See Page 7 $1.00 WWW.5TJT.COM !ohrup igfhkhhrp t VOL. 9 NO. 22 10 ADAR 5769 vum, ,arp MARCH 6, 2009 INSIDE FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK A TRAGIC VOID IN OUR MIDST MindBiz BY LARRY GORDON Esther Mann, LMSW 28 World Of Real Estate Strange News From Inwood Anessa V. Cohen 34 Try to name the Five mier Orthodox Jewish com- It’s Just A Box After All Towns—especially if you are munities in the world is a Hannah Reich Berman 38 not from these parts—and focus of Jewish settlement. here is where you might hesi- Movement in that direction Purim Press Service tate or even get stuck. It’s by has been very slow but steady v”g inkz ruthba ic ejmh huk Vera Drunk 68 the fifth of the series— over the last few years. With Inwood, somewhat unsung, a the opening of the Yeshiva Back To Basics little forgotten, or at least not Ketana of Long Island and the Rabbi Pinchas Chatzinoff 70 thought about that often. eventual establishment and Maybe it’s the fifth town, or opening of the Shulamith perhaps it’s the first. What it School for Girls sometime in Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, head of the worldwide office of Chabad shelichim and grandfather of Levi Yitzchok Wolowik (inset), a nine-year-old who hasn’t been for all these years the near future, people are tragically passed away over last weekend, addressing the annual dinner of during which the Five Towns Chabad of the Five Towns on Sunday evening in Cedarhurst. Levi was the has become one of the pre- Continued on Page 22 son of Rabbi Zalman and Rebbetzin Chanie Wolowik. See Pages 16, 17 SOLVING THE MYSTERIES HEARD IN THE BAGEL STORE OF MEGILLAS ESTHER Taxing Stress Osina–Fuchs wedding. BY RABBI YITZCHAK if their child married out of See Page 50 MEIR GOODMAN the faith, and still do so! B Y LARRY GORDON more can be accomplished 2. Is it really believable with more time, effort, and There are many puzzles in that Haman got permission After decades in the work- ingenuity. the Megillah, some of which from the king to kill the Jews, force, with Heavenly assis- But I’ve grown accustomed are not discussed by the without even mentioning tance I’ve finally managed to to my routine. Without shar- meforshim: whom he meant to annihi- carve out a routine that I used ing the details of said sched- 1. How can it be that our late? Would a king who ruled to dream about but never ule, let me just say here that I heroine, Esther, is forced to over a large part of the civi- thought would materialize. like sticking to it, and it marry a gentile king, and the lized world be so uninterest- I’m not saying I’m all the way unnerves and even agitates holy Megillah does not express ed that, when asked to allow there yet. Life is an unfin- me a bit when I have to depart great lamentation over this a bloodbath throughout his ished work, with added per- from it, as I had to last week tragedy? Throughout the cen- sonal and professional growth turies, Jews used to sit shivah Continued on Page 26 usually revealing how much Continued on Page 13 Purim starts early at Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center. See Page 70 The ‘Gantzeh Megillah’ Topsy-Turvy jurv chan oadv shrunu BY LEAH GOLDSMITH Our Aliyah Chronicle, Part 109 Purim comes out of a box BY SHMUEL KATZ we keep stored way up in the tip-top of our closet. Living in Israel has made us Every year when it is drip- much more sensitive to the ping wet outside and a bright seasons and the balance of our green in the valley, cold and ecology. Having grown up in windy but warm inside our the Midwest and spent the home, our kids (who have majority of my adult years in Senator Dean Skelos, grown to be my size) pull the New York, I am a true city boy. honoree at YOSS Banquet. magical box down and begin The change of seasons was See Page 57 Some of the students at the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck the ritual of the month of admired, but only for its aes- taught by Dr. Paul Brody (back row, third from right) how to read Megillas Adar. They parade through thetic beauty, not because it CANDLE LIGHTING Esther. They are displaying a special Megillah presented years ago to Dr. the house singing and danc- had any meaning to me. Rain Brody by Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Grossman of Migdal Ohr Institutions. Rabbi March 6 – 5:34 PM Stephen Knapp (back row, left), NSHA Middle School principal, facilitates ing, happy with new additions was an inconvenience, except March 13 – 6:41 PM the students’ schedules to enable adequate practice time with Dr. Brody. See Story, Page 61 Continued on Page 18 Continued on Page 19 2 March 6, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 6, 2009 3 FEATURES Around The Five Towns 51 Ask The Sensei Warren Levi 27 Classified Ads 78 Daf Yomi Insights Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow 74 Five Towns Simcha Ira Thomas Creations 50 Insights On The Torah Rabbi Yanki Tauber 40 Chevrah Lomdei Mishnah 36 Letters To The Editor 46 Luach 14 MindBiz Esther Mann, LMSW 28 Mother’s Musings Phyllis J. Lubin 17 Real Estate Anessa V. Cohen 34 That’s The Way It Is! Hannah Reich Berman 38 P.O. BOX 690 LAWRENCE, NY 11559 516-984-0079 [email protected] [email protected] LARRY GORDON ESTA J. GORDON Publisher/Editor Managing Editor YOSSI GORDON, YOCHANAN GORDON Sales Managers CHANA ROCHEL ROSS Editorial Assistant SIDI BARON YAKOV SERLE JERRY MARKOVITZ Sales Representatives SHMUEL GERBER MICHELE JUSTIC Chief Copy Editor Copy Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Irwin H. Benjamin, Hannah Reich Berman Anessa V. Cohen, Rabbi Aryeh Z. Ginzberg Toby Klein Greenwald, Michele Herenstein Rabbi Yair Hoffman, Miriam Horowitz Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky Shmuel Katz, Phyllis J. Lubin, Esther Mann Rochelle Miller, Martin Mushell, Naomi Ross Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow, Eli Shapiro, Ari Sher MICHAL WEINSTEIN, BINYAMIN RHODES DOV GORDON Staff Graphic Artists IVAN NORMAN, IRA THOMAS Staff Photographers FRANKEL & CO. Design & Production TALIYE CORLEY Art Director SARAH GREENBAUM Assistant Art Director The Five Towns Jewish Times is an independent weekly news- paper. Opinions expressed by writers and columnists are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. We are not responsible for the kashrus or hashgachah of any product or establishment advertised in the Five Towns Jewish Times. 4 March 6, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 6, 2009 5 6 March 6, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 6, 2009 7 8 March 6, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 6, 2009 9 10 March 6, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 6, 2009 11 12 March 6, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES HEARD IN THE BAGEL STORE Let me state unequivocally that I in some unsavory financial practices. along, so one needs to display a great Continued from Front Cover love paying taxes. I don’t see it as just Along with paying restitution to a deal of patience (and also to keep on a burden or obligation, but a privi- number of clients, he also had his paying in the meantime). for two days. I had to do two things last lege. I see it as paying a fee for living CPA license revoked. All in all, not a The day after I finished that session, week on consecutive days that took me in the greatest country in the world pleasant set of circumstances for it was back up to that neck of the away from my computer screen and my and benefiting from the opportuni- anyone involved. woods for my annual cardiac stress office. In retrospect it was bad sched- ties that are out there to be grabbed Along with his bungling and, yes, test. I know you’re thinking that I uling, the result of making appoint- if you are so inclined. I don’t care if unfortunately criminal, way of doing should have had them hook me up to ments far in advance and not taking it’s for infrastructure, the war on ter- things, he left a mess of paperwork that cardiac machine while I was at into account the other pressing items ror, education, or healthcare, we behind him. In brief, for me it meant the tax people’s office, and yes, I agree, that require my attention on those spe- should be thankful that we have the both routine and complicated paper- that’s very funny. Maybe someday, in cific days. Just canceling or postponing opportunity to be players in this vital work not filed or improperly filed. some lurid comic scene, we’ll figure these commitments was not an option, American enterprise that leads the Anyway, because at the end of the day out a way to work that out. as that lends itself to just not getting I’ve come to see this stress test as things done. somewhat of a personal physical These are the two things I had to do: equivalent of the State of the Union. First, I had a long-scheduled meeting In this case, the “union” is the person with some Internal Revenue Service I should have had them hook me whose state is being assessed. Over people in Hempstead, New York.