Jews Moving to Into Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria

Despite the disengagement that saw 10,000 Jews uprooted from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria, the flow of Jews into Judea and Samaria has accelerated to record levels in recent months.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), new home purchases in Judea and Samaria have surged by 38% from January to June 2005, as compared to the same period last year. The rate was even higher in Jerusalem, an area that was battered by terrorist attacks since the start of the Oslo war in September 2000, with sales of new homes rising by 52.5%.

Israel’s real estate sector was hard hit by the Oslo war which sent the economy into a tailspin. But unlike the general economy, the real estate market has only recently begun to recover from the impact of that war.

The Crown Heights Vandalism Only Gets Worse

Motzoai Shabbos at around 9:30pm a large group of black 17-18 year olds were walking on Eastern Pkwy. Screaming racial slurs at passing Bocurim and when they reached Eastern Pkwy. and Albany Ave. one of the group picked up a stone and lobed it into a window of a Jewish home shattering the window.

Shomrim was called and immediately located the group of racist vandals which then alerted the police and had one of the group arrested.

If you see something say something call Shomrim at (718) 774-3333 24/7

Cost of High Holy Day services raises ire

When their religious new year begins at sundown Monday, Jews across the world will begin a 10-day period of spiritual reflection to atone for their wrongdoing and reconcile with God. For many, holiday worship also will have an impact on their wallets.

Synagogues often charge hundreds of dollars for tickets to attend services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, called the High Holy Days because they are among the most sacred in the Jewish calendar.

The expense of participating has become a simmering issue within the Jewish community, with leaders trying to balance their desire to strengthen observance with the need to cover costs. There also is a fear that high-priced tickets create a disincentive for Jews who don’t belong to a synagogue.

“The holidays are a time for people to connect. When you distract it with money, it chases people away,” said Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman, whose Hasidic Chabad Intown congregation has rented out an Atlanta hotel to offer free services to worshippers.

Jewish center has a new home

Litchfield’s Jewish Community Center has offered countless programs, ranging from craft workshops to make menorahs or sand art to musical concerts and summer camps.

Now the center has bigger plans at its new location in the Village Green.

Located behind the Blockbuster video store, the Liorah Greenberg Jewish Community Center is home to Chabad Lubavitch, a non-membership organization created to promote the Jewish culture. The community center in Litchfield serves as the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Northwest Connecticut.

“The best thing for us is the outreach,” said Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach, who runs the center. “We’re glad we have a home on Northwest Connecticut.”

Baltimore Chabad Expands Again

Chabad Jewish Center of Central Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University has bought a mansion in Guilford. Settlement on the circa-1919 house, one of the original Guilford residences, was held last Monday, Sept. 26, and Rabbi Zev Gopin, the Hopkins Chabad rabbi, said he and his family are in the process of moving in.

“It’s a beautiful, magnificent Guilford estate,” said Rabbi Gopin, “and there are boxes everywhere.”

Nonetheless, he and his wife, Hannah, are hosting a Rosh Hashanah dinner there as the house’s inaugural event after the Chabad sponsored services at The Inn at The Colonnade. The rabbi said that invitations have been issued to the Jewish residents who live in the high-rise buildings on Charles Street.

New Chabad Center for Westford area

The newly established Chabad Center for Nashoba Valley, at 26 Tadmuck Road, has slated its first High Holiday services, following a Sept. 18 open house for the new center.

A kosher barbeque, as well as communal prayer, accompanied the official dedication of Chabad House, including the ceremonial affixing of its new Mezuzah. With leadership by Rabbi Zalman Gurkow and his wife, Malkie, Chabad provides support for the Jewish community of Westford and greater Lowell.

To All CH Resdients & Especially Parents: BEWARE!

Lately there has been a strange man who drives around in an old red convertible, on the lookout for children. He drives around looking for any young teens or children to hassle, and then tries to get them in his car either with promises of allowing them to drive his car or other rewards. One teen has reported being followed around the neighborhood and even after the teen went into a house, he waited for the said teen outside the residence. Please be very careful with this individual. It is unknown whether he is armed and or dangerous or not. Don’t approach him yourself if you want to give him a piece of your mind. Call Shomrim at (718) 773-4444.

More pictures of him and his car in the extended article.

Bizarre Traffic Stop

Friday night as Crown Heights residents were on their way home from davening in 770 got a display of one of the most bizarre traffic stops. A black female motorist tried to turn up into Kingston Ave. from President St. which is blocked off due to the amount of people going home. When the woman stubbornly tried to go trough the barricade a police officer walked up to her car and asked her for her license and registration she refused to even open her window.

When she did open her window a little bit the cop grabbed onto the window and the woman tried to drive off while the cop was holding on. She drove for about 100ft and stopped.

The police officer was taken to a local hospital for a checkup and the woman was arrested.

PBA Claims It Has Evidence NYPD Is Pushing Ticket Quotas

Look what I found

May 15, 2003 — The head of the police union says he has evidence the NYPD is pressuring officers to write more tickets, a charge top Police Department officials deny.

NY1’s Rebecca Spitz filed the following story:

Even when they’ve sat there so long they’re almost covered up, they’re impossible to miss: Parking tickets.

They’re the bane of every driver’s existence, and these days, it seems they’re everywhere.

Police officers say they’re writing more than ever as the city tries to plug the budget gap. The police union charges supervisors are putting officers under the gun.

The Ticket Blitz – My Rant

After speaking to some people about the recent ticket blitz in Crown Heights, someone told me that there was a quota of 100 tickets that the police had to meet and the 770 intersection. While someone else with influential connections to the police dept. claims he has had the officers camping out in front of 770 dismissed from that location.

But this cant be right, people were being pulled over all over the neighborhood not just in front of 770. And for some strange reason most of the “violators” were Frum Jew’s.

And I have heard that the reason there was a quota on that intersection is that there is a lot of accidents there. Now I ask can someone please tell me if they remember a serious accident there in recent history?! Well I can tell you this much if you look at this Sunday’s news you will see a MAJOR accident with INJURIES down at the Troy Ave. and Empire Blvd. intersection, then go 2 more weeks back and you will see another serious accident that took the police THIRTY MINUTES to respond to and FDNY took 15 minutes while there was an injured motorist lying on the street waiting for help.

I can go on and on about “preferential treatment” that the black’s are claiming we are getting over them. Is this one of them? Or is it the reverse?

Dear friends, readers of Crownheights.info – A Letter From A Reader

What are your plans for Sukkos?

I remember as child, we just made havdala in the Sukkah after the first days of Sukkos and we were preparing to go to Simchas Beis Hasho’eva. Around the corner from my home there was banging and zetzing, don’t ask what. There was a group of bochurim on the back of a Barn Pick-up truck, with hammers and nails in hand, all at once trying to bang together a Sukkah.

Board, I definitely was at the time, otherwise would never have paid any attention to them. So I went out to go see what was going on. The sight, the way I described it earlier, just cracked me up. Although I’m no maven at building, a bit of common sense I think I can brag about and so I offered them a hand and together we put together a Sukkah.

Burglar on a Fire Escape

Earlier this week Shomrim responded to a call from a hysterical woman who was home alone in her apartment with her baby when she heard noise coming from the fire escape, there was a man that had opened the window and was trying to get into the house.

Shomrim’s response was amazingly swift, they had reached the scene faster then the woman had managed to go to her relative downstairs. When they arrived the perp had already ran, and Shomrim started canvassing the area for this burglar and when the Police showed up on scene they joined in the search which yielded no results.

Shomrim urges everyone to make sure that the windows around the house are secured tightly, an in case of an emergency please call the Shomrim Hotline at (718) 774-3333 24/7

Holy Ground At The Pentagon

For the man who sponsored the first Torah for the Pentagon, it was a way to say thanks to this country.

“There is no better way for Jews to express their gratitude to America than to place a Torah in the Pentagon, which has preserved our freedom,” said Hank Sopher, a prominent New York real estate magnate and owner of Quik Park garages.

Sopher sponsored the writing of the Pentagon Torah, a first for the home of the U.S. military establishment.

Sholom Lipskar, a Lubavitch rabbi from Bal Harbour, Fla., and founding chairman of the Aleph Institute, presided over Monday’s Torah dedication in the Pentagon chapel. The scroll was placed in an ornate Israeli-built ark whose steel door is secured by a safe lock.

Antidote to Rita: Umbrella of Kindness

After Hurricane Rita’s winds killed the electricity at Rabbi Lazer and Rochel Lazaroff’s Houston home on Friday night, the only other drama came when a few paper napkins drifted into the Shabbat candle flames. It could have been worse, much, much worse.

With winds projected to hit at well over 100 miles per hour, the eyes of the nation were upon Hurricane Rita to see–in the aftermath of Katrina–the scale of human tragedy that would follow. Wary of suffering a horrific blow, Houstonites jammed highways looking for a way out, but not Chabad of Houston.

‘Oy Vey’ Traffic Sign Goes Up in Brooklyn

“Leaving Brooklyn? ‘Oy vey!'” That’s what motorists now see as they cross the Williamburg Bridge into Manhattan. The huge sign, affixed to a cross beam of the bridge high above the bustling traffic, is a sweet victory for Marty Markowitz, president of the borough, home to a large Jewish population.

When Markowitz first approached the Department of Transportation about the sign in January 2004, he was rebuffed because the agency felt it would be distracting to motorists.

After “revisiting” the issue, the DOT allowed the sign to go up two weeks ago, Markowitz said Wednesday. “I’m thrilled.”

More Tires Slashed In Crown Heights

On the corner of Crown St. and Kingston Ave. Shomrim received a call that there were tires slashed on cars parked close to the intersection.

There were a total of 4 tires slashed on 4 cars 3 of which belonged to Jewish residents, all of which didn’t care to file police reports regarding this incident. The responding Shomrim member encouraged the victims to file the reports becoase a crime that is not reported is not a crime.

Should you be a victim of any type of crime please call Shomrim at (718) 744-3333 and the police and file the reports.

Smart Jews

A reported link between Ashkenazi intelligence genes and susceptibility to genetic disorders is clearly mixed news for the descendants of Eastern European Jews. It may come as little surprise, then, that reactions to a new study linking the two are a mixed bag as well. After all, if what the University of Utah researchers say is true, some Jewish mothers may just have had their dreams for brilliant children turned to nightmares.

Beyond that, it may also mean that Ashkenazim have, albeit unwillingly, “been part of an accidental experiment in eugenics,” as The Economist magazine put it in a recent article.: “It has brought them some advantages. But, like the deliberate eugenics experiments of the 20th century, it also has exacted a terrible price.”

The mere mention of eugenics – which refers to a movement to improve humankind by controlling genetic factors through mating – is enough to ring bells that many Jews would rather not hear 60 years after the Allied defeat of the Nazis.