Yeshiva World News

[Pics from HYde-Park]

Satmar just won’t let the Gerrer Chassidim live after ther voted last week in the Israeli elections. They provoked them enough by writing things like this: So the Gerrer Chassidim retaliated in a Satmar Shul in Bait Shemesh.

Record:

The four boys live within about a mile of each other in Southwoods. Daniel Price and Dominick DePrizio, both 17, and Anthony Wingert and Raymond Surerus, both 18, rode the school bus together and were in some of the same classes. Price has been into motocross for seven years. He painted fences for a local horse farm, worked at a local greenhouse. He wants to go to college for computer technology. On Oct. 11, police showed up at his family’s door, saying they wanted to ask more questions about the other kids, who’d been busted a week earlier. As soon as Price stepped outside, police arrested him. He spent the next week in the Sullivan County Jail. His parents, Richard and Ellen Price, agonized, moving from disbelief to heartbreak. They had taught their kids not to hate…..Not far away, on Southwoods Drive, the White Rock Bungalow Colony had been vandalized. In September, swastikas and Hitler’s name had been spray-painted in the synagogue at the Orthodox Jewish colony. Spray paint obscured the faces of revered rabbis in old photographs and marred the spines of the Talmud and the Bible. In June, vandals had sprayed fire extinguishers all over the grounds. Firecrackers were flung at frightened residents. DePrizio, Wingert and Surerus were arrested in the synagogue desecration. Price was charged in the fire extinguisher mess. All four face felony charges of burglary as a hate crime. For the past few years, White Rock owner Shoshana Mermelstein has given police lists of problem kids. “We’re talking about a couple of years now with slashed tires and paint thrown into cars and firecrackers thrown through bungalow windows,” she said. The desecration was just the most recent and the worst of the harassment………..

APP:

………People that like flying would like to see improvements.” If they’re patient, they might bear witness. The Federal Aviation Administration recently approved the Lakewood Township Airport Authority’s master plan, scuttling, at least temporarily, public discussion about possibly turning the airport into a residential or commercial site. The neatly bound master plan paints a nearly $50 million portrait of the airport’s development over the next 20 years. Plans include a new terminal building, a restaurant, the addition of another 6,000 feet of security fencing, a reconstruction of the airport grounds, improved plane tie-downs, new individual hangars and the development of a 60-acre office park along Airport Road…..we’re looking to lease the 60 acres.” Albert said the office park — he sees it as a place for commercial uses but says anybody willing to lease the land would be considered a viable tenant — could tally up to about $1 million a year. The land would be owned by the airport, but tenants would lease it by the acre. Of course, not all of that money would come in at once, but Albert already is seeking letters of interest from companies. He said more than a half-dozen firms already have contacted him, but he declined to name them. Another stumbling block is that Albert still needs federal approval to lease the land because Lakewood used federal grants to help pay the $8.4 million the airport cost in 1996. There is no timeline for that approval. And if that’s not enough, the proposed development might also face competition for tenants from Cedarbridge Corporate Campus, a proposed office park next to FirstEnergy Park, a short drive west on Cedar Bridge Avenue. In a statement, Cedarbridge Development Corp. said it is not concerned with the possible competition — especially because government bureaucracy can take a while. After about five years, Cedarbridge received final approval from Ocean County officials in December to start construction, meaning work on the first 80,000 square feet of office space could start this year. “We are confident in the office market,” the company said in the statement. “We view any additional interest in office buildings as a sign of the fact that there is a healthy market developing.” Albert would agree with the part about the morass of government. It took the airport authority four years just to get a master plan approved, Albert said.

GSN:

Eighty-one year-old Lionel Ziprin is on a holy mission: To get out in the world the recordings his grandfather made a half-century ago, on the Lower East Side. The grandfather, Naftali Zvi Margolis Abulafia, a prominent Orthodox rabbi, was among the founders of The Home of the Sages of Israel. At some point in the early 1950’s, Margolis Abulafia let his grandson’s eccentric friend Harry Smith set up a studio in his yeshiva. Ziprin’s grandfather shelled out $35,000 in 1954, to have vinyl LP’s produced. Though the rabbi didn’t speak English and Smith didn’t speak Yiddish, the two recorded almost every day for two years, yielding 15 different LP’s. Eight were of Rabbi Abulafia telling stories in Yiddish and seven were of his singing liturgical songs in Hebrew. A thousand copies of the 15-LP collection were pressed….The rabbi’s singing style was a wonderful goulash of Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Arabic flavors, according to Yale Strom, a musician, filmmaker and folklorist dedicated to Jewish culture…Rabbi Abulafia passed away in February 1955, shortly after the records had been made. He was in his 80’s. Ziprin says that a few days before he died, his grandfather instructed him to make sure the records got out in the world. But Ziprin’s mother and uncle wouldn’t let him distribute the records, because they didn’t want the rabbi’s voice “booming from some record store on 14th Street….Ziprin is hoping some record company or Jewish sound archive will want to make CD’s and share Rabbi Abulafla’s recordings with the rest of the world. “If my grandfather’s voice wants to be heard, it will flnd its way into the world with everyone who should hear it,” Ziprin says in resignation. “These records have a destiny. I don’t know what their destiny is.”

CJN:

This flagship fast food restaurant, the first and only kosher Subway restaurant in North America, will be located in the spacious, sunny living room area at the Jewish Community Center’s main entrance. Over the next few weeks, this central spot, which at one time housed an Arabica Coffee House, will be refurbished with a warm, Tuscany look.The meat and pareve (permissible to be eaten with either meat or dairy) menu will feature the traditional Subway fare, but every item served will be strictly kosher and under the supervision of Cleveland Kosher.Pareve cheese will be used, and beef fry will be substituted for pork products. The mashgiach (kastrut supervisor), partner, and co-operator is Avi Cohen, former owner of Brooklyn Bagels. All bread baked on the premises has the approval of the Orthodox Union. By adapting the menu to meet strict kosher standards, Subway diners will enjoy chicken Parmesan, meatball and steak subs and even a Subway hamburger melt. Soups, salads, wraps and desserts will also be on the bill of fare as well as a special children’s menu.“The menu will be finalized over the next few weeks, along with the pricing,” says JCC president Enid Rosenberg. Tentative hours will be from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. The cost of menu items will be about 10% to 15% more than traditional Subway fare, but management will honor all national coupons and promotions. There will be take-out service including party trays.“We have been looking for a kosher partner for our living room area for some time,” explains Rosenberg. “We are thrilled to have made contact with Ghazi J. Faddoul, the Subway development agent, who helped us bring this franchise to the JCC.”………….

TorontoStar:

When Gavriel Wesel came safely home to Vienna after World War I, his wife, Miriam, sewed a cover for a Torah scroll at their synagogue to give thanks to God. This week, 87 years later, the cover was returned to the New York grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Wesels, who have died. The return took place in the office of New York Governor George Pataki, who established the world’s only public agency that helps Nazi victims and their heirs recover looted properties. Because the Torah cover survived in a Nazi-annexed country during World War II, it is considered extremely rare. The Nazis looted or destroyed almost all ceremonial or ritual Jewish objects, called Judaica. “We gave up on it,” said Aaron Bauer of Brooklyn, the Wesels’ grandson. “This is a miracle. They destroyed I don’t know how many thousands of things, and this one we found, and now we are getting it. Many people donated things (to the synagogue), and everything was lost……..

APP:

As Jersey Shore residents struggle with increases in the cost of energy, many of them may soon face higher water bills. New Jersey American Water Co., which has about 95,000 residential customers in 36 towns in Monmouth and Ocean counties, filed a request Friday with the state Board of Public Utilities to raise rates 23 percent. If approved, the water bill for the average New Jersey American Water customer, who uses 7,000 gallons of water a month, will rise by $8.89 per month, from $38.51 to $47.40. The proposal follows a 9.85 percent increase in 2004 and a 5.85 percent rise in 1999. Neptune resident Donald Dworzak, 75, said the increase “is not going to break me.” But at the same time, his income from savings, investments and Social Security is not keeping up with percentage increases in everything from electricity to gasoline, he said. A proposed water rate increase doesn’t help. “It is putting me in a negative position and I am not too happy about that,” Dworzak said. “So far I have been able to just get by.” He wondered how the water company could justify such a large percentage increase………..We feel these are very high rate increases,” Singh said. “We want to make sure these are legitimate numbers, and we want to look at how it is going to impact” customers. New Jersey American Water said it needs the rate increase to cover costs it has spent on infrastructure upgrades and increased energy expenses. Since its last rate request in 2003, the company has spent $140 million to replace and upgrade its facilities and sources of water supply, spokeswoman Lendel G. Jones said. Meanwhile it has absorbed increases in energy costs. New Jersey American also has installed two miles of 20-inch water mains in Neptune, Neptune City and Belmar, improving the flow of water to fire hydrants. Other improvements include a new main to bring water from Howell to Lakewood. There also were infrastructure improvements in Asbury Park and Aberdeen, Jones said. “When it comes to providing people with clean, potable water, if you don’t have the infrastructure in the ground to do that, we are not going to be able to perform our job,” Jones said. Meanwhile, costs such as the price of pipe and chemicals used to treat water have increased……

TJN:

A Nanuet man charged with driving while intoxicated might have had a heart attack yesterday before or after a minor car accident on Main Street. David Defreese, 57, was driving a 2002 GMC pickup southbound toward the intersection of Route 59 when he rear-ended a 2004 Acura shortly before 11 a.m., Ramapo Sgt. Robert Lancia said. Witnesses said that after hitting the vehicle, Defreese fell forward on the steering wheel. Defreese, who was driving with a suspended license, was revived by Chevra Hatzoloh of Rockland County and taken by ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Lancia said it was unclear whether Defreese had the heart attack before or after the accident. “Using common sense, I’d say the heart attack came first,” Lancia said. “But Hatzoloh did a great job in reviving him.” Lancia said staff at the hospital were notified to have Defreese call the Police Department before he was released. The driver of the Acura was not injured and a female passenger in Defreese’s car was also uninjured. Upon an inspection by Ramapo Police Officer Dennis Proctor, two open bottles of vodka were found in the pickup and alcohol could be smelled on Defreese’s breath, Lancia said.

COC:

Premier Dalton McGuinty is learning that when he offends religious groups, they don’t necessarily turn the other cheek. Jewish organizations have responded bluntly that the premier has insulted them, trampled rights, ignored history, rammed government into their places of worship and made a tragic mistake. They are annoyed because McGuinty is pushing through a law under which Ontario will no longer enforce rulings made by faith-based courts on family law issues such as division of property and child custody. McGuinty brought it in mainly because of concern sharia family law used in the expanding Muslim community favours men, but it also will not recognize adjudications by rabbinical courts used by Jews for many years…..Representatives of Orthodox Jews said that community unanimously wants to keep rabbinical courts, which they claim have operated without problems. New Democrat committee member MPP Peter Kormos pointed to a concern of many that it is difficult to know whether faith-based courts are fair, because they operate in secret. Complaints that rabbinical courts discriminate against women also have been made. The Jewish spokespersons offered some glimpse into this little-known world. They claimed rabbinical courts follow the most desirable principles in family law, trying first counseling and then mediation to save marriages in a system that dates back to Moses….The hearings probably will reinforce McGuinty in his refusal to recognize Muslims’ sharia law. He may see more merit in Jews’ claims, but he will find it difficult to give one religion something that he has denied to another.