Newswire update:
New Brunswick, NJ – Four teenagers have been arrested in connection with the damage done to nearly 500 headstones at the Jewish cemetery, a rabbi from one of the two synagogues that uses the cemetery said.
Received through a synagogue email:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County stands with the community in expressing shock and sadness at the desecration and vandalism at the Poile Zedek Cemetery in New Brunswick.
Federation has teamed with Congregation Poile Zedek, Congregation Etz Ahaim, Rabbis, cemetery officials and the organized Jewish community to assess the damage and provide the support necessary to begin to heal and rebuild. We have approached law enforcement officials, the Mayor of New Brunswick, and the county prosecutor’s office in an effort to maintain open lines of communication. Federation, representing a united Jewish community, is in pursuit of a full-scale, rigorous investigation into this heinous crime, which is an affront to us all.
As we examine all avenues of effectively providing aid and comfort to those impacted and concentrate on putting together a formal plan of action, we are confident that we can count on your support during this trying time for our community. In that vein, we have established a fund for the repair and restoration of the cemetery. Donations can be sent to the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, earmarked “Cemetery Restoration Fund”. 100% of your donation will be directed toward this fund. Our address is 230 Old Bridge Turnpike, South River, NJ 08882. If you need more information, contact us at 732-432-7711 or [email protected]. You may also donate on line by logging onto our website at JewishMiddlesex.org.
Headline: Vandals tip tombstones, trash graves
Are we in Eastern Europe? The former Soviet Union? No, no, this took place right here in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Nathan Reiss of Congregation Etz Ahaim said Sunday’s vandalism at the Poile Zedek Cemetery came days after a similar incident was discovered on Thursday. Families of the buried will have to pay for all this damage. Many of these families are descendants of immigrants from Salonika and Turkey, hard-working people who became model American citizens. Read more about some of the families in Voices of Etz Ahaim. Others are Holocaust survivors, such as Menachem Simcha.
My husband said it will cost $200 and up just to repair one headstone. Some are not repairable. 499 headstones toppled.
Finally, the police is now calling this a bias crime. See the comments on Dov Bear.
“To say it was premeditated is an understatement,” said Poile Zedek administrator Caryn Lipson. “It had to be hours and hours of work by several people.”
From the Star Ledger:
Jack Oziel picked his way through the ruins of the vandalized Jewish cemetery yesterday, surveying hundreds of headstones toppled like dominos or lying in crumbled heaps.
He managed to locate the fragments of a granite Star of David that had marked his father’s grave lying on the grass. His mother’s tomb had cracked in half. And everywhere else Oziel looked, he saw more headstones of family and friends knocked down.
“I knew them all. I buried all these people. Now they are all in pieces,” Oziel, 91, said with red eyes as he surveyed the damage at the Poile Zedek Cemetery in New Brunswick.
And I know Jack Oziel. So I feel like I know all of those people buried there, too.
How can this be prevented? A surveillance camera? And who would do something so nasty?
Last week I had a pleasant experience with a local techie. I had some problems with my laptop, and not only did Mike Beberman of Cyber Knights in New Brunswick fix the problem, he also performed diagnostics on my laptop. And he and I chatted about our mutual sadness at the demise of the local ‘Y’ and our favorite New Jersey kosher restaurants, neither which are located in Highland Park (Lin’s Chinese of Manville, New Jersey and Mosaica in or near Union, New Jersey).
He told me he would like to be known as the guy you call for computer problems, just like you might have one guy who fixes your car.
So if you live in Central New Jersey and have a computer problem, try Cyber Knights at:
(732) 227-0932
One morning when Paro awoke in his bed
There were frogs in his bed, and frogs on his head
Frogs on his nose and frogs on his toes
Frogs here, frogs there
Frogs were jumping everywhere.
Listen to my daughter singing the song …
(Frog is drawn by me…a quick sketch with the pencil, then scanned into the computer and the greens were added in Photoshop.)
This post is dedicated to my dear friend Heidi Rosen and her mom, z”l (may her memory be a blessing). Hamakom yinachem otah b’toh avlai Zion v’Yerushalayim…
Heidi’s mom died after a long battle with cancer. This is also for all dear moms and daughters everywhere.
If you are lucky enough to live in Central New Jersey, there will be a great Teen Film Festival at the Highland Park Public Library on January 27, 2008 at 1 pm. One of the film producers is a certain talented offspring of mine who has produced a series of murder mysteries with hilarious British accents for your entertainment. Also featured will be zombies and a pipe cleaner dude. Buy a t-shirt and support teen programming. Michelle Reasso, the teen librarian, works hard to channel the outstanding creativity of our local teens.
For more information, see www.hpplnj.org.
Lori at Lori’s Earth Friendly Products has been hard at work redesigning her home page. Who says the mom and pop store is gone? Sometimes you just have to know where to look. Lori is a local Highland Park resident who has been selling juice with fiber for kids and other kosher, healthy products from her internet website for many years (and that’s just her part-time job!).
Bought some coffee last week from Lori’s, and I’ve been enjoying every drop of the fresh coffee I’ve made with it.
Did my first WordPress upgrade this morning. It went without a hitch (yippee!).
Contemplated getting rid of most of the categories for blog links and sticking the majority under “More Blogs”, with Highland Park Blogs still existing. Decided to leave as is for now. Hint: two of the bloggers under “Jewish Blogs” are also Highland Park residents, but they don’t blog much about our borough.
I plan to post a text-based virtual walking tour of Highland Park soon. Meanwhile, be sure to visit the environmental virtual tour. I started redoing that start page of the tour in Flash, but I was two-thirds of the way done and got interrupted by my paid work. When I finally had time to get back to it, Actionscript 2 had been replaced as the standard by Actionscript 3. So I haven’t had the energy to get back to that project yet.
Arnold Clayton Henderson, the wonderful writer of Highland Park Environmental News has been away, but I did find out that Edison’s Triple C Ranch is holding their annual CBC today. Birding is popular in this area!
Attention local history buffs! Here’s a book you won’t want to miss:
Voices of Etz Ahaim. Nathan Reiss and Seth Rubenstein paired up to create a wonderful collection of biographies of many of the diverse congregants of Congregation Etz Ahaim, a Sephardi Orthodox synagogue in Highland Park, New Jersey.
Learn about how Rabbi David Bassous was born in India, grew up in London, became a rabbi in Israel, had his first pulpit in Vancouver, and then came to Highland Park. Liselle (Elisheva) Badache grew up in war-torn Algeria. Behzad Hakakian, brother of Roya Hakakian, speaks of growing up Jewish in Iran. One of the oldest members of Etz Ahaim, Al Benzilio, whose parents were from Salonika, reports on the original building in New Brunswick, and how the synagogue was named after one in Salonika.
Pictures enhance each of the biographies. Twenty two people of varying ages and backgrounds were interviewed for the book.
The book is available via the Etz Ahaim website, store.etzahaim.org; from there, click on ‘Books and CDs’ to order the book. There is one copy in the reference section of the Highland Park Public Library.
Hear ye, hear ye! What was your favorite Highland Park story of the year?
The Highland Park Mirror is asking you to vote on your favorite story of the year. Cleverly, these are called the Readers’ Joyce Awards. Must have something to do with Joyce Kilmer.
So, what was your favorite story? The top story for me was the library budget cuts. But I was tempted to vote for the closing of the ‘Y’. All my children attended nursery school there, and we enjoyed swimming in the pool. Now there is no pool in Highland Park! When the Aguda dug a big hole for its new building last summer, some of us remarked how it was about the right size for a community pool. RPRY now has a beautiful outdoor pool for the day camp; couldn’t we women have a women’s hour in the summer, even if it’s just once a week?
While the New Jersey legislature has spent time recently on flu vaccines for pre-schoolers (grrr!), last summer they cut many a library budget across New Jersey.
So our local Highland Park Public Library has been coming up with creative ways to fund books, public programs and general library expenses. If you visit the website, you will find a mail-in donation form, which is the most basic way you can support the library. One benefit to businesses for supporting the library may be a link to your website. For example, Turtle Light Press has a link on the Contributors’ page for all the great work Rick Black has done for the library.
Another fundraiser will be the Highland Park Teen Film Festival on January 27. T-shirts from the film festival will be available for purchase, a great way to support the wonderful teen programs at the library. The film festival itself is free. And a certain talented offspring of mine will debut his mystery movies.
Can you tell us any unique ways your library has raised funds? Thanks!
