Azriel Ganz: The Jewish charities crisis

In my view

By Azriel Ganz

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

It is clear to everyone associated with Jewish charities that revenues are already significantly down. Fewer people are paying full tuition or shul membership, and donations to other charities are generally down in both number and size. There is also little doubt that the situation is likely to get worse and will certainly not improve for a very long time, perhaps years.

RCA tones down prayer service rebuke

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein

Rabbi Lookstein defends himself against critics

By Michael Orbach

Jan. 27, 2009 / Special to TheJewishStar.com

The Rabbinical Council of America appears to have backed away from its earlier rebuke of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein for participating in a prayer service with President Barack Obama at the National Cathedral on the morning after the inauguration.

“Rabbi Lookstein did not represent the Rabbinical Council of America in attending that service and therefore we have no comment on the matter,” said Rabbi Basil Herring, executive director of the RCA, on Monday.

An RCA statement issued last Wednesday and reported by JTA said, “The long-standing policy of the Rabbinical Council of America, in accordance with Jewish law, is that participation in a prayer service held in the sanctuary of a church is prohibited,”

Checking on the state of the union

Survey measures satisfaction in Orthodox marriages

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Frank Buchweitz wishes every engaged couple would become educated about marriage before they march down the aisle, but mostly he settles for running programs to help already married couples stay that way.

Parshat Bo: Justified anger

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

The Torah is an amazing book. You can read and reread over and over, and each time you find something new: a nuance, a tidbit, something to mull over, something to talk about with friends.

Only Simchas in The Jewish Star 1-30-09

On the Calendar 1-30-09

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Hewlett – The Shoshana Chapter of AMIT will host their Annual Dinner on Jan. 31 at 8:30 p.m., at the Hewlett East Rockaway Jewish Center.

Miriam L. Wallach: That’s Life 1-30-09

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Dear That’s Life,

At some point on your average Monday it’s common to find me in my office on the phone with Miriam Wallach — Miriam L. Wallach, that is, who edits this column.

Editorial: A new twist on take no prisoners

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

That didn’t take long. About a week after Israel ended its operation against Hamas terrorists in Gaza and withdrew, a roadside bomb killed a soldier Tuesday

Letters to the Editor 1-30-09

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

On principle

To the Editor:

In last week’s editorial (Obama era same old news for Pollard; Jan. 23, 2009), you wrote: “Whatever his failings, George Bush made decisions on principle

The Kosher Bookworm: Rabbi Emanuel Rackman z”l

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman z"l

By Alan Jay Gerber
Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

December 31, 4 Tevet, marked the shloshim of Rabbi Emanuel Rackman z”l, a very talented and learned rabbi who represented a modern open version of orthodox Judaism.

Saving lives, one baby at a time

Two organizations help pregnant women through a difficult time

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Rachel and her husband had already decided to end her pregnancy; he was unemployed, she worked part time and they were making very little money.

Odds in her favor

Pictured (L-R): Rachel Bandler; Neil Bernstein, Math Chair of HAFTR High School and project adviso; and Stanley Blumenstein, Principal of General Studies of HAFTR High School. (Photo courtesy HAFTR High School)

Intel semi-finalist’s interest in probability stoked by poker-playing uncle

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Rachel Bandler, a HAFTR senior, is a semi-finalist in Intel’s annual Science Talent Search competition. She brings home HAFTR High School’s 25th award in math and science in the last two years.

New perspective on immigrants

Students on Project Connect traveled to Israel to learn about immigrants and visited absorption centers such as the one pictured above. (Photo courtesy Yeshiva University)

College students on a unique mission to Israel

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Assimilation, a major Jewish concern in the Diaspora, was also studied in Israel recently by 35 college students on a one week mission with Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future.

Campaign underway for Gilad Shalit

Kidnapped: Israel Defense Force Corporal Gilad Shalit

Staff Report

Issue of Jan. 30,2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

Assemblyman Tom Alfano has begun a letter-writing campaign on behalf of Gilad Shalit, calling for the United Nations to intervene in demanding his release.

Return to Cuba

Pola Bradman of Brooklyn at the Jewish Cemetery in Havana last month, visiting her native Cuba with two daughters from the Five Towns. (Photo by Miriam Abrahams)

By Miriam Bradman Abrahams

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

I finally fulfilled my dream of visiting Cuba and my trip was an overwhelming success, far exceeding anything I had imagined. It is incredible that my mom agreed to come after I pleaded with her for so many years to travel there with me. She generously sponsored my sister and me for this Jewish humanitarian mission to Cuba. My well-traveled dad had always been dead-set against this voyage, and he viewed this trip as risky since we left Cuba as refugees in 1962 and because it is still a dictatorship.

Counting down to summer: What’s in store at sleepaway camps for 2009

Special section: Can’t wait for summer camping

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

On the heels of winter break, The Jewish Star is looking ahead to the summer

Day camp can be fun, too: A sleepaway experience for the stay at home camper

Special section: Can’t wait for summer camping

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

While many children eagerly count down the days until they depart for sleepaway camp, not everyone is so keen on leaving the comfort of home

See The Jewish Star as it appears in print 1-30-09

Click here to see the print version of The Jewish Star for Jan. 30, 2009

David Seidemann: Breaking down barriers

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

When my father was four, a Jew in Germany could not walk the streets with ease.

When I was four, a black man in America couldn’t eat lunch at the same diner counter as a white man. That same black man could not vote for a commander in chief but could be directed by the very same commander in chief to fight and die in battle protecting our country that treated him as a second class citizen.

Less is more for concert ‘Event’ minus the ‘big’

Eli Gerstner (back to camera) rehearsing his Yeshiva Boys Choir backstage before a recent HASC concert; some will perform in The Event as ‘Pirchei Boys Choir.’ (Photo by Stanley Weiss)

Lipa, Pirchei choir tribute planned for March concert

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 30, 2009 / 5 Shevat 5769

The Big Event is back, albeit without its leading adjective.

“I’ll let people decide if it’s bigger or small,” said Sheya Mendlowitz, the producer of The Event, a concert planned for March 1 at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden.

As it stands, The Event is gearing up to be one of the bigger shows put on in the Jewish music world. The very popular Lipa Schmeltzer will headline, with a reconstituted Pirchei Boys Choir. Half of the available 5,600 hundred seats are sold, Mendlowitz said.

Torah observant (Photo)

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

A student in Morah Allison's Nursery-Aleph class at Hebrew Academy of Nassau County's Early Childhood Center in West Hempstead used a magnifying glass to observe the Torah very carefully. (Photo by Allison Fixler)

War in Gaza over; soldiers still need help

Image by Judah S. Harris

Here are five different ways you can support the IDF from your home base.

By Judah S. Harris
Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

Write to the soldiers

The outreach organization Panim El Panim (Face to Face), founded by reserve IDF Colonel Geva Rapp, is soliciting letters from anyone who

Opinion: Before war’s end, a visit to the front

The writer (back to camera) speaking with an Israeli tank crew. (Photo by Daphne Weisbart)

In my view

By Michael Fenenbock
Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

Rafi, the head of security for 17 kibbutzim bordering the Gaza Strip is an extraordinary man. Of Iranian Jewish origin, he calmly conducts business with an Uzi in his lap, three cell phones, two radios and a walkie-talkie going at the same time;

David Seidemann: Judging by intentions

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

Did you ever wonder why the heart and the mind are concealed while the hands are exposed? In my “pre law pulpit” days, I once explained that the reason for this is to drive home the point that man’s intentions — whether emanating from his heart or mind — need to be investigated and uncovered before others can ascribe motive. Indeed before jumping to conclusions as to man’s worth, innocence or

Miriam L. Wallach: That’s Life 1-23-09

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

Dear That’s Life,

This past Motza’ei Shabbat, I took my 11-year-old son to Maariv as snowflakes began to fall. We had walked less than a block when I looked down and saw that my son was wearing Crocs, those shoes with big holes.

Only Simchas in The Jewish Star 1-23-09

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

Letters to the editor 1-23-09

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

A disappointing showing

To the Editor:

The front page article of The Jewish Star touting 10,000 people showing up at a rally for Israel, that is so important, is really a disgrace.

On the Calendar 1-23-09

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Teves 5769

Parshat Va’era: Midrashic military advice

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Tevet 5769

It’s that time of year again when the Jews have a chance to revel over and relish in the way G-d “stuck it to those Egyptians”

The Kosher Bookworm: Sefer Shemot

What’s in a name? Plenty

Reviewed by Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Teves 5769

This year it is our good fortune to witness the publication of several high quality new translations of either the texts or commentaries of the second book of the Bible, Shemot — Exodus.

Rabbi Berel Wein, in his introduction to a recent translation of the Kli Yakar by his friend, Elihu Levine, said in regard to the art of translation: “To be truly faithful to the original, the translator has to be able

Kosher cook-off set for Feb. 13

Staff Report

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Teves 5769

The Third Annual Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off will feature six finalists competing for a $25,000 grand prize on Feb. 13 at the New York Marriott Hotel.

The six top recipes — chosen from thousands of entries — were judged

The Jewish Star as it appears in print 1-23-09

click-here-for-the-jewish-star-print-edition-for-jan-23-2009

Editorial: Obama era same old news for Pollard

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Teves 5769

We are very blessed.

In many, or most, places in the world, the elevation of a new leader means battles were fought — in the streets or, if the luck of ordinary citizens held, through the successful application of threat and influence

Missions accomplished

IDF armor pulling out of Gaza Monday. (Photo by Asher Mansdorf)

Local volunteers help out in Israel

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / 27 Teves 5769

Chana Chadida won’t listen to music anymore, fearing that she’ll miss the blaring, yet all too familiar sound of a siren warning of an incoming rocket. A resident of Sderot, she is one of many Israelis whose life has been so severely disrupted by the constant barrage of rockets that she is now considered a trauma victim.

“Ha’chayim po einam chayim,” she says simply, explaining that she can no longer maintain a normal existence. “Life here is not a life.”

Chadida told her story to Rabbi Jonathan Muskat, who joined 20 fellow rabbis on a two-day solidarity mission to Israel last week, organized by the Jewish National Fund

A lift for the unemployed

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on a 2005 visit to the Weiss Vocational program with Rabbi Yaakov Bender (center) and Rabbi Shimon Dachs (right). (Photo courtesy Yeshiva Darchei Torah)

Darchei Torah vocational program expands to train adult men and women in new careers

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 23, 2009 / Teves 27 5769

A local institution hopes to pick up some of the slack in the faltering economy. Yeshiva Darchei Torah will expand its one-of-a-kind yeshiva high school vocational program to offer courses and workshops for adults seeking training or retraining for employment.

“It’s something we wanted to do for a number of years,” Ronald Lowinger, the yeshiva’s president, told the Jewish Star Monday. “We felt that now was the right time.”

The Weiss Adult Vocational Program will use the preexisting facilities of the high school program, currently in its 14th year. Courses and workshops will be offered in trades including

Editorial: Giving Hamas what they want

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

A widely circulated video clip shows Hamas “Member of Parliament” Fathi Hammad on Gaza TV early last year describing what can fairly be described as a death wish.

Editorial: More rules needed for elderly drivers

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

They’re called accidents for a reason. No one plans to cause one and even when a catastrophe occurs as a result of an unintentional act that lack of intent is rightly

David Seidemann: A parent’s greatest gift

From the other side of the bench

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Being engaged on trial is all-time-and-energy-consuming. And so it was last week when I spent the entire week in the Bronx trying a personal injury

Avi Shafran: Weapons, and weapons

Right angle

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Rabbi Avi Shafran

How wonderful –– well, how much better, anyway –– wars would be if civilians were never casualties. Thus far, though, and lamentably, most wars have taken their toll of injuries and deaths on people who were not carrying arms, even those too young to carry them.

In some cases –– like the current war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza –– the purposeful placement of combatants and armaments among the civilian population all but assures that there will

That’s Life 1-16-09

Dear That’s Life,

Our young daughters are two very different people.

When six-year-old Talia spied a newspaper photo of Israeli troops in action in Gaza she needed reassurance that there would be no fighting in the places we hope to visit this summer,

Only Simchas 1-16-09

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

On the Calendar 1-16-09

Issue of Jan 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Creative plan to help Jewish schools weather bad economy

Voluntary gifts on business invoices, group health insurance among initiatives

By Mayer Fertig
Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Jewish business owners around the United States will be asked to add a $1 line item to their invoices seeking voluntary contributions to a fund for Jewish education.

That and a nationwide group health insurance plan are the first parts of an ambitious Orthodox Union program to increase revenue and lower costs for yeshivot and Orthodox day schools to help them survive

First person: The Day Before Mayor Bloomberg’s Visit to Ashkelon

By Jordan B. Gorfinkel
Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. (Photo courtesy ynetnews.com)

A photo of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg visiting an Israeli hospital shows him being greeted with smiles by two women who are standing vigil over a little boy injured in Gaza. Here’s the hook: the women are Palestinian and I got a very different reaction when I photographed them in the exact same Ashkelon hospital basement the day before.

I arrived in Israel for a family simcha a few days before the IDF began its Gaza operation. (I have a knack for arranging my visits to Israel to coincide with armed conflicts, beginning with the first Gulf War and going right up to the last Lebanon War. Perhaps the secret to peace in the Middle East is to keep me away.)

My sister, Caryn, and brother-in-law, David, live in Modi’in and rallied Anglo friends to make up care packages

First person: Impressions from two rallies

A rally for Israel near the Israeli consulate drew an estimated 10,000 people. (Photo by Michael Orbach/The Jewish Star)

By Esther Langer
Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

I went to the rally for Israel on 43rd and Third Avenue the other day.

Opinion: The smell of blood

In My View

Marc Prowisor, the former head of security for the Shilo region, is the Director of Security Projects for Hewlett-based One Israel Fund and a Counter Terror Security Consultant.

By Marc Prowisor

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, thousands upon thousands have taken to the streets in demonstrations against the Israeli incursion into the Gaza strip. They claim to be defending the poor residents of Gaza against Israeli aggression. They claim their intentions are to better the lives of the people living in Gaza. Words such as slaughter and murder

Parshat Shemot: Growing into his job

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Chapter 4: “24 — And it was on the way in the inn, and the Lord met him and he wanted his death. 25 — And Zipporah took a stone and

Recession hits Central Avenue (updated)

This 'for rent' sign is one of many currently hanging on Central Ave. (Photo by Susan Grieco)

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

Whether it’s the open parking spaces, the closed stores, or the bored stares of bank tellers in Cedarhurst branches, one thing is clear: the recession has hit Central Avenue.

Signs touting twenty to fifty percent off fall merchandise are common this time of year, but more stores are offering sales, from luxury items to electronic goods, at higher percentages and higher volumes than perhaps ever before. Whether it’s the Crystal Tree where the manager declined to comment; mannequins in Jonathan’s wearing stark white t-shirts that read ‘sale’; a bare display window at Goldmine Jewelers; or stores that are oddly closed in the middle of the day, Central Avenue is not itself these days. Along the main commercial drag, from Spruce Street to Washington Avenue, five stores are currently for rent.

At Uccelli on Cedarhurst Ave., just off Central, owner Faye Klausner stressed to a reporter that while sales are slower than usual, there is “nothing to scream about.” But others painted a grimmer picture, with one upscale merchant telling The Jewish Star that people are only buying for their “needs,” and that the only busy stores in Cedarhurst are

Ten thousand rally for Israel in Manhattan

DRS students and some of the other 10,000 people who attended a rally for Israel last Sunday. DRS and Rambam Mesivta each rescheduled a final exam and brought their entire student body to Manhattan.

Entire DRS and Rambam student bodies participate

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

A crowd of over ten thousand people — including virtually the entire student bodies of DRS and Rambam Mesivta, both of which rescheduled Talmud finals in order to participate — attended the rally for Israel on Sunday outside the Israeli Consulate in New York City.

Long lines of Israel's supporters waved signs from behind NYPD barricades in Manhattan on Sunday. (Photo by Chaim Fertig)

The crowd snaked up the length of 42nd street,

Prayer and inspiration in Woodmere

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 16, 2009 / 20 Teves 5769

On a blustery Thursday evening, the Orthodox Jewish community of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway felt distinctly like a nation in exile. A crowd of over seven hundred men and women filled the Young Israel of Woodmere to capacity for a community recitation of Tehillim (Psalms) on behalf of Israeli troops in action on the ground in Gaza.

Emotions over Israel’s operation to end Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel ranged from feelings of camaraderie to fear, grief and, perhaps most importantly, pride.

“This is long overdue,” said Dr. Debbie Dienstag, a pediatrician from Lawrence, moments before the Tehillim recitation began. Her eldest son, Aryeh, attends a medical school in Beersheba that closed because of rocket attacks. “We’re sorry for the children and the innocent victims who’ve died but clearly innocent victims were put in the way of military operations by their own brethren,” she said.

Rabbi Kalman Topp of the Young Israel of Woodmere, the first speaker of the evening, spoke of biblical parallels to the war and what the worldwide Jewish community’s response to Israel must be.

“The only permit to reside in galut (the Diaspora) is dependent upon our doing all we can to help the fight,” Topper told the audience.

The program included tehillim readings by Rabbi Kenneth Hain of Congregation Beth Sholom, Rabbi Avrohom Halpern of Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv, and Rabbi Yitzchok Knobel of the Yeshiva Gedolah of the Five Towns, proving the words of Rabbi Eytan Feiner, the young interim rabbi of the White Shul that “tragedy brings Jews together.”

“Let’s love every Jew regardless of background and upbringing,” Rabbi Feiner said before segueing into a discussion about prayer, the true point of the evening: “We daven for all Jews in a time of need. We reach out and unite regardless of our differences.”

As Menachem Leff, a portfolio manager at a bank in New York, put it: unity is a necessity.

“It’s a desperate time for Jews throughout the whole world. Anybody who thinks that something bad that happens in Israel won’t affect us is kidding themselves. We have to get together, secular and non-secular. We’re on the precipice of a calamity and we have to reverse the course.”

Defiance was in the air, especially among younger people.

“You need to do what you need to do,” said Shalom Rosenbaum of DRS. Gilad Katz, a sixteen year-old student at Rambam, echoed his sentiment. “I think it shows Israel is Israel and not a third world country.”

Ilan and Amy Mosery currently have two children, Jonathan and Chelsea, serving in the IDF. The Mosery’s spoke of the pride they have in their children, and the pride their children have in serving. Still, the war hasn’t allowed them much sleep.
“Thank God for cell phones,” Amy said.

Miriam Gottlieb, an executive with an Israeli group Standing Together, had flown in that morning to New York, described the mood in Israel.

“The moral is up. We’re very proud but there is the fear — our boys, our girls, our sisters, brothers, mothers and father. We want the army to accomplish what they need to accomplish with the least loss of life.”

Standing Together (stogether.org) provides soldiers with items that, in Gottlieb’s words, the IDF doesn’t “need, but they deserve.” Amenities like pizza and coffee for soldiers on the borders as well as necessities such as toothpaste and shampoo. Recently, Standing Together began transporting a computer to soldiers on the frontlines that allows them to communicate with family and friends via email and the Internet phone service known as Skype. Standing Together also provides a mobile charging station to allow groups of soldiers to recharge their cell phones.
At the close of the evening at the Young Israel of Woodmere the parents of people serving in the IDF gathered at the front of the shul to recite the prayer for the welfare of the Israel Defense Forces.

People slowly filed out to, some to learn in the Beit Midrash, others to watch the college football game, or to get back to cooking for Shabbat. Perhaps the mood is best described in the words of Hillel Schreier, a precocious eleven year old whose largest worry other than the war is the looming specter of high school:

“As long as the Jews have faith, Hashem will help us.”

The Jewish Star as it appears in print 1-16-09

Click here to see the print edition of The Jewish Star 1-16-09

Editorial: Gaza withdrawal could lead only to this

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Without a doubt, the most galling, the most frustrating and the most tragic aspect of the Israeli operation in Gaza is that it should have been completely unnecessary.

Avi Fertig: Sderot’s kids are children, too

By Avi Fertig

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Hamas’s unsurprising cancellation of its loosely defined cease-fire last month brought me back to 1984.

David Seidemann: Tackle football rules in Gaza

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 teves 5769

Excuse me if I’m whispering. I just snuck into an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. On the table for discussion is a resolution by the 0-16 Detroit Lions, a member of the National Football League. Said resolution calls for the condemnation and boycott of the Minnesota Vikings, for the Vikings’ use of disproportionate force in their 12-10 victory over Detroit on Sunday Oct. 12, 2008.

I confess to being a bit surprised, as the rules of the game are clear.

Judah S. Harris: Battle from my laptop

Photo montage by Judah S. Harris

A writer explains his obsession with Israel’s war on Hamas

By Judah S. Harris

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

I’m back here at my laptop, along with my lunch, starting to write. I’ve been spending extra time here the last couple of days, since Saturday night, watching the news from multiple sources,

Vote on new Shulamith board postponed

By Jewish Star staff

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Parents who sued Shulamith School for Girls to prevent the sale of the school’s Brooklyn campus agreed to postpone an election they said would name a new board. But the postponed election marked the first successful harnessing of the collective will of parents of the Long Island branch of the school.

Beit Din decision overturned

NYS Supreme Court calls verdict on HAFTR teacher ‘irrational’

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

The New York State Supreme Court has overturned a decision by the Beth Din of America, shocking both the rabbinical and civil legal communities.

Special report: Elders behind the wheel

An SUV driven by an elderly man rested in the back of a Woodmere storefront after it plowed through a Chabad-sponsored Chanukah party on Dec. 25, 2008, injuring 14. (Photo by The Jewish Star)

After Woodmere accident, evaluating risks posed by aging drivers

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

By the year 2030, people age 65 and older are expected to represent 25 percent of the driving population and 25 percent of fatal crash involvements, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This is in sharp contrast to the most recent data from 2006, when just 15 percent of licensed drivers were age 65 and older, accounting for only 11 percent of fatal crashes.

The NHTSA also reports that 6,017 people in that age range were killed in traffic crashes in 2006, representing 14 percent of all Americans killed on the road.

Several people are still recovering from injuries sustained during a Dec. 25 car crash in Woodmere, in which an elderly driver lost control of his vehicle, and it careened into a store full of parents and children celebrating Chanukah. The driver, 76-year-old Theodore Saretsy of Atlantic Beach, has not been charged.

As seen from statistics and other anecdotal evidence, elderly people are more prone to dangers behind the wheel due to their naturally declining health

Only Simchas in The Jewish Star 1-9-09

On the Calendar 1-9-09

NYCI Workshop

The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) will host a workshop for Young Israel branches and affiliates about applying for the 2009 Non-Profit Homeland Security Grant. The program will take place

Letters to the Editor 1-9-09

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Exploiting a tragedy

To the Editor:

In reference to Yaffi Spodek’s review of the film “The Boy in Striped Pajamas” (Dec. 19, 2008) as being “a riveting Holocaust film,” I would say

That’s Life 1-9-09

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Dear That’s Life,

People generally have the same reaction to receiving a notice for jury duty. That reaction does not tend to include pride in being able to serve one’s country or a sense of honor at

Parshat Vayechi

Eisav’s head and self preservation By Rabbi Avi Billet Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769 Ask any school child above age eight, “Who is buried in the Cave of Machpela?” and you will be told “Adam and Chava, Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivka, Yaakov and Leah, and… (drumroll please) Eisav’s head!”

Avi Shafran: Pray for the Gazan boy

Right angle

By Rabbi Avi Shafran

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

No, I’m neither a prophet nor a covert Israeli operative. Yes, it was only a day after I distributed a column taking the New York Times to task for refusing to call Hamas a terrorist organization that Israel launched its offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But, really, I had no foreknowledge of the fact that Israel’s leaders would do anything more in response to the shelling of its towns by Hamas and its friends than offer the sort of statements that have been issued for years after such terrorist onslaughts.

But they did do more, in the hope –– may we merit its fulfillment –– of crippling the infrastructure of the murderous entity to its south. And, true to form, The Times avoided the “T” word,

Chesed for Chanukah

DRS students brightened up the Chanukah celebrations at Woodmere Rehab last week. Rabbi Abraham Morgenstern (far left), one of the center’s residents, looks on as the menorah is lit.

Young people visit Woodmere Rehab

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Residents of the Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center enjoyed daily visits by volunteers who enhanced the Chanukah celebrations by lighting the menorah, singing, dancing and playing dreidel with them. Students came from several local schools

A special Chanukah gift

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

On Dec. 28, the seventh day of Chanukah, Jessica Willner of West Hempstead donated 11 inches of her hair

Kulanu students visit HAFTR and HALB

Akiva Sasson at HAFTR with his teacher, Morah Dubin, was one of several children who participated in Kulanu’s Holiday Inclusion Program.

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Kulanu students with disabilities who attend public school programs visited local yeshivot last week as part of the school’s Holiday Inclusion Program.

Scheduled every year around the secular holidays, the program allows Kulanu students to spend time with their peers in yeshiva when their own schools are not in session.

Lipa plans another ‘Event’

R’ Shmuel Kamenetzky: ‘…He is an ehrliche yid’; concert patterned on last year’s canceled show

A billboard advertising 'The Event' first appeared on Rockaway Boulevard near the Five Towns.

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Lipa is giving it another try.

Nearly a year after the plug was pulled on his ‘Big Event’ concert at the Madison Square Garden Theater, popular Chassidic entertainer Lipa Schmeltzer and veteran Jewish music producer Sheya Mendlowitz have scheduled a new show.

They’re calling this show, simply, ‘The Event.’ First word came via a billboard on Rockaway Boulevard. It’s set for March 1 at the Garden’s WaMu Theater, and has what amounts to a seal of rabbinic approval.

“I hope they should have hatzlacha,” said Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky on Monday.

In a brief interview the respected Philadelphia rosh yeshiva and member of Agudath Israel’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages) told The Jewish Star, “Some people are still very upset — I don’t know why.”

Rabbi Kamenetzky was alluding to events that led to the cancellation of last year’s show at virtually the last moment. That was a display of derech eretz (respect) on Mendlowitz’s part

Rallies, solidarity missions, Tehillim among efforts to aid Israel at war

Rabbi Sam Klibanoff (leaning over bed) visits wounded soldiers at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, Israel, with a representative of the Israeli charity Yad Eliezer (white shirt, facing camera) and members of his shul, the Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach. The group traveled with a military escort to a southern staging area to deliver care packages for soldiers deployed to Gaza. (Photo courtesy Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach)

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Jan. 9, 2009 / 13 Teves 5769

Yehoshua, a Rambam Mesivta graduate who once served as a sharpshooter in the IDF, hopped a flight to Israel Monday night, intending to volunteer to rejoin his unit. Four other Rambam alumni and several DRS graduates are also currently serving in the Israel Defense Force. At least one homegrown paratrooper, a former DRS student, is now in Gaza battling Hamas, according to the rav of his shul; another left Far Rockaway two weeks ago in order to enlist.

Age, family commitments and those 20 extra pounds will keep most of us from physically joining Israel’s current battle against terrorism. But there are other things we can do to lend moral and material support, with prayer foremost among them.

A “Tehillim Solidarity Rally” took place at the Young Israel of Woodmere Thursday night,

The Jewish Star as it appears in print 1-9-09

Click here for the print edition of The Jewish Star for Jan. 9, 2009