Photos: Lag Ba’omer Celebration in Brunoy, France

Students of Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in Brunoy, France, celebrated Lag Ba’omer with the traditional bonfire, accompanied by singing and dancing – and a ‘Kumzitz.’ The following morning, the students organized a grand Lag Ba’omer parade for Jewish children throughout Paris.

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Crown Heights’ New Police Captain Means Business

The new commanding officer of the 71st Precinct Cap. John Lewis (L) with Community Affairs Officer Vinny Martinos at the Lag Baomer Rally.

This morning at around 9:00, Sholom Meir Hecht was walking near his home on Union St. between Kingston and Albany Ave., when he was accosted by three African-American teenagers who demanded – and received – his cell phone.

Photos: Simcha and Chayus at the Empire Bonfire!

A Lag Ba’omer bonfire and celebration took place for the 28th year on Empire Boulevard in the backyard of the Horowitz family. Together, Rabbi Sholom Horowitz and Rabbi Nachman Twerskei held their annual ‘Hadlokoh’ of a Bonfire in honor of Reb Shimon Bar Yochai.

Students Release Butterflies at Chabad Preschool

Boston.com

Assistant teacher Livi Rubin passes a butterfly to Benji Barnett, 5, of Lexington, Massachusetts.

It was the day everyone’s been waiting for at the Jewish Preschool of Lexington at the Chabad Center. Twenty-two students, ranging in age from 3 to 5, released the butterflies they raised from caterpillars into a flower bush in front of the school.

New Fine Art Gallery Opening in Crown Heights

The Betzalel Gallery, a new fine art gallery in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, demands attention. Its chic exterior – like that of a trendy Soho gallery – sits sandwiched between an aging Laundromat and a bland, pre-war brownstone apartment building. Specializing in Hassidic Art, the gallery stands as a symbol of the continued revival of Crown Heights and the remarkable emergence of this art form.

Welcome to Crown Heights, the Hasidic SoHo

NY Daily News

Chani Frankel, co-owner of Mimulo Flowers in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Crown Heights is becoming the Hasidic SoHo. The neighborhood now has a spanking-new gallery of Jewish art with $175,000 paintings; a female rock band whose members are frum (religiously observant); and a kosher pizzeria that’s a hangout for chic moms with Louis Vuitton handbags.