Toussaint and 2 Other Union Leaders Sentenced for Transit Strike

The man behind the billions lost during the transit strike gets 10 days in jail and a fine $1,000.

Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, was sentenced today to 10 days in jail and fined $1,000 by Judge Theodore T. Jones of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in connection with last December’s transit strike.

The sentence is not to take effect for 30 days, and Mr. Toussaint can appeal the ruling during that time.

Two other officials of the 33,700-member local, Ed Watt, the secretary-treasurer, and Darlyne Lawson, the recording secretary, were each sentenced to $500 fines.

Mr. Toussaint and the two others were found to be in contempt of court for refusing to order their members back to work after the illegal strike commenced late in December, during the busy holiday season. The strike ended on Dec. 22, after three days of turmoil.

Rebbe’s birthday highlights divisions in Chabad

“There was an amazing turnout,” said Yoni Kahana, one of the organizers of the evening. “Everyone came away with renewed faith in the imminent coming of the rebbe, our messiah. He may not have come on Sunday night. But he will truly be revealed any second.”

However, leading Chabad figures, among them Menahem Brod, the group’s official spokesman, claimed the rally and its organizers were unauthorized.

Around the World, Countdown to the Seder . . .

With passports in hand and suitcases filled with matzah and kosher meat, 700 Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students are making a mass exodus from their yeshivas and teaching positions to bring Passover to the far corners of the world.

Early this week, 172 American rabbinical students boarded jets for Wyoming, Ghana, Bolivia, Croatia, Peru, Nepal, Republic of Congo, and Cypress. Aussie Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students will be bringing Passover to the Outback, New Zealand. Chabad rabbis in training from Israel will be crisscrossing China, Thailand, Laos. In Russia, Ukraine and 15 countries in the region, hundreds of rabbinical students will be hosting Passover Seders across 11 time zones.

Russia to probe chief rabbi’s citizenship status

A Russian parliamentary committee is to initiate a review of why the country’s chief rabbi received his Russian citizenship through a simplified procedure.

Rabbi Berel Lazar, who became a Russian citizen in 2000, was born in Milan and, according to the Interfax news agency, is a citizen of three countries in addition to Russia – Israel, Italy and the United States.

The Russian State Duma has instructed the parliamentary committee to request information from the country’s Interior Ministry and the Federal Migration Service on “legal grounds for granting Russian citizenship to U.S. citizen Berel Lazar in a simplified procedure,” according to Interfax.

Brooklyn matzohs – made the same way for 3,000 years

It had to be done in 18 minutes flat.

In a Brooklyn bakery, each fresh batch of Passover matzoh was timed from the moment the flour touched water till the unleavened bread left the oven _ dough worked fast to keep it from rising.

It must stay flat “to remind us of when the Jews went out of Egypt and they didn’t have time to let the bread rise,” said Chana Drizin, a 10-year-old bakery volunteer perched atop a woodpile that helped fueled the oven’s roaring flames.

Another Murder in Crown Heights

Motzoai Shabbos at around 12:45am 4 shots rang out on President St. between Utica and Rochester right across the street from ‘Frankel Shul’ as well as a few other Jewish families. A male black was shot and killed. This also happens to be right around the corner of where Efraim Klein was shot and killed.

What appears to have happened was a gunman shot at the victim 4 times striking him at least once where he seemed to have made it to the sidewalk behind an SUV where he collapsed. One of the 4 shots hit the SUV shattering the passenger side window and another of the shots seems to have gone through the front window of a nearby house.

This time there was a litter of shell casings and a blood trail. Numerous investigators and Uniformed Police officers swarmed the area, taping off the crime scene and were searching for more clues as to what had happened. This may be the time to note that the NYPD have had not had any progress to report on the Klein case since the night of the murder.

More pictures in the Extended Article.

Seder kits on the way to Iraq

Howard Perl, 48, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, never saw himself as much of a worship leader.

Then again, he never thought he would be shipped to Iraq after 30 uneventful years in the Army reserve, spend Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New year, under a rain of mortar fire, or lead Friday night worship in Camp Taji, an Army post 12 miles north of Baghdad, when there wasn’t a rabbi around to do the job.

In a year full of bizarre firsts, Perl says one stands out.

“It will be pretty cool to be able to celebrate Passover in Baghdad,” said Perl, an Army captain who trains members of the Iraqi army.

Shanghai nights: On a work trip to China, a celebrant feels at home

A few years ago, a two-week business trip put me, Lauren Kaufman in China for the first night of Passover. I wanted to attend a seder, find a place where I could celebrate, and meet some Chinese Jews.

A friend had given me the e-mail address of Rabbi Shalom and Dina Greenberg. So on a brisk April morning, I drove to 1277 Beijing Xi Lu, the address of the office of the Jewish Community of Shanghai, where I had been instructed by the rebbetzin to pick up our seder tickets. The small room on the 20th floor of a bleak office building was part makeshift workspace, part storage area filled with wooden shelves overflowing with Hebrew books.

The young Chinese girl in charge of the office welcomed me in broken English, collected $40 per ticket, and gave me invitations to the next evening’s festivities before calling Rabbi Greenberg to tell him I had arrived. When she handed me the phone, I heard an Israeli-accented voice say, “Welcome to Shanghai! I hope you found the office OK. We’re looking forward to having you and your friends join us tomorrow.” He made sure I had directions and invited me to attend erev Passover services at the synagogue down the road.

Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A., 2006

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

A quality education is the cornerstone of a hopeful tomorrow for all our children. Education and Sharing Day highlights our strong support for our young people as they pursue lives of learning, prepare to become responsible leaders, and work to reach their full potential.

On Education and Sharing Day, we remember the efforts of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who promoted the importance of education and ethical teachings to every student’s future. He sought to improve lives and communities through a vast network of education and outreach centers and social service programs around the world. We continue to be inspired by the Rebbe’s good works and all those who dedicate their time, talents, and energy to helping our next generation grow into caring, responsible adults. Through devotion to faith, family, education, and community, we can continue building a better and more compassionate society.

Surprising sedarim Area Jews recall past Passovers

For many Jews, Passover means cleaning the cupboards, dusting off the seder plate and passing on the cookie jar at work.

For some others, however, Pesach has meant having to walk home with an armed guard in the dead of night, sending a Passover recipe via overseas radio and holding a seder in a rain forest.

In October 2004, Rabbi Berel Wolvovsky of Chabad of Silver Spring was commissioned by the Chabad movement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to spend Chanukah in Namibia and Zambia. The trips were such successes that he and a friend were asked to return to Africa to host a seder last year for the Jewish community in Lusaka, Zambia.

From Bardichov to Japan

The Seder of the Recovering Alcoholic

Passover of 1997 I celebrated in Japan.

Rabbi Moshe Katlarsky of Chabad World Headquarters in Brooklyn requested of a colleague and myself to travel to the Far East and conduct public Passover Seder’s for the Jewish community living in the remote city of Kobe. Our journey to Japan and the numerous encounters with hundreds of Jews residing in that part of the world remains etched in my heart and fresh in my memory.

My friend, Moshe Leiberman (today a Rabbi in Boston), supervised the meticulous procedures of koshering the Synagogue kitchen for Passover and preparing the food for the Seder. We did not know how many people to expect (there are wandering Jews to be found in every corner of Japan). To our astonishment, our first public Seder attracted close to two hundred Jews, most of them from very secular backgrounds, some have not attended a Passover Seder in decades.