Torah To Honor Holtzbergs

At the Kinus Hashluchim, to take place November 11-16, participants will be able to write a letter in the Torah in memory of the Holtzbergs HY”D. It will be completed Thursday night, November 12, and will be led to 770 with dancing, Hakafos and a special Farbrengen. Both their fathers, R’ Nachman Holtzberg and R’ Shimon Rosenberg will be present and will address the crowd. The Sefer Torah will be used in a rotation by the fifteen chabad houses in India.
(News Source: Chabad.info/PCJN)

Rabbi says donating kidney was a spiritual obligation

Teaneck, N.J. —Even before Rabbi Ephraim Simon of Teaneck, N.J., gave one of his kidneys to a total stranger from Brooklyn, N.Y., he felt they would be a good match.

“This was a father of 10, I’m a father of nine — we matched already,” Simon said.

Both men are also Hasidic Jews, though of different sects: Simon is Chabad and his kidney recipient is Satmar.

The surgery last month at Cornell Medical Center was successful. Simon, 41, says he and the 51-year-old organ recipient, who declined to be interviewed, are both doing well.

Simon was moved to donate a vital organ last year when he heard about the plight of a desperately ill 12-year-old girl. He learned about the child from Chaya Lipschutz, a kidney donor from Brooklyn who has become something of a kidney matchmaker through her e-mail posts about people in need.

“I have a 12-year-old girl. If it was my daughter, I’d call someone to step up,” Simon said. “I couldn’t let a 12-year-old suffer and die without giving everything I had to save her. So I called Chaya and said ‘I’ll do it.’ “

The girl found another donor and is reportedly doing well. But Simon stayed on Lipschutz’s list. In the following months, he volunteered to donate a kidney to a woman with two children and to an Israeli man — but blood and tissue tests showed he was incompatible for both.

In March, Simon learned of the Brooklyn Hasid who was facing dialysis unless he found a kidney donor. The two men met briefly in a hospital hallway before being tested.

“Are you the donor?” the man asked Simon.

“I said, ‘God willing,’ ” Simon recalled. “‘It’s all in the hands of God. Hopefully, we’ll match, and if we match, you have my word, I’ll be there.’”

Donating a kidney filled a broader spiritual need for Simon.

“It’s an obligation of love and helping your fellow man,” he explained recently during an interview at his Teaneck home. “I certainly felt the incredible awesomeness of saving or improving a life.”

The transplant took about 3 1/2 hours. The procedure involved an incision through Simon’s navel to allow surgeons to insert laparoscopic instruments, cover one of his kidneys in a slippery sack and remove it through the small opening. “Modern medicine is just phenomenal,” he enthused. “It’s an amazing procedure.”

Some potential donors are put off by fear of pain or of living life without a spare kidney in case the other goes bad, Simon said. But pain can be controlled by medication, Simon said. The risks of losing a remaining kidney are “extremely negligible,” and donors “move to the top of the (recipients) list,” if they need a transplant, he said.

A little more than a third of the 14,000 kidney transplants performed each year in the United States are from live donors, according to federal health data. A live donor is a better source for a kidney than a cadaver. “There is always some injury (to the organ) involving a deceased donor,” said Stuart Greenstein, a kidney transplant surgeon at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

For Jewish donors, giving a kidney is not only a mitzvah — a good deed performed out of religious duty — but also “an act of kindness and goodness, like charity giving,” Greenstein said.

For Simon and the man who now has one of his kidneys, it was an act of kindness worthy of coverage by the Jewish newspapers worldwide. The two sects, among the largest and most prominent ultra-Orthodox groups.

“It’s incredibly unfortunate that somebody would utilize somebody else’s pain and suffering for their own financial gain,” Simon said.

As part of donor screening, a psychiatrist asked Simon about his motivation. Simon took out a photo of his family.

“I had two motivations,” he said. “One is to save a life, if I can give a father of 10 back to his children, and a husband back to his wife. And, as a rabbi and a father, I wanted to teach children how to sacrifice for others. God didn’t put us here for ourselves, but to make the world a better place and to help other people.”

Simon’s wife, Nechamy, was relieved when the little girl found another donor. But she realized she had to accept that he still wanted to save a life. “I had to catch up with him,” she said.

“My wife is the real hero,” Simon said. “It was our kidney we were giving away that, God forbid, if one of my children needed, someone else would have to step up.”

Donating a kidney was as awesome as the birth of his nine children, Simon said. In a sense, the donated organ was like a 10th child.

“It’s doing its job, filtering impurities and toxins,” he said. “I’m so proud of my kidney. I did such a good job of raising it. Now I sent it off to live in another home.”

Dozens Of Sukkahs collapsing!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dozens of Sukkahs collapsing through out the tri state area please use extreme caution when going into the Sukkah. A warning for strong winds is in effect until Thursday morning.

Experts speculate gas may drop below $1 a gallon

A worker lowers the price of regular unleaded gasoline in Independence, Mo. in November
How low can the price of gas fall? With drivers paying the cheapest price to fill their tanks in nearly four years, it is a question many consumers are pondering, with some experts speculating it is possible prices could even drop below $1 per gallon.
Prices already have decreased to below $1.25 per gallon in some parts of the Midwest. With the economy in a freefall, analysts do not rule out crude oil, which traded Friday in the mid-$40 range, sinking to $20 per barrel, a price that could translate to gas at $1 per gallon.

“Right now, you look at the way demand is retreating, it tends to predict lower prices,” said John Kingston, global director of oil for Platt’s, a provider of energy information. “A drop to $20 per barrel is not out of the question.”

In New Jersey, the price of unleaded regular fell to $1.60 Friday, the lowest it has been since March 2004, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Services in Wall Township. In July, the state recorded its highest ever average price for unleaded at $3.99.

“I’m not in the camp where we’ll see prices fall to $1 per gallon or less,” said Kloza, who thinks crude could dip below $40 per barrel, but if so, only briefly. “Here, (in New Jersey), we will see some numbers below $1.50 per gallon.”

FBI (New York) #1 most wanted female in the world in custody

NEW YORK- Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Raymond W. Kelly, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced today the arrest of Aafia Siddiqui on charges related to her attempted murder and assault of United States officers and employees in Afghanistan. Siddiqui arrived in New York this evening and will be presented tomorrow before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:

On July 17, 2008, officers of the Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police (“ANP”) observed Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor’s compound. ANP officers questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist’s Arsenal. Siddiqui’s papers included descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City. Siddiqui was also in possession of substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.

On July 18, 2008, a party of United States personnel, including two FBI special agents, a United States Army Warrant Officer, a United States Army Captain, and United States military interpreters, arrived at the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. The personnel entered a second floor meeting room — unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain.

The Warrant Officer took a seat and placed his United States Army M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain. Shortly after the meeting began, the Captain heard a woman yell from the curtain and, when he turned, saw Siddiqui holding the Warrant Officer’s rifle and pointing it directly at the Captain. Siddiqui said, “May the blood of [unintelligible] be directly on your [unintelligible, possibly head or hands].” The interpreter seated closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as Siddiqui pulled the trigger. Siddiqui fired at least two shots but no one was hit. The Warrant Officer returned fire with a 9 mm service pistol and fired approximately two rounds at Siddiqui’s torso, hitting her at least once.

Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. After being subdued, Siddiqui temporarily lost consciousness. The agents and officers then rendered medical aid to Siddiqui.

New York – Israeli IDF Vets Train NY Jewish Paramilitaries In Catskills

New York – Yonatan Stern, the “Sgan Mefaked Hakita” (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut New York, insists his “paramilitary emergency armed response team” is no “group of vigilantes or a JDL “The goal of the organization is to have a competent and professional group of armed volunteers ready to respond to a threat at a moment’s notice in any area where Jews reside,” explains the Israeli combat veteran.“We do not carry out demonstrations or political activity of any kind as we have no political agenda. Our agenda is to protect Jews wherever and whenever necessary and by any means needed.”

On Friday, the third session of the group’s training camp will begin in the Catskills woodlands of upstate New York, on land belonging to a Jewish supporter of the organization. With tuition at $400, the group expects 15 participants and five instructors for the 10 days of training. Participation has doubled since the group began three years ago.

Kitat Konenut New York is modeled on the rapid response teams in the West Bank settlements that are often the first to act when terrorist attacks or other emergencies take place. The group bills itself as religious-Zionist but nonpolitical.

American Jews have “felt a false sense of security in the United States,” Stern believes, “because historically there has been less anti-Semitism than in other countries. But there have been incidents – neo-Nazi terrorist attacks, Arab terrorist attacks. Jews have to be vigilant.”

“The threat is not from the American people or government,” he adds, but from “terrorist sleeper cells that want to target Jews. These people are very dangerous and the FBI issues warnings against them very often,” he said, citing the FBI’s warning, after the killing of Hizbullah operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February, that the Lebanese group might carry out terror attacks on Jewish communities.

“The average American is friendly to Jews, but we’re worried about those individuals on the periphery of society,” Stern says.

 

The group was founded in the summer of 2006 in response to the shooting attack at the Jewish federation of Seattle premises by local Muslim Naveed Haq.

 

“We realized there is a need for this kind of organization, and as Israeli combat veterans living in the US, we have the skills and ability to respond to this,” Stern says.

The group’s MySpace page details the camp’s regimen, which includes training in the IDF’s Krav Maga martial art, use of non-lethal weapons and identification of suspicious objects, but also sharpshooter and assault rifle training, infantry exercises and endurance marches. Explanatory literature lists a large number of weapons with which participants can expect to train.

“We believe all Jews in the US must be legally armed and trained,” Stern says, “and towards this goal we hold paramilitary training camps to train and equip Jewish American youth.”

The group’s literature notes emphatically that all firearms used in training “are 100% legal and in compliance with all federal, state and local laws.”

“We strongly believe in the constitutional right to bear arms and we express this right to its fullest,” it adds.

The group claims to be “well-connected with the New York police and fire departments” and it invites “all members of the law enforcement community to join in our life-saving activities.”

Stern says, “We are all legally armed and carry radios and cellphones” during all hours of the day, and even on Shabbat, “as we need to be constantly ready to respond to any incident.”

The camp literature also promises discussions on Torah and Halacha, understanding and confronting terrorism, fighting anti-Semitism, the history of the Zionist movement in the Land of Israel, and encouraging participants to “know your rights and learn how every American can and must be legally armed and how to express the Second Amendment” – the right to bear arms.

 Funded by tuition money and a handful of private donors, the group does not exclude secular Jews, Stern says, but asks that they respect the Orthodox nature of the camp by observing Shabbat in public and refraining from bringing non-kosher food.

“We wouldn’t have a problem with non-Jews coming either,” says Stern, “but no non-Jew has applied thus far. Vinnews.com

As many as 700 arrested in Iowa illegal immigration raid at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant

POSTVILLE, Iowa — A raid by federal immigration officials at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant may have resulted in as many as 700 arrests, immigration officials said Monday

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the Agriprocessors Inc. complex in northeast Iowa Monday morning to execute a criminal search warrant for evidence relating to aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes, said Tim Counts, a Midwest ICE spokesman.

Agents are also executing a civil search warrant for people illegally in the United States, he said.

Immigration officials told aides to Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, that they expect 600 to 700 arrests. About 1,000 to 1,050 people work at the plant, according to Iowa Workforce Development, the state’s employment services agency.

Chuck Larson, a truck driver for Agriprocessing, was in the plant when the agents arrived. “There has to be 100 of them,” he said of the agents.

Larson said the agents told workers to stay in place then separated them by asking those with identification to stand to the right and those with other papers, to stand to the left.

“There was plenty of hollering,” Larson said. “You couldn’t go anywhere.”

When asked who was separated, Larson said those standing in the group with other papers were all Hispanic

ICE spokesman Harold Ort in Postville did not confirm or deny that anyone had been detained, but went on to say that the children of those detained would be cared for and that “their caregiver situation will be addressed.”

“They were asked multiple times if they have any sole-caregiver issues or any childcare issues,” Ort said.

Aides to Braley said they have been told that “hundreds” of arrests are expected because the action is more of an “investigation” than an immigration raid, and specific individuals are being targeted for arrest as part of the investigation.

Counts described the events in Postville as a “single site operation.” He said he was not aware of any other immigration raids being conducted elsewhere Monday.

Postville Police Chief Michael Halse said he did not know anything about the raid until Monday morning.

Postville is a community of more than 2,500 people that includes natives of German and Norwegian heritage and newcomers who include Hasidic Jews from New York, plus immigrants from Mexico, Russian, Ukraine and many other countries.

The Agriprocessors plant, known as the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, is northeast Iowa’s largest employer.

About 200 Hasidic Jews arrived in Postville in 1987, when butcher Aaron Rubashkin of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood reopened a defunct meat-packing plant with his two sons, Sholom and Heshy, just outside the city limits. Business boomed at the plant, reviving the depressed economy while pitting the newcomers against the predominantly Lutheran community.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said that the Postville immigration investigations were warranted despite concerns that federal official violated the constitutional rights of people in past raids.

“Remember our concern has not been about whether or not there should be raids,” Vilsack said. “It’s the way the raids have been conducted and the way in which American citizens’ rights have been violated by virtue of sort of a roundup process that’s used and what we think are inappropriate and unconstitutional actions on the part of immigration officials.”

Vilsack and others have alleged that immigration officials used humiliation, opposite-sex searches and long periods of secrecy in the Dec. 12, 2006, raids at Swift & Co. in Marshalltown, Iowa, where 90 people were arrested on immigration charges. UsaToday.com

‘Tribal’ tension in Crown Heights keeps neighborhood from moving beyond hate

Nearly 17 years after riots tore Crown Heights apart, the recent beating of a black college student by Jewish assailants has exposed rising tensions between blacks and Jews in my neighborhood.

Cops and city officials have quietly gone on high alert, worried that another riot could be in the works.

The troubles began on April 14, when Andrew Charles, a 20-year-old sophomore at Kingsborough Community College, says he and a friend encountered a pair of young Jewish men while walking down Albany Ave. about 6 p.m.

“One was on bike, one was on foot. They were staring at us, staring us down,” Charles told me. “We stared back. They approached us and asked if we had a problem.”

The man on the bike sprayed Charles with tear gas, and a few minutes later a contingent of Jewish men arrived by car and in scooters and began chasing them.

One man beat Charles on the back and arm with a nightstick, inflicting injuries that sent him to the hospital. The group fled, but not before a witness on the street got the license plate number.

In any other neighborhood, a staredown between young men, even one that turns into a beatdown, would barely count as major news.

But this is Crown Heights, where a smoldering pile of intergroup grievances and injustices – some real, many imaginary – set the stage for the shocking outburst of mob violence in August 1991.

According to a memo circulated by Mayor Bloomberg’s Community Assistance Unit, city officials immediately descended on Crown Heights last week to establish “contact with the [Charles] family before outside agitators could jump in and reach out to the family to create community turmoil.”

I don’t know which “outside agitators” the mayor’s people were afraid of, but community activist Taharka Robinson, founder of the Central Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition, is acting as Charles’ adviser. The family also has retained Paul Wooten, a well-known Brooklyn lawyer recently nominated for a Supreme Court judgeship.

Robinson and Wooten are reliable, levelheaded men. They will have their work cut out for them.

At the urging of city officials, a group of leaders from both communities will meet tomorrow – “before the Sean Bell verdict,” the Community Assistance Unit memo cautions – to figure out a way to dial down the tension.

In the neighborhood’s calculus of tribal resentments, the attack on Charles was the mirror image of a January incident in which a teenage yeshiva student named Samuel Balkany said five black kids jumped and beat him, shouting “little Jew boy, you think you own this neighborhood,” and such.

Despite a call from authorities for help in solving the case, nobody was arrested for the Balkany beating. Let enough of these tribal skirmishes accumulate, and you end up with a neighborhood ready to explode.

Last week, much to their credit, cops from the 71st Precinct and Patrol Borough Brooklyn South quickly began a full-court press to solve the latest beating, with an extra incentive supplied by the fact that Charles’ father, Moses Charles , is a cop in Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct.

The NYPD swiftly found the attackers’ car in East New York , stripped of plates but still traceable. At the car owner’s home, according to the Community Assistance Unit memo, cops arrested a man – believed to be the brother of the car’s owner – for interfering with government administration, and later released him.

All along the way, local politicians and community leaders – both black and Jewish – have been talking.

It’s a rotten shame that people in my neighborhood haven’t figured out how to live side by side, and an embarrassment that we have to rely on cops and nervous bureaucrats to keep the peace.

Nowhere in the city will you find more devout religious people than in Crown Heights, yet it has come to this – shortly after Easter and the Pope’s visit, and in the middle of the Jewish High Holy Days.

Can’t we all just get along? DailyNews

$4 Gas Hits New York

 You don’t have to imagine gasoline costing $4 a gallon. It’s here. WCBS reporter Sean Adams found it in Westchester County.The price for regular unleaded is one-tenth of one cent away from $4 a gallon at the Citgo station in West Harrison.
Cabbies here complain their take-home pay is thinner than it used to be. Trucking companies across the country are making drivers slow down to conserve fuel. Filling station owners plead that really, really, the skyrocketing prices aren’t their fault.

And the rest of us? With gas prices now averaging $3.50 a gallon nationwide, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, more and more Americans who have to drive are weighing the need for each and every trip.

“To get to the doctors and all that, it’s an awful lot of money,” said Carol Licata, a 75-year-old retiree from Arnold, Pa., who said a larger portion of her fixed income is now going toward gas. “I don’t drive that often, but have to take necessary trips … and (gas) takes a big chunk out of our budget.”

Some would-be drivers are considering less energy-dependent alternatives simply for money’s sake.

In Los Angeles, for example, fiction writer Brian Edwards sold his gas-guzzling Ford truck and now relies on his skateboard or the bus to get around. Sharon Cooper of Chicago, meanwhile, said she is planning to buy a bicycle to use on her 2{-mile commute to work.

Winter Storm Was Canceled

 

Winter storm was canceled this morning have a nice day.

Brooklyn, NY – ALERT!! Thief Goes To Avelim To Steal Pushkas

Brooklyn, NY – Community Alert!

 

The Misaskim organization has informed VIN News to alert the community about the following.

There is someone going around to menachem aveilim calls, and while he distracts the aveilim, swipes all pushkas from the residence. He shows up the day before the mourners end the shivah week. The suspect has been successful several times already, including recently in Borough Park, exiting with 8 pushkas.

He employs various tricks, pretends to donate money, and then runs. The public is asked to be on the lookout. We will post more details as we receive the information.. Vin News

You Can Save A Life ; Just take a fiew minutes and wipe the Ice/Snow off your car

 

Above is a picture of a car that was smashed from falling ice. Please be considerate for your fellow freinds. Please take the extra fiew minutes to clear snow or ice off your car. Please use caution when driving leave extra time.

It was unseasonably warm last week, but it didn’t keep me from encountering people who sympathized — just barely — with this column’s call to ban the kind of road hazard that we call the Snow and Ice That Fall Twice.

That’s the kind of white junk that leaves the other guy’s car or truck, hits your windshield and makes your whole life flash in front of you. You know the kind:

* The Route 17 kind that killed Ridgewood’s Michael Eastman nearly 12 years ago.

* The Route 287 kind that caused Hawthorne’s Bob and Mary Mahon to chase after the car whose icy load smashed their windshield last year.

* The Route 80 kind that ran Kinnelon’s Tara Varner and her 2-year-old off the road last month.

Shouldn’t New Jersey fine drivers whose vehicles carry snow? Currently, statute 39:4-77.1 makes it illegal only when it causes damage or injury.

Cathy Eastman understands this because the vehicle whose icy load crushed her husband’s skull was long gone by the time police arrived. Tara, Bob, Mary and most of the 2,000 readers who sent me petitions early this year also get it.

But not some folks I’ve encountered. “There are thousands of SUVs, many driven by women,” said Pequannock’s E.L. Quigley. “They can’t clean ice off the tops of their vehicles.”

Ray R. also sympathizes, but:

“Do you have suggestions for clearing … snow from an SUV that’s been out overnight WITHOUT damaging the hood, roof rack or moon roof?” asked the Fair Lawn man. “Pushing snow off is easy, but after past storms, thick solid ice and packed snow didn’t budge after the car’s heater was on for 20 minutes.”

* Run a garden hose over the car with the heater running, but do this for short periods to avoid cracking the windshield.

* Put old cardboard, canvas or a rug over the vehicle before it snows, and yank it off after the storm.

* Run the engine for an hour, long enough to free frozen snow, or at least to help clear it.

Some consider all this unnecessary. One woman, 72, said: “If I can clean my SUV, so can anybody.” Cathy Eastman, who’s 5 feet 1, says she does it. NorthJersey.com And Passaic News.

HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING TO 12 PM EST MONDAY

Snow is on the way

A snowstorm expected to cross New Jersey tonight might make tomorrow’s morning commute a little messy for some travelers but carries the potential for significant snow in other areas.

Anticipated to hit the state around 9 p.m., it could last until noon tomorrow, said Valerie Meola, meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

“The storm is over the Southeastern states, and it’s moving up the coast,” Meola said. “How far the storm lands off the coast will determine how much snow falls on our area.”

Depending on the track of the storm, weather officials said Essex, Union, Hudson, Bergen and Passaic counties could see between 6 and 12 inches. Sussex and Morris counties could see between four to seven inches.

Middlesex, western Monmouth and Mercer counties could experience 2 to 4 inches, beginning first as rain.

Warren, Hunterdon and Somerset counties could see nearly 2 inches as well, Meola said.

Temperatures tonight will plummet below freezing for most of the state, Meola said.

Tomorrow, temperatures will hover around the high 30s in the northern part of the state and in the 40s farther south.

Nawal Qarooni may be reached at nqarooni@starledger.com or (732) 404-8082.

Jewish Votes Will Matter

Iowa and New Hampshire have spoken and shaken up the presidential races in both political parties. The contest between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will likely be decided in the 20 states in which primaries will be held on February 5. The Republican nomination contest may be more muddled with Huckabee, Giuliani, McCain and Romney all still in the mix – but it too will likely be resolved on February 5. What does this mean? Jewish votes will matter. Among the (too) many states holding primaries on Feb. 5: New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Arizona and Tennessee all with substantial Jewish populations; most of whom are registered Democrats, but there are plenty of Republicans and Independents, and are known to turn out disproportionately to our percentage of the overall population.

While Senator Clinton has had more than a six year senate term to cultivate her relationships with American Jews and become the community “favorite,” Senator Obama has done his share of outreach to the community since he has burst on the scene as well. Thanks to his mayoralty in NYC, Rudy Giuliani certainly  in the community, but McCain can come on strong with a long record of support for Israel and Joe Lieberman in his corner (and potentially on his ticket?)

Bottom line: We expect a lot of phone calling, direct mailing, ads in your local Jewish papers, meetings with rabbis and showing up for bagels & lox in the coming weeks – and yes, this is good for the Jews. ou.org

BORUCH DAYAN EMMES:MARAN HAGON RAV SHMUEL BERENBAUM ZATZAL

I regret to inform you of the (Petira) passing of the (Gadol Hador) Grand Rabbi, Maran Hagon Rav Shmuel Berenbaum ZATZAL – Rosh Yeshivas Mirrer Yeshiva Of  Brooklyn.

UPDATE: The levaya will take place 8:45AM Monday morning at Mir Yeshiva (1795 Ocean Parkway). The aron will leave to the airport at 11:30 promptly.

אוי לספינה שאבדה קברניטה

 נפלה עטרת ראשינו פאר הדור ותפארתו

הי גאון הי חסיד

 עמוד התורה והחסד

זקן ראש הישיבות משרידי הדור הישן

מורינו ורבינו מרן

הגאון האדיר רשכבה”ג

הרב רבי רפאל שמואל ברנבוים זצוק’’ל

ראש הישיבה דישיבת מיר

 הלוי’ה יתקיים בבית מדרשו

1791 OCEAN PARKWAY

ביום ב’ בשעה 8:45 בבקר

 ישיבת מיר

The levaya will be leaving the Yeshiva at 11 A.M.

to JFK, EL AL Cargo, Bldg. 23

 וכל בית ישראל יבכו את השרפה אשר שרף ד’    yeshivaworld.com

Passaic:Orthodox Web site gives Craigslist a Jewish flavor

Luach.com is practically a doppelganger of Craigslist — except in addition to selling your old furniture, you’ll find opportunities to “Do a Mitzvah.”

With a title taken from the Hebrew for “calendar,” it’s a bulletin-board Web site serving the Orthodox Jewish community. Need a roommate in Clifton? Check Luach. Lost your car keys last Tuesday? The “Lost and Found” section of the site might help you out.

When Shmuel Laskin started Luach in the summer of 1997, his vision for the site was far narrower. The 50-year-old computer programmer from Monsey, N.Y., intended only to make a job board, and maybe advertise real estate. He lived in Passaic at the time, and launched the site mainly to serve the Passaic-Clifton area.

As an Orthodox Jew, Laskin saw the primary audience for the site as fellow Orthodox families — he had seen similar sites for other cultural groups, but none for his sect. He emphasized, though, that all were welcome to use it.

“I try to be as inclusive as I can; however, there are some things that the Orthodox community does not want on a site,” Laskin explained. Vulgar pictures and obscene language, often just a click away on Craigslist, are nowhere to be found on Luach.

Luach gained popularity almost entirely through word of mouth — and as he and others moved away from Passaic, Laskin started adding other regions to the site.

“We’re always getting requests from people in other communities,” he said. “You know, ‘We’ve moved to Podunk, and we don’t have it here.’ “

The bulletin board now serves 43 communities in three countries: the U.S., Canada and Israel. But Passaic “is still the place we have the most traction,” Laskin said.

As with Craigslist, posting on the site is free. Laskin also sells advertisements to keep the site running, charging between $15 and $45 for a monthlong ad.

Elisheva Snow’s posts on Luach.com are brief and to the point: “20-year-old female looking for a ride from Passaic to Baltimore. Call or e-mail.”

“I do usually check out who they are,” she said. “Usually I end up getting a ride.”

It’s enough to make a parent swoon with fear, but Snow isn’t worried. The clientele of Luach, she says, keeps things safe.

Many of the posts on Luach are secular (“Does anyone have info on mold removal from basement with flood history?”), but Luach also provides listings for minayim, shiurim and gemachs (prayer meetings for men, Torah readings and good deeds). And the site offers a sense of security for those looking to stay within the Jewish community.

The popularity of Craigslist is rooted partially in its egalitarian nature — anyone with an Internet hookup can seek out a job, solicit a housing swap or post a missed connection. As long as it’s not bogus, illegal or obscene, the Craigslist administrators generally let it fly.

Rules on Luach are more stringent: Guidelines state that the site will not allow “any values that run contrary to the values of our readership.” Craigslist offers users a page to set up “casual encounters” and has a personals section for people seeking same-sex partners. While Laskin doesn’t preach, he also declines to post what his religion deems morally suspect.

The popularity of an Orthodox-only site isn’t surprising, says Rabbi Michel Gurkov of the Chabbad congregation in Passaic.

“You’re always more comfortable when you are using a type of Web page with people with similar backgrounds,” he said. “You know — or you hope you know — who you’re talking to.”

Gurkov’s congregation has been publicizing events on Luach for seven years, with positive responses. “People become wealthy on niches,” he said. “You’re catering to a specific community. There’s a need out there.” NorthJersey.com

Cops Looking for FedEx Truck,Truck Jacked

NEW YORK (AP)  — Gun-toting carjackers made off with a FedEx delivery truck after accosting the driver at a stoplight in Manhattan early Friday, police said. Forced out of the truck and into another car, the driver was found around 1:30 a.m. in Brooklyn, police said. They were interviewing him later Friday. The driver wasn’t hurt, police and FedEx Corp. spokesman Steve Barber said. The FedEx Express truck was headed to a company facility in Newark, N.J., Barber said. While the driver was stopped at a traffic light on the far western side of midtown Manhattan, two men confronted him, brandishing a gun, according to police. Police and Barber said they didn’t know the truck’s contents or their value. Police described the truck as an 18-wheeler.

Web site provides info on airport checkpoint wait times

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Want an idea of how much time you’ll spend at security checkpoints before heading to the airport?

Now there’s a way to find out.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is making the information available on its Web site: www.panynj.info.

The information is being provided by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

It’s based on historical averages at the region’s three major airports — JFK International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia Airport. nj.com

Borough Park, Brooklyn NY – Rabbi and Assistant Are Arrested in Tax Scheme.

Borough Park, Brooklyn NY – A rabbi of a Brooklyn-based Hasidic sect, was arrested Wednesday [as reported on VIN News] with his executive assistant in Los Angeles on charges that they arranged and profited from inflated charitable donations that saved the donors millions of dollars in federal income taxes

Under the scheme, officials said, the Rabbi spent more than a decade soliciting contributions for charities by promising to secretly refund as much as 95 percent of the money to the donors. The donors could then claim tax deductions on the full amount while paying as little as 5 percent, officials said.

They had taken in some $8.7 million in contributions solicited Of that, they held on to almost $750,000, the indictment said.

The case was broken, in part, with the help of a secret cooperating witness, a Los Angeles businessman identified in the indictment only as R. K. In one year alone, before he turned state’s evidence and agreed to record his former colleagues secretly, R. K. contributed about $1.7 million to the Spinka sect’s scheme. [nytimes] Vosizneias

N.Y.C. Traffic Alert

N.Y.C. has suspended alternate side parking for tomorrow due to Snow removal. Don’t forget you still have to pay the meter’s. Also tomorrow is a grid lock alert day. Have a wonderful and safe day tomorrow.

Holland Tunnel Goes Green

JERSEY CITY (ap)  — The Holland Tunnel has gone green.

Crews overnight replaced fluorescent lights with light-emitting diodes.

The LEDs distribute light more efficiently, require less energy and last 15 years compared to 1.4 years for fluorescent lighting.

More than 1,700 LED fixtures replace some 4,000 fluorescent ones in the tunnel. Port Authority officials say they’ll save $340,000 each year in energy and maintenance costs. They will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 3 million pounds.

The George Washington Bridge’s “necklace” of 156 mercury vapor fixtures are to be replaced with LEDs in January. Wcbs

NYC Subway Attack Possible Hate Crime

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of people exchanging holiday greetings on a subway last week hurled anti-Semitic slurs and beat four Jewish riders who had wished them “Happy Hanukkah,” authorities said Tuesday.

The prosecutor’s office was investigating the Friday night incident as a possible hate crime.

The four Jewish riders were on a train in lower Manhattan during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings.

When they wished the group “Happy Hanukkah,” they were assaulted, police said. Police caught up with the train one stop later in Brooklyn and arrested eight men and two women, ages 19 and 20.

The four Jewish riders had bruises and welts on their faces and heads, police said.

The group of ten people was arraigned Saturday on several charges, including third-degree assault and menacing and second-degree riot and harassment. They pleaded not guilty.

One of the men charged, Joseph Jirovec, 19, pleaded guilty last year to attempted robbery as a hate crime and was awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.

Jirovec, who is white, was part of a group that yelled racial epithets and assaulted two black teenagers in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

Jirovec’s lawyer, Peter Mollo, said Tuesday it was very unlikely his client would attack another person because he or she was Jewish.

“His mother was Jewish,” he said. “It’s very unlikely he would do something like this at all.”

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND COCA COLA ENTERPRISES ROLL OUT THE COMPANY’S FIRST-EVER HYBRID DELIVERY TRUCKS IN THE SOUTH BRONX

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today joined Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) executives to announce that the company is undertaking energy saving measures here in New York, including introducing the first five hybrid-electric delivery trucks, which will operate out of the company’s distribution center in the Bronx. Coca-Cola Enterprises is responsible for the distribution of Coca-Cola products in North America and Europe. The Bronx sales center has 90 trucks servicing 8700 customers in Manhattan and the Bronx, delivering more than 8 million cases of beverages annually. The hybrid-electric trucks use 32% less fuel than standard trucks and use technology to eliminate emissions when they idle or sit in traffic.

“Sustainable business practices will save businesses and government money in the long run. That’s why we’re converting our taxi fleet to hybrids. It’s why major rental companies like Hertz are converting their fleets, and it’s why a world leader in product distribution like Coca-Cola has made this commitment,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Although clearly a major international brand, there are important local implications resulting from this decision. Coca-Cola Enterprises runs trucks though our five boroughs on their distribution routes, and by introducing these hybrid-electric trucks, they are contributing to better air quality in the communities they serve locally – especially their home in the South Bronx.” NyC.gov

Brooklyn N.Y. Hatzolah Ambulance Involved In A Motor Vehicle Crash

Brooklyn N.Y. A Hatzolah ambulance while responding to a Cardiac Arrest was just involved in a Motor Vehicle Crash in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn,on 14th Avenue . There are injuries reported at this time. Multiple Hatzolah  Ambulances and multiple units  are responding to the scene at this time .

Judge Removed Over Cell Phone Jailing

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - A judge who jailed 46 people who were in his courtroom when a cell phone call interrupted proceedings was removed from the bench Tuesday by a state commission.

Niagara Falls City Court Judge Robert Restaino “snapped” and “engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness” during the March 2005 session, Raoul Felder, chairman of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote in the decision to remove Restaino from the $113,900-per-year post.

A phone rang while Restaino was hearing the cases of domestic violence offenders who had been ordered to appear weekly to update the judge on the progress of their counseling. A sign in the courthouse warns that cell phones and pagers must be turned off.

“Everyone is going to jail,” Restaino said. “Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I’m kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going.”

When no one came forward, Restaino ordered the group into custody, and they were taken to jail, where they were searched and packed into crowded cells. Fourteen people who could not post bail were shackled and bused to another jail.

Restaino ordered them released later that afternoon.

Restaino told the state panel he had been under stress in his personal life.

His attorney, Terrence Connors, said Restaino would appeal.

Best Buy In Little Falls Had Customer’s Wraped Around The Building Twice.

Best Buy In Little Falls Had Customer’s Wraped Around The Building Twice to try to grab the early morning specials. Our own PCJN reporter was on scene at 5:30 in the morning just 3o minutes before Best Buy opens its doors with the super specials. While our reporter was on scene a Passaic County Officer approched him and said the wait to get in once the store opens is going to be from then at least 2 hours. He said we might as well come back at 9 oclock. Our reporter approched the front of the line and people were telling us that they have been waiting since yesterday afternoon. Its amazing what people will do for good deals.

Don’t scare the children – teach them Handwashing

I have seen MRSA in my office become more of an issue, just in the last year,” reported dermatologist Marcy Goldstein, referring to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial infection that has been recently reported to have caused the death of a middle-school student in Brooklyn. At the Passaic-based day school YBH of Passaic-Hillel, principal Rabbi Joseph Abrams reported  that “the building is full of signs about hand washing: the hallways, the bathrooms, the stairways, the lunchroom.” 

The school nurse at YBH, Sara Schulman, explained that the administration put signs everywhere, reminding students to wash their hands with soap and water “when coming in from gym, after going to the bathroom, before you eat….”

“It’s important to wash hands with soap for 20 seconds, and then use a paper towel to close the faucet and open the door,” said Schulman, explaining that some people who don’t wash their hands touch the doorknobs.   The paper towel that is used to open doors should be properly discarded.   

As N.J. house sales fall, prices still rise – only more slowly

The number of New Jersey house sales dropped 13.4 percent during the third quarter of 2007 from the same period in 2006, continuing a slide from the hyperactive sales pace of 2004 and 2005, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

Home prices, however, have not followed. In the census area that includes Bergen and Passaic counties, prices were up 3.6 percent from the same period last year, to a median of $550,900 for an existing single-family home, the NAR said.

That may reflect high demand in New York City, which is in the same statistical area. The New Jersey Multiple Listing Service says that North Jersey prices have risen just about 1 percent over the last year, to a median of $520,000 in Bergen County and $389,000 in Passaic County. northjersey.com

New Yorkers’ great holiday escapes off to a good start

Every plane in this illustration – all 6,998 of them – shows a flight over the U.S. at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. And that was just a warm-up for today.

New Yorkers hit the highways and skyways in record numbers Wednesday heading to points near and far, lured by a baked bird that can’t fly - and so far, so good.

At least through the late afternoon, no major problems were reported in the metro area - even at one of the busiest bottlenecks: LaGuardia airport.

Although many arrivals were behind schedule by an hour or more, departures were moving relatively smoothly - with delays of no more than 15 minutes at most gates.

“It’s so much better than I thought it would be,” said Victoria Wallm, 24, of Dallas.

Her boyfriend, Kenneth Harris, 24, lugged their Boston terrier, Charley, who somehow talked his way into being included on the family trip to Texas.

“You need to be positive before Thanksgiving,” Harris said. “LaGuardia is pretty good this year.”

Officials said a 25% increase in staffing helped speed passengers through security check points. President Bush’s decision to open up some military air space to commercial flights also eased delays somewhat.

“Things are rolling along pretty well,” said Warren Kroeppel, the airport’s general manager. “It’s like a normal day at the airport.”

Even so, many travelers weren’t taking chances: Andrew Thompson lives upstate and arrived a whopping seven hours early.

Despite rising gas prices and fears of air delays, a record 38.7 million U.S. residents were expected to travel 50 miles or more as part of the largest predicted Thanksgiving pilgrimage ever.

Many New Yorkers may have already left town but others were hoping to beat the evening rush on what is often called the busiest travel day of the year.

At Pennsylvania Station, knots of people gathered with heavy suitcases in the Amtrak waiting area.

Ryan Bevilacqua and Jeremy Lyon, 23-year-old childhood buddies, were headed back home to Harrisburg, Pa. They said riding the train beats driving any time.

“The drive from here to Harrisburg? It’s awful,” said Bevilacqua. DailyNews.com