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Volume XVIII • Number 17 • March 24 - 30, 2011 •
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Two tragedies in far off lands spur action here By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER Nearly 50 people bundled up and headed for the monument in Bell Tower Park last Sunday morning to pray for the victims of two separate tragedies—one in Japan, the other in Israel—that struck on March 11. It happened to be Purim, a Jewish holiday featuring the joyous reading of the biblical Book of Esther—the story of how a Jewish queen of Persia saved her people from annihilation by a fifth-century B.C.E. anti-Semite. The day is ordinarily marked by revelry and parody plays, but any levity this year was quelled by the tragic events. The outdoor memorial, called by Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, began with a prayer for those who perished in the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and for those who survived the natural disaster and were left injured or homeless. The prayer was composed in Hebrew and English by Yeshiva University’s Dr. Moshe Sokolow. “May it be Your will, He Who rests upon high / That the radioactivity will subside and its embers will be extinguished / And that the land will be pacified from storms and earthquakes / And You will bring comfort to Your desolate children,” it concluded. “WE STAND WITH JAPAN” placards mingled with those bearing photos of a young couple and three of their children above the words “We remember Udi, Ruthie, Yoav, Elad and Hadas Fogel”—the parents and children murdered by a terrorist as they lay in bed for the night in their home in Itamar. Rabbinical student Yisrael Klitsner, who served as soldier in Israel, wanted to give “a larger picture” of how Israelis deal with the reality of terrorist attacks. “Around two years ago, a 13-year-old kid was axed to death,” he recalled. “My wife and I were on the beach eating ice cream right before her sister’s wedding, and I had to go straight there” to the scene
Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale leads a remembrance for victims of terrorism in Israel and earthquake victims in Japan. of the attack, he said, describing the jolt as “a switch and a way of thinking that everyone in Israel has to endure, that everyone has to process, because “life must go on and people must lead their lives” although “there’s no real way of getting over what happened.” HIR’s Rabbi Steven Exler quoted from the Book of Esther. “In times when we are delivered from our enemies, we feel that sense of preciousness,” he said. “But
also in times of great loss and great tragedy, we also connect to that word—the preciousness of the lives that were lost, the preciousness of the every life—every Jewish life, every human life.” A prayer in memory of the Fogel family, also by Sokolow, quoted the book of Jeremiah: “For death came through our windows /Entered into our walls / To cut down infants where they lie / Young men from the streets.”
The New York Times first reported the murder with a 165-word Associated Press blurb on page A5. A detailed account by its own reporter the following day was relegated to page A16. “I have not read the Times in five years—on Israel, it’s such a rag—and I won’t read the Times as long as they continue drawing a moral equivalence between Israeli soldiers and terrorists…. Continued on Page 10
Opposition to Skating Rink intensifies as process is questioned By BRENDAN McHUGH Community Board 8 has a history of dissecting projects until every detail has been hashed out and every inquiry answered—an example of the dedication Riverdale’s residents have to their neighborhood—so it baffled some that no public debate has taken place about a proposed ice-skating rink in Van Cortlandt Park. When residents and elected officials heard of this rink, which is planned to operate during the winter months, some were thrilled. But with no public discussion set to take place, community leaders are quickly becoming cautious about the rink and, in some cases, outright antagonistic. Questions about the location, hours, noise, fees and effect on nearby businesses are all still unanswered. The community board had only limited
input into a project that is projected to be operating by November of this year. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz sent a letter last week to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe asking that a detailed plan of the skating rink be presented to the public and that a thorough review take place before any action is taken. "This project is on track to become a prime example of the desperate need for reform, transparency and openness. It was presented to the community as a fait accompli," Dinowitz wrote. "It appears that the rink was conceived in the proverbial ‘smoke-filled room.’" Dinowitz made it clear that while he likes the idea of a skating rink, the way this project has surfaced is a problem.
"This is still a public park, isn’t it?" he wrote. "Given the way in which the city treated Van Cortlandt Park in its dealings over the Croton Water Filtration Plant (a project which is in excess of $2 billion over budget and counting), I am naturally concerned about the future of this area of Van Cortlandt Park along Broadway." The parks department did not return requests for comment. Community activists Karen Argenti and Jane Sokolow recently sent a letter to City Comptroller John Liu asking his office to look into the matter. "We have several concerns," they wrote. "The site was chosen without community input. There are other less intrusive underutilized sites in both Van Cortlandt Park Continued on Page 9