New York News

Pursuing The Paper Trail

06/05/1998 | by Lawrence Cohler-Esses | Staff Writer

The courtroom light switches off, the overhead projector flicks on. And once more, the prosecutor speaks dryly of checks, contracts and budgets as the documents are projected on screen to the jurors. There are checks from the Council of Jewish Organizations of Boro Park — then Brooklyn’s largest Jewish community council — and its spinoffs to the political coffers of Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, and other political campaigns.
There are government contracts sponsored by Hikind and awarded to the council for social service programs.

A Home That Knows Sorrow

05/29/1998 | Jonathan Mark | Associate Editor

In the lobby of Rubin Hall, the Yeshiva University dormitory through which Joshua Bender surely exited on his final journey, alongside a photocopy of his student card duplicated in poster-size is a printed Torah lesson.
“The Talmud states that Rabbi Akiba’s students did not show honor to one another,” it says. “The Talmud [doesn’t say] they did not act honorably, implying that they were disrespectful. But they did not show honor, meaning they did not exert themselves in order to show honor.”

O’Connor: Be Proud Of Your Jewishness

05/29/1998 | by Adam Dickter and Stewart Ain | Staff Writers

At Hebrew Union College commencement, cardinal cites common heritage of Catholics and Jews; at Yeshiva U., Eizenstat hails Modern Orthodox role in reviving post-Holocaust Jewish life.

O’Connor: Be Proud Of Your Jewishness

05/29/1998 | by Adam Dickter and Stewart Ain | Staff Writers

At Hebrew Union College commencement, cardinal cites common heritage of Catholics and Jews; at Yeshiva U., Eizenstat hails Modern Orthodox role in reviving post-Holocaust Jewish life.

Contracts Key Issue As Hikind Trial Starts

05/29/1998 | by Lawrence Cohler-Esses | Staff Writer

Were contracts drawn up by senior officials of Brooklyn’s largest Jewish community council in response to subpoenas long after the work was supposedly done complete fabrications? Or was real work accomplished without agreements being signed at the time?
In the wake of testimony this week at the trial of Assemblyman Dov Hikind, it is virtually certain that point will be vigorously contested by prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Agudah Head’s Death Mourned By Haredim

05/22/1998 | ADAM DICKTER and JONATHAN MARK | Staff Writers

As Agudath Israel of America mourned the death of its longtime leader and visionary Rabbi Moshe Sherer this week, officials of the organization put off for now any discussion of who will inherit the reins of the influential, ultra-Orthodox umbrella group.“The one who is missing is irreplaceable,” said Agudah spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran of Rabbi Sherer, who died Sunday of leukemia at age 76. For now, Agudah’s vice president, Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, is making day-to-day decisions for the movement, believed to have as many as 100,000 adherents in the United States.