Officers Went Missing During Gunfight

The nearly empty Police Station towards the end of the call last night

After recieving a bunch of calls inquiring about the massive police movement yesterday [Wednesday] at around 7:20pm, here is clarification as to what has happened. Nearly every police officer in the 71st precincts district responded to a call of shots fired, leaving very few squad cars parked at the station.

An officer patroling on foot called in an incident of shots being fired on Winthrop & E. 94th St. and following this report the dispatcher was unable to get back in touch with the unit. The dispatcher immediately classified it as an officer unaccounted for, sparking this huge response to make sure the officer was ok.

It took some time but all the officers that were on foot were accounted for, and thank G-D no Police Officer was hurt, but the original call for the shots fired was accurate, a man was shot and police continued to look for the shooter.

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Taking a Break from Politics

Menachem Brod – Col.Org.Il

“The value of political leaders and heads of political parties is a matter of controversy. There are those who regard them highly and others dislike them. At this time it is fitting that all politics be put aside” – according to the weekly editorial of Rabbi Menachem Brod in this week’s ‘ Sichas Hashavua’, published by Tsach.

“It is interesting that there is hardly a person that can explain this weird phenomenon: We are suddenly introduced to a great leader, a man of vision, brave, strong minded, a perfect family man, classical music fan, and such that has an amazing sense of humor and other unique characteristics. This person emerges like a meteor in the darkness. Since his arrival two years ago he has become the great leader, the father of the nation and has recently earned other generously bestowed titles.

Police apprehend a mugger wanabe and dump thief

Police Officers taking the confiscated goods into the precinct

Earlier this week a Bochur who was walking on Eastern Parkway was approached by 2 black men which began walking beside him and told him “don’t make a big fuss, just hand us over the money, we have a gun”, the Bochur who took the risk thinking they didn’t have one, pulled out his cell phone and called 911 as they were standing next to him. The perps immediately fled.

When the Police showed up on scene (within 3 minutes) they took the Bochur around to search for the perps, who had fled into a building, and saw that the building had a rear exit, and had lost them. The detectives then filed a report and gave the Bochur a cell phone number to call in case he sees them again.

Today was that day, the Bochur was walking Eastern Parkway again and spotted one of the muggers, and called the detective who was there instantly and apprehended the suspect (18), who has a prior record.

Police apprehend 16 year old car thief

CrownHeights.info received a report that this morning [Wednesday] at around 8:30am two police officers that were sitting in an unmarked police cruiser on Eastern Parkway and Brooklyn Ave. spotted a 16 year old black male looking into cars and forcing entry by breaking the windows of 2 cars.

The officers apprehended and arrested the kid, and in a search of the suspect’s possessions the police found a sum of cash and change among other things taken from the vehicles. B”H it seems the police are getting out there and taking care to put a stop to the absurd occurrence of so many cars being broken into. Thank you NYPD keep up the good work.

STATEMENT BY AGUDAS CHASIDEI CHABAD OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION ON THE ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACK IN MOSCOW

JANUARY 11, 2006—We are outraged by the vicious anti-Semitic attack against Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the Former Soviet Union and those gathered in its Moscow Headquarters and Synagogue. We join with people of conscience around the world in condemning this hateful act, and send our prayers to those injured during the assault.

Victims of the despicable attack include Rabbi Isaac Kogan, who testified in April, 2005 before the U.S. Helsinki Commission about Chabad’s efforts to retrieve the Schneerson Collection of sacred texts from Moscow. Rabbi Kogan is a famous refusenik appointed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, to be part of Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the Former Soviet Union. The other leaders of the organization are Rabbi Yosef Aronov, Rabbi Boruch S. Cunin, and Rabbi Sholom Ber Levin, who are now en route to Moscow.

Among those seriously injured and hospitalized is Rabbi Kogan’s son- in-law, Rabbi Michoel Mishulovin, who had emigrated with his family from Russia to Los Angeles in the 1970s, but recently returned to Russia to assist the Jewish community there. Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States has been aiding efforts to secure medical care for the wounded, with the assistance of Lev Leviev. Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar, has been in touch with police authorities to ensure that justice is done.

Update: Attacker injures 8 people in Moscow synagogue

Please say Tehillim for Michoel Gershon Ben Fruma Sara

R. Yitzchok Kogen Being interviews by local Russian TV

An attacker stabbed eight people with a hunting knife in a synagogue in central Moscow Wednesday, Moscow Prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said.

The shaven-headed attacker, 20-year old Muscovite Alexander Koptsev, rushed into the synagogue, during a Minyan for Maariv, shouting, “I came to kill you,” witnesses said.

Four people, including the synagogue’s Rabbi, R. Michoel Mishulovin, were left in a serious condition, the NTV television channel said.

The Rabbi was taken to hospital and was undergoing surgery, Borukh Gorin, a spokesman for the Federation of Russia’s Jewish Communities, said. (Please say Tehillim for Michoel Gershon Ben Fruma Sara)

More pictures and the rest of the article in the Extended Article. (WARNING: Some of the pictures are very gruesome and graphical.)

Man goes on stabbing spree in Chabad House

News Observer

A man armed with a knife stabbed several people in a downtown Moscow synagogue Wednesday, with some seriously wounded, before the rabbi’s son wrestled the assailant to the ground, police officials and witnesses said.

At least six people were hospitalized in the attack at the Chabad Bronnaya synagogue, a duty officer with the Central Moscow district police precinct told The Associated Press.

A secretary at the synagogue who gave her first name as Tatyana told AP that the attacker wounded seven, some seriously. She said she heard people screaming as the man stabbed them, but the man himself was silent.

Fire on Utica Ave. & Carroll St.

At around 11:00pm last night [Tuesday] a fire broke out in an apartment on the 4th floor of a building on the corner of Utica & Carroll, there was no one in the apartment when the fire broke out. Initial reports have the fire tagged as “suspicious” but the cause of it is still unknown. This building is owned by a Lubavitcher from Crown Heights.

FDNY’s response time was really good, with 5 trucks and a lot of ambulances on standby just incase of injuries, they managed to limit the fire damage to only one apartment, but the smoke and water damage can not be contained and residents from neighboring apartments were forced out of their homes for the night.

More pictures in the Extended Article.

in other words

A paragrapgh by paragrapgh refutation of the op-ed by Marvin Schick in JPost.
by: Yosef Lewis

Chabad-lubavitch is one and entirely the same thing for starters. Its not the wal-mart of Jewish life, yet it is a mega phenomenon that keeps growing at a remarkable rate, by entering the underserved areas, and by assessing the lack of basic services by certain well-funded organizations, and in turn providing, the all important services.

Growth provides the impetus and resources for additional growth. Wal-Mart provides better pricing by employing cost saving techniques such as outsourced product labor, wholesale, and the like. And Wal-mart provides long overdue relief for all those not in the first income bracket, so-so much for wal-mart.

Slashed menorahs deemed hate crimes

Gazette.net

A recent spate of attacks on Hanukkah displays, two of them in Gaithersburg, are being investigated as ‘‘hate crimes” and will be reported to federal investigators, county police said last week.

‘‘Montgomery County Police take reports of hate crimes very seriously and they are thoroughly investigated,” police said in a statement Friday. ‘‘In addition, reports of hate crimes are provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

The move follows two incidents late last month and another early this month in which vandals destroyed inflatable menorahs that were parts of ‘‘Chanukah Wonderland” displays in Gaithersburg and Rockville, and then damaged another menorah after stealing Chanukah signs from it.

Religious Intolerance?

This Chanukah Chabad enjoyed the most positive press it ever received, and this seems to irritate some other religious groups as well as freelance rag writers. Several organizations and newsletters have recently published Chanukah photo galleries with pictures of Chabad Menorah Lightings but would not dare give any credit or even a mention of Chabad. One such example; the Five Towns Newspaper in its photo gallery of Chanukah has a description for every one of their pictures. The big Menorah – with no description. Why?

What particularly got me to write this report was a recent article in The Jerusalem Post by Marvin Schick, one who has a massive chip on his shoulder, may he be blessed (his soul needs it). An article which criticizes Chabad, ridicules, its traditions and accuses its Shluchim of permitting synagogue regulars to drive to Shul on Shabbos, and while I would expect an article to at the very least have facts, this once contains none. I didn’t find anything of truth in the article and I feel pure hatred against Chabad in reading his article. He very nicely complains of how Chabad is growing too quick while other outreach organizations cannot keep up to it. The truth is, he is absolutely correct and sad for him because they will never catch up. I will paraphrase what I’ve heard from a rabbi of Ohr Same’ach: “We will never get anywhere close to Chabad and I don’t know how they do it, I have to pay rabbi’s to do a 9 to 5 job while in Chabad they leave on Shlichus not knowing if they will ever earn a penny”.

Scripture, Meet the Web: Placing Limits on 24/7

NY Times
Shmuel Gniwisch, who founded the online jewelry seller Ice.com, does not process orders on the Jewish Sabbath.

And on the seventh day, online retailers rested. At least some of them.

Consumers have grown to expect around-the-clock pampering from Internet merchants, who have been pushed by rivals to offer customer service even on weekends and to remedy site glitches immediately, no matter when they happen.

But this trend is being bucked by some electronic retailers – many with religiously observant owners and executives who leave their sites up and running on their Sabbath, but do not complete orders, work on the site or otherwise do anything to help customers. And despite an increasingly competitive environment and ever more demanding customers, they say their businesses have not suffered.

Targeted Arrests, A Good Way Of Weathering Crime

Plainclothes police officers cuffing the suspect

This afternoon [Monday] at approximately 5:10pm, a white station wagon was pulled over by a plainclothes police unit on Albany Ave. between Eastern Parkway and Union Street. The two officers then jumped out of their cars, approached the driver, and after a quick cursory check of the vehicle, the driver was asked to step out, searched, cuffed, and put in the back of the unmarked vehicle. The police then parked the suspect’s vehicle and drove of with the suspect without ‘lights & sirens’.

All this took place in the span of about 2 minutes, maybe a little less. It looks like they knew who they were after, and came prepared. IY”H more criminals will be put away in a timely fashion, and we will be able to once again walk our streets without the fear of being attacked or mugged.

The Fast of the 10th of Tevet

Chabad.org

The Fast begins at 5:52am and ends at 5:27pm

On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later — on the 9th of Tammuz, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on the 9th of Av that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Tevet 10 is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak through nightfall, and add the Selichot and other special supplements to our prayers. (More recently, Tevet 10 was chosen to also serve as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown.)

Higher postage rates go into effect

Mailing a letter now costs 39 cents, another hike likely next year

The new 39¢ stamp and a 2¢ stamp to use with the old stamps.

It now costs Americans 39 cents to mail a letter after new postage rates went into effect Sunday.

The increase follows legislation requiring the Postal Service to place $3 billion in an escrow account this year. Another rate boost is likely next year to cover rising costs for the agency. Stamp prices last went up in June 2002.

Many rates, such as parcel post and advertising mail, vary by distance or whether the material is presorted. Rate changes taking effect, including some estimates for typical mailed items:

More car Break-ins

Photo for illustration purposes

I have received quite a few more reports from people about their cars getting broken into, one on Kingston & President, another on Eastern Parkway & New York Ave. and one more on Eastern Parkway & Brooklyn Ave.

If you are a victim of a break-in you MUST report it to the police and file a police report, this falls under the category of Auto Larceny which the mayors office claims has only been falling for the past years, which we all know is not true. So if you had a window broken file that police report, and also call it in to the Shomrim Hotline so the patrolling units will know where to focus.

You can call the Shomrim Hotline at (718) 774-3333 24/7