Community Corner
🌱Musical Therapy For Pediatric Hospice + Expanding Eruv + Your Friday
The quickest way to get caught up on the most important things happening today in Brooklyn.
Happy Friday, Brooklyn! It's me, Carlie Houser, your host of the Brooklyn Patch newsletter — back in your inbox with all the most important things happening in town these days. Including updates on...
- An old BK hospice institution is celebrating art therapy and asking for volunteers
- Why strictly observant Jews are now able to carry their children to synagogue on the Sabbath
- News eats and drinks spots for your long weekend
But first, today's weather: 🌧 Windy; morning rain. High: 60 Low: 27.
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Here are the top stories today in Brooklyn:
1. A pediatric hospice program is promoting art therapy for their patients. In the early 1900s, MJHS was founded by the Brooklyn Ladies, a group of four women who dedicated their lives to aiding the sick, poor, and elderly people of Brooklyn. Today, MJHS operates a pediatric hospice program for children and young adults facing mortality, and many of the program's volunteers are artists or musicians who take up art therapy with the patients they work with. Take Sean Fentress, for example, a Brooklyn-based musician who has formed a bond with 17-year-old Adolfo Campos, who was diagnosed with leukemia. Over time, the pair have developed a friendship playing music together. Last month, Fentress, 28, was named MJHS volunteer of the month for his dedication to the program. "Volunteers like him, who do art therapy and work on a legitimate affinity with patients, spending time with them, really do make a difference for the patient, for their family and for the volunteer," said Nicole Gingerella, pediatric hospice nurse practitioner. MJHS are looking for more volunteers and are asking New Yorkers to consider applying.
2. A Bed-Stuy man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after an unprovoked anti-gay attack at a Brooklyn bodega. Earlier this year, Christopher Clemente, 38, plead guilty to second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime; yesterday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that Clemente had been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 5 years of post-release supervision. The sentencing is related to a 2021 attack inside of a bodega on Broadway in Bushwick that left two men with a series of injuries, included a collapsed lung. The victims, 29 and 36, were allegedly waiting for food around 2 a.m. when Clemente and a companion (still awaiting sentencing) began hurling racial slurs at them. Clemente and his alleged conspirator hit the 36-year-old with a glass liquor bottle and began stabbing him repeatedly. When the 29-year-old attempted to run away, he too was apprehended and stabbed multiple times while Clemente yelled homophobic slurs.
3. In most areas of Brooklyn, strictly observant Jews cannot take their children to synagogue on the Sabbath. Sabbath laws throughout the borough have expanded to allow "carrying" on the day of rest, as well as other actions, like pushing a child in a stroller. As Joseph Berger from The New York Times reports, "Talmudic law derived from biblical commandments forbids doing 39 kinds of work on the Sabbath." These activities include plowing and harvesting, buying and selling, cooking by a kindling fire, and writing, as well as other things like carrying anything outside of the home — books, keys, prayer shawls, babies et cetera. In order to work around some of these laws enforced in Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn, one man would pay his neighbor to wheel his child's stroller to and from synagogue on the Sabbath. However, a new workaround established in October, known as an eruv, is encompassing more areas in Brooklyn that may not have been enclosed in the smaller, patchwork eruvim. This will allow many more Orthodox Jews to carry things outside of their house on the Sabbath. To learn more, visit the link below.
Subscription / The New York Times
Today in Brooklyn:
- Free Admission Fridays, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Today @ 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. | Details
- Porta, Secret Project Robot, Today @ 3 p.m. | Details
- Kassaye Selassie, Coney Island Brewery, Today @ 5 - 7 p.m. | Details
- Boozy RnB Karaoke Fridays, The BK Estates, Today @ 6 p.m. | Details
- Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet: Multi-Media Production 'REMEMBERING,' BAM, Today @ 7:30 p.m. | Details
- Day's End Local Mic Night, 323 Columbia St., Today @ 11:30 p.m. | Details
🐝 Brooklyn Buzz:
- New Mezcal bar grand opening this Sunday! "Called Cafe Mez, the bar offers a unique and exciting addition to the neighborhood's thriving nightlife scene. Adjacent to the promoter's popular live music venue, Brooklyn Made, the bar will feature an extensive selection of premium mezcals, an impressive list of tequilas, a creative food menu, and specialty cocktails." (Patch)
- Petite Patate in Prospect Heights is the latest eatery from acclaimed chef Greg Baxtrom: "The French neighborhood-inspired bistro named after his hound, Spud, and offering a creative take on classic dishes whilst using ingredients from local farmers and purveyors. Housed within the former Maison Yaki space, the 48-seat dining room features wicker bistro chairs, vintage Art Nouveau posters and French cookbooks, as well as Maison Yaki's beloved 'Oui Chef' sign, which hangs by the front door." (We Heart)
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You're officially in the loop for today. See you all tomorrow for another update!
— Carlie Houser
About me: I'm a recent grad based in Brooklyn, NY. I love to write, run, read, and find new restaurants and venues around the city.
Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Brooklyn Patch newsletter? Contact me at brooklyn@patch.com
