Friday, April 28, 2023
Six NYC Council members reject establishment of 'End Jew Hatred Day'
The New York City Council on Thursday voted to establish April 29 as an annual "End Jew Hatred Day." Four members abstained and two voted against the resolution.
Among those on the 51-member council who did not support the measure was Shahana Hanif, a representative of the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park and Park Slope.
"Your antisemitism is showing," Inna Vernikov, the Jewish Ukrainian Republican Brooklyn councilwoman who introduced the bill, said to the six who rejected it.
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Thursday, April 27, 2023
Stern College for Women Jewish Studies Department Restores Undergrad Talmud Courses
The Stern College for Women (SCW) Jewish studies department has added two Talmud courses for the Fall 2023 semester, Associate Dean of Torah and Spiritual Life Shoshana Schechter and Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies Chair Deena Rabinovich announced Tuesday.
According to the announcement, the addition of an intermediate and advanced class came due to "increased interest" in the course following news of the classes' cancellation due to low registration.
The restored intermediate class and the new advanced class will be taught in the afternoon by Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier. The regular morning advanced class, currently taught by Rabbi Zuckier, will be taken over by Rabbi David Nachbar, who currently teaches in the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud/Tanach Studies (GPATS).
Additionally, while Introductory Talmud was not offered this semester due to low enrollment, a similar course, titled "Talmud Psychology," will be offered in the fall and will aim to teach the same content as Introductory Talmud.
"It was heartwarming to see the outpouring of interest revolving around women's Talmud learning on the Beren campus," stated Schechter and Rabinovich in the announcement, sent to Beren students through email.
Following news of both courses' cancellation, an open letter signed by students and alumni began circulating social media and WhatsApp groups April 19 and expressed protest over the university's decision to cancel the courses. It has garnered nearly 1500 signatures as of publishing.
The open letter, authored by several current and former students from SCW and GPATS, called on the university to restore Introductory and Intermediate Talmud, hire a full-time replacement for Rabbi Moshe Kahn, who taught Talmud at SCW for nearly 40 years until he passed away in January and secure funds to endow a chair of Talmud in Rabbi Kahn's name.
"In a time when women who are dedicated to Torah, mitzvot, and meticulous observance of Halacha learn Torah at the highest levels," stated the letter, "removing the building blocks that can lead to that advanced Torah study seems to go against all that Yeshiva University has stood for."
Following the letter's release, YU issued a press release Friday announcing a "number of new initiatives," including a scholars program that will offer high-level Talmud and Tanach study for interested students and a chair of Talmud to be made in honor of Rabbi Kahn. The university asked donors to help fund these programs.
"We would be delighted if those who support women's advanced Torah study and the students, friends and supporters of Rabbi Kahn would endow a Rabbi Moshe Kahn Chair of Talmud Studies for Women," stated the university.
Schechter told The Commentator that the new initiatives have been in the works for several months.
Miri Granik (SCW '24), who recently published an op-ed expressing her concern over the cancellation of Talmud courses, shared her excitement about their restoration.
"I am so excited about the decision to add these courses," said Granik. "These opportunities will make learning Gemara so much more accessible to Stern students."
Miriam Schwartz (GPATS '22) emphasized the importance of endowing a Talmud chair.
"Having an endowed chair for a full time Gemara professor would solve the problem of not being able to hire an adjunct professor for small groups of students," said Schwartz, "would enable reinstating the Gemara skills track of GPATS, and would ensure that there are faculty members who are dedicated to growing the Gemara offerings and engaging the broader student body in learning Torah sheBaal Peh at SCW."
News of the cancellation of Talmud courses garnered debate in the broader YU community, leading to several op-eds published in The Commentator, including from Schechter and GPATS Director Professor Nechama Price.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Man arrested for attacking Chabad Jewish Center of Cape Coral
An arrest has been made in connection to attacking a Jewish place of worship in Cape Coral in March 2023 while worshipers were still inside.
The Cape Coral Police Department arrested 51-year-old Maron Mark Raymond on Thursday evening for the attack made on March 11 at the Chabad Jewish Center of Cape Coral.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Followers of ‘miracle rabbi’ transform sleepy Hungarian village
They come in their tens of thousands by chartered plane, bus and even helicopter to the shrine of Hungary's "miracle rabbi" to pray for health, wealth and marriages for their children.
Once a year, Orthodox Jews from all over the world descend on a sleepy Hungarian village in search of divine intervention.
Yeshaya Steiner, known as Rabbi Shayele, died in 1925 after devoting his life to feeding the poor and performing wonders for Jews and Gentiles alike in the tiny eastern village of Bodrogkeresztur.
Hasidic Jews have begun flocking to the village, known as Kerestir in Yiddish, in recent years around the anniversary of his death in April to ask for his intervention in everything from business to giving childless couples a baby.
"It is said that whoever comes here will have a blessing in their life," Tobi Ash, 57, a great-great-granddaughter of the rabbi, told AFP outside his ancestral house.
Some 50,000 Jewish visitors, mostly men, attended the three-day-long pilgrimage this year — more than 60 times Bodrogkeresztur's population — up from a few thousand a decade ago.
The number is expected to double or even triple for the centenary of the rabbi's death in 2025.
Nestled among vineyards in the picturesque Tokaj wine region, Bodrogkeresztur was once home to a large Orthodox Jewish community. But during World War II 750 Orthodox Jews were deported from the village to Nazi death camps where almost all perished.
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Monday, April 24, 2023
Netflix’s ‘Rough Diamonds’ brings viewers into the drama of Antwerp’s Orthodox diamond district
A new drama on Netflix centered on a haredi Orthodox family that runs a business in Antwerp's famed diamond district hit the platform on Friday and is drawing comparisons to the hit Israeli series "Shtisel."
"Rough Diamonds," a joint production from Israel's Keshet International and Belgium's De Mensen, follows the Wolfson family as it navigates internal tension and business struggles in the wake of a death in the family. The protagonist, who left the haredi world 15 years earlier, returns to Antwerp to look into his relative's death and help steer the family company back to prominence.
Until the past decade, Antwerp was home to over 80% of the world's annual uncut diamond trade, and much of it was dominated by haredi Orthodox Jews. The city was home to a large Jewish population for centuries after welcoming many Jews who left Spain and Portugal in the wake of the Inquisition in the 15th century, including many diamond dealers who were barred from working in many other industries. Although the community was decimated by the Holocaust, by 2018 Antwerp was home to at least 20,000 Jews, many of them haredi Orthodox. In recent years, Indian families have assumed control of as much as three-quarters of Antwerp's diamond industry.
"Rough Diamonds" is mostly filmed in a mix of Flemish and Yiddish, in addition to some French and English. Co-creators Rotem Shamir and Yuval Yefet, who are both Israeli and worked together on the Israeli military thriller "Fauda," told the Times of Israel that they had to use a "lot of advisers and translators" while working on the show over the course of six years.
"We're not from an ultra-Orthodox background, and we're not from Belgian backgrounds. .. You have to kind of submerge yourself in this world to learn about it" Yefet said.
The show's lead, Noah Wolfson, is played by Kevin Janssens, a popular non-Jewish TV actor in his native Belgium. About half of the Wolfson family are played by Jews, producer Pieter Van Huyck told the London Jewish Chronicle.
"We want to portray a normal Hasidic family in the most authentic way possible but, of course, it is a family which is in trouble so it is not a normal situation they are trying to survive," he said. "It wasn't easy finding Jewish actors who knew that specific way of living and so we had a mix of Jewish and local Flemish actors and we had quite a few Jewish coaches."
Jews in New York City's Diamond District were given the silver-screen spotlight in "Uncut Gems," a 2019 drama starring Adam Sandler.
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Friday, April 21, 2023
Florida man charged with hate crime for attacking Jewish center during services
A Cape Coral man was arrested in connection to what police called a "malicious and targeted" attack on a Jewish center on March 11.
In a news conference on Friday, Cape Coral police said Maron Mark Raymon, 52, was charged with trying to break into the Chabad Jewish Center of Cape Coral while worshippers wrapped up Saturday services.
Raymon allegedly hurled bricks at the center's door, which is made of impact-resistant glass, according to a report from NBC affiliate WBBH. He allegedly threw bricks at the Rabbi's car, damaging the windshield and one of the doors.
Raymon also accused of knocking over a large painting of a menorah that was on display in the parking lot.
"This was a very challenging case because, unlike other cases, the video evidence that we have was not supreme and it really required a lot of boots on the ground," Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said during a news conference. "And through that, we developed persons of interest, ran down leads of many many vehicles that might meet the description, and served numerous search warrants."
Police said they've kept quiet on developments in the case in hopes of avoiding information leaking before charges were filed. In a Facebook post on Friday, Cape Coral police called the incident "a malicious and targeted hate crime towards our Jewish community."
Raymon was charged with attempted burglary and criminal mischief to a place of worship. Police said the charges meet the legal requirements for a hate crime enhancement.
"Any type of hate crime in our community will not be tolerated," Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter told WBBH. "They will be investigated vigorously, and we will make sure that if these types of crimes do occur we will find who that individual or individuals are and we will make sure we bring them to justice."
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Thursday, April 20, 2023
Hate crime in Outremont - Young man wanted for attacking two Hasidic Jews
It was around 10 p.m. on January 20 that a first victim, a member of the Hasidic community, was allegedly initially assaulted by the suspect, at the intersection of Van Horne and Bloomfield avenues.
In a surveillance video released Wednesday by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), the young man can be seen running from a sidewalk towards his victim, who was about to cross the street, before pushing her violently and throw her to the ground.
According to what can be seen on these same images, the suspect then flees in an easterly direction on Van Horne Avenue, joining a group of individuals of the same age a little further.
About 30 minutes later, around 10:25 p.m., the suspect allegedly committed a second assault against a member of the Hasidic community, this time at the corner of Bernard and Outremont avenues.
The victim would then have "received a violent kick in the lower back, which would have thrown him to the ground", notes the SPVM in a press release, adding that the individual would then have "fled on the avenue Wiseman heading north again going to join the group" a little further.
According to a description provided by the authorities, the suspect sought is "a white-skinned male, approximately 18 years old". At the time, he was wearing a black coat, gray sweatpants and white sneakers.
The SPVM says it will "exceptionally" broadcast video from the surveillance camera until April 24, inclusive, "given the likelihood that the suspect is a minor". Photos of the suspect have also been published in order to be able to identify him.
Anyone who has relevant information in connection with this file is invited to contact 911, their neighborhood station, or the anonymous and confidential center of Info-Crime Montreal, by dialing 514-393-1133. You can also fill out a reporting form on the organization's website. Rewards of up to $3,000 can also be awarded by the organization "for information leading to the arrest of suspects", under certain conditions.
At the end of March, the Trudeau government was called upon to act quickly to contain the explosion of hate crimes against members of racialized and marginalized communities, when new data from Statistics Canada revealed that the number of hate crimes reported by police in country grew by 27% from 2020 to 2021, after a jump of 36% the previous year.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Seven Springs incorporation proposal upheld by appeals panel
A years-long proposal to create the village of Seven Springs in southern Orange County has staved off court challenges from two municipalities near the area petitioners want to incorporate, putting it that much closer to formation.
Last week, an appeals court panel in Brooklyn shot down legal disputes from the town of Monroe and village of Kiryas Joel to invalidate the incorporation petition led by Herman Wagschal, upholding earlier decisions in Orange County Supreme Court.
The area proposed for Seven Springs, which would be a primarily Hasidic community, includes about 2 square miles of land in northern Monroe, near Blooming Grove and Kiryas Joel. Unless the legal arguments are brought to the Court of Appeals, the 2019 petition will need to be weighed again by Monroe. If the town accepts it, Monroe leaders would have to schedule a public hearing for residents living within the boundaries ahead of a referendum.
Monroe's legal arguments have been based on a technicality, claiming that the petitioner failed to pay a $6,000 filing fee.
The Seven Springs petition drive began in 2018 when a group of Monroe residents was disappointed by a compromise that excluded their properties from an expansion of Kiryas Joel, a Satmar Hasidic community formed in 1975 whose population has rapidly grown from its original couple hundred residents to tens of thousands.
Key to the Seven Springs proposal was that it would give the new village control over zoning the mostly undeveloped land across state Route 17. Contention with Kiryas Joel arose when the village's administrator tried to preempt Wagschal filing the petition to form Seven Springs by filing his own petition to annex some of the land included in the new village's boundary proposal — a dueling petition issue that essentially boiled down to whoever filed first.
That's where Orange County Supreme Court Judge Sandra Sciortino came in.
Sciortino sorted through the complicated legal arguments and in 2019 said that the Seven Springs petition came first. In 2020, she also overturned the Monroe supervisor's technical objections to the petition, chalking the issue of whether the petitioner paid a $6,000 filing fee up to "confusion" since the petition did pay the fee a year before the petition was submitted. Her decisions were the same ones upheld last week by an appeals court panel.
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Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Bereaved father Leo Dee makes request of Hasidic leader
The Sadigora Rebbe of Jerusalem paid the Dee family a condolence visit after the family lost mother Lucy and sisters Maia and Rina in a terror attack earlier this month.
During the visit, Rabbi Leo Dee asked the Sadigora Rebbe if he waves the Israeli flag, and received a positive response. Afterwards, he asked if the Sadigora Rebbe would be willing to recite the Hallel prayer - a prayer of thanks and praise - on Israel's Independence Day. To this query, the Rebbe responded by telling a story.
"My uncle, who in his time was the Sadigora Rebbe, lived in Vienna between the First and Second World Wars," he said. "When the Nazis rose to power, they brought him to the streets of Vienna to clean the streets. He made a promise and said, 'If G-d will be with me, and the Master of the World saves me from this horror, when I reach the Land of Israel, I will clean the streets of Israel."
The Sadigora Rebbe continued, "He indeed did get up early in the morning and clean the streets of Tel Aviv. He did not tell anyone the reason why he did it, even when his followers questioned him as to why he was doing this."
"This custom, of a love of the Land of Israel, is in our blood. And I think that we need to work more on loving every Jew, no matter how he dresses or what his opinions are. We will take this upon ourselves, and I think that the Hallel will come on its own," he concluded.
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Monday, April 17, 2023
Gerrer Hasidim Committee Warns Against Buying Tesla
The rabbis of the committee for Gur Hasidim are warning against purchasing electric cars made by Tesla, not because anything is wrong with the car itself, but because it offers access to the internet, B'hadrei Haredim reported on Friday.
The committee rabbis offer the Hasidic public advice and guidance on disconnecting and blocking systems in their vehicles, but stress that "a Tesla vehicle cannot be blocked at all and should not be purchased or used at all."
Notices that were posted on behalf of the rabbis of the committee in the movement's shuls throughout the country, warn under the heading "Shall not be seen and shall not be found," which is a halachic reference to chametz on Passover: "Following many incidents and catastrophes that have taken place, it is our duty to warn with a loud voice, so that no one sees or finds in our community devices that are not properly blocked by the restrictions approved by the rabbis of the committee, in any form, and of any kind, neither openly nor secretly."
According to the committee, "It turned out that in many vehicles the multimedia systems are open to the Internet. Even in cases where the company claims that it is blocked, or where to the user it appears that there's nothing there – in most cases, it is very easy to hack a connection to the internet, and many troubles have already happened as a result, may God have mercy."
"Therefore, it is mandatory to disconnect any system that has the Waze navigation app before using the car. The responsibility rests on each and every individual not to bring an obstruction, God forbid, upon himself and certainly not his children, and not to keep, God forbid, a dangerous device in his possession, without blocking and supervision, which is a transgression of "Do not bring bloodguilt on your house" (Deut. 22:8)
The full verse in Deuteronomy warns: "When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it." In this case, according to the rabbinic committee, keeping unguarded access to the internet in your car would be tantamount to failing to build a fence around your rooftop to prevent falling.
You have been warned.
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Tuesday, April 04, 2023
Passover at Rikers Island: How the notorious jail complex holds a seder for Jewish inmates
Miriam Tohill, a Jewish chaplain intern at Rikers Island, is looking forward to co-leading Passover seders for Jewish inmates this year for the first time. But conditions at the New York City jail complex are not ideal.
For the seders, held on the first and second nights of the holiday, some 70 to 100 inmates will be bussed from different parts of the island complex to a gymnasium that "feels like a high school gym," said Tohill, 32, who uses the pronouns "she" and "they." Sending participants to hunt for the afikoman, a hidden piece of matzah, is "discouraged," she added, "for obvious reasons."
The seder tradition of putting pillows on the room's flimsy folding chairs, they said, is likewise prohibited. And while the door of the gym, rather than a door to the outside, will be opened for Elijah the prophet, they said, "the symbolism is obviously muted."
Beyond that, Tohill added, it may be a challenge to create a festive mood. Corrections officers will be sitting on bleachers at the side of the room, which has a "squeaky floor, very tall ceiling, [and] terrible acoustics."
Nonetheless, Tohill expects the seders at Rikers to be filled with meaning. She and others who work with Jewish inmates at the jail say that the holiday — which celebrates the ancient Jewish exodus from slavery to freedom — takes on a different resonance when celebrated by people currently behind bars.
"It's both easier and harder to talk about slavery, freedom and hope when you're incarcerated, but we're all hoping for freedom and rehabilitation and growth in the future," said Rabbi Gabriel Kretzmer Seed, Rikers' Jewish chaplain. "People had beautiful insights about what freedom means to them, especially talking about how they feel free even when they're incarcerated. I was very inspired by that."
Seed, who received ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the liberal Orthodox seminary in the Bronx, began working as a chaplain at Rikers in 2018. The jail has been criticized for harsh conditions, which include evidence of inmates caged in tiny showers and sleeping on floors next to a pile of excrement. The complex has also been the site of suicides, beatings and more. Nineteen people died at Rikers in 2022 — the jail's highest death rate since 2013, and the city is required by law to close it by 2027, though whether that will be possible is unclear.
Seed said that while Rikers can be a volatile and intense environment, it has also given him a sense of gratitude, highlighting the Jewish concept of teshuva, or repentance, and the idea that everyone deserves a second chance. Seed said Rikers' Jewish inmates come from a range of religious backgrounds, from haredi Orthodox people educated in yeshivas to others who decided to explore their Judaism once they were incarcerated. He holds weekly services at the jail that draw up to 12 attendees; this week's teachings discussed the concepts of freedom and slavery as a precursor to the seders.
"I'm kind of buoyed by those values," Seed said, referring to teshuva. "When I'm having a rough day, I leave my office, go to a housing area, and people are just so grateful for even a few visits, a few minutes when I step into their housing area, or when I get to teach and engage with people, and that just lifts me up and reminds me why I do this work."
Year round, Rikers Island offers kosher food, which is provided by the city. Seed and Department of Corrections officials would not provide specifics on where the food comes from, saying only that it comes from "different caterers." And matzah isn't only available on Passover: Jewish inmates eat the unleavened bread year-round at Rikers because it is a kosher food option that is easily available.
There are Orthodox volunteer groups that help bring kosher food into the jail, including members of L'asurim, a nonprofit that supports prisoners, and the Lubavitch Youth Organization, a branch of the Chabad Hasidic movement.
Rabbi Shmuel Tevel, who is active in the Lubavitch group, told the New York Jewish Week that he visits Jewish inmates regularly at Rikers and other prisons across the state. "For an inmate sitting in a prison cell in those darkest moments, in a state where they feel they're at the end of their rope, they need to tie a knot and hang on," he said. "That's what we give them."
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Monday, April 03, 2023
Female principal of ultra-Orthodox Jewish school guilty of rape and sexual abuse
Malka Leifer, 56, was convicted on 18 counts - including rape - of sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper.
They have chosen to identify themselves in the media.
Leifer was acquitted of nine charges, including five that related to another sister, Nicole Meyer.
A court heard she abused Ms Erlich and Ms Sapper between 2003 and 2007 at the Adass Israel School, an ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne where she was head of religion and later principal.
Prosecutor Justin Lewis said Leifer tended to have a sexual interest in girls when they were teenage students and took advantage of their vulnerability, ignorance in sexual matters, and her own position of authority.
The allegations first emerged in 2008 after Leifer had returned to her home country of Israel.
She fought against extradition to Australia but was returned to Melbourne in 2021. Her trial began in February and she pleaded not guilty to all 27 counts.
The sisters had an isolated upbringing in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and received no sex education, the court heard.
They were around 12, 14 and 16 when Leifer starting teaching at the school in 2001.
Leifer was alleged to have abused Nicole Meyer while they shared a bed at a school camp as Ms Erlich pretended to be asleep in the same room.
Ms Erlich told the jury she had tried to form a relationship with another teacher to ask about what Leifer was doing, but Leifer discouraged her.
Leifer "told me it wasn't healthy for me to have a connection with another teacher, to have more than one mentor", Ms Erlich testified.
Ms Meyer told reporters outside court a guilty verdict was "all we've ever wanted".
"Since we started this battle, since we gave our police statements in 2011, to hear the word 'guilty' is what she has fought not to be for so many years, and what we have fought for so many years to prove," she said.
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