Beard Ban Deters Chabad Rabbis From Becoming Chaplains in Army

By most measures, Yisroel Newman, 25, and other young Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis like him are the obvious solution to the army’s severe shortage of Jewish chaplains.

These young rabbis are trained by a movement dedicated to reaching Jews wherever they may be, no matter how remote. The peripatetic military lifestyle would not be much more difficult than the postings that some recently ordained young Chabad rabbis have received in Siberia, with no more than a few thousand dollars to start a Jewish community.

Chabad Honors Champion in Quest for Sacred Texts

These are more than just words on documents,” said U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota. “There is a very powerful and special meaning that they have. That’s why I’m so devoted to the cause of returning the Schneerson documents from Russia.”

The Senator was speaking at an event honoring his leadership in the ongoing effort to regain the sacred Schneerson Collection. Senator Coleman addressed a group of 150 Chabad rabbis and students who had gathered in S. Paul’s Adath Israel Synagogue last week.

Putting On Tefillin High Up in the Sky

“The sky is the limit”, said the shliach Rabbi Anshelle Perl of Mineola, New York, as he ascended the air balloon with a couple of Chabad associates. Rabbi Perl pointed out the significance of ‘staying above’ and close to G-d and his guest, Mr. Myron Katz, agreed to put on tefillin ‘high in the sky’.

Anne Frank home inspires Sept. 11 museum

Days before the fourth anniversary of the 2001 attacks, a photographer is offering intimate images of death and love inside ground zero at a new museum that brings you nose-to-nose with the smoldering pit.

“If people want to come past the security gates and see what our world was like down in the hole, this is as close as they can come to it,” said Gary Marlon Suson, the official ground zero photographer for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the city firefighters’ main union.

Suson spent eight months at the site with recovery workers searching for the remains of the 2,749 people who died on a sunny September morning, including 343 firefighters. His time in “The Pit” comes alive at the Ground Zero Museum Workshop of photographs, videos and artifacts, opening Sept. 8.

Construction of synagogue halted as leaders cite lack of funds

STAMFORD — Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Stamford has stopped construction on a $7 million synagogue because the congregation ran out of money last year to fully build, landscape and furnish it, according to leaders in the group.

The Jewish congregation had expected to finish the building, which is shaped like an open book, this month. Backers of the project say they still hope to finish the religious center at 752-760 High Ridge Road by next year.

Neighbors, however, are frustrated, saying the site is unkempt and the entire project is poorly planned.

Leaning back in his office chair during an interview, Rabbi Yisrael Deren sighed and explained “the situation was one where we had the option of either borrowing more money to go ahead and complete it or slowing the construction down considerably and raising the money.”

Jewish Values, Halacha and Secular Law are Combined in Jewish Mediation (Beis Din) Service

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, a prominent figure in Jewish advocacy and the Chair of Jewish Law and Ethics at Loyola Law School, has joined with Michael Lapin, a well-known attorney, civic leader and member of the Jewish community in Orange County, to bring to the field of alternative dispute resolution a different approach — that of underscoring mediation with the perspectives of Jewish law and values. They have formed Jewish Mediation Service to serve the southern California community.

City Questions Circumcision Ritual After Baby Dies

The city’s intervention has angered many Orthodox leaders, and the issue has left the city struggling to balance its mandate to protect public health with the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

ANTI-SEMETIC GRAFITTI IN KINGSTON AVE SUBWAY STATION

Crown Heights residents are enraged by racist, anti-Semitic graffiti that was found scrawled on support columns in the Kingston Ave subway station.

The graffiti was first noticed Monday morning by a straphanger and when he saw it still there on Tuesday morning went ahead and made SHMAIS.com and the MTA aware of it.

“Death to the racist Jews!”, “Hitler had the right idea re the Jews just not enough time to get it right!” and “Al Qaeda has the right idea how to deal with Bush & Company” were some of the grafitti found scrawled on the support columns on the lower level of the station.

In an e-mail response to the straphanger, Melissa Glasgow of MTA responded in part: We sincerely regret the conditions you observed. Please note that all New York City Transit subway cars and stations are checked daily to ensure proper conditions, and any graffiti that is observed is removed in a timely manner as part of our regular cleaning cycles. In addition, uniformed and undercover officers from the New York City Police Department’s Transit Bureau patrol our facilities at all times to thwart illegal activity, including graffiti vandalism. Please be assured that your complaint has been referred to supervision in the appropriate operating departments for their review and appropriate corrective action. They will take this opportunity to inspect the location you mentioned and ensure a clean and proper environment for our customers and area residents.

Sium and Hachnosas Sefer Torah in Memory of the Shmueli Sisters, ob’m

A Sium and Hachnosas Sefer Torah will be held today (Thursday) in memory of the sisters Sterna Esther and Chaya Mushka Shmueli (aged 12 -14) who had tragically drowned in a pool in Virginia last year. The procession will start from the home of the Shmueli family on 722 Montgomery St. between Kingston and Albany and head towards 770 at 5:00pm.

Chabad Makes Major Inroads at Universities

Toward the end of the spring semester this past May, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and about a dozen students celebrated a major victory at Tufts University. After nearly two years of vying for recognition as an official student group at the liberal arts college in Medford, Mass., Tufts’s student government finally recognized Chabad.

Rabbi Tzvi Backman and his wife, Chanie, will be Chabad’s campus emissaries, or shlichim, at Tufts, and they’re part of a rapidly growing group. Since 2001, nearly 30 new “Chabad houses” have opened on college campuses across the country, with an additional 10 slated for the upcoming school year.

Congregation Suspends Rabbi in Drug Arrest

The congregation’s leaders were like disappointed parents. Earlier this month, their widely popular rabbi had been charged with possessing marijuana and driving while his ability was impaired by drugs, both misdemeanors. Now, the board of trustees at Congregation Sons of Israel had to decide on the proper punishment.

In the end, after a meeting that began on Tuesday night and lasted until 2 a.m. on Wednesday, they decided that the rabbi, Steven C. Kane, 50, should receive a 30-day paid suspension.

Yeshiva bochur killed in stabbing in Old City Jerusalem

A young British yeshiva student was killed last night after a Palestinian man stabbed him with a 30-centimeter kitchen knife in the Old City of Jerusalem, close to the Jaffa Gate, police sources said.

His companion, a fellow student from the United States, was moderately wounded. The two victims, both in their twenties, had been studying at an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva in the Old City.

After the attack, the American managed to reach a police station some 200 meters away and led police to his critically injured friend at the site of the stabbing.

New Cameras to Watch Over Our Subway System

Officials unveiled the high-tech future of transit security in New York City yesterday: an ambitious plan to saturate the subways with 1,000 video cameras and 3,000 motion sensors and to enable cellphone service in 277 underground stations – but not in moving trains – for the first time.

Moving quickly after the subway and bus bombings in London last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded a three-year, $212 million contract to a group of contractors led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation, which is best known for making military hardware like fighter planes, missiles and antitank systems.

UN commends Israel on Gaza pullout

In a move described by the United Nations as a “rare gesture” to Israel, the UN Security Council issued a special press statement yesterday commending Israel on its implementation of the disengagement plan in Gaza and the northern West Bank. However, the statement also emphasizes the centrality of the road map and the expected pullout from Gaza, and the central role of the Quartet in the process.

The statement, signed by the President of the Security Council, Kenzo Oshima of Japan, says that “the members of the Security Council welcome the beginning of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank, and they commend the ongoing implementation of this process.”

Israel Confirms Plan to Seize West Bank Land
for Barrier

Israeli officials confirmed Wednesday that the government had issued orders to seize West Bank land needed to extend the separation barrier around the largest Jewish settlement, Maale Adumim, and link it up to Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership said the developments confirmed its fears that Israel would try to use the Gaza withdrawal, and the international good will it has generated, to consolidate its hold on the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. Israel evacuated the last of nearly 9,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza on Monday, and cleared out two West Bank settlements on Tuesday.

ANOTHER BIASED ATTACK – THIS TIME BY THE NYPD

At 10:30pm Tuesday night Shomrim were called to respond to an assault on Jewish boys on Eastern Parkway and New York Ave. when Shomrim arrived on the scene, they found there to be approximately 10 to 12 police cars parked there on the corner.

At 10:15, three Jewish teenagers walked into a grocery on the corner of New York Ave. to buy some drinks. They were then mugged at knife point but to the mugger’s regret, these boys were not going to let the mugger get away with it. The Jewish teens then chased the mugger and they both got into a fist fight. “He was too scared to use his knife, he was a wimp!” said one of the Jewish victims later after the incident. One of the three boys was arrested, and taken to the 71st pct. where he collapsed and lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital in handcuffs with police escort, in Hatzalah’s ambulance.

The Jewish community along with Crown Heights Shomrim are in an outrage. The police say that when they arrived on the scene they saw the Jewish teen punching the black kid, and that is why they arrested him. Shomrim were at the police station for hours after the incident arguing with the captain of the 71st. “the kid was mugged, and you arrest him?!” -Shomrim member. Another Shomrim member said, “you call [911] for blacks with knifes assaulting Jews and the police take their time, you call for Jews with knifes assaulting a black kid and look what happens-there were 15 [cop] cars on scene in seconds!!”

Members of the CHJCC were also at the 71st trying to get the kid out.

So far, it seems he will be released without further problems but we are still holding our breath.

Keep it locked to this website as we stay on top of this sad story of racism, violence, and hateful crime.

Bush Praises Sharon for Pullout

BOISE, Idaho – President Bush praised Prime Minister Sharon on Tuesday for his “courageous decision” to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

“This is step one in the development of a democracy,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference here, adding that his administration would work with the Palestinians to help them consolidate their security forces in the coming weeks.

“It turns out that the post-Arafat regime is one of different factions and different security forces that were really in place to kind of maintain his power, but not necessarily to protect the overall security of the Palestinian people,” Mr. Bush said. “It’s in the interest to consolidate the security forces, so that the government has got a vehicle and a group of folks by which to help enforce order.”

Mr. Bush said the Palestinian government would have to build confidence that it would serve its people better and that a peaceful Palestinian state could emerge.