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Volume XIX • Number 1 • January 12 - 18, 2012 •
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Local resident named Obama’s top aide By BRENDAN McHUGH President Obama has named Riverdale resident Jacob “Jack” Lew to be his new chief of staff. Lew, 56, is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level position and a post he also filled during the Clinton administration. He will replace William Daley. Obama named Lew as his budget office director in July 2010. Lew also has experience in Congress, having served as policy director for the late House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, a Massachusetts Democrat. Daley is leaving after just over a year on the job. He replaced Rahm Emanuel, who left the White House to run successfully for mayor of Chicago. The transition from Daley to Lew will take place at the end of this month. Lew will complete the budget proposal and Daley will oversee crafting of the State of
the Union address due in two weeks. “If there was a Hall of Fame for budget directors, then Jack Lew surely would have earned a place for his service in that role under President Clinton, when he helped balance the federal budget after years of deficits,” Obama said in a press conference Monday. Lew left the Clinton administration with a record $236 million budget surplus but now inherits a growing $1 trillion deficit. The Bronxite reportedly commutes from New York to Washington, though common sense says he will have to spend much more time in Washington in his new post. Lew could not be reached for comment. The new chief of staff has ties to the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Rabbi Steven Exler said in a statement, “he is a beloved, warm, and wonderful person.”
As an Orthodox Jew, Lew observes the Jewish Sabbath, leaving the office Friday afternoons in time to get home before sundown. He does not use electric or electronic devices, including the telephone, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Once, while working for Clinton, Lew’s home phone rang on a Saturday. He didn’t answer but could hear the president’s voice on the answering machine, urging him to pick up the phone. Clinton said he understood the sanctity of the Sabbath, but that it was important that he talk to Lew. He even said, it was later reported, “God would understand.” Lew later consulted with his rabbi, who said that taking an important phone call from the president of the United States would be permissible on the Sabbath under the Talmudic teaching that work on the Sabbath is allowed in order to save a life. Praise came from both sides of the Continued on Page 12
Riverdale resident Jacob Lew
P.S. 24 student leads drive for toy donations
By BRENDAN McHUGH After seeing the abundance of holiday toy drives throughout the community this holiday season, P.S. 24 fifth-grader Noa Furman was inspired to start her own collection. By putting a box in the lobby of her Independence Avenue building, she collected around 100 toys for needy children in The Bronx. “We do this thing in my school, P.S. 24, where they collect toys every year,” 10-year-old Noa said. “I heard on the radio and everywhere else, so I just decided to do it in my building.” The fifth-grader joined her brother Al, 8, and her friend Emily Cohen, 10, and handed the toys to children at the Children’s Aid Society Bronx Family Center, a foster care organization on Southern Boulevard, on December 27. “I enjoyed just seeing their faces,” Noa said. “They were all so happy when we gave the toys to them.” Noa said her entire six-story building donated toys. Her mom, Inna, said her daughter came up with the idea on her own. “We gave toys to like 10, 15 kids,” Noa said. “Then we left the rest of the toys with them to give out.” Marsha Campbell, the supervisor for the Bronx Family Center, said the majority of toys they receive come from companies, not individuals, making this donation Continued on Page 5
PS 24 students Emily Cohen and Noa and Al Furman with the toys they collected to brighten the holiday for needy kids.