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On a freezing Friday night in Brooklyn, a group of 18 Crown Heights residents scurry through the crowds of Jews leaving synagogue and make their way to a second-story apartment on Rogers Avenue for Shabbat dinner.

Inside, hippie art and vintage John Lennon photos share wall space with drawings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late leader of the Chabad hasidic sect, and a yellow "Moshiach" flag, the symbol of the movement's messianic wing. A large glass table holds the evening's spread: sauteed vegetables, kale salad, vegan cholent and a challah so perfect, attendees say, "only a gay man could have baked it."

After a ceremonial blessing over wine and bread, the guests get to talking. A disc jockey, graphic artist and rabbi are having a heated discussion about Chabad's influence on Indian meditation, while a photographer is explaining to a pregnant lady why Mitzvah Tanks, Chabad's outreach vehicles, are the most brilliant thing to happen to planet Earth since Miles Davis.

This is not your typical Shabbat dinner in Crown Heights, the worldwide headquarters of the Chabad movement.

While nearly all the participants were raised in hasidic homes, most have strayed from strict religious practice. Yet rather than flee the neighborhood, they have chosen to remain in the heart of the Chabad community.

"The way I grew up, you had to either be 100 percent committed to religion or you're out. There was no picking and choosing," said Shmuley Toron, the 25-year-old gay man from Cincinnati responsible for the perfect challah. "But there are parts of the religion that I love, which is why we're still here in Crown Heights. And I know I can be as religious as I want to be without having to leave completely."

Toron and his friends are part of a community of Chabad misfits who, while not fully embraced by the Crown Heights mainstream, are beginning to find a place for themselves in an outwardly conformist community. His apartment has gained a reputation as the place people go to party, relax or escape the neighborhood's rigid social norms – a situation that is virtually unthinkable in other hasidic communities, which are more likely to shun members that don't fully abide by communal standards.

"The acceptance fringe members see in Crown Heights is really rare to that community, and it wouldn't happen anywhere else," said Hella Winston, a sociologist and author of the 2006 book "Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels." "Crown Heights is a type of place that is much more tolerant that most insular, hasidic communities. And their attitude is that they will mostly meet you where you are."

http://forward.com/articles/171958/hasidic-rebels-find-home-in-brooklyn-chabad-congre/

People in Boro Park tend to stick with traditional Hasidic clothing like headscarves, shtreimels, and rekels. But on Purim you're bound to see people dressed as clowns, princesses and even SpongeBob SquarePants. Here are a few Instagram photos from around the neighborhood that give a sense of what it's like on Purim in Boro Park.

http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/171895/instagramming-purim-in-hasidic-boro-park/

A state assemblyman apologized on Monday for donning blackface and wearing an Afro wig at a party celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim, a costume that drew criticism from fellow lawmakers and the Anti-Defamation League bias monitoring group.

Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind of New York City, who had earlier defended the costume on his blog, said he did not mean to offend anyone with the outfit, which also included black sunglasses and an orange jersey.

"It was not meant to offend anybody, it was not meant to hurt anybody. I'm sorry that anyone was," Hikind said in an impromptu news conference, a video of which was posted on the New York Post website.

The costume, which he wore at a party at his home on Sunday, had drawn criticism from the Anti Defamation League, which said that he had "showed terrible judgment," according to the New York Times.

Assemblyman Karim Camara, the chairman of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, said he hoped Hikind could recognize the painful history behind blackface.

Blackface was often used in minstrel shows in the 19th and early 20th centuries featuring white performers portraying African Americans, often in a degrading manner.

"A lot of black leaders and clergy - elected officials, everyday citizens - were very upset or offended, and had a lot of questions as to, from their point of view, how could someone be so insensitive," Camara was quoted by the New York Times as saying.

Hikind had earlier defended the costume on his blog, saying the objections amounted to "political correctness to the absurd."

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/02/26/blackface-apology-new-york-assemblyman-apologizes-for-blackface-party-costume

William C. Thompson Jr. knows not to initiate a handshake with an Orthodox Jewish woman. He sprinkles Yiddish phrases into his conversations with observant Jews. He is familiar enough with the rituals that, on a recent Friday visit to a home in Midwood, Brooklyn, he commiserated with a woman about the work involved in preparing for the Sabbath.

Mr. Thompson, an Episcopalian, is the only African-American candidate in the 2013 mayoral campaign, and he is focusing much of his effort on rallying support from blacks and Hispanics. But he is also claiming an edge among one of New York City's fastest-growing groups: Orthodox Jews, who are up for grabs in the election and are concentrated in the very Brooklyn neighborhoods that Mr. Thompson's father represented as a legislator and that he has frequented since he was a boy.

"I still remember his bar mitzvah," joked Ben Barber, an observant Jew who owns a linen business in Borough Park.

The wide-open Democratic primary race promises to be a bit of a free-for-all, in which the candidates, with few ideological distinctions among them, jockey for advantage among the many neighborhoods and demographic groups that make up the electorate. Mr. Thompson's courtship of Jewish voters is emblematic of calculations being made by all of the candidates: perhaps 600,000 New Yorkers are expected to participate in the Democratic primary, and many of those voters are expected to be black or Jewish.

For the first time in years, no major Jewish candidate is running for mayor. Mr. Thompson, a former city comptroller, Board of Education president and deputy Brooklyn borough president, is pushing for Jewish support.

Jews outside Manhattan could constitute one-sixth of primary voters, according to demographers, and of that group, maybe 30 percent are from the fast-growing Orthodox population, mostly in Brooklyn.

"I think Billy is going to surprise a lot of people in terms of his support in the Jewish community," said William E. Rapfogel, the politically connected executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. "He's extremely well liked by the Jewish community, and he's built up a lot of credibility and good will over the years."

In the 2009 mayoral race, as the Democratic nominee, Mr. Thompson held his own among Jewish voters against Michael R. Bloomberg's $100 million third-term juggernaut. Whereas Mayor Bloomberg had trounced Fernando Ferrer in Brooklyn's Orthodox neighborhoods in 2005 by five to one, Mr. Thompson lost by just two to one, and drew almost even in Crown Heights and Williamsburg, said John Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York.

Ask Orthodox leaders about Mr. Thompson and the responses are uniformly warm. He was there as a child when his father forged alliances with religious leaders. He helped to defuse tensions after the Crown Heights riots. He fought for Orthodox Jews' interests on education and business issues. And last month, he was the only Democratic candidate at a news conference denouncing Brooklyn College for a discussion of a movement that advocates boycotts of Israel.

That familiarity began with Mr. Thompson's father, William C. Thompson Sr., who, as a state senator, city councilman and judge, represented an evolving swath of central Brooklyn, beginning in the 1960s.

Mr. Thompson's father, who still practices law, routinely resorted to Yiddish phrases. Also, his father's second wife, Sybil Hart Kooper, a state appellate judge who died in 1991, was Jewish.

"It goes back to when I was a child," Mr. Thompson, 59, said in an interview. "I remember being in the car with him — was I 14? — and going to Crown Heights. Even to this day, people that you meet say, 'I remember when you were a teenager.' "

As an aide to Representative Fred Richmond (whose career was later derailed by corruption charges), and then the Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, Mr. Thompson served as an emissary to Orthodox neighborhoods.

Never were his diplomatic skills more in demand than in 1991, when Mr. Golden tracked him down on vacation in France and asked him to return immediately to pacify black and Jewish activists because, Mr. Thompson recalled, "Crown Heights was burning."

"He was helpful as someone who represented authority yet had a common background, or a common race, who manifested a desire to keep things calm, and reason with people," said Milton Mollen, a deputy mayor under David N. Dinkins. "Excellent temperament."

After the Crown Heights riots, Mr. Thompson was active with the organization Blacks and Jews in Conversation, which was co-founded by his father, then an appellate judge. He also found ways, as the Board of Education president, to supply yeshivas with computers and supplies and to ease bus rules for students in religious schools, said Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, the longtime chairman of Community Board 9 in Crown Heights.

Orthodox Jews are hardly monolithic, thanks to divisions among the Satmars and differences among Russian immigrants, Bukharin Jews and others. But there could be 30,000 Orthodox voters in the Democratic primary this year, and they often vote in blocs, said Councilman David G. Greenfield, a Democrat who represents Borough Park and Midwood.

And while Mr. Greenfield has not endorsed anyone, he said he believed that voters would consider longstanding friendships and issues like child care, education and religious liberty.

In the 2001 Democratic primary for comptroller, Mr. Thompson defeated a better-financed candidate, Herbert E. Berman, a Jewish Brooklyn councilman. Mr. Berman said Mr. Thompson "very intelligently kept up his ties with the Orthodox community, and as a consequence, when I felt I should have gotten the endorsement of the Jewish press, they didn't endorse either of us."

Mr. Thompson said he was the first comptroller to make city investments in Israeli bonds. He also took part in a panel, at a 2007 conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee headlined by Vice President Dick Cheney, on financial sanctions against "Iran and other state sponsors of terror."

Early this month, Mr. Thompson was the subject of a lengthy profile, in Hebrew, by an Orthodox magazine, Bakhila. And in December, Mr. Thompson made quite an impression by attending two Hanukkah events in Brooklyn and Manhattan, scheduled for the same hour, and drawing rousing receptions at both.

"Thompson's reputation walked into the room before he did," said Jonathan Greenspun, who served as Mr. Bloomberg's unofficial liaison to the Orthodox community, and was an informal adviser during the 2009 campaign against Mr. Thompson. "Jewish leaders want you to show up, and they want to know: 'Does this guy get me? Does he understand who I am and what my needs are?' And a guy like Thompson — that familiarity, that credibility — is there, without question."

Of course, all of the declared and presumed Democratic candidates are reaching out to Jewish voters. For instance, Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and a former councilman with Borough Park ties, has been attuned to issues grating on Orthodox Jews, like business fines and parking. Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, met recently with Orthodox women who own or manage businesses in Williamsburg. John C. Liu, the comptroller, has tirelessly attended community events.

But at a breakfast with Mr. Thompson at his house in Midwood, Chaskel Bennett, a businessman, used Yiddish to differentiate Mr. Thompson from other politicians. Mr. Thompson, he said, was a "mensch" and had never asked for a dime. Others, by contrast, were "schnorrers" — transactional officials who begged for dollars and votes but did not reciprocate when help was needed.

Mr. Thompson, nodding, noted that he went to middle school a few blocks away. "This isn't about relationships from 5, 10 years ago," he said. "This is my life."

Mr. Bennett added that many voters had "buyer's remorse" about 2009, because they believed the Bloomberg administration was too Manhattan-centric and ruthless in levying fines and fees.

"There are a lot of people in the Orthodox Jewish community who feel that maybe our relationship with Gracie Mansion, with City Hall, would be a lot better had Bill won the election," he said. "Good friends are hard to find, and Bill Thompson is a friend."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/nyregion/thompson-seeks-jews-votes-for-new-york-mayor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The first American-born emigrant elected to the Israeli parliament in a generation is in a unique position to contribute to the defining issue in Israeli politics. Dov Lipman is a 41 year-old rabbi from Silver Spring, Maryland and he is probably as surprised as anyone to be a new member of Israel's Knesset.

"Sharing the burden" is a catchphrase known by just about every Israeli since the national election last month. It refers to the fact that nearly all of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in Israel – tens of thousands of them – are exempt from the military service that is mandatory for most of the rest of the country. They rely heavily on government subsidies and spend long hours in full-time religious study for much of their adulthood. Many do not enter the workforce and therefore do not pay much in the way of taxes.

The situation has caused no small amount of resentment among Israeli voters and they want it to change. So does Rabbi Lipman.

The rabbi's road to the Knesset ran through the less-then-glamorous Israeli city of Bet Shemesh. In late 2011, Bet Shemesh was a cultural battleground. It was big news when members of the Ultra-Orthodox community harassed and spit on an 8 year-old Jewish girl for not dressing modestly enough.

In Bet Shemesh, Lipman became a very public advocate against the extremism and self-imposed isolation of the Ultra-Orthodox community. And for that, he says he was spat upon, had rocks thrown at him and even received death threats. But he kept it up, calling on the Ultra-Orthodox to do more to integrate into mainstream Israeli society.

"It's mostly the political leadership of the Ultra-Orthodox community," Lipman told me last summer. "The average Ultra-Orthodox person on the ground is ready for some kind of a change."

Lipman spoke with me at a small demonstration in Tel Aviv, where a group of young army veterans in t-shirts and jeans were demanding that the Ultra-Orthodox either join the army or do some kind of national service.

The rabbi stood out in this crowd. He was the only person there whose style of dress marked him as an observant Jew. The black yarmulke on his head and his black pinstriped suit was probably similar to the outfit he wore during his time at yeshiva. Judaism puts an emphasis on learning the Old Testament – or Torah. But Lipman told me that there needs to be a better balance.

"Listen, I love studying Torah, I dedicated my life to the rabbinate," he said. But he conceded, "I couldn't sit and study Torah day and night for my entire life. It's not a normal thing."

"There's an elite group that I'm sure can do it and the country's ready to support them and support them well. We're not talking about going into the study halls and clearing them out and giving them a gun and saying, 'serve in the army.' They're talking about community service within their own communities."

That message of compromise earned Lipman a spot in a new political party led by one of Israel's rising stars, Yair Lapid. The former journalist and his Yesh Atid party – it means, 'there is a future' – made "sharing the burden" a centerpiece of their campaign. And they surprised just about everyone in the recent election by winning the second-highest number of seats in the new parliament.

At the beginning of the month, I spoke with Lipman at the Knesset. It was the day he took the oath of office. This meant he had to give up his American citizenship, which he told me was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do.

"You know America meant so much to my family, taking in my family from persecution in Russia and the Holocaust," Lipman said in the crowded entryway of the parliament building.

"America has given me so much in terms of my values of tolerance and respecting one another, I felt like I was smacking my country in the face."

But Lipman seemed giddy to be have a shot at making his mark in Israeli politics. He said he wants his work in the Knesset to be a continuation of what of he was doing as an activist in Bet Shemesh.

"Extremism happens with the Ultra-Orthodox community is isolated. So, the more they're isolated, the more they're not part of the broader society, the more extremism can be bred."

"What we're trying to do is create a situation where they continue religious observance as they are, but they're serving in the army, serving in national service, going to school, working," Lipman said. "It'll be a process, but as we get to that point, there will be less extremism. And events like [what] happened in Bet Shemesh will not happen again."

Lipman repeated to me his belief that many people in the Ultra-Orthodox community are ready for change. And with his religious background, he said he can be a bridge between them and the Israeli mainstream.

But this will not be easy, according to Gil Hoffman, who covers politics for the Jerusalem Post.

"It's true that there is a lot of Ultra-Orthodox grass-roots who realize that things have gotten out of hand," Hoffman said during an interview at his home in Jerusalem. "Unfortunately, it's the rabbis who make the decisions for them. And their rabbis aren't going to realize that anytime soon."

"The challenge," Hoffman said, "can't be underestimated. You're talking about changing a culture among people who are raised to be uncompromising."

Last week, Dov Lipman spoke in parliament for the first time. And he made his pitch for compromise to his Knesset colleagues.

Some 70 years ago, Lipman said his grandmother, Mrs. Ethel Kleinman, emerged from Auschwitz. And as she told him, "there were no sectarian divisions in the death camps."

"No one spoke of secular, religious, traditional or Ultra-Orthodox," Lipman said in American-accented Hebrew. And neither did the Nazis.

"As far as they were concerned, they were all Jews, subject to the same cruel fate."

Lipman went on to call on his colleagues to do the same, by breaking down the sectarian divisions in Israeli politics and society today.

http://www.theworld.org/2013/02/dov-lipman-knesset/

Government plans to make the teaching of evolution compulsory in UK state primary schools have caused consternation within the Orthodox educational world.

The National Association of Jewish Orthodox Schools (Najos), which represents most Orthodox schools in the country, said that it was "very concerned" about the proposals, which were part of a draft national curriculum published for consultation last week.

Rabbi Shimon Winegarten, who is principal of several Najos schools, declared that evolution was "against our belief. Moreover, the theory of evolution is just that — theory; unproven, with unexplained gaping gaps. It is too difficult to explain all that to primary school children."

Rabbis, he said, were "not in favour of this theory becoming mandatory primary school teaching" within the Orthodox sector.

The national curriculum is binding on most state-aided schools, including religious schools, although not on the new style of free schools.

According to the draft proposals, year 4 pupils (aged eight to nine) should be taught to recognise "that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the earth millions of years ago".

It is also suggested that they could take a look at Charles Darwin's work.

Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag, chairman of Najos, said: "The challenge presented by the theory of evolution to traditional understanding of the Creation of the world is against the major principles of our faith."

Orthodox Jewish schools, he said, would look for "the appropriate exemptions from mandatory requirements in accordance with the principles of freedom of religion and conscience".

Najos executive director Jonathan Rabson said that it would seek "an audience at the highest level" to register its concerns.

Mill Hill United Synagogue's Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet also attacked the government proposals, saying that the authorities "argue against teaching creationism in the classroom and then advocate teaching evolution. I find that blatant double standards and is just another secular assault on religious teachings".

Attitudes to evolution and scientific ideas vary, however, across the Orthodox world. The Hertz Chumash, once the standard for United Synagogue communities which was published in the 1930s, believed that there was "nothing inherently un-Jewish" about evolution, which reflected "the activity of a supreme, directing Intelligence".

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, in a TV discussion with Darwinist Richard Dawkins, last year observed: "Adam and Eve is clearly a parable because there was no first human…"

Rabbi Harvey Belovski, of Golders Green United Synagogue and founding principal of the new Rimon free school, an Orthodox Jewish primary, said that he would have "no problem" with evolution being "taught carefully" in a science class there.

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/102463/orthodox-anger-over-plan-compulsory-evolution-lessons

Convicted anti-Semite John Galliano was seen on the streets of New York yesterday wearing what many would suggest was an outfit reminiscent of traditional Hasidic Jewish garb.

Photos of the disgraced designer dressed in a large hat and long curled tendrils to attend Oscar de la Renta's 2013 Fashion Week show in New York surfaced on Tuesday. Critics pointed out that his curls looked like peyos, the curled sidelocks traditionally worn by Orthodox Jewish men.

"He's trying to embarrass people in the Jewish community and make money on clothes [while] dressed like people he has insulted," Isaac Abraham, a Williamsburg community leader, said to The New York Post. "It looks like the hairstyle he added was done purposely to insult."

The outfit appeared to be right out of Galliano's 2013 Paris Fashion Week menswear show, down to the bucket hat and cropped pants. The curled hair, however, was a misguided deviation from the collection.

"If it was just anyone else, I wouldn't know what to say," Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind told The Post. "But considering who this guy is, considering his background and what he's said in the past, let him explain it to all of us: Are you mocking us?"

Galliano was famously fired from Christian Dior in 2011 after a video of him yelling, "I love Hitler!" and anti-Semitic slurs in a Paris café surfaced and went viral online. He was convicted in France of making racist public insults and fined €6,000. Subsequently, he was shunned by the fashion industry that had formerly embraced him.

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-galliano-steps-out-in-hasidic-oufit-2013-2

The dispute over the papers of the late Yiddish writer Chaim Grade has been settled in favor of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the National Library of Israel, according to a recent press release. The two organizations have also gained control over copyright to Grade's published work.

Grade was one of the most highly regarded postwar Yiddish writers. His oeuvre includes novels such as "The Yeshiva" and "The Agunah," as well as the novelistic memoir "My Mother's Sabbath Days." He was also the author much untranslated poetry and several novels that were serialized in the Yiddish press but have never appeared in book form.

The collection was recovered from the writer's home by the Bronx Public Administrator after the death of Grade's wife, Inna Hecker Grade, in 2010. It includes 40 boxes of letters, photographs and manuscripts, as well as Grade's 20,000-volume library.

According to YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent, YIVO and the National Library of Israel made identical bids to the Bronx Public Administrator and decided to combine forces. Other institutions that were invited to bid included Harvard University, the New York Public Library and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

"We will now begin as quickly as we can to sort through the materials," Brent told the Forward. "The contents of Grade's apartment were simply put into boxes with no attention paid to themes or subjects or kinds of materials. So it's going to be a fairly painstaking process."

While YIVO will retain physical possession of the collection, both institutions will share responsibility for translation, publication and digitization of the material, and they anticipate raising money toward that end. They will also attempt to raise funds for a $150,000 fellowship for a scholar to organize the material and to write a book about Grade and his world. After it has been organized the entire collection will be digitized as part of the agreement.

Since Grade's death in 1982, his widow restricted publishers' and scholars' access to his work. Now YIVO and the National Library of Israel intend to make it available to both Yiddish and English-reading audiences.

"We are going to begin as quickly as possible to put all of Chaim Grade's work back in print, and if necessary, in new translations," Brent said. "Making his works in Yiddish available for the Yiddish speaking world is a prime concern and goal."

http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/171053/dispute-settled-over-yiddish-literary-trove/

The Jewish Canadian singer Drake won a Grammy Award, his first, for Rap Album of the Year.

Also, the indie pop band fun. won Song of the Year with "We Are Young" and Best New Artist at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. Its lead singer, Jack Antonoff, is Jewish, and he thanked all the band's fans after fun. won in the latter category.

"We've been touring for 12 years and we haven't made money for a very long time," he told the crowd, extending a shout-out to girlfriend Lena Dunham.

For Drake, his album "Take Care" brought him the Grammy before the televised portion of the show began. He beat out Lupe Fiasco, Nas, The Roots and Rick Ross.

Drake had been nominated 10 times before breaking through this year. He also was nominated for Best Rap Performance for his song "HYFR" and Best Rap song for "The Motto."

Fun. also performed at the Grammys, playing its hit "Carry On" during a staged indoor rainstorm at the Staples Center.

In his introduction of the group, actor Neil Patrick Harris said, "As legendary gangsta rap icon Katharine Hepburn once said, 'If you obey all the rules, you don't have any fun.' "

Other notable Grammy winners were the English folk band Mumford & Sons, who won Album of the Year for "Babel"; Gotye, whose hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" won for Record of the Year; and Adele, who won her seventh Grammy for her live performance of "Set Fire to the Rain."

http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Music/Article.aspx?id=302928

The state's corrections department has reduced by more than half the prison sentence of Nechemya Weberman, the unlicensed Hasidic counselor from Brooklyn who was convicted in December of child sexual abuse charges.

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Mr. Weberman was sentenced last month by a judge to 103 years in prison, but the state cut his penalty to 50 years, making him eligible for release for good behavior when he is 97, in 2055. His maximum sentence would end in 2062.

Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said Friday that the sentencing reduction was a result of a state penal law that mandates a maximum sentence of 50 years for the combination of felonies of which Mr. Weberman was convicted. The law does not bind judges, who can legally impose longer sentences if they choose.

The sentence reduction was previously reported by The Daily News.

William Gibney, head of the criminal practice special litigation unit at the Legal Aid Society, said it would be unlikely that the sentencing judge in this case, Justice John G. Ingram of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, would have been unaware that his prolonged sentence would later be reduced.

"If a judge wants to put on the record that he or she thinks that a longer sentence is appropriate, then they will often just impose that sentence," Mr. Gibney said. The longer sentence can send a message about the judge's view of the severity of the crime, or guide a parole board in its future decisions, he said.

Mr. Weberman, 54, was convicted of repeatedly molesting a girl during therapy sessions over three years, beginning when she was 12. Before sentencing him on 59 counts of abuse, Justice Ingram told the court, "The message should go out to all victims of sexual abuse that your cries will be heard and justice will be done."

David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the New York courts, said Justice Ingram sentenced the defendant as he saw fit. "The end result will remain the same, life in prison," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/nyregion/weberman-hasidic-therapist-convicted-of-sex-abuse-gets-sentence-cut.html?_r=0

Blue Bloods Season 3 Episode 14 "Men in Black"

Blue Bloods "Men in Black" Season 3 episode 14 airs Friday Feb 8 2013 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Episode Synopsis: Before a Hasidic Grand Rebbe passes away, he chooses his youngest son to succeed him. But when the new appointee dies suddenly, Danny investigates the oldest son and others within the Hasidic community. Meanwhile, Henry reveals a family secret to Frank, on BLUE BLOODS, Friday, Feb. 8 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Show Summary: BLUE BLOODS is a drama about a multi-generational family of cops dedicated to New York City law enforcement. Frank Reagan is the New York Police Commissioner and heads both the police force and the Reagan brood. He runs his department as diplomatically as he runs his family, even when dealing with the politics that plagued his unapologetically bold father, Henry, during his stint as Chief. A source of pride and concern for Frank is his eldest son Danny, a seasoned detective, family man and Iraq War vet who on occasion uses dubious tactics to solve cases with his loyal and tough partner, Detective Jackie Curatola.

The Reagan women in the family include Erin, a N.Y. Assistant D.A. who also serves as the legal compass for her siblings and father, and single parent to her teenage daughter Nicky; and Linda, Danny's supportive wife. Jamie is the youngest Reagan, a recent grad of Harvard Law and the family's "golden boy." Unable to deny the family tradition, Jamie has decided to give up a lucrative future in law and follow in the family footsteps as a cop.

http://www.tvequals.com/2013/02/08/blue-bloods-season-3-episode-14-men-in-black/

Mark Dreyfus this week became just the second Jewish federal attorney-general, a position first held by Sir Isaac Isaacs nearly a century ago.

Dreyfus, who has been a Labor MP since 2007, was appointed to the post as part of a ministerial reshuffle, forced on Prime Minister Julia Gillard after several of her lieutenants, including former attorney-general Nicola Roxon, quit politics.

Speaking to The AJN moments after being sworn in by Governor-General Quentin Bryce at Government House in Canberra on Monday, Dreyfus said he was "deeply honoured".

"It's a great opportunity, and I look forward to continuing the work of our Labor government in this term and the next term," Dreyfus said, dismissing speculation that the reshuffle was indicative of a government in the death throes.

"Quite the reverse. [The cabinet reshuffle] shows the depth of experience and talent that there is in our parliamentary party," Dreyfus explained.

The Member for Isaacs in Melbourne (the seat he won by a whopping 22 per cent in 2010), Dreyfus was rewarded for his work as parliamentary secretary for climate change as well as a glittering legal career.

The 56-year-old Queen's Council hit the ground running when he was forced to defend the government's unpopular proposed consolidation of anti-discrimination acts, with his tenure as the country's first law officer just hours old.

A hot-button issue with the Jewish community, Dreyfus said the spotlight should be cast on the Coalition's proposal to repeal Section 18C of Racial Discrimination Act, also known as the Racial Hatred Act. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott last year said he would scrap the act if elected, a move met with scepticism by Jewish leaders.

"The government's position is that the hate speech provisions, which have been in the Racial Discrimination Act sine 1994, should continue unchanged.

By contrast the position that the Coalition has taken is that Tony Abbott has called for repeal of Section 18C, George Brandis has called for repeal. The government is firmly committed to the continuation of those ­provisions."

Dreyfus refused to concede that recent decisions by the government to abstain on a UN vote to give the Palestinian territories observer status and Foreign Minister Bob Carr's condemnation of Israel's planned settlement expansions signalled a change in federal Labor's attitudes towards Israel.

"Differences of opinion over particular votes or international decisions that are taken by Australia need to be seen properly in context and not immediately assumed, because there's some difference of opinion, to represent any lack of support for Israel, which continues – as I would hope it continues from the Coalition."

The great-grandson of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, Dreyfus last week took exception to comments by senior Liberal Christopher Pyne, conflating the Gillard government with the depiction of a crumbling Third Reich in the movie Downfall.

"There is no place in Australian political debate for comparing any Australian government to Hitler's Third Reich."

"He [Pyne] has responded to my call for an apology by failing to apologise. I'm going to leave it by simply referring him to the circumstances of my father's and my grandparents' arrival in Australia."

Pyne told The AJN he was merely comparing the "chaos and dysfunction" of the government with "scenes from the fictional movie, Downfall".

"Nevertheless, if this has caused any offence I apologise," Pyne said.

He noted that Dreyfus accused Tony Abbott of being like Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in an op-ed last year. "While I have publicly retracted my statement, Mr Dreyfus has refused to apologise for his comment and in fact claims to stand by it."

http://www.jewishnews.net.au/dreyfus-becomes-second-jewish-ag/29540

Down a gritty dead-end alley in ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, past a loading dock and a couple of dumpsters, a set of stairs leads up to a small room with bare walls and a dozen computers.

The plaque on the door at Kollel L'Horauh calls the room a library. As a library, it has received $135,000 in congressionally mandated library subsidies. But there's no librarian, and the room's "collection" consists of a subscription to a single digital database of Jewish books that is not even available on all the computers. In Brooklyn, not being a library is no barrier to receiving library subsidies. A Forward investigation has found that E-Rate, the federally backed library subsidy program, has committed $1.4 million to ultra-Orthodox religious institutions in Brooklyn that don't actually qualify as libraries.

Nine such groups have received an average of $161,000 in commitments from E-Rate since 2010 — more than twice the average amount committed to libraries in New York State during the same period.

The library association legally tasked with serving as a gatekeeper for E-Rate eligibility in New York City chose not to exclude these ultra-Orthodox groups, which in some cases didn't have librarians or card catalogs.

That wasn't their only option. Elsewhere in New York, another gatekeeper agency has taken a stand to block questionable libraries from E-Rate. In 2010, around the same time that the Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox groups were seeking to become E-Rate eligible, a "flurry" of ultra-Orthodox congregations from Rockland County, N.Y., applied to join an upstate library association and become E-Rate eligible, too, according to John Shaloiko, executive director of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council.

"We didn't want to take just any organization in when it believes it should get E-Rate when it's not really a library," said Shaloiko, whose group serves as the E-Rate gatekeeper for a handful of counties to the north of New York City.

Prompted in part by concerns over the legitimacy of the ultra-Orthodox applicants, Shaloiko's group drew up new library membership guidelines, requiring that area libraries have online card catalogs and librarians with master's degrees, among other criteria, to join their association and become eligible for E-Rate.

The handful of ultra-Orthodox Jewish congregations that have applied to join the group since the adoption of the new guidelines have all dropped their requests after learning of the organization's membership requirements, Shaloiko said.

http://forward.com/articles/170510/orthodox-jewish-groups-exploit-e-rate-library-subs/

Numerous Orthodox Jewish websites censor the word "sexual" in the context of discussing sexual abuse. Such censorship sends the message to young people that body parts, sexuality and sexual abuse are so shameful, that adults can't even mention them in public.

By refraining from using words such as "sex" and "sexual," Orthodox Jewish websites are unwittingly sending the message that sexual abuse is not something that should be discussed. This only perpetuates the existing shame, secrecy, stigma and fear surrounding the issue of sexual abuse.

Parents of pre-adolescent children certainly have a right to determine the age-appropriate language when discussing sexual abuse with their children, but that is no excuse for websites censoring terms necessary to define abuse.

If children are old enough to be on the Internet, they should be mature enough to hear the word "sex" or "sexual" in the context of discussing abuse.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, recommends "[t]alking openly and directly about sexuality" in order to teach "children that it is okay to talk to you when they have questions." In a sexual abuse awareness seminar held in Crown Heights, experts explained that a lack of education makes adolescents more vulnerable to abuse.

The lack of discussion around the human body, intimacy and sexual issues, in essence, robs children of the ability to speak because they are not provided with the proper language.

Maintaining Halachic standards of Tzniut (modesty) does not conflict with the necessity of discussing sexual abuse openly and candidly. Tzniut concerns laws related to modesty of both dress and behavior—when dealing with normal, healthy interactions—not when educating the public on the dangers of sexual abuse.

The Talmud relays a story of a student that hid under his teacher's bed to learn how his teacher was being intimate with his wife. The student commented on the inappropriate language of his teacher to which his teacher exclaimed, "Get out! It's not proper (for you to be here)!" To which the student replied, "It is Torah—and study it I must."

In contemporary society, the student might be accused of voyeurism—but this story illustrates the need to rise above the taboos of discussing sexuality. There is nothing shameful, sinful or obscene about having candid conversations about the subject – particularly in the context of educating the public on sexual abuse.

When the language center is shut down, the abuse survivor is less likely to speak, because they are fearful of voicing what is perceived as shameful, and so, sometimes, they can't even articulate their trauma.

Censoring the use of accurate language around sexual abuse perpetuates the notion that such discussions should be secret and such language is shameful. Living in secrecy is painful and damaging to an abuse survivor. We need to empower potential victims to talk openly and candidly about their experience.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/02/05/censoring-the-language-of-sexual-abuse/

Every Saturday, Eugene Milanaik, a nurse anesthetist, walks more than five miles back and forth between his Orthodox synagogue and his weekend house on Dune Road. When it rains, he gets soaked, because he cannot carry an umbrella. When his 3-year-old grandson is in town, as he was last weekend, his wife must stay home, because she cannot push his stroller.

Life would be much easier, in Mr. Milanaik's view, if Westhampton Beach would finally permit a series of narrow plastic strips, known in Hebrew as lechis, to be placed on the village's utility poles. The strips would create an eruv, a ritual boundary that would allow those Orthodox Jews who do not push or carry things outside the home on the Sabbath to do so when within the eruv's perimeter.

Eruvim are an arcane matter to most people, but they are not unusual: much of Manhattan lies within the boundaries of an eruv, as do scores of Orthodox communities around the country.

"If other towns have it, we should have it," Mr. Milanaik, 68, said on Friday, after stashing a backpack filled with his Sabbath essentials — two prayer books, a prayer shawl, and phylacteries — in a plastic bin at the Hampton Synagogue, so he would not need to carry them on the Sabbath. "I'm getting by without it, but it would be nice. It's like being handicapped."

It has been five years since the Hampton Synagogue first proposed constructing an eruv in this quaint beach side village, prompting a divisive and emotional dispute that pits less observant Jews against more observant ones, storekeepers who fear the eruv against older Jews in wheelchairs, and village officials who believe the eruv would wrongly entangle the government in religion against residents who call that view discriminatory.

The eruv would consist of about 60 10-to-15-foot-long, five-eighths-of-an-inch-wide PVC strips affixed to utility poles, and painted to blend in with them. They would be difficult to see, and would be shorter than the poles themselves, said Robert G. Sugarman, the lawyer for the East End Eruv Association, which wants to erect it.

Three federal lawsuits have been filed over the matter, and on Monday, Judge Leonard D. Wexler, of United States District Court in Islip, dismissed one of them: a lawsuit brought by an anti-eruv group, the Jewish People for the Betterment of Westhampton Beach. That group said it would appeal to the Second Circuit in Manhattan. He also set a timeline for the other two suits, one brought by the East End Eruv Association to erect the eruv, and one between the three villages on whose land the eruv would exist, Westhampton Beach, Quogue, and Southampton, and the utility companies that own the poles.

The final rulings could have broad implications affecting the legality of eruvim across the country. But here in Westhampton Beach, where the year-round population of 1,500 swells to 15,000 in the summer, many residents are simply hoping the courts can bring an end to the tension the issue has caused.

"This used to be an amiable little town," said Ellen Indursky, a member of the Hampton Synagogue, who said Saturday that she now regrets her synagogue's ever bringing up the idea. "It's created an us and a them; you are either on one side or the other," she said, adding, "There's more feelings of anti-Semitism here now than there has ever been."

Only a small percentage of Westhampton Beach residents are Orthodox, and the Hampton Synagogue is the only Orthodox congregation in the area. Only about 20 of the synagogue's year-round congregants, and about 200 families in the summer, are so observant that they need the eruv, according to the rabbi, Marc Schneier.

But many in Westhampton Village — a diverse mix of Catholics, Protestants and Jews — say they fear the prospect of more Orthodox Jews moving in if the eruv is constructed. The mayor, Conrad Teller, estimated that perhaps 90 to 95 percent of Westhampton Village is now against it. "It's divisive," he said. "I believe they think somebody's trying to push something down their throats."

Storekeepers on Main Street have voiced practical concerns, because Orthodox Jews traditionally don't spend money on the Sabbath. "Retail is hard enough as it is," said Anick Darbellay, sitting in her dress shop on Friday. "I don't want to have to shut down on Saturdays. Have you been to the Five Towns?" she asked, referring to an Orthodox Jewish enclave in Nassau County. "That's what happened there."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/nyregion/in-westhampton-beach-a-ritual-jewish-boundary-stirs-real-town-divisions.html