New Square Arson Trial Starts Tuesday

Shaul Spitzer

An 18-year-old New Square man who worked for the Hasidic Jewish community’s rabbinical leader is scheduled for trial next week on a charge of attempted murder stemming from accusations that he set fire to a fellow village resident who had defied the edicts of the community’s spiritual leader.

Shaul Spitzer waived his right to a pretrial hearing Wednesday in state Supreme Court. Justice William A. Kelly scheduled jury selection for Tuesday in his fourth-floor courtroom at the Rockland County Courthouse in New City.

Spitzer opted for trial because he faces five to 25 years in state prison if convicted of the top charge of attempted murder, the only offer made by Rockland County prosecutors in exchange for a guilty plea.

Spitzer and his lawyers can change their minds about going to trial, but Spitzer likely would face up to 15 years in prison from the justice if he pleads guilty.

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said prosecutor Stephen Moore has made no special plea offer and that a sentence is at the justice’s discretion upon conviction.

Spitzer is accused of setting Aron Rottenberg on fire after trying to burn down the family’s Truman Avenue house at 4:15 a.m. May 22, tossing a homemade incendiary device onto the back porch of the house, Ramapo police investigators said.

Because of months of threats — including telephone calls days earlier — and vandalism, Rottenberg’s son had been monitoring surveillance cameras installed on the house.

The elder Rottenberg then confronted the masked man and during a struggle another incendiary device carried by the man detonated, burning Rottenberg and Spitzer. Spitzer ran off and a resident treated him for his burns.

Rottenberg, 44, a plumber, suffered third-degree burns across 50 percent of his body, leading to skin-graft surgeries and months of hospitalization.

Spitzer, who lived with Grand Rebbe David Twersky and did butler work for him, suffered third-degree burns to his arms and after several weeks of hospitalization returned to school in the community.

Rottenberg and several other village residents were targets of street protests and vandalism for not praying in the grand rebbe’s synagogue, less than 100 yards from Rottenberg’s house on Truman Avenue.

There is one synagogue in New Square, and the grand rebbe wants all his followers to pray with him. Weeks after the attack, Twersky condemned the violence and offered prayers for both men to recover.

Rottenberg led a weekly Sabbath service at the Friedwald Center rehabilitation facility, about a mile from the center of the Ramapo village.

One other family moved out of the village following the protests they and Rottenberg said were orchestrated by minions who enforced the grand rebbe’s edicts.

Rottenberg has filed a civil lawsuit against Twersky and Spitzer. The grand rebbe’s followers were supposedly raising money for a settlement offer, but Rottenberg is ready to testify at the criminal trial, his son-in-law Moshe Elbaum said Wednesday.

“We’re ready to go, and we’re happy that it’s finally starting,” Elbaum said. “Hopefully they will finally learn their lesson that they are not above the law.”

Following a Ramapo police investigation into the May incident, a Rockland grand jury indicted Spitzer in June on charges of second-degree attempted murder, second-degree attempted arson and two counts of first-degree assault, all felonies.

On Wednesday morning, defense lawyer Kenneth Gribetz told Kelly that Spitzer waived his right to a hearing on the admissibility of statements he gave to police.

Spitzer’s defense lawyers are not challenging that the teen was at Rottenberg’s house during the early morning hours. Gribetz has contended that Spitzer did not intend to harm Rottenberg or to set his house on fire.

The night of the confrontation coincided with the Lag BaOmer festival, when religious Jews have bonfires marking the anniversary of the death of a leading rabbi and a revolt against the Roman Empire. A community group circulated a letter in August claiming Spitzer just wanted to make mischief that morning.

Gribetz and co-defense lawyer Paul Shechtman said the defense case will develop during the trial.

“The defense will come from the lips of the witnesses,” Gribetz said after Wednesday’s court appearance. “We don’t want to make any other statements.”

Spitzer also faces a charge of second-degree criminal contempt, a misdemeanor, in New Square Village Court. On Oct. 26, a photograph taken by a village resident surfaced, showing Spitzer in front of Rottenberg’s Truman Avenue home about 3:15 p.m. Oct. 4. That case is scheduled for this month.

Following Ultra-Orthodox Money Trail

Satmar Hasidim fund ultra-Orthodox groups in Israel.

Haredi Groups Get Cash From Satmars and Kosher Certification

You’ve already heard about the wave of violence by ultra-Orthodox zealots in Israel: grown men spitting on and cursing terrified little girls trying to walk to school; harassing women who refuse to move to the back of public buses; stoning those buses, private cars and the police, and starting full-blown riots. But did you know that when you purchase many popular kosher food items, you may be financially supporting that violence?

There are many different kosher symbols representing several hundred kosher supervision companies. Most are just what they seem to be. But a minority of them are not. Of that minority, at least two kosher supervisions bear special scrutiny.

Badatz Yerushalayim is one of the most respected kosher supervisions in the world. Unlike other hekhshers, the presence of its symbol on a product allows that product to be consumed by even the most ultra-Orthodox kosher consumer. And that is why the Badatz Yerushalayim symbol appears on many Israeli food products exported to the United States. Badatz Yerushalayim is part of Edah HaCharedis, Israel’s old-line, stridently anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox community, based in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem. Edah considers itself to be the continuation of the fervently Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews who moved to Palestine from Eastern Europe in the late 1700s and founded Jerusalem’s Ashkenazi community. Edah is made up of distinct Hasidic sects, like Satmar, Dushinsky and Toldos Aharon, along with such non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox groups as the Perushim and Brisk. They’re bound together by vehement opposition to the modern State of Israel. Other ultra-Orthodox groups share some of Edah’s anti-Zionist theology but choose to work with the state when it benefits them — something Edah refuses to do. These non-Edah groups vote in Israel’s elections, have their own political parties and factions, and serve as members of the Knesset, even though they do not fully accept the state. Edah groups do not vote. They treat the State of Israel as a foreign interloper and the police as an invading army. But because of Edah’s standing in ultra-Orthodox communities in Brooklyn, London, Antwerp, Belgium and Montreal, its kosher symbol is found on many of Israel’s signature export foods.

On January 15, five senior Edah activists were arrested in Jerusalem on charges of money laundering, tax evasion and embezzlement. The crimes were allegedly carried out using Edah’s national committee offices and using bank accounts in names of Edah charities meant to help widows, orphans and the poor. According to a report published on the ultra-Orthodox news website Yeshiva World News, police told the magistrate’s court that money these Edah activists allegedly laundered was used to fund the Sicarii gang, the violent ultra-Orthodox thugs who lead riots against police and who extort non-Edah businesses. The Sicarii also serve as Edah’s unofficial modesty police, attacking women and girls whom they deem to be immodestly dressed or who refuse to move to the back of the bus. Laundered money was allegedly given to the gang to pay for the logistics of violent street demonstrations and attacks on stores and other businesses that did not meet with Edah’s approval. Edah also allegedly paid the living expenses of Sicarii members and their families.

This Sicarii violence serves several purposes. Perhaps the most important is to carve out new Edah territory from neighborhoods populated by non-Edah Jews. Few people want to live cheek by jowl with fanatics who might attack their children at any moment. So people leave, selling their apartments at reduced prices to the only people who want to buy them — Edah members. It might take several years or even longer, but eventually the neighborhood in question becomes an Edah stronghold.

Edah has often tried to publicly distance itself from this violence even as it benefited from it, and it was largely successful. But it now seems clear that Edah might have been funding the violence all along.

Edah’s money doesn’t come from its kosher supervision work alone; much of it also comes from donations from the Diaspora — especially from Satmar Hasidim. Shortly after the arrests of the five Edah activists were made public, one of the two Satmar grand rabbis, Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, who resides in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and whose late father had once been Edah’s president, made a public statement understood as endorsing a violent response to the police action. Hundreds of Edah members then gathered in Satmar’s Jerusalem study hall and listened to anti-Israel speeches from Edah rabbinic leaders. When the speeches were over, some of the rabbis staged a small, peaceful protest outside Jerusalem’s central police station while a few blocks away, hundreds of other Edah members rioted.

Like Edah HaCharedis, the Williamsburg-based, Satmar-founded and controlled Central Rabbinical Congress is also in the kosher supervision business. While the money trail to the Sicarii thugs from the CRC is not clear, Satmar’s support for and membership in the organization that Israeli police say is funding the Sicarii is, as is the CRC’s decades-long support for anti-Zionist causes. According to Israeli police, some of the money laundered by those five senior Edah activists came from the Diaspora. It’s almost certain much of it came from Satmar-controlled organizations in Williamsburg.

Most of us do not want our money to be used to pay the stipends of men who stone Israeli police, vandalize Israeli buses, spit on “immodest” little girls and attack “immodest” women. One way to ensure it won’t be is to stop buying products that carry the Badatz Yerushalayim and CRC kosher seals. Another is to raise Satmar’s involvement in Edah HaCharedis with American politicians who help Satmar organizations receive government funding.

Ultra-Orthodox zealots have the right to oppose Zionism, but they do not have the right to break the law, use violence or terrorize little children. Put another way, it was one thing to buy an anti-Zionist endorsed candy bar when that anti-Zionism was thought to be limited to non-violent protest, but it is quite another to buy a candy bar when a portion of the proceeds of that sale go directly to an organization that is participating in and funding violence.

When it comes to buying products carrying the Badatz Yeryshalayim or CRC kosher seals, the time has come for American Jews to go on a strictly nonkosher diet.

Orthodox Jew produces $100,000 YouTube clip on the Holocaust

More than $100,000 has been invested into a five-minute YouTube clip created to combat Holocaust denial in the United States, and to increase awareness of the atrocity among American teenagers.

According to its producers, “Rainbow in the Night” is the first Holocaust clip ever to be made. It includes hundreds of actors, and took hundreds of hours to shoot. Daniel Finkelman, an ultra-Orthodox man living in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, is behind the project.

As the number of Holocaust survivors decreases with time, so too do the voices that keep the memory of the atrocity alive, explains Finkelman. “As those voices fade, the voices of Holocaust deniers are amplified.”

This thought had plagued Finkelman for the past few years, and drove him to initiate a campaign aimed at non-Jewish teenagers in the United States.

“There is an entire generation that is growing up in a fast-paced world, in which something new happens every moment. That young generation hasn’t got the patience to learn about the Holocaust,” says Finkelman. “For us it is an inseparable part of the Jewish history; for them it is another black and white entry in the encyclopedia.”

Finkelman explained that the goal of his campaign was to grab the attention of those teenagers via a medium that interests them, and – in a five-minute clip – encapsulate the horrors of the Holocaust alongside the tremendous hopes of the Jews who suffered there.

Last week, a new survey to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day showed that only 6 percent of Israeli children cite history lessons as a significant source of learning about the Holocaust.

The annual survey, conducted by the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies among 919 students, shows school education has a very limited influence on shaping young Israelis' understanding of the Holocaust. Only 0.5 percent said the Holocaust memorial ceremonies, which take place for Israeli children throughout their school years, were significant in their Holocaust education.

Almost 40 percent cited survivors' testimonies as having the highest educational value.

Baruch Dayan Ha’emes: Hakallah Chaya Sara Brisk A’H

BARUCH DAYAN HA’EMES, It is with much pain we inform you of the Petirah of Chaya Sara Brisk A’H, the young Kallah involved last May in the horrific school bus acciddent on County Line Road. Levaya information will be posted when available.

The Levaya will be taking place at 12:30 PM at SCHI (Where Suri A’H worked).

The Kevurah will be taking place at the Floral Park cemetery in South Brunswick, 104 Deans Rhode Hall, Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852.

Boruch Dayan Emmes…
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טרגדיה בארה"ב • הכלה שנפצעה ימים לאחר אירוסיה - נפטרה בבית החולים

התאונה שארעה בעיירה ליקווד שבארצות-הברית לפני כשמונה חודשים וגררה התעניינות תקשורתית חסרת תקדים – הסתיימה בטרגדיה סוחטת דמעות.

הכלה, חיה שרה בריסק, שנפצעה לפני כשמונה חודשים בתאונת דרכים קטלנית, נפטרה הבוקר (ד') בבית החולים.

התאונה הטראגית ארעה כאמור לפני שמונה חודשים. החתן נסע יחד עם חיה שרה - כלתו הטריה ברכב מסוג הונדה, וניסה לעקוף אוטובוס המשמש להסעת ילדים.

בסיום העקיפה, התנגש באוטובוס, שהחל בנסיעה, וכתוצאה מכך התהפך האוטובוס על צידו לעבר הרכב הפרטי. האוטובוס פגע ברוכבת אופניים שרכבה על המדרכה, נלכדה תחתיו ונפצעה קשות.

דקות ספורות קודם התאונה הוריד נהג ההסעות את ילדי הת"ת במחוז חפצם, וכך, בחסדי שמיים, נמנע אסון גדול בהרבה.

לאחר התאונה הקשה פונתה חיה שרה לבית החולים באמצעות מסוק, ובמשך שמונה חודשים נאבקה על חייה.

החתן, נפצע אף הוא בתאונה ומקורביו אומרים כי היום הוא במצב יציב.

במהלך החודשים האחרונים נערכו תפילות רבות לרפואת: חיה שרה בת חווה בריינדל, אך הבוקר הגיעה הבשורה המרה: חיה שרה איננה.

ההלוויה תתקיים הערב בארצות הברית ותושביה החרדיים של העיירה ליקווד צפויים לחלוק לה כבוד אחרון.

יהי זכרה ברוך.

London - 9 Islamists Men Admit Plotting to Bomb Stock Exchange and Rabbis

LONDON -- Nine radical Islamists pleaded guilty Wednesday to involvement in a terror plot aimed at high-profile targets in the UK's capital, including the US embassy.

The men, with roots in Britain's Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, were arrested in counterterrorism raids on Dec. 21, 2010. The Mumbai-style attacks were said to have been inspired by the preaching of American-born Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in a US drone strike on Sept. 30 last year in Yemen.

Four of the men admitted Wednesday to planning to plant an improvised explosive device at the London Stock Exchange. They were named as apparent ringleader Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 29, from east London, and brothers Gurukanth Desai, 30, and Abdul Miah, 25, from the Welsh capital, Cardiff.

Four men -- Omar Latif, 28, also from Cardiff, Nazam Hussain, 26, Usman Khan, 20, and Abdul Shahjahan, 27, all from Stoke-on-Trent, central England -- admitted lesser charges of preparing for a terrorist attack. Mohibur Rahman, 27, also from Stoke, admitted possessing terror-related material, namely two copies of the Al Qaeda magazine Inspire, which contained articles like "Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom."

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, senior national coordinator for counterterrorism, issued a short statement responding to the guilty pleas.

"We welcome the guilty pleas entered by all nine defendants today [Wednesday], following what was the largest counterterrorism operation of 2010," he said. "Our priority is and always will be the protection of the public."

The suspects were facing a number of terrorism charges, including conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life or damage property and preparing for acts of terrorism between Nov. 1, 2010, and Dec. 21, 2010. They changed their previous not guilty pleas to guilty after legal discussion Monday.

Police raids on Chowdhury's house in East London turned up a target list including the names and address of Boris Johnson, two rabbis, the American Embassy, the London Stock Exchange and the Houses of Parliament.

The nine men will be sentenced next week.

Jewish Press Gets Threats Over Gay Article

Chaim Levin

A significant percent of suicide attempts are committed by boys from not just religious, but rabbinic homes, because they thought they were homosexual and had no place in the Orthodox world they grew up in, even if they never acted on those impulses.

For more than 60 years the Jewish Press has been the voice of the Jewish people. We have stood up for the Jewish people, for the nation and for individuals. We have stood up, when everyone else has been silent. We have stood up when it was unpopular to do so. We have stood up to praise, protect, and even reprimand our people when needed.

For years, it was the Jewish Press which waved the banner on the plight of Agunot (women who were refused divorce documents by their recalcitrant husbands), when the rest of the Jewish world had nothing to say about that awful situation in which Jewish women were being trapped in.

And we will continue to be the voice of the Jewish people, no matter who threatens us.

Last week we ran an op-ed article by Chaim Levin, a young man who has identified himself as both religious and homosexual.

We did not run this article to promote homosexuality. We did not run this article to condone anti-Halachic behavior. We did not run this article to intimate that homosexual behavior could be a Jewish life choice.

We ran this article because, whether one wants to admit it or not, there is a serious problem that some members of our religious community face – day in and day out. It could be your Chavrusah (study partner) in Yeshiva, the guy sitting next to you in shul, or your brother in your very own home. And this is true whether you wear a black hat, a streimel, or a knit yarmulka.

Pretending that there are no frum Jews with homosexual inclinations won’t make the truth go away. It won’t make the internal conflicts they fight with their Yetzer Harah (evil inclination) disappear.

We were asked to print this article after being approached by a therapist from within the frum community who primarily treats religious youth with drug abuse problems.

A significant percent of suicide attempts are committed by boys from not just religious, but rabbinic homes, because they thought they were homosexual and had no place in the Orthodox world they grew up in, even if they never acted on those impulses.

Until politics exits the science, it won’t be known if homosexuality is genetic, hormonal, neurological, psychological, or a choice. The Torah itself is very clear on where it stands on homosexual acts.

But the Torah is also very clear on how one should treat one’s fellow Jew, and certainly one who tries to be religious, whether they succeed or not, one should not find himself driven by his fellow Jews to contemplate suicide.

A situation where religious Jews are provoking children and adults who are different, to consider suicide is unthinkable and unacceptable.

Following the publication of this op-ed, a number of Jewish Press advertisers were approached and threatened. They were told to stop advertising with the Jewish Press.

The Jewish Press won’t give in to threats and we won’t be silenced.

We thank our advertisers who have notified us they plan to continue with us despite the threatening letters and that they won’t give into threats either, particularly when an article like this one may have very well have saved a Jewish life.

People can do Tshuva (repent) for many acts against Halacha, but what forgiveness can there be after pushing someone so far they would commit suicide?

Spring Valley home invasion

A canine unit searches after two armed men robbed a home in Spring Valley on Tuesday night.

SPRING VALLEY -- Village and Clarkstown police were searching for two men after a home invasion Tuesday night.

More than a half-dozen police vehicles were parked near the targeted home, 16 White St. after the robbery. Canine units were searching area streets.

Police said little at the scene, but indicated there were no injuries after two armed men entered the house and stole items just before 10 p.m.

Police would not release any more details early this morning.

‘Soul Train’ creator Don Cornelius Dead Apparent Suicide

Don Cornelius poses at Millennium Park on September 5, 2011 in Chicago,

Don Cornelius, television personality and the creator of “Soul Train” was found dead in his home in Sherman Oaks, California Wednesday morning, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. He was 75.

According to the Times, law enforcement sources arrived at the home of Cornelius, shortly after 4 a.m. Sources told the Times that Cornelius died of a gunshot wound to the head, which appeared to be self-inflicted. There were no signs of foul play.

TMZ reports that Cornelius’ body was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

“Soul Train,” which debuted in 1971, was the longest-running first-run nationally syndicated show in television history, the Times reports. Before its end in 2006, it brought the music and dance styles of African –American artists to the national audience.

Cornelius retired from the hosting gig in 1993.

When Cornelius divorced his wife Viktoria in 2009, he told a Los Angeles judge that he was suffering from "significant health issues" and wanted to "finalize this divorce before I die."

The couple's seven and a half year marriage ended bitterly after his former wife filed two restraining orders against Cornelius, and he was later convicted of spousal battery.

Known as a private man, he gave a rare interview to Time Out Chicago last year in which he spoke about being moved to create "Soul Train" to give "black talent ... an opportunity to get national television exposure.

Rabbi says God’s true Blue

Rabbi Ira Budow

A Giants-loving rabbi who prayed for his team at the Western Wall in Jerusalem says God has Big Blue’s back.

Rabbi Ira Budow, who directs a Hebrew academy in suburban Philadelphia, visited the holy shrine in full Giants regalia last month just before his favorite team beat the Green Bay Packers.

When they completed that Hail Mary pass, I said, ‘Hey, it worked,’ ” Budow told The Post, referring to Eli Manning’s end-zone bomb in the first half’s waning seconds.

Budow isn’t the only one saying prayers for the Giants. Archbishop Timothy Dolan got into the ecumenical act, saying he has a good feeling about the home team. “We love them because they’re a very good team,” Dolan said in Israel yesterday.

And also because they are very good to the Archdiocese.”

NYPD Cop survives bullet to head in brooklyn

Police secure the scene after a police officer was shot on Bushwick Ave. in Brooklyn on Tuesday night

A plainclothes cop came within inches of dying when he was shot in the head Tuesday night during a gun battle inside a Brooklyn public housing project, police said.

Officer Kevin Brennan, 29, assigned to the Brooklyn North Anti-Crime Unit, was hit in the back of the head around 9 p.m. by a bullet that lodged behind his right ear. He is in critical but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital.

He’s one lucky young man," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, holding a jar containing the bloody bullet that doctors had been able to remove. "It's a miracle. He's very very lucky."

Brennan lives in Garden City, L.I., with his wife Janet and 6-week-old baby daughter, Maeve.

Thankfully tonight I think there's no reason to think her Daddy won't be there to see her crawl for the first time and in good time dance at her wedding," said Mayor Bloomberg, who joined Kelly at Bellevue.

Police arrested the suspected shooter, Luis (Baby) Ortiz, 21, at 390 Bushwick Ave. - where he was hiding inside his uncle’s apartment - about three hours after the shooting.

The Bushwick shootout began when Brennan, officers Michael Burbridge and Christopher Mastoros - responding to a call of a man with a gun - confronted Ortiz and two other men at 140 Moore St. in the Bushwick Houses.

The cops recognized Ortiz from a previous arrest, police said, and gave chase with Brennan in the lead as the suspect fled out the back of the building into 370 Bushwick Ave., police said.

Brennan followed Ortiz into the building, and the door closed behind him, trapping him in the hallway with the shooter, according to police. Ortiz pumped off one round, striking Brennan who returned fire, police said.

The suspect then fled into the housing project. Witnesses said Brennan appeared badly wounded.

The hurt cop kept yelling ‘I got hit! I got hit!’” said Jenny Rios, weeping. “He was bleeding from the mouth.”

Before the arrest, hundreds of cops swarmed the area with dogs and helicopters looking for the suspect. He was eventually found sitting on a bed in the back of his uncle’s apartment and was arrested without incident.

A revolver with a black wooden handle that cops believe is the weapon used to shoot the cop was found on the ground outside the uncle’s fifth-floor apartment.

Cops said the perp is well known to the department. Kelly said he was wanted for the New Year’s Day murder of Shannon McKinney, 34, in front of a supermarket at the corner of Seigel St and Humboldt St. in East Williamsburg.

Ortiz has two dozen arrests, mostly for drugs, police said.

Residents of the Bushwick Houses said Ortiz is a dangerous man.

He's a bad dude. Everyone knows him around here ," said a 52-year-old Bushwick Houses resident of the alleged perp.

Brennan,who joined the department in 2005, was woozy Tuesday night, Kelly said.

He’s in a lot of pain. He’s moving his arms and legs. He’s having trouble with his vision,” said Lt. Christopher Devaney, Brennan’s partner.

He’s one of the best, so I picked him to ride with me,” added Devaney, who said Brennan had been working at the 90th Precinct for three years.

The mayor said the officer is conscious but sore after the shooting and credited divine intervention for saving the officer's life.

He understands he was hit - he said he was in a lot of pain," said Bloomberg. "God in this case was kind. It could have turned out an awful lot worse.

Cop Shot in Brooklyn: MyFoxNY.com