Communal Matters

Crown Heights Girls’ School Bnos Menachem has sent out another letter to its parent body ahead of the upcoming school year, this time instructing them that all devices at home capable of connecting to the internet must have filters installed on them.

Crown Heights Girls’ School Bnos Menachem sent out a letter yesterday to all parents informing them of new standards of modesty it expects all its students’ mothers to adhere to over the coming school year.

Following the announcement of the launch of a new App – called Tohar – to assist women with Bedikah Inquiries, fierce debate over the Kashrus of such an App ensued, while others hailed it as being long overdue. Zisa Levin, one of the apps creators, has authored a response to questions about the App.

Following the uproar over a meeting between a group of Jewish activists – including a Chabad Rabbi – and the pope, Rabbi Dovber Pinson has issued a ‘Letter of Explanation and Apology’ to the community. In response to his dismissal from Shlichus, Vaad Rabonei Lubavitch issued a letter calling the meeting ‘contrary to the instructions of the Rebbe,’ and referred his request for a Din Torah to his former employers – Merkos and Tzach.

Bais Rivkah Girls’ School of Crown Heights has announced that all grades will be returning to their regular school schedule tomorrow, Friday, May 5th, putting an end to a month-long strike by the teachers of grades 1-3 due to lack of pay.

The parents of Bais Rivkah students of grades 1-3, whose teachers have been on strike since before Pesach due to lack of pay, have just been informed that school will resume tomorrow, Wednesday, on a modified schedule. Unfortunately, the problems underlying the strike have yet to be resolved.

The teachers of Bais Rivkah who are currently on strike due to months of owed pay have a message for the parents of their students: “this is just as painful for us as it is for you.”

A class Beth Rivkah students learning learning in the front yard of a teachers home on April 3rd after a work strike by teachers forces classes to take place in private homes.

In a letter to parents, Beis Rivkah Primary Teachers in grades 1 through 3 write that they are forced to continue a work strike, which began before Pesach. Representatives for the striking teachers alleged that the administration was actively preventing the teachers from being paid by the board, a charge which was vehemently denied by a source close to the administration, who told CrownHeights.info that “nothing has changed.”

The New York City Department of Homeless Services is in the final stages of a plan to open a large homeless shelter on Crown Street between New York and Rogers Ave. in Crown Heights, just one block away from Beis Rivkah Girls’ School and P.S. 161.

Following their ultimatum to the school’s administration regarding unmet financial obligations, the teachers of Bais Rivkah’s grades 1-3 report in a follow-up open letter to the Crown Heights community that their pleas have all but been ignored, and they have no choice but to begin their strike on Friday.

Today, Monday, Aliya and Aliya girls will join forces with several other centers for Jewish youth at risk for the second annual Day of Listening and Giving to Jewish Youth.