SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Richard Landman and representatives from the Roma community unveiled the new stone honoring Roma and Sinti victims at a May 5 ceremony.

Salgado (Source: Erick Salgado for Mayor)

Long-shot mayoral candidate Erick Salgado is entering the fray over Sheepshead Bay’s Holocaust Memorial Park, blasting the Parks Department for allowing the addition of stones memorializing non-Jewish victims.

A press release issued last week to Russian and Jewish news outlets but obtained by Sheepshead Bites quotes Salgado calling the installation of five new stones for non-Jewish victims “a betrayal of the community and even worse, disrespectful to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.”

The stones, which honor groups including the disabled, Roma, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses, were dedicated during a May 5 ceremony marred by a protest led by City Council candidate and Holocaust Memorial Committee member Ari Kagan. The protesters claimed that the group of activists who successfully pushed the new stones through had pulled an end-run around the committee, by going through the Parks Department.

Richard Landman, the gay son of Holocaust survivors who spearheaded the initiative for the stones, said that those allegations are phony, and that he had attempted to go through the committee and was repeatedly denied – with no explanation – over the course of 15 years. Landman, an attorney, complained to the city that the committee’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious,” and in violation of the state constitution. The Parks Department established an appeals process for the memorial as a result, and created a Blue Ribbon advisory panel to review Landman’s request – ultimately greenlighting it.

The stones were installed in June 2012, and dedicated on May 5, 2013.

But Salgado, a conservative reverend from Staten Island, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, sided with Kagan and the committee, claiming that the Parks Department should have ceded the decision on the stones to the local committee, in accordance with their Memorandum of Understanding.

“It is of great concern that a bureaucracy such as the Parks Department would take action that is counter to the community’s wishes, especially when it involves the memory of the six million who perished in the Holocaust and the thousands of Holocaust survivors and their families who visit the memorial each year,” Salgado said. “Was the proper decision pushed to the side by political concerns?”

Here’s the press release in full:

May 8, 2013

Mayoral Candidate Erick Salgado Blasts Parks Department’s Action

Controversial Memorial Stones Installed in Holocaust Memorial Park Without Community’s Approval

Mayoral Candidate Erick Salgado has termed the New York City Parks Department’s move to install five controversial memorial stones in Sheepshead Bay’s Holocaust Memorial Park, “a betrayal of the community and even worse, disrespectful to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.”

Salgado was referring to the Parks Department’s installation of large stones with inscriptions memorializing such groups as asocial elements (alcoholics and lesbians), political prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals. The inclusion of these stones was contrary to the wishes of the Board of the Holocaust Memorial Committee, which under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Parks Department has been administering the memorial since its dedication in 1997.

The five stones were installed unceremoniously last July, but an unveiling ceremony was held Sunday by several organizations from outside the community.

“It is of great concern that a bureaucracy such as the Parks Department would take action that is counter to the community’s wishes, especially when it involves the memory of the six million who perished in the Holocaust and the thousands of Holocaust survivors and their families who visit the memorial each year. Was the proper decision pushed to the side by political concerns?” Salgado asked.

A group of activists unveiled five new stones memorializing non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust at Sheepshead Bay’s Holocaust Memorial Park this weekend, capping off nearly two decades of fighting for the right against a local committee opposed to the installation.

The stones, dispersed throughout the public park, remember the persecution of homosexual victims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled, Roma and Sinti, and “asocials.” The unveiling ended nearly 20 years of struggle for broader recognition within the park. Members of the Holocaust Memorial Committee, charged with reviewing and approving the placement of new names and markers, held a protest led by City Council candidate Ari Kagan, who complained that the group of “outsiders” went over the committee’s head in getting approval to place the stone, and represented a threat to the memory of Jewish victims.

Keep reading, and view photos of the event and the new stones.

Kings Bay Y teens light candles in honor of the Holocaust’s victims. (Photo by Erica Sherman)

Approximately 100 community leaders, clergy, neighbors and Holocaust survivors gathered on Sunday, April 14, for the Annual Holocaust Commemoration Program held at the Kings Bay YM-YWHA, located at 3495 Nostrand Avenue.

The annual event, which organizers describe as “solemn yet uplifting,” honors the memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust and to rally around the notion of “Never Again.”

Rabbi Melvin I. Burg of the Ocean Avenue Jewish Center led a touching presentation recognizing Jewish heroes from the tragic event. The event also included a candle-lighting ceremony and special performances by the Kings Bay Y Tween Knafayim and the Madison Jewish Center Junior Choir.

View photos from the touching event.

Jewish and Turkish-Muslim teenagers come together to share experiences through the Peace Builders program. (Source: youngpeacebuilders.org)

In New York, people of all races, religions and opinions are crammed together in a vibrant democracy that has forged a unique situation never seen before in world history. Still, even in a place as diverse as New York, we can still find ourselves divided by color, ethnicity or religious beliefs, a painful reinforcement of centuries old barriers of intolerance. That’s what makes the Young Peace Builders (YPB) of Southern Brooklyn so special. The Young Peace Builders is an organization that consists of teenage Muslims and Jews working together to improve their community.

The Young Peace Builders program was launched three years ago as a cooperative effort by the Kings Bay Y (3495 Nostrand Avenue), a Jewish Community Center, and the Amity School (3867 Shore Parkway), a K-12 school that predominantly serves a Turkish-Muslim student body. The program, recently covered by the Jewish Week, so far for girls only, primarily serves as a symbol for an increased linking between Muslim and Jewish groups in the area as well as a training ground for future leaders in the area of interfaith cooperation.

“This can serve as a template for Jewish-Muslim relationships,” said Leonard Petlakh, executive director of the Kings Bay Y. Rabbi Robert Kaplan, who coordinates the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York City’s outreach to various religious and ethnic groups, calls the Y and Amity School “mainstream organizations … within their [respective] communities,” with the ability to influence their own communities. “There is no reason there should not be more and more” Jewish-Muslim programs like those in southern Brooklyn.

The Jewish Week also described how a large amount of credit for the group’s existence belongs to Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz:

The two religious groups, who were neighbors but virtual strangers to each other, were brought together by State Assembly member Steven Cymbrowitz, whose district includes Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach and part of Brighton Beach; his constituents are Jews and Turkish Muslims. After participating in a legislators’ mission to Turkey a few years ago, he brought leaders of his neighborhood’s Jewish and Turkish communities together.

“It’s through education that we can get to understand each other,” Cymbrowitz told The Jewish Week.

Through the YPB, Jewish and Muslim teens have gone on trips to Israel, Turkey, Boston and Washington DC. On these trips, the teenagers have shared hotel rooms, prepared each other’s meals and celebrated religious holidays together. Teenager Hayrunnisa Kalac expressed the hope that the founders of the program hoped to instill in all its participants.

“We’re planting the seeds of something that can be very big” — an example of tolerance, Kalac told the Jewish Week.

Inspiring stuff and a great read. Check out the full article by clicking here and read more about the Young Peace Builders and their mission by clicking here.

Correction (1:47 p.m.): The original version of this article erroneously referred to the name of the organization as Young Peace Keepers instead of their actual name, Young Peace Builders. We regret the mistake, and any confusion it may have caused.

Click to enlarge

It’s official: Chaim Deutsch, an aide to Councilman Michael Nelson and founder of the Flatbush Shomrim, formally announced his campaign today in an e-mail to press and supporters.

The letter states:

Dear friends,

With the support and encouragement of my wife, children, family and friends, I am excited to inform you that I am officially running for the New York City Council seat in the 48th District. For over two decades I have worked, both as a professional and a volunteer, on behalf of the community. I believe that the 48th Council District needs a strong advocate in the City Council and I am proud to have worked with so many of you, to make our neighborhoods safer and improve the quality of life for all. Affordable housing, education, safe streets, and care for our seniors are just some of the issues that concern all of us. Together, we have accomplished a lot but there is still so much more to achieve.

I hope you will join me as our campaign kicks-off in the very near future. Details to follow…

I look forward to your continued friendship and support, it means everything to me.

Warmest regards,

Chaim

Deutsch, a Midwood resident with roots in the Orthodox Jewish community, has long been considered a likely candidate for the seat to replace Nelson. He declined to confirm his run as district lines were being redrawn, and was a local opponent of plans to redraw the district with an increase in Russian-American voters and a decrease in Orthodox Jewish voters. Despite the opposition from Deutsch and his supporters, the plans stood with minor changes.

Deutsch will face off against Ari Kagan, Igor Oberman, Theresa Scavo, Michael Treybich and Natraj Bhushan in the Democratic primaries. He is expected to have the backing of Councilman Nelson.

Former State Senator David Storobin is considered a likely Republican contender, and has already received the support of the Conservative Party.

One of the Holocaust’s most enduring images, of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which occurred 70 years ago today. Source: Wikipedia

Tonight at 6:54 p.m. begins the first night of the eight day Jewish holiday of Passover. There is no doubt that many of us, this time of year, have sat around a seder table with our loved ones — whether they are our family members or closest friends — and helped to retell the story of the enslaved Israelites’ exodus from ancient Egypt, whose Hebrew name, Mitzrayim, refers to a narrow, constricted place. Indeed, for the Hebrew slaves forced to build pyramids for the Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses, Egypt was a burdensome land of constriction.

Armed with our time-honored Maxwell House Passover Hagaddah, even the most secular of Jews has taken turns re-living the biblical story of Exodus. While we are commanded to never forget the story of how a reluctant, speech-impaired Moses led the Israelites through the Sinai wilderness to the Promised Land (though Moses himself was not permitted to enter), many of us can relate to the tale’s more universal, contemporary themes of enslavement.

How many of us are slaves to our jobs, our computers, or our smart phones, or are obsequious to deadlines, manipulative relationships, or even — don’t laugh — food? Personally, I am subservient to a gigantic Katz’s pastrami sandwich, though for the next eight days I would have to eat it on boards of intestinal-blocking matzoh, instead of bread, verboten foodstuff during this eight-day festival. There is a reason why matzoh is called the “Bread of Affliction.” Oy.

For those of you who feel enslaved to anything at all in your lives… whether it is the twinkling eyes and irresistible smile of the cheating boyfriend / girlfriend you think you can’t live without; a huge, honkin’ slab of Junior’s cheesecake, or compulsively checking to see who just left you a comment on Facebook…

Stop.

Now is the time to slow down (unless of course you have some angry Egyptians on fiery chariots chasing after you), take personal inventory, and just ‘Be.’ I’m not saying shut off your phones and step away from the computer — though, yes, if you are religious, you might want to do those things — but, stop, and reflect upon your freedom. Relish it.

Freedom is something many of us tend to take for granted here in the United States, since a lot of us have not experienced what it’s like to not have it. So that’s your assignment this Passover: Ponder the meaning of freedom (I’m talking to you, Mayor “Taker Awayer Of Things” Bloomberg!) And while the more religious among you give thanks to Hashem, all of us, throughout the year, should thank the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, and who defend our nation so that we never have to know what it is like to live without freedom.

Tonight also marks the 70th anniversary of the brave uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto:

“…the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, inspired by the Passover story, rose up against the Nazis and demonstrated that a struggling community of half-starved Jews had the power to hold out longer than countries like Poland and France against the Nazis oppressors.”

“Thus, in honor of the brave Jewish resistance fighters, a passage was written for Jews around the world to read during their Seders: ‘On this night of the Passover Seder, when G-d redeemed the Jewish people from slavery and oppression in Egypt, we recall that night, 70 years ago, the first night of Passover 1943, when the Germans assaulted the Warsaw Ghetto. On that Seder night the remnants of the Ghetto, the remnants of the Jews of Warsaw, the remnants of the 1,000 year old Polish-Jewish community rose up against evil and the enemy. Imbued with the call of Moses, they too declared, ‘Let my people go!’’

May their brave sacrifices and struggles for enduring freedom never be forgotten.

To all who observe, and to all who cherish freedom: Chag kasher v’sameach, a Kosher and joyful holiday, and a zisen Pesach, a sweet Passover.

A traditional Passover seder table. Source: Wikipedia

Five hundred needy people and seniors will join the Be Proud Foundation and friends during the fourth annual Passover Food Distribution at Aqua Health Rehabilitation Center, 2753 Coney Island Avenue, Thursday, March 21 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

According to Raisa Chernina, founder of the Be Proud Foundation, a non-profit organization started by immigrants from the Russian-speaking community:

“Passover is the best time for us to show that we care about our neighbors. By giving out food we are going to share our happiness with those people who count on us more than ever in this current economic climate.”

Destitute individuals looking to make a Passover seder will receive matzos, considered to symbolize salvation and deliverance, as well as other Passover foods.

To learn more, contact the Be Proud Foundation at (718) 788-7773.

Photo by Erica Sherman

The following is from an email we received from the Met Council on Jewish Poverty about Kosher for Passover food distribution this year:

For Brooklyn communities recovering from Hurricane Sandy, celebrating Passover will be a struggle this year. That’s why the Met Council on Jewish Poverty will deliver more than 2.5 million pounds of Kosher Passover food to families in need.

Many families can no longer afford the expensive Kosher food for their Passover seders and the holiday’s eight days. Last Passover, Met Council served 55,000 households — this year, following Sandy, the need is even greater.

Here are Kosher for Passover food distribution sites you can visit in our area:

• Kosher Food Distribution at JCC of Greater Coney Island, 3001 West 37th Street, Wednesday, March 20 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• Kosher Food Distribution at Shorefront JCC, 3161 Brighton 6th Street, Thursday, March 21 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

An RSVP is required for both food distribution events. To RSVP or learn more about Met Council’s food program, call (718) 763-5318, email food@metcouncil.org and visit them on the web.

Photo by Joe Comperiati

 Nearly 2,000 kids and their caretakers swarmed the Kings Bay YM-YWHA (3495 Nostrand Avenue) on Sunday, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim with costumes and other revelry.

According to the organizers, the annual Purim Carnival is the largest Purim celebration in the area, and this year’s appeared to have an even better turnout that years prior.

Kids of all ages gathered to sing, dance and celebrate the holiday, which commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from the ancient Persian empire. To kids, it’s primarily known as “Jewish Halloween,” when revelers of all ages don masks and costumes, attend parties, and treat themselves to sweets.

The party also featured rides, sand art, face painting and Purim-themed arts and crafts, pairs with free hamentashen cookies and entertainment. It was attended by Manhattan borough president and candidate for the comptroller’s office, Scott Stringer, along with Assemblyman Alan Maisel and Councilman Lew Fidler.

Check out the photos after the jump.

The Megillat (scroll of) Esther, which is read aloud every Purim. Source: Wikipedia

This weekend, our area will play host to two Purim celebrations for the entire community. Purim, oftentimes (and erroneously) referred to as the “Jewish Halloween,” tells the story of Esther, the Jewish Queen of Persian, who heroically foiled the plans of the wicked royal henchman, Haman — after whom the delicious hamantashen cookie is named — to murder all of the Jews of ancient Persia.

Congregation Israel of Kings Bay

Congregation Israel of Kings Bay invites area residents to hear a reading of Megillat Esther — the biblical “Book of Esther” (also known as “The Megillah,” the Hebrew word for scroll, upon which the Megillah is printed), immediately following Shabbat on Saturday night, February 23 at 6:45 p.m. (Shabbat ends at 6:20 p.m.)

Following the Megillah reading, there will be a Purim costume party for all ages at 7:30 p.m. There will be Hamantashen, groggers (noise-makers), Purim bags, prizes, a raffle and more. The following morning, on Purim Day, February 24, there will be a second Megillah reading at the synagogue at 8:30 a.m.

Congregation Israel of Kings Bay is located at 3903 Nostrand Avenue on the corner of Voorhies Avenue. For more information, call the synagogue at (718) 934-5176 or email Rabbi Winner at rabbiyw@yahoo.com.

The Kings Bay YM-YWHA

The Kings Bay YM-YWHA invites the entire community to its Annual Purim Carnival on Sunday, February 24 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The entire day will be filled with festivities for all ages, as the community gathers to sing, dance and celebrate this joyous day.

The celebration will feature exciting activities for the entire family. Children will enjoy rides, sand art, face painting, Purim-themed arts and crafts, carnival games and a costume contest. Free hamentashen cookies and raffle prizes will be awarded.

This Purim celebration is anticipated to be the largest in Sheepshead Bay.

The Kings Bay Y is located at 3495 Nostrand Avenue between Avenues U and V. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Alina Plotkina at (718) 648-7703 extension 224, email info@kingsbayy.org or go to www.kingsbayy.org.