Not so fast, gents. You aren't by chance transacting this transaction on the Sabbath, are you? For shame!by KenYou've probably heard this story, but I wanted to make sure. It's about the observant Jewish drug dealers in Brighton Beach who warned their customers via text that their business shut down every Friday evening and daytime Saturday. I pointed out to the friend who passed along another version of this story (before I saw Al Kamen's washingtonpost.com "In the Loop" version, below): "You have to feel for drug consumers in Sheepshead Bay, being forced to rely on either less-observant-Jewish or goyish dealers for that entire day." He countered that "those drug dealers willing to sacrifice the Shabbat business deserve our respect!" And I don't see how you can quarrel with that. I trust that God noticed too, and has made a notation on these guys' permanent record.
Even drug dealers observe the SabbathThe New York City cops must have suspected something wasn't quite kosher with the text messages being sent by some apparently observant Jews in Brooklyn.During their five-month investigation, the police kept seeing mass text messages from the five men urging customers to get their orders in before sundown Friday or else wait until after sundown Saturday.The men obviously couldn't do business during the Sabbath. Well, that's certainly laudable.And what were they selling? Well, allegedly prescription painkillers, heroin, cocaine and the like, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday, according a report by the Associated Press."We are closing at 7:30 on the dot and will reopen on Saturday at 8:15 so if u need anything you have 45 mins. to get what you want," one text said. An indictment charged them with using stolen prescription sheets and other methods to obtain 23,000 oxycodone pills with a street value of $460,000.And they were allegedly using code names like DOB for heroin and "white girl" for cocaine. A text in April to 50 people allegedly said: "Awesome batch of D.O.B. just came in!!! Open now till 7:30."Sounds like someone's go to do some serious atoning this weekend on Yom Kippur.
In their New York Daily News account, Erik Badia and Tina Moore add some pertinent detail:
The indictment names David Gerowitz, 38, Philip Mandel, 26, Eduard Sorin, 38, Jack Zaibak, 25, and Jack Zibak, 28.A previous indictment charged them and Aaron Dombroff, 30, with criminal sale of a controlled substance. Sorin, Zaibak and Gerowitz, live at the Bedford Ave. apartment.Texts also included specific windows of time during which sales would take place on a specific day, such as the first 15 minutes of the hour, as well as rules on where customers should wait if there was a bottleneck at the apartment.Sorin was arraigned Tuesday and entered a not guilty plea, prosecutors said. Mandell has not posted bail and is in jail, officials said. The others are out on bail and will be arraigned over the next several weeks.They could not be reached for contact.Andrew Katz, 29 who lives a couple of doors down from the alleged dealers said he wasn’t surprised."I kind of figured that was going on with the all people in and out of the apartment,” he said. “What else could they be doing in there?”He was surprised to hear about their no-sabbath dealing policy."Wow, how nice of them to observe," Katz said.
You said it, Katz.#For a "Sunday Classics" fix anytime, visit the stand-alone "Sunday Classics with Ken."
