Keeping to their word to increase the police presence in Jewish communities in New York City, the NYPD Chief of Community Affairs, Jeffrey Maddrey, took a few hours out of his busy schedule to personally walk the streets of Flabush this week. It was an incredible visit, as the Chief was joined by two dozen Officers of the NYPD Brass. Every Commanding Officer from the local precincts, as well as the Commanding Officer of Community Affairs Outreach, Deputy Inspector Richie Taylor was there. From the Jewish community, the Chief was joined by Flatbush Shomrim Coordinator Tzvi Weil, Flatbush Hatzolah Coordinator Moshe Wulliger, Councilman Kalman Yeger, Senator Simcha Felder, Yehuda Eckstein, Police Liaison, Josh Mehlman from the FJCC and many others.

A tourist from New York was knocked to the ground along the Las Vegas Strip in broad daylight, Monday. Paul Lebowitz, a NYC EMT, said he was clearly targeted for being Jewish. Lebowitz said what started as a calm conversation at a coffee shop with a stranger, turned to a nasty gash on the back of his head. “We talked about Israel-Palestine until he said, ‘the Jews are not going to exist’ and I said, ‘I’m a proud Jew.’ That’s when it got violent,” Lebowitz said. The 67-year-old Lebowitz wore his Star of David neckless as the pair walked outside Eataly restaurant at Park MGM. The conversation escalated as they went along and then turned violent. “He yells out, ‘baby killers!’ Puts his hand to my face and throws me to the ground. I fell back. I smacked my head,” Lebowitz recalled.

A “pro-Israel” rally scheduled for Flatbush this Thursday has the potential to have serious implications for the local Jewish community in Flatbush and elsewhere. The rally was announced by an anonymous person on social media, someone who clearly lacks the guts to sign their name on the flyer. It calls for a car rally on Coney Island Avenue near Avenue J, just two blocks away from a major Mosque and a huge Muslim community. What this reckless individual doesn’t seem to know or care about, is the delicate peaceful coexistence both community’s have enjoyed living side by side in harmony for decades. That this unidentified person would choose to put the safety and well-being of the Orthodox community at this moment of fear and tension at risk demands explanation and repudiation.

Following an op-ed published by the YWN Editorial Board blasting the reckless actions of an anonymous organizer, a pro-Israel car rally which was scheduled for Thursday in the heart of Flatbush, has been cancelled. The organizer reached out to YWN requesting that we publicize that the rally has been cancelled at his request.
The post BREAKING: Organizer of Flatbush Pro-Israel Car Rally Cancels Event appeared first on The Yeshiva World.

Nine current and former New York City Department of Correction workers were arrested Wednesday on charges alleging they took cash bribes to smuggle items including razor blades, drugs and alcohol into city jails in the last two years. U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan said the workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes. “This alleged activity violated the defendants’ duties, and endangered the inmates they were charged to supervise and guard,” Strauss said in a release. Seven individuals, ranging in age from 25 to 60, were arrested in New York, one in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia based on indictments returned against seven men and two women in Manhattan federal court.

Vaccinated kids aged 12 to 17 will have a chance to win a full ride to public universities and colleges in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. The governor said the state will raffle off 50 scholarships, which would cover four years of tuition, room and board, books and supplies. New York will hold weekly drawings on Wednesdays to randomly select 10 winners. Parents or guardians can enter children who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine since May 12. Schools across the country are using mascots, food trucks and prize giveaways to try to get kids vaccinated before school lets out for the summer. Cuomo said children who get vaccinated earlier will have the best chance at winning.

Today, following a recent report that a man pledged to commit more violent hate crimes after he is released from jail for assaulting a Jewish man in Midtown, mayoral candidate Andrew Yang released the following statement: “Releasing someone who not only committed one heinous and violent anti-Semitic hate crime, but showed no remorse and pledged to do so again, is unconscionable. “Every single day, we see hateful acts go unchecked that lead to violence on our streets and in our subways. Verbal attacks one day escalate to brutal assaults the next. Considering the unprecedented and devastating recent spike in hate crimes against Jewish, Muslim and Asian New Yorkers across the City, it’s clear we need to exempt hate crimes from the bail reform measures enacted by the State last year.

Following an arrest on Tuesday of a suspect in in hate crimes that occurred in Boro Park and Flatbush this past Shabbos, two additional suspects were taken into custody by the NYPD on Wednesday. Their names and exact charges will be published when they become available to YWN. On Tuesday, YWN reported the arrest of Daniel Shaukat, 20-year-old male of 2262 65 Street, Brooklyn, NY. He was charged with Aggravated Harassment / Hate Crime. As YWN reported, two hate crimes took place on Shabbos afternoon. The first was on Ocean Parkway and 18th Avenue, when two Yeshiva boys were attacked by a group of three teens who were driving a Toyota Camry.

U.S. prosecutors in 2019 sought the electronic messages of two ex-Ukrainian government officials and a Ukrainian businessman as part of their probe of Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in that country, a lawyer accidentally revealed in a court filing Tuesday. The filing said federal prosecutors in New York had obtained an email account believed to belong to the former prosecutor general of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko. It said prosecutors accessed Lutsenko’s account around the same time that investigators also got access to Giuliani’s Apple iCloud account. Lutsenko was a key figure in Giuliani’s efforts to press Ukraine for an investigation into then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

The Crown Heights Jewish Community held a meeting with NYC Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams on Thursday, where the highly influential community leaders threw their full support behind the candidate. Extremely credible sources tell YWN that there are some significant developments in other Jewish communities around NYC, where some major endorsements are expected for Eric Adams in the next few days. Meanwhile, late Tuesday night the NY Post published a poll that shows Eric Adams as the frontrunner in the race for Mayor. Eighteen percent of likely Democratic voters said they were backing or leaning toward Adams, followed by 13 percent for Yang and 11 percent for Garcia, in the Fontas/Core Decision Analytics survey.