Carnival attendees celebrate Purim

More than 100 people got a jump start on their Purim festivities Sunday during a carnival at Congregation Agudas Achim.

Groups of youngsters could be seen running around the synagogue during the first Purim Carnival, which was sponsored by Chabad Lubavitch of Ulster County. The event featured games, food and a petting zoo.

“I went to the petting zoo and rode a pony,” 8-year-old Jordana Maidenbaum said. “I really liked getting my face painted. My favorite was when I gave my mom a candygram.”

First Torah Comes to Hollywood

For thousands of years, the Torah has been an important part of the spirituality of the Jewish culture. According to the online website Wikipedia, Torah is a Hebrew word meaning “teaching,” “instruction,” or “law.” It is the central and most important document of Judaism revered by Jews through the ages. It is also called the Law of Moses (Torat Moshe). Torah primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh–the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, but the term is sometimes also used in the general sense to also include both of Judaism’s written law and oral law, encompassing the entire spectrum of authoritative Jewish religious teachings throughout history. Those five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Trio Of Temples Targeted In Bomb Threat

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Weston, Florida – The all clear has been given at three Weston synagogues following bomb threats at each temple.

The BSO is investigating the threats, called in by an unidentified woman, just after 9:00 a.m. this morning.

The caller stated there were bombs at Temple Chabad Lubavitch, 18501 Tequest Trace Park Lane, Temple B’Nai Aviv, 1410 Indian Trace, and Temple Dor Dorim, 2360 Glades Circle.

A Silver Anniversary for Chabad of Palo Alto

Back in September, Phil Deutsch began thinking about Rabbi Yosef and Dena Levin’s 25th anniversary as Chabad representatives in Palo Alto, CA, which would coincide with the rabbi’s fiftieth birthday. The approaching milestone anniversary came up in conversation, and Deutsch told the rabbi, “I think it is time someone did something for you – special.”

At first, Rabbi Levin said no. “I pushed him,” Deutsch recalled. Finally, the Levins gave in. On one condition: the event was not to be in their honor, but a celebration of the entire Jewish community. Turns out there was much to celebrate.

No anti-Semitism in Jew’s death, Uzbekistan says

The death of a prominent member of Tashkent’s Jewish community last week was strictly accidental and it was “dangerous” to suggest that it was motivated by anti-Semitism, religious authorities said.

“Any attempt to give this tragic accident a political slant is dangerous,” Shoazim Minovarov, chairman of the Uzbek government’s religious affairs committee, told reporters.

His comments came after Avraham Hakohen Yagudayev, 33, died Saturday in hospital of injuries sustained after apparently being hit by a car whose driver fled the scene.

Synagogue Attack Accused Pleads Innocence, Rails at Court

MOSCOW, Russia – A man accused of a knife-wielding attack on a central Moscow synagogue pleaded not guilty Tuesday in an outspoken attack on the Russian judicial system.

“The Criminal Code has been written by Jews and the Jewish mafia, therefore, I plead not guilty,” Alexander Koptsev told the Moscow City Court.

On January 11, 2006, Koptsev, 20, allegedly stabbed nine people in the synagogue with a hunting knife that he had taken from his father.

Their religious identities flexible, Slovakian Jews show up for Games

BANKSA BYSTRICA, Slovakia, — A young Chabad volunteer from New York has spent five months in Slovakia teaching the basics of Judaism in Bratislava.

Informed that there’s also a Jewish community of some 60 people in Banksa Bystrica, a picturesque hamlet three hours west of the capital, she’s puzzled.

“I didn’t know anything about other Jewish communities. Are they real Jews?” she asks.

Her question epitomizes the divide between some religious Jews in the West and their neighbors in eastern Europe, who often are less observant.

Man Kidnapped From Synagogue Escapes From Trunk

A really bizarre botched robbery incident!

Click Here for a Newscast of this incident.

A 75-year-old man was robbed and kidnapped Thursday while opening a Long Island synagogue for morning prayers, Nassau County police said.

The man was stuffed into the trunk of his car for about an hour until he was able to escape, police said.

The incident began at 5:50 a.m., when the man was preparing the Young Israel Synagogue in North Woodmere for the morning service, police said.

Police said the two masked robbers with guns demanded money from the man, who was not identified. The man told them he had no money, so they took his car and ATM card and put him in the trunk of the car.

The man said the robbers drove around for about an hour, making a couple of stops.

When the car stopped and the man didn’t hear voices in the car anymore, he was able to pry open the trunk, escape and call police.

Architect for New York’s Javits Center under fire

American Jewish leaders welcomed the decision by British architect Richard Rogers to resign his membership in a professional organization that has called for the boycott of Israel’s construction industry. However New York politicians had questions for Lord Richard Rogers, in light of the state contract awarded him on September 29 to design a $1.7 billion project that would almost double the size of Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Rogers, whose previous commissions have included the headquarters of Lloyd’s of London, the European Court of Human Rights, the Pompidou Center and the Millennium Dome, hosted the inaugural meeting of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP) at his London offices on February 2.

The newly formed association of architects, planners and engineers denounced professional colleagues who worked on Israeli government projects in Judea and Samaria as “complicit in social, political and economic oppression,” and violating “their professional code of ethics.”

Bochur Arrested For Drunk & Disorderly Conduct in Public

At around 2:00am [Sunday Morning] an Israeli Bochur was on his way from 770 to the dormitory at 1414 President when a patrolling police officer noticed the Boucher on Kingston and Union not walking straight (all over the place) and approached him, the Boucher immediately turned violent and attempted to fight off the police officer.

A total of 8 police officers arrived on scene immediately and managed to subdue him, while placing him in the police car the Bochur all of a sudden went violent again causing the officers to need to subdue him once more. Arriving at the Precinct the Bochur could no longer stand on his own (being so severely intoxicated).

They say be careful what you wish for, the added patrols add more vigilance to the police force, so be sensible and most importantly be safe.

Torture and Death of Jew Deepen Fears in France

Two strips of red-and-white police tape bar the entrance to the low-ceilinged pump room where a young Jewish man, Ilan Halimi, spent the last weeks of his life, tormented and tortured by his captors and eventually splashed with acid in an attempt to erase any traces of their DNA.

The floor of the concrete room, in the cellar of 4, rue Serge-Prokofiev, is bare except for a few packets of rat poison, a slowly drying wet mark and a dozen small circles drawn and numbered in white chalk, presumably marking the spots where the police retrieved evidence of Mr. Halimi’s ordeal.

TONIGHT! Avraham Fried in Soul II Soul

At 8:15 Tonight at the Brooklyn School of Music & Theater located on Classon Ave. between Union St. & President St. will be the 4th annual Soul II Soul Concert Organized by the Chasdei Zahavi Foundation, an organization the benefits the needs and education of children with special needs of Crown Heights.

The rout to the concert along Eastern Parkway will have an added Police presence and Shomrim Units patrolling for the safety of residents that will be attending.

Those of you that got your tickets already, well lucky you. Very few tickets are still available and can be purchased at the gate (at $50 a seat only).

Parking is available at the museum parking lot for $6 or you can try find parking on the street. And you can take the 3 train towards Manhattan and get off the Eastern Parkway – Brooklyn Museum stop and walk to the school.

Synagogue sues city over closed meeting

Hollywood city commissioners plotted a vote behind closed doors in 2004 to avoid public input and debate over the controversial issue of ousting a synagogue from a residential neighborhood, according to a lawsuit filed Friday by the synagogue’s lawyer.

The commission then took a formal vote to sue the Chabad Lubavitch at the end of a city commission meeting with almost no debate and zero public input.

“The City Commission `pre-agreed’ to file suit against [the Hollywood Community Synagogue] notwithstanding the requirement that a decision of that kind must be made in public following open debate and discussion,” the synagogue’s lawyer, Franklin Zemel, wrote in the civil suit.