Though a recent report on Bloomberg.com described falling real estate prices and the lowest sales of pre-owned homes in 10 years, housing in the North Shore and South Shore communities of western Nassau County has remained stable, according to real estate agents in the area. Read the rest of this entry »
Rachel used to enjoy learning Torah. Her report cards could be rubber-stamped with A’s and her teachers crowed about her intelligence, enthusiasm and genuine love for learning.
That all changed around fourth or fifth grade, when she began asking too many questions. Read the rest of this entry »
Affidavits by a former chairman of the board and two former presidents of Shulamith School for Girls contradict the school’s claim that a board election was held last year, and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the current board. Read the rest of this entry »
A four hour battle to contain the flames required 100 firefighters from several area fire departments. (Photo by Bill Connolly)
Two people in Hewlett Neck owe their lives to a neighbor who rang their doorbell and woke them up last Wednesday morning after seeing fire and smoke billowing from their house. Read the rest of this entry »
A water main break in Woodmere on July 22 damaged 26 homes on Saddle Ridge Road, causing flooding in the streets and inconveniencing local residents. Read the rest of this entry »
Rabbi Yehuda Septimus has been chosen as the new mara d’atra of the Young Israel of North Woodmere, following an intensive six-month search that began last September. Read the rest of this entry »
Issue of August 1, 2008
Through the joint efforts of a Five Towns cosmetics store and the One Israel Fund, female soldiers serving Israel and the U.S. can now receive beauty supplies. (Rachel Papo)
Fay Feder, co-owner of Kiss and Makeup, a cosmetics store in the Five Towns, found a way to meld her interest in beauty supplies and her desire to show appreciation to female soldiers Read the rest of this entry »
The end of shiva for Ehud ben Shlomo Goldwasser a”h and Eldad ben Tzvi Regev a”h was marked with a memorial service July 23 at the Young Israel of North Woodmere. Tehillim and a video paid tribute to the two men. The end of Shloshim will be commemorated with a siyum on Mishnayos. Read the rest of this entry »
It was on a quick trip home to New York from a yeshiva in Israel that a post-high school student noticed something odd: he felt reluctant, scared even, about descending underground into the New York City subway system. Read the rest of this entry »
Reviewed by Alan Jay Gerber
Of one thing I am certain: the average reader of Holocaust literature is familiar with this genre of book. Hundreds of them abound; however, this one is unique, in both style and content. Read the rest of this entry »
In memory of Aharon Hakohen, who loved everyone and pursued peace between people, whose yahrzeit is this Shabbos, the first day of Av.
By Rabbi Avi BilletPart of the story of Tzlafchad’s daughters is crazy. Read the rest of this entry »
To the Editor:
Rivi Schiffer wrote an interesting letter to the editor (On being machmir; July 25, 2008) in response to an In My View article (Being machmir; July 18, 2008). I read both and am frankly perturbed by Ms. Schiffer’s letter. Read the rest of this entry »
David Seidemann
There is a reason. I don’t know what it is, but there is a reason. It’s 5:45 a.m. on Monday, July 21, I’m seated in seat 12F and my wife in 12G aboard my favorite airline, American Airlines. The plane is full and in about two hours we will be landing at a destination we had no intention of visiting. Read the rest of this entry »
(Aboard Nefesh B’Nefesh Flight 3022)- Frances Greenberg’s previous attempt at aliyah was unsuccessful. In 1947 she was a passenger aboard the Exodus, the refugee ship famed for being turned away from Palestine by British warships. Greenberg returned to Hamburg, Germany, where she met her husband, Isak. They immigrated to the United States and raised a son and daughter in Pittsburgh. Isak passed away a year ago – Sunday was his first yahrzeit – and on Tuesday morning, 61 years to the week since the Exodus was stopped, she finally made aliyah.
Bnot Shulamith’s parent institution, Shulamith School for Girls, appears to be hesitating to submit to a rabbinical court’s authority to settle the ugly dispute with a parents’ group over the planned sale of the Brooklyn campus. Read the rest of this entry »
Horrified by a spate of recent deaths among local teens due to substance abuse, John and Luisa Dutra – owners of the first Kosher Dunkin’ Donuts in Lawrence and Valley Stream – sponsored Jackie Mason’s comedy show on Thursday in Manhattan, to increase awareness of the issue and raise funds for Our Place, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish youth at-risk. Read the rest of this entry »
The best thing about Shabbos, a friend of mine says, is that it guarantees him two or three meals a week with his family. He can sit down and enjoy with his children and grandchildren, without the phone interrupting and without business calling him away.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about my illustrious career as a little league catcher; the point of it was to encourage us all to revive that one memory that could serve as mental respite from our daily pressures. That article and the article three weeks later about the Regev-Goldwasser prisoner exchange produced so much positive feedback that I felt compelled to revisit both issues in a combined format.
Written Wednesday morning, July 16, shortly after the bodies of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were returned to Israel for burial.
As a young child, as a teenager, as a student and as a professional I have heard and seen so many take advantage of Israel’s “Law of Return,” which states that every Jew can return home. They have done so by immigrating from over 100 nations. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s not too often that the world gets a chance to make an example of a really bad guy, but an excellent opportunity has just popped up and it would be nice to see that it doesn’t get botched, for a change. Read the rest of this entry »
It was the time when there was no State of Israel, before there were Arab refugees, occupied territories and Zionist crimes and criminals. The Kotel, the Old City, the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Jerusalem were part of the British Empire and under a particularly strange governance that included a dominant role for Haj Amin al-Husseini. This is his story.
The highest office, governing both Moslem religious and secular affairs in the Holy Land, is called Mufti; in the inter-war years, al-Husseini was to hold this sensitive position and proceed to lay the ideological and programmatic foundations for the holy war and anti-Jewish crusade that was to be the hallmark of Middle East conflict for the next century. The book under review, “Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam” by David Dalin and John Rothmann, is the story of the genesis of that conflict and the man who inspired it.
In light of last week’s challenging “exchange” of soldiers Goldwasser and Regev for, among others, a murderer who does not deserve the treatment he has been given on Israeli taxpayers’ shkalim, some will turn to the war with Midian as an example of how to deal with such evil enemies. Surely the seemingly savage rules would not fly in a liberal society which preaches “humane warfare” from the safety of a coast thousands of miles away. Read the rest of this entry »
Gitti Allman wasn’t always a baker. As a child and teenager she was a tomboy who spent her summers as a waterski instructor. Her family wasn’t comprised of bakers, either.
“My mother is Zomick’s best customer,” she explained.
Allman never dreamed that years later, she’d be teaching baking and cake decorating out of her own home.
The question as to whether the Israel Baseball League (IBL) will be playing its second season has finally been answered… Sort of.
Long Beach – Sell your old gold and silver for cash at Congregation Bnei Asher, 161 Lafayette Road, on Sunday, July 27 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. A licensed buyer will be present. For more information, call Stewart at (516) 448-8377.
East Meadow - The Suburban Park Jewish Center will host an open house brunch for prospective members on Sunday, July 20, from 9:30 to 11:45 a.m. Meet the dynamic Rabbi, cantor and members of the SPJC family. Learn about the free Hebrew school, Bar and Bat Mitzvah program, adult study classes, shabbat and holiday services, Sisterhood and Men’s Club. SPJC has the lowest membership dues in the area and special introductory membership rates as well. SPJC is located at 400 Old Westbury Road in East Meadow. For more information, please call (516)796-8833 or (516)520-5733.
Well over a quarter of a million Nassau County residents have no health insurance or are under-insured, according to estimates by the office of the Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman. Yet, only about 20 percent of those people, about 60,000, take advantage of a program that grants users significant discounts on prescription medications. Read the rest of this entry »
To the Editor:
I take great offense at your flagrant misrepresentation of my position regarding the appointment of a new trustee to the Lawrence Village Board (Religious Politics; July 11, 2008) Read the rest of this entry »
If you believe you were one of the people allegedly ripped off at Five Towns Mitsubishi, you have until August 5th to stake your claim by contacting the office of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Read the rest of this entry »
Midway through the month of Tammuz our religious focus shifts to observances commemorating the saddest events in our history. The destruction of the two temples, the murders and massacres of centuries past, and the hateful actions that fill our daily news feeds are given special attention at this time of year.
“Eim HaBanim Semeichah” by Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal emerges as the premier literary work of the Holocaust era. Read the rest of this entry »
Dear That’s Life,
With summer now in full swing, many of the local day camps have started tzedakah campaigns to help fund various worthy causes. The camp my two daughters attend is no exception. These organizations often send spokespeople to the camps to describe their purpose and generate enthusiasm amongst the campers. The explanation of a particular program, however, must have remained a little unclear to my younger daughter. Read the rest of this entry »
Louise Klaber, Senior Career Counselor at F.E.G.S. Health and Human Services System, provided tips and suggestions on how to play an active role in managing one’s career at the OU’s Career Workshop on Thursday.
Tamar Friedman of Far Rockaway is an aspiring sonographer. Though she earned the necessary degree over a year ago and consulted with people in the field who assured her that sonographers were in demand, she has been unable to secure a job. After months of resume remodeling, dead-end interviews and relentless phone calls, Friedman is discouraged and unemployed. Unfortunately, she is not alone. Read the rest of this entry »
Derek Saker, Ohel's director of communications, intends for the new marketing campaign to humanize a large, and often impersonal, social service agency.
At first glance, it looks like any other ad campaign might, an advertisement for foster-care and adoption featuring four images: a girl in a wedding dress, two brothers sitting next to each other, a middle-aged couple standing together and a boy holding a handwritten sign that reads “SEEK FOSTER PARENTS.” Read the rest of this entry »
The call came about two hours before Shabbos. Two counselors and a social worker, all from the Five Towns-Far Rockaway area, realized that if they didn’t intercede, the father of one of their campers at Chai Lifeline’s Camp Simcha would be cremated. Read the rest of this entry »
Exactly how hard should I try? When does human effort end and divine effort begin? If G-d is all-knowing and a leaf doesn’t turn over in the wind without G-d’s will, how is that reconciled with man’s free choice? Can fault be attributed to man when G-d created the evil inclination? Where does behavior begin and instinct end? Nature or nurture? Chicken or the egg?
These are but a few of the philosophical questions that have plagued man throughout the ages. Read the rest of this entry »
It has recently been brought to my attention that not everybody who reads these reviews appreciates dry wine. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I couldn’t believe it myself. It is for those people that I write this article. Read the rest of this entry »
This Sunday is the 17th of Tammuz, the fast day that marks the beginning of the Three Weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av.
Against that backdrop, the responses to writer Chananya Weissman’s recent two-part commentary on an Israeli charity were instructive. Read the rest of this entry »
By Masada Siegel
I first met Senator John McCain when I was working as a television reporter in a small town market. It was my first assignment. I was sent out with the hope of perhaps snagging an interview with a congressman, if I was lucky. Politicians, not as well known, and not as high ranking, did not bother to give me the time of day, but Senator John McCain did, and first impressions matter. Read the rest of this entry »
My 12-year-old daughter doesn’t like to wear socks in the summer. When she became bas mitzvah, she began to scrupulously adhere to hilchos tznius, the laws of modesty. Her sleeves, neckline, and skirt lengths reflect this. But socks are a chumra — a stringency — and she won’t wear them. Read the rest of this entry »
Drowning, and water safety are subjects on many people’s lips in Nassau County this summer after the widely publicized story of a nanny in Syosset who died trying to save a toddler in her care. The mother was able to fish her child out of the water but was unable to save the heroic caregiver, who jumped in despite not knowing how to swim. Read the rest of this entry »
Sderot children pose at JFK after landing Wednesday to attend Gan Israel day camps on the East Coast. (Photo by Shon Eylon)
Seventy children from Sderot, ages 11 to 14, arrived at JFK International airport on Wednesday afternoon to spend the summer in America at Gan Israel Day Camp, away from the horror of daily missile attacks in Israel. Read the rest of this entry »
The word “free” is the best way to attract the attention of any person.
Taglit-Birthright has used this knowledge as an effective tool to reach out to thousands of Jews across the globe. Now in its ninth year, Birthright has provided more than 160,000 young Jewish adults between the ages 18 to 26 an opportunity to experience Israel for the first time on a 10-day trip. Read the rest of this entry »
“We’re like the Drudge Report of the Jewish people,” an enigmatic blogger known to his readers as Shlomah Shamos said over the phone with a laugh. A Yiddish accent trailed his words. Read the rest of this entry »
Dear That’s Life,
There’s an edgy bookstore in Brooklyn I like to frequent. They don’t live and breathe by the New York Times Best Seller List, though sometimes the books overlap. They usually sell what they like by authors they like and if the books happen to coincidentally be best sellers, then so be it Read the rest of this entry »
It was Wednesday morning in Jerusalem and I was standing at the Kotel thinking about the power and beauty of the Wall. Fast forward to Monday and I’m in Shanghai, thinking of another wall – the Great Wall of China. Read the rest of this entry »
Any time. Any day. In a heartbeat I would gladly swap 400 to 500, even 600 of the enemy alive, for one or two dead Israeli soldiers. And I’d free a thousand of the enemy for one living Jewish soldier. That’s how special each Israeli soldier is to me. I’d do it in a flash because that’s the difference between us and them. They live to kill. We kill to live. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been quiet around here.
That’s been the most obvious result of the recent uncontested election to the Lawrence school board. Renewed tension and unpleasantness that some expected between District 15 residents who are Orthodox Jews, and those who aren’t, never materialized. Without competing slates to support at the polls, there just wasn’t all that much to disagree about and most of the big mouths kept quiet. Read the rest of this entry »
On the streets, at stores and in offices across the community, parents and grandparents discuss the tuition crisis. They call on schools to “open their books” for scrutiny, to hold democratic parent body elections for board members and to treat tuition payers as consumers, Read the rest of this entry »
The newest trustee of the Village of Lawrence is Michael Fragin. He is an investment banker, was a key aide to two New York governors and, until his appointment to government, wrote a popular political column in this newspaper. He also happens to be an Orthodox Jew, and for that his appointment earned the staunch opposition of the Lawrence Association.
We call it yichus — the legacy of generations of the past. Rabbis, scholars, talmidei chachamim, community leaders who were ancestors to those we now look up to. All the above, Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld, of blessed memory, and the subject of this essay, was not to have. Yichus was to begin with him. Read the rest of this entry »
Fame and fortune have finally arrived. I entered a restaurant on Father’s Day, wife and kids in tow, and was greeted by a maitre de of sorts.
“Do you have reservations?” he asked.
“About what?” I replied.
My wife elbowed me ever so gently.
“No, sir. I guess it being father’s day, I should have called ahead.”
“I’m sorry, sir; we are only seating families with reservations.”
I turned to deliver the sad news to my wife and kids that heaven forbid we might have to “slum it” and eat at home. I assured the children that if any of their friends asked if we dined out, I would cover for them.
As we were about to leave, a middle aged man whom I assume either owns or manages the fine eatery tapped me on the shoulder and said “Hey, you’re David Seidemann from The Jewish Star, right?”
A Google Maps satellite image of Prospect Street off Doughty Boulevard in Inwood, where Bnot Shulamith of Long Island has entered into an agreement to purchase a campus.
Next stop is the Beth Din of America for the dispute over the planned purchase of a campus in Inwood for Bnot Shulamith, which the school hopes to finance from the proceeds of a sale of the existing Shulamith School for Girls campus in Midwood, Brooklyn.
The beit din, part of the Rabbinical Council of America, sent a summons to appear, or hazmanah, to Rabbi Moshe Zwick, the executive director of Shulamith; Mr. Sheldon Fliegelman, the chairman of the board, and to Mr. Sam Gross, the president. Read the rest of this entry »
Before her encounter with Samir Kuntar, Smadar Haran was a wife and mother of two daughters. Kuntar and other terrorists invaded her home in Nahariya in 1979 and shot her husband, Danny, in front of one of their girls, a four-year-old, whom he then beat to death with a gun. The other little girl died with Haran’s hand over her mouth — unable to breathe as they cowered out of sight of the terrorists who were hunting for them. Read the rest of this entry »
As families face escalating prices of utilities, food and fuel, the added burden of the annual yeshiva tuition bill has brought some people to the breaking point.
“The pot is at the boiling point,” declared Jonathan Isler, a Five Towns resident and a proponent of tuition reform. “The lid is going to fall off and the pot will overflow.” Read the rest of this entry »
