ROSTOV, Russia [CHI] — Five Jewish men took upon themselves to fulfill the great mitzvah of a Bris Milah yesterday. The idea of inviting a mohel just before Pesach was initiated by a local graduate of the Or Avner Jewish School of Rostov.
These men, between the ages of 18 and 47, chose their own Jewish names with great pride. The names chosen were: Refoel, Dovid, Ehud, Asher and Raziel.
So 59 ‘Mitzvah Tanks’ rolled through Manhattan and paralyzed traffic, albeit for a short few minutes at a time, and people got to see the ‘Winnebago’s’ with the big signs that said ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Mitzvah Tank’ and young energetic Bochurim and children calling out ‘Happy Passover’, one may be tempted to dismissively ask ‘what’s the point?’ or ‘how many people even noticed it?’ all valid questions, for a pessimist, but the answer is quite surprising.
According to Google Trends one of today’s most popular searches is ‘mitzvah tank’ coming in at 55th from the top, and its peak was during the parade itself! Geographic data also showed that over 80% of the searches were made from New York.
More pictures in the Extended Article! (By Shmuli Evers)
We would like to wish Mazal Tov to Avshalom Helman (Crown Heights) and Chaya Kaminsky (Crown Heights) on their engagement.
Email your Simcha or Mazal Tov to MazalTov@CrownHeights.info !!
Moments before the annual Mitzvah Tank Parade is about to set off.
Many more pictures in the Extended Article!
JERUSALEM [JTA] — An axe-wielding Palestinian worker killed an Israeli boy and injured another in the West Bank.
The worker began attacking the boys, aged 13 and 7, as he ran with the axe through the community of Bat Ayin, located in the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem, shortly after noon Thursday.
CROWN HEIGHTS [WPIX] — A paroled rapist who served 15 years in jail for attacking two 12 year old girls is in police custody at Montefiore Medical Center, arrested and charged in connection with last week’s double murder in a Crown Heights bodega.
Police say 50 year old Charles Judd of The Bronx has been charged with murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. Reports say he admitted that he was involved in the fatal armed robbery, but did not do the shooting.
UZHGOROD, Ukraine [FJC] — The Jewish community in the Carpathian Region of Ukraine is celebrating a victory this week, with the completion of construction of the home for the local Chabad Lubavitch emissary, Chief Rabbi of Uzhgorod Menachem Taichman, and his wife Chaya Moussia. Last year, their home was torched by neo-Nazis and they all lost all their possessions. As Chassidim, they decided that when they rebuild it, it would be bigger and better and so they added another story in their building plan.
TEL AVIV — “The company has not yet published its financial report, but I hope that we’ll do so by the end of today,” Boymelgreen Capital Ltd. (TASE:BMGN) CEO Gil Tobul told bondholders today. US real estate developer Shaya Boymelgreen controls the company.
Tobul added, “The company had a plan for the sale of assets in order to meet its commitments. We’re dealing with a crisis, which no here has ever experienced, and the sales failed. The offers we received for not solve the problems.”
TORONTO — Anti-Semitism in Canada reached an all-time high last year, despite the government’s efforts to combat the phenomenon, B’nai Brith said Tuesday in its annual report, adding that Jews were being used as scapegoats for the ailing economy.
WASHINGTON — Patricia Jinich teaches regional Mexican cooking at the Mexican Cultural Institute here. But at the Lubavitch Center recently she showed about 70 Jewish women how to cook for Passover.
She made gefilte fish in a Veracruz sauce of tomatoes, pickled peppers, olives and capers, and spoke of how her Polish grandfather loved to wrap fresh, warm tortillas around gribenes (chicken cracklings with fried onions) with a side of guacamole.
DES MOINES, AI [AP] — Attorneys for the owner and former managers of an embattled northeast Iowa kosher slaughterhouse are scheduled to appear Wednesday in court in Waterloo to seek a delay in a trial on child labor charges.
Other issues expected to be argued during the hearing involving Agriprocessors Inc. of Postville and its former leaders include motions to dismiss and motions for change of venue.
CrownHeights.info presents this weeks Living Torah excerpt. Also on this weeks Living Torah (Volume 60, Episode 238): Today’s Front: Outreach, Nigun “Zol Shoin Zein Di Geulah” and See No Evil.
Living Torah is a member supported project. Become a member today at www.LivingTorah.org!
Also available with Hebrew, French, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish subtitles.
We would like to wish Mazal Tov to Moshe and Chaya Sima (nee Vorst) Benjaminson on the birth of their son.
May the newborn be a source of Nachas to his parents, grandparents and Klal Yisroel.
Email your Simcha or Mazal Tov to MazalTov@CrownHeights.info !!
KHARKOV, Ukraine — Excitement is building in Jewish communities throughout Ukraine in anticipation of the first Blessing of the Sun since the fall of the Iron Curtain.
BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn developer who federal prosecutors say took condo buyers and banks for more than $18 million in an elaborate mortgage scam was indicted Wednesday on bank fraud charges.
The case against Eliyahu Ezagui, 48, who feds say preyed on his fellow Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights, stems from a Daily News investigation last year. Ezagui enticed scores of families into buying the homes but never turned over the deeds, according to the indictment and The News’ probe.
When Laura Manischewitz Alpern moved to New York from Cincinnati in 1959, she was taken aback that strangers recognized her name. Her great-grandfather Dov Behr Manischewitz started baking matzahs in 1888, as a young immigrant in Cincinnati — and ultimately revolutionized the matzah business, producing square matzahs by machine. Her book, “Manishewitz: The Matzo Family” (Ktav), is a family history and the story of the iconic company, sold to a conglomerate in 1990. Alpern was recently visiting Manhattan, from her home in Geneva, Switzerland.
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