See Pages 3, 4, 5
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$1.00 WWW.5TJT.COM
INSIDE FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Lawfare BY LARRY GORDON
Samuel Sokol 18
Black-Jewish Alliance
Dr. Rafael Medoff 20
Safe At Home
Not unlike New York City,
MindBiz Nassau County has an out-
Esther Mann, LMSW 30 standing police force and quite
an impressive police brass.
Taking An Umbrella We’ve been fortunate to hear
Hannah Reich Berman 32
from them on occasion, as they
R’ David Hollander, a’h have a policy to keep the public
Mordechai Lightstone 47 informed on safety issues.
These are trying times and right
here in our part of Long
Island—in particular in the
Five Towns—our police force is
at the top of its game and well
prepared for every eventuality.
TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY
BY ROCHELLE
MARUCH MILLER
Hahn-Gefen wedding.
Dodi Blumstein doesn’t have
See Page 73
time for the pain. Personifying
the triumph of the human spir-
it, the indefatigable Far
Rockaway resident is persever-
ing against all odds and emerg-
ing a champion. Back in 1997,
Dodi was 14 and had just com-
pleted ninth grade at Bais Yakov
of Baltimore. A sports enthusi-
Continued on Page 8
Courage With No Bounds Both Sides
Inside Yeshiva Gedolah
of the Five Towns.
Of The EJF
See Page 60
Controversy
The Kids Of Courage organization returned this week from a
ski adventure in Vermont where 30 physically challenged youngsters
enjoyed the thrill of speeding down slopes with specially designed
Agudath Israel ski equipment donated by Spyder. KOC remained true to its motto,
convenes in Miami. “Dealing with illness through adventure.”
See Page 53 See Page 22
CANDLE LIGHTING
Jan. 15 – 4:34 PM
Jan. 22 – 4:42 PM
VOL. 10 NO. 16
That’s the impression I
received after a lengthy briefing
from our top local police offi-
cials as well as our recently
reelected District Attorney in
the county, Kathleen Rice. These
folks are serious about their law
enforcement; you can hear it in
the words they speak as well as
see it in their facial expressions.
They’ve been working hard
and have been successful in
Continued on Page 5
29 TEVES 5770 trtu ,arp JANUARY 15, 2010
ISRAEL RESPONDS TO QUAKE
Israeli rescue workers were among the first to arrive on the scene in Haiti
to help this impoverished nation begin its recovery from an earthquake
on Tuesday that registered 7.0 on the Richter scale.
See Page 50
HEARD IN THE BAGEL STORE
What’s The Story?
BY LARRY GORDON usually very short lives and then
just carry on.
Frankly, the complaint divi- In any event, it is probably
sion of the 5TJT once had to good and healthy to air out
open its virtual doors or imagi- some of the objections and crit-
nary service window much icisms that have come our way
more often than we have done over the last few months.
of late. I’m not sure if that Most of the issues brought to
means that we have fewer com- our attention that can be catego-
plaints than we used to years rized as complaints usually
ago or that we just take some of begin with either, “Why did you
those grumbles and protests in
stride and let them live out their Continued on Page 16
ENDLESS
B Y 5 TJ T S TA F F
SUMMER
BY PHYLLIS J. LUBIN
The Conference of European I’m in love! Don’t worry,
Rabbis is the primary Orthodox Lenny—there is no replace-
rabbinic organization in Europe. ment for you. This is a more
Its current executive director is therapeutic affinity. But I am
Rabbi Aba Dunner. The Five definitely in love.
Towns Jewish Times spoke with The warm water soothes my
Rabbi Dunner in an exclusive every bone. As I move my arms
interview concerning the recent back and forth, I am transported
statement by the CER about the to another time and another
Eternal Jewish Family (the EJF). place: The sun is shining as a
Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 17
IDF Sends
Immediate
Aid To Haiti
BY SAMUEL SOKOL,
ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
Following news of Tuesday’s
tragic earthquake in Haiti, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
sent an Israeli delegation includ-
ing officers from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, IDF Home Front
Command, and IDF Medical
Corp Personnel to the Republic
of Haiti in order to examine the
possibilities of offering aid.
Subsequently, the IDF Home
Front Command decided to
send forces to Haiti, including
50 elite members of the search
and rescue unit, in order to aid
with the rescue of the victims in
the Caribbean country.
Israeli Ambassador to the
Dominican Republic Amos
Radian has been instructed to
proceed to Haiti in order to
report on the situation there,
50 January 15, 2010 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES
and the Israeli Embassy in
Washington has been instructed
to be in contact with American
aid officials in order to coordi-
nate humanitarian assistance
and rescue activities.
IDF search and rescue forces
have been involved in several
international rescue operations
after natural disasters in the
past, such as the Izmit earth-
quake in Turkey in 1999.
Thousands are feared dead in
the quake, which leveled large
sections of Haiti’s capital city of
Port-au-Prince, a densely popu-
lated city of over two million
inhabitants. Prime Minister
Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN
Wednesday that he “believe[s]
that we are well over 100,000
[killed]. I hope that is not true
because I hope people had the
time to get out.”
The United Nations has allo-
cated ten million U.S. dollars for
emergency relief to the stricken
nation, which has been described
as “destroyed” by President Rene
Preval. Haiti is one of the poorest
states in the western hemisphere
according to UN sources.
President Obama has sent four
coast guard cutters and an aircraft
carrier as the advance wave in a
TRAVEL SECTION
massive planned aid campaign.
Three Israelis are currently
feared missing in the quake,
which was measured at 7.3 on the
Richter scale, making it Haiti’s
worst quake in two centuries.
IDF search and
rescue forces have
been involved in
several
international
rescue operations.
Among those feared missing
is Sharona Elsaieh, daughter of
the late noted Left wing figure,
Abie Nathan.
The Jewish Telegraphic
Agency has reported that Israeli
and American Jewish organiza-
tions have begun mobilizing to
provide aid to the victims. The
Joint Distribution Committee
and Bnai B’rith have begun rais-
ing funds for emergency relief,
and the Israel Forum for
International Humanitarian Aid
will be sending a private 12-man
rescue team.
Members of the Chabad com-
munity of the neighboring
nation of the Dominican
Republic have announced their
intention of helping to locate
missing members of the Haitian
Jewish community.
These actions come as Israel is
in the midst of the first IDF home
front command International
Emergency Response Conference
(IPRED) which is presenting new
initiatives and developments
regarding response and prepared-
ness for emergency situations.
The conference has been attend-
ed by over 200 participants from
35 countries.
Col. Dr. Ariel Bar, the Medical
Officer of the Home Front
Command, said that his depart-
ment can learn a lot from other
countries. “I believe that the con-
tacts we will make during this
conference will help us to learn
more in the future,” he said.
The second part of the IPRED
conference began Wednesday
with a biological warfare exer-
cise simulating an attack with
biological weapons in the met-
ropolitan Tel Aviv region, with
over 1,000 participants. ❖
Hollander
Continued from Page 47
when others would distance
themselves from him due to his
ideology. In the end, however,
he always remained true to his
beliefs.”
His fight, Rabbi Hollander
often noted, was an ideological
battle against deception, not
one against people. “He saw no
classes within Judaism,” Mrs.
Fay Hollander related to
Lubavitch.com shortly before
his funeral. “To my husband
there was only one Torah, and
every Jew had a place in it.”
Rabbi Hollander’s speeches
and personality appealed to the
broader rabbinic community. In
1954 he was elected president of
the prestigious Rabbinical
Council of America—one of the
world’s largest organizations of
Orthodox rabbis. The position,
which lasted two years, became a
springboard for his pioneering
work in aid of Soviet Jewry. It was
to this end that he led a delega-
tion of rabbis to Moscow in the
summer of 1956. At the time, Jews
in the Soviet Union still hid
under the shadow of the Kremlin
and the legacy of Stalin’s bitterly