Daily Archives: April 24, 2006

Boruch Dayan Ha’emes – Satmar Rebbe OB”M

With great sadness we inform you of the passing of the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum.

Rabbi Teitelbaum had recently been hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Just a few days ago the doctors announced that he will be recovering and will be out of intensive care and back home in Williamsburg within two weeks. However things took a turn for the worse and he passed away at a the age of 91 late Monday afternoon in his hospital bed.

Early reports indicate that the Levaya will be 10 O’Clock tonight.

Baruch Dayan HaEmes

Pesach is Over: Now What?

While Jewish rye and bagels replace matzah after the week-long Passover ban on leavened bread, social scientists might want to chew on a fifth question: What is it about this particular holiday that makes otherwise unaffiliated and non-observant Jews care—enough to go out of their way to honor the holiday?

They often don’t know anything about kosher or Shabbat, but when Passover comes around, something kicks in, and whether they call themselves agnostics or secular or just plain uninvolved, many find themselves gravitating to other Jews, to a Seder table, and often even to the strictures of a weeklong diet that forbids consumption of pizza and pasta.

US Consul General Visits Jewish Community

Birobidjan, Russia – US Consul General in Russia’s Far East John Mark Pommersheim visited the ‘Freud’ Jewish Community of Birobidjan during his acquaintance tour of the Jewish Autonomous Region.

The Consul confessed he knew about the existence of this Jewish Community when he worked in America, but he didn’t expect to see such a mature Jewish congregation. Mr. Pommersheim took interest in the constantly operating art exhibition featuring works by Vladislav Tsap, which highlights Torah themes. Initially, he thought he was looking at copies, but having realized these were original paintings, the Consul expressed his excitement about the work.

Torahs ‘R’ Us

About 50 pairs of confused eyes tried to identify the source of the sonorous and authoritative voice addressing them from state-of-the-art loudspeakers hung on the walls of the dimly lit auditorium. Colorful scenery – balconies, a stage, podia with electronic buttons and a giant screen – imparted to the auditorium in the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights the look of a television game-show studio. “Boys and girls, welcome to the game show you’ve been waiting for!” the voice thundered. “Welcome to ‘Torah Concentration!’”

A small, hidden door in the stage slowly opened opposite the seats packed with children (all of Korean heritage) and dozens of excited faces fixed on it, eager for a first glimpse of the master of ceremonies of this game with the mysterious name. A few seconds later, the mystery man burst into the studio. He was a short, young, bearded fellow with a purple skullcap and a Madonna-style microphone attached to his head, wearing black jeans and a white shirt with his long tzitzit (fringes) sticking out. He stood center-stage, taking in all the dropped jaws and wide-eyed faces. He smiled. The audience was his.

Prison doesn’t scare me, but how do I tell my young son?

Transit union boss talks emotionally to The News on eve of his 10 days in jail

Transit union chief Roger Toussaint says he’s not scared of what awaits him when he marches off to jail today — he just worries that his 10 days behind bars will mean 10 days of fear for his family.

“That would be my biggest concern — that my loved ones would worry about me more than they should, more than they need to,” Toussaint told the Daily News yesterday.

Wall Collapse in the backyard of the Malbone Housing Complex

Yesterday evening residents of the Malbone St. Housing complex were shocked to see a Retaining wall collapse in their back yards. The complex is located on Malbone St. which is right next to the police station between clove Rd. and New York Ave. and is lower then the houses behind them on Montgomery St. so a retention wall had been built to contain the earth from the back yards of those houses.

Recently a new construction had been underway on Montgomery St. where a parking lot was converted into condos and that construction site’s retaining wall had collapsed, dumping bricks, cement and mud into the back yard. These yards are the play grounds for the complexes children, and it’s a great miracle that no one was out there when this incident happened.

FDNY responded and secured the area and remained on scene until later in the evening to make sure nothing moved or continued to fall.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Thousands pray for American teen

Since he was critically wounded in last week’s suicide bombing at Tel Aviv’s old Central Bus Station, the 16-year-old patient hospitalized in intensive care at the city’s Ichilov Hospital has been identified in Israel only as the “American” victim.

Yet in the seven days that have passed since he was hurt when a bomb exploded at a shwarma eatery where he was seated, thousands of people around the world have reportedly been praying for Haim Meir Naftali, son of Sara and Yekutiel – the Hebrew name of Daniel Wultz. [Chaim Meir Naftali Ben Sara]

A resident of Weston, Florida, Wultz came to Israel with his parents, Tuly and Sheryl Wultz, to visit relatives during Pessah. According to reports in the American media, the Wultzes had come to spend the holiday with the family of Tuly, who is Israeli, and attend the bar mitzva of a family friend. Tuly and Daniel Wultz were reportedly seated at an outside table at the shwarma stand at the corner of Rehov Naveh Sha’anan, waiting for Sheryl Wultz, when the bomb exploded.

Monkeys Say ‘Dayenu!’

City’s Zoo Monkeys get Fat and lazy thanks to the Hametz From Orthodox Jews.

Security has been tight at the Central Park Zoo, (preparing for passover), with ticket takers, staff, and guards on the lookout for suspicious packages of cookies, pretzels, hot-dog buns, and pound cake. Observant Jews had to clear their houses of hametz (leavened products) before Passover, and every year many of them take their castoffs to the zoo. Baffled zoo staff note that the snow monkeys are the main beneficiaries of the pre-holiday pig-out, apparently because the polar bear’s glass wall is too high and the sea lions would only be interested if offered gefilte fish. “If a big group comes in carrying bags, admission is going to notice,” says zoo spokesperson Kate McIntyre.

Man Found Dead in Prospect Park

Click here for News Clip

A man found stabbed to death in Prospect Park in Brooklyn was identified Sunday as a 61-year-old Brooklyn man, police said.

The body of William Oliver was found late Saturday afternoon after police received a call that an unconscious man was inside Prospect Park near Grand Army Plaza, police said.
Oliver had been stabbed at least once in the chest, police said.

There were no immediate arrests and an investigation was underway, said Officer Kathleen Price, a police spokeswoman.