Daily Archives: April 17, 2006

NYPD Deploys First of 500 Security Cameras

Along a gritty stretch of street in Brooklyn, police this month quietly launched an ambitious plan to combat street crime and terrorism. But instead of cops on the beat, wireless video cameras peer down from lamp posts about 30 feet above the sidewalk.

They were the first installment of a program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance “ring of steel” modeled after security measures in London’s financial district.

Officials of the New York Police Department _ which considers itself at the forefront of counterterrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks _ claim the money would be well-spent, especially since the revelations that al-Qaida members once cased the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions.

Rabbinical Students Aid Jewish Community for Passover

RYBINSK, Russia – The Jewish community of Rybinsk is currently hosting a visit by two rabbinical students, both of whom attend the Chicago Yeshiva. Yosef and Sholom are from the USA and Canada respectively. The two young emissaries are visiting Rybinsk, a settlement that does not have a resident rabbi, in order to assist the local community in holding its Passover Seders thanks to a collaborative initiative between the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS and Lubavitch World Headquarters.

Since their arrival, the students have been on a very tight schedule. Together with active community members and community Chairman Leonid Berkovsky, they took part in a conference call with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and other members of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia on Passover. In the lead-up to that discussion, the participants took the opportunity to discuss the current issues and challenges facing the local community in developing Jewish life in Rybinsk.

The Torah tradition

Dianne and Anthony Medina wanted to replace Chabad Jewish Center’s Torah, which came from Eastern Europe and is more than 50 years old. The letters in the scroll containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures were fading, and repairing them is difficult to do according to the letter of the law.

They shopped for a Torah on eBay, but the scrolls there were old, too, and in need of repair. So, Dianne says, “I asked the rabbi how much it would cost to buy a new Torah, and he said about $20,000.”

The Medinas — along with Dianne’s brother — immediately pledged the $20,000 to commission a new Torah that would be hand-lettered by a scribe, or sofer. “To the best of my knowledge,” says Chabad Rabbi Berel Levertov, “this is the first time the Jewish community of Santa Fe has ever commissioned a Torah.”

Nine Dead and 66 Wounded in Tel Aviv Suicide Bombing

Click here for the News clip (Hebrew)

An Arab suicide bomber, detonated a large explosive at a Tel Aviv fast food stand in the Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood Monday afternoon, killing at least nine civilians.

At least 66 persons were wounded, with 15 sustaining moderate to severe injuries. The wounded have been evacuated to local hospitals, among them, Ichilov, Beilinson, Wolfson, and Tel Hashomer.

Of those seriously injured, at least five are reported to be in critical condition.

Police are investigating how the terrorist reached the Tel Aviv destination and whether any assistance was received by other terrorists still in the vicinity.

Swastika found on Holocaust memorial

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Officials are trying to determine who defaced the Holocaust Memorial on Albany Avenue in front of the Chabad House Synagogue.

A passerby notice the red swastika painted on the memorial.

The swastika was painted on a memorial that honors the death of 6 million Jews lost in the Holocaust during World War II.

“I was very hurt, very disappointed, and very worried,” says Rabbi Gopin.

Rabbi Joseph Gopin of the Chabad Lubavitch Center of Greater Hartford learned of the spray-painted swastika from a police officer early Sunday morning.