J.P. Morgan Dined here

State tax agents have shuttered the 14 Wall Street restaurant in the 31st-floor penthouse of 14 Wall St., the land-marked, 1 million-square-foot office tower that Shaya Boymelgreen and his partners bought last year for $215 million. And nobody’s happier than Boymelgreen.

A spokesman for the state Department of Taxation and Finance said it “seized and padlocked” the restaurant on March 13 over $511,546.33 in unpaid sales and withholding taxes. “They put chains on it,” said a beaming Boymelgreen, who added that the restaurant hadn’t been paying rent, either.

The abrupt closing of the eatery in what was once J.P. Morgan’s private dining room gives Boymelgreen and his partners, Africa-Israel Investments, the chance to “create a very special restaurant” in an 8,000-square-foot aerie boasting what the Zagat Survey calls “astounding” harbor views.

Tefilin Bank Opens New Website

Since its establishment, The Kushner International Tefillin Bank has been met by exponential growth. Numbers speak for themselves, and in just a few short months The Tefillin Bank has distributed almost 3,600 pairs of tefillin, to newfound daily users around the world! Remarkably, the far reaching affects of this campaign, have extended even to volatile places like Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to peaceful towns in the Midwestern United States.

“The Tefillin Bank has directly impacted the lives of almost 3,600 people” said Motti Seligson, Coordinator of The Tefillin Bank, “The large influx of correspondence, expressing gratitude for not only the tefillin themselves, but the ripple effect it generates, has been incredible.”

President Bush Announces Joshua Bolten As White House Chief Of Staff

Earlier today, President Bush announced the resignation of Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff and nominated current Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolten as Card’s successor. Bolten will be the second Jewish Chief of Staff following Ken Duberstein, who served as President Reagan’s Chief of Staff from 1988 to 1989.

Bolten is widely experienced in Washington, both on Capitol Hill as well as at the White House, where he was deputy chief of staff before becoming director of the Office of Management and Budget and President Bush was glad he agreed to replace Andy Card who just resigned from this position.

Bolton, whose father was employed in the CIA is a friend of Chabad, who participates regularly in Chabad events and took parts in Chanukah lighting events and more recently in megillah reading arranged by Chabad in the White House. The shliach to Washington, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, believes he is a perfect choice, being a wonderful person, modest and always willing to learn and understand.

For a complete transcript of today’s announcement, click the Extended Article.

Matzo lesson anything but flat at Jewish center

The children of Hillel School could hardly wait for the rabbi to call on them for answers to his questions about Passover.

The 19 or so first- and third-grade students sat on the floor at the Jewish Community Center on Monday and looked straight up at Rabbi Nechemia Vogel.

With a white apron about his waist and a chef’s cap on his head, the rabbi looked down at their little faces, flashed a pleasant smile and talked about the history behind making matzo.

War of Words Erupts With a Barrage of Open-Letters

R. Schwei recently wrote two letters to the community. One letter accuses the Rosh HaKohol Moshe Rubashkin has been running the Vaad HaKohol in an ‘unacceptable manner’. The other letter, states that R. Segal was illegitimately appointed. The letters also lays blame on R. Osdoba of being a ‘Nogeah Badavar’ and stated that R. Osdoba himself, has been called to a Din Torah.

In response, Rubashkin published a 67 page booklet, filled with letters on a number of issues, ranging from Rabonim Elections [which makes up the brunt of it] to the Purim Seudah.

Regarding R. Schwei’s statement, Rubashkin remarked, that “anyone would ask himself, wait R. Schwei is accusing R. Osdoba of being a Nogeah Badavar? He himself has his own issues between himself and R. Osdoba! What would that make R. Schwei?”

In the extended article are both the letters and the booklet.

UTJ fears thousands of Chabad ultra-Orthodox will vote for Baruch Marzel

The United Torah Judaism party expressed fears on Tuesday that large numbers of Chabad ultra-Orthodox would decide to vote for the rival National Jewish Front led by extreme-right figure Baruch Marzel.

The Chabad community has traditionally been a strong UTJ constituency.

In the 2003 elections, Marzel’s party (Herut, led by Michael Kleiner) received a large number of votes from residents of Kfar Chabad.

For first time in U.S., survivor of Munich Olympic attack speaks out

Dan Alon, an Israeli fencer and 1972 Olympic athlete, never talked about his experience at the Munich Games and the Palestinian terrorist attack on the Israeli delegation. The reason was simple: No one ever asked him.

At the time, he said, the media was focused on the victims and their families.

“I couldn’t just go out on the street and shout, ‘I’m a survivor, I want to talk!’ ” says Alon, 61. “So I didn’t talk about it for 30 years.”

On Thursday night, Alon’s wife and daughter heard his story for the first time, along with more than 200 students at Yale University. Alon began speaking in depth about the attack and the death of his coach, Andre Spitzer, only after Steven Spielberg’s film “Munich” prompted a Chabad group in England to seek out a survivor’s story.

Court sentences Moscow synagogue attacker to 13 years in prison

The Moscow City Court on Monday sentenced a man who attacked worshippers in a synagogue with a hunting knife to 13 years in prison and mandatory psychiatric treatment.

The court found Alexander Koptsev guilty of attempted murder on racist grounds for stabbing and wounding nine men in January at the Moscow synagogue.

The sentence brought a chorus of catcalls and invective from Koptsev’s supporters in the courtroom. One woman, who identified herself only as an Orthodox Christian journalist, loudly complained that Jewish children were getting educated in Moscow on Russian taxpayers’ money.

“When will this end? Wake up, wake up,” she shouted.

Chof Zayin Adar

On the 27th of Adar I, 5752 (Monday, March 2, 1992), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, suffered a disabling stroke while praying at the gravesite of the previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch. On the same date two years later, the Rebbe lost consciousness following another stroke; three months later, on the 3rd of Tammuz 5754 (June 12, 1994), the Rebbe’s soul ascended on high, orphaning a generation.

In honor of the 14th anniversary of the 27th of Adar, 5752, COL presents accounts of an interesting episode concerning the Rebbe’s dollars:

R. Zalman Chanin of Crown Heights would get the package of dollars of the Rebbe prior to their distribution so that he would place them into ‘Kuntresses’ before handing them out. If there were leftover dollars, he would return them to the Rebbe.

Chabad of Sussex County to move into Sparta Plaza

NJ – On Sunday, after more than three years, the only Jewish congregation in Sussex County’s second-most-populous town will finally have a home.

Members of the Chabad of Sussex County spent Sunday moving furniture and books from its prior place of worship at its rabbi’s home to its new location at the Sparta Plaza on Woodport Road.

Coming to Sparta 31/2 years ago, Rabbi Shmuel Lewis and others formed the congregation that met in his garage for most services.

“This will be the first synagogue in Sparta,” Lewis said. “When we started, we had seven families and it has really grown.”

Jewish groups host largest traditional dinner at Pitt

PA – The smells of rich foods and sounds of friendly conversations filled the third floor of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Friday. More than 600 people filled the banquet hall of the building as part of Shabbat 1000.

The goal of the event was to host the largest attended Shabbat meal ever on a college campus in Pittsburgh, according to a press release issued for the program.

Chabad House on Campus, the Hillel Jewish University Center and the Jewish Heritage Program all combined in an effort to organize the program.

After a late start, Shabbat 1000 kicked off by recognizing distinguished guests, including Pittsburgh Mayor Bob Connor.

Orange Chabad Rabbis Support Hazit

It has recently been publicized that the Chabad Rabbinical Court in Eretz Yisorel has made a statement for its own communities, and for the general public, to vote for parties which have the best chance of actually getting elected, as opposed to voting for small, upstart parties that have a higher risk of not getting the minimum number of votes. The admitted implication of this position is that they are urging people not to vote for Hazit, the party of Baruch Marzel.

I looked at the names of the Rabbis on the Chabad Court who came out ostensibly against Hazit. I did a search on Arutz Sheva for each of the names and the results came out as expected. None of these Rabbis were vocal during the fight against the Disengagement. They played it safe, not getting political. Many find it shocking that they have now decided to speak up.

Police ‘too busy’ to investigate Nazi graffiti

The black paint was still fresh on the swastikas when members of the Chai Center walked into their synagogue on de Courtrai Ave. for sabbath prayers yesterday morning.

On the walls and windows of the synagogue in the Cote des Neiges area, the vandals had left five swastikas, a damaged Star of David and three “SS” signs – synonymous with the dreaded Nazi death squads.

But when a member of the congregation called Montreal police last night, he was told constables were “extremely busy” and a patrol would only be made available this morning, a distraught Rabbi Yossi Kessler told The Gazette.

A New Jersey Community Joins Together Again, This Time to Mourn

With its swimming pools and putting greens, reading clubs and bowling leagues, the Ponds retirement community bustles with so many organized activities that some residents view it as a kind of summer camp for their sunset years.

At first glance it is the picture of impersonal suburban conformity: 577 condominium units spread across former farmland just east of the New Jersey Turnpike near Princeton. But at the center of the neighborhood is the Clubhouse, a sprawling building where the development becomes a community.