Daily Archives: December 14, 2005

City Urges Halt To Ritual Practice

Unprecedented open letter says controversial circumcision technique is dangerous; haredim say they won’t heed warning.

In the face of a beis din’s failure to conclude its investigation of a mohel who health officials say transmitted herpes to three babies, New York City’s health commissioner issued an unprecedented public warning Tuesday that a controversial circumcision procedure is endangering the lives of Jewish infants.

“There exists no reasonable doubt that metzitzah b’peh can and has caused neonatal herpes infection,” Dr. Thomas Frieden wrote in “An Open Letter to the Jewish Community” about a procedure routinely practiced by mohels in some sectors of the Orthodox community. “The Health Department recommends that infants being circumcised not undergo metzitzah b’peh.”

Menorah Lights Triumph Yet Again

In Shrewsbury, MA, a Chanukah miracle took place when the town Board of Selectmen voted to reverse their original vote to deny the Chabad Jewish Center permission to light the menorah on the town common. Chabad representative Rabbi Michoel Green will kindle the menorah there on December 25th at 5:30 p.m. and the menorah will be lit every night of the eight-day Chanukah holiday.

Public menorah displays testament to the growing acceptance of Chabad

Ten years ago, the American Jewish Congress sued the city of Beverly Hills, Calif., to block the local Chabad house from erecting a 27-foot menorah in a public park near City Hall.

Displaying the menorah — a Jewish religious symbol — on public property, the AJCongress argued, was unconstitutional.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the city, allowing Chabad to put up the large candelabra. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed the decision.

Virtual Chanukah Launched!

Chabad.org has launched their Virtual Chanukah website which contains a lot of information about Chanukah from stories to insights, games and greeting cards and loads more.

Chanukah Live; the program that Chabad.org runs every year, which gives us a live broadcast of menorah lightings from around the world, will be accessible through the Virtual Chanukah website as well.

Click Here to check it out!

Class, Brass and 23 Doors

A very interesting article about a house in Crown Heights on how it was back in the day, which appeared in the NY Times.

Beulah Smith lived for 44 years in a brownstone at Park Place and Brooklyn Avenue in Crown Heights. She never took in boarders, and after the death of her husband, Ivan, she lived alone among the oak paneling, stained glass and flowery wooden fretwork of her turn-of-the-century house.

When Ms. Smith died in 1996, at age 94, much of the interior of the house had remained unchanged since 1900. The shower, for example, was a brass affair with a huge dome-shaped spout, suspended above a large, wide-rimmed tub.

Last Thursday, in a self-storage warehouse at Third Avenue and First Street, near the Gowanus Canal, David Goldstein examined that tub with delight. “It’s got these great three-inch rims, which are fantastic,” he said. “I’m not crazy about claw feet, and it hasn’t got claw feet.”

Hassidic Reggae Star Matisyahu Captivates Israeli Audiences

Up and coming Reggae music star Matisyahu played to sold-out audiences in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem last week.

The Israeli public warmly received Matisyahu’s mix of Reggae and Rap music with content containing strong Jewish spiritual messages. Matisyahu’s third album ‘Youth’ is slated for release by Sony records in January 2006.

Matisyahu, born 26 years ago as Matthew Miller, was an upper middle class unaffiliated Jew until he underwent a spiritual transformation during a trip to Israel. Upon his return to the US, Miller attended the New School for Social Research and explored the possibilities of Reggae music at various New York City clubs. At the same time, he continued to pursue his religious identity, eventually changing his name to Matisyahu and becoming a Lubavitch Hassid, studying Jewish texts at a Yeshiva (rabbinic seminary) in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.