Dunetz on Arafat’s death Page 4 Who’s in the Kitchen urges us to dive right in Page 7 LIFE film festival features Kinderblock 66 Page 10 Bookworm: 1788 and the 17th of Tammuz Page 11
THE JEWISH
STAR
VOL 11, NO 27 ■ JULY 13, 2012 /23 TAMMUZ 5772
Swastika at Point Lookout
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Following Boruch
By Malka Eisenberg A Fourth Precinct police officer discovered a three foot by three foot swastika drawn in white chalk in the roadway in Point Lookout this Saturday while on routine patrol. At 5:05 A.M. the officer noticed five large orange traffic cones blocking off traffic at Lido Boulevard and Glenwood Avenue. He left his vehicle and saw the swastika and obscenities and offensive slogans chalked on the road there. “It’s being investigated,” said Lieutenant Gary Shapiro, Hate Crimes Coordinator for the Nassau County Police Department and Commanding Officer of Community Affairs. He noted that if someone draws a swastika “in a public place or private property without permission of the owner” it is considered “aggravated harassment in the first degree and in New York State it is an E felony.” According to the New York State Criminal Courts site, a felony is “an offense for which a sentence to a term of imprisonment in excess of one year may be imposed.” Felonies are divided into five categories, “Class A felonies carry the longest jail sentences and class E felonies carry the shortest jail sentences for felony cases.” “I keep hate crime statistics and over ten years I do not see any similar occurrence in the Point Lookout area,” said Shapiro. “It’s an isolated end of the island, the beginning of the barrier beach of Long Beach. Someone in that area knows who did it. It’s a small community. We have to identify the young people who did it and identify the reasons, what the motivations were. That’s the trick here. It’s an objectionable occurrence and we are taking it seriously.” He recalled incidents of graffiti and swastikas in Lido in 2007 and 2008. “It’s troubling,” he said. “It’s a symbol of hate.” They are investigating it as a possible hate crime, he said, noting that they have to find the perpetrators and find out “why they do it” and that it’s a “variety of reasons. One side, it’s for attention, the other side, it’s real extreme hate.” “We are encouraging the public to call the tip line,” he stressed. “It’s an anonymous way Continued on page 3
By Karen C. Green “In the art world people always say ‘start with and conquer what you know first before heading into different topics’. My family was the best thing I knew,” says filmmaker Paula Finkelstein Eiselt, referring to her maternal uncle Boruch, the inspiration for the upcoming documentary “Followng Boruch.” Eiselt, a native of Merrick and Woodmere, is a HAFTR alum and a 2008 graduate of the prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts filmmaking program. “Following Boruch” is a feature length verite documentary that intertwines observational and interview footage to tell the story of Boruch, a forty-seven-yearold Hasidic man from Brooklyn, who after battling alcoholism, and drug addiction, as well as mental illness, for over thirty years, is sober and eager to live the life he never had. Eiselt and crew accumulated over 170 hours of film during the course of the 15 months that they followed him in his day-to-day life. While the film focuses on the Chasidish community, it’s through Boruch’s journey that people learn about topics of addiction and mental illness. “It’s through the specific that we learn about the universal,” noted Eiselt. In a candid discussion about her film, Eiselt explains the timing of film’s inception. “I made this film when Boruch decided to pursue a job and family for the first time in his life. Despite having an 18 month old at home and becoming pregnant with my second, I picked up my camera to capture this crucial turning point.“ In the midst of filming, Boruch suffers the loss of his father, a potential trigger for a relapse. At the formative age of 11, Boruch, living in Elmont with his parents and two siblings, started hanging out with the wrong crowd. His drug use started and he attempted suicide. He became observant at 13 through NCSY and in a series of changes transferred from public school to HANC to Rabbi Riskin’s school and then finally to
Photo courtesu Paula Eiselt
Paula Finklestein Eiselt welcomes support from the community for this very powerful and personal project and looks forward to the film’s upcoming release. Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. His faith was becoming rock solid but from 18 to 25 alcohol, and drugs took the forefront and he couldn’t reconcile the two worlds. Despite his trials and tribulations his faith was unwavering. He was dually diagnosed with addiction and mental illness. His treatment took especially long, noted Eiselt, as “the world wasn’t accepting of bipolar disorder. “ Suffering through a series of very poor
Shabbat Candlelighting: 8:07 p.m. Shabbat ends 9:13 p.m. 72 minute zman 9:37 p.m. Torah Reading Parshat Pinchus Shabbat Mevorchim
mental health counseling, (being told once that his addictions were character defects) ,“it wasn’t until he came to Ohel, that everything clicked for him,” said Eiselt. “He was able to maintain his religious observance, and focus on his recovery.” Prior to that, he often used his religious observance as an obstacle for why he was unable to enter into a rehabilitation program. Eiselt points out how compelling Boruch’s story Continued on page 2
HaChodesh Av
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