Daily Archives: August 14, 2005

Fliers hit Wal-Mart’s plans for Brooklyn

So what do you think? Do you want a Wal-Mart here in Brooklyn?

Calling themselves Wal-Mart No Way, a group of friends, activists and neighbors in Park Slope this week began distributing spoof ads mocking the mega-retailer’s attempts to market itself in Brooklyn.

“The reason we’re going about it this way, is we feel it’s probably the most effective way to get our message across,” said Richard Thomas, who founded the anti-Wal-Mart group.

“It’s the tactic they use,” he said, “and we want to fight them in the same way, basically.”

Last month, Wal-Mart executives expressed interest in finding space in Brooklyn to open what might be its first New York City store. They followed that with a one-week advertising blitz including full-page ads in local newspapers.

Wal-Mart officials have also expressed interest in two sites on Staten Island.
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Jewish heritage and education offered at Chabad Hebrew School

For the second year, Rabbi Meir Borenstein and his wife, Rivkie, are taking registrations, by popular request, for the Chabad Hebrew School they have created in Monroe.

Rabbi Borenstein said the program welcomes Jewish children from all over Orange County, regardless of their affiliation or level of observance. Transportation is an option.

“We believe every Jewish child should have a Jewish heritage and education,” he said.

“Imagine a Jewish program where children don’t want to miss a day,” he said enthusiastically. “Imagine children arriving with a smile and leaving as they hum a Jewish song. Imagine a child who feels the warmth and spirit of Judaism. Last year’s program was very successful, and we’ve been approached by parents in our community to conduct it again.

Duo take resources to central Oregon

The second of three pairs of Chabad rabbis/rabbinic students to come to Oregon this year are now in central Oregon to enhance Jewish life there.

“We are here from goodwill to help them in whatever way they want to enhance their Judaism,” said Rabbi Zalman Abraham, who is in the Bend area with rabbinic student Sadya Engel through Aug. 24. “We are not here as salesmen to enroll them in any specific program or branch of Judaism. We are sincerely interested in their good. … It is our privilege to answer any questions they have on any aspect of Judaism.”

Abraham, who was born in New York, moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, when his parents were sent there as Chabad emissaries when he was 9 months old. For the past year he learned with Engel at the Central Chabad yeshiva in Brooklyn. Engel is from Montreal, Canada. Engel has also finished his rabbinic studies, and expects to be ordained soon.

Morality and Ethics at Boy Scouts Jamboree

RICHMOND, VA — More than 1,000 Jewish Boy Scouts attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree held July 25 to August 3, 2005 at Fort A.P. Hill near Bowling Green, Virginia. Every four years, the Jamboree brings together more than 42,000 Scouts from across the United States for a week of adventure and fellowship.

Chabad Lubavitch has been actively working with the Jamboree for many years says Rabbi Yossel Kranz, director of Chabad Lubavitch of the Virginias in Richmond. He credits Chabad’s international children’s organization, Tzivos Hashem, for their “incredible efforts on behalf of the Jewish scouts before, after and during the Jamboree.”

At this year’s event, three Scout rabbis from Tzivos Hashem arrived a week in advance to conduct a massive outreach to the Jewish Scouts arriving from every corner of the country. A synagogue tent was constructed on-site, kosher food was bussed in, and over 500 young Jewish Scouts gathered together for Friday night services.

“It was incredible to see” said Rabbi Shmuly Gutnick, one of the Chabad rabbis assigned to the Jamboree. “We sang, we prayed and we ate together. Some of the scouts had never had a Shabbat experience before. We even did four Bar Mitzvahs for boys who had never had one.” A local Virginia newspaper, the Free Lance-Star, featured a full page of pictures from the mini bar mitzvah ceremonies in its July 29th edition.

Man shot on the way to shul in hold-up

An Orthodox Jewish man walking to synagogue with his young son Saturday was held up by a man who demanded money and then shot him in the chest, police said.

Eliahu Frishman, 33, of Far Rockaway, was cutting through a schoolyard on Hicksville Road with his 7-year-old son when he was approached by a 20-year-old man wearing a bandanna over his face who tried to rob him, police said.

Tisha B’Av in 770

Here are a few pictures from a little after the saying of Eicha. More pic’s in the extended article.

Tisha Be’av 5765

Today is Tisha Be’av, the day when Jews mourn the greatest tragedies of Jewish history, among them the destruction of the First and Second Temples in 586 BCE and 70 CE. In a stroke that might be considered emblematic of the gulf between the settlers and most Israelis, the disengagement plan officially takes effect at midnight tonight, thereby handing its opponents an easy claim that we are about to witness yet another stain on Jewish history.