Mazal Tov's View More

Changing Face in Poland: Skinhead Puts on Skullcap

The New York Times

Pawel in the Warsaw synagogue. A former truck driver and neo-Nazi skinhead, Pawel, 33, has since become an Orthodox Jew, covering his shaved head with a yarmulke and shedding his fascist ideology for the Torah.

WARSAW — When Pawel looks into the mirror, he can still sometimes see a neo-Nazi skinhead staring back, the man he was before he covered his shaved head with a skullcap, traded his fascist ideology for the Torah and renounced violence and hatred in favor of God.

Info to be Menachem Avel the Zellermaier Family

The family of Reb Isaac Zellermaier OBM is sitting Shiva after his passing until Friday afternoon at 1225 54th Street [between 12th Ave and New Utrecht Ave] in Boro Park.

Shacharis 7:30am, Mincha 5:30pm, Maariv Bizmana

Hamokom Yenachem Eschem Besoch Shaar Avaylay Tzion VeYerushalayim.

My Rikers Island Purim Experience

by Yosef Shidler

The time is 8:30 AM, Purim morning, in Crown Heights. Most people in the neighborhood are just getting up to hear the megillah and daven shacharis. On the street corner of Empire and Albany a group of Lubavitchers are gathering together to set out on a Purim day mission; a visit to the Rikers Island Correctional Facility. This ritual has taken place Purim day, for the last 20 years. Founded by Rabbi Yossel Tevel OBM, and Rabbi Michoel Chazan, under the auspices of Tzach, it has become a hallmark outreach project for many bochurim and yungerleit of Crown Heights.

The Ultimate Kibud Av, A 15-Year-Old’s Tribute to his Father

Menachem Mendel Levitan with his father in 770 at his Hanochas Tefillin. Photo by: Yaakov Rosenthal.

Menachem Mendel Levitan is fifteen years old and without a father. One year ago, at the age of 48, R’ Dovid Ben Nochum Hirsch HaLevi OBM left this world, but not without leaving behind a passion for Torah learning. In his father’s memory Menachem Mendel has initiated the establishment of a library of sefarim at his school – Yeshivas Darchai Menachem – in line with his father’s love of chinuch and sefarim.

Another Tefillin Scare Arouses Suspicions of Border Officials

by Reuvena Leah Grodnitzky – Chabad.org

Ken Kaplan, left, regularly dons the Jewish prayer
boxes known as tefillin with the assistance of
Rabbi Eli Silberstein.

When a plane made an emergency landing back in January after a teenage boy donned the black Jewish prayer boxes known as tefillin, people across North America treated it as something of a humorous oddity.

But weeks after that incident, a similar case – this time of a super-vigilant passerby sounding an alarm among U.S. border officials – led to the detaining of a rabbi and his Jewish driver as they tried to return to New York from Canada.

It was just before sunset when Rabbi Eli Silberstein, director of the Roitman Chabad-Lubavitch Center serving Cornell University in Ithaca, suggested, as he had done time and time before, that his driver, Ken Kaplan, don tefillin while it was still daytime. The two men, who were heading to Montreal, stopped at a gas station in Watertown just before crossing the border.

“He likes me to put on tefillin, because I drive him all over the place,” said Kaplan, who has driven Silberstein for four years. Besides for the religious requirement, “it’s good luck.”

NYPD Officer Claims Pressure to Make Arrests

An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas.

When Officer Adil Polanco dreamed of becoming a cop, it was out of a desire to help people not, he says, to harass them.

Shomrim Apprehend 12-Year-Old Gun Toting Mugger

NY Post

The 12 year old punk in Shomrim custody. Inset: the gun.

WILLIAMSBURG, NY — A kid mugger who preys on Hasidic women in Williamsburg held up a mother pushing her baby in a stroller yesterday — only to be nabbed minutes later by patrol, police said.

IDF Raid Called off After Facebook Slip

JERUSALEM [AP] — Israel’s military has “unfriended” one of its own — after a combat soldier potentially updated Israel’s enemies on Facebook.

The military said Wednesday that a planned raid on a West Bank village was called off after the soldier disclosed its details online. The military said the soldier posted the time and location of the raid on his Facebook page, saying that troops were planning on “cleaning up” the village.

Video – Rebbes Farbrengen to be Viewed in 109 Locations!

In honor of Yud Alef Nissan, the Vaad Talmidei Hatmimim and JEM have once again joined together to release a new video of a Farbrengen with the Rebbe. The video contains Sichos and niggunim from the Farbrengen of 11 Nissan 5732 marking the Rebbe’s 70th birthday. This special Farbrengen is being released for the first time by JEM with subtitles in six languages (English, Hebrew, Russian, French, Spanish and Yiddish), giving communities across the globe an opportunity to participate and enjoy the Farbrengen.

Americare Expanding its Services to Crown Heights

Americare, one of the leaders in home health care, is now serving patients and residents in the Crown Heights neighborhood.

In its awareness of the needs of the Crown Heights community, Americare is expanding its services to include assistance with Medicaid applications and assistance in assessing for eligibility of home care, including aides, nurses and therapists.

Many grateful families are already receiving Americare’s services and home care. “Since my parents’ move to New York from Cleveland, Americare has been so helpful with everything we need,” says Mrs. Rivka Kotlarsky. “My father cannot walk well and they provide every service he needs, including warm helpers whom we feel are now part of our family,” the Judaic high school teacher attested.