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Police say they're seeking malicious destruction of property charges against three Michigan high school students after a Jewish classmate found a swastika carved into her locker.

School administrators, the girl's family and police agreed the best way to handle the incident was for her three classmates to be charged with the misdemeanor, East Lansing Police Lt. Scott Wriggelsworth told the Lansing State Journal.

The Ingham County Prosecutor's Office is expected to make a determination about what charges might be brought.

"We'll charge what we feel is appropriate, and we are not bound by what other people think," Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said.

Wriggelsworth said an investigation began after the swastika was reportedly carved in late April. Another student's locker at East Lansing High School also was damaged.

Superintendent Dave Chapin said "appropriate disciplinary actions" have been taken against the three students, but he didn't elaborate. He said the district considers it an isolated incident.

"In this case, the families came together," Chapin said. "And to the best of my knowledge, as I was not present, they worked through a reasonable solution and that's better left in the hands of the East Lansing Police Department."

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/05/21/charges-sought-after-swastika-carved-into-locker/

Israeli police say vandals have spray-panted slogans on the home of one of the leaders of a liberal Jewish women's group that has angered ultra-Orthodox communities over its demands for equality of worship.

Israeli TV footage showed black writing on the hallway and door of the Jerusalem home. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Monday police were investigating.

The group, known as "Women of the Wall," convenes monthly prayer services at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, wearing prayer shawls and performing rituals that ultra-Orthodox Jews believe only men are allowed to do.

Israeli officials initially opposed the group but have recently backed its right to worship. Earlier this month, thousands of ultra-Orthodox protesters tried to prevent their prayer service.

Officials are attempting to find a compromise.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/women-of-the-wall-ultra-orthodox-_n_3305577.html

Measles is practically the 11th plaguing in two Jewish enclaves of Brooklyn right now.

Health officials have reported 30 cases of the Victorian-era scourge — with 26 in Borough Park and another four in the Hasidic quarter of Williamsburg.

And even though the disease has been practically eradicated, it can still be ruinous to people who decline the vaccination.

"There have been two hospitalizations, a miscarriage and a case of pneumonia as a result of this outbreak," a Health Department spokeswoman said. "All cases involved adults or children who were not vaccinated due to refusal or delays in vaccination."

Some parents, including many religious Jews, shun getting the vaccine, which prevents mumps, measles, and rubella, out of fear it causes autism, said Dr. Yu Shia Lin of Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park.

"We have to tell them it is a very contagious disease and that people can die," Lin said.

The outbreak stemmed from a visitor from England who showed up in Brooklyn with the virus, which causes red splotches, fever and aches.

The disease spreads quickly in the Orthodox Jewish community, where family sizes are extremely large and many parents decline vaccinations for their children.

"One person gets it and the whole family can get the disease," Lin warned.

Measles and mumps, like the common cold, is an airborne virus making it easy to catch. It plagued Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 2008, 30 cases were counted in the city. Followed by 18 cases in 2009, eight cases in 2010, 25 cases in 2011, and five cases in 2012, the Health Department said.

And mumps - linked to a child from Britain - hit dozens of families throughout Borough Park in 2009 as well.

Hasidic parents, out celebrating the holiday of Torah commemoration time of Shavout, said they were unaware that there was an outbreak.

"I am shocked to hear this," said Moshe Fried.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/measles-outbreak-hits-jewish-neighborhoods-brooklyn-article-1.1346446?localLinksEnabled=false

The boy who accused his former camp counselor of sexual abuse wasn't in court Monday when the onetime Yeshiva schoolteacher admitted the offenses.

He had already returned home to Michigan, where his family moved after they were shunned by some in their Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood for going to secular authorities with the allegations.

But some spectators in the courtroom where Yosef Kolko pleaded guilty to various sexual assault charges said the admissions represented a victory not only for the boy, but for others in the Orthodox community who suffered from past abuse that has gone unpunished.

"I'm here for the victim, to show the victim that he did good and that he did nothing wrong," said Isaac Weinreb, 49, of Passaic.

Weinreb, who described himself as a victim's advocate, attended Kolko's trial, which began last week and ended Monday with a guilty plea to all of the charges against him. Weinreb said he was sexually abused from age 11 to 14 by someone at an Orthodox Jewish school in Brooklyn that he had attended. His alleged abuser fled the country and was never brought to justice for his acts, Weinreb said. So, Weinreb said he felt particularly glad for Kolko's victim.

"I feel good that the person who's responsible will get punished for his crime, more so for the victim, so he knows he isn't wrong," Weinreb said.

"What we did today was groundbreaking," said Laura Pierro, senior assistant Ocean County prosecutor. "The Orthodox community had never been involved to this extent in a prosecution of this nature (in Ocean County).

"Lakewood's community is a focal point for the Orthodox, so to say that it's watershed here is almost the same as saying it's watershed nationwide," Pierro said of the case, which highlighted the Orthodox community's longstanding tradition to handle such matters among themselves rather than going to secular authorities.

Imagine that four complete strangers witness a murder, yet each is convinced that he is the only one who saw exactly what happened. Each witness's history and life experiences skew the way in which he views that day's events. The police must now piece together four different versions of the same event in order to determine who committed the murder and why.

This is the plot of Leigh Hershkovich's novel, "Shattered Illusions." Sam, the proprietor of a local cafe is shot dead in the street in the middle of the night. The traumas of each witness, whether physical, psychological or emotional, deeply affect their perceptions of life, coloring the way they see and interpret everything. The reader is taken on a journey through each character's past, in order to fully understand how they developed their deeply-rooted belief systems, and how they affected the witnesses' perceptions and reactions to the murder.

One of the witnesses describes how the murder unfolded and his instinctive reaction to it:

"The scene seemed to take hours, not seconds. Finally, the weapon discharged, and everything sped up. Sam was on the floor, Sarah kneeling beside him, the killer gone, their screams piercing the night. I ducked down, covering my eyes, trying to erase what they had just seen.

"I am no less a murderer than the man who pulled the trigger that night. My selfishness and desire to stay alive caused the life of a young man to be lost. He had so much to live for, such a young man with such brave ambitions."

As the story progresses, it becomes clear to the reader why this witness blames himself for an act he did not commit nor could have prevented.

Although this genre-bending novel is categorized as a mystery, it contains a heavy dose of psychological fiction as well. Each individual tries to understand and come to terms with the role they played in their experiences, attempts to make amends with the people they hurt in the process, and tries to change their lives for the better. Each step brings us closer to revealing Sam's murderer and the motivation behind the crime.

Leigh Hershkovich stands out as a murder mystery novelist. She began writing her novel at the age of 17 and completed it at the age of 20. Raised in a family where she was surrounded by mental health professionals, she was inspired to write about dramas rich in emotional and psychological angles. A Hasidic Jew herself, Hershkovich included a character from an Orthodox Jewish home.

Hershkovich is currently working on her next work of fiction and is planning to attend university. 

"Shattered Illusions" is due out the week of May 23rd, 2013, and will be available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/murder-mystery-novel-to-be-released-by-young-hasidic-female-author-2013-05-13

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews flooded into the Old City's Western Wall Plaza early Friday in a boisterous and sometimes violent protest against a group of female activists exercising a newly court-affirmed right to pray at the holy site in a similar fashion as men do.

It was a rare scene of chaos, protest and sporadic clashes by Jewish worshipers in front of what most view as Judaism's most sacred place after the Temple Mount.

Dressed in black hats and coats, mobs of young ultra-Orthodox men tossed eggs, water bottles and coffee cups at members of Women of the Wall as their leaders led a group of 100 men and women in prayer. Several women from the group wore white shawls and other religious ornaments, such as black tefillin boxes on their heads, traditionally used only by men at the site.

In anticipation of Friday's service, religious seminaries from all over the country bused in thousands of girls, who filled the fenced-off women's section of the Western Wall to prevent the activists from entering.

Instead, the Women of the Wall members held their service in the adjacent plaza as hundreds of Israeli riot police held back the ultra-Orthodox men, who blew whistles, shouted insults and chanted in an effort to drown out the prayer.

Police, whom the youths called "Nazis," arrested five men for disrupting the peace, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. As the women departed, some were pelted with rocks.

Women of the Wall leader Anat Hoffman, who on Friday was being protected by the same police who once arrested her performing a similar prayer service, predicted that it was only a matter of time before women won expanded rights at the holy site.

"This train is gone,'' said Hoffman, who has been pushing for religious equality at the Western Wall for 26 years. "Women are reading the Torah and praying out loud. This is going to happen. You are either leading it or you will be dragged by your hair."

Critics accused Hoffman's group of exploiting the issue for attention and ignoring centuries of tradition at the Western Wall.

"We don't have to take on the external signs of male prayer in order to be empowered and spiritual women,'' said Leah Aharoni, co-founder of a rival group calling itself Women For the Wall. "There is 1,700 years of tradition at this spot, and they should respect the majority. They just want to see and be seen, but this is a place for sacred prayer."

Until last month, female activists were often arrested at the holy site simply for wearing prayer shawls or reading from the Torah. Police said the arrests were justified by a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that said religious activities at the Western Wall should comply with "local custom," which police based on Orthodox practices.

But on April 25, a Jerusalem judge ruled that the police had misinterpreted the Supreme Court ruling and overstepped their bounds in arresting women. He affirmed their right to continue their prayer service at the site.

Perhaps fearing the Supreme Court would uphold the decision, Israel's attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, said last week that he would not appeal the decision.

Government leaders are instead hoping to craft new regulations on the issue and find a compromise that all sides can accept.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky is leading a renewed effort to create a third prayer section -- located near an archaeological site known as Robinson's Arch just south of the current Western Wall plaza -- devoted to egalitarian services.

Both sides have expressed tentative support for the idea, though it remained unclear when such a section would be completed.

The compromise has been embraced by the Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, who is calling on both sides to prevent the holy site from being used to divide Jews.

"People must look for common ground and unity,'' he said. "It is a place to express humility, not agendas."

He said he preferred maintaining the status quo, but did not think it was worth launching a political and legal battle against the Women of the Wall.

"I would recommend not going to holy war over it,'' he said.

Hoffman predicted that Friday's large ultra-Orthodox protest would backfire for religious leaders because it exposed thousands of young religious girls to ideas about gender equality that are seldom discussed in their sheltered communities.

"These young women recognize serious prayer when they see it,'' Hoffman said. "Some are going to go home and ask the most subversive Jewish question in the world: Why not me?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-womens-prayer-at-western-wall-sparks-large-protest-20130510,0,5540698.story

A former yeshiva teacher is on trial in New Jersey on charges he sexually abused a socially awkward boy whose family members, prosecutors say, were ostracized by their Orthodox Jewish community for taking the allegations to civil authorities.

Several thousand ultra-Orthodox Jews are expected to pack the Rockland Boulders baseball stadium Thursday night for a rally about the potential dangers of the Internet.

The event follows rallies last year — including a gathering of an estimated 60,000 people at Citi Field and a tennis stadium in Queens — that warned of the Internet's dangers to members of the cloistered Hasidic Jewish world. Others there promoted some uses of the Internet as positive.

The Viznitz rebbe — Mordachai Hager of Kaser — is to be one of Thursday's keynote speakers, members of the religious community have said on Twitter.

The rally is from 7 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $10.

Congregation Khal Torath Chaim, which organized the rally, has paid Ramapo $5,700 for use of Provident Bank Park, the home of the independent league Rockland Boulders baseball team, Ramapo Parks and Recreation Director Michelle Antosca said.

The fee covers use of the big screen and loudspeaker system. The contract says the organization must clean up afterward, and provide security and staffing for parking, she said.

The volunteer group Chaverim of Monsey will have people at the event to maintain order, users have said on Twitter. Ramapo police plan usual patrols in the area, off Route 45 by Firemen's Memorial and Pomona roads.

"I believe this is being characterized as a youth awareness day with young men older than 10 attending with adults," Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence told The Journal News.

"It's about the proper use of the Internet," he said. "It's a very positive event from the viewpoint of the community that doesn't usually utilize the ballpark for athletic events."

In many ultra-Orthodox communities, leading rabbis have prohibited their followers from using the Internet, though exceptions are made for businesses.

Yosel Tiefenbrun looked in the mirror and he liked what he saw.

The 23-year-old Chabad rabbi and apprentice at Maurice Sedwell, a bespoke tailor's shop on London's Savile Row, was wearing a vintage double-breasted jacket with gold buttons, tasseled Barker shoes, a claret bow tie and matching handmade hat and square handkerchief. Then he ran out the door to attend the "Oscars of tailoring" -- the Golden Shears Award ceremony honoring the best in British fashion.

Several of his colleagues were in the running for a prize. They came back empty, but Tiefenbrun did not.

Nick Carvell, the online fashion editor at British GQ, snapped his picture and posted it the following day on the magazine's website, naming Tiefenbrun "best in show." Within days, the photograph of the hasidic rabbi and his natty attire was picked up by Jewish publications around the world.

"This is a very important message," Tiefenbrun told JTA. "You can be a [religious] man and still be successful in whatever you do if you are constantly working on yourself and keeping your Jewish life alive."

Hasidic Jews are well known for flouting the conventions of contemporary fashion, adhering to a strict dress code that originated in Eastern Europe and emphasizes modesty and piety. For men, the uniform mandates a black hat, coat and pants with a white shirt.

But in recent years, some haredi Orthodox women have sought to push the limits of tznius, or modesty, wearing more elaborate and, in some cases, slightly more revealing clothes. Now a group of young men affiliated with the Chabad hasidic movement are doing the same, in some cases breaking dramatically with their community's sartorial codes.

Last year, Rabbi Dovi Scheiner and his wife, Esty, a Chabad couple who run the "boutique" SoHo Synagogue in Lower Manhattan, were named among the Big Apple's 50 best dressers by Stylecaster, a fashion news website. The 36-year-old rabbi posed for the online outlet sitting on a velvet chair wearing a smart gray suit and laceless Converse sneakers.

Meanwhile, Mendy Sacho, a South African designer based in New York, has gained mainstream media attention for his innovative take on kapotas, the long black frocks worn by hasidic men. Sacho invigorates the traditionally drab coats by adding colorful linings and a sharper cut.

Rather than seeing their sartorial sensibilities as a departure from traditional dress, this new crop of fashionable hasidim tend to see being stylish and religiously observant as complementary.

"Look at the rebbe," said Sacho, referring to Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late spiritual leader of Chabad. "When he was young, he was a very well-groomed man. The style he wore in the '50s in France is the style many Chabadniks are now adopting."

Photos of Schneerson from the period show him in dapper outfits that sharply contrast with the conservative look he adopted later as Chabad's leader.

Samuel Heilman, a Queens College sociologist and co-author of a biography of Schneerson, said the rebbe's followers have tended to overlook those years in Paris, partially because of the liberal taste in clothes he exhibited.

"[In his youth] he dressed in a much more cosmopolitan fashion, sometimes wearing a beret," Heilman said. "In the absence of a living rebbe, there are capacities for all these hasidim to project on the rebbe all sorts of things that would not be possible if he were alive."

Tiefenbrun, who served as a religious emissary in Singapore for two years before returning to London, wears suits that are much more ostentatious than the subtly augmented frocks sold by Sacho. On his Tumblr page, Tiefenbrun posts photos of himself in outfits not commonly seen on hasidic men. His style favors boldly colored shoes, trendy hats, bow ties, sharply cut jackets and pocket squares.

Tiefenbrun spends a day-and-a-half each week learning his craft at Maurice Sedwell's tailoring academy. The rest of the week he works the front desk, where he has waited on sheiks, soccer players and TV personalities.

One non-Jewish client, noticing his yarmulke, asked him for a blessing for his shirts. Another discovered they had a mutual acquaintance, the Chabad emissary in San Diego. But Tiefenbrun is careful to note that his clothing choices are his alone and not emblematic of any Chabad-specific trend.

"It's not like it's a Chabad thing, it's me," Tiefenbrun insisted. "I love art. I love quality clothing."

With its sprawling global network of emissaries working to inspire religious observance among secular Jews, it's perhaps little surprise that Chabadniks are practically alone within the hasidic world in pushing the boundaries, if gently, of their community's dress codes.

"One can make the case Chabad, more than any other hasidic group, is in direct contact with the non-hasidic world, so they have a real good feel for that world outside," Heilman said. "They have learned how to recruit there."

Sacho said there is little interest in his stylish kapotas from members of other hasidic communities. Chabad men are selling "a product called Judaism" to the wider world, he said, and that tradition impacts their choice of clothes.

"People will listen and appreciate you more if you dress well and look presentable," he said.

Within the confines of the hasidic community, however, it's often a different story. Young customers come in looking for one thing, but then their mother arrives and "chews my ear off," Sacho said.

But still, Sacho insists the style-conscious community is growing in the Chabad world and someday kapotas like his will be the norm.

"There are quite a few of us," Sacho said. "All my clients are younger. It's the future."

http://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Fashion/Chabadniks-with-a-passion-for-fashion-312464

A new fight is erupting over a plan to develop private land at Williamsburg's Broadway Triangle, with critics citing two new buildings allegedly filled with Hasidic families.

Last year, a federal judge blocked the city's controversial plan to build housing on the 31-acre spot, finding it illegally favored Hasidim over blacks and Latinos.

But the injunction halting work at the site only appeared to apply to the 20% of city owned land in the area.

Meanwhile, private developers are building apartment buildings at the politically-charged site.

Two of those projects--70 Union Ave. and 246 Lynch St.--have been filled with Hasidim, critics charge.

"There were those who said that we were only speculating about what would happen with the city's rezoning but this is just proof that unless further action is taken this is going to happen over and over again," said Marty Needelman, a lawyer for the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition.

The group sent Hispanic and African American volunteers to apply for apartments at the two loications - and they were turned away, told there were no applications.

The group charges the Bloomberg administration's controversial zoning plan has allowed the building owners to cater to the dramatically-expanding Hasidic community.

"We want a rezoning that serves the entire community and does not continue patterns of racial segregation that the city has promoted and allowed," Needelman said.

In 2009, the Bloomberg administration tapped Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council and the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg to build about 1,800 apartments on the mostly desolate stretch near the Bedford Stuyvesant border.

Those two nonprofits have close ties to scandal-scarred Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who made the Broadway Triangle a pet project.

Lopez has long maintained close ties to a large branch of the Williamsburg's Hasidic community, a group that has staunchly supported him.

Needelman and other opponents vehemently objected that the plan for large apartments in low-rise buildings, and a special preference for residents of Williamsburg and Greenpoint that didn't include nearby Bedford Stuyvesant, illegally favored Hasidic residents who often have large families and can't use elevators on the Sabbath.

In response, they suggested the city allow buildings higher than seven stories, where Jews could live on the lower floors.

But city officials have also dismissed the discrimination charges, saying all they did is change zoning rules to allow low-rise apartment buildings, just as they've done in other neighborhoods across the outer boroughs.

"The allegations about the City's plan are wildly off-base," said Law Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Thomas. "The proposed development plan will help meet the community's affordable housing needs while preserving the neighborhood's mid-rise physical scale."

"If private landlords are acting in a discriminatory manner, as is alleged, that is not to be tolerated, and concerned citizens should make a report to the authorities responsible for enforcing laws against discrimination."

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/new-private-broadway-triangle-developments-unfairly-filled-hasidic-families-critics-charge-article-1.1337570

A goat that had been missing since Friday has been reunited with his New York owners.

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A parking battle is brewing in Brooklyn.

A bus driver is furious with members of the Hasidic community who have moved a city no-parking sign.

The sign on Franklin Avenue was moved just 30 feet from the bus stop.

It was done to make room for school buses — but has now made it next to impossible for the B-48 to pull into the stop.

The DOT says they are going to inspect it.

http://pix11.com/2013/05/05/brooklyn-community-moves-no-parking-sign-bus-driver-fumes/#axzz2Sbqe5PBv

We're all familiar with the eye masks passengers wear on planes to help them sleep, but avoiding "forbidden sights" – such as films screened during flights – entails a new invention.

An ultra-Orthodox organization affiliated with the Breslov Hasidic movement is offering Jews flying to the grave of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov in Uman sealed stickers that can be attached to the lenses of their glasses in order to guarantee "full eye protection."

A leaflet distributed in recent days among the Hasidim, on behalf of the Purity of the Camp organization, informs them of a step up in the struggle for "filmless flights."

Previously, the organization produced personal screens allowing each passenger to separate himself from his surroundings on the plane. Now it is recommending using a stricter method which involves sealing one's eyes.

The four-page leaflet, published on the Behadrei Haredim website, includes pictures of several Breslov rabbis wearing scarves restricting their eyesight or glasses with the "modesty stickers."

The leaflet explains that the rabbis pictured in the ads agreed to engage in "modeling" in order to "help one more person protect his eyes."

"This is how they traveled to Uman last year with a smile," says the caption to a picture showing the rabbis with shawls covering their faces. "This year we recommend travelling with the scarves too, but if you find it difficult – you can use the glasses instead."

According to the leaflet, the variety of solutions offered "to protect the eyes" were concocted after haredim who flew to New York were forced to tie their children's eyes with a handkerchief for more than 10 hours so that they would not be "contaminated by the ugliness of the films."

The leaflets also present illustrations of the accessories, as well as impressions and recommendations from Breslov Hasidim who have already used them.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4369198,00.html

Parents won a small triumph today as East Ramapo's school board was ordered to disclose documents showing when and how students were placed in out-of-district schools.

A lawsuit originally filed last August claims that mostly Orthodox Jewish men allegedly misused public tax money to send students to yeshiva and pay for religious textbooks, among other allegations.

The case had appeared before a White Plains judge in December, and attorneys for the school board filed a motion to have the case dismissed.

http://hudsonvalley.news12.com/news/east-ramapo-school-board-ordered-to-release-documents-amid-yeshiva-lawsuit-1.5186816?firstfree=yes

An Orthodox Jewish woman is suing makeup giant Lancome, claiming that its "24-hour" foundation, does not, in fact, last 24 hours, or last through the Sabbath.

Rorie Weisberg of upstate Monsey, NY says the French luxury-cosmetics maker committed the sin of false advertising when it claimed that its new Teint Idole Ultra 24H provides a full day and night of "lasting perfection," the New York Post reported.

"The 24-hour claim was central to plaintiff's purchase decision, as a long-lasting makeup assists with her dual objectives of compliance with religious law and enhancement to her natural appearance," her suit claims.

Court note that Weisberg "is an Orthodox Jew and abides by Jewish law by not applying makeup from sundown on Friday until nighttime on Saturday."

"Specifically, plaintiff's eldest son is having his bar mitzvah celebration in June and plaintiff was looking for a long-lasting foundation that would achieve the foregoing dual objectives over the bar mitzvah Sabbath," the suit says.

It charges that the 1-ounce bottle for $45 "faded significantly" overnight, according to the Post.

The Manhattan federal-court filing accuses Lancome of violating New York business law through "deceptive acts and practices."

Weisberg is seeking unspecified damages from Lancome and parent company L'Oréal, as well as ensuring that the company engage in a "corrective advertising campaign."

"Lancôme strongly believes that this lawsuit has no merit and stands proudly behind our products. We will strenuously contest these allegations in court. Consistent with our practice and policy, however, as this matter is currently in litigation, we cannot comment further," a spokeswoman for L'Oreal said in a statement.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167683#.UYOw-2enx6Y

Disgraced Assemblyman Vito Lopez may have lost his party backing but he's still a formidable candidate with an army of passionate supporters seeking to catapult his Council bid.

Lopez's backing in the Hasidic community and ties with Hispanic voters through his nonprofit political pundits predicting he has a good chance of winning the Council seat despite an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations he sexually harassed young staffers.

"He's delivered for (his constituents), so they are looking beyond his personal issues, said political consultant E. O'Brien Murray. "That's a big, loud group of supporters."

The former political powerbroker remains widely popular in the largely Hispanic 34th Council District, according to those familiar with the area.

His nonprofit, Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, employs approximately 2,000 people.

"His constituents love him," a political consultant familiar with the district said. "Despite everything that has come out about him he's been a very good representative. He's got very good name ID among the voters, and already has experience turning out voters."

The scandal-scarred state lawmaker has also remained a favorite of Satmar Grand Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum and Rabbi David Niederman, the executive director of the United Jewish Organizations in Williamsburg.

"They have not deserted him. The grand rebbe is his boy," a Lopez friend said.

But the fight to replace his former protégé, City Councilwoman Diana Reyna (D-Bushwick), who is term limited out, won't be a cakewalk, political insiders said.

Antonio Reynoso, 29, her chief of staff, has landed all the major union endorsements and big name political support. That includes the powerful United Federation of Teachers as well as Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and outgoing City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has vowed to do everything in her power to torpedo Lopez's run.

Reynoso, who grew up in the district, has a base of support in his old neighborhood, the south side of Williamsburg.

He's also expected to generate votes from a small patch of the district which carries over into Ridgewood Queens, and the Italian conclave along Graham Ave.

Reynoso spends most his time on the campaign trail simply introducing himself to voters.

"The narrative is all about who I am," he said, noting that the voters already know about Vito and the scandal surrounding him.

"The great thing about the media is that its done its job educating the public about him," said Reynoso. "They definitely know who he is and what he's done."

He's also expected to generate votes from a small patch of the district which carries over into Ridgewood Queens, and the Italian conclave along Graham Ave.

Lopez's relationship with the Brooklyn archdiocese remains murky.

In 2009, bishop Nicholas DiMarzio recorded robocalls for Lopez's handpicked candidate who was running against Reyna.

A repeat of that explicit step into politics by the religious leader is unlikely, political insiders said.

DiMarzio declined to comment.

As for his Jewish backing, the district, which includes Bushwick and parts of Williamsburg, does not have many Hasidim, a voting bloc the Assemblyman has long relied on. Lopez is likely to lean on them for campaign cash instead.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/vito-lopez-remains-formidable-candidate-strong-hispanic-hasidic-support-council-bid-article-1.1332581

Hungary has banned a far-right rally planned for the day before the conference of the World Jewish Congress opens in the capital, it said on Tuesday.

Hungrarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has instructed police to prevent any disturbance around the conference, which begins on Sunday and is expected to express concern over rising anti-Semitism across Europe.

"The captain of Budapest city police has banned an anti-Bolshevik and anti-Zionist demonstration organized in parallel with the opening of the World Jewish Congress," the government said in a statement.

Orban will address the congress on Sunday, where he will send a clear message against anti-Semitism, an aide said.

The government has also expressed sympathy to Ferenc Orosz, the head of a Hungarian anti-racism group who was attacked by far-right soccer fans after he confronted people chanting Nazi slogans at a match on Sunday.

"Minister of Interior Sandor Pinter has assured the members of the government that he will take all possible actions to apprehend the perpetrators so they may feel the full weight of justice," the government statement said.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/hungary-bans-far-right-protest-ahead-of-jewish-congress-1.518466

Jewish students at a Scottish university managed to hold a charity event despite being forced to find another location at the last minute after anti-Israel activists threatened staff at the original venue.

The annual charity ball organized by the Jewish Society and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity at St. Andrews University in Fife was scheduled to take place at the St. Andrews Golf Hotel on Friday. On Wednesday, however, the hotel pulled out after staff received threatening phone calls and email from activists linked to the radical fringe group Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) and other anti-Israel groups.

The activists were upset that Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and Friends of the IDF were to receive money raised by the students, and were planning to protest and disrupt the event. The management of the hotel explained the cancellation on the grounds that they could not guarantee the health and safety of guests and staff.

Joel Salmon, the president of the St. Andrews Jewish Society, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that they had being planned the event for some time and never thought about canceling it.

Late on Thursday, the society and the Jewish fraternity found an alternative venue that they managed to keep secret in order to guarantee the security of guests and prevent any retribution from activists.

Organizers went along with the belief that the event had been cancelled and guests were emailed and told to meet at specific locations, where they were picked up by taxis and taken to the new venue.

"Despite the adverse circumstances of the venue pulling out the day before due to allegedly aggressive phone calls and emails from individuals supporting the SPSC, the Jewish Society was able to secure an alternative venue," Salmon said, adding that a donor paid for the taxis.

"We have been overwhelmed by the support received from the Jewish community, the university and the local authorities. The fact that the protest was organized by people with little or no connection to St.

Andrews speaks volumes about our town and university, who we are extremely proud of," he stated.

Salmon described the event as a resounding success and said that organizers raised over five times the amount that had originally been expected, with more donations coming in.

"The St. Andrews Jewish Society will not cave in to intimidation or bullying. We will always protect our members and shall continue to provide events to enrich Jewish life in St Andrews," Salmon said.

The SPSC declined to comment.

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Scottish-Jewish-event-forced-to-move-after-threats-311530

The hit-and-run ex-con charged with mowing down a young Orthodox Jewish couple in New York last month, killing them and their unborn child, said "accidents happen," in his first remarks about that death-filled day.

 Julio Acevedo, 44, told WABC in a jailhouse interview he was deeply sorry, but insisted he was not speeding down a Brooklyn street, as alleged -- and that the cabbie ferrying Nachman Glauber and his pregnant wife Raizy Glauber on March 3 ran a stop sign and thus deserves an equal measure of fault in the tragedy.

One August morning, Eckerson Lane residents woke up to see the reconstruction of a large house, close to the corner of heavily traveled East Eckerson Road.

The homeowners soon learned workers were converting the three-story house, with windows added to a three-car garage and four windows on each floor, into an Orthodox Jewish religious school for a Monsey-based congregation.

Ramapo Building Department inspectors have issued two stop-work orders before the chief building inspector approved a school inside the house for at least a year. The congregation is now looking to build a larger school on the property for 250 male students, ages 7 to 13.

Neighbors say they still don't understand how the temporary school got approval before they were told about the plans, shown any designs or allowed to opine on the school's impact on their lives and the neighborhood.

"It's the wrong place to have a school," said James Reid, a Trinity Avenue homeowner. "There will be traffic and hazards from school buses making the turn off Eckerson Road and parking issues. There will be noise early in the mornings and on Sundays. There will be drainage onto other properties.

"Our property values will decrease," said Reid, a retired teacher who has coached youth basketball. "This is not good for our community."

As far as the longtime residents are concerned, the school is a harbinger that their neighborhood is changing, as the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community establishes a foothold — something other areas of Ramapo have experienced.

The neighborhood — including Eckerson Lane, Trinity Avenue and Rockland Lane — is largely working class, with Haitians, South Africans, blacks, Hispanics, and non-Orthodox Jews. People — including nurses, teachers, bus drivers and pharmaceutical company employees — have owned their homes for several decades and have raised children in the community, where parties and barbecues are common.

In a landmark ruling on the struggle over prayer at Judaism's holiest shrine, an Israeli court ruled Thursday that women could legally pray at the Western Wall wearing prayer shawls, contrary to Orthodox practice enforced at the site.

The ruling came after a string of incidents in recent months in which police detained women who wore the shawls while worshiping at the shrine, saying they had broken a law requiring prayer according to "local custom."

The arrests created an uproar in American Jewish communities and exposed a divide between Israel, where the Orthodox rabbinate has authority in Jewish religious matters, and the Jewish diaspora, where the more liberal Reform and Conservative movements are dominant.

Rejecting an appeal by the state, the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that the arrest of five women at the Western Wall during a prayer service this month was unjustified because they did not cause a public disturbance.

The women are members of Women of the Wall, a group of activists who have been campaigning for the right to pray at the shrine while following practices traditionally reserved for men, including wearing prayer shawls, leather straps and boxes containing parchment with Jewish scripture, and reading aloud from a Torah scroll.

Prayer arrangements at the Western Wall, part of a retaining wall around the courtyard of the ancient Jewish temple, follow strict Orthodox tradition. Women pray behind a partition, dress codes mandate modest clothing, and an Orthodox rabbi supervises rituals at the site.

But Moshe Sobel, the presiding judge in the District Court, ruled that in its prayer service, Women of the Wall had not violated a law requiring worship according to "local custom" at Jewish holy sites. He cited previous opinions by Supreme Court justices allowing leeway in interpretation of "local custom" that would permit prayer that did not conform to Orthodox tradition.

Sobel said that a Supreme Court ruling referring Women of the Wall to an alternative prayer area south of the shrine's main plaza was a recommendation, not a legal requirement, and that the women detained this month had not posed a threat to public security that warranted their arrest or temporary ban from the site, as sought by the police.

Women of the Wall and liberal Jewish groups hailed the ruling as a breakthrough toward ending what they described as an ultra-Orthodox monopoly over worship at the shrine, revered for centuries by Jews as the only remnant of the ancient temple complex.

"Today Women of the Wall liberated the Western Wall for all Jewish people," Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of the group, said in a statement. "We did it for the great diversity of Jews in the world, all of whom deserve to pray according to their belief and custom at the Western Wall."

In an interview, Hoffman attributed the court decision to "a change in the public climate in Israel," which she said was the result of a "strong diaspora Jewish voice saying: This is unacceptable."

Responding to the growing protests from Jews abroad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December asked Natan Sharansky, chairman of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, to come up with a plan for worship at the Western Wall that would accommodate non-Orthodox prayer.

Sharansky's proposal, presented to American Jewish leaders and endorsed by Netanyahu, would enlarge the alternative prayer area at a southern extension of the wall, making it equal in size and access to the main plaza. The expanded area would be designated for services in which women could participate on an equal footing with men, as is customary in Reform and Conservative congregations.

The Orthodox rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, who has called the members of Women of the Wall provocateurs, said Thursday that he would ask Israel's attorney general to look into the legal implications of Thursday's court ruling, which appeared to pave the way for unfettered worship by the group at the shrine.

"I beg the state authorities, and the silent majority that cherishes the Western Wall, to prevent zealots on all sides from turning the Western Wall plaza into a place of internecine strife," he said.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, director of the Reform movement in Israel, said the ruling proved the police had been used as "a tool of the rabbinical establishment without any legal basis." From now on, Kariv said, "the sole role of the police is to protect Women of the Wall and enable them to pray."

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-25/world/38811963_1_western-wall-prayer-service-anat-hoffman

Is City Hall about to take action against the dress codes at Manhattan's top-flight restaurants?

Of course not. And that only underscores the hypocrisy that all too often animates this administration. Because the city is going after Hasidic-owned store-owners who ask their patrons to dress modestly.

The city's Commission on Human Rights has cited seven small stores in the Hasidic section of Williamsburg for discrimination. Their offense? Posting signs that read: "No Shorts, No Barefoot, No Sleeveless, No Low Cut Necklines Allowed in the Store." Which is no different than restaurants requiring men to wear a jacket and tie — or a pizzeria posting a sign reading "No shirt, no shoes, no service."

The city disagrees, and is suing the shops. Cliff Mulqueen, the commission's general counsel, explained to The Jewish Week that while "dress codes are OK . . . telling someone they have to abide by certain rules of the Jewish faith crosses the line into [establishing] a protected class."

But again, that's not what the signs say. And the city hasn't found a single person refused service because of his attire.

Here's the operative distinction: Anyone turned away from these stores for his or her dress can change clothes and be admitted. Anyone denied service because of his or her race, religion or gender can't do that.

The commission took action after The Post first reported the signs last July. At the time, a top official of the city Law Department said the signs appeared to be OK.

The good news is that the case has now attracted the attention and support of a top law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, which is representing the shop-owners pro bono. Notably, the firm is citing important First Amendment religious-liberty issues.

The city would do us all a favor if it limited its authorities to fighting genuine discrimination under the law — not inventing it where it doesn't exist.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/dressing_down_jews_NdWHsRBy97EF15b8wo8SLK

A federally backed program subsidizing Internet access for low-income students has committed more money to schools in the heavily Orthodox Jewish town of Lakewood, N.J. in recent years than to schools in any other municipality in the entire state.

Yet after several years of participating in the E-Rate subsidy program, Lakewood's schools report having far fewer Internet-capable devices per student than any large New Jersey city, according to a Forward analysis.

Schools in Lakewood, a town of 92,000, have received more dollars per student than those in any other significant city in New Jersey. In 2011, schools in Lakewood received $282 in E-Rate commitments for every student served by the program. Schools in Newark, the largest city in New Jersey and one of the poorest, received just $82 per student that year.

Less than one-tenth of the E-Rate money has gone to Lakewood's public school system, which has one of the worst high school graduation rates in New Jersey. The rest is granted to the town's private schools, the vast majority of which serve the ultra-Orthodox community.

As well as Internet connectivity, E-Rate funds can also be used for things like telephone systems and voicemail for administrators, but schools in Lakewood report similar numbers of phones in their classrooms, compared to other schools.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Lakewood have railed against the dangers of the Internet, especially for young people, raising questions about why the town's Orthodox schools have benefitted so heavily from E-Rate. One Lakewood Orthodox girls school, Bais Rivka Rochel, reported having five Internet-capable devices in a school of 1,025 students, despite receiving $700,000 in E-Rate subsidies.

"I think it's unfair," said J. Michael Rush, a former official with the New Jersey Department of Education and a former public school superintendent who lives in Lakewood, of the large amounts of E-Rate money going to Lakewood's private schools. "It's inequality, no matter how you look at it."

The U.S. Congress created the E-Rate program in 1995 to help financially disadvantaged young people get access to the Web in schools and at libraries. Since 1998, E-Rate has distributed $2.25 billion each year, collected from telecommunications firms, to schools and libraries nationwide. The money is used to reimburse the institutions' Internet and phone bills and their purchase of some phone- and Web-related hardware. Rates of reimbursement are pegged to poverty levels at individual schools. The program is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, a semi-governmental body overseen by the Federal Communications Commission.

http://forward.com/articles/175087/orthodox-town-of-lakewood-grabs-bigger-computer-su/