Dozens of turtles shut down a runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport for 35 minutes

Dozens of turtles, presumably on a mating spree, shut down a runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport Wednesday morning for 35 minutes, causing an a hour-and-a-half delay for flights.

The 78 diamond back terrapins were picked up, put into a pick up truck, and removed from the runway, said John Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. They were originally spotted by a pilot around 8:30 a.m., who radioed the tower.

“It’s not unprecedented, but it’s not at all common,” he said.

He said that the turtles were perhaps attracted to the sand along one side of the runway, which juts out into the water. “They tend to look for sand while they are mating,” he said. “Presumably all these turtles were feeling amorous.” It is unclear if the turtles pair off, or if the numbers indicated it is a group activity, he said.

There has been a surprising amount of half-shell news in the last year around the city. A two-headed one was stolen in Brooklyn last August. And a 60-pound tortoise showed up in the Bronx in April.

These turtles were about 8 to 10 inches long and weighed between 2 to 3 pounds. Mr. Kelly volunteered a number of turtle puns, saying the morning phenomenon was perhaps an ultimate example of “slow sweet love.”

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/turtle-brigade-delays-flights-at-jfk/

Glasgow, UK – Jewish diamond dealer was robbed of £100,000-worth of jewellery

A TRAVELLING diamond dealer was robbed of £100,000-worth of jewellery in a dramatic heist in a hotel car park yesterday.

The Jewish trader was ambushed by two thugs as he walked to his motor after leaving the building at about 7.15am.

One man pounced on him from behind and beat him to the ground while the other thief used a beer keg to smash the window of his Ford vehicle. The pair nabbed a bag containing his jewellery and fled from the Orchard Park Hotel in Giffnock, near Glasgow, in a dark car.

The 55-year-old dealer, thought to be from London, was last night named locally as a Mr Rosenstein.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: “The jewellery salesman was walking to his car when he was approached by two men who forced him to the ground and stole his bag.

“It contained jewellery worth a six-figure sum.”

The Orchard was once a maternity home — and was where Prime Minister Gordon Brown was born.

The hotel — in an area that’s home to Scotland’s largest Jewish population — is known to be popular with travelling businessmen.

Yesterday as cops scoured the car park for evidence, the beer keg lay abandoned nearby.

A Newcastle-registered Ford’s passenger window was smashed. The area is extensively covered by CCTV.

Both suspects are white males, aged 45-55, 5ft 11in, and of a medium build. One wore a cream jacket.

Police said inquiries were ongoing last night and appealed for information.

 

Thousands turn out near Mea She’arim for peaceful prayer vigil

The leaders of the Eda Haredit declared Wednesday that they will continue their protests against the opening of a parking lot in Jerusalem on Saturdays, pledging not to give up the struggle against the desecration of Shabbat.

Haredim pray wearing sacks as a sign of mourning during a demonstration in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, Wednesday.
Photo: AP

The announcement, which was made at the end of a peaceful two-hour prayer vigil in a haredi neighborhood near City Hall, was the latest signal that the month-long conflict over the opening of the parking lot to accommodate weekend visitors to the capital was liable to continue for weeks.

The Wednesday prayer rally, which was attended by an estimated 4,000 people, included a march by hundreds of haredi boys from Eda Haredit schools down a major thoroughfare adjacent to Mea She’arim, which was closed to traffic during the early-evening event.

The children waved Hebrew signs that replicated a huge banner on the makeshift stage which read: “Save Jerusalem: Jerusalem was destroyed by the violation of the Sabbath.”

Organizers called on the Jerusalem Municipality and Mayor Nir Barkat to close the parking lot “before it is too late,” and said they would be held responsible for their actions.

The event included the recitation of Psalms, and a series of Jewish penitential prayers, as well as the blowing of the shofar.

“We are protesting against Barkat because today it is a parking lot and tomorrow it is something else,” said Ya’acov Rabinovitch, a 22-year-old yeshiva student. “It is an embarrassment that a Jew does such a thing against the Jewish nation in the holiest city to the Jewish people.”

“The desecration of the Shabbat in Jerusalem is like a chair without legs,” added Elazar Bartoven, 40, of Jerusalem, who said that he always tries to attend the Shabbat protests.

As the evening progressed, the street quickly turned into a sea of black hats, with the small number of women in attendance positioned on nearby balconies or on the far side of the street.

The original decision to open the parking garage on Shabbat was made at the urging of police, who said that the lack of parking was forcing visitors to double park, posing a safety hazard.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1246443758269

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: Declaration of Independence vs. Mesilat Yesharim; IDF Gegeral puts on tefillin

Declaration of Independence vs. Mesilat Yesharim

In some Passover Haggados, the question is posed, “When the child asks the Four Questions about the Seder ritual, the father responds, “We were slaves unto Pharaoh.’ How does that answer the child’s questions?” One explanation is that the father is saying, “When we were slaves to Pharaoh, we did not question his orders. We did what we were ordered to do. G-d delivered us from Egypt and He is now our Master, We don’t question his orders. We do as we are told.”

At the Kotel, there are some young men who urge visitors to put on tefillin. One young man was about to do so when his comrades said, “Don’t bother. We’ve tried with him, but he just refuses. He is not religious and just visits here as a national shrine.” Nevertheless, the young man approached the visitor. “Pardon me,” he said, “but aren’t you General X?” The man said that he was. The young man said, “I was in your battalion in the Golan. When you ordered us to take the hill, we thought it was suicide. But, you were the general and we obeyed your orders. Here, there is another General, and we must obey His orders, whether we like to or not.” Without a word, the general rolled up his sleeve and put on tefillin.

Whether it is a general and soldiers, or a king and his subjects, the master’s orders must be obeyed.

Yes, we are Hashem’s children (Deuteronomy 14:1), and we should relate to Him with the love and reverence of a child to a father, but that does not negate our role as slaves. The knowledge that we are Hashem’s children enables us to realize that whereas a human master assigns duties to his slaves for his own benefit, a devoted father has the child’s best interest at heart, and the duties Hashem wishes us to carry out are for

our own benefit, not for His.

In the Ten Commandments, G-d made it very clear. “I am your G-d who delivered you from the land of Egypt, from the house of enslavement.” Subsequently, G-d says, “For the Children of Israel are My slaves, whom I delivered from the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 25:55). The only difference is that in Egypt we had no choice whether we wished to be Pharaoh’s slaves or not, whereas with G-d, we voluntarily accept our servitude to Him every day when we say the Shema. We have bechira (free-will) to refuse to accept ol malchus shamayim, but if we do accept it, we are avodim, slaves in the full sense of the word, and we are not free to disobey Him. The Talmud says that by saying the Shema we subjugate ourselves to the “yoke of the Divine rule.” Yes, it is a yoke, very much like that of the ox that pulls the plow.

The Declaration of Independence says that among the “inalienable rights of man are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This is indeed a lofty concept. However, slaves have no inalienable rights. Slaves are obligated to follow the master’s orders. Slaves have only duties. Slaves do not have rights. We do pursue happiness, but we do so because it is a mitzvah, v’hayisa ach some’ach (Deuteronomy 16:15). Failure to serve Hashem with joy is a serious dereliction (Deuteronomy 28:47).

Ramchal begins his epochal Mesilat Yesharim with a chapter entitled “The Obligation of a Person in His World.” This sets the theme for the entire book. If a person has inalienable rights, then he is free, within accepted limits, to decide how he wishes to exercise these rights. If one is a slave and has obligations and duties imposed upon him by a Master, then it is incumbent upon him to know how the Master wishes these duties to be carried out. This is further emphasized in the Talmud. “Nullify your will before Hashem’s will” (Ethics of the Fathers 2:4).

A Master wishes that his slaves be well nourished and healthy in order to be in optimum condition to perform their required duties. They should be well rested, because if fatigued, they cannot get the job done. If we see ourselves as slaves of Hashem, then everything we do should be in the interest of carrying out our obligations. We eat, sleep, recreate work and transact because these are essential to our fulfilling our obligations. “Nullify your will before Hashem’s will” leaves no room for pursuits that are not directed to the service of Hashem.

Ramchal would fully agree with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Life, because the Torah says “You shall observe My decrees and My laws which man shall carry out and by which he shall live” (Leviticus 18:5). Liberty, because the Torah says, “Proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants (Leviticus 25:10). Pursuit of happiness, because the Torah says, “You shall be completely joyous” (Deuteronomy 16:15). These are inalienable mitzvos, not rights.

Hasidic reggae star #Matisyahu plays New York’s Central Park Summer Stage to promote his new album

Matisyahu performing in Baltimore last summer.

Hasidic reggae phenom Matisyahu (or, as the Ticketmaster electronic voice calls him, Matis-aya-who), plays New York’s Central Park Summer Stage tomorrow to promote his new album, Light. Matisyahu, who follows in the great tradition of Jews in reggae, told Boston Music Spotlight over the weekend that Light includes “electronic stuff, there’s more organic, singer-songwriter kind of stuff, there’s some more kind of indie rock vibe, some hip hop stuff.” Still, articulate-ness might not be his forte; on the catchy single “One Day” he admits “Sometimes in my tears I drown/and I never let it get me down.” And lyrics like “Stop with the violence/stop with the hate” suggest that coming up with an original message (remember “Imagine”? “Down by the Riverside”?) might be something of a challenge, too.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/9670/matisyahu-to-play-central-park/

13-year-old uses Bar Mitzva IPhone gift to become a hacker legend, an e-hero, an Apple-code-breaking bon vivantreceives hacker legend, an e-hero, an Apple-code-breaking bon vivant

PHILADELPHIA — Like many teenagers, Ari Weinstein spends his summers riding his bike and swimming. This year, the 15-year-old had another item on his to-do list: Foil Apple Inc.’s brightest engineers and annoy chief executive Steve Jobs.

Ari is part of a loose-knit group of hackers that has made it a mission to “jailbreak” Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. The term refers to installing unapproved software that lets people download a range of programs, including those not sanctioned by Apple.

Ari Weinstein, 15, in the computer lab of Germantown Friends School, where he just finished 9th grade.

Since Apple began selling its latest iPhone 3GS on June 19, Ari and six online cohorts spent hours a day probing the new product for security holes. This weekend, one of the members of the group, dubbed the Chronic Dev Team, released the jailbreaking software they’ve been working on. Ari says the program is a test version with some bugs, but that users have successfully downloaded it. A quarter-million people have visited the site, he says.

“Coding and testing things that may or may not work, and figuring things out, is a really rewarding experience,” says Ari, a Philadelphia resident who began hacking when he was 11.

Ari’s hobby has ruffled the feathers of famously secretive Apple, which exerts tight control over its gadgets and sells programs for its iPhones exclusively through its App Store site.

“The vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones, and for good reason,” an Apple spokeswoman says. “These modifications not only violate the warranty, they also cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

Mr. Jobs, in the past, has called dueling with hackers a “cat-and-mouse game” and has said it is Apple’s “job to stop them from breaking in.”

So far, Apple hasn’t stopped them. A year ago, when the Cupertino, Calif., company launched its iPhone 3G, a team of hackers released jailbreaking software for the device less than a week later.

The software, which can be downloaded from a Web site, gives users access to a store that sells programs that Apple doesn’t. These include applications that block ads on the iPhone’s mobile Internet browser, for example, or let the phone double as a laptop-computer modem.

In February, Apple filed a 27-page statement to the U.S. Copyright office arguing that modifying phones violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Digital-rights advocates say they believe it isn’t illegal because people own their phones outright. The copyright office is expected to rule in the fall.

Ari says he takes ethics seriously and says he has researched the Millennium Copyright law online. But he has concluded his actions aren’t wrong. He also has a lawyer, who he says volunteered his services after Ari created iJailbreak, a piece of free software that worked on the original iPhone, two years ago.

“Apple doesn’t have the right to tell me what I can put on my phone,” says Ari, who uses non-Apple-sanctioned programs that let him change the look of his home screen and administer Web sites from his phone. “I only do hacking that helps people.”

Ari became interested in technology as a preschooler, when he would flip through the manual for a cable set-top box and change the settings on the family computer. “I remember it being a big relief when he went to kindergarten,” says his mother, Judy Weinstein, 43, a social worker.

At age 7, Ari teamed up with two other boys to create playing cards, decorated with hand-drawn characters, to sell online. The business never took off. But Ari says he learned to build Web sites, among other things: The site he created wasn’t on the child-approved list of his AOL Internet service, he says, so to access it, he had to figure out how to get around AOL’s parental controls.

“That’s when we knew we should start teaching him ethics,” says his dad, Ken Weinstein, 45, a real-estate developer.

Ari started hacking in sixth grade after looking for a way to download free games on his iPod mini. Two years ago, he received an iPod touch for his bar mitzvah and says he jailbroke the device in an evening. He later simplified the process into the iJailbreak software.

He says the program has been downloaded a million times. Some users donated cash, a standard way of showing appreciation for free software, and Ari says he received “several thousand dollars” in all.

Ari attracted the attention of Will Strafach, a Connecticut teen who created an online chat room for people interested in reverse engineering the iPhone. That eventually morphed into a team named after Mr. Strafach’s Internet name, Chronic. “When I get out” of school, Mr. Strafach says, “I want to work for Apple.”

Ari, who goes by AriX online, soon began to work with the Chronic Dev Team’s half-dozen teenagers and twentysomethings. The group communicates almost exclusively via a private online chat room, where they can talk and send files. Team members say they don’t know all the others’ real-life identities. One of them, Mr. Strafach says, lives in Austria.

Earlier this year, Ari and his team tried to hack more efficiently by working with another group — iPhone Dev Team, an invitation-only bunch in their 20s and 30s who have typically been the first to roll out iPhone hacks.

Members of the iPhone Dev Team worried about working in a large group. In part, they were concerned that if information leaked out about the security holes they were probing, others could exploit them first. Or, Apple could plug the holes. In March, the two groups stopped communicating.

“It just came down to a trust issue,” says Eric McDonald, an iPhone Dev Team member known as MuscleNerd.

In June, Apple announced its 32-gigabyte iPhone, with added layers of security and encryption. Ari bought one immediately, in part with the $20 an hour he earned helping family friends with computer problems.

“I’m happy to contribute,” says Michael Cohen, a real-estate investor who recently hired Ari to help set up his wife’s new computer. “He obviously has a future in this stuff.”

Mr. Strafach’s group also sought help from George Hotz, a 19-year-old Cambridge, Mass., hacker who had worked before with Chronic Dev. Known as geohot, Mr. Hotz is widely acknowledged as the first person to “unlock” the iPhone nearly two years ago, so people could use the phone with any wireless carrier.

Mr. Hotz, who took a paid internship with Google Inc. in April, joined the hackers in early June. In emails, he says he has done the project on his own time and was happy to help “a bunch of cool guys with a good attitude.” Google declined to comment on Mr. Hotz’s work with Chronic Dev.

More than a week ago, both Chronic Dev and iPhone Dev said they figured out how to jailbreak Apple’s new phone. The iPhone Dev Team wanted to wait to release its software so Apple can’t plug the security hole in the device immediately.

But Chronic Dev and Mr. Hotz released theirs as soon as it was ready. “A lot of people bought their phones expecting to jailbreak their phones, and now that we have the capability to do it, we should let them,” Ari says. “A lot of people have thanked us.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124692204445002607.html

Cuomo Announces Takedown Of Insurance Fraud Ring Which Infiltrated New York Hospitals

CUOMO ANNOUNCES TAKEDOWN OF INSURANCE FRAUD RING WHICH INFILTRATED NEW
YORK HOSPITALS

“The Levy Enterprise” Paid Hospital Employees for Confidential
Patient Information, then Lured Patients into Unnecessary Treatment for
Minor Motor Vehicle Accidents, Submitting Over $1 Million in Phony
Insurance Claims

Cuomo Puts Hospitals Across the State on Notice After Bringing Felony
Charges Against Over 20 Individuals and Corporations Involved

NEW YORK, NY (July 8, 2009) – Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today
announced the indictment of 12 people and 9 corporations across New York
City for their roles in a criminal enterprise that paid hospital
employees for confidential patient information, lured patients into
receiving unnecessary treatment, and then submitted over a million
dollars in phony personal injury claims to insurance carriers. Attorney
General Cuomo also announced separate criminal charges against two
hospital employees for accepting bribes to provide confidential patient
information to members of the criminal operation.

“The Levy Enterprise” was run by Daniel Levy, 32 of Rego Park,
Queens, who owned and controlled two medical clinics: Bronx Sheridan
Medical P.C., located at 1030 Sheridan Avenue, Bronx, New York and New
Lite Bronx Medical, P.C., located at 1170 East Gun Hill Road. According
to the 147-count indictment filed today in Bronx Supreme Court, Levy and
the other defendants operated a scheme in which they paid hospital
employees to figure out which patients had been in minor motor vehicle
accidents. The enterprise then lured these patients to the two clinics,
where they would provide unnecessary treatment. The Levy Enterprise
would then submit fraudulent claims to insurance carriers, securing
seven figure illegal profits.

One personal injury lawyer and numerous health care providers,
including two medical doctors, three acupuncturists, and two
chiropractors are among those charged in the indictment. The indicted
defendants are charged with Enterprise Corruption, a class “B”
felony that carries a maximum sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.
Other charges in the indictment include scheme to defraud, money
laundering, grand larceny, insurance fraud, falsifying business records,
and bribery. Two hospital employees are charged with bribe receiving and
official misconduct in separate criminal complaints filed today in Bronx
Criminal Court. They face a maximum sentence of 2 1/3 to 7 years in
prison.

“This criminal enterprise allegedly reaped over a million dollars in
profits by engaging in bribery, insurance fraud, and the filing of
fraudulent lawsuits – a complex scheme that violated hospital
patients’ privacy and may have driven up the insurance rates of
millions of New York automobile owners,” said Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo. “Today’s 147-count indictment shows we will zealously pursue
individuals allegedly involved in such blatant and far-reaching criminal
activity.”

Rose Gill Hearn, Commissioner of the New York City Department of
Investigation, said: “Undercovers from DOI and the Attorney
General’s Office worked together to burrow into a corrupt network
whose only business was to milk the system. Today’s arrests send the
message that law enforcement is working together to identify and stop
fraud that injures New Yorkers. I thank Attorney General Cuomo and his
staff for their hard work on this joint investigation and their
continued commitment to ensure that those responsible are
prosecuted.”

In New York State, a person injured in a motor vehicle accident
is
automatically covered by the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Insurance
Reparations Act, commonly referred to as the no-fault law. No-fault
carriers provide reimbursement for a range of medical and health
services, including initial medical evaluations, physical therapy,
chiropractic care, acupuncture, and diagnostic testing, when such
services are deemed medically necessary.

According to the indictment filed today by Cuomo’s Office, the Levy
Enterprise was a web of medical providers, attorneys, and corporations
that operated a complex criminal scheme which illegally abused no-fault
insurance and bilked patients and insurance carriers out of over one
million dollars

The structure of the Enterprise was as follows: defendant Daniel Levy,
who had no medical or health provider training, paid an attorney,
defendant Desmond Connell to supply his two clinics with patients.
Connell would pay public and private hospital employees at Lincoln
Hospital and other New York facilities in exchange for confidential
patient information that disclosed who had been in minor vehicle
accidents, and thus who would be eligible for no-fault auto insurance.
Connell then gave that information to defendants Ronald Schwartz and Dan
Madrid, who acted as “steerers,” convincing patients to receive
treatment at Levy’s two clinics. Schwartz and Madrid would oftentimes
direct patients to exaggerate or fabricate injuries, telling them that
the more they were hurt and the more treatment they received, the more
money they would make in a bodily-injury lawsuit settlement.

The steerers also directed the patients to be represented in their
lawsuits by a select set of attorneys that defendant Connell had chosen.
This group of attorneys would then pay Connell forty percent of the
settlements they received from the lawsuits filed on behalf of these
patients.

In another arm of the criminal operation, Daniel Levy’s brother,
defendant Alex Levy worked as the manager of New Lite and enforced the
clinic protocols that Daniel Levy established. Daniel Levy dictated to
defendant doctors, defendant healthcare providers, defendant managers,
and receptionists the frequency of treatment, the types of treatment and
the testing that patients were to receive. Patients received months of
unnecessary treatment for their alleged injuries, including acupuncture,
physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, psychological counseling and
neurological testing. The healthcare providers associated with the Levy
Enterprise billed the insurance carriers for this treatment and received
millions of dollars from the insurance carriers.

Providing patients with months of unnecessary treatment furthered the
goals of the Levy Criminal Enterprise in two ways. First, it generated
over one million dollars in illicit revenues paid by various insurance
carriers. Second, it fraudulently strengthened the personal injury
claims brought by the attorneys who received the cases from defendant
Connell.

The following defendants are named in today’s indictment:

● Daniel Levy, a.k.a. Dima, 32, of Rego Park, Queens NY
● Dr. Hoi Yat Kam, 55, Fresh Meadows, Queens, a medical doctor
● Alex Levy, a.k.a. Sasha, 34. Flushing, Queens NY 11367
● Desmond Connell, 51, Bronx NY and Fort Lauderdale FL., an
attorney
● Daniel G. Madrid, 48, Bronx, NY
● Ronald J. Schwartz, 54, Katonah, NY
● Dr. Salvatore Lentini, 58, Chester, NY, a chiropractor
● Yan Yan Yu, a.k.a. Angela, 53, Fresh Meadows, NY, an
acupuncturist

● Dr. Haroutyoun Tiikranian, 46, Bridgeport CT, a chiropractor
● Lai Fan Xue, a.k.a. Lisa, 63, Flushing, NY, an acupuncturist,
● Cheng He, 63 Flushing, NY, an acupuncturist
● Dr. Aleksandra Gashinskaya, 57, Brooklyn, NY, a neurologist

The 147 counts of the indictment charge Enterprise Corruption, a
“B” Felony; Money Laundering in the Second Degree, a “C”
Felony; Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a “D” Felony; In
surance
Fraud in the Third Degree, a “D” Felony; Scheme to Defraud in the
First Degree, an “E” Felony; Falsifying Business Records in the
First Degree, an “E” Felony; Offering a False Instrument for Filing
in the First Degree, an “E” Felony; and Money Laundering in the
Fourth Degree, an “E” Felony.

The following individuals were charged today with bribe receiving and
official misconduct in separate criminal complaints:

● Mary Jimenez, 33, New York, NY, a hospital employee
● Lloyd Modeste, 56, Ozone Park, NY, a hospital employee

The charges are merely accusations and all defendants are presumed
innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Attorney General Cuomo also announced that his office has sent letters
to every hospital in New York State, reminding the facilities that
confidential patient information is protected by New York State and
federal law and calling upon them to ensure that they are abiding by
their obligations to protect such information. As part of Cuomo’s
ongoing investigation, his letter also seeks information from the
hospitals about the security systems and procedures in place to prevent
such violations of patient privacy.

The case is a result of a multi-agency investigation, including the
Office of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Inspector
General and the New York City Department of Investigation. Cuomo also
thanked the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Allstate Insurance Company,
A.I.G, American Transit Insurance, Liberty Mutual, and Metlife Auto and
Home Insurance for their assistance in the investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Joseph
D’Arrigo, Peter Kolp, and Jeff Minett and Special Assistant
Attorney General Lisa Lee of the Auto Insurance Fraud Unit, under the
supervision of Senior Investigative Counsel Nina Sas, Bureau Chief Gail
Heatherly and Deputy Bureau Chief Felice Sontupe.

Baltimore Rabbi Offers Temple To Church After Fire

It is being called unity in the community.  One of the oldest churches in the city is damaged by lightning and now a Jewish temple is offering its building to help out. 

Suzanne Collins reports it’s really a next step in an already friendly interfaith relationship.

The bell tower of Bethel A.M.E. burned causing the church to shut down. The large popular church suffered water damage inside. The pastor, Dr. Frank Reid wasn’t quite sure where his flock would gather, until an offer came from across faiths, from Temple Oheb Shalom.

“We can’t control what nature does.  We can’t control that lightening struck the steeple at Bethel A.ME., but we can control how we react to these events,” said Rabbi Steven Fink.

“What President Obama is trying to teach our nation is that in times of trial and trouble, instead of turning on each other, if we turn to each other we can make a difference,” said Dr. Reid.

Reverend Reid says it’s good for Jews and Christians to come together, especially, after the attack at the Holocaust Museum and other hate crimes.  He believes there is bond between two groups that have a history of oppression. 

“This partnership between the Jewish community and the black community reestablishes the bridge that existed between our two communities for hundreds of years,” said Dr. Reid.

The two religious leaders discussed logistics in the temple sanctuary.  A member of Temple Oheb Shalom likes the arrangement.

“This is a sad time for them, but friends are there for the good and the bad and we’re glad we could do that and we have just a very special relationship,” said Sue Sailer Oheb Shalom, member.

The two diverse congregations have worked together before.  For example, they grew a vegetable garden and the produce from it is going to feed Maryland’s hungry.

“Our congregation and Bethel A.M.E. are family. We’ve had a relationship that goes back to 2002,” said Rabbi Fink.

Members of this synagogue and church also have a black and Jewish dialogue group.

“We even get into misperceptions, to prejudge, we ask questions, so it provides a real outlet to understanding.  As Rabbi Fink would say, ‘were just human beings,’” said Lerona Josey, Bethel A.M.E attorney.

Last Sunday Bethel A.M.E met at Pier 6, Wednesday night they have an ecumenical service at Union Baptist at 7 p.m.

Starting Sunday, Temple Oheb Shalom will be its temporary home.

Bethel awaits a meeting with its insurance company to assess the damage, and learn when it may be able to reopen its church building.

The Bethel congregation will meet at 9:30 a.m., one service will start Sunday at Temple Oheb Shalom has kept the offer open through Labor Day.

http://wjz.com/watercooler/lightning.church.jewish.2.1077208.html