Free Republic

Pro-Palestinian encampment protesters at dozens of universities have called for their administrations to divest from Israel. But on two campuses, activists are asking their schools to split from organizations closer to home that they say are complicit in Israeli crimes. At Drexel University in Philadelphia and the University of California, Santa Cruz, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded their universities cut ties with, or “terminate” the presence of, the schools’ Hillel chapters. The Drexel protesters also demand that the university “Immediately terminate Drexel Chabad,” an outpost of the Hasidic outreach movement. The protesters, including some Jewish students, argue that Hillel’s Zionist stance...

In a shocking turn of events, a riot broke out at the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, today. The New York Police Department (NYPD) swiftly responded to the situation, which escalated due to the discovery of an underground tunnel within the temple premises. The incident began earlier today when individuals tore down wooden structures at the Chabad headquarters. The motive behind this destructive behavior is yet to be determined. However, it caught the attention of law enforcement agencies, leading to a swift response from the NYPD. The riot at the Chabad headquarters attracted a significant number of officers from...

For almost 130 years, New York State has required private and non-public schools to offer a curriculum “substantially equivalent” to those offered in local public schools. That requirement has been loosely enforced, and the state education department issued new regulations in September 2022 that promised a more aggressive approach. But last week, New York Supreme Court Judge Christina Ryba partially invalidated those regulations. The ruling overturned neither the state’s compulsory-education law nor the substantial-equivalency law upon which the September regulations had been based. Rather, it invalidated the enforcement mechanism included in those regulations, which, Ryba found, would shut down schools...

President Biden called a prominent New York rabbi and offered him unfettered access to the White House in exchange for throwing his support behind Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democrat's campaign arm who is locked in a tight race. Tasked with leading Democrats in their fight to keep the House, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair and New York Rep. Maloney must now focus on his own race against Republican assemblyman Mike Lawler on Nov. 8. It has turned into a 'toss-up' race, despite Biden carrying the district by 10 points. 'You will have an open door to...

Orthodox Jews used bolt cutters Monday to cut through gates that had been welded shut by New York City authorities earlier in the day to prevent children in Jewish neighborhoods from playing, ostensibly because of fears of coronavirus. Mayor Bill de Blasio has continued cracking down on religious observance, and on religious Jews in particular — while supporting large, crowded Black Lives Matter and transgender demonstrations in the city over the past several weeks. The community has been eager to use the parks again, but the city has removed children from them. As Breitbart News reported earlier Monday, the city...

New York City workers were seen welding shut the gates of a playground in Brooklyn on Monday, one day after a demonstration in the borough saw thousands of attendees. On Sunday, thousands gathered at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza for a Black Trans Lives Matter rally. Despite the protests, New York City remains under the “phase 1” stage of the state’s reopening plan, allowing retail businesses to operate curbside pickup while large gatherings are still technically banned. Local observers filmed city park workers welding the gates of Middleton Playground, which is frequented by members of the Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg....

Mayor de Blasio of New York City recently tweeted what has become a controversial tweet. After hearing of a large gathering of Chasidic Jews in Brooklyn attending a funeral for a well known neighborhood rabbi, de Blasio tweeted: "My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups." While I don't think de Blasio is an anti-Semite, nonetheless, I would wager my last subway token that he would never publicly tweet against the...

Doesn’t fit the narrative. The Southern Poverty Law Center has remained completely silent about the domestic terror attack against Hasidic Jews, presumably because it was carried out by a non-white person. Grafton E. Thomas entered a a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York City on Saturday night. Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly announced that the stabbings were an act of domestic terrorism “spurred by hate.” Another attack earlier this month on a kosher grocery store in New Jersey was carried out by assailants motivated by black supremacist ideology. Despite...

Developers say local leaders in the Hudson Valley are blocking a housing project in order to keep out Hasidic Jews. In a peaceful corner of the Hudson Valley, a broad expanse of land sits at the ready for hundreds of homes ranging between 2,500 and 3,400 square feet, with views of the surrounding hills. There will be a recreation center and tennis courts, and nearly half of the development’s 117 acres will be kept as open space. But if it were up to town officials, the houses would never be built. They openly fret about the size and density of...

When we pledge allegiance to the flag, we also pledge allegiance to the Republic for which it stands — “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The modern American left has put each of these qualities up for grabs. For example, implementing “social justice” would make it logically impossible to provide justice for all of us as individuals. The left is also unfavorably disposed to the idea of one indivisible nation. The Akaka Bill was a good example. As Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow explained, this legislation, which the House passed in 2010, would have enabled...

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the alleged beating of a 22-year-old fashion student at the hands of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mob. Taj Patterson, 22, was walking home from a party through the predominantly ultra-Orthodox section of South Williamsburg when he says a group of at least twenty Jewish men attacked him. Patterson says that during the beating, the men yelled anti-gay slurs, including, "Stay down, f----t!” "I’m walking down some block by myself and then the next thing I know, I’m surrounded by a group of Hasidic Jewish men and they’re attacking me,” Patterson tells the Daily...

Quick current affairs quiz: In what country last month did a family have their cars vandalized, their daughter threatened and their house torched for attending the wrong place of worship? A) Saudi Arabia, B) Afghanistan, C) Pakistan, D) None of the above. The correct answer is “D” none of the above. This happened last month in New York in the hamlet of New Square. This tiny enclave is populated exclusively by Hassidic Jews mostly of the Skvere sect. That seems is where the trouble started.

Jun 22, 2009 7:46 pm US/Eastern "8 NYC Children Burned In Homemade Acid-Bomb Attack 2 Williamsburg Kids Hospitalized After Suffering Severe Burns To Their Eyes; Neighbors Cite Tension Between 2 Buildings" Reporting Pablo Guzman NEW YORK (CBS) SNIPPET: "Two children suffered serious burns and six others were injured after someone threw a bottle containing dangerous chemicals at them while they played outside over the weekend in Brooklyn. The incident happened about 8 p.m. on Sunday at S. 8th Street in the Williamsburg section of the borough. One of the victims, 10-year-old Yaakov Frankel, along with several witnesses told police that...

David Traver of Anchorage took the freestyle beard category and then was crowned overall champion Saturday night in the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships.

In the social circles of the New York Times editorialists, it's OK to have one kid. Two is pushing the envelope. Three or more is tacky, and a threat to the survival of the planet. That being so, there's really no reason to let any car bigger than a Prius be built. Doing so just encourages the unenlightened to overbreed. And so it is that in its editorial of today, the Grey-but-barren Lady suggests that as a condition of the Detroit bailout, "Congress could consider demanding that Detroit simply phase out S.U.V.’s and vans by a certain date."