And so it begins...

I found disturbing footage of chair throwing & assault on Chassidic Jew Tue on Albany & Lincoln. Victim is uncomfortable reporting due to the discovery reform (attacker may know his identity). Same group assaulted someone later that night on Union Kingston. @NYPD77Pct @NYPD71Pct pic.twitter.com/f5jEAL5SkR

— Yaacov Behrman (@ChabadLubavitch) December 31, 2019

From the Daily News:

An Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted by seven creeps in Brooklyn, but didn’t report the crime because he’s worried about the new criminal justice reforms, a Jewish activist said Tuesday.

John Liu's awkward political ads

Just 20 Seconds on Unifying People pic.twitter.com/JfBVqccNkv

— John C. Liu (@LiuNewYork) October 29, 2018

From the NY Post:

Liu’s ad was in terrible taste, according to Republican Jewish activist Arthur Schwartz.

“‘Jews like pastrami so this will resonate with them.’ —Moronic New York democrat politician,” Schwartz tweeted Monday.

The campaign said they didn’t intend for the ad to create indigestion.

Just 20 Seconds on the Reproductive Health Act pic.twitter.com/shN9cO2aRQ

— John C. Liu (@LiuNewYork) October 29, 2018

"I'll fight for abortion rights as soon as I finish stuffing my face with lox!"

Just 20 Seconds on the NYS Liberty Act pic.twitter.com/aRbTF67i9F

— John C. Liu (@LiuNewYork) October 29, 2018

Not sure what he's eating here. An empanada? In fact I'm so distracted by trying to figure that out that I forgot the point he was trying to make.

This, on the other hand, is truly nightmare-inducing but it's doubtful that Trump cares.

Well that sure backfired

From the NY Post:

Eleventh-hour campaign mailings from the New York State Democratic Committee imply Cynthia Nixon is anti-Semitic — prompting an online maelstrom of outrage and denials Saturday night, with Gov. Cuomo and the state party calling the mailer a “mistake.”

“With anti-Semitism and bigotry on the rise, we can’t take a chance with inexperienced Cynthia Nixon,” reads the mailer, which says it was paid for by the New York State Democratic Committee.
It goes on to accuse Nixon of being against the funding of yeshivas — a topic she’s actually dodged — and falsely accuses her of being “silent on the rise of anti-Semitism” and of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Teachers’ union head Randi Weingarten, and her wife, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum — whose LGBT-friendly synagogue, Congregation Beth Simhat Torah, on W. 30th Street, Nixon attends — issued a joint Facebook posting at 9 p.m. calling the mailing “beyond the pale.”

“How dare you, @nydems?!” tweeted NYC Council Member Brad Lander.

“Smearing @CynthiaNixon (whose kids are being raised Jewish, BTW) as soft on anti-Semitism & lying about her position on Israel in order to fearmonger and shill for votes is a shameful dead-end for our party,” he tweeted.

When you're supposedly 30 points up on your opponent, there's really no need to sink to this level. Maybe the polls are off...

Glassy project will kick Buks to the curb

From QNS:

An entire block in Rego Park will be transformed into a 100,000-square-foot retail and medical office building by RJ Capital Holdings.

Located at 98-81 Queens Blvd., the building will take over Ohr Natan Synagogue, the site of the former Trylon Theater. After the theater closed down in 1999, preservationists tried to petition synagogue owners to retain some of the theater’s architectural features. The building was renovated in 2005, removing many of the historical features, according to a blog post by a local historian.

Ohr Natan Synagogue’s lease expires in February 2017 and Rabbi Nahum Kaziev said that talks between him and RJ Capital Holdings have dissolved, according to the Commercial Observer. The synagogue also acts as a community center for the large Bukharian Jewish community that resides in Rego Park and Forest Hills.

The moral of the story is that karma is a bitch.

UPDATE: Maybe they'll stay, but they probably won't.

Malcolm Smith probe may not yet be over

From Lohud:

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office used an Orthodox Jewish radio program in an elaborate sting operation that helped the government convict Malcolm Smith and other New York politicians in a corruption scandal, a four-month investigation by The Journal News/lohud revealed.

It is unclear whether there are other targets, including New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who appeared on the show as a state senator prior to the 2010 election with Moses Stern, later revealed to be an FBI cooperator. Stern appeared twice on the show prior to election day using aliases, posing as both a political analyst and a resident from Brooklyn. He urged listeners to vote for Schneiderman.

Prosecutors disclosed little about the New York Jewish Communications Channel to defense lawyers for two people convicted in the sting operation. The show was hosted by longtime Orthodox radio personality Zev Brenner, who owns Talkline Communications Network, and registered with the state by Joseph Markowitz, whose name was linked to thousands in campaign donations to Schneiderman, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, and an illegal donation to Halloran. After the Smith arrests, Schneiderman pledged to donate the contributions from Markowitz and Markowitz's wife to charity.

NJ town doesn't want to be like Queens

Photo by R. Acosta, Saving Silverton Facebook Page

From BloombergBusiness:

Every home is big on glass in a Toms River, New Jersey, neighborhood called North Dover. Windows let in the sun, or show off chandeliers in multistory entrance halls.

These days, though, most homeowners draw the blinds, retreating from brushes with a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish community that’s trying to turn a swath of suburban luxury 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Atlantic beaches into an insular enclave. The rub, a township inquiry found, is “highly annoying, suspicious and creepy” tactics used by some real-estate agents.

They show up on doorsteps to tell owners that if they don’t sell, they’ll be the only non-Orthodox around. Strangers, sometimes several to a car, shoot photos and videos. When they started pulling over to ask children which house was theirs, parents put an end to street-hockey games.

Lakewood, once a rural destination for Rockefellers and other industry titans, is now a land of synagogues, religious schools, kosher groceries and residential neighborhoods in the grip of minivan gridlock. It’s also a place testing the limits of zoning enforcement for 95,000 people, at least half Orthodox, by Schnall’s estimate.

This month, after fire destroyed a single-family home, the Ocean County sheriff said that it was being used as an unauthorized dorm for as many as two dozen yeshiva students. Downtown, inspectors boarded up a commercial building four times, citing non-permitted use as a catering hall and Orthodox study center, only to see the plywood removed and the space reopened. The fifth board-up succeeded, backed by a planning-board ruling, said Steven Secare, the township attorney.

That’s unlikely, according to Michael Dedominicis, a 40-year-old construction company owner who leads a social-media group called Toms River Strong that urges the town’s 91,000 residents not to sell. His account of dropping by a neighbor’s open house and being denied entry by its Orthodox listing agent is included in a 16-page report on real-estate canvassing issued by township officials Feb. 5.

“Where is the law in this situation?” Dedominicis said in an interview. “I have homeowners calling me, saying, 'They’re converting a three-car garage into bedrooms!'”

The opposition, he said, has nothing to do with dislike of Jews, but with a fear that Toms River will become like Lakewood’s more tattered sections, with cars parked on lawns, overgrown landscaping, trash piled at curbs and residents crowding single-family homes.
_____________________________________

Oh, come on now. In Queens, our elected official claim that this type of living is vibrant and diverse. What's wrong with these New Jerseyans?

DOB says yeshiva dorm is not kosher

From QNS.com:

The dormitories at Glendale’s Yeshiva Godolah Seminary exceed legal limits, according to one city agency.

After Community Board 5 (CB 5) voted to recommend denying the yeshiva’s request for a zoning variance earlier this month, the school was hit with a violation from the Department of Buildings (DOB) for violating current zoning regulations by housing students within the school.

The yeshiva is located within an M1-1 zone, which does not allow for dorm facilities. The violation, issued on Oct. 16, is for the illegal conversion of the school to have dormitories outside of the zoning regulation.

“Based upon a recent audit, there is an intent to revoke issued,” a representative from the DOB told the Ridgewood Times. “The audit determined that the space used was nonconforming for a Use Group 9 facility. The legality of the use of the dormitory space is currently under review.”

Key controversy at LeFrak City

From the Daily News:

Orthodox Jewish tenants at LeFrak City in Queens claim they are being discriminated against because newly installed lobby doors only open with an electronic key — which they cannot use on the Sabbath, a federal lawsuit alleges.

Sulaymon Ibragimov and Murod Takhalov are suing the LeFrak Organization for alleged religious discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

“Halakha, the Jewish law, prohibits Jews from breaking or creating an electric circuit on the Sabbath, and during certain days of observance such as Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover,” according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

For a half century, tenants used metal keys to open the lobby doors, but a massive renovation project begun in 2012 has created new religious barriers for hundreds of Jewish families who reside at the 20-building complex in Rego Park, the class-action suit alleges.

The renovations included new lobby doors that open using an electronic key fob, which is also used to activate lights in the stairwell by using motion and sound detectors.

Ibragimov, 26, and Takhalov, 45, say they cannot use the elevator on the Sabbath or holy days as well, and the automatic lights also violate religious law for observant Jews.

How do they know that God doesn't want them to use electricity since the bible makes no mention of it?

Bayside opposed to high school at Jewish center site

From the Queens Courier:

Residents living near the Bayside Jewish Center rallied with state Sen. Tony Avella on Thursday against a proposed high school planned for their neighborhood.

Around 75 people showed up at the intersection of 32nd Avenue and 204th Street and largely complained of overcrowded traffic and buses due to the existence of several other schools in the nearby vicinity, including a number of elementary schools and Bayside High School, which serves a student body of more than 3,000 only four blocks away.

While the protesters agreed that new schools should be built for local students, they did not think that their community could accommodate a school with a planned capacity of between 800 and 1,000 students.

Avella said the School Construction Authority (SCA) has systematically chosen school sites without the support of residents and elected officials, citing an unsuccessful 2013 outcry against an elementary school being built on 48th Avenue. He is introducing legislation which would amend education law to require detailed analyses to be made available upon the proposed construction of a new school in a city of over a million in population.

Councilman Paul Vallone, however, indicated that while compromises with the community will have to be made in the process leading up to the school’s construction, he looks forward to seeing a new school in his district, whether it is installed at the former Jewish center or at an alternative site.

Bayside getting a new high school

From the Queens Courier:

The School Construction Authority (SCA) plans to purchase the Bayside Jewish Center and transform it into a new public high school, according to Councilman Paul Vallone.

The new school will go a long way toward solving the issue of overcrowding in District 26 schools, which are at 130 percent capacity and currently short more than 3,400 seats. The new school is set to alleviate around 25 percent of that gap.

Vallone said that he is going to work with residents to lessen the impact that a new school would have on their everyday lives, including potential effects on parking availability and local traffic concerns.

“What is critical now is making sure that the community and community board are involved in every step of the way and that we work closely with the SCA to minimize the impact to the surrounding neighborhood,” Vallone said.

Bayside Jewish Center may become public school

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Bayside Jewish Center, a fixture in the community for 77 years, is closing due to a lack of members and will be sold.

Natalie Winter, president of the congregation, said on Monday that members agonized over the decision, but that the expense of operating the building was just getting too high.

“The property is up for sale, but the building is not shut down. We will continue to be open until it’s sold,” Winter said. “This was not an easy decision.”

The rabbi, Moses Kirsh, has left and there will be no religious services at the facility, located at 203-05 32 Ave. Winter indicated that certain programs are remaining open but did not want to elaborate.

“Once the building is sold, we will merge with another viable synagogue,” she said. “No final decision has been made yet but it will be a Conservative synagogue.”

She said she and other members are heartbroken about the closing because “we take pride in the name, which we will take with us wherever we move. It’s sad.”

The congregation was organized in 1938 and moved to its present location more than 60 years ago.

Marilyn Bitterman, district manager of Community Board 7, said she will suggest the site as a possible public school to Borough President Melinda Katz, who is seeking locations for new ones.

Factory illegally converted into yeshiva

From DNA Info:

A yeshiva is illegally using a factory building as a school and has racked up a litany of complaints about illegal construction, according to Department of Buildings records.

Neighbors have a laundry list of grievances about United Talmudical Academy, located at 25 Waverly Ave., which include the use of the street as a parking lot for school buses and students who harass women in nearby buildings and throw garbage out the window.

Now neighbors say the school is doing construction — including waterproofing the roof and working on the elevator shaft — without a permit at all hours of day and night.

Four complaints were made to the DOB on Nov. 6, prompting the department's emergency response team, which responds to complaints that are deemed hazardous and in need of immediate attention, to inspect the building.

One caller said that they were doing work on the building after 6 p.m. during the week and all day on Sunday, records show.

Inspectors issued a stop work order on the site the next day because of construction work being done in the building's elevator shaft without a permit, according to the DOB.

The agency found that workers were weatherproofing an abandoned shaft, had made illegal partitions and were using the building as a school illegally, the records show.

Two violations were also issued — for work without a permit that includes weatherproofing being done on the roof and occupancy contrary to use for a factory building being used as a school.

Over the next several days 12 more complaints were made to the department about continued construction at the building despite the DOB's order to stop.

A complaint made on Nov. 10 describes construction taking place at 2 a.m. on a Monday.

Adams picking up where Vito left off

From Brownstoner:

Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams wants to revive the affordable housing development on a 30-acre piece of land known as the Broadway Triangle. Sandwiched between Bed Stuy, Williamsburg and Bushwick along Broadway near Flushing, the controversial development was halted by a judge’s injunction following a lawsuit by community groups arguing the plans and a rezoning of the area favored Hasidic families and discriminated against blacks and Latinos. In a written review of an unrelated project at 695 Grand Street in Williamsburg, Adams called on the de Blasio administration to resolve the legal dispute so housing can be built, Crain’s reported.

One thing that has changed: Former State Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the king of affordable housing in the area, was heavily involved in the Triangle project, but is no longer in office. The nonprofit group he created to deliver services to constituents, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizen’s Council, which still exists and continues to be a big landlord and developer in Latino-heavy Bushwick, was one of two developers in the Triangle project, along with nonprofit partner United Jewish Organizations.

Too much competition and not enough Jews

From Crains:

Mazur's Marketplace, a 54-year-old, second generation kosher market that sells meat, groceries and take-out foods in the Little Neck section of Queens, will close down next week. Located in a strip shopping center on the Queens-Nassau County border at 254-51 Horace Harding Blvd., the kosher store once drew customers from both sides of the border.

According to co-owner Eddie Mazur, the business is a victim of increased competition from the likes of Fairway, which opened nearby in Douglaston about two years ago, and Costco. In addition, a bevy of kosher supermarkets have opened in recent years in Great Neck, Long Island, and Jamaica Estates, Queens.

Trylon synagogue taken to court

From the Times Ledger:

A rent dispute between Ohr Natan synagogue and the Rego Park congregations’ landlord has landed the two in court.

Rabbi Nahum Kaziev, who leads the Bukharian house of worship, at 98-81 Queens Blvd., said Ohr Natan was served with an eviction notice after the property owners accused the temple of not paying rent.

He said the synagogue continued sending monthly checks, but was told its landlord, Trylon LLC, did not receive them.

Anthony La Vigna
The temple attempted to send more checks to account for the missing money, but Trylon argued the rent was late and moved to terminate its lease in Queens Supreme Court, according to Kaziev.

Judge Terrence O’Conner dismissed the case because of a technicality earlier this month, but Trylon LLC plans to re-file its case.

CB9 members fight over non-kosher food

From DNA Info:

A member of Community Board 9, which represents Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park, is facing the boot after allegedly directing anti-Semitic remarks at other board members over the summer.

Sam Esposito, who has represented Ozone Park on the board since 1988, claims the remarks were not anti-Semitic and were only intended as a criticism of three board members — Evelyn Baron, Wallace Bock and Jan Fenster — for complaining about being served inappropriate food during a meeting in June.

The members, according to an email that Esposito sent them after the meeting, said that the food served before the board’s meeting was not “Kosher enough.”

Esposito wrote that the three board members were “acting like little children that did not get their way at the playground calling daddy on the phone complaining."

According to the email, one of the board members called Rabbi Daniel Pollack, also a board member, to complain that they had nothing to eat.

They also blamed CB9's staff members for ordering food that they were not able to eat, according to the email.

Esposito wrote that they were “ungrateful, selfish, ill-mannered, demanding, unthankful … juvenile, impolite, ungracious, rude.”

“After seeing what I saw at the meeting, if that is what being Jewish is all about, I would rather be atheist because I was raised proper with respect and much different than you three,” he wrote.

After receiving the email, Bock sent a letter to CB9 Chairman James Coccovillo, calling Esposito's email a "vicious anti-Semitic diatribe against the religion which I practice," and asking for his removal. Baron and Fenster also signed the request, which is scheduled to be discussed Tuesday night.

Hold on. I've been to a lot of community board meetings, and none of them had a buffet. So what's up with CB9? Who paid for the food?

Out of control sukkahs

"Crapman: Check out my latest blog entry about the sukkahs in Borough Park, Brooklyn. You think the one in Kew Gardens Hills took the cake? You ain't seen nothin' brother. Sidewalk AND Street blockage galore. A harbinger for future Queens mishegoss? Regards, GtheA"


George also reports that the previously reported Kew Gardens sukkah wasn't removed last Wednesday as promised.

As a side note, on Tuesday night, I was westbound on the LIE near the Fairgrounds and saw a "mobile sukkah" on the back of a pickup truck. I'd like to say, "You can't make this stuff up," but someone apparently did! - QC

Jewish Center suing caterer

From the Queens Courier:

One Howard Beach synagogue is suing its longtime associate after discovering the group allegedly hosted wild parties after hours on the grounds.

Crown Royale Caterers has been licensed since 2005 to have various religious celebrations at the Rockwood Park Jewish Center. The group, run by brothers Joshua and Myron Gurelle, is supposed to cater events such as bar mitzvahs and weddings and inform the synagogue when it does so.

But Rockwood Park’s lawyer, Gary Rosen, said the caterer has consistently failed to keep the synagogue informed. They also allegedly throw loud parties and he claims the partygoers hang out inside and outside the 84th Street site until all hours of the night.

Rosen said he discovered party plans on social media that indicated Crown Royale was hosting raucous parties — and charging attendees — at the synagogue without officials’ knowledge. He also alleges he heard complaints from the surrounding residents.

This sukkah really sucks

"I made a complaint to 311 in the early hours of Thursday, 9/19/13, that an immense structure was blocking pedestrian access to the sidewalk at the corner of 71st Road and Main Street in the Queens neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills. The offending edifice is adjacent to the restaurant called Simon's Pizza/Felafel. This structure is commonly know in the Hebrew community as a sukkah. Depicted above is the response I received from 311 that police action was not necessary and that the sidewalk was passable and that a community affairs officer was to be notified. 36 hours later, on Friday afternoon, 9/20/13, I shot the photos depicted below that show that nothing had changed. The 107th Precinct (Captain Frederick Grover, Commanding Officer) is responsible for this condition to fester. According to the Code of the NYC Department of Sanitation: "It is illegal for anyone to place or leave any box, barrel, bale of merchandise, or other moveable property (regardless of ownership), upon any public street or any public place." (Paragraph 16-122(b). Fine: $100-$150)" - George The Atheist

For more photos, go to George's blog.

A guide to pandering

The NY Times has a "tour" of voting blocs throughout the City.

The problems (and the fun) start when those blocs don't vote the way they're "supposed to."