Monsey, NY - Internationally popular Chasidic minstrel Lipa Schmeltzer has earned more than his fair share of notoriety. The eye of "The Big Event" cancelled-concert storm of several months ago, Schmeltzer seems to have arrived at poetic justice of some sort—with demand for "A Poshiter Yid," his brand-new CD, through the roof and overwhelming Jewish music distributors and retails stores...

Iowa - Spared the worst of the most destructive flooding to hit Iowa in 15 years, the state’s Jewish community joined the largest recovery effort to take shape since 1993. In the capital city of Des Moines, hundreds of people converged on the Maccabee’s Deli Tuesday to make 5,000 sandwiches and stuff brown bags full of food for thousands of Iowa residents now living in emergency...

Springfield, MA - An Orthodox Jewish landlord who was held in contempt due to the poor condition of his properties did not have his religious rights infringed on when the contempt hearing conflicted with a Jewish holiday, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled. Shalom Segelman, whose Springfield properties have been the subject of various court hearings in the past, filed a 12-count complaint...

New York City - Those who lost power for nine days two summers ago might be surprised to learn that Consolidated Edison did not consider the event a major power failure — at least in the strictest, legal sense. But that just changed. The utility received a black eye for the way it handled the Queens blackout, but according to Con Edison’s Reliability Performance Mechanism, a “major...

New York City - Plots in Jewish cemeteries throughout the city have been filling up quickly — in fact today the shortage of plots at a number of cemeteries is beginning to approach a crisis. Yet thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of plots lie empty, controlled by long-dormant burial societies many are forced to jump through frustrating, time-consuming and often-costly bureaucratic...

Irvine, CA - Tarbut V'Torah will get $10 million from an anonymous donor to be used for student scholarships in the next 10 years. The first installment is coming within the next few months, Derek Gavshon, the school's acting head, said Wednesday. The money will be used for students starting this fall. School officials announced the huge gift at its graduation recently with a group of 54...

New York City - Federal agents arrested two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers at their homes Thursday, as part of an on-going investigation into alleged fraudulent trading activities that led to the collapse of the Wall Street giant earlier this year. FBI agents arrested Ralph Cioffi at his home in Manhattan, while Matthew Tannin was arrested at his home in Tenafly. The two men are to...

Westhampton Beach, NY - Earlier this year, the Westhampton Beach Village Board wrestled with whether to approve an eruv, a symbolically fenced area where many Orthodox Jews feel free to perform tasks otherwise proscribed on the Sabbath, such as pushing a baby carriage or even carrying house keys. Several heated village board meetings later, Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Hampton Synagogue...

New York City - Pulpit rabbis wear many hats - religious authority, spiritual guide, therapist, friend, and public speaker - and now, the hat of a Red Cross-trained disaster relief volunteer. The Orthodox Union's Pepa and Rabbi Joseph Karasick Department of Synagogue Services invites synagogue rabbis, assistant rabbis, presidents, and executive directors to a three-hour course that prepares...

Fallsburg, NY - After four fires hit outbuildings at the Pines in three months last year, Town of Fallsburg officials pledged to order the owners, Fallsburg Estates LLC, to remove the older, wood-framed buildings and issue tickets for code violations. Fallsburg building inspector Allen Frishman said the town plans to issue tickets for unkept grounds, broken windows and fences, and force the...

New York City - For two decades Diego Murillo was among Colombia's most feared and untouchable drug lords, accused of hundreds of murders as an enforcer for the cocaine cartels and leader of a right-wing paramilitary group. Now the man known in Colombia as Don Berna is in prison after pleading guilty in Manhattan to drug trafficking charges, brought down by a U.S. probe that began with a New...

Sharon, MA - A man has been charged with stealing a painting that his neighbor's family had taken out of Germany at the onset of the Holocaust and had kept for decades as an heirloom. Steven Zaharoff, 57, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on charges that he stole a painting historians have said could be significant enough to be placed in a museum. Police...

Volzhsky, Russia - Two young men attacked a Jew in a Volgograd region cafe. Oleg Polonksy, age 40, went to the cafe to eat dinner, but when he placed his keys on the table, the two men sitting nearby noticed that he had a Star of David key chain. They approached him and asked, "are you a Jew?" to which he answered in the affirmative and that's when he was savagely beaten. Mr. Polonsky was...

Brooklyn, NY - A 27-year-old man is fighting for his life after he was mowed down by a hit-run driver in Midwood. The unidentified man was crossing Ocean Avenue near Avenue "M" when he was struck by a 2007 BMW traveling southbound on Ocean Avenue. The driver fled while a witness to the accident flagged down a passing patrol car and provided cops with a description of the vehicle. Officers soon...

Washington - Two men from Brooklyn, New York, have been convicted in the brazen 2006 daytime robbery of a Georgetown jewelry store during which the shop owner was shot in the stomach. A District jury found 29-year-old Jose Lucas and 25-year-old Lexton Pellew guilty of multiple gun and robbery charges. Pellew also was found guilty of aggravated assault. Three other New York men had previously...