Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum Passes Away at 91

Joel Teitelbaum had transplanted the tattered remnants of Satmar from post-Holocaust Europe to Williamsburg, giving the sect new life. Under Moses Teitelbaum, Satmar more than doubled its ranks, to an estimated 100,000 worldwide, building schools and expanding real estate holdings that are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Rabbi Solomon Gelbman, a Satmar historian, said that Rabbi Teitelbaum, known to his followers by his Hebrew name, Moshe, had likened himself to the biblical Jacob, who considered himself custodian of the great works begun by Isaac and Abraham before him.

UPDATE: Pictures of the Levaya now online.

Boruch Dayan Ha’emes – Satmar Rebbe OB”M

With great sadness we inform you of the passing of the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum.

Rabbi Teitelbaum had recently been hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Just a few days ago the doctors announced that he will be recovering and will be out of intensive care and back home in Williamsburg within two weeks. However things took a turn for the worse and he passed away at a the age of 91 late Monday afternoon in his hospital bed.

Early reports indicate that the Levaya will be 10 O’Clock tonight.

Baruch Dayan HaEmes

Pesach is Over: Now What?

While Jewish rye and bagels replace matzah after the week-long Passover ban on leavened bread, social scientists might want to chew on a fifth question: What is it about this particular holiday that makes otherwise unaffiliated and non-observant Jews care—enough to go out of their way to honor the holiday?

They often don’t know anything about kosher or Shabbat, but when Passover comes around, something kicks in, and whether they call themselves agnostics or secular or just plain uninvolved, many find themselves gravitating to other Jews, to a Seder table, and often even to the strictures of a weeklong diet that forbids consumption of pizza and pasta.

US Consul General Visits Jewish Community

Birobidjan, Russia – US Consul General in Russia’s Far East John Mark Pommersheim visited the ‘Freud’ Jewish Community of Birobidjan during his acquaintance tour of the Jewish Autonomous Region.

The Consul confessed he knew about the existence of this Jewish Community when he worked in America, but he didn’t expect to see such a mature Jewish congregation. Mr. Pommersheim took interest in the constantly operating art exhibition featuring works by Vladislav Tsap, which highlights Torah themes. Initially, he thought he was looking at copies, but having realized these were original paintings, the Consul expressed his excitement about the work.

Torahs ‘R’ Us

About 50 pairs of confused eyes tried to identify the source of the sonorous and authoritative voice addressing them from state-of-the-art loudspeakers hung on the walls of the dimly lit auditorium. Colorful scenery – balconies, a stage, podia with electronic buttons and a giant screen – imparted to the auditorium in the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights the look of a television game-show studio. “Boys and girls, welcome to the game show you’ve been waiting for!” the voice thundered. “Welcome to ‘Torah Concentration!’”

A small, hidden door in the stage slowly opened opposite the seats packed with children (all of Korean heritage) and dozens of excited faces fixed on it, eager for a first glimpse of the master of ceremonies of this game with the mysterious name. A few seconds later, the mystery man burst into the studio. He was a short, young, bearded fellow with a purple skullcap and a Madonna-style microphone attached to his head, wearing black jeans and a white shirt with his long tzitzit (fringes) sticking out. He stood center-stage, taking in all the dropped jaws and wide-eyed faces. He smiled. The audience was his.

Prison doesn’t scare me, but how do I tell my young son?

Transit union boss talks emotionally to The News on eve of his 10 days in jail

Transit union chief Roger Toussaint says he’s not scared of what awaits him when he marches off to jail today — he just worries that his 10 days behind bars will mean 10 days of fear for his family.

“That would be my biggest concern — that my loved ones would worry about me more than they should, more than they need to,” Toussaint told the Daily News yesterday.

Wall Collapse in the backyard of the Malbone Housing Complex

Yesterday evening residents of the Malbone St. Housing complex were shocked to see a Retaining wall collapse in their back yards. The complex is located on Malbone St. which is right next to the police station between clove Rd. and New York Ave. and is lower then the houses behind them on Montgomery St. so a retention wall had been built to contain the earth from the back yards of those houses.

Recently a new construction had been underway on Montgomery St. where a parking lot was converted into condos and that construction site’s retaining wall had collapsed, dumping bricks, cement and mud into the back yard. These yards are the play grounds for the complexes children, and it’s a great miracle that no one was out there when this incident happened.

FDNY responded and secured the area and remained on scene until later in the evening to make sure nothing moved or continued to fall.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Thousands pray for American teen

Since he was critically wounded in last week’s suicide bombing at Tel Aviv’s old Central Bus Station, the 16-year-old patient hospitalized in intensive care at the city’s Ichilov Hospital has been identified in Israel only as the “American” victim.

Yet in the seven days that have passed since he was hurt when a bomb exploded at a shwarma eatery where he was seated, thousands of people around the world have reportedly been praying for Haim Meir Naftali, son of Sara and Yekutiel – the Hebrew name of Daniel Wultz. [Chaim Meir Naftali Ben Sara]

A resident of Weston, Florida, Wultz came to Israel with his parents, Tuly and Sheryl Wultz, to visit relatives during Pessah. According to reports in the American media, the Wultzes had come to spend the holiday with the family of Tuly, who is Israeli, and attend the bar mitzva of a family friend. Tuly and Daniel Wultz were reportedly seated at an outside table at the shwarma stand at the corner of Rehov Naveh Sha’anan, waiting for Sheryl Wultz, when the bomb exploded.

Monkeys Say ‘Dayenu!’

City’s Zoo Monkeys get Fat and lazy thanks to the Hametz From Orthodox Jews.

Security has been tight at the Central Park Zoo, (preparing for passover), with ticket takers, staff, and guards on the lookout for suspicious packages of cookies, pretzels, hot-dog buns, and pound cake. Observant Jews had to clear their houses of hametz (leavened products) before Passover, and every year many of them take their castoffs to the zoo. Baffled zoo staff note that the snow monkeys are the main beneficiaries of the pre-holiday pig-out, apparently because the polar bear’s glass wall is too high and the sea lions would only be interested if offered gefilte fish. “If a big group comes in carrying bags, admission is going to notice,” says zoo spokesperson Kate McIntyre.

Man Found Dead in Prospect Park

Click here for News Clip

A man found stabbed to death in Prospect Park in Brooklyn was identified Sunday as a 61-year-old Brooklyn man, police said.

The body of William Oliver was found late Saturday afternoon after police received a call that an unconscious man was inside Prospect Park near Grand Army Plaza, police said.
Oliver had been stabbed at least once in the chest, police said.

There were no immediate arrests and an investigation was underway, said Officer Kathleen Price, a police spokeswoman.

Police May Introduce Incognito Weapon in War on Speeders

As officers step up ticket-writing for traffic violations, the New York Police Department is considering introducing a new weapon in its war on speeders, illegal turners, and driving cell phone users.

Drivers glancing into their rearview mirrors will not be able to distinguish the NYPD’s new cars from the rest of traffic – until they break a law. Then the lights in the windshield start up with the same intensity as the familiar V-formation of red and blue flashers fastened to the roofs of regular patrol cars.

Police officers call the new cruisers “slick tops” because their roofs are smooth, like typical passenger vehicles. The cars are clearly marked with police decals, but lack the clunky and easily recognizable shape of ordinary patrol cars.

‘Every moment, I’m just praying . . . ‘

A Weston [Florida] teen who was a victim in a Tel Aviv bombing had a leg amputated.

More than 6,500 miles away, prayers from home go out for Daniel Wultz.

Local family, friends and members of the Jewish community have prayed for the recovery of the Weston 16-year-old, whose leg was amputated on Friday.

They prayed during Saturday Shabbat services. They prayed at home. They even told their family and friends — out of the state and the country — to pray.

Ukrainian skinheads stabs Bochur

Thugs mark Hitler’s birthday by attacking, stabbing Safed yeshiva students marking Passover in Ukraine

An emissary of the Union of Jewish Communities in Russia was the target of an attack by skinheads Saturday evening in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, Ynet has learned.

The man, Haim Gorbov, who studies at a Safed yeshiva, returned to Ukraine as part of a Seder organized by the Union of Jewish Communities

in Russia and the former Soviet Union. After Gorbov’s condition improved he was released from hospital.

It appears a gang of skinheads in the city sought to mark Hitler’s birthday, April 20, by attacking a Jew. Dnepropetrovsk’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kamintzky said that at first the skinheads tried to attack a group of yeshiva students in the city center, between the synagogue and the yeshiva in which they studied. They managed to escape, however, and the thugs then set upon the 20-year-old Gorbov.

Jewish center teaches heritage

Facility provides a sense of culture

About a month ago, Mark Hoffman says he felt the need to explore his Jewish roots.

The Pleasanton resident decided to contact the Chabad of the Tri-Valley, a center for Jewish life and education in the area, to see what was available and soon began private instruction through its Jewish Learning Center.
“It has been beneficial and enjoyable,” says Hoffman, 40. “It’s more like learning through a philosophical discussion.”

The Jewish Learning Center began informally last fall with the help of Rabbi Raleigh Resnick and his wife, Fruma. Based in the couple’s home, until they locate a facility, it’s dedicated to providing a complete and thorough Jewish education to the Valley community. No prior background or knowledge is required for most of the course offerings.

Outback Jews trek 250km for seder

There are four well-known reasons why seder night is different to all other nights. But Jeffrey Davidson, who lives in a small mining town in the Top End, 250 kilometres from the nearest seder table, has a fifth: Jews must not celebrate Pesach alone.

“Seder is a group experience. It’s not something good to do by yourself,” Davidson, 55, told the AJN this week after trekking with wife Gale and eight-year-old son Eitan to a seder in Darwin — the closest one to his home in Jabiru, where he works as the community-relations manager for Energy Resources of Australia.

Massive Police Movement Throughout Pesach

Crown Heightsers who went to Daven in 770 on any given day of Yom Tov would have noticed a large police presence in front of 770 and the Jewish Children’s Museum. 15 police cars form different precincts across New York City including Manhattan, Bronx and Queens were seen, leaving residents wondering what was really going on.

Police would never give a straight answer as to what they were doing, one thing that they were clear about is; they were ‘exercising’, driving across the 5 boroughs with a lot of vehicle movement to show people they are out there. Yesterday was the biggest show of police force, where more the 45 Police cars lined up Kingston that overflowed into Union Street and Eastern Parkway, they even had a full communications command post posted up along the Museum.

Rumors and speculations have it that the police were observing ‘Hasidic’ behavior in preparation for the passing of the Satmer Rebbe, and the riots that may ensue. Others were of the opinion that the Jewish Children’s Museum received terrorist threats and so the police added great protection. The bottom line is that we got the benefit of the added security and Police presence.