State Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo is proposing a new bill that would exempt matzah bakeries and pizzerias from a new city rule meant to reduce restaurants’ carbon emissions, the New York Post reported.

Pirozzolo, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island, including growing Haredi communities in Willowbrook and Manor Heights, told the Post that the city’s Department of Environmental Protection rule constitutes “discrimination against ethnic restaurants.”

The DEP’s rule, set to take effect on April 27, requires existing coal- and wood-fire restaurants to install expensive air filtration systems that significantly reduce emissions.

DEP spokesperson Ted Timbers explained the rationale for the rule in 2023. “All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” he said, adding that the agency consulted members of the restaurant industry when drafting the rule.

“Commercial cooking is a common source of PM2.5 — which is the most harmful urban air pollutant,” Timbers said. “It is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, which can worsen lung and heart disease and lead to hospital admissions and premature deaths.”

At the time, Alter Eckstein, a Williamsburg matzah bakery manager, told the Haredi news outlet Matzav that he opposed the rule. “This is how we bake for the past thousands of years, and we don’t want to change anything,” Eckstein said. He told the outlet his business had put $600,000 toward mitigating the ovens’ environmental impact. 

City Councilmember Justin Brannan has proposed a tax break for restaurants affected by the rule.

Joel Eisdorfer, a senior advisor and Jewish community liaison to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is being sued for failing to pay a $355,000 broker’s fee on a restaurant deal, the New York Daily News reported. The deal to buy a restaurant in South Brooklyn was effectively canceled after Eisdorfer’s $300,000 deposit check bounced, but the real estate agent who brokered the deal is still suing for payment.

Several months after he began working for the mayor, Eisdorfer signed a contract to pay $3.55 million to buy Tamaqua Marina, a restaurant and dock in Gerritsen Beach, according to the lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court. But when Eisdorfer later backed out of the deal, he allegedly failed to pay the agreed-upon broker’s fee to real estate agent Danny Odato. Odato’s suit says a judge should order Eisdorfer to pay the 10% broker’s fee.

The Daily News said there was no indication that Eisdorfer violated any laws by trying to buy the restaurant while working for the mayor. City officials like Eisdorfer are allowed to own private companies while in public service as long as they don’t do business with any municipal agencies.

Eisdorfer, who has worked in City Hall since early 2022, was added on Wednesday to a list of city employees with “substantial” influence over public policy. The list includes employees who have “major responsibilities and [exercise] independent judgment in connection with determining important agency matters,” according to rules from the city’s Conflict of Interest Board. 

In an email, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said that there are over 3,000 individuals on the substantial policy discretion list from across city government, and argued that someone’s inclusion on the list “does not reflect whether they are actually making policy.” The spokesperson did not say why Eisdorfer was not previously on the list, or whether Eisdorfer consulted the COIB about the deal. 

Eisdorfer did not respond immediately to Shtetl’s request for comment. The COIB deferred questions about the reasoning for the addition to the mayor’s office.

Eisdorfer has previously served as a board member for the Borough Park Jewish Community Council and a member of Brooklyn Community Board 12, according to Hamodia. He started working for Adams when Adams was a state senator. When Adams became Brooklyn borough president, Eisdorfer was also part of his senior staff.

In 2022, Eisdorfer described his work for the mayor in comments to JTA, saying, “I ensure that the needs and concerns of the many different Jewish communities of New York City are addressed.”

This article has been updated to reflect comments from the New York City mayor’s office.‍

Five people were hospitalized on Friday morning after a fire broke out in an apartment above a Hasidic synagogue in Borough Park, ABC7NY reported. 

The fire began in the home of a rabbi who lives above the Stavnitz congregation’s synagogue, which the rabbi leads. The building is located on 60th Street between 18th and 19th avenues.

The fire began shortly after 6 a.m. and the New York City Fire Department responded to the call soon after, accompanied by members of Hatzolah. According to the FDNY, the fire was under control by around 7:30 a.m. The department said the fire was caused by a cooking accident.

According to the Haredi news outlet Boro Park 24, three people were trapped on a front porch and had to be rescued by fire emergency personnel. The rabbi, his wife, and their 13-year-old son were among those hospitalized, and are reported to be in serious condition.

Photos and videos published on Haredi news outlets showed the Torah scrolls being rescued from the synagogue wrapped in prayer shawls.

Shmiel, Yoil, and Yakov Weingarten, three brothers from the Lev Tahor sect who helped kidnap two children in 2018, were convicted on Wednesday by a jury in White Plains federal court, Lohud reported. The U.S. government has now convicted all nine people involved in the kidnapping.

Wednesday’s verdict came after Shimon Malka, a 24-year-old former Lev Tahor member, testified that he also helped kidnap the two minor siblings from their mother. The mother had fled Lev Tahor, which is currently based in Guatemala, after her daughter, a 14-year-old was forced into marriage, to which the mother objected. The mother then joined a more mainstream Haredi community in New York. The kidnapping was intended in part to return the “bride” to her “husband.”

The brothers argued that they were rescuing the children from abuse, not kidnapping them, but the jury believed otherwise. Charged with transporting a minor for sex, international parental abduction, and conspiracy charges, the brothers face up to 30 years in prison.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Lev Tahor an “extremist” sect and praised the verdict. “The defendants’ conduct — which included forced child marriages, physical beatings, and family separations — is unthinkable and has caused irreparable harm to children in their formative years,” Williams said. “Whether in the name of religion or any other belief system, subjecting children to physical, sexual, or emotional abuse will never be tolerated by this Office.”

Founded in 1988, Lev Tahor has practices that distinguish it from most other Haredi communities, such as marrying children as young as 12 years old. Many Haredim disapprove of the sect, but there are some who support it. In 2014, the Haredi magazine Ami profiled the group positively, describing what it called “the unjust persecution of a group of pious Jews” after the group met trouble with Quebecois authorities, who accused them of child abuse and neglect.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 9.

A former student at the elite Chabad-Lubavitch boys’ school Oholei Torah has sued the school, alleging that when he was around nine years old, a lifeguard named Yoni Marrus forced the child to grope him on school premises.

The alleged assault took place in or around 1999 and caused “serious psychological injuries and emotional distress, mental anguish, and embarrassment” for which the plaintiff, who sued as a John Doe in Kings County Supreme Court, seeks compensation.

In 2016, a detailed report in Newsweek described how administrators at Oholei Torah allegedly ignored or covered up physical and sexual abuse by the school’s employees. Afterward, Oholei Torah released a letter in which it did not respond to specific allegations but described new measures to prevent abuse, such as training designed to help students react to “improper behavior.”

The civil lawsuit, which was filed under the Gender Motivated Violence Act, adds to three lawsuits that have been filed since 2019 against Oholei Torah under the Child Victims Act that are currently pending in Kings County Supreme Court.

The GMVA allows victims of sexual abuse that took place in New York City to seek compensation in civil courts for injuries resulting from abuse. In 2022, the New York City Council created a “lookback window”: for two years beginning on March 1, 2023, victims can make claims under the GMVA regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. 

Oholei Torah did not immediately respond to Shtetl’s request for comment. Marrus did not immediately respond either. 

Read more in Shtetl:

Chabad special ed teacher sued for child sexual abuse, banned from school premises

What’s in the investigations of 18 Haredi schools found to be providing inadequate secular education

A New Jersey man, Quamel Benton, was arrested on Friday in connection with the attempted kidnapping of a Lakewood girl and other incidents, Asbury Park Press reported. 

On Thursday evening, a man attempted to pull a teenage girl into his vehicle in Lakewood, New Jersey,  according to the Ocean County prosecutor’s office. The incident occurred in Lakewood’s Forest Park Circle neighborhood, a heavily Haredi area. The girl was able to break free and run home unharmed.

Lakewood Shomrim, known officially as Lakewood Civilian Safety Watch, or LCSW, responded to the call and assisted the police in the search for the suspect.

Later that night, police in nearby Toms River responded to a call about a female victim who had been sexually assaulted. The suspect evaded the police by speeding away in his vehicle, but police were able to identify the man through the vehicle registration. Based on his description, police were able to connect the man to the Lakewood incident and to an aggravated assault that took place earlier that day in Willingboro.

The suspect was arrested on Friday afternoon after a high-speed police chase caused him to crash into a pole. After attempting to flee on foot, Benton was chased and caught.

Benton, a Farmingdale resident, was charged with attempted kidnapping, criminal sexual assault, and several other charges, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Ramapo police have recovered a $14,000 shtreimel that was stolen from a car in New Square and returned it to its owner, according to multiple Haredi news outlets.

The valuable fur hat, which was set to be delivered to a customer by the manager of Gold Shtreimel, a New Square shtreimel shop, was stolen during a nighttime spree of car break-ins in late February. The Haredi news outlet Monsey Scoop said the break-ins took place on Slavita Road and Stern Street. 

Police arrested Fraimy Miguel Morel-Rojas and Jorge Perez for the theft, Detective Lieutenant Chris Franklin told Shtetl. “I don’t think they understood the full value of it,” Franklin said. “I’m sure they knew it had some value, but certainly not to the extent that it did.”

Police worked in coordination with New Square Ershte Hilf, a local volunteer organization that responds to both emergency and non-emergency calls for aid, to identify the thieves. According to the Haredi news outlet Rockland Daily, the police returned the shtreimel to the Gold Shtreimel store manager last Wednesday.

Married Hasidic men of most sects wear shtreimels, or shtreimlech in the Yiddish plural, on Shabbos and Jewish holidays, as well as for festive occasions, such as weddings. In a smaller number of sects, particularly those originating in central or northern Poland, such as Gur, Amshinov, or Aleksander, members wear a spodik, a fur hat that is narrower and taller than a shtreimel.

A shtreimel typically costs thousands of dollars, and is made of sable or marten fur, usually imported from Canada. Per custom, a Hasidic groom receives his first shtreimel for his wedding, with the cost covered by parents and in-laws. 

Shtreimel fashion has evolved over the years, from about four inches tall in the ‘50s and ‘60s to eight inches or more for a top-of-the-line modern shtreimel today. They have also grown significantly more expensive. In the ‘90s, shtreimel prices ranged from $1,000 to $4,000. Today, such prices would be a steal.

This is not the first time a thief set his sights on the furry headgear. In February 2021, ABC7 reported one particularly brazen incident, in which a thief in Williamsburg snatched a shtreimel right off a Hasidic man’s head. That shtreimel was reported to have cost $8,000.

The New Jersey State Police removed Rabbi Abe Friedman from his role as a volunteer chaplain two weeks ago, after Shtetl reported on an ongoing legal dispute between Friedman and his brother Joel.

In February, Joel Friedman sued his brother Abraham, or Abe, accusing him of social media impersonation, defamation, and breach of a prior settlement. Both brothers are prominent members of the Satmar community in New York, and well-connected politically.

Abe was removed from the program on March 4, a police spokesperson said. The police did not respond to Shtetl’s inquiry about the reason for Abe’s removal, but the action took place just days after the bitter sibling rivalry spilled into public view.

The two Friedman brothers have long served as chaplains for various law enforcement agencies in the New York metropolitan area. They are frequently seen at events with political leaders and law enforcement officials. In 2016, the FBI awarded Abe the “Director’s Community Leadership Award” for outstanding community leaders. In February, Joel hosted New York City Mayor Eric Adams at his son’s bar mitzvah, according to several Haredi news outlets as well as photos posted on the mayor’s account on X. In October of 2022, the mayor attended a bar mitzvah of another of Joel’s sons, at which he delivered brief remarks.

In court documents first filed by Joel in 2020, numerous screenshots of Tweets, on what is now X, showed a user with the handle @JoelFriedman5 confessing to various criminal activities, which Joel argued was an attempt to defame him. After a failed attempt to get Twitter to release the user’s identity via a subpoena, Joel hired a private investigator and discovered the user was his brother Abe.

An initial settlement over the complaint was reached through a rabbinic arbiter, and required that Abe pay Joel $300,000 in installments, presumably in restitution for Abe’s actions. In his February complaint, Joel said that Abe made $125,000 in payments, and then stopped paying. Abe’s attorney, Dov Medinets, previously told Shtetl that Abe seeks to have the matter adjudicated in a rabbinical court rather than a secular court, which is another point of contention between the brothers.

Reached by Shtetl on Friday morning, Medinets said his client was not immediately available to comment because of the nearing Purim holiday.

Read more in Shtetl:

Bitter feud between politically-connected Satmar brothers devolves into public legal contest

Satmar activist fears “ostracization” after taking dispute with brother to secular court

Matthew Karelefsky, 46, was sentenced to decades in prison by the Brooklyn Supreme Court after setting fire to the home of a Midwood rabbi, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced on Monday. Justice Donald Leo sentenced Karelefsky to 25 years to life.

In June 2019, Karelefsky set fire to the home of Rabbi Jonathan Max, a teacher at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, a Haredi boys’ school, according to media reports. The fire spread to other houses near Max’s home on East 17th St, injuring six people, including an infant, a firefighter, and two police officers.

According to the DA, Karelefsky has a tattoo on his arm that says “Never let go of the HATRED – KILL Rabbi Max YEMACH SHMO.” The last two words are Hebrew for “may his memory be erased,” traditionally used for those who’ve attempted to annihilate the Jewish people, such as the biblical Haman or Adolf Hitler.

At the time, Karelefsky alleged that the rabbi had sexually abused him in the school’s dormitory. He had reportedly been threatening to kill the rabbi for at least a decade. Max denied the abuse allegations to the New York Times in 2019. 

“He’s a very amiable fellow,” Max told the Times. “You talk to him, he’s the sweetest guy. There’s no anger in me toward him. He’s sick. How can you be angry at disease?”

Agudath Israel of America, an organization that lobbies for Haredi interests in the U.S., issued a statement last week calling out Senator Chuck Schumer for his speech on the senate floor, in which he called for Israel to hold new elections and for voters to remove Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu from office.

After praising Schumer’s yearslong support for Israel, the statement went on to say, “We are saddened, though, that important aspects of Senator Schumer’s address crossed a line. Indeed, it was the wrong message at the wrong time.”

The statement added, “These intrusive assertions by Senator Schumer would be inappropriate, offensive, and counterproductive at any time. But leveling accusations and criticisms against a steadfast friend during a time of war will only further endanger Israel’s soldiers while they are fighting and dying in pursuit of eradicating the scourge of terrorism.”

Agudah’s statement stopped short of endorsing Israeli prime minister Netanyahu or his government’s policies, focusing instead on an implied threat in Schumer’s speech. As Agudah described it, Schumer threatened the Israeli public that unless they vote for a change in leadership to Schumer’s liking, “the United States ‘will have no choice’ but to leverage its aid to Israel in a manner that will exert pressure on Israel.”

Agudath Israel walks a fine line when it comes to Israel. They tend to express support for Israel and its citizens but avoid endorsing or supporting the Israeli government and its leadership. Leading Israeli government figures have often clashed with Haredim on issues like subsidies for Torah students and exemptions from the military draft.

In November, Agudath Israel was listed as a sponsor of the pro-Israel rally in Washington D.C., but immediately prior to and during the rally, several members of Agudah’s Council of Torah Sages, known as the “Moetzes,” expressed opposition to the rally.

Agudath Israel has a longstanding relationship with Senator Schumer. Last November, Agudath Israel’s executive vice president Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel thanked Senator Schumer in a video statement for working to raise security funding for houses of worship from around $300 million to $1 billion dollars due to the rise in antisemitism in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks.

Schumer has also spoken at various Agudah functions over the years, including at a 2016 dinner in which he reportedly said he’d be upset if his daughter married a non-Jewish man.

Other Orthodox voices have also expressed outrage at Schumer’s remarks. Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, said in a statement, “This is not the speech of a Shomer Yisrael.” Shomer Yisrael is a biblical term for “Guardian of Israel.” The comment appeared to allude to one part of Schumer’s statement: “My last name is Schumer, which derives from the Hebrew word Shomer, or ‘guardian.’”

On X, formerly Twitter, Haredi publication Ami Magazine, called Schumer a “self-hating Jew.” In a subsequent post, Ami Magazine appeared to have a more personal gripe with New York State’s Jewish senator: “@chuckschumer always declined to speak with Ami, which is the largest Jewish publication located in his hometown. Says something about his Jewishness.”

The reaction in the Haredi world is in line with a poll that found that the vast majority of Haredim support the war and many would like to see Israel take over the Gaza strip and permanently displace its current population.

The negative Haredi reaction to Schumer’s speech has come primarily from the non-Hasidic sector. Satmar, one of the largest Hasidic sects in the New York area, has explicitly banned Ami Magazine due its pro-Zionist stance, and Satmar leaders have long enjoyed a friendly relationship with Schumer, who is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history.

A federal funding package will include significant funding for critical projects affecting various Haredi communities, according to press releases from New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

The funding, part of nearly $80 million earmarked for projects across New York State, is also supported by congressman Mike Lawler, whose Rockland County district includes one of the largest Haredi populations in New York State. Lawler’s district is set to receive the largest share of the total $80 million package, according to Lohud. Congressman Pat Ryan, whose district includes the Satmar village of Kiryas Joel, has also secured funding for his Haredi constituents.

The earmarks include $2 million for Kiryas Joel’s water pipeline, which is meant to solve a pressing water shortage within the Hasidic village by tapping into the New York City aqueduct. New York legislators previously allocated a separate $1.5 million for the pipeline in 2023, and the project also got a $3 million grant from the state, according to the Times Herald-Record.

Another $1 million will go toward a public transportation system in New Square, which would include improving bus shelters and purchasing three buses.

$1.5 million will go to the Vizhnitz village of Kaser, within Monsey, for widening the section of Route 306 between Maple Avenue and Rita Lane, as well as constructing turning lanes and improving traffic and crossing signals. Also in Rockland, the Haredi-run social services organization Community Outreach Center, which Gillibrand has visited, will get $1.6 million to improve its facilities.  

Another $1 million will go toward constructing new buildings at Camp HASC, a summer program that serves Haredi and Modern Orthodox Jewish children with disabilities. Schumer has visited both the HASC center and its summer camp.

A key witness testified last week in the trial of Shmiel, Yoil, and Yakov Weingarten, brothers from the Lev Tahor sect who were among nine people involved in a 2018 kidnapping scheme, Lohud reported.

Shimon Malka, a 24-year-old former Lev Tahor member, testified in federal court that he assisted in the 2018 kidnapping of two children from their mother, Sara Helbrans, the daughter of the sect’s founder, Shlomo Helbrans, and sister of current Lev Tahor leader Nachman Helbrans.

Weeks earlier, Sara had fled the sect, which was based in Mexico at the time, after her 14-year-old daughter was forced into marriage, of which she disapproved. She brought several of her children to live in a more mainstream Haredi community in upstate New York, and had been granted full custody of her children.

Malka assisted in the kidnapping despite having left Lev Tahor two months earlier, hoping it would help him regain contact with his wife, who had remained with the sect. But prosecutors offered not to charge him in return for his cooperation as a government witness. His testimony in previous cases helped the government convict others involved in the kidnapping.

During his testimony, Malka described the harsh measures Lev Tahor members were subject to if they disobeyed the “hanhala,” the group’s leadership. Marriages were forced on girls as young as 12, and punishments included beatings and burning children’s hands.

The Lev Tahor group was founded in Israel by Shlomo Helbrans, who moved with his followers to the U.S. in 1990. The group has been involved in several kidnapping schemes over the years, with Shlomo Helbrans serving prison time in the U.S. back in the ‘90s for kidnapping a 13-year-old boy from his secular mother. 

The group later moved to Canada, then Mexico, and are today based in Guatemala. Shlomo Helbrans died in 2017, after which his son Nachman resumed leadership of the group.

Many within the Haredi community disapprove of the sect, although some do support them. In 2014, the Haredi Ami magazine profiled the group positively, and described what they called “the unjust persecution of a group of pious Jews,” after the group encountered trouble with Quebecois authorities, who accused them of child abuse and neglect.

A number of former Lev Tahor members have fled the sect over the years, and they have consistently described the group’s practices as unusually harsh and oppressive.