Welcome to the Voice of Justice Blog

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

New Center In Midwood To Promote Diversity
.
11/04/14
Jewish Week Correspondent
Forward Print HTML

Event honorees Ezra Friedlander, far left, and Ed Powell, right, flank Bridge founder Mark Meyer Appel. Photos by NikWes C reati
Event honorees Ezra Friedlander, far left, and Ed Powell, right, flank Bridge founder Mark Meyer Appel. Photos by NikWes C reati
More than one person attending the recent open house at The Bridge, a new center in Midwood, Brooklyn, devoted to promoting diversity, marveled at what they saw that night.
Members of the borough’s Orthodox-Jewish, black and Muslim communities cross paths every day, but rarely do they come together to celebrate what they have in common, as about 300 did Oct. 19 for the opening of The Bridge.
The gathering included elected officials, political activists and religious leaders from all three communities, some of whom spoke at the event and two of whom were honored. And toward the end of the evening, a good number of guests danced the hora, as the Caribbean band hired for the event teamed with an Orthodox singer and played “Hava Nagila.”
The center, the full name of which is The Bridge Multicultural and Advocacy Project, is the vision of Mark Meyer Appel, a social activist who owns the building, along with neighboring properties on Flatbush Avenue. His idea for the center, he told the gathering, is to bring together diverse elements of the community through art shows, music and dance concerts, and advocacy efforts around issues affecting Brooklyn.
But Appel is doing so at what seems like an especially tense time, marked by a rash of violent incidents. The incidents have included so-called “knockout” attacks by gangs of black teens who, according to reports, have targeted Jews in Crown Heights, reminding some residents of the riots 23 years ago. The latest such attack took place Oct. 12, when teens rushed into a kosher deli, ransacked the store and shouted anti-Semitic slogans as one of them punched the owner in the jaw, newspaper accounts said.
Only days earlier, pro-Palestinian protesters allegedly attacked Leonard Petlakh, executive director of the Kings Bay Y, following an exhibition basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Barclays Center. Police have arrested a suspect in that incident, but say they won’t charge him with a hate crime because they don’t believe bias was involved.
Some of the speakers at The Bridge, including Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, alluded to those incidents, promising that any hate crimes would be investigated and vigorously prosecuted. But the speeches also emphasized the positive, focusing on the value of efforts like The Bridge.
“There’s no greater cause than allowing people to gather together under one roof and share our similarities,” said Ezra Friedlander, a political consultant active in the chasidic community and Democratic politics. Friedlander was honored at the event, along with Ed Powell, a local political leader and an assistant imam at one of Brooklyn’s largest mosques.
Other speakers included New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, Assemblywoman Rhoda S. Jacobs, Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind and City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, all Democrats. Religious leaders addressing the event include Rabbi Joseph Potasknik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, who said that, ultimately, the center is about “making a better life for all of us.”
In interviews before and after the speeches, various leaders of the Jewish community described their admiration for The Bridge’s founder, who is in the process of moving back to Brooklyn after several years in Florida. Rabbi Postasnik called Appel a “bridge builder,” one of the things that attracted him to the event, he said. Similarly, Bob Kaplan, director of intergroup relations and community concerns at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said Appel “has always been there” whenever tensions in the city have escalated.
“He’s always been someone who believes that diversity is a value, not just something to be managed,” Kaplan added.
If the presence of Kathyann Clarke was any indication, The Bridge is already benefiting Midwood residents. Clarke, an accountant, said she learned of the event only a day earlier, when she rented out space at the two-story center for her daughter’s fifth birthday party. She had never heard of The Bridge before, but she spoke briefly with Appel and believes that “what he’s trying to do is important.”
Appel, who grew up in Crown Heights and Boro Park, has ambitious plans for The Bridge, where he hopes to build a computer lab, gallery space and a TV studio. The studio may be used to livestream cultural events and discussions on the Internet. In addition, he said, local charities and arts groups will be able to use space in the 6,000-square-foot center free of charge for their own events.
Appel told The Jewish Week that he first learned about diversity while hearing of his mother’s rescue at Auschwitz, where the soldiers who helped her survive included black and Asian Americans.
Appel worked for many years for nonprofit organizations, but made most of his money from real-estate investments, he said. He’s also played an active role in advocacy efforts, especially those geared to helping abused children and developmentally disabled children. That background earned him appointments during the Giuliani administration to the advisory board of the city’s Department of Mental Health and, later, to the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation.
The Bridge now has a staff of one, Dorinda Angelucci, who previously worked as a camerawoman for WABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News.”
Although the project is new  for now, Appel said he hopes to form a task force that would represent all of Midwood’s major racial, religious and ethnic communities. But the one area in which he may have trouble achieving consensus is over the positions he takes on various political issues, including his opposition to “stop and frisk” police tactics and his support of vouchers to attend private and parochial schools — both heated issues in the community.
One elected leader who spoke at the open house, but wished to remain anonymous while talking about the subject to The Jewish Week, said most of the kids in his district attend public schools and, for that reason, would oppose anything that might siphon money away from public education.
David Pollock, associate executive director of the JCRC, said his own organization, representing a cross-section of the Jewish community, takes no stand on tuition tax credits because there’s no consensus on the issue among Jewish groups.
Meanwhile, Appel and Angelucci hope to partner with other organizations, including the JCRC, that already work in the area of intergroup relations.
The JCRC, for instance, is behind the We Are All Brooklyn Coalition, which sponsors a leadership-training fellowship for teens and organizes training forums on issues of concern to the community, Kaplan said. He added that the fellowship program now has more than 200 alumni, including some in influential positions, and they represent a “great resource” for efforts like The Bridge. 

THE BRIDGE MULTICULTURAL CENTER SLATED TO OPEN OCT 19 2014 BRINGING UNITY TO OUR COMMUNITIES

New community center in Midwood seeks to connect different racial groups

                                                              

Mark Meyer Appel raised $300,000 in private funds to repair the 6,000 square-foot brick building he has long owned on 1894 Flatbush Ave. Its renovated first floor open studio space, which can fit up to 300 people, will be lent out free of charge to nonprofits and art groups to host events.


NEW YORK DAILY NEWS                                                                 



Monday, October 13, 2014, 8:29 PM
                                                                                                        


City Councilman Mathieu Eugene, left, Mark Meyer Appel, center, and Rev. Anthony Meyers.Courtesy of the Bridge ProjectCity Councilman Mathieu Eugene, left, Mark Meyer Appel, center, and Rev. Anthony Meyers.
This Brooklyn Bridge is a different type of connector.
A top advocate for Jewish victims of childhood sexual abuse is set to open The Bridge Project, a multicultural community center designed to host empowering talks about social justice issues. If we work together, we can do better and have a stronger voice,”said MARK MEYER APPEL, who raised $300,000 in private funds to convert and repair the 6,000-square-foot brick building he has long owned in Midwood.
The new interactive facility on Flatbush Ave., set to open Sunday, will also house local meetings and events meant to unify the neighborhood.
And its location is symbolic. It borders large, separate Hasidic and Haitian neighborhoods.
Appel hopes the center will unite the two racial groups and many others in the borough, including Muslims.

Bridge Project headquartersCourtesy of the Bridge Project Bridge Project headquarters
“We, as advocates, have been able to effectively send a message and begin major changes in the way the government deals with child abuse, special education and health initiatives for the community,” he said.
“The way these things were accomplished was by bringing diverse communities together.”
The building’s renovated first floor of open studio space, which can fit up to 300 people, will be lent out for free to nonprofits and art groups to host events.
Discussion topics to take place at the site include stop-and frisk, special education problems and rising poverty levels.
rblau@nydailynews.com

TIME FOR HEALING


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
                                                    
December 3, 2014
BUILDING MORE TRUST BETWEEN THE POLICE AND THE COMMUNITIES
The recent verdicts of the  Ferguson and Garner jury have bought turmoil to our great nation,While we must respect the law and the findings of the grand  juries  one thing is clear. Policing in the United States needs a major overhaul. Young men of color as well young people of all races face  danger when confronted by police officers while driving, walking  or just hanging out.,  Urgent reforms are needed now to ensure the process  of fair justice and to protect the lives of innocent  persons, and to ensure that police officers deal with fairness in their actions
Need For Reforms
We need changes that  provide on going anti bias and increase funding which will provide  for continued training on a continued basis and on a annual basis , at the same time.. Texas has used such a system over the past decade to develop personnel expertise while satisfying the interests of specialized interest groups and legislated training mandates. Chiefs, academy directors, and POST commissions can and should provide recommendations regarding line personnel training issues as well as a supervisory curriculum that reflects a step-by-step, progressive education program. There has been considerable discussion in several states regarding “cafeteria”-style training programs. Such programs offer both mandated training topics as well as discretionary training preferences within defined timelines. Both limit impact on staffing and agency training costs. Such a system could provide the framework in which special interest, legislated, and profession-preferred training programs would be limited without adversely affecting basic training academy timelines.

Restoring Confidence
The police and all officers of the justice system must continue rebuilding the trust in our communities thru more outreach and community partnerships  which are the key to rebuilding that trust.Issues of proper policing is not a minority problem it is a problem for all of all our diverse communities.

Healing
let  us begin the process of healing by ensuring that our  police and our communities continue to work together to make our city a better and safer place for all of us