Jewish News

N.J. Town To Vote On Middle School Drug Tests

A proposal to conduct random drug tests of young students in one New Jersey town is raising some eyebrows.Students at Belvidere Elementary School could be adding drug testing to their list of lessons when they move into middle school.The Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a plan to randomly test sixth, seventh and eighth graders to see if they are under ...

N.J. rabbi leads Jews, Muslims on interfaith trip to Nazi concentration camps

The scenario might have seemed unlikely: prominent Muslims and Jews from the United States, trekking across the Atlantic in mournful, spiritual solidarity to visit two Nazi concentration camps. Together.The trip to Dachau and Auschwitz, organized by a New Jersey rabbi, was meant to combat the rise in Holocaust denial that has popped up in various Muslim and non-Muslim circles around ...

N.J. braces for a day-plus of snow, sleet and ice

The dry weather that New Jersey experienced Sunday and so far today won’t last long.It could begin snowing again in the overnight hours with sleet mixing in later in the day, according to the National Weather Service. Tuesday night could bring snow, sleet and freezing rain before the precipitation changes to heavy rain on Wednesday.The snow and ice will make ...

Mystical City’s Newest Yeshiva Adds Creative Touch

Every Friday, Chabad-Lubavitch yeshiva students across the globe head out of their study halls and take to the streets for pre-Sabbath interactions with locals: On the lookout for Jewish passersby, tourists and shopkeepers, they help men don the prayer boxes known as tefillin, hand out Sabbath candles to women, and answer questions about Judaism to anyone who asks.It’s about the ...

Mysterious Torah Left On ShortLine Bus, Officials Seeking Owner

A sacred Torah scroll has been found, apparently left on a ShortLine Coach USA bus and company officials have enlisted the aid of officials in the Village of Kiryas Joel to find its owner. Village Public Safety Director Moses Witriol retrieved the scroll from ShortLine headquarters in Mahwah, NJ and the bus company and he are trying to determine its ...

My First Mitzvah Tank Parade

12-year-old Yossi Cohen partook in the Los Angeles Mitzvah Tank Parade, which was in honor of the Rebbe’s 111th birthday, and it was his first time ever participating. He wrote an article detailing his amazing experience.It was a beautiful sunny day in Los Angeles, California. While many children like me, would run to the park or beach in this weather, ...

My cousin, Anne Frank

Bernard (Buddy) Elias is perhaps the only person still alive who can tell the world about the real Anne Frank and how similar is she to the girl we have all pictured in our mind as we read her diary.Elias, a European actor, was very close to his cousin Anne, who called him “Bernad”, as a child. The two used ...

Must See Photos: Ice-Encased Car In East Village

A leaky pipe beneath a Manhattan street encased a parked car in ice and caused the pavement to sink in over the weekend.CBS 2′s Kathryn Brown asked Joe Marucci of the East Village how he would describe the sight. His answer: “I just said that’s what sank the Titanic.”Chester Johnson of Bed-Stuy’s answer was more laconic: “This right here is ridiculous.”Read More: @ ...

Murder rising at alarming rate, sending waves of fear throughout NYC’s most dangerous neighborhoods

The number of people wounded or killed by gunfire is up citywide, sending waves of fear through some of New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods.NYPD statistics through the first nine months of the year show the number of murders has climbed 13.2% from the same period last year. There were 341 murders at this point last year compared with 386 through Sunday, according ...

Mumbai gunman to be hanged

A court in India handed a death sentence to the only surviving Pakistani gunman in the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks, on Thursday. Judge M.L. Tahaliyani’s sentence came three days after Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was found guilty of murder and waging war against India for his role in the attacks that claimed 166 lives in the nation’s financial capital. A death ...

Much of Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev Built on Land Owned by Holocaust Victims

Much of the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev was built on land belonging to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This discovery was made recently by the Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets, established in 2007 by the Israeli government for the purpose of finding assets in Israel belonging to Holocaust victims and restoring them to their ...

MTA Chaplain Soothes Subway Operators in Tragedies

When there’s trouble on the tracks, transit workers turn to police, firefighters, paramedics — and The Rabbi. There’s no need for his full name. Anyone who has operated a train, welded rails or directed traffic from a radio tower in the last three decades probably knows Rabbi Harry Berkowitz.The 65-year-old has been a subway chaplain for 34 years. He started ...