B&H דארף באצאלען 4.3 מיליאן פאר ספאנישע

Pinned News Oct 17 2007
Brooklyn, NY - Debbie Almontaser, the founding principal of the city's only Arabic dual-language public school, Khalil Gibran, which opened this fall without her at the helm, announced that she has re-applied for her job and is preapring to sue the Department of Education of what she called "violation of my constitutional rights."

Reading from a prepared statement, Almontaser said representatives of Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein "demanded" that she resign from KGIA "under pressure from the New York Post, the New York Sun, and right-wing bloggers."

"They threatened to close down KGIA if I refused," Almontaser said. "The next day, I submitted my letter of resignation. Because I believe I am the person to carry forward the mission of KGIA, I have today submitted my application to become the principal...I have also asked my lawyer to begin preparing a lawsuit."

Read extended article[nydailynews]

New York - A federal appeals court has upheld the controversial Religious Land Use Act, agreeing that the Village of Mamaroneck's zoning laws cannot be used to block a Jewish school's new 44,000-square-foot building.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees with a lower court judge, William Conner in White Plains. Conner said Mamaroneck must issue a permit so the Westchester Day School can proceed with an expansion plan that had been turned down by the village.
The 400-student school had challenged the zoning decision in a lawsuit.

Lawyers in the case have said it's likely to reach the Supreme Court. [AP]

Washington - US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he had warned world leaders they must prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons "if you're interested in avoiding World War III."

"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Bush said at a White House press conference after Russia cautioned against military action against Tehran's supect atomic program.

"So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush. [afp]

Freehold, NJ - The Township Committee adopted changes to the municipality's land use code to modify the words "places of worship" to read "houses of worship."

The change stems from an ongoing legal case involving Rabbi Avraham Bernstein, a member of Chabad Lubavitch, who has lived on Stillwells Corner since 1998.
Bernstein filed a lawsuit against the town after being issued a notice which stated that he was in violation of municipal land use law by conducting a house of worship in his home, as was reported here on Vin News.

A house of worship is defined in the ordinance as "any structure or building that is used as the regular site for traditional services, meetings and/or gatherings of an organized religious body or community, which services, meetings and or gatherings are presided over by the ordained or otherwise officially recognized leader of that body or community. Exempted are incidental, temporary or sporadic meetings attended by a small number of persons such that the character of the zone district in which it is located is not comprised for occupants of properties in that area."

Resident Perry Schwartz asked Township Attorney Duane O. Davison, "What is the definition of the words you are using? That leaves holes large enough to drive a truck through."
Resident Howard Bernstein said, "How much money is this township willing to spend to fight this?" [gmnews]

Israel - An Israeli mom and a Palestinian were killed and six others were injured in a traffic accident north of Jerusalem.

The Israel woman who was killed was identified as Shayela Ben-Shlomo, 38, from Geva Binyamin. Three of her children were in the car, as well as a hitchhiker. All of the passengers were lightly to moderately wounded.
The dead Palestinian was identified as Jamal Abed, 30, from Azaria. Two others in his car were seriously wounded.

According to the initial police investigation, the woman driver veered into oncoming traffic. The Palestinian driver tried to evade her but did not succeed.
All of the casualties were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. [Jpost]

Brooklyn, NY +Fatal Jumper Down+ NYPD of the 70th Pct, ESU are all on the scene at 679 Ocean Avenue and Newkirk Avenue for a confirmed jumper from the 5th floor of the building. The 64-year-old female aided is DOA, Misaskim on the scene.

New York, NY - Construction in the city is on a record pace and will reach a staggering $83 billion worth of new projects ranging from office towers to baseball parks over the next three years, a new study shows.
The report, found that a record $24.6 billion was spent on construction in the city last year - a figure projected to jump 18 percent through 2009.

Unlike past building booms that have centered on either residential or commercial projects, the current spate of construction crosses every industry - from new commercial and residential towers to public projects, including new subway and rail stations.
"Today, New York City is experiencing a prolonged period in which the economy is firing on all cylinders and feeding construction activity in all sectors," Building Congress President Richard T. Anderson said. [nypost]

Borough Park, Brooklyn NY - For too long, an alleged Brooklyn pedophile rabbi's victims have waited for their silencing to end. Now, they hope his prosecution will push their closed community to out child molesters.

Twenty-three years after Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz fled to Jerusalem to evade charges of molesting four boys, Israel's ministry of justice now has an extradition request from Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, his spokesman said.

In the hush-hush Orthodox Jewish community, victims say Mondrowitz left a trail of destroyed lives during his tenure as a rabbi/psychologist and headmaster in Brooklyn during the 1970s and early 1980s.

A 39-year-old rabbi filed a complaint last year, accusing Mondrowitz of abusing him when he was 11. He charged that pedophiles are still free to ruin lives in the closed Orthodox community, where leaders routinely silence victims to avoid scandal.

"There are probably more kids harmed in this community than any other because everything is placed under the rug," he said. "They throw a kid out of school if he complains. "This will send a message: You can run away and hide and you can think it is forgotten, but eventually it will hunt you down and get you. That is very important. It is a deterrent we never had." [nydailynews]

New York, NY - It's a common problem in New York City. Folks coming out of the subways sometimes have to stop and think where they are -- and which way they have to turn to get where they're going.

New York City transit is trying out an idea. Large stickers pointing out north, south, east and west and the nearest streets in each direction are being placed on the sidewalks.

The Grand Central Partnership, a business group dedicated to improving and promoting the area near Grand Central Terminal, is paying $15,000 for the compass-sticker tryout.

Meanwhile, transit officials are working on another effort to make the subway system more inviting. About 250 additional workers have been hired to clean it, and plans call for adding 100 more. The cleanup comes after many riders gave the system bad grades for cleanliness in recent surveys.

Almost 5 million passengers ride the subways on an average weekday. The 660-mile system includes 468 stations under and above city streets. [ap]

Bangkok, Thailand - A Thai school has apologized to an international Jewish human rights organization for its sponsorship of a celebration that involved a Nazi-themed parade.

A group of 200 students — between the ages of 6 and 18 — at Thewphaingarm School in Bangkok chose to dress on sports day, in red outfits with swastikas on their baseball caps behind a large sign with "NAZI" in shoulder-high letters, on their annual event, that divides students into teams.

Some students at the school wore elaborately stylized stormtrooper uniforms, carried fake rifles or performed the "sieg heil" salute. [AP]

Borough Park, Brooklyn NY - Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn is celebrating the opening of its new "green" medical pavilion today. The new ''green'' pavilion is located at Tenth Avenue between 48th and 49th streets in Brooklyn.

This evening at 5:45 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg and the president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, are expected to join hospital leaders at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The $118 million construction project, started in 2004, will add eight floors, or 92,600 square feet, to the Brooklyn hospital. According to hospital officials, the new space includes nine operating rooms. The pavilion will augment the existing emergency department, neonatal intensive care unit, and other services.

Recycled and low carbon imprint materials were used during construction, and the building is designed to be energy efficient.

Washington - Relying heavily on his confrontational style in New York, Mayor Giuliani is courting Republican Jews by pledging a strong hand against Iran and a skeptical attitude toward future negotiations between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs.

In a well-received 30-minute speech before a Jewish audience here, the GOP presidential contender drew stark lines in articulating his policy toward regimes hostile to America and Israel.

While he held out hope for productive talks between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, he said they should occur only with steep conditions.

"You cannot negotiate with someone who is threatening to destroy you and your family," he said, drawing applause from members of the Republican Jewish Coalition at its candidate forum yesterday. Negotiations should only occur, he said, once Palestinian Arabs "forsake terrorism" and "say and acknowledge and mean it that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state."

Mr. Giuliani was similarly unequivocal when it came to Iran, saying a president "can't hesitate" to use military power if it is in the country's best interests. "We've seen what Iran will do with ordinary weapons," he said. "If I'm president of the United States, I guarantee you we will never find out what they will do if they get nuclear weapons, because they're not going to get nuclear weapons." [nysun]

Lindenhurst, NY - Police are making some progress toward pinpointing a man who posed as an officer to pull over a Long Island woman and rob her. They've released a sketch of the suspect, complete with a police-style hat.

The victim told detectives that a car with a red rooftop light and a siren pulled her over. Its driver was dressed in a police-like uniform, complete with a badge.

The phony officer asked for her license and registration, but then reached in her car window and grabbed her wallet. He then ordered her to get out of the car, grabbed her by the hair, and hurled her to the ground.
When she told him she didn't have any money, he took two of her credit cards and drove away.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential and the caller will be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.00 for information that leads to an arrest. [AP]

Greensboro, North Carolina - The American Hebrew Academy's former director of campus life is facing charges that he had conducted himself in lewd acts with a student, police said.

Rabbi David Stein, 35, is expected to turn himself in today, Greensboro police Sgt. A.T. McHenry said.

Stein left the school in the spring, shortly after police began their investigation, police Capt. Gary Hastings said.

Since then, Stein has been in San Clemente, Calif., living with his parents and working at an insurance company, McHenry said. [newsrecord]

Brooklyn, NY +Pedestrian Struck+ Hatzolah Base requesting members to respond to a motor vehicle accident with a pediatric pedestrian that was struck on Ocean Avenue and Avenue "R". Members responding to the scene.

Chagrin Falls, OH - A Jewish postal worker made to work on Sabbath because of staff cutbacks lost an appeal claiming his work schedule violated his civil rights.

Mail carrier Martin Tepper joined the post office in Chagrin Falls, about 20 miles southeast of Cleveland, in 1980 and became a Messianic Jew a few years later.
For ten years he was excused from working Saturdays, but the letter carriers' union voted to rescind that accommodation amid pressure from fellow postal workers upset at having to work more weekend shifts because of staff reductions.

Tepper sued the U.S. Postal Service in federal court in Cleveland. He lost and a subsequent appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was denied, with the appeals court ruling Tepper could not prove he was discriminated against or that the post office failed to accommodate his beliefs.
"The removal of the accommodation did not result in a change of title, job status, pay or job responsibilities and conditions," a three-judge panel ruled. "While Tepper now has to work on Saturdays, this is simply a requirement of the job for which he was hired; it is not an adverse change in employment."
The appeals court also rejected Tepper's claim to a civil rights violation, saying he hadn't proven he was treated differently in his workplace because of his beliefs.

Tepper could ask the appeals court to reconsider or appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. [AP]

Montreal, Canada - Members of the Montreal Jewish community are expressing concern that the Quebec government's public hearings on "reasonable accommodation" of minorities have become a forum for intolerant views rather than for constructive debate.
Many community leaders have concluded that the hearings are a mistake, especially because of the format that allows anyone to speak with little screening.

Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region chair Victor Goldbloom compares the process to open-line radio shows that attract angry people with time on their hands.
"We are obviously uncomfortable with the way the hearings are unfolding. The commission began with good intentions of opening up discussion and allowing people to express themselves freely," said Goldbloom, a Quebec cabinet minister in the 1970s, "but the exercise has not been helpful."

Steven Slimovitch, national legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada, was more blunt. The hearings, he said, have "turned into a soapbox for venting racism and a beat-the-immigrant festival." He said it's apparent many participants regard anyone who is not old-stock French Catholic as an immigrant.
"We are constantly reminded that there are two groups in Quebec: us and them." [cjnews]

Amsterdam, Netherlands - A Dutch man of Moroccan descent was shot dead by police in Amsterdam after stabbing two officers.

The Netherlands' intelligence service saying that Bilal B. and a group of young Moroccans in Amsterdam were planning to shoot down an El Al plane at Schiphol Airport.
Police previously used the 22-year-old assailant as a witness after he had been suspected of plotting to blow up an El Al plane.

The director of the Hague-based Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) said that the authorities had brought the attack on themselves by allowing the attacker, known as Bilal B., to walk free. [haaretz]l

Borough Park, Brooklyn NY - Police are looking for a suspect in a string of robberies that happened over a six month period in Brooklyn.

The suspect has robbed four victims in Borough Park and three victims in Suset Park between April and September, police said.

The suspect allegedly follows the victims into their apartment, pushes them at gunpoint, and then demands money. There have been no injuries reported in any of the incidents.

Police describe the suspect as a 25-year-old Cantonese man, five-foot-seven to five-foot-ten weighing between 150 - 170 pounds.
He was seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, white sneakers, a baseball cap and sunglasses. Police warn that the perp is armed with a black semi-automatic handgun.

NYPD is asking anyone with information to call Crimestoppers at 800-577-TIPS.[1010wins]

Lakewood, NJ - Authorities offered a $25,000 reward in the case of an Orthodox rabbi beaten with a baseball bat in Lakewood last week, as was reported first here on Vin News.

The assault on Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz as he walked to synagogue Oct. 9 sent the Hebrew teacher to the hospital and set the diverse Ocean County community on edge. [starledger]

New York, NY - B&H photo and electronic equipment store has agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a discrimination case.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces laws prohibiting discrimination, alleges that B&H Photo and Electronics Corp. paid Hispanics working in its warehouses less than others, and failed to promote them or provide health benefits.

In its complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, the EEOC said the discrimination was based on the employees' nationality.

Under the agreement, B&H agreed to equalize the wages of its Hispanic employees to those of non-Hispanics, and to distribute $4.3 million to individuals who were paid less, not promoted, or denied benefits because they are Hispanic. [ap]