FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com february 7, 2013 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3 Shawl fracas at Western Wall BY MELISSA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com She did not cross the Atlantic to make a stand. Robyn Fryer Bodzin, a female rabbi from Fresh Meadows, said she came to the Old City of Jerusalem simply to exercise her rights to pray. But on Monday, February 11, her peaceful worship abruptly ended when Israeli police detained her and nine other women at the Western Wall for wearing prayer shawls traditionally used by men. “It’s archaic. It’s intolerant of a holistic society,” said Fryer Bodzin, 38. An Israeli officer took her passport and told her she was not allowed to wear the shawl, called a tallit, at the sacred site. He said she violated regulations Need To See A Doctor Can’t Wait? IMMEDIATE MEDICAL CARE THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin was detained by Israeli police for wearing a prayer shawl at the Western Wall. WE TREAT MOST COMMON MEDICAL CONDITIONS INCLUDING: Orthopedic Injuries · Sprains & Fractures · Suturing Wounds, Burns & Cuts · On-Site Digital X-Rays FIRST+MED – GLENDALE 82-17 Woodhaven Blvd. Glendale, NY 11385 718-805-9581 Mon.-Fri.: 9am-7pm Sat. & Sun.: 9am-3pm WE SPECIALIZE IN BEING OPEN Winner 2013 WE NOW ACCEPT ALL BC/BS PLANS. OTHER INSURANCES INCLUDE: GHI, GHI ACCESS, AETNA, CIGNA, HIP, VYTRA, MEDICARE, EMBLEM HEALTH, HEALTHNET GUARDIAN, MAGNICARE, POSTAL, W/C, NO FAULT UNITED HEALTH CARE, EXCEPT COMMUNITY AND ALL OXFORD, EXCEPT MOSAIC Best Urgent Care FIRST+MED – BAYSIDE 191-20 Northern Blvd. Flushing, NY 11358 718-224-8855 Mon.-Fri.: 8am-9pm Sat. & Sun.: 8am-7pm st of the 2013 THE QUEENS QueensCourier.com Place FIRST+MED GUILTY PLEA IN BOMB PLOT BY MAGGIE HAYES mhayes@queenscourier.com The Bangladeshi national said that he wanted to “destroy America.” Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, pleaded guilty on Thursday, February 7, to attempting to bomb the New York Federal Reserve Bank, resolving to commit mass murder last October, according to the FBI. Nafis, who lived in Jamaica, came to the United States in January 2012 on a student visa. But he was accused of trying to execute a terrorist attack on the behalf of al Qaeda. “As the guilty plea shows, Nafis came to this country not to further his studies but to advance goals of jihad,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch. “Once here, he devoted his energies to refining his plan to disrupt the U.S. economy and kill Americans and attempting to recruit others to join him.” Nafis sought to recruit multiple individuals to assist him in his quest, including al Qaeda contacts, but unknowingly recruited an FBI source who posed as an al Qaeda facilitator. At Nafis’ request, the undercover agent supplied him with 20 50-pound bags of purported explosives. On Wednesday, October 17, the two traveled in a van to a warehouse where Nafis attempted to assemble what he believed to be a bomb. He explained to the agent that he also had a “Plan B” that involved a suicide bombing if his original plan were to be thwarted by the police. Nafis and the undercover agent then drove to Lower Manhattan, parked next to the Federal Reserve Bank, and went to a nearby hotel. There, the 21-year-old recorded a video statement meant for the American public. “We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom,” he said, according to the FBI. Nafis then repeatedly tried to detonate the purported bomb, and was immediately arrested after his failed attempts. NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that this was just one of 16 terrorist plots against the city since 9/11. After his guilty plea, Nafis now faces life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for the end of May. Policy forces out the mentally ill BY MELISSA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com Adult homes in Queens are now forced to evict hundreds of mentally ill residents and shut out new entrants under a new state policy. Privately run adult homes in the state, including nine in Queens and nearly 50 in the city, will have to cut their mental health population down to 25 percent, according to regulation put in place by Governor Andrew Cuomo last month. The homes have less than 120 days to move out residents into smaller supportive housing units where they will live on their own. “Displacing these residents without the proper preparations for their new living will have an adverse effect on patient care and on the communities they will be living in,” said Assemblymember Phil Goldfeder. The new rule is expected to throw adult homes into financial turmoil, leaders in the field said. “No assisted living facility with mentally ill populations can remain economically viable,” said Jeffrey Edelman of the New York State Center for Assisted Living. “If this radical social experiment to force the seriously mentally ill to live on their own fails, residents will never be able to return to their adult home because we will be out of business.” Goldfeder said Queens adult homes, most of which are located in the Rockaways, are also the source of hundreds of local jobs. “At the end of the day, we have to do what’s in the best interest of the patients and we have to think about the community at large,” he said. Queens Adult Care Center, one of the borough’s affected adult homes, will have to boot 90 of its 300 mentally ill residents, according to chief administrator Leon Hofman. They would be without regular medication and constant supervision outside of their homes, he said. “I’m concerned some of these people will not have a place to live or if they’ll make it,” Hofman said. Jonathan Gaska, district manager of Community Board 14, said he fears some residents will end up freezing to death or wandering without supervision to nearby oceans. “We didn’t agree with the policy,” he said. “It’s not fair to them, and the state will have to answer for that. I’m not sure they thought that through.” Cuomo’s efforts come after a similar 2009 ruling by a Brooklyn federal judge who said large adult homes in the city violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. AFFECTED ADULT HOMES IN QUEENS: Sanford Manor Home Care Agency in Flushing Queens Adult Care Center in Elmhurst Belle Harbor Manor • Long Island Living Center New Haven Manor Home for Adults • Rockaway Manor Home for Adults Seaview Manor Home for Adults Wavecrest Home for Adults • Surfside Manor Home for Adults of the Torah and of holy places and “behaved in a way that may violate public safety.” “There are some people in the world who don’t think women should be wearing this — that it’s male garb,” she said. “I was exercising my rights as a Jewish woman to pray, and when I pray, I wear a tallit. I’m still not sure why we were detained.” Israeli police said the women were not charged with criminal offenses but were forbidden from the Wall for 15 days, according to reports. Fryer Bodzin, who leads the Israel Center of Conservative Judaism (ICCJ), became the first female to head a conservative synagogue in Queens in 2009. The self-described “hip, modern, vegan rabbi” said her indirect demonstration has not received backlash from the Jewish community, but rather applause. “Robyn has always spoken for equality and tolerance. We’re proud of that. It’s something that we as a congregation wholeheartedly support,” said Sam Weiss, executive vice president of the ICCJ. Weiss said Fryer Bodzin has used her wits and voice many times to fight for a variety of causes, including women and gay rights. “She’s very young, very smart, and very lively,” he said. “We wouldn’t have picked her to lead us if she was any other person.” Fryer Bodzin’s husband, Aaron, said he was proud of his wife for not taking off the prayer shawl. “She is standing up for something that is important,” he said. “She has a good heart. She wasn’t going with any intent to cause any trouble.” He called the breach in peace at the Wall “bitter irony.” “One day down the road, we’re going to be able to look back and say, ‘Wasn’t it silly there was a time when women in Israel weren’t allowed to pray freely?’ One day, we’ll be able to say that was a silly time in our history.”
QC02142013
To see the actual publication please follow the link above