Someone carved a swastika and the word “Jew” in freshly poured concrete outside Holy Name Medical Center’s emergency room on Grange Road late Wednesday or early Thursday, authorities said.

Police also took three boys into custody — ages 14, 15 and 17 — for stepping on and writing in the soft concrete, though they were not responsible for the anti-Semitic message, police said.

The hospital replaced the concrete Thursday after learning of the graffiti, spokeswoman Jacqueline Kates said.

“Hopefully we will never experience something like that again,” she said.

Police have not decided whether to charge the three boys or impose an alternate form of punishment in consultation with their parents.

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(Source: North Jersey)

The Department of Transportation installed the first countdown pedestrian signals in Park Slope earlier today.

When the traffic lights at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 9th Street turn red, pedestrians will see a walking man for 15 seconds. Then, a 22-second countdown begins so pedestrians know exactly how much time they have left to cross.

The city’s Department of Transportation says that’s one of the reasons why it chose this intersection of Fourth Avenue, which is a major artery with a subway station and school nearby.

Over the past year, the DOT conducted a pilot program with the countdown clocks in 25 locations – five in each borough.

The DOT commissioner says the countdown clocks will become standard on all wider streets.

The first 250 will be installed over the next three months. So far, residents say it’s more than a welcome improvement, though not without its own stress-inducing moments.

The city is trying to cut the number of traffic fatalities in half by 2030.

Last year, pedestrians made up for more than half of the traffic fatalities in the five boroughs.

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(Source: NY1)

Brooklyn — Councilman David Greenfield has requested that the Federal government dispatch monitors to random polling sites to oversee the November 2nd general election in New York to ensure the preservation of New Yorkers’ rights to a secret ballot.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, Councilman Greenfield said, “I am calling on you to urgently address the serious privacy violations that took place during Tuesday’s New York primary elections. As you are aware, this was New York’s first election with new electronic voting machines and the outcome was catastrophic with respect to voter privacy.”

On primary day, Councilman Greenfield received numerous complaints from constituents and experienced first-hand how New Yorkers’ rights to a secret ballot were impeded by improperly trained poll workers. The grievances begin with the fact that poll workers failed to distribute the necessary privacy sleeves that were to accompany all ballots, which Councilman Greenfield, who had to demand a privacy sleeve, experienced when he voted on Tuesday. Without the privacy sleeve, voters were unable to hide their ballot selections while carrying the paper ballots from voting booths to the optical scanners.

Additionally, at various polling locations, including Councilman Greenfield’s, the new voting booths were incorrectly positioned toward the public, instead of a wall, leaving anyone behind the person voting able to view their ballot. Councilman Greenfield, like many voters, had to huddle over his ballot to ensure his vote remained private.

Finally, in numerous circumstances, poll workers—all of whom are appointed by district leaders, who themselves are running for election —would refuse to allow voters to enter their paper ballot into the optical scanner and instead demand that they – the poll worker – enter the paper ballot, with a voter’s ballot selections in full view. Sadly, this too happened to Greenfield who had to argue with a poll inspector to allow him to enter the ballot on his own.

“These allegations would have been shocking had I not personally experienced a complete breakdown of voter privacy in Tuesday’s elections,” Greenfield explained. “The secret ballot has been a fundamental right dating back to the Roman era. If our elections are to be fair, we must ensure the secrecy of our ballots and make sure that voters do not feel intimidated at their polling sites.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)

1:00PM EST: [UPDATES BELOW] A man who shot and wounded a doctor at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, later killed himself and a third person on Thursday, police said.

The suspect shot a faculty physician at the hospital just after 11 a.m., police said. The doctor was rushed to surgery and is expected to survive, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman.

Authorities evacuated part of the hospital after the shooting and then police attempted to isolate the suspect, identified by police as an African-American man in his 30s,

The suspect later killed himself and another person, police said. Police said there was talk that the suspect had been holed up with a family member.

Earlier, police said officers shot and killed the man but later said that account was incorrect.

UPDATE 3:15PM EST: The doctor has identified by Maryland TV stations as spinal surgeon David Cohen. He reportedly in critical condition with a bullet in the chest, but expected to live, police said.

“He’s in surgery as we speak, but he’s going to be okay. He’s in the best place he could ever be – at Johns Hopkins hospital,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

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(Source: WBLTV)

The Palm Beach Post reports:

When Jews at Congregation Chabad-Lubavitch west of Boynton Beach gather Friday for the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish holidays, they will be under a cloud of uncertainty.

A bank is seeking to grab the Chabad’s property and assets to pay off a delinquent loan.

Among those assets are the congregation’s five Torahs.

Threatening to seize the Torahs is “a desecration,” said Howard Dubosar, a Chabad attorney. “This is a bank playing hardball.”

David Seleski, president of Stonegate Bank, said the bank isn’t trying to attack the Chabad through its religion. “We just want to get paid,” Seleski said.

But Chabad lawyers are equally upset about the timing of a legal action by the Fort Lauderdale-based bank. Stonegate is seeking to proceed with a foreclosure of the Chabad property, despite the synagogue’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in June. Normally, Chapter 11 puts a halt to all litigation.

But earlier this month Stonegate filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to allow its foreclosure lawsuit to go ahead anyway, arguing that the Chabad’s bankruptcy filing was done in bad faith and was simply a bid “to stall for more time.”

The motion was filed on Sept. 10, which was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

Phil Landau, the Chabad’s bankruptcy lawyer, said it was “disrespectful” for the filing to be made on this day. “It could have been filed a few days before or a few days after,” Landau said.

Dubosar went even further, saying that the filing was “calculated to harm the psyche of this religious institution. This is the holiest time of the year. It’s like foreclosing on a church on Christmas Eve.”

Stonegate’s Seleski said the Rosh Hashana filing date was not deliberate. But he was not bothered by charges that the filing was inappropriate.

“Oh, too bad,” Seleski said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate that they’re not paying their loan back. I’m not aware of any holiday. My job is to collect as much money as I can for our shareholders.

“We’re not trying to be bad guys,” Seleski said. “But we want to get repaid. If they repay us, it all goes away.”

Bankruptcy experts not connected to the case, however, also were critical. “They didn’t have to wait until Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to do this,” said Tina Talarchyk, a West Palm Beach bankruptcy lawyer. “They could have easily done this in July or August. For these extremely observant folks, it’s a slap in the face.”

The bank’s attorney, Robert Furr, did not return a phone call.

The bad blood between the Orthodox Jewish congregation and the bank has its roots in a 2007 loan. That loan, for $3.8 million, was made by Stonegate for a planned expansion of Chabad’s campus at 10655 El Clair Ranch Road. The expansion never took place, however, and in a September 2009 lawsuit, the Chabad accused the bank of engaging in a “bait-and-switch.” The Chabad alleged the bank didn’t make good on promises to provide additional financing in the form of a bond that would have paid off the loan and allowed the expansion to proceed.

Stonegate fired back in October with a foreclosure lawsuit. Documents recorded with the loan allow the bank to seize the Chabad’s assets and all member pledges, according to Palm Beach County records.

In July, Stonegate filed a motion to contact congregants who have pledged money to the Chabad, with the intent to “verify” that the pledges will actually be made. The move was rejected by a bankruptcy judge, Landau said.

Now Stonegate’s Sept. 10 motion to reinstate the foreclosure case could have a chilling effect on pledges by Chabad Lubavitch’s members on Yom Kippur, Landau said. “They will be nervous because their pledges are at risk” of being diverted from the Chabad, Landau said.

Landau said the Chabad’s Rabbi, Sholom Ciment, is “extremely distraught” by the recent events.

Chabad congregants worshipping during these High Holy Days may wonder if this is the last time they will see their Torahs, Landau said.

“We will be sensitive to the issues surrounding any religious artifact,” Seleski assured. “We’re not going to go in there and burn them.”

But Rabbi Moshe Scheiner of the Palm Beach Congregation on Palm Beach said the Torah should not even be part of the discussion.

“The Torah is the most sacred object in Judaism,” Scheiner said. “I don’t think it should be treated like a commodity. It is the soul of a congregation, and you can’t repossess a soul.”

Scheiner said many institutions, including synagogues, are having a tough time. He said Stonegate should realize this and try harder to work something out.

“I would hope there could be a kinder and gentler approach this time of year,” Scheiner said.

The Chabad soon will find out whether the bank is willing to let the congregation keep its property.

A hearing on the bank’s motion is set for Sept. 24.

That is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a festival commemorating the harvest.

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(Source: Palm Beach Post)

On a recent summer day, Rabbi Shloime Isaacson received an urgent call: A 98-year-woman was having difficulty breathing.

Isaacson was on his way to a meeting with a potential donor for a summer-camp program connected with his Northeast Philadelphia Orthodox shul, but he quickly took a detour.

He was only about a mile from the woman’s home, so he sped over and arrived about the same time as his congregant, Alec Braverstein.

The two gave her oxygen and checked vital signs before paramedics arrived, saving the emergency personnel valuable time in treating a critical patient and getting her to the hospital, said Isaacson.

“Every second counts,” added Braverstein, a 31-year-old born in the former Soviet Union who recently relocated from Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

Isaacson and Braverstein recently completed 120 hours of emergency medical technician training as volunteers for Hatzolah of Philadelphia, a recently launched emergency-response team under Orthodox auspices. It is believed to be the first such entity in the area.

Isaacson, of Beth Solomon Kollel and Community Center, which serves a mainly Russian-speaking population, recalled a man telling him recently: ” ‘I never would have thought I’d see in the city of Philadelphia people coming to respond to a call with a yarmulke and tzitzit.’ ” The man said the sight made him feel his neighbor was in good hands.

And, almost like icing on the cake, Isaacson reported that the potential donor he was heading to when he changed course was so impressed with the story of the mitzvah that he wound up giving money to the camp program.

Hatzolah, which has been up and running now for about two months, is currently a small-scale effort. The group takes emergency calls within two zip codes in the far Northeast—19115 and 19116—an area that includes the Klein JCC, which serves a significant senior population. But organizers hope the program will expand and serve to augment the city’s existing 911 response system.

The group does not have its own ambulance at present; volunteers carry medical equipment, including a defibrillator, in their cars. This means that members function as first responders and don’t transport victims; they wait for the proper personnel to arrive.

The volunteers speak numerous languages, including Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew and Yiddish.

Hatzolah is Hebrew for “rescue,” and the principle behind a Jewish-run ambulance corps stems from the notion that Jewish law prioritizes saving a life above all else. That means potentially violating Shabbat—or responding on the High Holidays—if someone’s well-being is at stake.

According to Isaacson, even if a call comes on Friday night, “you pick yourself up from the table in the middle of dinner with your family because a life needs to be saved.”

Assistance for All

Moreover, the mission of the organization requires that volunteers help all victims, not just Jews.

The first Hatzolah volunteer ambulance corps began in 1965 in Brooklyn, N.Y., as a way to both cut down on emergency-response times, and alleviate difficulties due to language differences and other cultural barriers.

A number of affiliated groups sprouted up from there.

Today, the Hatzolah ambulances are a regular sight in the New York area; separate groups operate in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, as well as Israel, England and several other foreign countries. (According to the group’s Web site, Hatzolah volunteers were the first to arrive at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.)

Plan to Work Together

Isaacson said that he’d long hoped to bring the Hatzolah concept to the Northeast, but a lack of access to training, funding and equipment made it difficult.

But about a year ago, Adi Kronfeld, a Beth Solomon congregant who heads Patriot Ambulance—a private emergency services company based in Huntingdon Valley—decided to step in. Kronfeld’s firm provided the nascent nonprofit group with training, equipment and use of its high-tech dispatch facilities, although they remain separate entities. (A Hatzolah dispatcher automatically alerts 911 or a private ambulance service to the emergency.)

Braverstein said that the group’s leaders have met with city and state officials, and promise to work in concert with proper personnel; the program has also been certified with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, he said.

So far, nine people have completed emergency medical technician training and taken the state exam. Half of them already work in the emergency-response field, and half, like Isaacson, learned the skills from scratch.

So far, the volunteers are all men.

Roman Kourinnoi, a professional paramedic who trained the group—and who also responds to calls and even does dispatching when he’s not working—said that he devotes his spare time to emergency-response duty because he believes in the talmudic dictum that says saving one life is like saving the entire world.

And he also boasted that Hatzolah’s volunteers have been trained as effectively as professional emergency responders, and are more than up to the task of providing life-saving care.

Kourinnoi, also born in the former Soviet Union, said: “I live in the neighborhood, and I don’t want someone who is not proficient to come to my house.”

 For emergency situations in the 19115 and 19116 ZIP codes, call Hatzolah at 215-914-1600.

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(Source: Jewish Exponet)

One in seven Americans is living in poverty, the highest number in the half-century that the government has kept such statistics, the Census Bureau announced Wednesday.

Last year was the third consecutive year that the poverty rate climbed, in part because of the recession, rising from 13.2 percent in 2008 to 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people, last year.

Asians were the only ethnic group whose poverty rate did not change substantially; every other race and Hispanics experienced increases in poverty rates.

In addition, 51 million Americans were uninsured, as the number of people with health insurance dropped from 255 million to less than 254 million — the first decrease since the government started keeping track in 1987. The number would have been worse because 6.5 million fewer people got insurance through their jobs, but it was offset by a leap in government-backed health insurance. More than 30 percent of Americans now get coverage from the government.

“Given all the unemployment we saw, it’s the government safety net that’s keeping people above the poverty line,” Douglas Besharov, a University of Maryland public policy professor and former scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Associated Press.

The grim statistics reflect the depth of the recession that began almost three years ago and could have an impact on midterm elections less than two months away.

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(Source: Washington Post)

A man was slapped with a parking ticket as he lay dead in the driver’s seat of his car, cops and family said Wednesday.

Nicholas Rappold, 21, of Flushing, was slumped across the front seat of his Jeep Cherokee on 165th St. near 35thAve. Tuesday morning when a traffic agent wrote him up for being illegally parked during street sweeping, cops and family said.

“It’s really messed up,” the young man’s cousin Patrick Hill told the Daily News. “While he was dead in his car, a New York City traffic agent gave him a ticket.”

An hour after the ticket was issued, a friend whose house Rappold had left in the middle of the night spotted his buddy’s vehicle still parked outside, sources said.

The curious pal went to see why the SUV was still there and found Rappold’s cold body, sources said.

Investigators interviewed the traffic agent but found no wrongdoing. “He had heavily tinted windows,” a police source said in defense of the postmortem ticket. “It was hard to see inside.”

But family argued that the officer could have seen Rappold.

“She could have at least knocked on the window to see if he was all right,” Hill said.

The cause of death is still to be determined by the medical examiner, but investigators believe Rappold died hours before the ticketing from an overdose.

Police voided the parking summons after they released the vehicle to the family.

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(Source: NY Daily News)