Daily Archives: June 6, 2006

Fumes Explode in Brooklyn, Killing Worker and Injuring 2

Click Here for an Extensive Newscast of this event (NY1)

Fumes from a waterproofing spray ignited and set off an explosion in the basement of a Brooklyn home yesterday morning, killing a 27-year-old workman and severely burning two others, one of whom staggered out into the backyard in flames.

The blast ripped through the kitchen floor of the three-story home on East 31st Street in Flatlands just seconds after a resident, Tzipora Friedman, walked out of the kitchen into the living room to look at fabric samples with a decorator who had come to the house, according to a cousin who spoke to Ms. Friedman yesterday. Her husband, Joseph Friedman, and their six children were not home.

Fire Department officials said that the man who was killed, Antonio Tapia of Burlington, N.J., and the other two workers were in the basement building a mikvah, or small pool, to be used for ritual baths that Orthodox Jewish women take before their wedding and after giving birth…

More pictures in the Extended Article.

Interest in kabbalah high in Marin

Marin, CA – Jewish mysticism – so complex it is rarely shared by Judaism’s uninitiated – is “alive and well in Marin,” according to Rabbi Yisrael Rice of Chabad House, a Hassidic congregation in Marinwood.

Rice regularly teaches kabbalah one-on-one and in workshops in the county and across the country. Interest in the ancient tradition of interpreting the Hebrew Bible symbolically instead of literally took off eight years ago when Madonna and other celebrities began singing its praises.

Rice’s students are mostly “kabbalistic wannabes,” he says: people who seek the enlightenment of Jewish mysticism and the ability to practice it in their lives.

And enlightenment and personal awareness are attractive to many who call Marin home.

Oklahoma Federation grants award to JLI chapter

The Jewish Federation of Tulsa, OK has just granted a special community-wide award to Rabbi Yehuda Weg, Regional Director of Lubavitch in Oklahoma, in recognition of his vision, dedication and significant contribution to Jewish adult education through his local JLI chapter.

Torah scroll honors Weston teen killed in Israel bombing

Click here to contribute to the Sefer Torah.

The four hands moved together in unison, pushing the quill across the blank parchment, writing the Hebrew word bereshit.

The word, which means ”in the beginning,” was the first of tens of thousands to be inscribed in the Torah scroll in memory of 16-year-old Daniel Wultz.

His parents, Tuly and Sheryl Wultz, and his sister Amanda were the first to write in the scroll, which contains the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

Daniel was in Israel with his parents, celebrating Passover and visiting his grandparents, when a 21-year-old suicide bomber detonated 30 pounds of explosives at the entrance of a Tel Aviv restaurant where Daniel was eating.

Shul by the shore gets new torah

Long Beach, CA – It was a sight that many Jews never experience, and it was taking place in front of dozens of children like 7-year-old Bas Sheva Popack, who came with her family to see the new sefer Torah at Shul by the Shore.

“It looks special,” said Popack, who got to see the hand-lettered scroll completed up-close at the congregation’s Torah celebration Sunday at the SeaPort Marina Hotel on Pacific Coast Highway.

Dobbs Ferry synagogue celebrates new Torah

Dobbs Ferry, NY – Jewish tradition holds that God revealed his teachings to Moses at Mount Sinai more than 3,000 years ago.

Recorded in the Torah, these teachings are central to Judaism and have been revered throughout the ages.

The reproduction of a Torah scroll, therefore, is a momentous event for the Jews. Written in Hebrew by a certified sofer, or scribe, each word of the Torah, it is believed, has divine meaning and that any error renders it invalid.

The completion of a new Torah scroll yesterday attracted more than 200 people to the Chabad of the Rivertowns synagogue in Dobbs Ferry.

Jewish students at Western get their own place of worship

Bellingham, WA – Overlooking Bellingham Bay, squeezed between two ordinary homes, a Jewish community thrives.

Jewish students at Western are getting their own place of worship with the opening of the first Chabad House in Bellingham. The house strives to serve the needs of Western’s Jewish community, said Rabbi Levi Backman, 25, the newly appointed co-director of Chabad of Bellingham, along with his wife, Hadassah Backman, 25.

Chabad-Lubavitch is a Hasidic movement that embraces a philosophy of study, consideration and social outreach, Backman said.

“Chabad” is a Hebrew acronym for “Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge,” and Lubavitch, which means “city of brotherly love” in Russian, is the town in Russia where the movement began its inception 250 years ago, Backman said.