The Week In News
MAY 2, 2019 | The Jewish Home
Tragedy in Poway On the last day of yom tov, the tranquil chanting of the Torah reading was cut short when a terrorist entered into the Chabad shul in Poway near San Diego, California, and opened fire. Rabbi Yisrael Goldstein said that he left the main part of the shul to prepare for the haftorah when the gunman opened fire. “Here is a young man with a rifle, pointing right at me,” Rabbi Goldstein recounted. “And I look at him. He has sunglasses on. I couldn’t see his eyes. I couldn’t see his soul. I froze.”
Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, attempted to shield the rabbi with her body during the attack. She was killed al kiddush Hashem. Three others were injured in the attack, including Rabbi Goldstein, who lost a few fingers. Eight-year-old Israeli girl Noya Dahan and her uncle, Almog Peretz, both suffered leg wounds in the attack but were released from the hospital. They had moved to California from Israel to escape Hamas rockets targeting their home. “For those of us who know Lori, she is a person of unconditional love,” Rabbi Goldstein said. “I have known her for close to 25 years and she was a pioneer member of our congregation. She used to work for Wells Fargo ... and she helped secure us the loan for [the synagogue]. She was the one who always went out of her way for those in need.” The shooting only ended after Jonathan Morales, an armed off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent, and U.S. Army veteran Oscar Stewart screamed at the 19-year-old gunman John Earnest to put his gun down. They fired upon him and he fled. Stewart caught up with the gunman in his car and banged on his window before the terrorist ran away. The murderer eventually surrendered to police. A white nationalist who hated President Trump for being too friendly to Jews, Earnest faces one count of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree attempted murder. Rabbi Goldstein had asked Morales to come to prayers armed “just in case” something nefarious occurred in the Chabad house. “Morales recently discovered his Jewish roots. He would travel three and a half hours from [the California town of] El
Centro to pray with us at our shul,” Rabbi Goldstein said. “He felt this was his house of worship. And many times I said, ‘Jonathan, you work for the border patrol. Please arm yourself when you are here; we never know when we will need it.’” Hannah Kaye, who spoke at her mother’s levaya this week, said that Lori was known for her chessed. She would drive hours to visit a sick friend. She bought six months’ worth of medication for someone without insurance. She left her freshly baked challah in mailboxes and on doorsteps all over town and would buy extra bagels and coffee during her morning routine to be able to give them away. “Her light has reached all crevices of this planet,” 22-year-old Hannah said about her mother. “Everyone was her sister, everyone was her trusted confidante,” Hannah added. “Everyone was her friend.” “She had a soul that was greater than any of us ever could believe,” said her husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, at the levaya. He urged people to learn more about Judaism and to help others. Dr. Kaye performed CPR on his wife after she was shot. He did not know it was his wife he was attempting to save when he ran to help.
dot the United States. Bloch would become the face of the company. Appearing before shareholders and in advertisements for the company, Bloch became known to the public as the person who popularized the slogan “Don’t face the laws alone.” Following his passing, H&R Block’s current CEO Jeff Jacobs invoked Bloch’s “honesty and integrity” in a statement eulogizing his company’s founder. “Henry embodied the best of American business, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. His vision lives on through H&R Block associates and the many philanthropic organizations that he supported,” he said. Bloch was also renowned for his charitable giving to Jewish causes. Through the foundation he founded with his wife, the business mogul supported a wide array of Jewish institutions, including the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, the American Jewish Committee, Jewish Family Services, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.
Search Warrants for Baltimore Mayor
Jewish Founder of H&R Block Passes Away
Henry Bloch, a known Jewish philanthropist who co-founded tax giant H&R Block, passed away last week in Kansas City. He was 96. Born to a middle-class Jewish family in Kansas City, Bloch later joined the Army Air Corps and flew dozens of missions over Germany during World War II. Following his discharge, Bloch studied at Harvard Business School and opened up a small-time bookkeeping business. The business proved popular, and Bloch soon branched out into tax preparation services. A decision soon after by the IRS to scrap its free tax-prep service caused Bloch to be swamped with customers, and he decided to go into the field full-time. In 1955, Henry and his brother Richard founded H&R Block. The decision to call it “Block” and not their original surname stemmed from a desire to make the company more American. The business exploded; within seven years H&R Block went public and today more than 12,000 branches
On Thursday, federal authorities executed search warrants against the home and several locations tied to Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is embroiled in a scandal over whether she improperly profited from a book deal with a Maryland medical system while she served on its board. The FBI and criminal investigators from the Internal Revenue Service executed court-authorized search warrants at the home of the Democratic mayor, a second residence she owns, city hall, a non-profit the mayor has worked with, and the downtown office of her attorney. The home of Gary Brown, a former Pugh aide, was also searched. As of now the FBI has made no arrests, although Pugh has taken a leave of absence from being mayor. While Pugh was a board member of the University of Maryland Medical System, the group spent $500,000 to fund the purchase of some 100,000 children’s books Pugh authored. Pugh apologized in March for having “done something to upset the people.” Baltimore’s city council has called for Pugh to resign, and Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who earlier this month asked the Office of the State Prosecutor to investigate the scandal, echoed those calls shortly after the raids Thursday morning. Pugh recently returned $100,000 to
the medical system and canceled her book deal. She has also resigned from the hospital’s board, according to Schwartzberg. Pugh also received about $114,000 from Kaiser Permanente for some 20,000 books from 2015 to 2018, according to the health care provider. Kaiser Permanente said it delivered the books to back-to-school fairs, elementary schools, communities of faith and early childhood education and care centers. Additionally, Associated Black Charities, a public foundation that works to encourage healthier and more prosperous communities, said it spent approximately $80,000 between 2011 and 2016 to buy some 10,000 copies of Pugh’s books – a project the organization learned about while she was still a state senator.
Joe Jumps In Former Vice President Joe Biden officially threw his hat into the presidential ring last Thursday, the latest in a crowded field vying to be Democratic Party’s 2020 contender to take on Donald Trump. Biden announced his candidacy in a video he shared on social media. Calling the 2020 race “a battle for the soul of the country,” Biden detailed a long list of incidents, including Trump’s response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville in 2017, to allege that he was unfit to stay in the White House. “In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in our lifetime,” Biden said. “The core values of this nation – our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America – is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.” Trump responded to Biden’s announcement by mocking the former vice president as “Sleepy Joe” and questioned his intelligence. “I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign,” Trump tweeted. “It will be nasty – you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!” The 2020 race is the third time the former vice president and U.S. senator from Delaware is trying to become the nation’s highest elected official, as he previously ran in 2008 and 1988. The 76-year old Biden has emerged as a strong favorite in the 20-candidate pack of candidates and has already earned the endorsements of Democratic Senators Chris Coons of Delaware, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Doug Jones of Alabama. The $6.9 million Biden raised during his first day as a candidate is also more than any other candidate as the veteran politico looks to battle Trump in the white working-class states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
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