Inspector Vega has long been considered part of the problem at the 71st Precinct in crown Heights. He has consistently failed to act to specific incidents of violent crimes. His robotic responses, excuses and repeated attempts to justify the rise of crime using skewed numbers has been frustrating members of the Crown Heights community for a long time. Vin News and Shturem report that Commissioner Ray Kelly made a surprise visit to Crown Heights last night. He came to 770 at around 10PM. He then met with people on the street. Afterwards, he walked to a nearby shul where a Shiur by Rabbi Yossi Jacobson was being given.
Crown Heights, NY - after the spate of attacks and increased crime in crown heights last night N.Y. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly made a surprise visit to the area accompanied by heavy guard. Following his visit the amount of police patrolling Crown Heights rose dramatically.
Kelly arrived in the neighborhood at about 10 PM He didn’t say much but listened to their grievances and to stories from victims who were attacked in the past. Following a short stop over the Beis Shmuel synagogue he left the neighborhood.
Some residents so far are satisfied with the increase of patrolmen on the streets, one can see a police officer on every corner of the blocks. But others caution against being overly enthusiastic “they are just here to decorate the Commissioner’s visit and in the coming days you won’t see them here anymore.”
Rabbi Yossi Jacobson was in middle of his weekly shiur with the members of his congregation Beis Shmuel. and unexpectedly Commissioner Kelly walked in.
He spoke with Rabbi Jacobson for a little bit and then ended up discussing other issues with other members of the police department.
He promised changes, and it look like Vega's transfer will be the first one. I for one have always been a big fan of Commissioner Kelly and I have faith that he will make good on his promises.
You have to watch this, and try to remember it's not a BBC report, or an Al Jezeera report. It's NBC News report. This extremely biased report uses phrases like Ethnic Cleansing and Massacre. I can only imagine what an outsider would think after seeing this. It's simply shocking.
VIN News is now reporting that Yona Weinberg has been indicted on charges of molestation. The part that really upset me is that I see 2 new cases were added to the charges. That makes 4 cases of alleged abuse.
Flatbush, NY - Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the indictment of Yona. W, 29, a Flatbush Bar Mitzvah tutor and licensed social worker charged with abusing four male students, one of which was a client.
The victims range in age from 12 to 14 and some were W. students, from the Khal Beth Abraham synagogue, where W. gave Bar Mitzvah lessons. Other victims include clients from W. work as a licensed social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.
Initially only two victims reported abuse, but the investigation revealed two additional victims. An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
As is always the case, there are friends and neighbors who claim his innocence. I'm sure this will reignite the debate about whether to address these things or not on this website, but I think we need to. When it comes to our children's safety we can't be too cautious. If no new details had come out I'd still be undecided, but the addition of 2 more victims, bringing the total to 4 is a big problem.
As soon as the story actually hits the wires I will update with those links.
Apparently there was a letter to the editor in Mishpacha that attacked Rabbi Horowitz. I was also informed that The Yeshiva World website gleefully picked up that letter to the editor and posted it on the website. At that point all the Sonei Yisroel who comment there decided to write disgusting and vile things about Rabbi Horowitz. (You can read more about that at Harry's here.) I believe it outraged enough people that Yeshiva World started feeling the heat and removed the entire post from it's website.
Today, VIN News writes a great post defending and praising Rabbi Horowitz. The Yeshiva World stands to remind us that we have no problems. The only problems we have are people who think we have problems. The same goes for Mishpacha Magazine. Yet again the Mishpacha Magazine has allowed it's publication to be the center of Sinas Chinam. There can, and sometimes are, good things about that Magazine. But it's becoming hard to really find them. One of the few good things left in that Magazine are the articles by Rabbi Yakov Horowitz.
Sadly, the types of crazy calls people like Rabbi Horiwitz gets from tearful parents seeking advice can not be printed in a "family" magazine. It's not just Rabbi Horowitz. I've heard some stories that I wouldn't even know how to write here. If not for men like Rabbi Horowitz, then who?
I'm reminded of that famous moshel. We've all heard it slightly different I'm sure. The story of a town being swept away by floods. There is one man who stays in his home claiming "Hashem will save me!", but doing nothing to ensure it. He refuses any help, he didn't get out before the warnings, then the refuses rescue boats, then the rescue helicopter. Each attempt at rescue is followed by "No, Hashem will save me."
Sadly, the man dies and goes to Heaven where he asks Hashem, "Why didn't you save me?!" Hashem responds, I tried, I sent you a warning, a boat even a helicopter.
Rabbi Horowitz is our rescue helicopter. If we sit idly by, pretending nothing is wrong, or worse knowing we do have problems but ignoring them thinking Hashem will save us. Hashem is saving us, he is sending us people who will rescue us.
The Jewish Community at large has some serious problems right now. I know there is a lot of Chessed, and a lot of love, but there is also a lot of trouble. There are great and wondrous things about our community, but we must also address the issues that threaten to hurt us.
Hashem sends is the Refuah before he sends us the Machlah.
A lot has happened in the last two weeks in Crown Heights. While many in the media and the world outside Crown Heights are shocked at the sudden and recent rise in "tension", we all know it was neither sudden nor strictly recent.
I have been reporting on the up tick of violent crimes in Crown Heights for close to two years now. Sure, it gets worse every Summer, but it's pretty bad all year round.
There are so many things to say about this, so many different angles and points, it's hard to be cohesive about it. Sometimes I have posts that are just angry rants, and sometimes they are well thought out, sort of, editorials. As I write this now, I don't know which this one will be. It's just so very hard to bring all the different issues together.
I was quoted in the NY Daily News by Mr. Eroll Louis. He used my quotes, as well as others to establish a point that we are wrong to make this racial. He says we are wrong because "why aren't we upset when there is Black on Black crime?" He thinks we should know it's a "neighborhood problem", and that this was just another horrible crime, not racial.
This seems to me like a very calm and excuse filled response. However, his response wasn't calm or filled with justifications and excuses when there was an attack on a black man a few weeks ago.
When the attack of a Black man by a member of Shmira happened, D.A. Charles Hynes called Shmira a street gang. He has decided to make it his life's mission to go after them. He even convened a Grand Jury, which is no small action. That is a major, major statement. I'm not defending what that Shmira guy did, and trust me, I'm gonna get to them in a minute. But over the last two years there have been more 40 individual attacks by Black teens on Jews in Crown Heights.
Those crimes are all well documented at CHI. Those attacks range from minor "assaults", to more "normal" crimes like muggings. They range in violence from kicking to punching to broken bones, broken teeth to in one case, staples in a teens head. It's also been two years since Ephraim Klein was shot by a mysterious bullet and killed. Two years later, still no suspects, still no closure.
I'll be fair now, I won't pretend that media outlets didn't report on some of those crimes. When the Balkany kid was brutally beaten a media circus did follow. I'm sure the fact that his father is well connected helped make that happen quicker, but they did report on it. When Mr. Klein was murdered, again, it was reported on, but since then I haven not heard any outrage from the Media or Politicians. No one was arrested and the case still remains open.
Mr. Klein was a murder victim and his death has been forgotten, stored away in a box at One Police Plaza. I guess that murder doesn't keep any of the Police or Local City Government awake at night. But you want to know what does keep them awake at night? The assault of a Black man by a Jewish man. For some reason, that crime is so severe, that to the ends of the Earth, that assailant MUST be brought to justice.
It was such an outrageous crime that it brought Al Sharpton to Crown Heights, it brought editorials by Mr. Eroll Louis (Ny Daily News)and statements from Black politicians then this could possibly reignite the days when Black rioted in Crown Heights. The days when a Jewish Man was murdered, in cold blood.
In the years since Calvin Gato was killed, by a driver who had no malice in his heart, it was simply an irresponsible driver with tragic results, Jewish on Black crime is almost non existent. I'm not saying it never happens, but not at the frequency and not for the same reasons.
This brings me to another one of my points. (Stay tuned, I'm going to address the "Shmira attack" soon.)
Members of the Black Crown Heights community, one of which is the Daily News's very own Eroll Louis, feel that we don't care when a black person is attacked by another Black person. He thinks it's Jews who are making this about race. He thinks we're all brothers and we should all be concerned and angered when a member of Crown Heights is attacked. He thinks what happened Thursday Night to Alon Sherman was not racial, it's just another crime. It's a normal crime if you will. Something that should just upset us as a bi product of "regular" crime that happens in the city.
This is just Mr. Louis's way of justifying what happened. Don't you see? It's all our problem. He considers it offensive for us to make this about Jews and Blacks. It's not Black on Jew crime, it's human on human crime. I can just imagine Mr. Louis along with Commissioner Ray Kelly, Mayor Bloomberg and D.A Hynes standing over Mrs. Sherman's sons hospital bed, with tubes coming out of his mouth and blood drying on his forehead, saying, "It's ok, it wasn't racial, this was just a normal, random crime."
How does that even matter? If this is the end result, does it even matter if it was racial or not? This excuse by Mr. Louis is a pathetic attempt to divert attention from the real problem. This boy was brutally beaten. Just for a moment conceding that "it wasn't racial", his injuries remain the same. His family is still in shock and this community is still hurting.
Of course I don't believe for a second it wasn't racial. If they just wanted the bike and his belongings they could have intimidated him into doing that without raising a hand. Even if they knocked him off his bike, that should have been all. once he was knocked off the bike getting his watch and other belongings wouldn't have involved the severity of a beating the he received.
This brings me to my Shmira issue. The crimes that have been committed by blacks on Jews are so violent in nature that in it of themselves are frightening. It's one thing if they were just taking our watches, cell phones and wallets. But apparently being robbed now lands you in a hospital bed bleeding and eating through a straw.
Dozens of the crimes committed by Blacks on Jews involve very violent results. The attack by members of Shmira on Mr. Andrew Charles was wrong. I don't know the whole story, I doubt anyone ever will, but regardless, even if the Shmira guys thought he was doing something wrong they should have gone about it differently. we do not lay our hands on people.
Aside from all the moral reasons that this attack was wrong, there is also another reason it was wrong. The attack by this Shmira member gave guys like Mr. Eroll Louis and members of the media ammunition. Now every time a Jew is attacked in Crown Heights it gets tied to that story. When the school bus attack happened, we got the same line, "tensions are high, two weeks ago a Black man was attacked, etc."
Each time another Jew is attacked, it gets reset back to 0. The fact that 999 times out of 1,000 it will be a black man attacking the Jew? That no longer matters, this idiot Shmira guy with his moronic lack of self control, by hitting, macing, whatever, Andrew Charles now gave those who hate us ammunition Lelom Vaed. Since that attack on Andrew Charles there have been at least 4 incidents of Black on Jew crime. Each time those attacks are mentioned we are reminded of the "tensions" in Crown Heights because yes, even Blacks are being attacked.
Trust me, if I knew who this Shmira guy who, or where he was I'd be the first one in line to turn him in. He has embarrassed us all, he has caused a huge Chillul Hashem, and worse he has put our children and our community in further harms way. Yasher Koach, you are a big man, you "fought back" and made us all look like thugs.
Getting back to the details of that particular attack. Mr. Andrew Charles walked away, conscious and able to stand on his own two feet from that assault. Yes, he was taken to the hospital, but we all know politics, that was just so in the press, it doesn't look like it was nothing.
Still, that attack on Andrew Charles, who had no broken bones, no stitches, no long term effects was so outrageous that it brought about the major outrage and response by black leaders and politicians in the press and Crown Heights.
Unlike Mr. Andrews, Alon Sherman didn't walk away from that attack. Unlike Andrew Charles, his attacked was looking to harm him and rob him. However wrong the Shmira attack was on Andrew Charles, that Shmira member was not looking to mug him or rob him. He was just a hot head with no self control who wanted to show he's a big man. The two men who attacked Alon Sherman were doing worse, they were contributing to the ongoing crisis this community is facing.
The crisis which involved both robberies and attacks. These crimes are getting worse and more frequent, yet people like Eroll Louis and D.A. Hynes seek to excuse away our pain. We're told we aren't good citizens because we're only upset when its a Jew that is hurt. We're told we are getting worked up for nothing, this was a "normal" crime. No grand juries, no posters, I didn't even see any cops on the streets.
You want to know a secret? The answer is very simple. We can stop this all with one simple action. It's not so PC and therefore it won't even get done. But the Black community needs to start taking responsibility for it's own youth. THEY are the problem. It's not a Jewish problem, it's not a Crown Heights problem, its a Black problem. The culture of rap and gangs and street cred and the thug life is the only thing that excites these teens. It's not the Jewish Community Council of Crown Height's responsibility to ensure that black teens aren't roaming the streets at night looking for the next easy mark.
This is something that local Black leaders need to address. If they want peace in crown Heights, if they want us to live together in happiness then they need to start disciplining their own. They need to stand up and say enough is enough! we won't allow our youth to waste their talents and waste their futures for a cheap watch and a bike. We need action by the Black community to remind these teens its not cool to beat people and take their money. It's cool to study hard, work hard, get an education start a family and take care of that family.
They need after school programs and outreach centers. They need job training and community volunteer programs. They need to take responsibility for the mess they are creating. They need to learn to contribute to the community, not destroy it.
I have more to say on this, and I will throughout this week. I also agree with many of the people saying if we are nicer to our non Jewish neighbors that will go a long way. It's something I have been saying for years not just about Crown Heights but as a response to Antisemitism in the world in general. When you are rude to them and treat them badly it doesn't make matters better, that is for sure.
More on this later, for now it's important to remember that we aren't going to stand for it anymore. Things must change in this city, and if the politicians won't do anything they will have a major mess on their hands.
Crown Heights and Israel have very similar problems. We are both located in the heart of a place where those who are not like us, hate us. Chabad is an epicenter of a major organization that does great good throughout the entire world. Israel is a holy and spiritual place that not only gives us the inspiration to continue but on a physical level, technologically speaking, is a leader in military and civilian technological advances throughout the world. Israel is a bright and shining light amongst darkness and violence.
If not for Chabad, Crown Heights would be a dump. It would rival Harlem or Brownsville or worse. We inject millions into businesses, the housing market, community programs, parks, schools, the politicians more then benifit from this. Our streets are cleaner, well taken care of, we make it a community people want to live in.
It's because of all of this that Crown Heights has recently been attracting new people who are trying to avoid the high cost of living in the trendy Park Slope area. Go to Ocean Avenue, you will see how the Park Slope crowd has crossed over Prospect Park.
Sadly though there are other similarities that both Israel and Crown Heights suffer through. Both have sometimes daily attacks by our neighbors. Attacks that go unnoticed by the politicians and press. The world ignores our pain, our blood and our frightening and dangerous situations.
Every day rockets rain over Israel. Every day people are hurt, killed, adults, even children. The world remains silent. Two times in Crown Heights this week alone we were subject to violent attacks. One landed a 16 year old boy bloody and beaten and in the hospital, unable to even remember his name at first. The previous attack could have resulted in injury to little kids.
The only time people pay attention and get upset are when we attack our enemies. In Israel the only time the media and the politicians get upset is when Israel demolishes homes in Gaza or attacks terrorists. Then the world is up in arms, outraged and angered.
In Crown Heights, even though I do not condone what happened, the anger and outrage by the outside world and politicians and press, when a black man was attacked was amazing. Loud, strong, demanding.
The Brooklyn D.A is on a crusade to punish to the fullest extent of the law the men responsible for that attack. He releases reports, updates, threats, photos, issues unwarranted searches under false pretenses. If he went to this length for every attack we have suffered then maybe we'd all be safer.
The common thread is that when it comes to Jewish blood the world sits in silence. It has been like that for centuries. I just thought that in America, it would be different.
Lubavitch Teen Robbed and Beaten Unconscious Last Night.
How many different ways can I say it? We are under attack and our blood is on the streets of our own neighborhood.
Witnesses said, they believe there were two Black male assailants who were hanging around the scene before the attack, and were seen leaving the scene with a bike looked like the one taken from the victim. There were no witnesses to the actual assault.
Hatzalah transported the teen to the Kings County Hospital, where he is scheduled to get a CT scan. Shomrim members who responded to the scene could not get a proper description of the assailants from the victim, from memory loss due the trauma he sustained.
The teen, which is 16 years old, was cycling up Albany Ave, when he was attacked and viciously beaten, to the point of unconsciousness. Hours later the teen still could not remember exactly what happened, or who did it to him, but did tell detectives that he was missing his cell phone, watch, wallet and the bike he was riding on.
If the the press, the politicians and the black community all showed the same level of outrage, anger and injustice they did when that guy was attacked a few weeks ago every time a Jewish person is mugged, beaten or worse, then maybe, just maybe our streets would be safer.
This isn't just about Crown Heights. The Jewish Community needs to stand together on this. No matter if you are living in Lakewood, Monsey, Boro Park or Great Neck. We are all under attack, and we need achdus to fight this. Please email the following people and voice your concern and outrage!
E-mail the press, e-mail D.A Charles Hynes, lets let our voices be heard: HYNESC@BrooklynDA.org - Contact Mayor Bloomberg here.
I got a great tip about a new Jewish photo blog. I love photos and I love blogs, so what wouldn't I like about this Jewish photo blog. Do yourselves a favor and add it to your RSS feeds, blog rolls, and daily routines.
Joe has a picture of Chaim Lowy who is a guitarist working on an album. You can watch some clips of him on YouTube here.
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia woman separated from her family by the Nazis is preparing for a reunion with a brother she hasn't seen in 66 years.
Irene Famulak was 17 and had six siblings when the Nazis invaded the Ukrainian Catholic family's home in 1942. Famulak was sent to be a cook in Germany and never saw another family member again. But that's about to change.
The Red Cross said the 83-year-old's youngest brother Sevelud has turned up in Germany trying to trace his sister.
Irene Famulak's daughter said the family will now plan a reunion.
Here is the original story. Here is the News12 coverage.
I'd just like to add that it was your emails and phone calls that may that happen. If we want people to report on crimes against Jewish, whether it's Flatbush, Crown Heights or Israel, then we need to make our voices known. Don't be complacent, stand up and say something.
Ok, I have to get this off my chest. It really makes me nuts when the frumme velt adopts loshon from pop culture incorrectly. I see this ad in the Jewish Press every week and it drives me bonkers. The ad in The Jewish Press every week goes like this:
"Have You Blogged Today? Check out The Jewish Press Blog!"
No, sorry, reading a blog is not called blogging. It's just an improper use of the term.
Someone who runs a BLOG, when he (or she) posts a post that is called BLOGGING.
When someone COMMENTS on a blog, they are COMMENTERS.
People who just READ a blog, they are called a READERS.
I just read on another (Yeshivasha) blog when referencing a commenter "this blogger will no longer yada yada, whatever ...."
No, wrong again. That is called a commenter.
Do you have any examples of what I'm talking about? Share below in the comment section.
There are so many bad things we discuss every day. It's nice to see something that warms my heart and brings a smile to my face. I really hope all the recent love going on between Chabad and Satmar continues strong. Especially in light of Rav Belsky's recent comments and the trend I see coming from that community.
Its nice to see the relationship between Williamsburg and Crown Heights growing. It was through Sinas Chinam that the Beis Hamikdash was destoryed, and Ahavas Yisroel is an important part in ending this Golus.
"Israeli disco? Songs like Popcorn and Electric slide side by side with Sandy Shmuely's Zodiac and Ari Pollack's Chai. In full disco horns and strings glory. Frum weddings must be quite the party if this is what gets played."
Oh ya, Frum weddings are quite the party, this must be why the Rabbi's think Lipa is "out of control." It's quite funny if you ask me.
The thing about the Lipa story that was most odd was that more goyish music and goyish style happens by weddings then at Jewish concerts. It's at the weddings that they need to fill more time and improv a bit. At concerts they usually play a strict set list from their CD's. So why did they ban him from doing concerts, but allow him to do weddings? It should have been the other way around.
When I read these stories I'm terrified, my children could be on one of those buses. In fact, someones child was on that bus. What do we have to do to get some attention here? What needs to happen before D.A. Hynes takes this seriously and applies the attention he does to one Jewish guy attacking one Black man to a situation where our KIDS are being attacked.
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Monday, A Lubavitcher Yeshiva school bus full of young children was pelted with stones earlier this afternoon as it was making its rounds dropping children off. The incident took place on President Street between Utica and Schenectady as the bus began pulling away, when the driver noticed a large group of youths and all of a sudden a few rocks hit the bus.
The driver, Reb Dovid Astulin said “all of a sudden I hear ‘BOOM BOOM’, and I right away stopped the bus” he then tried to chase after the group while calling police and Shomrim but they scattered and was impossible for him to follow them.
The bus monitor remained with the children on the bus and made sure no one was injured B”H. One of the stone came crashing through a window just where a child lay sleeping and landed in the isle between the seats, and the second stone busted another window, also just narrowly missing two children who were sitting in that seat.
The driver, bus monitor and two mothers witnessed the incident and described the group as Black youths around the ages of just 10 to 12 years old. Another disturbing note was that the witnesses said it appeared that the kids already had the stones in their possession.
I feel like its a waste of breath to repeat the same argument. Especially because the people who should be listening don't read this blog. Maybe they should be. If you are as outraged by this as I am, lets do something. This isn't some third world country. How is it possible we can't walk our own streets after dark, take walks on Eastern Parkway, or even not be nervous when our children ride home on a bus.
E-mail the press, e-mail D.A Charles Hynes, lets let our voices be heard. HYNESC@BrooklynDA.org I want people to e-mail Mr. Eroll Louis. A writer for the NY Daily News who wrote very aggressively when a Black man was attacked by the Shmira guy, but is silent when these stories happen to Yidden, every week. When I spoke with him, he told me he isn't a "magician", he can't write about stories that he doesn't know about.
So let's let him "know" about this. elouis@nydailynews.com
Rabbi Horowitz is writing an article on what are the greatest threats to Yiddishkeit. Over the last few months, especially because of an article on how Pesach Hotels are the greatest threat. There has been a lot of talk about the subject. If it isn't Pesach Hotels, then what do you think the greatest threats are? Please comment on this and list your top three issues that Frum Yidden face, that are a real threats to Yiddishkeit.
1) Lack of ability by Rabanim/Gedolim to connect with todays generation.
2) Modernity. Crown Heights, Flatbush, Boro Park, Monsey, many of todays young newly married generation is much more modern then the previous one. If you follow the "grandfather wears a bekesh, father wears a suit, what will the son wear ..." method of thinking, I think we're all in big trouble.
3) Abuse Scandals. This is a problem that is 100 times bigger then the average person thinks it is. In most cases, especially if no charges were filed, most people never even find out about it. In many cases where they are arrested and charges are filed many people try to defend them and a lot of the time they get away with it. It's a problem that isn't going away and its getting worse.
I read this in last weeks L'Chaim weekly, I thought it read very much like something I would blog about.
If you have a computer, you're familiar with the term. Updates come in all sizes and shapes, for all programs and operating systems. Some updates are enhancements (whatever they mean by that), some add new features, some fix bugs, some make the program compatible with an update someplace else - an update to the operating system or another program.
Some updates stop viruses. Some are so radical it's like getting a whole new program.
Some updates you don't have much choice about. Some you really need to download and install. Some are a matter of preference. But they're always there. Isn't it nice to know that the friendly programmers are always trying to make their programs better, more efficient, more productive, more user-friendly?
Just as our software needs an occasional update, so do our souls. Sometimes we only need a minor upgrade. Sometimes our spiritual "operating system" has gotten too complicated, runs too slow, or has too many bugs in it. When that is the case, we need a major update. Sometimes we're ready to enhance our spiritual performance, add new features, new mitzvot - commandments.
There are times and seasons and events that signal an update is needed: Big ones are life-changing events, of course, like a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or a wedding. At these times the spiritual operating system gets an update - our Jewish involvement and observance increases in quality as well as quantity.
Other update times are also pre-set. Each Jewish holiday bring with it a modification in our understanding, in the efficiency of how we operate spiritually. On Chanuka a "bug" is fixed, on Passover we add a "new feature." Each holiday focuses on a particular aspect or function of the program; the next year, when that holiday arrives, there's an enhancement to that function, a new feature to Shavuot - an insight we've gained, some enhanced appreciation, some deeper involvement.
And of course, there's the regularly scheduled weekly maintenance update - Shabbat.
Other times, we update ourselves by increasing our Jewish knowledge: attending a Torah class, studying on-line, on the phone (jnet.org), or from a book. Or we start giving tzedaka (charity) regularly by putting a few coins in the tzedaka box daily or making sure to support Jewish causes. When asked why, we often don't know where the impetus came from. But of course it's really our internal, spiritual operating system connecting to the "main server" and automatically downloading updates.
Whatever the reason for the spiritual update - fixing a bug, making our "software" more efficient (doing a mitzva with more care, more attention to detail), adding a feature (taking on an extra mitzva), or enhancing functions (increasing our Torah learning, in a class or online), etc. - it's important to regularly update our spiritual software.
Mother's Day always reminds me of a line from Avraham Fried's Yiddish Gems Volume 1. In the song "Di Torah" when the Malach is offering the Torah to the nations of the world, he comes to America and asks them if they want the Torah. The Americans answer back "what is in this Torah?" to which the Malach replies, "Kibud Av V'eim!, that is one of the things inside the Torah". The Americans start laughing and then respond, "we already have that, it's called Mother's Day."
On one hand it's pretty funny that Americans have set aside a day dedicated to honoring your mother, and then again later, your father. We also have another day set aside for thanks (thanksgiving). We can say to ourselves, you should be doing these things every day, whats the chidish of this one day? But I like to take a slightly different stance on it.
Yes, of course we should do these things every day, but its not foreign to Yiddishkeit to set aside a special time to do something we are supposed to do every day. Look at Tishrei, filled with days of introspection and Teshuvah. Chanukah and Purim are special days we re-thank Hashem for the miracles he performed. Pesach we thank Hashem and remember being freed from Egypt, something we are supposed to do every day.
Kubbud Av V'eim is something we should be doing every day, but that doesn't mean taking a day to celebrate it a lil bit extra isn't something your father and mother won't appreciate. It means something special when you take the extra time to make that phone call or send those flowers, or even yes, buy that tie.
Our parents know we love them, and we respect them regardless of a silly American Hallmark holiday, but at the same time, showing it extra one day doesn't hurt .Don't be so quick to dismiss this day, because every once in a while, in the hustle and bustle of life, its important to stop and make a big deal for nothing. So pick up that phone, buy those flowers and put a smile on your mothers face.
Here is a nice video from Chabad.org special for Mothers Day.
