merchants of Mezuzos are selling non-kosher parchments. Some of his findings have since been disputed, but awareness was raised to purchase higher quality Judaica.

6. Survival Mode
Found: Missing Bochur Located

Shmuel Rabinowitz, 15, was part of a Jewish summer program teaching survival techniques. So when he went missing in the Vermont Mountains for 24 hours, he thankfully put all that he learned in place. Volunteers from Montreal and Rockland County joined the State Police to help find him safe and sound.

7. Pittsburgh Massacre
11 Killed in Synagogue Shooting

It has been called the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history and has sent shockwaves throughout the country and world. 11 people were gunned down at the Tree of Life congregation in midst of Shabbos. Poway was next.

8. Brick Attack
Jewish Man Attacked With Brick in Crown Heights Park

When 63-year old Crown Heights resident Avraham Gopin was brutally assaulted with a brick to his head this past month, it wasn’t the first anti-Semitic attack against Jews in the neighborhood. In fact, Crown Heights became a prime example this past year of Jews being attacked by African Americans, and not just white supremacists, as some like to conveniently claim.

9. New COLlive
The Second Decade of COLlive.com

Not surprisingly, the announcement of the launch of the new COLlive.com website was one of the most viewed articles of this past year. New features, updates and upgrades -as well as an editorial Vaad committee created at the request of rabbonim- ushered in the second decade of the leading independent news source for the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch community and beyond.

10. Self Sacrifice At Sea
Rabbi Rescuing Student Swept Out to Sea

He wasn’t known to the wider public, but the Jewish world joined in prayer that Rabbi Reuven Bauman, a Rebbi at Yeshiva Toras Chaim in Norfolk, Virginia, would be found. He was swept out to sea while trying to rescue a student. He sadly passed away, but his heroic example lives on.

11. Live from Rockland County
Live: Shluchim Gala Banquet

When 5,000 Shluchim and supporters gather at the annual Gala Banquet of the International Kinus Hashluchim, tens of thousands tune in to COLlive.com to watch the live broadcast of the unmissable evening highlighting the global network created by the Rebbe. Along with the broadcast, our team of reporters and photographers provide ongoing updates of the convention.

12. Shabbos Flight
I Was On Friday’s El Al Flight

Responding to reports of frum people rioting on an El Al flight, Ben Chafetz recounted what he witnessed and how he spent Shabbos in a hotel hosted by Chabad of Athens, Greece.

13. Rubashkin Anniversary
Thousands Rejoice with Rubashkin
Live: Rubashkin Freedom Yomtov

Thanking Hashem for his salvation, former kosher meat executive and emunah icon Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin once again drew crowds as he celebrated the first anniversary of his commutation from the harsh prison sentence.

14. Him Too
Shliach Reveals He Survived Abuse

In a brave move, Utah Shliach Rabbi Avremi Zippel testified in court against his childhood nanny who has molested and abused him in his parents’ home for about 10 years beginning at age 8.

15. Guardians of Torah
A Black Man Can’t Have a Torah?

Yehudah Webster, a tutor associated with the Conservative Jewish movement, was stopped while walking with an uncovered Torah in the streets of Crown Heights. He said it was racially motivated because he’s black, comments responded that people were being protective over a Torah.

16. Horror in Kenya
Chabad Couple Attacked in Kenya

Rabbi Shmuel and Chaya Notik, who direct the Jewish center in Nairobi, Kenya, were violently assaulted during a home invasion Wednesday morning. It brought back dark memories of the terror attack in Mumbai.

17. United Beis Din
‘Crown Heights Beis Din is One Again’

Following an agreement hailed as “an amazing accomplishment” by Zaki Tamir, head of the neighborhood’s representative body, Crown Heights Rabbis Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba, Rabbi Yaacov Schwei and Rabbi Yosef Braun agreed to work hand in hand on all areas of their jurisdiction as the 3 members of the rabbinical court, also known as Badatz Crown Heights.

18. Saving of a Soul
Rescue of the Mail-Order Bride Named Chaya Mushka

The man was a gentile Chinese in his 50s. His future “Mail-Order Bride” was a 20-year-old Jewish girl named Chaya Mushka. The story of how Chabad and the Yad L’achim organization rescued her brought to light the behind-the-scenes work to save Jewish souls.

19. Vaxx Vex
I Didn’t Vaccinate My Kids. Here’s What Happened

The vaccination wars continued this past year and an open letter by Shayna Eliav couldn’t be ignored. As a young mother, she didn’t vaccinate her children. Now, as a registered nurse who felt the effects first hand, she shares another opinion.

20. Pesach Fiasco
Chaos, Eviction at Orlando Pesach Program

Pesach programs can be anywhere on the scale between luxury and sketchy. Guests of one such program in Orlando faced eviction from their rented villas and a food shortage when the owner apparently ran off.