__________________ Merrick _________________
SPRING FORWARD at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Remember to change your smoke detector batteries.
HERALD Infections as of March 7
6,743
CoMMuNIty uPDAtE
Infections as of Feb. 26 6,422
$1.00 $1.00
Guilty plea in Grabelsky slaying
Chamber installs board members
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MARCH 11 - 17, 2021
Vol. 24 No. 11
Former MFD captain dies at age 78 Stress put on the jacket. “Bill was very detail-oriented, calm, and he tried to instill that The radio scanner that blared in you,” Stress said. “Working in from inside Kim Sheridan’s the community, you’re dealing childhood home in Merrick was with your own neighbors at so constant, she said, she times, and he always said to preassumed everyone else had one pare yourself . . . to handle emerin their house, too. It would alert gencies with real people . . . and her father, volunact as best as you teer firefighter can under the cirWilliam Babcock, cumstances.” when a call came Fo u r ye a r s in. after his stint as Sheridan said captain, Babcock that growing up became involved so close to Friendwith the Nassau ship Engine & County Fire SerHose Co. 2 headvice Academy in quarters, on May 1984. That Meadowbrook S e p t e m b e r, h e Road, gave way to earned a firematic a lifetime of memteaching degree ories that she and WIllIAM BABCoCk from the Universiher siblings ty of the State of shared with their New York Educafather, who died on Feb. 19 at age tion Department, and began 78. passing his knowledge on to genAlthough Babcock was born erations of firefighters. and raised in Brooklyn, he spent “He was a natural instructor the last 50 years of his life in and educator,” said Lee Babcock, Merrick with his wife, Jan. For Bill’s daughter. “He was first 47 of those years, he volunteered deputy chief of the academy by with the Merrick Fire Depart- the time he retired in 2013.” ment, climbing the ranks along “The academy takes in volunthe way. He joined Friendship on teers from 71 fire departments in July 2, 1974, and became captain in 1980, the same year that Kevin Continued on page 3
By AlyssA sEIDMAN aseidman@liherald.com
Andrew Garcia/Herald
ERIC sPINNER, FAR left, JWV Commander Gary Glick and former Commander David Zwerin hosted the post’s first Veterans Resource Fair early last year. This year, the post will mark the 125th anniversary of the organization.
Jewish War Veterans mark group’s 125th anniversary By ANDREW GARCIA agarcia@liherald.com
This year, Jewish War Veterans Post 652 of Merrick, which has members from across Nassau County, will celebrate the 125th anniversary of the JWV organization. What started in 1896 as a group of veterans who wanted to disprove falsehoods that Jewish men did not serve in the Civil War is now the longest-functioning national veterans service organization in
the country. Anti-Semitic remarks drove the JWV’s 63 fo u n d e r s t o fo r m wh at became a legacy — and those remarks, which are still prevalent today, are a large part of what drives Commander Gary Glick to lead Merrick’s post. “History repeats itself, and we’re afraid of that,” Glick said. “People really believed no Jews fought in the Civil War, when thousands upon thousands died.” “We’re trying to [commem-
orate] this, especially in light of continuing anti-Semitism,” JWV member Eric Spinner said. Glick recalled his own confrontations with prejudice: pervasive racism in the United States and abroad in other countries, such as Germany. “I thought the war was over, but it wasn’t,” he said. “That’s why I got wrapped up even more in the JWV — besides being the minority, we were always persecuted.” Continued on page 10