Ditto and Lee Are Off The Streets!

Officer Lee (L) and Officer Ditto

CrownHeights.info has learned that the two ‘Officers’ that were assigned to car 1474, Ditto and Lee, known as the APL car [or otherwise knows as the car that gives out all the seatbelt and cell phone tickets], were removed from street duty! This news comes after they have harassed Crown Heights residents, and according to most residents, they were biased and have harassed both Shomrim and Hatzalah Members in the past.

Motorists still remember the first two ‘Officers’ Kennedy and Muintz who were removed from their duties for various violations. The most serious being; they struck a pedestrian on Purim during the ticket blitz then left the scene, telling the pedestrian “nothing happened”, and another incident where they made a motorist get out of her vehicle to collect her drivers license and ticket.

After the removal of these two ‘Officers’, Lee and Ditto were assigned to the APL car. There are numerous rumors flying about as to the circumstances of their removal, one of them being; after an investigation of hundreds of complaints to the CCRB [Civil Complaint Review Board] against the duo. The CCRB opened the camera that is located on the windshield of the car [placed there to prevent departmental irregularities] and the investigators came across a harrowing incident where the ‘Officers’ chased a motorcycle out of the jurisdiction of the 71st precinct, during which the cyclist was involved in a fatal accident and upon this happening the two ‘Officers’ ‘fled’ the scene.

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Crown Heights Pounded By Unusual Weather

Friday and most of Shabbos Crown Heights sustained extremely heavy rains and winds which caused a lot of damage. Lots of trees came down, some on cars while some just blocked off streets. FDNY was out chopping up the massive branches and moving them off the streets.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Keeping the Jewish spark burning

Arizona Daily Sun
Chaya (right) and Dovie Shapiro play with their
son Mendel, 7 months, at their home Tuesday.
The Shapiros moved to Flagstaff four months ago
to open the Chabad Jewish Center. The center
provides different programs for the Jewish
community.

Four months ago, Rabbi Dovie and Chaya Shapiro came to Flagstaff from Brooklyn, via Miami Beach, to start a special Jewish center in town.

The couple was brought to town by Rabbi Zalman Levertov, regional director of Chabad of Arizona, centered in Phoenix, to establish a Chabad Jewish Center in Flagstaff.

Their goal was to reach out to Jews in the Flagstaff area, help make them more aware of their Jewishness and bring them closer to their Jewish roots.

What happens when 200 friends come for a haircut

Alexandria Times
Chaim Newman after his Upsherenish

Chaim Newman’s long blonde hair reached down to his waist. But it all disappeared at his third birthday party where he had his very first haircut.

His mother, Yehudis Newman, cut the first piece of hair from his forehead. Then his father, Rabbi Mordechai Newman, lopped off a section in the back that was in a ponytail, His grandparents followed, each taking a snip. His father then invited the 200 guests attending the July 10th party at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Alexandria, to take turns cutting as well.

More in the Extended Article!

Brooklyn congressional race heats up

ABC7

Click Here for a newscast of this story (middle of the page, right hand side)

It was a seat once held by Shirley Chisholm in a district that was redrawn to help increase the amount of African American representatives in Congress.

Now, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn the question being asked is “Should a white man represent a primarily black district?”

This part of Brooklyn has always had an African American representing them in Washington. It all dates back to the days of Chisholm, the Voting Rights Act and a lot of politicians like Al Sharpton say the district’s historic black representation should continue.

Rabbinical emissaries visit Saginaw Valley Jews

The Saginaw News

Walking around Saginaw wearing black suits, white shirts, black ties, black hats and full beards brings curious stares to Rabbi Gershon Akerman and Rabbi Isser New.

The recent rabbinical school graduates often are asked whether they’re Amish.

“That happens here more than other places,” New said. “We explain to them that we’re Hasidic Jews, and this is our unofficial uniform.”

Shootings Kill 2 in Queens and Crown Heights

The New York Times

Two men were killed yesterday in unrelated shootings in Queens and Brooklyn, the police said.

In the Queens shooting, which occurred about 1 a.m. on 108th Street near Forest Park, Michael Rogers, 20, was fatally shot after he exchanged words with a man whom the authorities did not identify. Mr. Rogers, who lived in Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.

Through FridayLight, Women Find Peace — And Share It With The World

The Kit

Los Angeles, CA — Chabad today announced the launch of FridayLight, a campaign to inspire more Jewish women and girls to experience a moment of peace and serenity by lighting Shabbat candles.

A key part of the project is FridayLight.org, a website offering information about the candle-lighting tradition, a forum for members of the FridayLight community, and free starter kits to help newcomers enjoy this unique spiritual act.

FridayLight is an innovative effort to encourage Jewish women who may not have strong religious ties to reconnect with their roots by taking time to illuminate their homes — and their lives — by lighting weekly Shabbat candles. FridayLight believes that the collective power of millions of flickering candles can spread light and peace around the globe.

Visiting rabbis touched by the ‘Fiji way’

Fiji Times Online
From left, Rabbi Berel, Rabbi Menbel,and Rabbi Yosel at the Holiday Inn yesterday.

Fiji, Rotuma Islands – Fiji is a perfect model of the way the world should be, say members of the Habad organisation who are at present visiting the country.

In a press conference yesterday, Rabbi Berel, said his team had come with a mission to relay a message of peace and prosperity.

Project Shabbat Shalom – Bringing Hope and Comfort to Israel

Israir Major Sponsor of Israel Solidarity Mission – You Can Help!

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz (C) visits Israeli civilians in a bomb shelter in the northern town of Nahariya July 17, 2006. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad – ISRAEL)

Valley Stream, NY -– In a show of support for the beleaguered country of Israel, and in the hopes of providing strength and comfort to tens of thousands of Israelis who are under constant attack, Israir Airlines has announced that it will sponsor a Solidarity Mission to Israel.

Entitled ‘Project Shabbat Shalom,” the vital mission will take place the weekend of July 28, and will include many American supporters of Israel, who wish to provide moral, emotional, and spiritual support to the people of Israel who have been forced to disrupt their lives and evacuate their homes, and have been living in fear in the recent days. The group will also pay visits to victims of rocket attacks, as well as some of the many children who have been affected by recent tragedy.

Abduction Suspect Held

Asbury Park Press
Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas F. Kelaher
holds up a mug shot of the kidnapping and
assault suspect,Brandon J. Fritz, and the
police artist’s sketch that helped in the
investigation. Lakewood Mayor Meir
Lichtenstein looks on.

Man charged in Lakewood case after arrest in 2nd attack. $1 million bail set for suspect

The link practically drew itself for Detective Sgt. Steve Daroci.

The Old Bridge policeman had seen the sketch around the office for months, a drawing of a stern-faced man police say kidnapped and then assaulted a woman in Lakewood almost three months ago.

Daroci looked at the drawing again Tuesday afternoon.

Then he looked at Brandon J. Fritz, a 21-year-old sprinkler installer from Lakewood being questioned by Old Bridge police about an attempted assault in their town.”

Israel File: With the IDF On the Battlefield

Lubavitch.com
At Kerem Shalom border crossing where Corporal Shalit was kidnapped, a fellow soldier takes time to say the Shema.

Choppers roared overhead as tanks rolled out of the Kerem Shalom border crossing where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. Against this backdrop, some 400 soldiers of the IDF’s elite Golani Brigade of the Northern Gaza Unit, breaking from a 48 hour shift in claustrophobic tanks on anti-terrorist missions in Gaza, were laying tefillin.

Chabad Expands in Vegas

The Jewish Journal

Las Vegas, NV — Across the parking lot of the neighborhood pub/casino in the Summerlin suburb of Las Vegas, Jewish residents, community leaders, local officials and passersby stood in the 110-degree heat recently to watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a new Chabad shul.

Israel File: Keeping The Morale High

EJ Tansky – Lubavitch
An artillery crew in Southern Lebanon takes time to pray

Nine thirty p.m., Tuesday, in Akko, where homes have been barraged by katyusha attacks, Chabad representatives, Rabbis Natan Oirechman, Yosef Makmel and Avi Harosh gather round a desk for their nightly meeting at the Baal Shem Tov synagogue.

Byron Bay to jump on Chabad wave

Australian Jewish News

Byron Bay, Australia — Sun, surf, alternative living – and Chabad. It doesn’t sound like Byron Bay, but that’s about to change when the area’s first permanent Jewish centre opens later this month.

Rabbi Mosheh Serebryanski, who runs activities and services on the Gold Coast and currently travels to Byron Bay about once a week, last week finalised a lease on premises in the Byron Bay Industrial Estate, about five minutes’ drive from the centre of the beachside northern NSW town.

He said the establishment of a designated centre would provide the local community of around 1000 Jews, including a large proportion of Israelis, with a place to call home for Jewish classes, prayer services and social activities.

Israel File: CHILDREN TO CHILDREN

Lubavitch.com
Chabad campers pack gift packages for Israel’s children stuck in bomb shelters up north.

Thusands of children in northern Israel are spending their days and nights in bomb shelters. They are restless, they are bored and they are anxious.