Orthodox Jewish Boy Found Brutally Murdered

rabbifink — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:06:34 +0000

For my many readers outside the New York Jewish community I report with sadness the following news:

The insular orthodox Jewish community in New York woke up this morning to a horrific end to a harrowing past few days. A 9 year old boy never came home from camp. A massive search ensued, uniting all types of Jews and non-Jews in an effort to find and rescue the boy. Volunteers from all over the New York Metropolitan area came to Brooklyn to assist in the search.

Eventually the FBI found the boy. But it was too late. He had been murdered and dismembered. A suspect, who has confessed is in custody. The suspect is, according to reports, an orthodox Jewish male may have been friends with the boy’s family.

It is all to much to handle at this point. Even tears seem too trite under the circumstances.

An innocent boy has been brutally murdered.

The only thing to say at this point is how my heart and the hearts of every single other human being must go out for this child’s family and friends. They say there is nothing more difficult than burying a child. I can’t imagine the pain involved. But I can imagine that it is even worse under circumstances like these.

Let us hope that the family will find the strength to cope with this tragedy and let us give each other support through this difficult time.

There is a silver lining to every dark cloud. I think I have found a silver lining**, even in this case, but now is not the time to discuss silver linings. Now is the time to grieve and support.

המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

Link: NY Times (and others)

**Please see this post for the silver lining: Social Issues Raised by the Recent Tragedy
and please see this post to understand my usage of this idiom: Silver Linings: An explanation and an Apology

When Times Are Tough

rabbifink — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:09:34 +0000

The economic crisis has hit many families and individuals in different ways. This anecdote really hit me hard. Perhaps you will feel the same way.

We all know that money is tight for Americans all across the country. Los Angeles is no exception and even in the middle to upper class neighborhood where we live there are some disturbing signs of desperation. Sure, there are for rent signs all over the place and people are conscious about saving and reducing their expenses, but the most painful demonstration of the economic crisis that I have heard is so much worse.

Around the corner from our home is a Ralph’s Supermarket. (That’s like Pathmark and Shoprite for the east coasters, Publix for you southerners and Schnucks for you midwesterners.) We go there for many basic grocery items, but in the past they have been notoriously over priced so we would go to Trader Joe’s for anything that we could find there as the prices were much better.

Recently, Ralph’s has had some great sales and overall their prices have come down. Even their coupons have been more generous. One glaring example of an overly generous coupon is the buy one baby formula get another baby formula free coupon. Free! That’s a big coupon. The only problem with using that coupon is that the formula section is often bare.

Even early in the day, Ralph’s is often sold out of all the baby formula that they stock.

My wife decided to ask a Ralph’s stock person about the low stock of baby formula. The stock person said “yeah, it’s always like this now, the thing is that people aren’t even buying it, we will sometimes go through our entire stock of baby formula without making one sale. People have crying babies at home that need to eat, but they can’t afford the baby formula, so they’ve been stealing it. Kids and adults can get by on other stuff, even cheap stuff, but babies need formula…” (Now the 5$ coupons make sense, Ralph’s would prefer that they buy the formula for a deeply discounted price rather than steal it.)

(Ralph’s now has the formula behind lock and key to prevent theft.)

When I heard that, it brought me to tears. As I type it right now, tears form in the corners of my eyes. I cannot imagine how disheartening it must be to a parent who cannot afford to feed one’s family.

For those of us who have what we need, it is a call to reach out and help our friends and neighbors who are going through difficult financial times. It is heartbreaking to hear about these stories, but it is reality.

We all know people who need help. Let us all try and share what we have with those who don’t.

Pacific Jewish Center | Rabbi » sad

Orthodox Jewish Boy Found Brutally Murdered

When Times Are Tough