Daily Archives: August 2, 2005

$5,000. Reward Offered at Tire-Slashings
Press Conference District Attorney, Politicians, Promise Vigorous Prosecution

A $5,000. reward for the apprehension of the criminal(s) was announced yesterday as politicians of every stripe joined all five Jewish Community Council board members to condemn the spree of tire-slashings Friday night which has now been officially categorized as a hate crime.

Man punched in the face in apparent bias attack

A Hasidic man walking home in Crown Heights from a friend’s house was punched in the face by at least two black men yelling, “Hey Jew, what are you doing here?” police sources and the victim said Tuesday.

The victim, 50, a kosher food inspector, was attacked at 10:45 p.m. as he walked along Schnectady Avenue between Crown and Carroll streets.

Hollywood synagogue not alone in legal challenges

A synagogue in Orange County has won a legal battle that parallels a case still being played out in Hollywood.

An Orange County synagogue faced challenges similar to those of the Hollywood Community Synagogue Chabad Lubavitch.

For more than two years, Rabbi Joseph Konikov battled county officials to allow him to hold worship services in his single-family home in Sand Lake Hills, a residential neighborhood.

Konikov, a Brooklyn rabbi, first rented the home, then purchased it.

When he started to hold services with a small number of worshipers, the county got wind of it. The battle began.

One year, while the rabbi and several families celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim, an Orange County code enforcement officer knocked on the door to cite him for operating a synagogue, said his attorney, John Stemberger.

World-Wide ‘Shema’ (Tomorrow) Wednesday

An appeal has been made to every Jew around to world to simultaneously read the first lines of the prayer known as Shema: “Hear O Israel, The L-rd is Our G-d, the L-rd is One” on Wednesday.

The prayer is intended to ask for Divine help to prevent violence toward the planned expulsion of Jewish residents from Gaza and northern Samaria and for Divine intervention to cancel the plan. The prayer is organized under the motto, United We Stand, Divided We Fall.

The prayer will be recited at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem and at 2 p.m. in New York.

Children around the world also are being asked to pray together the following night, one day before the beginning of the new Hebrew month Av. Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu will lead the Thursday night prayer at the Western Wall.

An unidentified group of women initiated the call for the children’s prayer, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Israel (12:30 p.m. in New York).

Chabad (Lubavitch) leaders said they are encouraging children to attend the prayer rally at the Western Wall, where more than 20,000 children are expected.

Mayor’s Campaign Follows Jewish Voters to the Catskills

Hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers who thought they had escaped city life for the summer found that the city, in the form of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election campaign, had followed them to their Catskill retreat yesterday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg brought his re-election campaign to a pastry shop yesterday in Woodbourne, a village in the Catskills.