NYPD Deploys First of 500 Security Cameras

Along a gritty stretch of street in Brooklyn, police this month quietly launched an ambitious plan to combat street crime and terrorism. But instead of cops on the beat, wireless video cameras peer down from lamp posts about 30 feet above the sidewalk.

They were the first installment of a program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance “ring of steel” modeled after security measures in London’s financial district.

Officials of the New York Police Department _ which considers itself at the forefront of counterterrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks _ claim the money would be well-spent, especially since the revelations that al-Qaida members once cased the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions.

Rabbinical Students Aid Jewish Community for Passover

RYBINSK, Russia – The Jewish community of Rybinsk is currently hosting a visit by two rabbinical students, both of whom attend the Chicago Yeshiva. Yosef and Sholom are from the USA and Canada respectively. The two young emissaries are visiting Rybinsk, a settlement that does not have a resident rabbi, in order to assist the local community in holding its Passover Seders thanks to a collaborative initiative between the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS and Lubavitch World Headquarters.

Since their arrival, the students have been on a very tight schedule. Together with active community members and community Chairman Leonid Berkovsky, they took part in a conference call with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and other members of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia on Passover. In the lead-up to that discussion, the participants took the opportunity to discuss the current issues and challenges facing the local community in developing Jewish life in Rybinsk.

The Torah tradition

Dianne and Anthony Medina wanted to replace Chabad Jewish Center’s Torah, which came from Eastern Europe and is more than 50 years old. The letters in the scroll containing the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures were fading, and repairing them is difficult to do according to the letter of the law.

They shopped for a Torah on eBay, but the scrolls there were old, too, and in need of repair. So, Dianne says, “I asked the rabbi how much it would cost to buy a new Torah, and he said about $20,000.”

The Medinas — along with Dianne’s brother — immediately pledged the $20,000 to commission a new Torah that would be hand-lettered by a scribe, or sofer. “To the best of my knowledge,” says Chabad Rabbi Berel Levertov, “this is the first time the Jewish community of Santa Fe has ever commissioned a Torah.”

Nine Dead and 66 Wounded in Tel Aviv Suicide Bombing

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An Arab suicide bomber, detonated a large explosive at a Tel Aviv fast food stand in the Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood Monday afternoon, killing at least nine civilians.

At least 66 persons were wounded, with 15 sustaining moderate to severe injuries. The wounded have been evacuated to local hospitals, among them, Ichilov, Beilinson, Wolfson, and Tel Hashomer.

Of those seriously injured, at least five are reported to be in critical condition.

Police are investigating how the terrorist reached the Tel Aviv destination and whether any assistance was received by other terrorists still in the vicinity.

Swastika found on Holocaust memorial

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Officials are trying to determine who defaced the Holocaust Memorial on Albany Avenue in front of the Chabad House Synagogue.

A passerby notice the red swastika painted on the memorial.

The swastika was painted on a memorial that honors the death of 6 million Jews lost in the Holocaust during World War II.

“I was very hurt, very disappointed, and very worried,” says Rabbi Gopin.

Rabbi Joseph Gopin of the Chabad Lubavitch Center of Greater Hartford learned of the spray-painted swastika from a police officer early Sunday morning.

Education proclamation presented

In honor of April 9, 2006, corresponding to 11 Nissan 5766, which marks 104 years since the birth of The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, Mayor William D. Euille issued a proclamation of “104 days of education in the city of Alexandria.” The 104 days began on Sunday, April 9.

The Proclamation pays tribute to the Rebbe who has over his years of dedicated leadership, established more than 3,000 Chabad Lubavitch Centers, helping people of all walks of life throughout the world, from Australia to Africa, Holland to Argentina; from Moscow to Jerusalem.

Jewish Learning Institute grows with each new class

Although Portland has long been home to a vital and always growing Chabad Lubavitch organization, this has been the first year that Chabad’s seven-year-old Rohr Jewish Learning Institute has offered classes in Portland.

Every 12 months, JLI offers a new series of three courses in more than 150 cities around the world. The study year begins with a course focusing on basic aspects of Judaism. That is followed by a course on kabbalah, and then a course addressing a contemporary issue

According to Portland Chabad Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm, the adult study program attracted immediate interest among Portland area Jews and only has grown with each new class.

PBS FEATURE: Passover Matzah

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Every year as Passover approaches, Jewish children learn the significance of unleavened bread — matzah — eaten at each Passover seder. We found Jewish kids learning to make matzah at the Temple Sha’arey Shalom School in Springfield, New Jersey. The chief baker is Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum.

Rabbi ZALMAN GROSSBAUM (Chabad-Lubavitch, New Jersey): The matzah, because of its symbolism, is definitely the icon of Passover, and eating it is a biblical obligation. When we start the matzah bakery, we first introduce the kids to the story of Passover.

(Telling Joke to Students at Sha’arey Shalom Jewish School, Springfield, NJ): “Knock, knock.” Pharaoh says, “Who’s there?” He says, “Moses.” He says, “Moses who?” He says, “I don’t have time for knock, knock jokes.” “I have something very important to tell you.” He says, “What? What did you want to tell me?” He says, “I came to tell you to let my people …”

Move against Russian rabbi blasted

Russian Jewish leaders criticized a lawmaker’s motion to check how one of Russia’s chief rabbis received Russian citizenship.

The development concerns Berel Lazar, chief Lubavitch emissary in the former Soviet Union and head of the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities, the region’s largest Jewish group. Last Friday, the Duma, Russia’s lower house of Parliament, authorized a committee to file an inquiry with the authorities to clarify why Lazar, an Italian-born U.S. citizen, was made a Russian citizen without undergoing required naturalization procedures.

The motion was proposed by Boris Vinogradov, a member of the nationalist Motherland Party.

Synagogue ripped on its parking

Chabad at the Beaches, a Jewish worship group in Ponte Vedra Beach, has grown considerably since its creation two and a half years ago.

And since the group is based out of a home across from the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library on State Road A1A, complaints from neighbors about noise and parking have grown as well.

“As that congregation has grown, so has the parking problem,” Curtis Long, a next-door neighbor at 523 A1A, told trustees of the Ponte Vedra Municipal Service District (MSD) Monday night.

Long was seeking “some relief” from the dozens of cars that are sometimes parked at an angle on the eastern shoulder of A1A.

Observing Passover in Manatee

In a matter of minutes, Rabbi Mendy Bukiet hurriedly transformed a quiet back room of the River Club at Lakewood Ranch into a temporary place of worship for the first night of Passover.

As Bukiet, of Chabad of Bradenton, poured potatoes and carrots into a cup – one of several dishes consumed during a meal called a seder – he said Passover serves as a reminder to not forget the past. But just as important, it begs to pay attention to today.

Passover, commemorating the flight of the Jewish slaves from Egypt during the reign of the Pharaoh Ramses II, is said to be a spectacle to excite the curiosity of children.

Jewish inmates observe Passover

For two hours a month, a plain conference room becomes a synagogue for a handful of Jewish inmates at the Connally Unit state prison.

Seated on folding chairs around a small table, they cover their heads with yarmulkes. They munch on matzo crackers and macaroons. They drink red grape juice in white Styrofoam cups.

And they make toasts with the man who links the Jewish free world to the faith they struggle to observe behind bars.

Rabbi Yosef Marrus of San Antonio makes an hour-and-a-half drive to this South Texas prison.

“Ovad Chossid Min Haaretz”

Pictures of the Levaya and Shiva of R. Mendel Shemtov OB”M.