Couple brings effort for Chabad outreach to Wallingfords’ Jews

Rabbi Baruch Kaplan sat on a couch in his living room Tuesday night and spoke about his Jewish heritage with a great sense of pride. He has another couch for anyone wishing to join him.

Kaplan moved to Wallingford just over a month ago with his wife Raizy and their two young daughters to serve as the directors of the local Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a worldwide Jewish outreach organization.

Sharon Taken to Hospital

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken to a Jerusalem hospital Sunday after feeling ill while working in his office, two Israel television stations reported. One of the stations said he suffered a minor stroke and had lost consciousness.

Channel 2 TV said the roads around the hospital were closed before Sharon, 77, arrived in his official vehicle.

Channel 10 TV, quoting police officials it did not identify, said Sharon apparently lost consciousness. He was taken directly to the emergency room of the hospital, the media reports said. Officials in Sharon’s office were not available for comment.

Update On The Transit Strike: Headed To Court

With a promised strike less than 48 hours away, the Transport Workers Union was planning to seek a court order Sunday against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — claiming that the agency was breaking state law by demanding changes in pension benefits for new hires, a union lawyer said.

There were no reports of progress following talks between the two sides on Saturday, and commuters were making plans for a possible shutdown of the nation’s largest mass transit system at the height of the Christmas rush.

According to Walter Meginniss Jr., the union planned to file the complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, The New York Times reported on its Web site Sunday.

Hasidics put down roots in Q-C

Rabbi Shneur Cadaner dresses in a traditional Orthodox Jewish manner and seems not to notice any extra attention he receives while moving about the Quad-Cities. He is a man on a mission.

The rabbi, his wife Chana and their infant son moved to a north Davenport home six months ago as part of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement. “Our outreach is to enrich the Jewish lifestyle,” he said, noting that the couple has sponsored several events and has “Chanukah on Ice” planned for Dec. 27 at the Quad-City Sports Center in Davenport.

“We give Jews reasons to explore Judaism,” Chana Cadaner said, noting that a good deal of reaction has come from older persons who remember the more traditional practices the couple supports.

The Festival of Lights in Manatee

Rabbi Mendy Bukiet sports a menorah on the roof of his car, all the better he says to bring attention to Hanukkah’s true meaning.

“I’ve gotten a few thumbs up,” said Bukiet, of Chabad of Bradenton, after a day of driving his Hyundai with the Jewish candle holder with eight bulbs and a helper bulb attached to the car’s roof. ” I think I am probably the first person ever to have a menorah on a car here.”

Also called The Festival of Lights, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days, Dec. 26 through Jan. 2 this year.

Bukiet, who had his metal menorah custom-made in New York, will insert the first bulb into the menorah on Dec. 25 and light another each day thereafter.

Brooklyn Jury Finds Norman Guilty, Again

If you are all wondering why I am covering this, is because he was the CHJCC’s former nominee for Assemblyman

The Brooklyn Democratic Party’s former leader, Clarence Norman Jr., was convicted yesterday of stealing a $5,000 check from his re-election campaign, a felony that could land him in prison for up to seven years.

The guilty verdict comes just two and a half months after Norman was convicted on three felony charges for soliciting illegal campaign contributions. The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, has another two cases pending against him.

Handed down after about a week of deliberations, the verdict is another triumph for the district attorney’s office, which is said to be pursuing Norman aggressively to help crack a larger judicial corruption case in the borough.

In D.C.’s political maelstrom, Chabad man makes his mark

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Chabad’s representative in Washington, bears certain similarities to the menorah whose lighting he engineers each year on the White House lawn: big, warm, and impossible to ignore.

What makes Shemtov remarkable is that in his 12 years of dealing with the world’s most powerful power brokers, few seem to consider him overbearing.

“We have nothing in common except love of Judaism and love of politics — and it’s not the same Judaism and not the same politics — but we’re still very good friends,” said Steve Rabinowitz, a former Clinton administration official and a longtime consultant to the Reform and Conservative movements.

Jewish women find togetherness, illumination

The ladies came one by one to Sharon Mizrahi’s Cape Coral home Wednesday night. They chatted about the house and decorating, traffic and the holidays. They talked about Ohio State football with Mizrahi’s daughter, Tracey, who was home for the semester break.

Then, while the pool fountain bubbled pleasantly on the other side of the open French doors, they settled comfortably onto upholstered sofas and got down to business.

Hanukkah is a symbol, a message of the triumph of freedom over aggression, of light over darkness, said Rivky Labkowski, a petite 24-year-old.

Today, that darkness includes the “insidious erosion of time-honored values and principles that are the foundation of any decent society,” she told the members of the Jewish Women’s Circle of Chabad of Cape Coral.

Olive oil tells the story of Hanukkah

“You guys are the Maccabees of today,” Michael Albukerk told his enthralled audience, “the ones who will keep Judaism alive.”

Albukerk and Schneer Friedman of Tzivos Hashem arrived at Temple Emanu-El on Wednesday with baskets of olives, lots of hammers and wooden pegs, test tubes, an olive press, cotton balls and a centrifuge to teach students in the synagogue’s Hebrew School a thing or two — or 100, to be more exact — about Hanukkah.

At the end, there was a quiz (a hard one!) and prizes, and everyone took home a menorah they had made themselves.

Tzivos Hashem is an organization of Chabad Lubavitch in Brooklyn that sends teams to Hebrew schools, day schools, even the occasional public school, to lead holiday-themed workshops on everything from shofars to lulavs. It was olive oil that brought them to Port Richmond this week.

Chabad Menorahs Gain Acceptance

Ten years ago, the American Jewish Congress sued the city of Beverly Hills, Calif., to block the local Chabad house from erecting a 27-foot menorah in a public park near City Hall.

Displaying the menorah — a Jewish religious symbol — on public property, the AJCongress argued, was unconstitutional.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the city, allowing Chabad to put up the large candelabra. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed the decision.

Latke Larry Cooks Up Dough for Kids

For a second or two, it seems like the cloth doll is going to leap from the table to the stove and start wielding a spatula.

Or maybe it’s just that Latke Larry’s creator, Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann, head of the Ohio State University Chabad House in Columbus, is so excited about the singing, dancing Chanukah action figure and how it will benefit children with special needs that his enthusiasm seems capable of casting a spell.

“How can you resist Latke Larry? He’s all about transforming the ‘oy’ of Judaism to ‘joy,'” says the rabbi, fidgeting in his chair as he activates the doll’s song.

Subways & Buses Running, No Strike

Breaking News: Transport Workers Union President Roger Toussaint announced at 7:15 a.m. press conference that a series of strikes will begin.

The New York City transit union called for a partial strike against private bus companies but says it will continue negotiating.

The Transport Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ended their talks at about 4:30 a.m. EST. An announcement at union headquarters is expected shortly.

New York City subways and buses are rolling Friday after a marathon bargaining session that at least temporarily put on hold the threat of a strike.

The Air Traffic Controllers’ Strike

In event of the current looming strike that threatens our transit system and entire city, I thought it would be appropriate to bring a story from the past.

On August 3, 1981 nearly 13,000 of the 17,500 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) walked off the job, hoping to disrupt the nation’s transportation system to the extent that the federal government would accede to its demands for higher wages, a shorter work week, and better retirement benefits. At a press conference in the White House Rose Garden that same day, President Reagan responded with a stern ultimatum: The strikers were to return to work within 48 hours or face termination. As federal employees the controllers were violating the no-strike clause of their employment contracts. In 1955 Congress had made such strikes a crime punishable by a fine or one year of incarceration — a law upheld by the Supreme Court in 1971. Nevertheless, 22 unauthorized strikes had occurred in recent years — by postal workers, Government Printing Office and Library of Congress employees, and by air traffic controllers who staged “sick-outs” in 1969 and 1970.

Update on the looming Subway Strike

For the time being there is no Transit strike, but the possibility that there may be one is still a possibility. MTA officials and Labor Union officials stayed at the table till well passed the 12:00am dead line, they were there till 4:30am and an announcement on what is going on is scheduled for 6:00am.

If there were to be a strike, it would severely disrupt the ability for all those that go out on Mivtzoim every Friday, since the police are going to enact a rule that if there were to be a strike, the only way to get into a city would be in a car with 4 or more people. And due to the fact that Shabbos comes in very early, walking isn’t really a practical option.

For the time being (5:30am) all the buses and trains are still running properly.

UPDATE: The union leader just announced that there will be a series of strikes starting with private bus lines. This is a very cryptic message but what I think we can safely assume that all buses and trains will be running properly.