Daily Archives: June 6, 2005

Java justice finally served

It took almost 14 years, but Brooklyn Rabbi Israel Steinberg can finally drink his coffee from a paper cup in a Manhattan eatery in peace.
Steinberg made what seemed to be a simple request when he ordered coffee at the Nations Cafe in 1992: He asked the waiter to pour the beverage into a takeout cup because Jewish dietary laws forbid the use of nonkosher porcelain.

But Steinberg said the waiter told him he had to drink from the porcelain cups, just like other customers – or get out.

“He embarrassed and ridiculed me because I’m Jewish – in front of all the customers,” Steinberg said.

The confrontation escalated when Steinberg, who lives in Borough Park and is head of an Orthodox Jewish congregation in Queens, told the waiter that refusing such a request violated state law.

“He said, ‘Get out, you ******** Jew,’ ” Steinberg recalled.

The Campaign to End PLO Funding

It is very intresting to see the names on the list and which of them refused.

Please visit this link: Click Here

Our proclamation, calling on all Jews to participate in the campaign against PLO funding, is being sent to a variety of rabbis for their signatures.

Unfortunately, others apparently fear being “controversial,” perhaps thinking that even merely supporting our campaign might endanger fundraising, social acceptance, or something else.

Chabad tour of Brooklyn offers spirituality, nostalgia

by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Middlesex Correspondent

Standing beside the monument memorializing Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Bill Levy of Monroe reread the letter of prayer he had just written. Then he folded the paper, tore it once, twice, and scattered the pieces atop the thousands of other pieces of prayer that formed a kind of solemn confetti on the rebbe’s grave.

“I can’t say I was overwhelmed. I don’t know if I’d even say it was moving,” Levy said a few moments later as he sat beneath a tent at the Ohel (Tent) Chabad Lubavitch near the gravesite at Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield Gardens, NY. “But I think it was interesting and enlightening. I think it’s certainly worthwhile.

“I just wanted to open my mind and enlighten myself about what’s out there,” he said. “I’m close to 80 years old, and I’m still searching. This was a way of exploring part of my Judaism. I’m still trying to find what it’s all about.”

Of chicken soup And Medication

Who Needs the Doctor? And Other Inherited Traits
By PERRI KLASS, M.D., and SHEILA SOLOMON KLASS
Among the many things a mother influences in a daughter’s life is her attitude toward health and doctors. Sheila Solomon Klass and her daughter, Dr. Perri Klass, were recently asked to trade thoughts on the topic.

PERRI Several years ago, I had a bad cold that wouldn’t go away. My voice sounded terrible and my mother was worried. It is my policy never to tell my mother very much about my health. I can’t stand solicitous inquiries, and I find that the loving concern of others often gets in the way of my own precious denial. But in this case, my mother could hear that I sounded lousy. And she wanted me to see a doctor.

I pointed out that I am, in fact, a doctor, and would know if something major was wrong. I pointed out that I hate going to doctors, and that I get that directly from her.

Shooting In Crown Heights

A 12-year-old boy is recovering after being shot in the arm Saturday in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

Horrified onlookers dropped to the ground when the shooter began spraying bullets on Nostrand Ave. in Crown Heights about 4 p.m.

One shot hit the man, who was apparently the intended target, and another struck a 12-year-old boy, cops said. Both victims suffered arm wounds.

Witnesses say a man with long dreadlocks fired at least nine bullets at the 48-year-old, and then fled in a gold color car.

The 12-year-old was struck as be was leaving a nearby store.

Police are asking anyone with information about the shootings to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.