Daily Archives: September 5, 2006

Man Gunned Down on Schenectady and President

A man on his way to meet some friends in Crown Heights was shot and killed after an angry exchange with another group, police said.

The 20-year-old victim was gunned down about 11 p.m. at Schenectady Avenue and President Street. Police did not know what triggered the violence. 3 perps were being sought in connection with this shooting.

Crown Heights cars Are A Target Once More

As we have previously reported about 4 cars getting broken into, 4 more became victims. This appears to be the work of one individual who has a preference for cars with smaller windows he can compromise to gain access to the car then he searches for things of value, even if they aren’t in plain sight.

One car was broken into some time on Motzoai Shabbos on Albany between Carroll and Crown, a Tzedakah box was taken and the glove box contents were emptied and rummaged thru. Another car that was parked on Schenectady between President and Carroll and was broken into had an expensive toolbox taken from it. A minivan was broken into nearby on President between Schenectady and Troy, where a tzedakah box was taken. And the last incident was on Brooklyn between Montgomery and Empire, where a bag containing expensive stuff was taken.

Chabad telethon gives old message new edge

Media-savvy rabbis and producers have revamped the annual Chabad “To Life” telethon and will unveil a streamlined and contemporary program this fall.

The fundraiser will take place Sept. 10 from 4 p.m.-11 p.m. and can be viewed on KTSF channel 26 in San Francisco. Los Angeles: KCAL Channel 9. S. Diego: KUSI Channel 9. Las Vegas: KVMY Channel 12. New York/New Jersey/Connecticut: WLNY Channel 55. Nationwide: Dish Network Channel 9601.

An online simulcast of the telethon will be streamed on the Chabad Web site, www.tolife.com.

Thoroughly Modern Mikvahs

Beautiful article about the new Mikvah in the upper east side that appeared in this past weeks edition of the Time Magazine.

It was an obligation Tammy Cohen had fulfilled regularly, but never quite so fabulously. For years the 44-year-old New Yorker, like generations of Jewish women before her, had immersed herself monthly in a mikvah, or ritual bath. The act … was indisputably meaningful to Cohen, but some of the facilities she had been using were uninspiring. The pool, she says, looked “like someone had dug a hole and put some plaster in it”; its rabbinically mandated rainwater sometimes bore someone else’s hair. Cohen sighs, “You just wanted to get in and get out.”

Not so tonight. Descending a grand spiral stair at the newly opened Jacques and Hanna Schwalbe Mikvah on Manhattan’s wealthy Upper East Side, Cohen was met by an attendant offering fine towels from Israel. Then it was on to a prep room fragrant with vanilla-scented candles, floored in Chinese tile, furnished in red cherry and featuring an eight-jet Jacuzzi — rather than the standard shower — for pre-immersion cleanliness. The mikvah itself, beneath a mosaic of a blue sky and white clouds, was pristine. Cohen’s eyes widened. “It’s spectacular,” she gasped. “I feel like I’m at the Four Seasons.”

Colel Chabad distributing food baskets to needy

The holiday project of Colel Chabad, working together with the social welfare departments of the local authorities, will be handling an unprecedented scope of operation in Israel, by distributing food baskets to 120,000 poor and destitute throughout the Holy Land, the organization said in a press release.

The directors of Colel Chabad will be dealing with 55 municipalities and local councils who have submitted requests to be included in the activity of distributing food parcels for the upcoming High Holidays. Within the framework of the activity, it was decided to adopt 25,000 poor families who are recognized by welfare as unfortunately suffering from severe economic distress.