The Jewish Star Independent and original reporting from the Orthodox communities of Long Island VOL. 8, NO. 52 DECEMBER 25, 2009 | 8 TEVET 5770 www.thejewishstar.com WHO’S THE REAL MIRIAM BUYING BOBOV READINGS FOR TEVET That’s life Chasidic raffles on the internet The Kosher Bookworm Page 2 Page 7 Page 8 I N M Y V I E W Snow fun Sunday if there’s school Monday Grad rate soars Insanity at Lawrence H.S. defense Over 90 percent earn diploma in four years B Y M I C H A E L O R B A C H ship built on knowing the kids could snag well is essential; they don’t feel Who graduates from like they’re a number.” Lawrence High School? The Touretz also credited the answer is almost everyone. school board, whose Orthodox justice The four-year graduation majority remains a source of rate of LHS students has surged contention. In early November, from 76 percent to 90 percent graffiti scrawled on the side of over the last four years. For stu- an LIRR ticket machine in B Y B R U C E T I C K E R dents finishing in five years the Cedarhurst declared that the graduation rate is 98.7 percent. “Damn Orthodox board,” had aveed Haq's intention was to The high school’s dropout rate is “killed our schools.” frighten Jews...The jury held that just 1.2 percent. “They’ve done good things holding extremist views does not “I think the culture of the for our high school,” Touretz make you insane, but it does ‘N school has changed,” explained asserted. “The construction pro- make you dangerous.' jects — renovations to the gyms, - King County (Wash.) Prosecutor Lawrence High School Principal Dan Satterberg Geoffrey Touretz. “We have athletic fields, the upcoming been able to sustain a sense of renovations to the science lab, With two trials, Naveed Haq could not pride and spirit that carries over new ceilings, new lockers. The snow his second Seattle jury with an insani- to the student body and they better the school looks, not only ty defense. the more pride the students Photo by Christina Daly feel connected to their school. On Dec. 15, after 2 1⁄2 days of delibera- They feel pride, and no matter have, the better they treat the tions, a more prudent jury convicted Haq of A foot of snow blanketed Long Island this past weekend. These young men, took full advan- what they offer to the mix — school. Little things like a bath- aggravated murder and seven other offenses room being renovated or a tage with a snow fight in Cedarhurst Park. Unfortunately for the school-aged, the snow fell whether excellent students, ath- in the murder of Pamela Waechter and the dance studio being put in mean wounding of five other women inside the on a Sunday, in plenty of time to be cleaned up before the first school bell on Monday morn- letes, musicians or artists — whatever they contribute is cele- a lot to the students. It means Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on July ing. Ah, missed opportunities. 28, 2006. brated. They find the school to we have a future in front of us, Haq is at least the third thug to employ be very inclusive and very much not just a reputation gone by.” the insanity a place that shares and culti- Dr. Asher Mansdorf, a defense after vates their success.” board member, said that the killing or assaulting The numbers are even board’s method was largely ” magine what Jews. All three more striking given the demo- hands-off. I defendants were graphic shift in the school dis- “We’ve empowered our convicted, but Haq trict in recent years. The district administrative team to imple- Adolf Hitler came close to get- Tropper scandal casts pall now draws close to half its stu- ment ideas they find effective, ting away with his could have and we don’t interfere with crimes when the dent body from Inwood; half of done with the first jury dead- the students are black or His- them,” Mansdorf said. locked in June on Orthodox conversions panic; close to a third qualify for The dramatically increased insanity 2008 and the judge the free and reduced lunch pro- graduation rate has been a goal declared a mistrial. B Y M I C H A E L O R B A C H cerning alleged inappropriate behavior on grams. High Schools in the of the Board of Education Acad- defense had he He pleaded not the part of the chairman of the rabbinic com- neighboring Valley Stream and emic Excellence Committee, lived to stand guilty by reason of With the public revelation of Orthodox mittee of the Eternal Jewish Family, Rabbi Hewlett-Woodmere districts which was created during Mans- insanity, which by conversion guru Rabbi Leib Tropper as a Leib Tropper,” said the RCA. “What we have each report graduation rates in dorf’s tenure as president of the legal tradition trial.“ caught-on-tape predator, the Orthodox Jew- heard, if true, violates the fundamental ele- the mid-90’s. board. The current head of the means he could not ments of all that Judaism holds sacred.” committee is board member Dr. distinguish ish community is grappling with a sexual Touretz gives the lion’s Conversions facilitated by Tropper David Sussman. between right and scandal of Madoffian proportion. share of the credit to his faculty. On Monday, the Rabbinical Council of remain valid, said the RCA statement, echo- “They are in the trenches “We’re pleased that we’re wrong. Haq ing a p’sak [halachic ruling] by HaRav believes there is America issued a statement about what the doing the work,” he said. “You doing this well,” Sussman said. Reuven Feinstein, chair of Eternal Jewish “Of course, until you reach nothing wrong with bloggers who broke the story have begun Family’s Halachic Committee. In his own can make it difficult for students killing Jews. calling “Tropper-gate”: statement, Rav Feinstein did not discuss the to fail by not accepting their fail- 100% you always have some- Imagine what Adolf Hitler could have “We are deeply appalled, saddened and accusations against Tropper but said, “The ure, by telling them you believe thing to shoot for.” done with the insanity defense had he lived pained by reports that have reached us con- in them. The kind of relation- to stand trial. In San Francisco a few years See TROPPER, Page 10 See GRAD RATES, Page 9 ago, a defendant who assailed Nobel Prize- winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was found guilty in spite of using the insanity defense. In March 1994, Lebanese- born Rashid Baz murdered Ari Halberstam, 16, and critically wounded another Jewish The mysterious blue snail teenager in a school vehicle on the Brooklyn Bridge. He exercised his right to claim insan- ity, but a jury compelled him to take respon- Telling the story behind tekhelet sibility for his acts by convicting him. The insanity defense is dangerous. B Y M A L K A E I S E N B E R G Greenspan is the founder tekhelet is similar to the True, this legal instrument is more compli- of P’til Tekhelet, the Associa- grasses by the coast, which is cated than the right-from-wrong standard, It was almost Indiana tion for the Promotion and similar to the blue of the sea, but we have reached the point where a per- Jones and the Quest for the Distribution of Tekhelet in which in turn is similar to the son can be acquitted simply because s/he Holy Snail. Jerusalem, and one of the sky. The sky, the Talmud See VIEW, Page 5 Dr. Ari Greenspan, den- men responsible for the resur- explains, is the same color as tist turned explorer, recently gence of the use of the dye. the throne of Hashem. The led a roomful of men and He spoke in the Young Israel snail used for the dye was Bruce S. Ticker blogs on Jewish and gen- women on a verbal trip that of Woodmere as part of its found along the Mediter- eral issues from Philadelphia. He is a for- spanned the coasts of Acco to ongoing adult education ranean coast from Haifa to mer reporter and copy editor for daily Vatican City to the fish mar- series. Tyre. All three members of newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania and is kets of the Rock of Gibraltar Greenberg began with a the snail family exist and all now a municipal employee in Philadel- on a search for tekhelet, short history of the tekhelet. produce the secretion that phia. He can be reached at BTicker@com- Photo by Shlomo Eisenberg Judaism’s legendary blue dye. According to the Talmud, the cast.net. Strings from a tallit colored with tekhelet. See BLUE SNAIL, Page 9 Y That’s Life............................................................................2 Calendar...............................................................................6 Candlelighting: 4:15 p.m. I Shabbat ends: 5:20 p.m. N AID 301 P Y Inside Shabbat T I Opinion.................................................................................4 Classified .............................................................................6 Torah reading: Parshat Vayigash 0 GE STD C 3 NO A 5 N 1 E 1 D PRST R POST A PERMIT G US 11530 NY , City REQUESTED den VICE Gar SER Blvd., CHANGE Endo 2 29467 3 2 The Jewish Star December 25, 2009 B R E A K I N G N E W S School board election moved in Lawrence Elections for the meat dishwasher go? first.) why it is the way it is, just I’ve received her mail.