After arrests, Orthodox groups stress importance of obeying the law

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- In the wake of last week’s arrests of several prominent rabbis, some Orthodox leaders are working to ensure that their institutions are following the letter of the law.

At a Chabad-Lubavitch regional conference over the weekend in northern Virginia, several of the Chasidic movement’s senior rabbis stressed the importance of obeying the law, according to Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of the Washington office of American Friends of Lubavitch.

The movement's late spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, "clearly instructed all emissaries of Lubavitch that all activities, particularly those undertaken in the name of the movement, must be lawful,” Shemtov said. “The Talmud clearly rules that the law of the land, especially in the case of a government which allows Jews to live freely, takes on the force of Jewish law.”

In New York, a leader of Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella group bringing together several Chasidic and non-Chasidic communities, helped organize a meeting to stress the same theme. The meeting was to feature two prominent rabbis and two well-known New York lawyers, Benjamin Brafman and Jacob Laufer.

The meeting was announced in an e-mail sent out by Agudah’s executive vice president, Rabbi David Zweibel, to the organization’s supporters. Titled “An Urgent Gathering,” the e-mail said the meeting would be “focusing on the timeless (but also all too timely) theme of ‘Vi'asisa hayashar vi'hatov,’ or making sure one is doing ‘the good and honest thing.’ "

“In the wake of recent headlines and front-page photographs that made every feeling Jewish heart ache, it is even more timely for us to take a good, hard look at our obligations to our fellows, to our society, to our government,” Zweibel said in the e-mail, adding that “I am confident that you realize how vital it is that we hear words of mussar [taking stock] and chizuk [reinforcement], and that we learn to distinguish between conduct that conforms with dina d'malchusa [the law of the land] and conduct that does not.”

The meeting comes less than a week after five New York and New Jersey rabbis were arrested July 23 on charges of money laundering. Authorities say the rabbis accepted large checks made out to tax-exempt charitable organizations associated with their synagogues, usually keeping 10 percent of the money and returning the rest to the donor in cash.

The charges somewhat echo a case involving the spiritual leader of the Spinka Chasidic sect in December 2007, in which religious leaders in New York and Jewish businessmen in Los Angeles were charged with soliciting “tens of millions of dollars” in contributions to their charities while secretly refunding as much as 95 percent of the donors' money, allowing the contributors to claim improper tax deductions.

The head of the Spinka group, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, agreed to plead guilty to the charges earlier this month.

A criminal defense lawyer familiar with the Jewish community said he doubted that the New Jersey and Spinka cases signaled any kind of targeting or trend among federal prosecutors of Orthodox Jewish groups.

“I think it's a coincidence,” said the lawyer, who did not want to be identified. The cases are “instances of somebody trying to reduce their own sentence” by telling the government what he knew about other possible criminality, he said.

In both scandals, a defendant charged with serious financial crimes unrelated to the Jewish community became a confidential informant for the government, wearing a wire to implicate rabbis.

A U.S. Justice Department spokesman declined comment on both affairs and referred a reporter to the individual U.S. attorneys offices that brought the charges.

The Orthodox Union declined comment on the New Jersey scandal.

One expert said the best ways for charities to avoid getting caught up in any trouble with the law are pretty basic.

First, “stick to what the mission really is” of the charity and don't start freelancing, said Kenneth Ryesky, an attorney who teaches tax and business law at Queens College in New York.

One rabbi who did not wish to be identified said he periodically gets a request from a potential donor similar to what the Spinka rabbis were allegedly doing -- accepting a large check and returning most of the money in cash to the donor -- and always rejects the offer immediately.

That's the best reaction, Ryesky said.

“If it doesn't pass the smell test," he said, "don't have anything to do with it.”

Harvard Chabad Menorah Vandalized

A large menorah set up by the Chabad House at Harvard in Cambridge Common was found brutally vandalized Friday morning—the culminating act in a week of damage inflicted on Chabad's religious display in the Common.

"The entire menorah was basically destroyed. One of the arms was broken off. Six of the bulbs had been destroyed," said Joel B. Pollak, a student at the Harvard Law School. "When I looked more closely, I saw the electrical wires had been cut." Pollak said he discovered the damage while walking by the park on Friday just past noon. He wrote about the incident on his blog later that day.

The menorah was part of a Hanukkah display erected in the Common by The Chabad House at Harvard, a Jewish community organization. The defacement was particularly cutting during the week of celebration for the Jewish community, said HLS Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, one of the faculty advisers to The Chabad House.

"[Hanukkah is] a festival of bringing people together," he said. "Clearly this has all the appearance of a hate crime."

Dershowitz said he believed the attack on a menorah was an attack on Judaism, not related political philosophies such as Zionism.

"This menorah is purely a religious symbol," he said. "It's just a plain-out anti-Semitic act."

The incident, identified as a case of "malicious destruction" by the Cambridge Police Department's public crime log, was the most dramatic event in a serious of attacks on The Chabad House's holiday display in the Common.

According to Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, the director of The Chabad House, "Happy Hanukkah" signs placed near the menorah appeared torn on Wednesday and Thursday. He said he originally dismissed these subtle signs of damage, believing them to be accidental, not malicious.

"For a couple of days throughout the holiday, we saw the sign on the menorah was ripped. We said, 'Let's hope it was the weather.'" But he said the demolition of the menorah proved that the damage was indeed intentional.

The CPD's crime log reports damage on the Cambridge Common's Hanukkah display between Dec. 18 and Dec. 26. There have been no arrests made, and the Police Department declined to comment on the incidents.

Zarchi said the display will not be repaired this year, as the Hanukkah celebration ends Monday. But he said that Harvard Chabad still plans to put up a menorah again next year.

"We will not be deterred by this act," he said. "We will continue this beautiful traditional of bringing light and warmth and illumination."

He did say, however, that next year he plans to have the Cambridge police provide security for the new menorah.

Chabad Rabbi attacked in Berlin

BERLIN (EJP)---A few days before the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Nazi anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany known as “Kristallnacht”, a rabbi in Berlin and 8 rabbinical students were attacked on Saturday night by two hoodlums

Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, who serves since 11 years as rabbi of Chabad Lubavitch, one of the three Jewish communities of the German capital, was returning in his vehicle with the students after attending a Jewish event in the city when the two aggressors began to chase the rabbi's car.
The two men, driving a Mercedes Benz, braked in front of the rabbi's van and then reversed back towards it while shouting anti-Semitic insults.
"The rabbi then saw the driver light up an unknown object and throw it towards his van," the police said, adding that the rabbi could not explain what the object was.
The students managed to jot down the license plate of the attacking vehicle, which they reported to the police together with the complaint about the offense.
Shmuel Segal, Rabbi Teichtal’s assistant, expressed the hope that police “would do all within their power to find the criminals.”
"This event encourages us to continue our Jewish oriented activities in the city. In every case we encounter instances of darkness. We are motivated to increase our efforts to spread out more light," he told EJP.
He said the Chabad community is due to open a new Mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in a few days.

Last year, a smoke bomb was thrown through a window of the community’s kindergarten and anti-Semitic slogans were spray painted on its walls.
The Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), which provides assistance to rabbis across Europe, expressed shock at Saturday's aggression.
“We are totally shocked to find time and again, that particularly the country that should have been dispersing messages of tolerance to all European countries, has been once again the arena of a severe anti-Semitic incident,” it said.
"We maintain that Berlin must put an end to nationalistic and neo-Nazi organizations within its boundaries, otherwise, we have no guarantee that history will not repeat itself,” the Brussels-based centre said.

Torah vanishes from Bais Menachem

RABBI SAYS NO SIGNS OF FORCED ENTRY

BY JILL KASSANDER, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT


University City police are investigating the disappearance of one of the Torahs belonging to Congregation Bais Menachem — Chabad on Delmar. Rabbi Yosef Landa and the congregation discovered the Torah was missing during Shabbat services on May 24.

"When we opened the ark for the Torah service I realized one of the Torahs was missing," Landa said. "A big gasp went up throughout the congregation."

The synagogue keeps two Torah scrolls in the ark, said Landa. The congregation does not have a daily minyan so the last time he saw both Torah scrolls was the previous Shabbat.

"The Torah which was stolen is the only Torah we actually own," Landa said. "It is a very beautiful, tall Torah with a red mantle, with large letters in the script style of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Ari Zal. The other Torah we have is on loan to us."

Landa contacted the University City police department after Shabbat and officers arrived within a few minutes. They interviewed Landa, filed a report and told him he would be contacted by a detective during the week.

Further research by the Jewish Light has found three thefts of Torahs from Chabad congregations in other states in the past nine months. Asked about the other thefts, Detective Mike Gage who was assigned to the case said he would be looking into the other incidents.

"We will be contacting the other police departments to compare notes and look for possible connections," Gage said.

One of the Torah thefts occurred around the end of September 2007 from Yeshiva High School in Cottage Grove, Minn.

"A Torah scroll was stolen and a video projector," Rabbi Moshe Weiss, the school's director of development said. "The Torah scroll and projector have not been recovered."

In April, a Chabad House in Miami Beach, Fla., was burned down in an apparent case of arson being investigated by fire officials, the police and the FBI according to an article on MiamiHerald.com. It is believed the congregation's Torah scroll was stolen before the fire was set.

Two scrolls were discovered missing from Congregation Bnai Zedek Chabad in Kenosha, Wis., on April 15. The small congregation has only been around for about nine months, said Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski. The rabbi was giving a class in the social hall downstairs and closed the door to the sanctuary before he left for the evening.

"There was no sign of a break-in," Wilschanski said. "I am concerned somebody might have entered the synagogue and hidden in the sanctuary because the deadbolt lock was open in the morning."

The hazzan's oversize siddur, chumashim and the rabbi's laptop computer were also stolen, though the thief left behind the silver ornaments used to adorn to the Torah.

It is not clear whether any of the thefts are connected although there are similarities in some of the cases, such as the missing books. Landa had noticed a couple of books missing about two weeks before the Torah theft.

"I noticed the large oversized siddur used by the hazzan and a large oversized book of Haftarot were missing," Landa said. "We looked everywhere and thought perhaps someone had borrowed them and forgotten to return them."

Now Landa is wondering if the two incidents are related.

"My mind was racing when I saw the Torah scroll was gone though I don't know if the events are connected," Landa said. "All that was stolen were communal articles. They did not take the pushke which has about $30 to $40 in it."

The Torah scroll is valued at $30,000 to $40,000 according to the police report, though Landa said he would have to do additional research to assess the value of that particular Torah.

Landa said he e-mailed other rabbis to alert them to the theft so they could be more watchful at their own congregations.

"This is so disappointing," Landa said. "There was no sign of forced entry. We have an open door policy. People who frequent the congregation know the code to get into the building."

Barry Parnas regularly attends Shabbat services at the congregation and was there when the theft was discovered.

"I remember the Aron HaKodesh, the Holy Ark, being opened and only one Torah being in there," Parnas said. "The first person to respond was Rabbi Landa. I think he said, 'Sefer Torah missing.'"

Sometimes the shul will use the Torah someplace else but it is always back by Shabbat, said Parnas. He said the congregation was very shaken and surprised by the theft.

"A Torah doesn't seem like something that someone would steal," Parnas said. "It seems very odd to me that someone would take it."

Landa and members of the congregation checked around the community just in case someone had borrowed the Torah and other items for a shiva house or to study.

"This is very sad for me personally," Landa said. "I'm holding out hope that I will wake up from this nightmare and the Torah will be back. I assure whoever took it total anonymity. We just want the Torah back — no questions asked."

Black, Jewish Crown Heights Leaders Seek Unity

Upswing In Recent Violence Has Communities At Odds
Fears Of Riots Similar To 1991 Grip Residents

NEW YORK (CBS) ;

Police are mobilizing a massive presence in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in the wake of increased tension between African American and Jewish communities.
Leaders from both communities have come together recently to preach cooperation among residents of the neighborhood where African
Americans and Hassidic Jews live side by side. But recent violence has shown that religion and race don't always mix.
"I definitely feel [like there's unrest] because I see it everyday. I'm around here a lot and that's what I'm hearing," said Crown Heights resident Anthony Rios.
Another resident, Joe Morgenstein, agreed, saying he hears "a lot of racial slurs all day" in the community.
Since 1991, when riots broke out after a 7-year-old black boy was killed by a Hassidic driver, and then a Jewish man was murdered by a group of African-Americans, Crown Heights has been hurt off-and-on by periodic tension.
In the past month, 20-year-old Andrew Charles, who is black, was beaten up, and the suspect is Jewish.
Then last week, 16-year-old Alon Sherman, who is Jewish, had his jaw broken while being allegedly robbed by two black teens. The attackers were arrested Thursday. Namor Clarke,17, and Basean Parker, 14, will be charged as adults for last Friday's assault on Sherman, officials said.
Inside a Jewish museum dedicated to tolerance and understanding, black and religious
leaders pleaded for the public to write a new history of race and religious relations.
"We are one standing together yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Forever," said Jewish
Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn).
Added Councilman Mathieu Eugene (D-Dist. 40): "We may have arrived on different ships, but now we are all in the same boat."
It's a boat some don't want to see sink under the weight of ignorance and intolerance.
"It's a bad thing. I hope it doesn't escalate," one black resident told CBS 2. And if it does, there will be a quick response. "It's scary what's been going on, but I'm happy police are taking it seriously," said Chana Levine, a Jewish Crown Heights resident. Police admit their presence there is a temporary fix until tensions drop, but some fear once police leave, what's happened here will be repeated.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Afghan German jailed for knife attack on Frankfurt rabbi

Frankfurt - A Frankfurt court jailed a German man of Afghan origin for three-and-a-half years Tuesday after finding him guilty of a knife attack on an Orthodox rabbi in the city last year. The court found that Sahed A, 23, had caused grievous bodily harm to his victim, a 43-year-old rabbi of the Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement within Orthodox Judaism, on September 7.

The court found that the assailant had drawn back from an initial intention to kill his victim, Zalman Gurevich.

The prosecution had called for a four-year sentence.

During the trial, Sahed A acknowledged stabbing Gurevich but said he had been acting in self-defence.

But he strenuously denied shouting racist insults as he stabbed the rabbi in the abdomen.

Day Of Healing For Two South Florida Synagogues

See links at source for video.

I did not get a chance to watch, but it looks worth watching.


MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―

It was a day of healing and moving forward for two South Florida synagogues on Sunday; one was hit by hate and the other was damaged by fire.

A fundraiser was held at the Turnberry Jewish Center in Aventura to buy a new Torah for the Chabad Jewish Center of Miami Beach, which was damaged nearly two weeks ago in a fire. At the same time, the Torah, a religious scroll of Jewish laws and customs and a centerpiece of its religion, was taken.

"We have everyone joined together and give some donation towards it [Torah] and everyone is like joined in one Torah," said Rabii Zeb Kats of Habad Shul. "It's kind of like United Funds coming together and we are all going to have a community Torah, something that we did together."

At the Chabad of Parkland, located at 7170 Loxahatchee Rd., the Rabbi showed Hebrew school children the last of three swastikas and hateful words spray-painted on the synagogue's walls last week. Sunday, they painted over the hateful symbols.

"It's very important to show the children that not only is it relevant, not only is it something that still exists," said Rabbi Mendy Gutnick."It still exists in the world and we have to know how to deal with it, and how to overcome it."

Both of the cases are still under investigation to determine if they are hate crimes.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Uzbek authorities revoke accreditation of the head of Jewish Chabad Lubavitch movement

The Associated Press
Friday, April 11, 2008

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan: Uzbek authorities have revoked the accreditation of the local head of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish movement, the Justice Ministry said Friday.

Ministry spokesman Zhalolbek Abdusattarov said Tashkent-based Rabbi Abe David Gurevich breached local registration rules and that his organization failed to submit correct financial and accounting reports.

Gurevich also designated himself chief rabbi in the ex-Soviet republic without seeking authorization from the relevant government agencies, the ministry said.

The Chabad Lubavitch movement will, however, continue to operate in Uzbekistan, Abdusattarov said. The movement, a New York-based organization of Hasidic Jews, enjoys strong support in the Baltics, Russia and other former republics of the Soviet Union.

Gurevich declined to comment on the announcement.

There are few reported cases of state pressure against Jewish groups in the Central Asian nation, but the denial of registration to religious groups is common.

Gurevich's secretary, Karina Loifer, and her mother, Svetlana, were murdered in June 2006. Authorities said after investigations the killing was not motivated by anti-Semitism.