A Remarkable Spirit is Laid to Rest

Ever since he was a teenager growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Staff Sgt. Michael Levin dreamt of moving to Israel and joining the Israel Defense Forces. He died on Aug. 1 fulfilling that dream, fighting in the service of the country he loved near the southern Lebanon village of Aita al-Shaab. He was 22.

In the days and weeks since his untimely passing, many have spoken and written about the American’s dedication to his elite paratrooper unit – he was vacationing with his family in Newtown, Pa., when the war with Hezbollah terrorists broke out in July, and he promptly boarded a plane to enter the fray. But those who knew Levin also attest to his passion for Judaism.

“Michael’s idealism was a total selflessness, a response from within to do the right thing,” said Rabbi Yehuda Shemtov, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bucks County, where Levin was part of the inaugural teens’ group. “That’s very rare for a teenager.

New Shluchim To Merick New York

Rabbi & Mrs. Shimon Kramer of Kings Park, NY will IYH be moving on Shlichus to Merrick, NY where they will open a Chabad center to serve the Merrick, Bellmore and Wantagh communities and the southeast Nassau area.

They will also continue running the Gan Israel Day Camps of Suffolk County.

The Kramers were appointed by Rabbi Anschelle Perl.

HATZLOCHA RABBA!

If you are aware of any Jewish families in the area, please forward their contact info to: rabbik@gmail.com.

Thousands at Livaya of Chaya Mushka Etia

A huge crowd participated in the livaya of Chaya Mushka Etiya, a’h, daughter of Rabbi Victor Etiya, shliach to Kiryat Arba. She passed away tragically in a fire earlier today. Aside from the family members and locals, the crowd included Lubavitchers from around the country, headed by representative of the Chabad Court in Israel, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Glucowsky, Chairman of Aguch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov, representatives of Tzach and others.

More picture in the Extended Article.

Traffic ticket leads to altercation in Crown Heights

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Crown Heights — A parking ticket given to a woman Saturday night in Crown Heights led to an altercation with police.

Witnesses on Franklin Avenue say they saw 27-year-old Nicole Edite receive a ticket for double parking in front of a store. But they say after the Brooklyn woman cursed at the officer and snatched her ticket away, the officer turned violent and threw the woman to the ground. Witnesses are calling the incident police brutality.

Police say that Edite was in the wrong. Police told News 12 Brooklyn snatching the summons was considered “physical contact.” Edite faces several charges including resisting arrest and harassment. Her family says they plan to file a formal complaint against the officer.

Jewish rite of passage clips hair, welcomes son into age of intellect

Three-year-old Sholom Deitsch nibbled on a cookie as strangers pressed dollar bills into the plastic box he held in his other hand. Then they took turns clasping small scissors and snipping one curly lock from his head, then dropping it into a clear bag held by his mother.

When the long line of amateur barbers had finished giving Sholom his first haircut, the left side of his shaggy mane looked ravaged, but plenty more hair awaited a professional barber to finish the job later in the day.

Through it all, Sholom sometimes squirmed on his high, white throne, but showed restraint through the whispered injunctions from his mom.

Police Find Woman, 69, Strangled in Crown Heights

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A 69-year-old woman was found strangled and stabbed early yesterday in the bedroom of her apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the police said.

The victim, Gloria Boney, an immigrant from Trinidad who moved to New York in 1990, was found a few minutes after midnight after two of her daughters, accompanied by the police, unlocked the door of her apartment on Union Street [between New York Ave. & Nostrand Ave.], the police said.

Couple attacked on Eastern Parkway

Crown Heights — On Motzei Shabbos a Lubavitcher couple walking on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights was attacked by a group of Black teenagers yelling anti-semitic epithets.

At around 12:30 am, the couple was walking home from escorting a Shabbos guest to her homeless shelter on Ralph Avenue by Eastern Pkwy, and were attacked by a group of Black teenagers on the promenade of Eastern Parkway between Rochester and Utica Avenues.

Boy Beaten In Attempted Robbery of his Bike

Last week, Thursday, at 5:30 in the afternoon, two fourteen year old Bochurim were riding their bikes down Brooklyn Ave, when two Black youths approached one of the boys from behind and struck him in the head with a heavy tool knocking him off his bike. They then proceeded to take the bike and began running with it down Brooklyn towards St. Johns Pl.

Another Bochur who witnessed this incident saw the attackers fleeing with the bike, and were headed in his direction, when passing him he managed to get the perp off the bike, who then just left the bike and ran. Other bystanders attempted to chase the youths but lost them at the intersection of St. Johns Pl. During the pursuit the attackers the tool they used to assault the boy while they were fleeing.

The Face of a Hero

Roi Klein.

It is a name that until a few days ago held no meaning to me. He was a complete stranger, about whom I had never heard and whom I had never met.

Yet an image of the last seconds of his life won’t leave my mind.

Roi was a son. He was a brother. He was a husband to Sara and a father to three-year-old Gilad and one-year-old Yoav.

City lawyer defends rules to Chabad

Cooper City officials aren’t backing down from a synagogue that wants to challenge the city’s zoning rules, even if it means facing a religious discrimination lawsuit.

But they are at least willing to talk it out.

That’s what a letter from city attorneys to attorney Franklin Zemel said Thursday. Zemel is representing Rabbi Shmuel Posner, who has been trying to set up a Chabad outreach center in a Griffin Road shopping center for years.

Zemel recently won a zoning case in Hollywood, which awarded a Chabad synagogue $2 million and the right to operate a house of worship in a residential area.

Las Vegas Jewish Community Booms

Jumping from 55,000 in 1997 to 75,000 in 2000, the boom in Las Vegas’s Jewish community is well on its way to reaching, perhaps surpassing, the American Jewish Committee’s projected 2010 census of 100,000 Jews. But where exactly do all these Jews live? On the strip, among the neon?

First-ever fair to offer Israeli art, Kosher food, Klezmer

Guilford, CT – Judaism is the ancient tradition of a relatively small community of people. It was the first documented religion to hold as its central belief the idea of monotheism: the conviction that there is only one God, an omniscient source of all power who bonded with God’s “chosen people” since the days of the biblical forbearers Abraham and Sarah. It is the parent religion for Christianity and even Islam.

Now, Rabbi Yossi Yaffe, director of Chabad of the Shoreline wants to extend elements of this ancient faith and culture to believers – and non-believers with curious minds – by sponsoring the very first Shoreline Jewish Festival on the Green Aug. 13.

Coast Guard now allows religious headgear

The skullcap can stay on the Coast Guard auxiliarist’s head after all. Jack Rosenberg, a 35-year-old Hasidic Jew from Rockland County, N.Y., signed up for the Coast Guard Auxiliary last year and passed his training, only to be informed that regulations forbade him to wear his skullcap during some duties.

Much as he loves his country, Rosenberg was not about to doff his skullcap, which a Hasid normally sheds only to shower or to swim, so his uniform stayed in the closet.

Now he does not have to. The Coast Guard is issuing new regulations allowing members to wear religious headgear, a spokesman for the guard, Chief Petty Officer Daniel Tremper, said Tuesday. This brings the guard, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, into line with the armed forces under the Defense Department, which have permitted religious garb since 1987.

Woman creates Jewish library at ‘Holy Name’ Hospital

Teaneck, NJ – A life-sized statue of Yoshke stands in the lobby of Holy Name Hospital here, a Catholic hospital that boasts a chapel, crosses decorating the walls — and now, a Jewish library.

“We’re a Catholic hospital, but we’re [smack] in the middle of a huge Jewish community,” said Jonathan Hirsch, director of guest services at Holy Name. Thus many patients are Jewish.

“The nurses are sensitized to Shabbos observers,” said Debbie Ross, the hospital’s director of clinical information systems. An extensive kosher menu is available, as well as Friday night candle-lighting.

Rivka Lewin, a township resident and a bikkur cholim (visiting the sick) volunteer, had noticed Jewish patients spending their days watching television. She thought that if the patients had something worthwhile to read, they might better occupy their time. Also, Lewin said in a recent interview, “patients need spiritual support.” She brought her idea of a library of Jewish books to the hospital’s public relations department.