Kosher bookworm examines the Hirsch legacy Page 5 Who’s in the kitchen dishes on sweet challah Page 7 Yehuda Green speaks Page 11 Binny Freedman: making everyday count Page 13
THE JEWISH
STAR
VOL 11, NO 18 ■ MAY 11, 2012 / 19 IYAR 5772
Boro Park man held uncharged in Bolivian jail By Juda Engelmayer There is a prison in Santa Cruz, Bolivia that is commonly referred to as a ghetto. There are walls surrounding a huge complex, and there are buildings within it, and in the center, a large open courtyard. Prison guards apply nominal controls over the lives of the prisoners. It is the prisoners of Palmasola who run the show. They even created an organization called the Disciplina Interna that governs their affairs, if you can even use the term govern. There are few rules, and “stay alive” is on top of that list. No food is served; lucky prisoners are permitted to receive visitors bearing gifts. Those who have “How cheap no one outside usually fight, steal, beg is American or die. There are citizenship today small grocery stores by inmates for that a United States run anyone who can pay. Most of the citizen can sit in a 3000 inmates do Bolivian jail without not live in cells, so they sleep on the being charged for streets; if they are a crime and no one spiritual enough, or crafty, they can go lifts a finger?” to morning prayers at the church run by clergy who are themselves prisoners and be granted permission to stay the night. Prisoners with money on the outside can buy a private five square-foot cell, and be the envy of those who want the same. The poorest of the prisoners who cannot support their families outside have their wives and children join them on the streets, inside the walls of Palmasola. Those visitors can come, get a full body search and be granted access. They get a stamp on their arms, and only if they can produce that stamp on the way out do they get to leave. It’s a rough, lawless place. It is a place where even though everyone is checked upon entry, the drug trade is brisk and the cocaine is allegedly the finest you can buy. In the words of someone who just visited her husband, “if you didn’t go in a drug Continued on page 2
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Representing YU on and off the court By Jerry Joszef On May, 6, 2012, Yeshiva University held a Tribute to Coach Jonathan Halpert celebrating his 40-year basketball coaching career. At the ceremony, the basketball court at the Max Stern Athletic Center was named in his honor and a special Coach Jonathan Halpert Scholarship Fund was established. The event was very well attended and included various Rabbis, Yeshiva faculty, officers and colleagues, many family members including children, in laws and grandchildren, friends and community members, rival coaches, referees and a myriad of former players. Some of the players were members of the Manhattan Talmudic Academy JV which launched Coach Halpert’s coaching career. The balance were many former Yeshiva players Continued on page 3 Courtesy YU
Coach Jonathan Halpert at basketball court naming ceremony recognizing the establishment of the scholarship fund in his name.
Salad Wars/YIW-YUConnects initiative
Photo by Malka Eisenberg
YIW Singles intitiative committee chaired by Mark Bernstein joins forces with YUConnects Special Events Coordinator Rebbetzin Margie Glatt and facilitators prior to the successful event held at Young Israel of Woodmere on May 6, 2012.
Shabbat Candlelighting: 7:43 p.m. Shabbat ends 8:47 p.m. 72 minute zman 9:13 p.m. Torah Reading Parshat Emor
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