New Lubavitch International Explores Jewish Life in an Unsettled Age
The Autumn-Winter 2026 issue of Lubavitch International arrives at a moment of unusual strain for Jews worldwide, bringing depth, perspective and a distinctly Jewish confidence to the questions this moment has brought to the fore.
by COLlive Editor · COLliveThe Autumn-Winter 2026 issue of Lubavitch International arrives at a moment of unusual strain for Jews worldwide, bringing depth, perspective and a distinctly Jewish confidence to the questions this moment has brought to the fore.
Beautifully designed and richly illustrated, the 40-page issue, published by Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, presents essays, reportage, history and Jewish thought on questions confronting Jews three years after October 7: peoplehood, antisemitism, faith, technology, memory and the persistence of Jewish life.
A symposium, “Three Years Later: What Unites Us Now?” convenes a distinguished group of writers and thinkers from Israel and America to consider both the bonds of Jewish peoplehood and the growing divide between Jews in Israel and America after three years of war. A journalist, physicist, musician, scholar and others approach the question from very different vantage points, giving the discussion both intellectual range and lived immediacy.
“Resilience” has become the familiar shorthand for Jewish survival. But does it actually explain anything? In “The Last Courtier,” the writer does not accept resilience as an explanation. Instead, she asks: What makes that resilience possible? Why do Jews continue to contribute even in countries where they have been persecuted? The essay finds an unexpected answer in Don Isaac Abarbanel’s own understanding of human purpose—and draws a striking line to the Rebbe’s insistence that Jewish vulnerability must never become a reason for retreat.
That, in a sense, is the issue’s animating idea, captured most clearly in its editorial: “The war may rage on. The world continues its accusations against us. Yet we light the candles. We set the table. We welcome guests. We celebrate births and dance at weddings. We build institutions. We teach Torah.” She continues: “If there is a thread running through the stories in this issue it is that we refuse to postpone Jewish life until kinder times.”
That idea takes concrete form in the magazine’s breathtaking sweep of shluchim’s work across the globe—from established Jewish communities to some of the world’s most remote outposts. New mikvahs, Chabad centers and growing communities appear alongside stories of individual Jews being reached in places as far-flung as Patagonia, the Caribbean and northern Europe. Taken together, they offer a vivid picture of the extraordinary reach of the Rebbe’s shlichus—and of Jewish life being built, one community and one Jew at a time.
Elsewhere, the issue moves easily from artificial intelligence and the nature of human consciousness to the women of the Rosh Hashanah readings, antisemitism and Jewish courage, prayer, memory and faith. The range is deliberate. The magazine speaks to Jews with widely different levels of knowledge, observance and identification, while advancing, with unusual subtlety, the Rebbe’s conviction that Jewish life must be lived with confidence, depth and active engagement with the world.
Early reactions from shluchim suggest that the issue is striking precisely that balance: substantive and sophisticated, yet accessible to a broad Jewish readership. One shliach described it as an “exquisite kiddush shem Lubavitch” that allows him to present the Rebbe’s perspectives with intellectual seriousness, elegance and visual sophistication, in a language that appeals to their diverse community members.
The magazine is available for purchase at the Kehot bookstore or by subscribing to: Lubavitch.com/subscriptions. Shluchim may order copies at a discounted rate for distribution in their communities here: lubavitch.com/orders.
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