Handwritten Torah finished in Poughkeepsie

About 200 people from different Jewish congregations and affiliations turned out Sunday in Poughkeepsie to witness the completion of a handwritten Torah scroll.

They saw a rabbi from Montreal, Canada write the last of the 600,000 characters in Hebrew letters for the Mid-Hudson Valley Community Torah.

A police escort then led the Torah on a parade through Poughkeepsie’s business district to the Chabad House where a celebration was held.

Hindy Borenstein of the Chabad House said the Torah, written on parchment, is the same unaltered text for thousands of years, regardless of Jewish affiliation.

Holocaust Survivor Simon Wiesenthal Dies

Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II, then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Wiesenthal, who helped find one-time SS leader Adolf Eichmann and the policeman who arrested Anne Frank, died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

“I think he’ll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice,” Hier told The Associated Press.

A survivor of five Nazi death camps, Wiesenthal changed his life’s mission after the war, dedicating himself to tracking down Nazi war criminals and to being a voice for the 6 million Jews who died during the onslaught. He himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust.

Police Commander Retires; Racial Tensions Simmer at Precinct

Deputy Inspector William McClellan, Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct, has resigned from the police force to accept a job in the private sector, it was announced at Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting of the 71st Precinct Community Council, an organization that serves as a liaison between the civilian community and the local precinct. The precinct’s Executive Officer, Captain Daniel Sosnowik – an Orthodox Jew who wears a yarmulke with his police uniform – has been in charge pending the scheduled arrival this week of a new Commanding Officer, another Deputy Inspector.

Most police precincts in New York City are commanded by a Captain. However, the 71st precinct, which includes all of Jewish Crown Heights south of Eastern Parkway, has long been considered a particularly responsible post, in part because of the potentially volatile mix of races and religions within its borders. Accordingly, the Commanding Officer in Crown Heights has, for many years, consistently been someone of the rank of Deputy Inspector (the next higher rank above Captain).

Inflation In Lubavitch, High Holiday Seats In 770 Going Up 11%

Anash and visitors who are interested in purchasing seats in 770 for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur 5766 will have to pay 11% more than they did last year.

This year, seats are going for $250, while last year they sold for $225 each. The price includes membership, which can be purchased on its own for $100 for those who don’t buy seats.

In a letter signed by the Gaboyim they write that the price increase is “due to the increased costs of maintaining the Shul.”

According to a reliable source who spoke to SNS on the condition of anonymity, in total, there are about 1400 seats sold and the hope is that the extra $25 per seat will bring in another $35,000 of much needed funds.

N.Y. Independence Party Ousts Fulani

A woman accused of making anti-Semitic remarks was removed Sunday from the executive committee of New York’s small but politically influential Independence Party.

Lenora Fulani’s comments had drawn criticism not only from fellow Independence Party members, but also from powerful Democrats such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and from Republicans including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Fulani has been accused of saying Jews “function as mass murderers of people of color” and “had to sell their souls” to acquire Israel.

Detained Gaza Protester Tells His Story

Jonathan Silverman attended Stony Brook from 2000-2004. The Chabad Lubavitch, with the help of Stony Brook’s Rabbi Adam, organized a trip to the Gaza Strip to protest the forced evacuation of Israelis from the territory during mid-August. Jon, with roughly a dozen other Jewish Americans, flew to Gaza to join the thousands of people who staged non-violent protests against this policy.

Jew’s story in America is a story of America itself

Speaking at the national dinner organised celebrating 350 years of Jewish life in the U.S., the American President George W. Bush hailed the contribution of Jews in the country, saying that the story of the Jewish people in America is a story of America itself.

“The story of the Jewish people in America is a story of America itself. The pilgrims considered this nation a new Israel, a refuge from persecution in Europe. Jewish Americans have made countless contributions to our land,” Bush said.

The gala dinner, held in the national building museum, concludes a year of events all over the U.S., marking 350 years since Jewish refugees fcoming from Brazil settled settled in the United States, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Sighted

On the major cross street of 4th Ave. in downtown Brooklyn and 9th St.

L’chayim

Jews split by a messianic message

Rabbi Ramy Banin, a big man with a long grey beard, is sitting in his office switching easily between English, Italian, Hebrew and Yiddish as he chats with visitors who walk through its open door. Outside, the late-summer sun slants across the small square of Venice’s Jewish Ghetto, warming the red and yellow walls of the tall buildings and the 500-year-old synagogue, past the memorial to the Jews deported in the Second World War and past shops selling menorah, stars of David and other Hebraica.

A Venezuelan stops by the rabbi’s office to introduce his Polish wife – ‘a good Jewish girl, of course,’ he says. An American woman wanders in and leaves with a handful of pamphlets. Outside, a group of schoolchildren sing a few lines of a religious song.

India’s lost tribe recognised as Jews
after 2,700 years

With a cry of “Mazeltov” and a Rabbi’s congratulatory handshake, hundreds of tribal people from India’s north-east were formally converted to Judaism this week after being recognised as descendants of the 10 Lost Tribes exiled from Israel 2,700 years ago.

A rabbinical court, dispatched with the blessing of Israel’s Chief Rabbi, travelled 3,500 miles to Mizoram on India’s border with Burma to perform the conversions using a Mikvah – ritual bath – built specially for the purpose.

There were emotional scenes as the Oriental-looking hill people professed their faith, repeating the oath from Deuteronomy: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”

After 55-year wait,
Jewish veteran to receive Medal of Honor

Tibor Rubin kept his promise to join the U.S. Army after American troops late in World War II freed him from the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

A Hungarian Jew, Rubin immigrated to New York after the war, joined the Army and fought as an infantryman on the frontlines in the Korean War. In 1951, Chinese troops captured Cpl. Rubin and other U.S. soldiers and he became a prisoner of war for 2½ years.

Drawing from his experience at the Nazi concentration camp, Rubin daily risked his own life by stealing food from his captors and provided hope and crude medical care that kept more than 40 U.S. soldiers alive.

Hi-Tech NYPD Joins Pod People

Meet the new, funky NYPD — now available on your MP3 player.

The Police Department yesterday introduced a podcast featuring traffic reports, public-service announcements and features on its work.

The podcasts can be downloaded from the NYPD’s Web site and played on any MP3 player or over the Internet for those without the latest high-tech toy.

They will be updated every Saturday, although Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the series may be updated more regularly if big events or the number of users warrant it.

NOTE: To subscribe to the PodCast please visit NYPD website by CLICKING HERE

Nature’s Wrath, Or God’s

When Israel’s most prominent Sephardic rabbi described Hurricane Katrina as America’s punishment for supporting Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza — and condemned its mainly black victims for failing to study Torah — many Jewish leaders here were appalled.

But in Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s view linking the worst natural disaster in American history to U.S. support for the Gaza withdrawal is not unique among rabbis.

Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, the leader of the Lubavitch chasidic sect’s center in central Tel-Aviv, among others, gave a sermon from his pulpit soon after the hurricane voicing the same theme. A popular radio rabbi echoed him. And a noted Jerusalem kabbalist reportedly also made similar comments.

Did Our Ancestors Fail?

Many battles have been fought to bring the world to a state of redemption. Many tears have been offered in prayer. Much blood has been shed in martyrdom. Innumerable Mitzvos and acts of goodness were committed. Huge sums of charity were distributed. Much Torah has been studied. Many leading rabbis, tzaddikim, and famous kabbalists, giants of the spirit, have poured their energies into the efforts to bring redemption to an embattled world.

Yet inexplicably the redemption has failed to materialize. As of today the exile remains stubbornly intractable and unresolved.

The Perfect Steak-Out

THURSDAY NIGHT 10:15PM – Derek Nelson, probably one of the dumbest criminals to hit the streets of Crown Heights tried to strike again after being released from police custody a mere three days ago.

It all began when a senior member of Shomrim spied Nelson sneaking around on Union St. near Kingston Ave. The member called for back up in case Nelson was up to his usual antics which sadly for him he was.

While being watched by over twenty units Nelson made his way into a Jewish owned car, parked on Albany Ave. between President St. and Union St. Just as Nelson was putting things into his pockets which the owner of the vehicle had left in his car, the Shomrim units quickly made their move and detained him inside the car until the police were able to arrive.

NOTE: There are 23 more pictures in the extended article. Just click the line below.