Jewish women find togetherness, illumination

The ladies came one by one to Sharon Mizrahi’s Cape Coral home Wednesday night. They chatted about the house and decorating, traffic and the holidays. They talked about Ohio State football with Mizrahi’s daughter, Tracey, who was home for the semester break.

Then, while the pool fountain bubbled pleasantly on the other side of the open French doors, they settled comfortably onto upholstered sofas and got down to business.

Hanukkah is a symbol, a message of the triumph of freedom over aggression, of light over darkness, said Rivky Labkowski, a petite 24-year-old.

Today, that darkness includes the “insidious erosion of time-honored values and principles that are the foundation of any decent society,” she told the members of the Jewish Women’s Circle of Chabad of Cape Coral.

Olive oil tells the story of Hanukkah

“You guys are the Maccabees of today,” Michael Albukerk told his enthralled audience, “the ones who will keep Judaism alive.”

Albukerk and Schneer Friedman of Tzivos Hashem arrived at Temple Emanu-El on Wednesday with baskets of olives, lots of hammers and wooden pegs, test tubes, an olive press, cotton balls and a centrifuge to teach students in the synagogue’s Hebrew School a thing or two — or 100, to be more exact — about Hanukkah.

At the end, there was a quiz (a hard one!) and prizes, and everyone took home a menorah they had made themselves.

Tzivos Hashem is an organization of Chabad Lubavitch in Brooklyn that sends teams to Hebrew schools, day schools, even the occasional public school, to lead holiday-themed workshops on everything from shofars to lulavs. It was olive oil that brought them to Port Richmond this week.

Chabad Menorahs Gain Acceptance

Ten years ago, the American Jewish Congress sued the city of Beverly Hills, Calif., to block the local Chabad house from erecting a 27-foot menorah in a public park near City Hall.

Displaying the menorah — a Jewish religious symbol — on public property, the AJCongress argued, was unconstitutional.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the city, allowing Chabad to put up the large candelabra. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed the decision.

Latke Larry Cooks Up Dough for Kids

For a second or two, it seems like the cloth doll is going to leap from the table to the stove and start wielding a spatula.

Or maybe it’s just that Latke Larry’s creator, Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann, head of the Ohio State University Chabad House in Columbus, is so excited about the singing, dancing Chanukah action figure and how it will benefit children with special needs that his enthusiasm seems capable of casting a spell.

“How can you resist Latke Larry? He’s all about transforming the ‘oy’ of Judaism to ‘joy,'” says the rabbi, fidgeting in his chair as he activates the doll’s song.

Subways & Buses Running, No Strike

Breaking News: Transport Workers Union President Roger Toussaint announced at 7:15 a.m. press conference that a series of strikes will begin.

The New York City transit union called for a partial strike against private bus companies but says it will continue negotiating.

The Transport Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ended their talks at about 4:30 a.m. EST. An announcement at union headquarters is expected shortly.

New York City subways and buses are rolling Friday after a marathon bargaining session that at least temporarily put on hold the threat of a strike.

The Air Traffic Controllers’ Strike

In event of the current looming strike that threatens our transit system and entire city, I thought it would be appropriate to bring a story from the past.

On August 3, 1981 nearly 13,000 of the 17,500 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) walked off the job, hoping to disrupt the nation’s transportation system to the extent that the federal government would accede to its demands for higher wages, a shorter work week, and better retirement benefits. At a press conference in the White House Rose Garden that same day, President Reagan responded with a stern ultimatum: The strikers were to return to work within 48 hours or face termination. As federal employees the controllers were violating the no-strike clause of their employment contracts. In 1955 Congress had made such strikes a crime punishable by a fine or one year of incarceration — a law upheld by the Supreme Court in 1971. Nevertheless, 22 unauthorized strikes had occurred in recent years — by postal workers, Government Printing Office and Library of Congress employees, and by air traffic controllers who staged “sick-outs” in 1969 and 1970.

Update on the looming Subway Strike

For the time being there is no Transit strike, but the possibility that there may be one is still a possibility. MTA officials and Labor Union officials stayed at the table till well passed the 12:00am dead line, they were there till 4:30am and an announcement on what is going on is scheduled for 6:00am.

If there were to be a strike, it would severely disrupt the ability for all those that go out on Mivtzoim every Friday, since the police are going to enact a rule that if there were to be a strike, the only way to get into a city would be in a car with 4 or more people. And due to the fact that Shabbos comes in very early, walking isn’t really a practical option.

For the time being (5:30am) all the buses and trains are still running properly.

UPDATE: The union leader just announced that there will be a series of strikes starting with private bus lines. This is a very cryptic message but what I think we can safely assume that all buses and trains will be running properly.

So CBS Says Bloomberg Attended A “Hassidic Dinner”

First you need to watch this Newscast.

Now doesn’t the report give you that empty feeling, like a whole other big thing has just been ignored?

Now I can understand the reporter was there just for the mayor and the whole transit strike threat that’s going on, but to just dismiss the event as a “Hassidic Dinner” c’mon that’s just not right. I mean the Israeli ambassador to the UN and the Chief Rabbi of Israel among many other dignitaries were present.

And even further, this was NOT a “Hassidic Dinner” this was a gathering of various influential Jewish business men that support their fellow Jews around the world, why not give such a beautiful organization a little recognition?

Please post your comments and thoughts regarding this piece of reporting. If you feel the need to go ahead and email the reporter Click Here and then select “Kramer, Marcia” and speak your mind. (note: whatever you email her post it in the comments as well.)

Salita’s perfect record on line in NYC fight

The top two Jewish fighters in the world hope to give fans an early Hannukah present this weekend.

As Jews worldwide begin their preparations for the holiday, a modern day Maccabee will put his perfect record on the line. When Dmitriy “The Star of David” Salita enters the ring at the Manhattan Center in New York City on Thursday, it could mean a festival of lights out for his opponent “Red Hot” Robert Frankel.

Frankel, a native of Denver, Colorado, is 12-4 with 1 KO. Salita, an Orthodox Russian Jew from Brooklyn, NY, is undefeated with a record of 23-0 with 14 KOs.

Caution: Icy Roads and Side Walks

The forecast for tonight was rain and below freezing temperatures and it was very accurate. Roads and highways froze over and caused well over 40 accidents all across the tri-state area.

Friday day the temperature is supposed to hit a good high which should melt most of the ice away, but we urge you to take extra caution when going out regardless. This doesn’t only apply to driving, it applies to walking too, be extra cautious on the sidewalks due to the fact that there can be black ice that can cause you to slip and C”V get hurt.

We would like to take this opportunity to ask residents to please make sure to clean the ice (scrape and salt) being that if someone slips in front of your house its your fault, not to mention the possible fines you can get, and it is just a “Menshlich” thing to do.

Chabad Plans to Light 11,000 Public Menorahs

The Chabad Lubavitch organization plans to light more than 11,000 public menorahs throughout the world during the festival of Chanukah, which starts Sunday night, December 25.

Chabad leaders said funding for its activities have come from all sectors of the Jewish community over the past decade as they have begun to accept Chabad as important to Jewry, the New York Jewish Week reported.

Non-orthodox Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz recently said at a Chabad dinner that he once was skeptical of its abilities. “My idea was: Chabad at Harvard? Impossible. How could that ever happen? Kids come to Harvard to rebel against their parents, to rebel against religion, to look for other ways, to look for more liberal attitudes.” He said that Chabad has been extremely successful in becoming a meeting center for Jews at Harvard.

1928: Marriage

In December of 1928, the Rebbe’s marriage to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, daughter of the then Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, was held in Warsaw, Poland.

By then, word of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak’s heroic struggle on behalf of Soviet Jewry was world renowned, and the high regard in which he was held was evidenced by the numerous rabbis, Rebbes and lay leaders of European Jewry, and the thousands of people from all walks of life, who honored him with their presence at his daughter’s wedding.

At the beginning of the wedding, the Rebbetzin’s father announced:

The Rebbes Wedding Invitation

In honor of Yud Daled Kislev, the anniversary of the Rebbe’s wedding, CrownHeights.info is proud to present to all our readers a unique and rare find, an invitation to the Rebbe’s wedding. This particular one is inviting the Bochurim of Yeshivas Toras Emes, Yerushalayim.

Maplewood expected to approve proposal for Shabbat boundary

The Maplewood Township Committee will vote on a proposal Dec. 20 on whether to allow a group representing two Orthodox synagogues to erect an eruv in the community.

There has been no opposition to the proposal to erect the eruv, a largely symbolic Shabbat boundary, and all involved expect the proposal to pass.

Steve Bauml, president of Congregation Beth Ephraim-Maplewood Jewish Center, spearheaded a six-person committee that presented the issue at a township committee meeting on Dec. 6. The committee included members of Beth Ephraim and of Maplewood’s other Orthodox synagogue, Congregation Ahavath Zion. The rabbis of both synagogues are associated with Chabad-Lubavitch, the hasidic outreach movement.

The Festival of Slights?

Happy holidays?

Apparently not for the Town of Huntington where, barring an 11th-hour resolution, a U.S. District Court judge in Central Islip will be asked tonight to decide the fate of a holiday display on the Village Green on Park Avenue and Route 25A.

This after a local lawyer who sued the town agreed to a court-brokered compromise Friday hours before the annual Xmas tree lighting ceremonies apparently had a change of heart over the weekend, making new demands yesterday.

Tuning Out Terror

Florida professor’s trial and acquittal generated little national coverage despite its consequences.

Perhaps no one since Adolph Eichmann has been charged with complicity in more Jewish murders than Sami Al-Arian, the Florida professor affiliated with Islamic Jihad.

The difference between Eichmann and Al-Arian is that in 1962, the year the Nazi was hanged for his crimes against humanity, the American public and the Jewish public cared. In 2005, with the lack of media coverage, maybe they weren’t given an opportunity to care.