Borough Park

Alan Dershowitz to Brooklyn College: Academic Freedom For Me But Not For Thee

It has become a safe assumption that otherwise liberal and open-minded New York politicians will make an exception for Israel. Case in point: 10 members of the New York City Council have declared that they support academic freedom, just not the freedom of public universities to host events that do n ... More >>

Levi Aron Pleads Guilty To Kidnapping And Murder Of Leiby Kletzky

Levi Aron, the Borough Park man in custody since last summer after confessing to police that he abducted and dismembered eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky, pleaded guilty today to second-degree murder and kidnapping in a plea deal that will carry a sentence of 40 years to life. Aron's lawyers said one o ... More >>

BK Sex Offender Arrested; Cops Say He Snapped Pics of 9-Year-Old Girl

A convicted pedophile has been arrested on charges of child endangerment --- cops say that David Zimmer recently took photos of a 9-year-old girl, and they want to know whether you've seen him hanging around other kids.

Leiby Kletzy's Family Issues Statement, Sets Up Memorial Fund

​Rabbi Nachman and Esther Kletzky, the parents of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, the Borough Park boy allegedly abducted and killed by Levi Aron, have issued a statement to the public following their seven days of mourning. They thank friends, neighbors, volunteers, government agencies, and all New ... More >>

Milton Balkany, Brooklyn Rabbi With Clout, Guilty as Charged in Shakedown Case

Frances M. Roberts/Newscom​A jury in Manhattan federal court yesterday convicted Brooklyn Rabbi Milton Balkany of extortion, thus ending one of New York's longest-running lucky streaks. The verdict caps a seven-day trial which revealed a drama worthy of John Guare or David Mamet: Secretly reco ... More >>

Two Low-Key Food Events: Spuyten Duyvil's Oktoberfest & International Pickle Day

​Two attendees at Spuyten Duyvil's Oktoberfest might have been posing for an August Sander photo in the 1920s. Note the lederhosen. OKTOBERFEST AT SPUYTEN DUYVIL Too many of today's grandiose food events are a pain in the ass to attend, and expensive, too. I'm thinking of shindigs where the ... More >>

Carl Paladino and Yehuda Levin: Made for Each Other

​Not that he'd appreciate the metaphor, but now that Carl Paladino has jumped into bed with veteran local loon Rabbi Yehuda Levin, maybe he'd like to take ownership of some of Levin's greatest hits. The 56-year-old rabbi from Borough Park has been glomming onto TV cameras since the early '80s, ... More >>

Carl Paladino to Get Conservative Party Nod, Plus Lots of Bad Baggage

Morgan Schweitzer​The Conservative Party will meet tomorrow in Albany to make Buffalo Carl Paladino its new nominee and we can only hope this time around no one gets hit in the head with a brick. We are talking real bricks here. Yes, hard as it may be to accept for True Tea Party Believers, t ... More >>

The Miracle of David's Brisket House in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

​David's hyperbolically good $10 roast brisket sandwich, in this case on rye with gravy. The history of David's Brisket House is lost in the murk of time. Surprisingly, it's a Jewish-style deli in the commercial heart of Bed-Stuy. Does it date from the days early in the last century when the ... More >>

Milton Balkany, Brooklyn Rabbi, Busted Again

​There are many choice quotes contained in the new federal complaint filed yesterday against Milton Balkany, the politically connected Borough Park rabbi whose Rolodex includes well-thumbed cards for influential figures ranging from Bob Dole to Rudy Giuliani. Here's Balkany, 63, telling repr ... More >>

Barrett: John Liu Names a Deputy Comptroller, Simcha Felder, Who Has Some Explaining To Do About His Views on Christine Quinn's Lesbianism

Given Simcha Felder's non-votes on Quinn, is he the best choice for deputy comptroller?​John Liu's announcement last week that he was appointing Brooklyn city councilman Simcha Felder to the post of deputy comptroller has stirred no controversy. Yet Felder is so out of step with Liu on gay and ... More >>

Clip Job: A Yankee Stadium Concert, And a New Face at the Voice

Original caption: "The Author"​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. June 16, 1966, Vol. XI, No. 35 Pop Eye: Soundblast '66 By Richard Goldstein Federico Fellini came to the Bronx last Friday night -- in spirit anyway -- when an assemblage of rock 'n' roll musicians took ... More >>

Thompson isn't only pol to write a "Dear Judge" letter

​On Halloween, Rudy Giuliani will join Mayor Bloomberg and Staten Island boro prez James Molinaro (pictured) at a big pre-election "Prelude to Victory" rally and fundraiser on Staten island. This is one place -- like Brooklyn's ultra-orthodox Borough Park where Team Bloomberg unleashed Gi ... More >>

Election Shake Up, Continued

​By Grace Smith At the start of her historic third term as council member, Christine Quinn will seek re-election to speaker. But the council she'll be trying to sway will look substantially different. Two days ago, Wayne Barrett pointed out another likely historic council moment for January 2 ... More >>

Election Night: At de Blasio Party, Shock, Then Euphoria

Over at his victory party in Dumbo, Bill de Blasio seemed shocked that he managed to get himself into a runoff for the office of Public Advocate with veteran candidate Mark Green. "This is a wonderful result -- amazing!" de Blasio said between hugs. "You kind of just get used to assuming it's not go ... More >>

A Guss by Any Other Name...

Harris Graber/flickr​The Daily News reports that when Guss' Pickles re-opens in Brooklyn, it won't be called Guss' Pickles. That's because of a 2007 legal settlement between Pat Fairhurst, Guss' owner, and Steve and Andrew Leibowitz, a father and son who also claimed ownership of the Guss name. Af ... More >>

Super Sunday! Bread and circuses and suicide bombings!

The Taliban conduct a night ambush against U.S. troops on January 24. A commenter on this YouTube video wrote: "holy cow, tracer rounds are so cool!" Yeah, really cool. What a Sunday in sports and terror: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer fought to the death in a Grand Slam final, and so did the Pit ... More >>

Homicides Up 5%; "Safe" Neighborhoods Share the Pain

The Fall of the House of Rubashkin

As the nation's largest kosher empire implodes, Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews begin to break ranks

Here Come Da Judges and Don't Say We Didn't Warn Ya

Reprint: City of Ghosts

100 minutes of tragedy that will haunt us all

Women and Badness

Phyllis Chesler: prominent second-wave feminist—and neocon

Babka Park

He took away all the light from Mrs. Y and us—Mrs. Y has roses

Kosher Market

Plotzing for Masa (Not Matzo)

Red Hook soccer matches induce foodie hysteria

Weiner Bangs Arab Bucks

Diversity, Equality

Jackson heights was very exclusive. Not only did it exclude Jews ...

Letters

Lost Legacy?

Gidone Busch's Death Unlikely to Bring NYPD Policy Change

Rabbi Bunco

An Ally of Senators and Mayors Is Charged With Fraud

The Judge in the Purple Plastic Gloves

Clarence Norman's Latest Pick for Supreme Court

Homeless Profit-Taking

Brooklyn Developer Pulls Bait and Switch on Neighborhood

Cleaning Lessons for Dirty Bosses

Mob Tapes Yield a How-to Guide on Stiffing Workers

Theater

City of Ghosts

100 Minutes of Tragedy That Will Haunt Us All

Park Slope Scramble

Is the 39th CD De Blasio’s to Lose?

Vested Interests

Why Liberal Pols Run to the Right on Israel

A Time for Mercy

Rabbi Gets Probation for Medical Marijuana

Fear of Joseph Lieberman

Why His Candidacy Gives Some Jews Shpilkes

Catharsis or Collapse

Did Cancer or Character Kill Rudy's Run for the Senate?

The Saturday Stroll

Basya Schechter

(singer-songwriter-musician-teacher)

White Boys in the Hood

The Dangers of Defending the KKK

Socks in the Long Grass

Hillary Moves In

Lyrical Devotion

A Jewish group builds a temple to verse

Takedown

My Man Jesse

Autopsy on Alfonse

A Look at the Real Numbers in '98 Sweepstakes

Holy Daze

Rebecca Segall investigates the problems of young Lubavitcher Hasidim in a world without the Rebbe

Beyond Incarceration

What Lies Ahead? The Antiprison Movement Contemplates the Future

NY, OH

It's Cleaner, Whiter, Brighter