Anti-Semitic Acts Raise Concerns

North Miami Beach, FL – As Israel’s battle against Hizbullah attacks enters its third week, Jewish communities around the world are reacting with caution and calm to a spike in anti-Semitic incidents.

Sydney and North Miami Beach have been rocked by episodes of anti-Jewish actions over the weekend. They come after as the Jewish world mourns the shooting death, at the hands of a proclaimed Muslim, of a Jewish woman in the headquarters of Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Late Monday night, a “visibly orthodox Jewish” man was attacked in Melbourne, according to Australia’s Herald Sun, and two more suburban synagogues were defaced with swastikas there.

Mayor Bloomberg Declares Heat Emergency

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New York, NY — Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared a heat emergency for New York City, due to a dangerous heat wave that’s expected across the tri-state area on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dangerous levels of heat and humidity are forecasted to affect the region, it might reach the highest observed during the past several years.

The executive order was signed in anticipation of the 90-degree days that are predicted through Thursday.

Spraying Away Anti-Semitism… Literally

The staff of Camp Gan Israel of Yekatrinoslav will be greeted with a different type of staff gift this summer. They will each be getting a “Pocket Pistol” Self Defense Pepper Spray.

While this might seem like another outrageous gesture in line with the non conventional ways Yekatrinoslav is famous for, some Yeka veterans feel this is a basic necessity.

“As someone that has faced the anti-semitism head on, out in Ukraine, I think this is a no-brainer,” says Yeka veteran Mendy Pellin who arranged this self defense campaign. “I pray that they won’t have to use them, but I feel this is a basic obligation to help protect the ‘next generation’ of Yekaheads”

South Padre Island Pioneers

“You are the pioneers of this camp; you are the cornerstone for an innovative future in the Jewish camping world”. These were the opening words to the children seated in the plush grounds of Camp Gan Israel on South Padre Island, Texas for the 2006 summer session.

An oasis on the Gulf of Mexico, this newly founded camp is a longtime dream of Rabbi’s Asher Hecht and Eli Laber, who serve as camp co-directors. “For the past few years much time and money has been invested in studying the void in serving Jewish children with summer camps”, Hecht said. After learning that only 7% of Jewish children attend Jewish overnight camps throughout the USA, they undertook this major initiative.

One Dead in HateCrime Shooting at Jewish Center

Seattle, WA – One person was killed and five others were wounded, three critically, in a shooting at the Jewish Federation in downtown Seattle, Washington, police said.

Police have detained a suspect who is a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent.

“This is a crime of hate, and there’s no place for that in the city of Seattle,” Mayor Greg Nickels said. “This was a purposeful hateful act, as far as we know, by an individual acting alone.”

The attack promoted Seattle police to increase security at Jewish temples and Islamic mosques around the city, Chief Gil Kerlikowske said.

“We are also protecting mosques, because there is always the concern of retaliatory crime or retaliatory incident,” Kerlikowske said.

Knitting A Community of Concern for Israel

Madison, NJ – Deborah Brody could not sit back and watch terrifying news from Israel in her quiet Summit, NJ, home and do nothing. For the past year, the she and a dozen others have been clicking needles, perling and cabling their way through yarn skeins at Chabad Jewish Center of South East Morris County, NJ. Churning out fluffy baby blankets, rainbow hued shawls, lap blankets for wheelchair-bound terror survivors, the women have knitted a community out of shared concern – for Israel and for each other.

Medieval Psalmbook Dug Out of Irish Bog

Dublin, Ireland — Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.

The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.

Prayers go out to Israelis, Lebanese

An El Paso Jewish community gathered Tuesday to pray for Israelis and Lebanese as attacks continue between Israelis and Hezbollah forces inside Lebanon.

A group of about 30 members of Chabad Lubavitch gathered for an afternoon prayer, which Rabbi Yisrael Greenberg said harked back to a psalm that explains that true power is not in ammunition and weapons, but rather in spirituality.

“We have a spiritual and family obligation to get together and pray together as one nation, wherever we may be, in one voice,” Greenberg said. “Obviously there are innocent people in Lebanon who are suffering, but if you have a government that harbors terrorists doesn’t do anything to stop them then obviously they are the problem.”

Tsfat bombing shakes counselors

Two young women counselors at Camp Gan Israel in Portland are living on tenterhooks, uncertain about the fate of their homes and friends and loved ones in Israel.

Chaya Ceiitlin and Devora Neeman both make their home with their families in Tsfat, Israel, which has come under fire by Hezbolla rockets in the ongoing fighting between the Islamic terrorist organization and Israel.

Both women said they were in shock.

Israeli girl becomes Jewish woman, but grew up early

ROCKAWAY TWP., NJ — Sabbath at the Chabad Center of Northwestern New Jersey marked Yardena Twito’s ascension to womanhood. But the 12-year-old from Israel, who celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday in Rockaway Township, was forced to grow up suddenly four years ago.

On June 20, 2002, a gunman entered Itamar, an Israeli settlement south of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank. He broke into the home of one of Yardena’s neighbors and began shooting. Yosef Twito, 31, Yardena’s father, a first-grade yeshiva teacher, went to help the neighbors, Rachel Shabo and her three sons.

All were killed — victims of terrorism.