Last week, Orthodox Jews in a predominantly Haredim part of Borough Park hung eleven mannequins in effigy across 12th Avenue. (Haredi Jews are widely considered the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism.) The display was part of the Purim celebrations, but some non-Jewish locals who passed through the neighborhood were confused and even offended by the effigies, according to News 12. The local news channel says a viewer tipped them off about the display, and one passerby told them, "I don't know, I think it's kind of like ridiculing." more ›

A 30-year-old mother of four, aspiring model, and former member of Brooklyn's Hasidic community is fighting for a divorce from her allegedly abusive husband and for custody of her children. "It was an arranged marriage," Pearlperry Reich tells the Post, referring to her wedding to Sinai Susholz when she was 18-years-old. "We got married and right away we had issues." Reich claims that Susholz "cut up her $4,000 wig and told her mother in front of their children that she was a "slut." Susholz apparently has taken to Facebook to accuse her of "promiscuous sexual activities." more ›

A convicted pedophile was arrested in Brooklyn for taking pictures of a 9-year-old girl. David Zimmer, 40, was arrested Jan. 2 in Borough Park for photographing the girl in the hallway of the building where they both live. But Zimmer's brother claims there was nothing wrong with the photos: “None of the pictures he took were inappropriate. My brother is a very kind, sweet person.” more ›

The man who confessed to killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky this past fall has already been found mentally competent to stand trial—but his lawyer is still arguing that he is insane. Lawyer Howard Greenberg laid out his case in defense of 35-year-old Levi Aron to reporters outside Brooklyn Supreme Court this morning: "He suffered a severe head injury as a young man. There's a history of schizophrenia," the lawyer said. "There's inbreeding in that community." more ›

It wasn't until several weeks ago that the father of Leiby Kletzky, the 8-year-old Brooklyn boy whom police say was brutally murdered by Levi Aron, learned the horrific details of his son's death. Aron reportedly confessed to killing Leiby in July after finding the lost boy wandering the streets of Borough Park. In addition to the criminal charges he now faces, Leiby's devastated father Nachman Kletzky has filed a lawsuit against Aron. The civil lawsuit describes the murder as “one of the most horrific crimes in the history of the County of Kings,” and seeks $100 million in punitive damages from the mentally unstable hardware store clerk. more ›

Levi Aron's attorneys have alluded that they will use an insanity plea to defend him against the allegations (and his own written and video confessions) that he kidnapped, suffocated, and dismembered 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky. Yesterday, after he spent 20 minutes with the Kletzky family, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes shrugged off the defense's claims, saying, "Sometimes I wonder about what goes through defense lawyers' minds." Hynes also told the Daily News that he "wanted to make a personal commitment that every resource of this office will be used to make sure the issue is resolved in a way that is appropriate." more ›

As police attempt to square Levi Aron's written confession with the evidence they're collecting from his home, Aron's attorney believed that his client has a "disorder" that would lead him to kidnap a 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, suffocate him, and dismember his body. "I can't tell you what the nature of the disorder is," Bazile tells FOX 5, "but it's hard to believe that somebody who committed an act like that wouldn't have a disorder." It appears that Bazile will pursue an insanity defense. more ›

Following Levi Aron's arraignment yesterday for the murder and dismemberment of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, authorities are still attempting to piece together the profile of a man who would commit such atrocities. As the Times reports, though he was a regular at karaoke bars on Long Island, the people who frequented the events said "Aron did not mingle much with others." In addition to performing in bars, Aron, who reportedly had dreams of being a contestant on American Idol, also sung covers on the website SingSnap.com. more ›

A man reportedly molested two young boys in a Borough Park synagogue within minutes of each other on Wednesday afternoon. The incidents happened at Simcha Hall, which serves the Belz sect of the Hasids in the neighborhood, around 4 p.m. A "young man" dressed as a Hasid asked a 12-year-old boy to help him move some Jewish books then "pushed the boy into the bathroom," pulled down the boy's pants and proceeded to molest him. The Post reports that less than an hour after the first attack, the same man allegedly pulled another young boy into the synagogue's basement and began to molest him. more ›

In the most pun-packed story we've read in the NY Post for quite some time, the tabloid giddily reports that "a bagel-brained bandit stuffed a dozen packs of smoked salmon in his pants at a Brooklyn deli—but got schmeared by a couple of workers before he could get out the door, police said yesterday. And now he's the catch of the day at Rikers." Bookmark this link for the corny grandpa in your life! Spoiler alert: By the time the Borough Park Shomrim patrol handed over suspect Sergey Muzlayov to the police, blood was gushing from his head. And so the message is clear: You mess with their lox, you're gonna get creamed. more ›

As we've sorted through the wreckage of the last couple marshmallowy days, blame has been shuffled, Tony Soprano and Corey Booker emerged as heroes, and at least two teens got wasted. But seeing as how everything was supposed to be cleared by 7 a.m. this morning, maybe it's time to debate: which borough got hit the worst? more ›

Four members of the Shomrim volunteer patrol in Borough Park are recovering from gunshot wounds suffered when they confronted a suspect they were following on Thursday night. The suspect, David Flores, who attempted to run away from them, fired at them. The Borough Park patrol's coordinator told the Daily News that Flores "deserves to stay in jail for the rest of his life." more ›

Last night, four members of the Shomrim, the Orthodox Jewish volunteer patrol, were shot in Borough Park when they confronted a man who allegedly fondled himself and leered at young children in the neighborhood. When they approached David Flores, 33, near 49th Street and 10th Avenue, he opened fire on them. Motty Perl, who was shot in the hand and shoulder, told the Post, "I tackled him and as we were falling to the ground, he started shooting all over the place. I thought it was a BB gun. I didn't think the gun was real." more ›

Five Torah scrolls were reported stolen from the Khal Yirei Hashem Synagogue in Brooklyn this morning, each valued up to $50,000. Two silver crowns and two silver breastplates kept with the scrolls are also missing, and investigators say there were no signs of forced entry, and it looks like somebody crawled through an open window and stole the scrolls from a safe, which was left unlocked. Community leader Jack Meyer said it may have been an inside job. "We're unsure if it was someone within the congregation, but quite a number of people knew the combination to the safe and many people have keys." The "magic key" strikes again? more ›

Last summer news broke that Lower East Side tenement-era survivors Guss' Pickles would pack up their barrels and move to Borough Park; after almost 90 years in the neighborhood, they could no longer make a profit. Last week they finally abandoned their Orchard Street stall, changed the name to Ess-a-Pickle, and relocated to Brooklyn, on 39th Street between 14th and 15th Avenues. But before they left, The Brooklyn Ink shot this mouth-watering video, narrated by co-owner Patricia Fairhurst, whom we instantly adore for her declaration, "We don't get carried away with the spices—except garlic, we love garlic. Garlic makes everything wonderful!" Patricia, we'd follow you anywhere! more ›

An Israeli woman whose husband was killed in the Mumbai terrorist attacks is having trouble visiting her eight kids in Brooklyn due to immigration woes. On Feb. 5, US Customs and Border Protection agents at Kennedy Airport stopped 37-year-old Frumet Teitelbaum and said she had overused her visitor's visa by regularly traveling from her home in Israel to see her kids, who are staying with her late husband's family in Borough Park. more ›

You'll recall the vicious fight between two senior citizens—both refugees from Soviet Russia—over a parking spot in Borough Park, which left a 99-year-old man with a broken nose and broken ribs. Yesterday the alleged antagonist, 83-year-old Gersh Gofman, postponed his hernia-related doctor appointment to appear in court to fight charges of second-degree assault and weapons possession. After a grand-jury indicted him last month, Gofman was offered the chance to plead guilty to second-degree attempted assault in exchange for probation. But a man who's willing to (allegedly) beat another senior citizen with a steering wheel lock for a parking space isn't about to give up without a fight. more ›

The Borough Park rabbi/travel agent accused in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse was convicted yesterday of molesting a 16-year-old student. Baruch Lebovits could be sentenced to 32 years in jail, after being found guilty on eight counts. "I understand that there are a significant number of Jewish holidays coming up,” said the judge. “And I am sorry." The young victim testified that in 2004 Lebovits offered to let him drive his car, then unzipped his fly and performed oral sex on him. Among the rabbi’s other alleged victims is a young Hasidic man who committed suicide on his honeymoon, by jumping from the seventh story of a hotel. more ›

Today a 22-year-old testified In Brooklyn Supreme Court that he was sexually molested by Borough Park Rabbi Baruch Lebovits. The young man, who's no longer part of the Hasidic community, was dressed in "jeans, white shirt, tie and a yarmulke" and spoke softly, according to the Daily News. "How did you feel?" asked the assistant district attorney. "Very uncomfortable and very confused," he responded. Lebovits will soon stand trial on charges of sodomizing two others, and has been accused of hundreds more counts of child rape and abuse [Pdf Charge Sheets]. Still, his lawyer called the witness a "con man" and warned the jury, "You're going to be sold a bill of goods." more ›

In Borough Park, Brooklyn an 18-year-old is running for City Council on the platform of saving student metrocards and funding for the FDNY, but already an older opponent is trying to sully his name. David Greenfield, who's already backed by Mayor Bloomberg, is suing Abraham Tischler, claiming that the Touro College sophomore faked signatures on his petitions. "We don't know anything about the guy," Greenfield's spokesman told the Daily News, adding that since Tischler isn't accepting city campaign financing, "He could drop half a million dollars of family money in the campaign tomorrow." more ›

A rabbi known as the "Brooklyn Bundler" for his ability to raise campaign money for (mostly) Republican candidates was charged on Thursday with trying to extort $4 million from a Connecticut hedge fund. Rabbi Milton Balkany, who serves as the dean of the Bais Yaakov day school in Borough Park, allegedly dreamed up the scheme after becoming a "spiritual adviser" to a federal inmate who told him about a Connecticut hedge fund that had used inside information in stock trades. Prosecutors say Balkany told lawyers at the hedge fund that unless they handed over $4 million ($2 million of which would go to Bais Yaakov), he'd instruct the inmate to rat them out. But Balkany insists he's just being punished for doing a mitzvah! more ›

One of Borough Park's Yeshiva school buses struck and killed a young Orthodox boy today, after he slipped and fell on an icy patch of pavement. Different sources have reported his age to be either 4 or 7, but according to one witness he was tiny. "The child was so small," said Rocco Botta, who who was working on a construction site nearby. "The person who hit him may have thought it was snow and just kept going." more ›

It's been almost four long years, but a Borough Park man has finally gotten satisfaction from the city after getting violently arrested in a riot back in April 2006. In a settlement deal, the city will pay $75,000 to Chaim Appel, 41, who claims an NYPD cop tore off parts of his beard during his arrest. Appel says he was beaten, thrown against the hood of a car, then cuffed and taken away while his 9-year-old son looked on. "It makes it easy for me to sleep at night, knowing that other people finally know the truth of what happened over there," Appel, who had originally sought $11 million, tells the Post. So what did happen? more ›

Last night, a fire broke out in a Borough Park apartment, and neighbors say it was started by a menorah. WCBS 2 reports, a 3-year-old girl "suffered third degree burns and went into cardiac arrest." She is now at Staten Island University Hospital. The girl and her four siblings were being watched by a neighbor in her 70s, who was able to leave the apartment with the other children. Other neighbors told the Fire Department there was still a child in a back room. One said, "The menorah must've tipped over and the house started burning." more ›

The city's health department announced there is a mumps outbreak in Brooklyn, with at least 57 "confirmed or probable cases." How? Well, the Daily News reports, "The outbreak was traced to a child who went to Britain - where the illness is more common because of lower levels of vaccination - and then attended a summer camp upstate, apparently infecting dozens of kids." more ›

Not only will pickle purveyor Guss' Pickles be moving from its longtime Lower East Side home to Brooklyn, but it'll be losing its name, too! Co-owner Pat Fairhurst has revealed that according to the terms of a prior lawsuit settlement, she's required to relinquish the name if she does pickle business anywhere else. It's a little complicated, but in 2006 Fairhurst got into a legal fight over the Guss' name with Steve and Andrew Leibowitz, a father-son team who run United Pickle in the Bronx and tried to open up a pickle shop named Guss' on Long Island. Lawsuits and counter-lawsuits ensued, with both parties asserting their right to the Guss' legacy—which stretches back to Isidor Guss, a Polish immigrant who sold pushcart pickles and later opened up the LES shop. But Fairhurst, who has owned Guss' since 2004, doesn't seem worried about dropping the historic name; she tells the Daily News, "It doesn't matter what our name is. People are going to know where I'm going. I'll put whatever I want on the sign, and they'll still come because it's our pickles they want." more ›

This year's New York City International Pickle Day Festival, taking place on October 4, will be a lot more brinier than usual, supplemented with free flowing half-sour tears. The reason? Earlier today, news broke that Lower East Side tenement-era survivors Guss' Pickles will pack up their barrels four months from now and move to Borough Park. more ›