Community Magazine May 2013

Community Chest New NYPD Chief of Department Announced Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced on March 27 the appointment of Philip Banks III as the NYPD’s new Chief of Department. The 26-year veteran of the force and its current Chief of Community Affairs was officially installed as the Department’s highest ranking uniformed officer in promotion ceremonies held at Police Headquarters on March 28. “Phil Banks has proven himself time and again to be as outstanding a field commander, adept in managing police personnel and operations, as he has a consummate builder of community relations whose robust School Safety and Juvenile Justice Divisions, as well as New-Immigrant Outreach and Crime Prevention programs, flourished under his command,” Commissioner Kelly said. Chief Banks, 50, joined the New York City Police Department in July 1986, and began his career on patrol in the 81st Precinct. He was promoted to Sergeant in March 1994; Lieutenant in May 1997; Captain in September 1999; Deputy Inspector in June 2001; Inspector in December 2003; Deputy Chief in December 2006; and Assistant Chief in June 2009. He has served in the 70th, 73rd, 79th, 81st, 90th and Central Park Precincts, Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, the Harbor Unit, and the School Safety Division Investigations Unit. Before being appointed Chief of Community Affairs in July 2010, Chief Banks served as Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Manhattan North and also commanded the 79th, 81st and Central Park precincts. He also served as Executive Officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, and of the 73rd Precinct. Chief Banks succeeds Chief Joseph Esposito, who retired. He becomes the 37th individual to hold the post, which prior to 1973 was known as the Chief of Operations, and before 1973, as Chief Inspector. YU’s Annual Sarachek Basketball Tournament Twenty yeshiva high school basketball teams from across the U.S. and Canada competed in the 22nd Annual Red Sarachek Invitational Basketball Tournament, which was held at Yeshiva University’s Max Stern Athletic Center from March 7-11. This year’s tournament included teams from Magen David of Brooklyn, NY, North Shore HebrewAcademy of Great Neck, NY, and Yeshiva University High School for Boys / Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy of New York, NY. The Shalhevet High School Firehawks of Los Angeles, CA won the tournament’s Tier I competition. Shalhevet shooting guard and Sarachek MVP Joseph Fallas scored 25 points to help the Firehawks defeat the Frisch School Cougars of Paramus, NJ by a score of 62-53. Dirshu’s Kinyan Shas Test Puts 1488 on the Path to Shas Putting the entire Talmud on the student’s fingertips. This is, in essence, the goal of Dirshu’s Kinyan Shas program, likely the most demanding of Dirshu’s incentive programs that encourage student to set and achieve high standards of Torah scholarship. As opposed to the popular monthly Kinyan Torah Daf Yomi tests, the cumulative Kinyan Shas exam is administered biannually, testing students on all the material from the beginning of Shas until the point reached by the Daf Yomi program at the time of the test. Astonishingly, nearly 1,500 people around the world took the first Kinyan Shas exam of the current Daf Yomi cycle on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Rav Yeruchem Olshin, shelit”a , Rosh Yeshivah of Bais Medresh Gavoha of Lakewood, visited the testing site in Lakewood, and was amazed to see tables upon tables filled with diligent student taking the exam. He told a fascinating story about Rabbi Yehezkel Sarna, the famed Rosh Yeshivah of the Hebron Yeshivah, who had studied as a young man in the Lomza Yeshivah in Petach Tikva. Rav Yechezkel related that after the Rosh Yeshiva finished delivering his shiur , there was a student who would go stand in a corner and begin reviewing the entire shiur by heart. That student’s name was Chaim Kanievsky – who is now one of the leading Torah sages of our generation. “That is the power of hazarah [review]!” thundered the Rosh Yeshivah. This is the message and goal of Dirshu, which provides incen- tives and encouragement to thousands of Torah students to review and master the material they learn, thereby bringing the level of diligence and scholarship to greater heights, and leading a Torah revolution that is truly transforming Torah Jewry. Chaim Gold Overflowed crowd at the Bnei Brak Kinyan Shas location 96 Community magazine