Daily Archives: January 31, 2006

Museum, Jewish Groups Get Federal Security Aid

A museum in Balboa Park and five Jewish institutions have received $320,885 from the federal Department of Homeland Security to enhance security against terrorism, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Monday.

Receiving the funds are the San Diego Natural History Museum; Congregation Beth Israel; Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, Jacobs Family Campus; Chabad Center; Chabad of Poway; and the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County.

Plenty Of Parking, Says Chabad

In yet another heated session, the Chabad of Southampton Jewish Center came before the Southampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals last Thursday. The applicants are seeking a special exception permit from their designated residential zoning status in order to continue operating as a house of worship and community center.

Representing Rabbi Rafe Konikov and Chabad, attorney Jeff Bragman addressed traffic, parking, and design issues.

Among other variances, Chabad is seeking relief from the requirement to provide total onsite parking. With the driveway and existing parking area being used by residents of the house, Bragman argued that the remaining 13-23 spaces needed by congregants could be handled via on-street parking.

Friendship Circle Virtual Conference

The Friendship Circle a division at The Shluchim Office hosted it’s fourth international phone conference yesterday (Monday January 30th).

The Friendship Circle established in 1994 by Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan, to date there are 30 worldwide. The Friendship Circle has a unique approach to helping families of children with special needs. It’s innovative programming and activities fosters a relationship between community teenagers and the children by drawing on the love, energy and dynamics of our teenage population.

NASA assesses strategies to ‘Turn off the heat’ in New York City

The “heat is on” in New York City, whether it’s summer or winter. This is due to a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect that causes air temperatures in New York City and other major cities to be warmer than in neighboring suburbs and rural areas. And, in a big city, warmer air temperatures can impact air quality, public health and the demand for energy.

Recently, several innovative approaches developed by scientists, public officials, environmental activists, community organizations and others have been put in place to take a bite out of the Big Apple’s temperature problem. NASA researchers, using NASA satellite observations, weather pattern data and computer models, have recently assessed how well those strategies are working. Their study results will be discussed during the 2006 American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 29 through Feb. 2.

More Targeted Arrests

Tonight [Monday] at approximately 8:00pm a silver Toyota SUV was seen driving down the service lane of Eastern Parkway bet Troy and Albany Avenues. As it passed in front of the Chovevei Torah building an unmarked Chevy Impala behind it lit up in warning lights as the police inside sounded their sirens. The SUV then pulled over allowing the emergency vehicle to pass, while another unmarked police car approached from the island on the left side of the SUV. After a thorough search of the driver, the other male passenger, and the vehicle, the two female passengers were asked to exit the SUV and the two males were arrested. The police then parked the SUV and drove off with the two suspects in their unmarked cars, without lights and sirens, as if nothing was wrong.

Interestingly enough, the two female passengers, who were not searched or questioned, seemed to be in a rather happy mood notwithstanding the circumstances, and were even seen joking with cops as they left the scene. This may lead you to believe that this was all part of a larger sting operation, which ended in the arrest of the two male passengers.

Israel to evict West Bank squatters

HEBRON, West Bank – Tzipi Schlisel pours over the well-thumbed pages of a book on the history of Hebron’s Jewish community – a collection of documents, deeds and sepia-toned photos of 19th-century rabbis and victims of a massacre of the town’s Jews by local Arabs in 1929.

“I feel the deep roots of the ancient Jewish community here,” said Schlisel, 40, the mother of 10 children ranging in age from the 6-month-old son sitting on her lap to a 20-year-old son.

The Schlisels and eight other families have been squatting illegally in Hebron, in a Palestinian fruit and vegetable market, embarrassing the government and enraging the Palestinians whose property they took over.

So the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who has expressed impatience with the settlers, has decided to put an end to the affair.