Skullcap on Recruit’s Head Keeps Him From Serving in Coast Guard

Jack Rosenberg wants to serve his country.

Mr. Rosenberg, a 34-year-old tire technician and a certified pilot from Spring Valley, N.Y., signed up for the Coast Guard Auxiliary last year, hoping to fly on search-and-rescue missions and the like.

He underwent a full military background check. He had several sets of fingerprints taken. He passed the boating test and the written course.

“But as soon as I got sworn in and got ready to put on the uniform,” Mr. Rosenberg said, “the commander came to me and said it’s going to be a problem.”

Amusement park plans kosher fun for Passover

Broward’s own kosher crusader is doing it again.

For the second year running, Rabbi Pinny Andrusier has organized a day of faith and fun for observant Jews — and everybody else — during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

On April 17, Boomers! amusement park and arcade in Dania Beach will close its concession stands and make room for specially prepared barbecue grills that meet the strict food-preparation requirements of the holiday.

”We are celebrating the liberation of the Jewish people coming out of slavery,” said Andrusier, the religious leader of the Chabad of Southwest Broward. “We don’t have to live like slaves in the kitchen. We can go have fun at Boomers!”

Clash between officer, U.S. official intensifies Chabad dispute in Hollywood

Hollywood · A tense encounter between a police officer and Justice Department employee last week outside a controversial synagogue has sparked outrage from both sides and demands that supervisors investigate.

The U.S. Department of Justice is locked in a legal battle with Hollywood over alleged religious discrimination by the city.

In 2005, the agency joined the Chabad Lubavitch’s lawsuit, filed in 2004, against Hollywood over the city’s attempts to oust the Chabad from the single-family home it had converted into a synagogue in Hollywood Hills.

Small town yeshiva enters the big leagues

Yeshiva Darchai Menachem, a Yeshiva in Crown Heights providing a quality education on a individualized bases currently in its fifth year, is proud to announce it’s Chidon winners who will be going to California to challenge the big leagues in their knowledge in Sefer Hamitzvos. “It’s a big step for our school” says Principal Rabbi Eyal Bension, “we are very proud of our boys, they are a great example of true success that comes from a genuine effort.” Eli Sandhaus who has been the main driving force behind our winners, Menachem Winner, Yisroel Zalmanov, and S.Z. Silverstien is also very proud of their achievements and is being sent with our boys to California. Our staff at the Yeshiva would like to wish all the participants from around the world lots of success.

More pictures in the extended Article!

Rabbi oversees returning bodies of crash victims from Chile

Rabbi Leibel Miller was in Chile on Thursday dealing with how to return bodies to the United States – and the ticking clock of Jewish law.

Miller, of Hallandale Beach, Fla., was in the desert “in the middle of nowhere,” he said, rushing to get the dead home to New Jersey following Wednesday’s accident when 14 Celebrity Cruise ship tourists in a van careened off a Chilean mountainside. A dozen died and two were injured.

Miller needed to bring the bodies home by the Sabbath beginning Friday at sundown. Jewish law prohibits flying on the Sabbath, and the law also requires the dead be buried as quickly as possible.

New Women’s Summer Seminary: An Innovative Experience

The Shluchos Division at The Shluchim Office has announced the launching of a women’s seminary together with The Montreal Torah Center. The seminary will offer four stimulating days of intensive learning from Sunday, July 16-Thursday, July 20, Tamuz 20-24, 5766.

Shluchos are anticipating this exciting new program. It offers them a unique opportunity to spend time with their community women through a fabulous and concentrated learning experience. “I truly look forward to sharing those few days with some very interested women from my area… This program is something quite unprecedented,” commented Baila Gansburg, of Coconut Creek, FL. Shluchos and mikuravos are also looking forward to the opportunity of doing in depth textual study in an intensive learning environment.(Interested women may also attend independently.)

Chabad Leadership Gearing Up To Take On Messianists

While last week’s 770 decision passed without much comment, the leadership of the movement as embodied by its central organization — Agudas Chasidei Chabad — sees it as a watershed moment allowing it to take on the messianists in the sect with a move they’ve long been hoping for. For them, this isn’t just about the right to keep a cornerstone plaque referring to the late Rebbe as “of blessed memory.”

Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, chairman of the executive committee of Agudas, said in a phone interview yesterday that “There are many things that we have refrained from doing in order to avoid confrontation and in order to avoid unnecessary conflict,” and that now, with the legal decision in hand, they will endeavor to restrict “the access and the over-excessive access by individuals whose beliefs and whose conduct is completely foreign to the Lubavitch movement,” referring to the messianists who’ve been occupying 770.

Responding to the common assumption that the reason why the messianist element within 770 has remained is because of political considerations or a lack of desire to see it gone, Shemtov said “That is completely incorrect; the desire has always been there, but there were considerations that could not have been avoided” before the ruling. Now, he said, Agudas is “weighing the immediate steps to implement the permissions that come with it.”

Kosher BBQ in Rancho Mirage: A Torah Oasis

If you’re in California’s desert off Highway 10 on a Tuesday, and find yourself getting hungry for some kosher food– you’re in luck. Chabad of Rancho Mirage, 25 minutes out of the resort city of Palm Springs, hosts a weekly community barbecue that is redefining gastronomic Judaism.

One-inch thick steaks sizzle on the grill. Patties are being flipped into single and double burgers resting on cushion-soft buns. The crowd’s senior, junior, more than 50 strong, easy going and dressed in short sleeves; it’s day two of spring and it’s 87 degrees at sunset. Jewish diners order up California style veggies burgers and veggie soup served alongside Chabad of Rancho Mirage representative Chaya Posner’s famous salads. Since moving down to Rancho five years ago, Joan Kramer has tucked into her share of barbecue fare. “It is wonderful. The camaraderie is the very best. Everybody mingles with everybody,” she says. “I’d recommend it for every community.”

Building bonds between Jews in the area is as part of the barbecue as hotdogs and mustard. At least one couple met at barbecue and married. Still more have dated, discussed prospective pairings, and done business along the eight-foot tables and under the twinkling lights. Kids down their burgers and whiz around the concrete plaza on scooters and bikes. Not on the agenda, however, is a formal Torah program. “When Abraham welcomed people into his tent, he fed them, he didn’t lecture them,” said Chabad of Rancho’s Rabbi Shimon Posner. “In the Torah, people met and gathered at the well. Out here, the barbecue is a Torah oasis.”

Simchas Made Simple

The first volume of Simchas Made Simple has already proven to be of tremendous assistance to Shluchim, less then a month after its release. Simchas Made Simple is a book developed and published by the Shluchos Division at The Shluchim Office.

“Shluchim are always looking for creative ways to convert their personal joys into a community simchas” commented Mrs. Chana Piekarski, who heads the Shluchos Division at The Shluchim Office, and oversaw the Simcha book project.

With Shluchim constantly searching for new and innovative ways to bond with their communities, what better way is there, then to connect through a personal simcha.

N.Y.C.’s crime fight to get more eyes

Ed Note: a good idea would be for Crown Heights to get a few of these.

Commish orders 505 surveillance cams

New Yorkers, get ready for your closeup.

The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city – and pushing to safeguard lower Manhattan with a “ring of steel” that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day, authorities revealed yesterday.

The police cameras will constantly keep watch over neighborhoods plagued by crime and monitor potential terror targets as the city moves to put another 1,200 cops on the street, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The exact locations of the cameras were not revealed, but the electronic eyes will be set up in 253 spots, including many Operation Impact zones – high-crime areas already targeted by teams of cops.

Big Spike in Car Break-ins and Headlight Thefts

All across Crown Heights cars have had their windows smashed, in some cases nothing was even taken, there were 2 incidents on Lincoln Pl. where a minivan and car were broken into, another incident on Empire and Kingston where a minivan had it window smashed, on Union and New York a car was broken into.

On E. New York & Kingston a car had more then $4,500 in damages done to it when a thief stole the pair of headlights out of it, these headlights employ a new technology the Xenon Bulbs, and those get peddled on the street for all of $150!

At the Precinct Council Meeting held this past Thursday this issue was been raised by a Shomrim member to which the Commanding Officer Inspector Vega replied that there has been an increase and he reported that the Police have recently apprehended a black man who has admitted to 28 counts of Auto Larceny, and he added that in no way dose he think that all of break-ins are attributed to one person, but expressed hope to stop this madness.

So please take extra care not to leave anything in your car, and if you see anyone looking into cars in a suspicious way, don’t hesitate to call Shomrim at (718) 774-3333 24/7

More pictures of damaged cars in the Extended Article.

F.R.E.E. Publishes Haggadah with Russian Translation in its 21St edition

The new Haggadah Shel Pesach with Russian translation is at the FREE office. The revised edition was enhanced in the following ways:

The entire volume, both Hebrew and Russian, was reset in a clear, crisp typeface. The Russian translation, while it is based on the original edition, has been amended to read more smoothly. Detailed instructions have been added for Haggadah users to follow as a guide to practice, giving the origin of the customs at every point in the Seder.

A highly interesting, comprehensive introduction has been added to explain the background of the Passover holiday, its history and laws. Included is now a letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson , who felt deeply for Russian-speaking Jews. The Rebbe accomplished much on their behalf. The Haggadah gives a practical lesson that explains the holiday’s relevance to modern times.
The first edition of this Haggadah, put out in 1974, was a ground breaker and cause for celebration. Says Rabbi Mayer Okunov, Chairman of FREE, “It was the first-ever translation of a Jewish work to be published in the modern Russian language. It was also the first publication of the FREE Publishing House.” The latter is now an established publishing house that puts out books and booklets of authentic Jewish texts and literature in modern Russian.

Haircut marks passage

Family celebrates Hasidic Jewish custom

The little boy sits patiently on the stool as one by one, his family members and friends cut off a lock of his long brown hair.

Rabbi Yitzchok Goldenberg of Chabad of Lawrenceville encourages his guests at the Jewish Community Center to stick around so they can enjoy some food and cake after the ceremony.

The Chabad Rabbi and his wife, Dina, are in a festive mood. Their boy, Mendy, has just turned 3.

In keeping with Hasidic Jewish custom, Mendy has a party, recites some Hebrew verses and gets his first haircut, a communal celebration, where every guest snips off a lock of hair.

New Shluchim to Florida

Rabbi Sholom Ber & Rivka Galperin will be moving on Shlichus to Kendall/Pinecrest Florida where they will be directing youth and programming in the chabad center. The Galperins were appointed by Rabbi Yossi Harlig Shliach to Kendall Florida.

The Galperins can be reached via email sbgalps@yahoo.com.