“I’m deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Senator Owen Johnson. Senator Johnson was a true gentleman who provided decades of service to the residents of New York State. As a colleague and friend, I am truly grateful for the kindness and respect Owen showed me during our time together in the State Senate. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, children and loved ones.”

The post Statement from Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins On the Passing of Former Senator Owen Johnson appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Herman Badillo

YONKERS, NY – December 4, 2014 — The headline was as powerful as having a knife twisted in your gut. Learning of Herman Badillo’s passing revealed that another great lion in winter had left our midst. “The political trailblazer died of complications from congestive heart failure, according to a spokesman, George Arzt, wrote New York Daily News Journalist CELESTE KATZ  at 10:11 p.m., December 3, 2014. Read the entire telling: http://nydn.us/1rU0sB8

Celeste Katz writes, “Herman Badillo, a trailblazer in New York and American politics as the first Puerto Rican-born congressman, died Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 85.”

“From the 1960s to the 1980s, there was no bigger Hispanic pol in New York and, for a time, in America,” continues Katz.

“In a 2001 interview with the Daily News he called himself “the first Puerto Rican everything.”

Private services, including eulogies by Giuliani and former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, will be held Sunday at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home.

The post Herman Badillo, First Puerto Rican Born Congressman, Dead at 85 appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

He will be remembered for his love for Yonkers, his belief in its people, his empathic abilities, the acumen of acquired knowledge and experience he brought to the table. He was astute in many disciplines, standing his ground on issues he would constantly reassess. He was tough, but he listened, and more so, he heard all those with whom he engaged and encountered.

He was loved and respected by all who came to know him. He embodied a cantankerous façade but was neither a curmudgeon or cantankerous. He was no pushover. He stood for reason, and goodness, and kindness, and introspective thought and action.

He lived the life of a “mensch”, an understanding, worthy, honorable man who lived a life of rectitude, piousness, and dignity – attributes few attain. Martin Rochelle did.

Martin Rochelle passed away this Sunday morning, November 23, 2014 at White Plains Hospital among his loving and caring family. He is survived by his wife and children.

Martin Rochelle’s life as an adult is exemplary. He joined the Unites States Air Force, created the largest network of bail bond companies, served as Yonkers City Manager before the advent of a city mayor, also as Chairman of the Yonkers Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department, and the Westchester County Parks Recreation and Conservation Board, as President of the New York State Recreation and Parks Society Board Commissioners, as City Marshall to the Yonkers City Court, Commissioner of the 9^th Judicial Independent Screening Commission, and host of a weekly Tuesday evening radio show heard on WVOX-1460 AM.

Funeral services are to take place at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 21 West Broad Street, Mount Vernon, NY 10552. Tel: 914-664-6800, on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 at 12 Noon.

The post IN MEMORIAM: Martin Rochelle – 1936 to November 23, 2014 appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

U.S Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand

Chaya Zissel Braun at the Kotel (Western Wall) a few hours before being being murdered in Jerusalem, Israel.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – October 24, 2014 — U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand released the following statement today in response to the murder of three month old, Chaya Zissel Braun, whose family members reside in Monsey, New York. The infant was killed in Jerusalem by a man described as a convicted Palestinian terrorist:

“This cold-blooded murder of an infant child is an unspeakable tragedy that is truly heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with the Braun family as they grieve the murder of their three-month-old daughter, Chaya Zissel Braun. 

“We must all come together to condemn such brutal, senseless violence and to stand with the people of Israel in this difficult time. I call on President Abbas to renounce this cowardly act and all of those Fatah and Hamas members who applauded it.

“We must make clear that terrorism will never achieve peace and a Palestinian state.”

The post Senator Gillibrand Statement on Murder of Three-Month-Old Infant in Jerusalem appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Yonkers Firefighter Pat Joyce.

YONKERS, NY – Mayor Mike Spano on October 3^rd released a statement remembering the fifth anniversary of Yonkers Firefighter Patrick Joyce’s passing, who died tragically while battling a fire.

Mayor Spano stated, “Five years ago this week, our City suffered a great loss which hurt us deeply as a workforce and as a community when Yonkers Firefighter Patrick Joyce tragically lost his life while battling a fire. Pat was a good man, son, brother, friend, husband and father. His love for his job was obvious, making him a standout in the Yonkers Fire Department.

Pat’s absence is felt every day in the department. However, Pat left us with a keen sense of pride and devotion to the people of Yonkers. Just like his fellow firefighters, Pat went to work each day vowing to serve and protect us. Five years later, we continue to thank him and his family for his years of serving Yonkers and the sacrifice he made.

Please join me today in remembering Firefighter Pat Joyce and his family. Our hearts will always be with him.”

The post The Fifth Anniversary of Yonkers Firefighter Patrick Joyce’s Tragic Death appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

In Memoriam

ROCHESTER, NY – Senator Ted O’Brien released the following statement following the news of the tragic plane crash and passing of Larry and Jane Glazer:

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Glazer family during this tragic time. Larry and Jane Glazer were pillars of the Greater Rochester community. We all feel such a profound sense of loss in the wake of this terrible news. Larry’s unparalleled commitment to rebuilding downtown Rochester gave all of us so much hope for a better future. The loss of Larry and Jane will be felt for many years to come.”

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Senator O’Brien represents the 55th district in the Senate, which is made up of the eastern half of Monroe County and the western half of Ontario County, including much of the City of Rochester.

The post Senator O’Brien’s Statement on the Loss of Larry and Jane Glazer appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

In Memoriam

Marc Rieter Rice of Yonkers passed away at the Bronx VA hospice​ on August 4, 2014​.  He was 86 years old and had been in failing health for the past year. He was a native of Midwood Brooklyn, but has lived in Dobbs Ferry, and then Yonkers for the past 22 years.

His parents were Gil and Ada Rice.  A younger brother Paul, who died several years ago, predeceases him.  Growing up in Midwood, he was an Eagle Scout, and enjoyed trips to Dodger Stadium and to the movies with high school buddies at Kings Theater on Flatbush Avenue.

He attended Syracuse University. He was an accomplished athlete and was on the fencing, acrobatic and diving and equestrian teams in college.  After two years at Syracuse he joined the US Marines and was stationed first at Camp Lejeune and then in San Diego. After serving in the Marines, he moved back to Brooklyn, where he received a BA and an MA in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute.  He worked as a successful graphic designer and was partner in a firm that specialized in modern commercial design for product packaging.

He then went on to study psychology at Yeshiva University where he received a PhD in clinical psychology.  He was in private practice in Manhattan as a psychologist for 25 years, and then moved to Westchester where he became a staff psychologist at Graham Windham. He was a popular mentor and group leader there for many years.

​He was a fan of “The Pink Panther” and of Bruce Lee movies and studied Japanese culture. He loved “The Simpsons”, loved to cook and was famous for his special recipe for homemade pea soup.  He is survived by his sons: Jesse of Manhattan, Zack of Brooklyn, his daughter​s​ Nicole of Portland, OR, and Stephanie of Yonkers – and her son – his beloved grandson, Austen.

The post IN MEMORIAM: Marc Rieter Rice – August 4, 2014 appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twaih presided over a Mass in memory of Monsignor Sami Totah, one of the priests of the Latin Patriarchate.

YONKERS, NY – July 27, 2014 — Saint Mary’s Church was filled by hundreds of mourners attending Saturday services with respect to Monsignor Sami Totah. A quiet and compassionate voice that gave credibility and earned respect from the City of Yonkers. Monsignor Totah’s life was overtaken by the ravages of cancer. He was diagnosed in March of this year. After 38 years of shepherding his flock, Monsignor Totah stepped down from his responsibilities to gain medical attention and treatment.

Monsignor Totah was a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Joseph’s Medical Center.

Fr. Totah was flown to San Francisco for burial in the city where his family resides.

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Eyal, Gilad, Naftali

This past Shabbat (Sabbath) we read the parsha (weekly Torah reading)  of Chukkat (a time when Israelites were engrossed in a moment of desperation) with its almost incomprehensible commandment of the red heifer whose mixed with “living water” purified those who had been in contact with death so that they could enter the Mishkan, symbolic home of the glory of God. Almost incomprehensible but not entirely so.

The mitzvah (Blessing) of the parah adumah, the red heifer, was a protest against the religions of the ancient world that glorified death. Death for the Egyptians was the realm of the spirits and the gods. The pyramids were places where, it was believed, the spirit of the dead Pharaoh ascended to heaven and joined the immortals.

The single most striking thing about the Torah and Tanakh (the complete text of the Jewish Bible) in general is its almost total silence on life after death. We believe in it profoundly. We believe in olam haba (the world to come), Gan Eden – The Garden of Eden (paradise), and techiyat hametim (the resurrection of the dead). Yet Tanakh speaks about these things only sparingly and by allusion. Why so?

Because too intense a focus on heaven is capable of justifying every kind of evil on earth. There was a time when Jews were burned at the stake, so their murderers said, in order to save their immortal souls. Every injustice on earth, every act of violence, even suicide bombings, can be theoretically defended on the grounds that true justice is reserved for life after death.

Against this Judaism protests with every sinew of its soul, every fibre of its faith. Life is sacred. Death defiles. God is the God of life to be found only by consecrating life. Even King David was told by God that he would not be permitted to build the Temple because dam larov shafachta, “you have shed much blood.”

Judaism is supremely a religion of life. That is the logic of the Torah’s principle that those who have had even the slightest contact with death need purification before they may enter sacred space. The parah adumah, the rite of the red heifer, delivered this message in the most dramatic possible way. It said, in effect, that everything that lives – even a heifer that never bore the yoke, even red, the colour of blood which is the symbol of life – may one day turn to ash, but that ash must be dissolved in the waters of life. God lives in life. God must never be associated with death.

Eyal, Gilad and Naftali were killed by people who believed in death. Too often in the past Jews were victims of people who practised hate in the name of the God of love, cruelty in the name of the God of compassion, and murder in the name of the God of life. It is shocking to the very depths of humanity that this still continues to this day.

Never was there a more pointed contrast than, on the one hand, these young men who dedicated their lives to study and to peace, and on the other the revelation that other young men, even from Europe, have become radicalised into violence in the name of God and are now committing murder in His name. That is the difference between a culture of life and one of death, and this has become the battle of our time, not only in Israel but in Syria, in Iraq, in Nigeria and elsewhere. Whole societies are being torn to shreds by people practising violence in the name of God.

Against this we must never forget the simple truth that those who begin by practising violence against their enemies end by committing it against their fellow believers. The verdict of history is that cultures that worship death, die, while those that sanctify life, live on. That is why Judaism survives while the great empires that sought its destruction were themselves destroyed.

Our tears go out to the families of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali. We are with them in grief. We will neither forget the young victims nor what they lived for: the right that everyone on earth should enjoy, to live a life of faith without fear.

Bila hamavet lanetzach: “May He destroy death forever, and may the Lord God wipe away the tears from all faces.” May the God of life, in whose image we are, teach all humanity to serve Him by sanctifying life.

The post IN MEMORIAM: Eyal, Gilad and Naftali” By RABBI SACKS appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

The  “Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day” is the day when world Jewry remembers and commemorates the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

 We are commanded to stand and remember the horrors, so we can be witnesses for generations to come hoping that this will never happen again.
We light a “Yahrzeit candle”  (a memorial candle) in honor of those who were murdered and those who perished.

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