On September 14th, the Mayor of Great Neck sent a letter out to all the residents stating that despite their many efforts, the Town was obligated to allow the Westboro organization, described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, said it selected Great Neck after it was mentioned in the film "Capturing the Friedmans," a 2003 documentary about the prosecution of a Great Neck man and his father on child molestation ...
Every person of every creed, race, color and religion is welcome at the Olympics, correct? Well, Rabbi Levi Brackman writes in his column that the strict Chinese regulations on visas and on imports may prevent restaurateurs from making kosher food available at the Games, which make many feel unwelcome. Quoting Rabbi Moskowitz, of Shatz Kosher Services (SKS) who is in charge of importing kosher food into China, Brackman writes that due to the security restrictions ...
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights that expressly prohibits the United States Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion" (the Establishment Clause) or that prohibit free exercise of religion (the Free Exercise Clause), laws that infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to peaceably assemble, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. An American Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois decided in a split 2-1 decision against the right of Jews to Mezuzot on the doorposts of a condominium apartment if the bylaws of the building prohibit signs and objects of the outside of doors. This provision is mainly for the ban of family vacations photos, political placards, for-sale notices, and Chicago Bears pennants.. The court stated that the hallway rule “is neutral with respect to religion.” The case involves the Shoreline Towers of Chicago and condominium owners Lynne Bloch and her two children, who live in three units. Building managers had removed the mezuzot from their doors while the family was at a funeral for Lynne Bloch's husband in 2004. The family put them back on the doorposts several times until the city passed a law allowing religious displays on doors. The family sued for damages, but the court backed the right of the condominium group to establish its own laws. The Blochs are considering appealing to the Supreme Court, claiming there was an intention to discriminate against observant Jews. ...
While at work, and in dire need of entertainment, my friend sent me a link to a restaurant review and urged me to look down to comment #25. Comment #25 was posted by a woman wanting to know if this is a good place for her to bring her children for dinner in the city. I immediately though “Of course” until I continued to read... She stated that her kids “have not been exposed to public displays of affection or immodest dress in kosher places and [she] would like to keep it that way.” Excuse me, but....what? I understand the theory of shielding your child from inappropriate things (I shield my little sister from many inappropriate things) but to completely shun everything that doesn’t fit into the mold of what you believe is going a little bit overboard. ...
Tonight, celebrations for the 60th birthday of the State of Israel commenced with a torch lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and will continue tomorrow with many more celebrations amidst many more threats and warnings. Everywhere you look, from Facebook to MSNBC, there are comments relating to Israel. A Facebook event has been created requesting ...
There are four letters of the genetic alphabet - A, C, T and G - which pair up and create your DNA. Thanks to modern technology, a scientist named Syd Mandelbaum, who had been part of the Anastasia Romanov disproving effort of 1994, started the DNA Shoah Project. Through the use of these markers, this project is geared towards ...
On April 10, 2008, Justice Gabriel Bach came to speak at Touro Law in Central Islip, New York. Who is he? He is a former Justice to the Israeli Supreme Court, and also was a prosecutor of Adolf Eichmann. Born in Germany in 1927, Justice Bach was educated in Berlin. In 1938, exactly two weeks before Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), the Bach family moved to Holland. During the short time that his family lived in Holland, Hitler had planned to invade on seven separate occasions but postponed his plans due to weather, astrology and other reasons. He was later told by a non-Jewish friend that he was the only Jew out of his school in Holland that had survived. Justice Bach was admitted to the bar in 1950 in Lincoln’s Inn, England, and was appointed as the State-Attorney of Israel in 1969 after serving in the Israeli Army and working his way up the totem pole in the State-Attorney’s office for 16 years. In May, 1960, Adolf Eichmann often referred to as the “architect of the Holocaust,” was the head of the Gestapo, and was in effect an accomplice to every single one of the eleven million murders during the Holocaust. After the Holocaust, he went into hiding, and was captured in Buenos Aires by the Israeli Mossad as part of a covert operation and was to be prosecuted in Jerusalem as a war criminal. Justice Bach was appointed to the position of the lead advisor to the police bureau. During the trial, said Justice Bach, Eichmann was kept in a glass box (shown below) at all times to ensure his safety. This man, being the orchestrator of the biggest atrocity of all time, was one who many in Israel, whether survivors or others, wanted dead. He had no sympathy, no emotions, nothing. ...
Across the street from a federal and district court, no real security, out on the end of an island, Jewish institution. All of these four elements combined make my law school a perfect target for terrorism. It is not something that is completely out of the question for us. We are aware, the courts are aware and the community is aware. ...
A bullet pierced the front door of the Be'er Miriam School for Girls in Brooklyn at the end of the school day on March 17th. According to authorities, no one was hurt. The Be'er Miriam School, located across from the Marcy Houses in Williamsburg, has about 200 students, ages 7 to 13. Police said that two of three shots hit cars parked nearby and that the third shot careened into the school door and ...
Born in Iran in 1951, there usually would be no question as to who holds my father’s allegiance, except for the fact that he is Jewish. His father a true Iranian, his mother an Iraqi, they never had any doubt within their own minds. Being in Iran became a danger and a threat. The five times a day when the words “Allah Ahkbar” boomed through the cities and it seemed as if all life had stopped was not how it was in my grandfather’s household. They had to be their own mashgiach's, schechting (killing) their own meat, determining the kashrut of their own food as no one in Iran would do it for them. Coming to America changed everything for him. They moved to a predominately Jewish town with at least 40 different synagogues for them to choose from. Being Jewish and Iranian had never been something that was questioned, as over 90% of the town was the same. For me, growing up there was never a question- Israel had our allegiance, our love and our prayers while Iran, while a large part of the family’s customs and heritage, had simply become a memory of what once was. Coming to law school where most people aren’t Jewish, they did not comprehend that I could be both Iranian and Jewish. The barrage of questions as to who I will vote for, who I see as a real leader and how I would solve the Middle East crisis never ends. ...
