Daily Archives: November 11, 2005

Serious assault averted B”H

Tuesday night a Lubavitcher girl was nearly raped on her way home, but thanks to an alert citizen this terrible event was averted. At around 3:00am last night a Shomrim member on his was home from an earlier assignment in 770, had a pedestrian stop him and tell him that a black man was following a Jewish girl, the Shomrim member called the Police right away, and proceeded to where they were, which was just off the corner of Kingston Ave. and Crown St., when he arrived Police were just arriving as well and together they nabbed the perp.

To read the story from the Daily News, Click Here.

This should serve as a beacon of a warning, this case ended B”H with no one getting hurt, but let this serve as a lesson, please be careful out there, the streets are dangerous so late at night.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe: A View From the Ivory Tower

Disagreement among the academics who convened earlier this week at a conference on the Lubavitcher Rebbe was evident in healthy abundance, but a thread of consensus emerged in almost all of the presentations that came from a wide variety of perspectives, none of which could adequately contain the Rebbe. “He was the embodiment of impossible contraries,” said Reuvein Kimmelman of Brandeis University.

That, it seemed was the impetus for the conference, which drew disparate disciplines together for a meeting of minds on the individual who arguably had the greatest impact on post-war Jewry, both in terms of reach and depth. “Reaching for the Infinite, The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Life, Teachings, Impact” was the theme of a three day conference at NYU that came to a conclusion on Tuesday, leaving many in the audience gratified but not satisfied.

Forward Names Matisyahu in Top Five

An excerpt from the Press Release

The Forward, American Jewry’s newspaper of record, today announced its highly-awaited “Forward 50” List of the most influential Jewish Americans.

This year’s Top Five, as diverse as the entire list itself, includes Steven Spielberg, Hasidic Hip-Hop sensation Matisyahu,

In the top 50 we find “Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, who has emerged as the most important leader of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement”.

Matisyahu
Equal parts reggae star, rapper and Hasidic cantor, Matisyahu is one of the biggest pop music phenomena of the past year, and the most unlikely. Virtually unknown just a year ago, the Lubavitcher singing sensation now headlines at some of the nation’s biggest concert venues. Later this month he heads for gigs in Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin. The singer, 26, whose given name is Matthew Miller, was born in a nonobservant Jewish home in suburban Philadelphia and raised in White Plains, N.Y. After dropping out of high school at 17 and following Phish to the West Coast, he found his way into the famous Carlebach Synagogue in New York City and began a spiritual journey that ended up in the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic community of Brooklyn. Simultaneously he pursued a music career. He now has a following that stretches all the way from Crown Heights to the pages of the “beer and babes” magazine FHM; his television appearances include “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and “Last Call With Carson Daly.” According to his Web site, Miller combines the sounds of Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach. His songs, with titles like “Lord Raise Me Up” and “King Without a Crown,” speak of spiritual hunger in biblically inflected tones; set to reggae beats, they become supple, airy and sublime.

Letter: Chabad vandalism disturbs pastor

To the editor:

Rabbi Yossi Lipsker is a colleague. The people of his congregation worship in the building that once was the spiritual home for the people of the Congregational Church here in Swampscott. There is no doubt in my mind that things material can be repaired.

Further, there is no doubt in my mind that the soul and spirit of the human can be mended. Nevertheless, the reckless damage done to the synagogue and the vehicle belonging to the people of Chabad Lubavich during the past three weeks deeply disturbs me and the congregation that I serve.

Span Comes To U-Halt

The Daily News’s take on things.

An abandoned U-Haul truck forced the Brooklyn Bridge to close for almost an hour yesterday, sparking fears of terrorism and snarling traffic in two boroughs.

Scores of police vehicles, their sirens screaming, secured the span as anti-terrorism units searched the truck, which was ditched at the Brooklyn entrance to the historic bridge just before 4 p.m.

An inspection of the vehicle revealed no threat. Investigators believe it was left by a dimwitted driver who realized too late that trucks aren’t allowed on the bridge.

Abandoned Truck Briefly Closes Bridge

The Times seems to be off by a few hours. Actually it was 2 different incidents. And just to point out that there is no commercial traffic allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge was shut down for nearly an hour yesterday afternoon after an abandoned truck was found on the entrance ramp to the bridge from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the police said.

The truck, a U-Haul, was discovered shortly after 3 p.m., and the bridge was closed at 4:01 as the police bomb squad and other units examined the truck.

Cars and other vehicles backed up on both sides of the East River, while pedestrians sat around, taking in the sun on the warm afternoon and talking. When nothing suspicious was found on the truck, the bridge was re-opened at 4:55 p.m., the police said. As the yellow police tape was pulled back, the rush of humanity and cars flowed once more on the warm spring afternoon.

A Wild Night in Crown Heights Part 4

At 9:00pm a report came in that a man was shot on the corner of Carroll St. and Troy Ave. Police was on scene right away, B”H no Jewish people were involved.

That’s all for now, and lets all hope it stays this way, but if it dosen’t don’t hesitate to call Shomrim at (718) 774-3333

A Wild Night in Crown Heights Part 3

At 8:45pm Shomrim received a call from an alert resident that had spotted the infamous Derek [Terrance] Nelson [which he identified from the pictures he had seen on CrownHeights.info] getting out of the back door of a car on Crown St. Between Troy Ave. and Albany Ave., Shomrim arrived on the scene immediately and held nelson up for questioning, which is when he made a run for it, a number of Shomrim members took off after him and called the police.

Nelson ran up Albany Ave. all the way to Eastern Pkwy. And made a left towards 770 then ran into an open door of one of the houses on the block and run up to the roof, this is when the police arrived and proceeded after him onto the roof followed by Shomrim, he ran across the rooftops then to be tackled by the police and was arrested, in his position they found a lot of loose change, commonly left in the ashtray of cars, and a knife.

Nelson had been caught a few times breaking into cars around the neighborhood, one of those times a CrownHeights.info photographer was on scene and got pictures of him “Red Handed” inside the car, CLICK HERE TO SEE THAT STORY. And another story. And one more.

If you spot a car break in don’t hesitate to call Shomrim at (718) 774-3333 24/7

A Wild Night in Crown Heights Part 2

At 8:30pm on the corner of Albany Ave. and Montgomery St. a Bochur was held up by a black youth about 16 to 18 years of age who demanded money, the Bochur seeing that this was so young told him “to jump off a bridge” and proceeded to walk away, this is when he pulled a gun on the Bochur and again demanded money, the Bochur upon seeing the gun decided that it would be better off to just let him have it.

The police were called and arrived in under 2 minutes but could not locate the thief. We would like to point out that you may never know what these perps are carrying as weapons so think twice before confronting them.

And if you are the victim of such a case, call Shomrim at (718) 774-3333 24/7

A Wild Night in Crown Heights Part 1

At 8:15pm on E. New York Ave. a woman had her purse snatched right in front of Everything Automotive, the Shomrim member that was there spotted this a called for backup and proceeded to chase the perp, and caught him on Brooklyn Ave. and Midwood St. [2 blocks down from E. NY], Police arrived shortly after and arrested him and found the purse in his possession.

Later at the precinct the police linked this thief to a slew of other such offenses, a few of the victims were Jewish woman.