Continued on

N. Hempstead building dept. to be audited

Continued from Page 1 operationally based on the decisions we make as Town Board members.”

This year the Town Board has passed numerous pieces of bipartisan legislation that focus on Building Department operations.

At the Aug. 4 meeting, Town Board members unanimously approved changes to the department’s expedited permit review process that removes the Town Board’s ability to override the department’s decisions.

The new process now allows the town’s Building Department and Planning Department commissioners to make decisions on expedited permit requests within fve business days.

The commissioners will also have added criteria to review requests before determining whether or not they should be granted an expedited permit.

Previously, applicants had to meet at least one of four criteria, which included accommodating emergency situations, furthering public interests like job creation or economic development, providing an essential service or avoiding extreme fnancial hardship to the applicant, among others.

Additional criteria on top of the previous four now include the urgency of the situation, potential danger to property and requests relat-

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERVISOR

The Nassau County Comptroller’s office announced they will perform an audit into the North Hempstead Building Department.

ing to improved access for persons with mobility impairments or disabilities, among others.

The new legislation difers slightly from the original legislation proposed by DeSena in April, which mandated the town’s Building Department commissioner, John Niewender, to make a decision on expedited permits within seven days and remove the Town Board’s ability to override the department’s decisions. The reform was initially blocked by Democrats and reintroduced at a later meeting following changes in wording that avoided potential legal obstacles.

Since then, DeSena and Lurvey have worked together on legislation to overhaul the expedited permit process.

The Town Board also unanimously passed a resolution this year that requires monthly reports from the Building Department to be given to the Town Board as opposed to annually.

At the July press conference, Lurvey detailed additional improvements the Building Department has seen since she was elected over three years ago, including more staf hires, offering extended hours to employees and installing the Citizenserve software platform.

North Hempstead is the frst municipality in the state to use Citizenserve, which provides online Building Department services for residents and can be accessed at www.mytonh.com.

First section of LIRR’s new 3rd Track opens

Continued from Page 10 terim President Catherine Rinaldi and other representatives from her ofce, making it known that the town is willing to mend allegedly “strained” relationships with the organization. DeSena said that despite a “lack of foresight and an unwillingness by previous town boards to make compromises,” she is willing to hear what mutually-benefcial agreements can be reached between the two parties.

“As discussions continue between the LIRR and the Town regarding this, I am urging the LIRR to show some good faith and restore these peak express service cuts,” DeSena said. “This can very easily be done by a few minor shifts in the proposed schedule, reestablishing Great Neck as the location for the local/express split on trains to Penn, instead of shifting it to Bayside.”

MTA spokesperson Sean Butler said the agency welcomes residential comments and concerns to better understand what changes need to be made to the proposed schedule, which will be fnalized in December, according to ofcials.

“We are pleased to be receiving so much feedback on our new schedules as part of an extensive public engagement process, including multiple public sessions, as we prepare to launch LIRR service to the East Side of Manhattan by the end of 2022,” Butler said in a statement. “The MTA’s multibillion-dollar investment in Grand Central Madison will increase service by 40%, provide hundreds of thousands of Long Island commuters with more service options, and improve both service reliability and on-time performance.”

MTA spokeswoman Joanna Flores previously said in a statement the agency is “prepared to work with the Town” to “provide even more service” on the Port Washington branch, noting that improvements would rely on the town supporting eforts to expand train storage along the line.

Pocket tracks, typically located at or near stations, are a place for trains to pull over and park without using the main tracks.

Nassau ofcials have been united in their opposition to the proposed changes. A press conference held last week in Great Neck featured bipartisan calls for the MTA to maintain the quality level of service LIRR commuters have seen for years.

“Every day, thousands of Nassau County residents depend on the Long Island Rail Road to commute to work and come home,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said. “Their new schedule plan makes it much harder for people to plan their schedule. In efect, they’re cutting service.”

Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral said the LIRR is a “lifeline” for many of the peninsula’s residents and local ofcials who work throughout New York City.

The proposed schedule changes, he said, are going to negatively afect the property values of homes along the Port Washington Line, which include parts of Plandome and North Hills. The extra few minutes each way on the train, he said, add up to hours per month when adults are away from their families.

“These are minutes that are going to pile up and become hours we are not spending with our loved ones,” Bral said. “We urge, collectively for everyone… to fght and ask the MTA… to bring us higher quality transit because we’re paying premium prices to live here.”

“It’s also a quality of life issue,” North Hills Mayor Marvin Natiss said. “If you have to go into the city and you have to spend an extra half an hour on a train or an extra 20 minutes on the train each way, it’s less time that you have to spend with your family.”

Holocaust education bill signed into law

Continued from Page 42 ing so.

“With antisemitism on the rise, and Holocaust misinformation exploding around the world, it’s never been more important that we learn the lessons of the Holocaust, and ensure our next generation knows about our history, no matter how dark or difcult the conversation may be,” Kaplan said.

The Holocaust is one of three tragedies mentioned by name in the law and mandated to be taught, with the other two being slavery and the mass starvation in Ireland from 1845 to 1850.

Kaplan said that a recent study by the nonproft Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany revealed that 58% of New Yorkers aged 18 to 39 cannot name a single concentration camp, that 19% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust and that 28% believe the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated. In each of these three metrics, New York had the worst score of any state in the country.

Recent fndings published by the AntiDefamation League found that antisemitic attacks throughout Long Island increased by 23% percent last year, with 32 incidents reported throughout Nassau County.

The local increase of antisemitic incidents refects a larger statewide trend. A total of 416 antisemitic incidents were reported throughout New York in 2021, a 24% increase from 2020, according to statistics.

Statistics showed New York’s rise in antisemitic incidents last year accounted for 15% of such incidents throughout the entire country in 2021. New York’s statistics were comprised of 183 harassment incidents, 182 vandalism incidents and 161 incidents involving swastikas.

Scott Richman, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey, said the rise in antisemitic instances should be a cause of concern for everyone, not just those within the Jewish community.

“The fact that these incidents included an unprecedented number of vicious assaults – frequently targeting visibly Jewish individuals on the streets of New York, including young children, is incredibly disturbing,” Richman said in a statement.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the AntiDefamation League, stressed the importance of understanding history to efectively combat racism, intolerance and other forms of hate in the United States during a virtual forum with Blank Slate Media earlier this year.

“If we want to address racism and hate, we need to make sure we understand where we’re coming from, so we know where we’re going,” Greenblatt said.

Social media, he said, plays a large role in fueling the fre that projects antisemitism and other forms of hate onto diferent individuals and groups. Algorithms on sites such as Facebook that are engineered to “drive clicks,” he said, result in the amplifcation of hatred.

“Social media is a superspreader of extremism and intolerance, from Facebook, to Twitter, to TikTok,” Greenblatt said. “The level of antipathy that it enables and how it amplifes the worst voices, algorithmically elevates them.”

The North Shore has seen a fair share of antisemitic and anti-Asian instances and subsequent demonstrations condemning those actions over the past two years, including a hijacking of a torah study event held via Zoom, vandalism on a local high school’s website and swastikas spraypainted on the outer walls of various structures.

SUNY O. Westbury, Kanda U. partner

SUNY Old Westbury is excited to announce a new educational cooperation agreement between the College and Kanda University of International Studies in Japan. Under this agreement, Kanda University of International Studies will send 15 undergraduate students to SUNY Old Westbury to study in various academic programs starting in the fall of 2023.

A delegation of offi cials from Kanda University of International Studies, led by its vice president, Mr. Yasuhisa Kanaguchi, visited the Old Westbury campus recently to tour the campus and meet with the College’s president, provost and other leaders before signing the agreement.

“It was our honor to host a delegation from Kanda University of International Studies to show them the power and benefi ts of the Old Westbury student experience,” said College President, Dr. Timothy E. Sams. “I thank Vice President Kanaguchi for visiting, and we look forward to hosting KUIS students in the future on our campus. Along with the educational value these students will gain from us, our campus also will benefi t greatly through their interactions with their peers and our faculty, adding their own ideas and insights into the life of our campus. ”

This is the fi rst of many new relationships the Offi ce of Global Education at SUNY Old Westbury will develop to assist with creating a global campus.

KUIS, founded in 1987, is a private university with over 4,000 students dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in international studies, foreign language, intercultural communication, Japanese culture, and linguistics. The University has over 90 international partners across the world.

Holocaust education law

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Holocaust Education Bill into law at a special ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

The bill, S.121B, by NYS Sen. Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows), would ensure that students across New York are receiving a meaningful education on the Holocaust as required by existing State law.

The bill passed the New York State Senate and Assembly with unanimous support in May of this year, and having now been signed into law, takes eff ect immediately.

Sen. Anna M. Kaplan said “With antisemitism on the rise, and Holocaust misinformation exploding around the world, it’s never been more important that we learn the lessons of the Holocaust, and ensure our next generation knows about our history, no matter how dark or diffi cult the conversation may be. It’s why I’ve fought tirelessly to pass the Holocaust Education Bill, so that we can ensure this vital history is being taught to students in New York, and so that we may never forget what happened. I’m so grateful for my partnership with Assemblymember Nily Rozic, for the leadership of Gov. Kathy Hochul, and for the countless advocates and organizations who fought alongside me since day one of this important eff ort.”

Consul General of Israel in New York Ambassador Asaf Zamir said, “This historic bill to further Holocaust education will cast light where there is now darkness, empathy where there is terrifying ignorance. Knowledge of the largest scale operation of persecution and genocide is waning, and hate has risen unchecked for too long. Protecting our history is important to the survival of not only every group targeted by genocidal fascism but to sustaining the health of democracy itself. We thank Sen. Anna Kaplan, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and Gov. Kathy Hochul for advocating to not only survey the state of Holocaust education in schools, but to facilitate its continued improvement and address its worrying decline amongst today’s youth.”

A recent study by the nonprofi t Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) revealed disturbing fi ndings about Holocaust knowledge among New Yorkers ages 18-39, including that 58% cannot name a single concentration camp, 19% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust, and 28% believe the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated. In each of these three metrics, New York had the worst score of any state in the US.

The new law written by Sen. Kaplan and Assemblywoman Rozic that was signed today will address the problem by ensuring that New York students are learning about the Holocaust in school, something that 90% of the general population considers ‘important’ or ‘somewhat important’ according to a recent study by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

The law allows the State Education Department to conduct a survey of schools to identify which schools are teaching about the Holocaust. The survey is required to be attested to by the Superintendent of Schools that they are teaching about the Holocaust appropriately at each grade level.

The survey will have questions on how the district is meeting learning standards about the Holocaust, and each school district that does not attest that they are meeting the standards will be required to issue a corrective action plan on how they plan to comply with standards. Findings of the survey will be made available to legislative leaders.

CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, Eric S. Goldstein said, “It has never been more important for students in New York to learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust. This legislation authorizes the State Education Department to conduct a survey identifying which schools are teaching this required subject matter and is a crucial step in ensuring that the critical lessons of the Holocaust are transmitted across our community. UJA-Federation of New York thanks Gov. Hochul for signing this signifi cant legislation into law, and for the tireless eff orts of Sen. Kaplan and Assemblywoman Rozic to make sure this bill passed the Legislature.”

Jewish Community Relations Council CEO Gideon Taylor said, “At a time where 60 percent of New Yorkers aged 18 to 39 are unaware that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, I congratulate Gov. Kathy Hochul for her leadership and for signing historic legislation today that ensures our children will Never Forget the bitter lessons of the Holocaust. Sincere gratitude goes to the authors of this legislation, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and Sen. Anna Kaplan.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA KAPLAN

State Sen. Anna Kaplan and colleagues join Gov. Kathy Hochul as she signs the Holocaust Education Bill into law at a special ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC.

Police goals shared at Old Westbury meeting

Continued from Page 10

Sherry said their data reveals a consistent upward trend of overtime, which shows a “too permissive atmosphere.” He also said they should document the denial of overtime or changes to the requested staffi ng level more thoroughly.

With outreach, he stressed the importance of the village continuing to increase resident communication.

“If you don’t tell the public what you’re doing, they will assume you are doing nothing,” said Sherry. “It’s very important when crime does occur, if there are patterns that become knowable, without compromising privacy or investigation, that information should be shared.”

He continued by saying that the town was already doing a good job in this area. He credited this to their website and app, both of which alert locals to events when they happen.

The next meeting will be on Sep. 19 at 7 p.m. at Village Hall.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Old Westbury’s Village Hall. A presentation outlining the objectives the village police department should follow in the future was the concluded their trustees meeting on Monday night.