Special needs pupils gain new skills

Special-needs pupils at the strictly Orthodox Side by Side school are learning more than tikkun olam when delivering weekly food parcels to people in need.

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Satmars told to demolish shul in family home

A planning inspector has ruled that a Satmar synagogue built in a family home in Stamford Hill must be demolished.

Satmar leaders must also pay Hackney Council the costs of a public inquiry into the planning violation because the appeal was "unreasonable".

The Bethune Road property had been extended and converted without planning permission.

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Turn off that phone - you're in synagogue

Mobile phone "addiction" has even penetrated the strictly Orthodox Stamford Hill community, prompting religious leaders to ban their use in synagogues.

A declaration has been signed by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations Beis Din and more than 60 Hackney rabbis and school heads.

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Kisharon centres could shut in service revamp

Learning disability charity Kisharon could close day centres in Hackney and Golders Green to facilitate users' greater integration within the mainstream community.

Kisharon chief executive Bev Jacobson said the charity had been given around a year by Hackney Council to examine ways the services offered by the Stamford Hill day centres could be provided by alternative means.

Councils in north

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Stamford Hill shul is 'blocking the sunlight' of local residents

Hackney Council claims that a strictly Orthodox synagogue, built without planning permission in Stamford Hill, is "blocking the sunlight" of nearby families and says its extension must be demolished.

The synagogue, in Bethune Road, was served with an enforcement notice and given three months to demolish an extension and turn the building back into a family home.

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Housing body wins planning battle against Hackney Council

A strictly Orthodox Housing Association has won a battle against Hackney Council to build 13 new homes in Stamford Hill.

Agudas Israel's chief executive Ita Symons said they had plans turned down twice by Hackney councillors to develop the site of the former Persian Synagogue. Construction on 13 new family homes will begin in East Bank, behind Ajex House, in January.

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Stamford Hill pensioner killer jailed

A man who tied an 83-year-old woman to a chair while he ransacked her home and stole her jewellery, leaving her to die of hypothermia, has been jailed.

Polish-born Szymon Wyrostek, 26, will serve nine years for manslaughter, burglary and robbery of Eveline Kelmenson, at her home in Stamford Hill.

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Donor gets update on £6m home

Philanthropist Leo Noé donned wellies and a hard hat on Wednesday to visit a £6 million respite home for Jewish children with special needs which is under construction in Stamford Hill.

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Special needs project saved

A Stamford Hill housing association is to give away land worth more than £1.5 million to special needs school Side by Side for new premises, with the proviso that planning permission is obtained for flats on top of the property.

The school has wanted to relocate for some years and has been looking forward to moving to the Agudas Israel Housing Association's £10 million Avigdor Mews housing de

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Tottenham Jews: life goes on after riots

Tottenham's Chasidic residents turned out to watch the weekend's riots on their way home from synagogue, but retreated after warnings from rabbis.

A warning was sent out to the Stamford Hill community via strictly Orthodox security service Shomrim, from Rabbi Efraim Padwa.

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Orthodox school wins reprieve

A strictly Orthodox primary school in Stamford Hill has been granted temporary retrospective planning permission.

With around two dozen pupils, the Gur school has been operating from a three-storey house in Fairholt Road for almost a year.

Hackney Council has approved plans for a five-classroom school for 40 boys aged from three-to-seven.

The council received 102 letters of support and 25

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Polish man jailed for seven years for Stamford Hill pensioner death

A Polish decorator has been jailed for seven years for manslaughter after he left an elderly Stamford Hill woman gagged and bound to a chair while he raided her home.

Eveline Kelmenson, 83, died a "slow death" of hypothermia and lay undiscovered for five weeks before she was found by relatives on New Year's Day 2009, her decomposed body still bound to a chair in her bedroom.

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Stamford Hill pensioner case to be retried

A pub cleaner accused of leaving a Stamford Hill pensioner to die after allegedly binding and gagging her is to be retried after a jury could not reach a verdict.

Eveline Kelmenson, 83, died a "slow death" of hypothermia and lay undiscovered for five weeks before she was found by relatives on New Year's Day 2009, her decomposed body still bound to a chair in her bedroom.

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