New York

Split identities of UK chief rabbi hopeful candidate

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:01:56 +0100

One of the candidates to be the British chief rabbi and a leading figure in modern Orthodox Judaism has admitted to creating at least one fake identity that he used to promote his arguments among fellow rabbis.

The Jewish Channel (TJC) reported on April 12 that Rabbi Michael Broyde — who, until the report, had been a judge on the largest rabbinical court in the US — had created a fake alias: Rabbi Hershel Goldwasser.

The Goldwasser character had been used by Rabbi Broyde — also a law professor at one of the highest-ranked law schools in the US — for nearly 20 years to write letters to scholarly journals, join a rival professional rabbinic group and tout his work in various fora.

Rabbi Broyde admitted having created the Goldwasser character in a letter and by email within an hour of TJC publishing its article, although he claimed to have had an accomplice he did not name.

Rabbi Broyde began an indefinite leave of absence from his position as a rabbinical court judge and member of the largest Orthodox rabbinic professional association on the first business day following the publication of the report.

A name now connected to Rabbi Broyde’s candidature to be the new British chief rabbi was also revealed in the report.

The TJC investigation claimed that several of the positive comments on Rabbi Broyde’s internet articles, which had been posted under several names, came from the same internet protocol address as many communications from Rabbi Broyde and Goldwasser. One of those names was David Weissman.

In an article posted last week, Times of Israel writer Miriam Shaviv revealed that a number of her stories written in 2012 on the search for a new UK chief rabbi, including one under a headline saying that Rabbi Broyde was the “frontrunner” for the position, had been reported using a character named David Weissman as a source. The Weissman character had started emailing Mrs Shaviv in August last year, and sent 15 messages in total, “all pertaining to the race for the next British chief rabbi”.

Mrs Shaviv said Weissman had “claimed to be a member of staff at the United Synagogue”, and “for proof of his bona fides, he quoted from Broyde’s application”.

When contacted by the JC, Rabbi Broyde said he was unable to comment.

New York synagogue terror plotter sent to jail

Zoe Winograd — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:39:05 +0100

A man who planned to blow-up synagogues in New York has been sentenced to five years in jail.

Mohamed Mamdouh pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit terrorism and possessing criminal weapons last year. New York State Supreme Court issued the jail sentence on Friday.

Mr Mamdouh, a naturalised citizen originally from Morocco, acted as the accomplice to Algerian immigrant Ahmed Ferhani, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison last month.

The two men had planned to wear clothes worn by Chasidic Jews in order to enter and attack synagogues. They were arrested after buying firearms and a grenade from an undercover detective.

Israel boycott activist Roger Waters angry after Jewish talk cancelled

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:28:24 +0100

Roger Waters, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of a boycott of Israel in the entertainment industry, has reacted furiously after a debate he was scheduled to take part in in New York was cancelled. He accused the organisers of refusing "to talk".

The British musician, frontman for the band Pink Floyd, was due to speak at an event at the respected 92Y, a Jewish cultural centre, later this month.

He has now been told that his appearance has been cancelled, following problems with the suggested date of the event. But Mr Waters said that a clash could have been resolved and that he had now "been made aware of rumblings on the net suggesting that resistance in the local Jewish community to my coming engagement may have had something to do with its cancellation".

Writing on his website the musician said: "If that be the case it saddens me. In these troubled times, opportunities for serious, measured discourse are too precious to be discarded on the altar of sectarian prejudice. Not to talk is not an option."

He added that "to bundle up in our dread beliefs serves us not at all".

The 92Y has not clarified whether the event was cancelled because of pressure, but the news was welcomed by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. "We are very pleased that a vocal supporter of the BDS movement will not be given a platform at a Jewish institution," said its director.

Mr Waters appears to have taken a difference stance on this issue than in the past. In February he waded into a high profile row at a college in Brooklyn to back the interests of group supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

He said at the time that Students for Justice in Palestine were "standing up for truth and liberty" and that he stood by them. He has backed boycotts of Israel on more than one occasion in the past and, earlier this year, revealed himself as the person who pushed Stevie Wonder into cancelling a concert in aid of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Billion-dollar Cubist art gift by Estee Lauder boss

Anna Sheinman — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:23:59 +0100

One billion dollars (£650m) of Cubist art has been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York by Leonard Lauder, the chairman of Estee Lauder.

The cosmetics tycoon and philanthropist has given the museum his collection of 78 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Cubist artists.

The Cubist collection, which experts have called one of the world’s greatest, includes 33 Picassos, as well as works by Braque, Léger and Gris.

Thomas P Campbell, the museum’s director said: “Leonard's gift is truly transformational for the Metropolitan Museum.”

Mr Lauder, 80, had been collection the works for 40 years. He said: “I selected the Met as the way to share this collection because I feel that it’s essential that Cubism — and the art that follows it, for that matter — be seen and studied within the collections of one of the greatest encyclopedic museums in the world.”

The museum also announced a new research centre for modern art, supported by a $22m endowment fund, which is to be named after Mr Lauder.

Yeshivah teacher shame over ‘schvartze’ remark

Anna Sheinman — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:23:57 +0000

New York’s Yeshiva University has condemned one of its senior professors of rabbinic studies for his offensive remarks about “schvartzes”, made at a recent conference of United Synagogue rabbis in London.

Rabbi Hershel Schachter —speaking about mesirah, Jews informing on the crimes of other Jews — warned that in the United States, prisons might “put you in a cell together with a schvartze, with a Muslim, a black Muslim, who wants to kill all the Jews”.

That, he warned, might be mesirah, “because you’re punished more than the law requires”. The taped remarks were posted on the website FailedMessiah, which reports Orthodox scandals.

A spokesperson for Yeshiva University said: “The recent use of a derogatory racial term and negative characterisations of African-Americans and Muslims, by a member of the faculty, are inappropriate, offensive and do not represent the values and mission of Yeshiva University.”

Rabbi Schachter also made controversial remarks about the child abuse scandal that rocked Yeshiva University High School last year. He appeared to pin some of the blame on one of the victims for not reporting the abuse to the school counsellor.

The rabbi also discussed the controversial practice of metzitzah b’peh, orogential suction following brit milah. He claimed 15 babies die from it each year in New York because they contract herpes.

His assertion directly contradicts a 2012 study by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which found only two baby deaths resulting from a metzitzah b’peh-caused herpes infection between 2000 and 2011. Rabbi Schachter was unavailable for comment.

His London talk was recorded by the US Rabbinical Council and circulated to members but its appearance on FailedMessiah remains unexplained.

Moses defeats Spider-Man over Pesach filming

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:20:05 +0000

A local politician in a heavily Orthodox Jewish area of New York has thanked the producers of Spider-Man for "letting my people park".

The next episode in the Spider-Man franchise, which stars Jewish actor Andrew Garfield as the webbed superhero, is being filmed in Williamsburg.

But the production team had been due to film throughout the duration of Passover, which would have required them to totally close the affected streets to parked cars.

Because Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg will not be using their cars on the festival, they requested that the filming dates be moved so cars could remain parked.

Jewish city council member Stephen Levin said Columbia Pictures had acquiesced to his request to "avoid the parking struggle that had been anticipated and will allow everyone celebrating the opportunity to safely enjoy the holiday with friends and family".

Earlier, he outlined the problem on his blog. "Spider-Man is spinning a web of problems for the community. With great power there must also come great responsibility - Columbia Pictures should live by the motto that led Spider-Man to use his abilities to fight crime and respect the observance of Passover by moving up their shooting."

Baby survives mother’s eight-storey suicide leap

Sandy Rashty — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:13:48 +0000

A Jewish lawyer from New York jumped out of an eight-storey building in Harlem with her 10-month-old son strapped to her body last Wednesday afternoon.

Ms Wachenheim, a law graduate from Columbia University, who was on maternity leave, mistakenly believed her son had a developmental disability for which she was responsible.

The 44-year-old, who was seeking to commit suicide and simultaneously end the life of her son, died when she hit the ground but her son survived because she landed on her back, shielding him from the impact. He escaped with a bruised cheek according to a report in the New York Times.

According to the report, Ms Wachenheim left behind a 13-page suicide note, saying she believed that her son was brain damaged after two falls, which she reportedly described as “two shameful incidents”. She reportedly said family members and the paediatrician did not believe her but she believed Keston was crying and sleeping more often.

Ms Wachenheim, 44, attended B’nai Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side. She married her 48-year-old husband Hal Bacharach in 2009, was a coordinator for a Harlem tutoring programme and had worked at a law office in Pakistan, specialising in women’s rights and “honour killings”.

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with grief,” Mr Bacharach reportedly told the New York Times. “I have my son, who was lucky enough to survive, on my lap. It’s unbelievable – right now, my crying son is in my arms.”

According to a report on the Daily Mail website, Elizabeth Nowicki, a university friend, described Ivy League Ms Wachenheim as a “very gentle, quiet, loving, kind woman. She was both brilliant and rational.”

Suspect charged in Brooklyn death crash

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:31:33 +0000

A man has been charged with criminally negligent homicide following the deaths of a young married couple and their newborn baby in a car accident on Sunday.

Julio Acevedo was arrested over the accident that killed Nachman and Raizy Glauber, from New York’s Satmar Chasidic community, as they were on their way to the hospital. Both 21, and married for only a short time, Mrs Glauber was 24 weeks pregnant.

Their baby boy was delivered by Caesarean weighing just 4lb after the crash, but died shortly afterwards of extreme prematurity.

The driver of the other car in the crash, who was said to be driving at 60 miles per hour, Julio Acevedo, initially fled the scene. He turned himself in on Wednesday to police in Pennsylvania.

He was charged on Thursday evening at the state Supreme Court in Brooklyn with criminally negligent homicide, three counts of assault, leaving the scene of a crash and reckless driving.

His lawyer said that while the couple’s deaths were “horrendous”, Mr Acevedo was not guilty of a crime. "It was an accident. Accidents happen every day," she said.

He will next appear in court on March 13, and could face a life sentence if he is convicted.

Brooklyn tears after hit and run horror

Sandy Rashty — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Around 1,000 members of Brooklyn’s strictly Orthodox community turned out this week for the funerals of Nachman and Raizy Glauber and their newborn child, who were killed in a car crash last weekend.

The newlywed couple, both aged 21, had been travelling to hospital for a check-up on Mrs Glauber when their taxi collided with another car.

Their baby boy initially survived the accident and was delivered by Caesarean weighing just 4lb, but died shortly afterwards of extreme prematurity, the city medical examiner’s office said.

According to reports, a family member said that the couple had sought urgent medical attention after Mrs Glauber, who was 24 weeks’ pregnant, said she could no longer feel her baby.

The condition of the taxi driver, Pedro Nuñez Delacruz, 32, was said to be stable.

The driver the other car involved in the crash, who fled the scene on impact, has been identified by police as Julio Acevedo.

According to the Washington Post, Acevedo was arrested last month on a charge of driving while under the influence, and served around a decade in prison in the 1990s for manslaughter after he was convicted of shooting Kelvin Martin, a Brooklyn criminal.

Mrs Glauber reportedly worked in a hardware distribution shop and came from a rabbinical family. Mr Glauber’s family founded the G&G chain that supplies specialised clothing for the Orthodox community.

Expectant couple killed in hit and run

Sandy Rashty — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:29:52 +0000

A young Jewish couple, who were expecting their first child, have been tragically killed on their way to the hospital.

Strictly Orthodox newlyweds Nathan and Raizy Glauber, both 21, died just after midnight on Sunday after the taxi they were travelling in was involved in a crash with another car.

Their baby boy was delivered prematurely but died today.

A family member told the Guardian that the couple had sought urgent medical attention after Mrs Glauber, who was 24 weeks’ pregnant, said she could no longer feel her baby.

Mrs Glauber was pronounced dead when she arrived at Bellevue Hospital Centre in Manhattan, although her newborn was successfully delivered.

Mr Glauber was taken to the Beth Israel Medical Centre in Manhattan, where he was also pronounced dead on arrival.

The condition of the taxi driver, Pedro Nuñez Delacruz, 32, was said to be stable.

The driver and the passenger of the other car involved in the crash fled the scene on impact. Police are investigating.

Mrs Glauber reportedly worked in a hardware distribution shop and came from a rabbinical family. Mr Glauber's family founded the G&G chain that supplies specialised clothing for the strictly Orthodox community.

Brooklyn is home to more than 250,000 Charedi Jews, the largest strictly Orthodox community outside Israel.