Jewish academy in Palm Desert vandalized

A Jewish academy in Palm Desert was vandalized Monday. Officials described it as a hate crime.

The back and west sides of the Torah Academy on Santa Rosa Way were defaced by swastikas, cartoon characters and the word “trouble,” according to Assistant Police Chief Lt. Steve Thetford.

Riverside County Sheriff’s forensic technicians collected several items from the scene and have several leads, Thetford said.

Ukrainian party seeks action against Jews

The Ukrainian Nationalist Party has called for a criminal investigation into “judo-fascists.”

The party was founded earlier this year and recently accused Jews of being behind the July 7 London subway bombings.

Interfax News Agency reported that in an open letter to President Viktor Yushchenko the party called for an investigation into the activities of several Hassidic rabbis. It accused them of disseminating “Judeo-Nazi teachings” in its schools and indoctrinating children with a “misanthropic religious doctrine.”

Churches gang up on Israel

The Presbyterian Church USA has adopted get-tough policies toward Israel ostensibly designed to force peace with the Palestinians, but they are more likely to sabotage peace than to advance it.

The church has threatened four U.S. companies that if they don’t stop doing business with Israel, the church will divest the stock it holds in them. The companies provide heavy construction machinery, helicopters and communications equipment, all of which, the Presbyterians contend, can be, and sometimes is, used in supporting the occupation of Palestinian territories.

No group holds patent on terrorism

In resigning Sunday, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he feared Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would leave the area “a base of Islamic terror.” His words came just days after a rampage by a Jewish army deserter brought to the fore another issue that has received relatively scant attention – Jewish extremism.

Thursday evening, 19-year-old Eden Natan-Zada, a right-wing extremist who had been AWOL for months, shot and killed four Israeli Arabs on a bus in northern Israel before being beaten to death by an angry crowd.

Crown Heights Resident Jailed in Israel

Three Right-Wing Radicals Jailed
Defense minister signs adminstration detention order for three Kach members suspected of anti-Arab violence; Kach spokesman: ‘Witch hunt has begun’

Click here to watch a part of the funeral

Following harsh criticism following last week’s shooting attack in Shfaram, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz took action Sunday and ordered the administrative detention of three extreme right-wing activists.

Two were arrested Sunday during the funeral procession of Shfaram terrorist Eden Natan Zada, and the third detained on his way to visit Zada’s family.

The order calls for two months in jail, but could be extended.

The trio are Kach members Efraim Hirshkovitz, 22, of Jerusalem; Gilad Shochat, 19, of the Maon outpost south of Hebron, and 18-year-old Saadia Hirshkop, a U.S. citizen who currently lives in Kfar Chabad.

Shochat’s father, Tiran Polack, is a veteran far-right activist.

According to the charge sheet signed by Mofaz, the trio is charged with violent behavior against Arabs. They are also believed to be dangerous.

Senator Lieberman at Chabad of Aspen

SNS has learned that Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut spent this past Shabbos in Aspen, Colorado where Rabbi & Mrs. Mendel Mintz are the Shluchim.

The Senator, who is currently in the year of mourning, following the recent passing of his dear mother Marcia, davened all the Tefillos @ Chabad and recited mourners Kaddish.

After davening on Shabbos day, the Senator addressed the crowd for about 10 minutes touching on his connection with the Rebbe and Chabad and remarking that it was only because of Chabad’s presence in Aspen and that fact that they had a Minyan that he was able to make the trip.

Police Investigate New Hate Crimes

NEW YORK, NY, August 08, 2005 — Police are investigating another bias attack in the city.

A 29-year-old black man was beaten and robbed in Brooklyn Sunday by a group of whites armed with bats and pipes. Police are labeling it a bias crime.

Police said the victim was assaulted around 1:30 in the morning by a group of six to eight men who were yelling racial slurs. The attackers fled when two passers-by stopped their car and got out.

The man is in serious but stable condition at Brookdale Hospital. Two months ago, in June, 22-year-old Glen Moore was assaulted in the Howard Beach section of Queens in a baseball bat attack that left him with a fractured skull. Two white men were charged with a hate crime for that attack.

The NYPD is investigating two other suspected bias attacks in the city, one in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and one in Chelsea. Since 2000, hate crimes have dropped by forty-four percent in the city. This mirrors the drop in overall crime.

Matisyahus Latest video interview with CNN

Judaism without Jews?

Along the northern coast of Norway, not far from North Cape, Europe’s northernmost point, is the quaint city of Trondheim. There, among the troll dolls and fishing paraphernalia, one discovers a most unusual sight: a synagogue.

Though a minyan is hard to come by – the shul is open only on Friday nights, weather permitting – the president struggles valiantly to keep the institution open. A survivor of Auschwitz, he proudly displays the compact but concise Holocaust Museum housed in the synagogue’s anteroom, and explains that he returned after the war with the express purpose of keeping the tiny shul open.

Catching up with the Jewish basketball star

Whatever you do, don’t call Tamir Goodman “the Jewish Michael Jordan.”

He’s not fond of the nickname bestowed upon him by a Sports Illustrated basketball writer, and besides, it’s not even a very apt comparison. Magic Johnson would be more appropriate.

Billboard latest sign of Messianic fervor among some

Orthodox Boxer Packs a Punch

Dmitriy Salita’s stiff left-hand jab landed squarely on Louis Brown’s nose, forcing blood to flow down the boxer’s cheek. Salita’s crisp punches kept landing squarely, and as the fight wore on, his speed and toughness took the fight from sporting to laughable.

After the eighth round, the doctor at ringside had seen enough for one night, and stopped the bout before Salita could inflict any more damage.

Israel may lock up Jews who threaten disengagement

Israel may use administrative detention measures to neutralise threats from Israeli militants bent on disrupting its planned disengagement from occupied territory, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Saturday.

Mofaz said in a television interview that following last week’s killing of four Israeli Arabs by an ultra-rightist Jew, he would consider detention without trial for any individual whom security services recommended should be put behind bars. “We will consider … administrative detention of all those proposed by the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service),” Mofaz said.

UPDATE: NJ Turnpike Accident

Home values surging in Crown Heights,
once known for racial strife

For many years, what came to New Yorkers’ minds if you mentioned “Crown Heights” were riots and racial strife.

They thought of the dire days of August 1991 when riots lasted for three days following the deaths of a 7-year-old boy and a Hasidic scholar.

“If you would mention Crown Heights, people would say, ‘I don’t want to live there,'” explained Robert Matthews, the chairman of Community Board 8, in whose territory Crown Heights is partly located.

TRAFIC ADVISORY: Road Work on Route 17

All those of you who take Route 17 to get to your bungalow colonies, there is roadwork taking place between exits 129 and 124 from 6 PM today to 6 AM tomorrow.

If you’re going to be on the Rt. 17 today between those hours today you should consider continuing on the thruway to exit 17 and there take the 84 to Middletown and that would put you on exit 120 on the 17 thereby avoiding the road work but putting another 20 miles on your trip.

Good Shabbos and a safe ride up.

A March Against Hate Crimes in Crown Heights

Leaders from the Jewish and black communities in Crown Heights marched with city officials and NYPD hate crimes officers last night to condemn hate crime.

REPORTER: The move comes after a Hasidic man was allegedly attacked on Monday by three black men in Crown Heights who used anti-semitic slurs. The Crown Heights Jewsih Council’s Chanina Sperlin says the reaction to this attack is much different than in 1991, when rioting broke out.

Sperlin views Monday’s attack as an isolated incident:

SPERLIN: The march was unity. The African-American, the Carribean-American community stood with the Jewish community and said we’re not going to tolerate this from anybody of any community that you do this against.

REPORTER: Since 2000, hate crimes have dropped by 44 percent, mirroring the drop in overall crime.