New location for Peninsula Public Library Page 4 Rock Ami: from Far Rockaway to Israel Page 7 Shhhh... it’s a shidduch Page 9 Young Israel of Woodmere welcomes new associate rabbi Page 5 THE JEWISH STAR VOL 9, NO 36 ■ SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 / 2 TISHREI 5771 WWW.THEJEWISHSTAR.COM Struck down Father of four recovering; needs help By Michael Orbach Ilan Tocker, a father of four from Cedar- hurst, fainted and was badly injured at a kosher restaurant in Atlantic City, N.J., on the night after Tisha B’Av, July 21. The 33- year-old, a popular member of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, hit the right side of his head on the restaurant’s marble fl oor. A friend immediately called 911 but noticed that something was seriously wrong only when Tocker, normally very laid back, became aggressive with the paramedics. The aggression, the paramedics explained, was a Photo by Claudio Papapietro sign of brain trauma. Dmitriy Salita, 28, training at Universal Boxing Gym in Ozone Park in June. Salita was born in Odessa, Ukraine, Tocker’s wife, Rachel, immediately drove from the Beaver Lake bungalow colony in up- and moved to Brooklyn as a child. state New York, where the family was spend- ing the summer, to the hospital in Atlantic City. Surgeons there relieved pressure and swelling on Tocker’s brain by removing the right side of his skull, but then they noticed Salita, future rabbi, wins something worse: The left side of his head was also swelling, a sure sign of intracranial bleeding. According to Stacy Mayer, Tocker’s sister-in-law, Rachel was given a stark choice: comeback on home turf “[They could] remove the left side of his skull but there’s only 10 percent chance of survival and, most likely, he will be a vegetable,” May- er recalled being told by the doctors. Or the Brighton Beach brawl ends in decision family could do nothing and Tocker would By Dan Klein Nine months ago, Amir Khan trounced The sold-out event, billed as “Redemp- “pass away in a few hours.” the Ukrainian-born rabbi-in-training in a tion,” featured a very Brooklyn crowd, The family was frozen by the decision. On Sept. 1, boxer and Orthodox semi- match in England. Salita later told Tab- which waited through seven preliminary Tocker’s parents had just made Aliyah three cha student Dmitriy “Star of David” Salita let Magazine that the extremely hostile fi ghts for the main bout. The audience, weeks before and were on the phone with (31-1-1, 16 KOs) pulled out a tough victory crowd was to blame and received some many wearing yarmulkes, some shout- Rachel struggling to decide if it would be by decision over Franklin Gonzalez (13-6, friendly advice: Fight in Brooklyn next ing in Spanish and English at the opening better for their son to die rather than live his 9 KOs) at Brighton Beach’s Oceana Hall. time. Continued on page 3 Continued on page 3 Rosh Hashanah Candelighting: 6:57 2nd Night Candelighting: not before 8:05 Shabbat Candlelighting: 6:54 p.m. Shabbat ends 7:52 p.m. 72 minute zman 8:23 p.m. Eruv Tavshilin The latest from 399893 Hosted by Mayer Fertig & Miriam L. Wallach Listen at nachumsegal.com — Thursdays at 2p, LIVE or anytime on tape PERMIT NO 301 NO PERMIT 11530 It’s Bring-a-Friend radio! (Like what you hear? 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You may offer longer submissions for inclusion [email protected] on our Opinion pages. Letters and Opinion articles must be in our office by noon Friday to be considered for publication the following 400720 week. They are subject to editing for length and clarity. 3 Father of four recovering; needs help STAR THE JEWISH Continued from page 1 “We all began praying at that point... We life unconscious. Moments later the decision were thinking about going to his funeral the became moot as the dire situation worsened. next day.” The pressure in Tocker’s skull had skyrock- Mayer and some friends sent out a mass September 10, 2010 2 TISHREI 5771 2010 10, September eted, making further surgery at that time all text message asking people to say tehillim. but impossible. She called the rabbi of Chabad of Bingham- “The swelling was so high that if it goes ton, with whom she was close in her college one point higher he’ll be brain dead,” Mayer days, and arranged for a group of people to recalled. read the entire Tehillim over the course of 24 The family waited for several hours and hours. Another friend, Sara Rosenberg, de- prayed. cided to begin a challah group, placing hope “It looked very grim,” recalled Michal in a Kabalistic belief that baking challah for Weinstein of Woodmere, a friend of the fam- Shabbos for Tocker’s sake would help him. ily who drove with Rachel from Beaver Lake. “We were trying to gather 43 women to bake in his zechus [merit],” Mayer explained. What happened surprised them. “On Facebook, hundreds of women all said, ‘I will do it,’” Mayer said. “We posted recipes... and people kept on posting pictures of their challah. Women who don’t know who [Ilan] is, who never baked challah in their lives, all baked for Ilan.” Within several hours, Tocker’s brain pres- sure began to drop precipitously; so fast, the doctors began to believe it was a herniation. “The doctors never saw anything like that,” Mayer said. At 3 a.m. when the pressure had decreased to a safe level, and with just a slim hope of recovery, Tocker underwent surgery to remove the left side of his skull. The surgery was successful and the swell- ing decreased further. Over the last two months Tocker has beat the odds and is making progress to- Photo courtesy of Sara Rosenberg wards a full recovery.