Deerfield Beach

May 22: A woman reported that her former boyfriend broke into her home at 5340 NE 10 Ave. The man attempted to drag her out of her home. The woman’s father came out of his bedroom with a bat and the man fled in a vehicle.

May 22: A man reported that someone he knows stole his laptop computer from 460 Deer Creek Jefferson Dr.

May 22: A man reported that his vehicle was stolen. It was broken into and the ignition was punched. The vehicle was later recovered in Homestead.

May 22: A woman reported that her car had been keyed at 321 NW 3 Ave.

May 27: A woman reported her Chrysler PT Cruiser stolen by her boyfriend at 170 SE 3 St.

Lighthouse Point

May 8: The victim lost a wallet containing a driver’s license, $50 cash, five credit cards and an insurance card at 3701 NE 22 Ave. The loss was $131.

May 8: A subject asked the victim to reposition her shopping cart in the store at 3722 N. Federal Hwy. and the victim believes her purse was stolen at that time. The purse contained credit cards and $120 in cash.

May 10: The victim found her 2013 VW Passat was keyed at 2240 NE 36 St. The damage was estimated at $500.

(This is a partial list. For Deerfield Beach Crime Watch in full, visit www.DFB.City and click on “Sign Me Up” to receive the city wide report.)

Kick Off to Summer

Friday, June 8, 6 to 9 p.m.

Villages of Hillsboro Park Center

4111 NW 6 St.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

Kick off the summer season with an evening full of family-friendly fun, food and entertainment! There will be a huge Beach Ball drop with thousands being released and one special beach ball that will contain a prize. Additionally, there will be a kid zone with interactive activities, including an inflatable paddle boat jungle ride, plus live musical entertainment provided by JM & the Sweets and The Polar Boys. The event and activities are free. Food will be available for purchase from food trucks and local vendors. For more information, call 954-480-4494.

Pineapple Jamboree

Friday, June 8, 6 to 10 p.m.

Sample McDougald House

450 NE 10 St.

Pompano Beach, FL 33060

Locally crafted pineapple beer, food, tequila and rum tastings, and a Caribbean buffet. There will be a Steel Drum Band, raffles, prizes and games. The attire is casual Caribbean. All new this year is their “pineapple queen.” This year’s recipient is Debbie McCarty, who will be crowned at the event and given a sash, a bejeweled crown, a dozen yellow roses and a gift basket. Next year, everyone gets to nominate someone that they think best exemplifies this spirit, and the winner will be crowned at next year’s event by this year’s queen. Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. For more information, contact Connie Davis at 954-941-2940 x205 or visit www.pineapplejamboree.com.

Save the Date:

Super Dads Breakfast

Saturday, June 16, 9:30 to 11 a.m.

Highlands Community Center

511 NE 44 St.

Pompano Beach, FL 33064

Please come and enjoy a yummy breakfast and crafts this morning with your children with a Super Hero themed breakfast. For more information, call 954-480-4429.

Downtown Drive Car Show

Sunday, June 17, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Mizner Park

327 Plaza Real

Boca Raton, FL 33432

Great way to spend Father’s Day with dad! More than 100 cars, including antiques, classics, street rods, custom builds, race cars, sports cars, imports, hand-built cars and one-of-a-kind autos from 1900 to present day will line the streets of Mizner Park. Admission is free. Proceeds from car show entry fees and donations benefit Make-A-Wish® Southern Florida.

Meet… Mingle… Dine… Dance

Wednesday, June 20, 6 p.m.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel

100 Fairway Dr.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Benefits Deerfield Beach Historical Society. “Rockin’ in the Tropics” with the Jimmy Stowe Band (Island Music). “Honoring people in the Community” awards. Silent auction. Cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres, cash bar and a scrumptious dinner buffet. The attire is island themed. Cost is $70 per person. RSVP by June 15, by emailing judithofdfb@gmail.com or elilly707@aol.com, or call 561-299-8684.

ABC Safe Boating Course

Begins Tuesday, June 26, starting at 7 p.m.

Pompano Beach Power Squadron

3701 NE 18 Terr.

Pompano Beach, FL 33064

See more info., pg. 8., call 754-444-1470 or visit www.PompanoSafeBoating.com.

Not long ago, I invited a friend to Rosh Hashanah services. He declined the invitation, saying that he would not attend a synagogue, since “Religion is the cause of all wars, and the world would be at peace if it weren’t for religion.”

I asked him, what do you want from the Jewish religion? We are not sending gunmen to gun down at point blank civilian couples who have children waiting for them at home? His response was that all religions speak in the name of G-d, and that created all conflicts in history.

My friend meant well, but he is wrong. Rejecting Judaism because you believe in world peace and tolerance is like refusing to enter a Japanese restaurant because you love sushi. It just doesn’t make sense.

War comes naturally to people. It existed long before any religion. The two greatest killers in history—Stalin and Hitler — were not religious and did what they did not in the name of religion, but in the name of a secular utopian system they believed in. Conflict is inherent to human nature. We are selfish, possessive, envious, competitive and insecure. Cruelty is part of human nature.

Peace, on the other hand, is not natural to the human condition. It had to be taught and learned. And it was a religious idea.

The first and most powerful vision of world peace was presented to mankind by the prophets of ancient Israel. They predicted a time when “one nation will not lift a sword against another nation, and they will no longer learn to wage war.” In a world that saw war as an inevitable fact of life, the Jewish religion introduced a radical new concept: that war is ultimately undesirable and peace is the ideal state for which to strive.

Without religion, we would find other things to fight about, like parking spots and noise from the neighbors. We would fight over territory, wealth, race, tribalism, ethnic pride. But without religion, world peace would not have entered the human vocabulary. Our dream of world peace is biblically inspired. Ideals do not live in bubbles. Like people, they need parents to give birth to them and a home environment to sustain them. Peace without religion is homeless. It was Judaism that gave birth to the vision of world peace and still provides a framework to implement that vision.

True, religion has been used, and continues to be used, by many as a pretext for war. But this does not invalidate all religion, just as when football players brawl, it does not invalidate the game of football. Ridding the world of all religion would not end war any more than abolishing football would brawls. Mengele’s horrific medical experiments in Auschwitz, does not invalidate all medicine. It was he who used medicine to torture innocent people. In fact, religion still provides the strongest argument for peace between people: that we were all created by the same G-d. Without this belief, is there anything that really unites us all? Maybe we are essentially different? Maybe we are not one? What for Thomas Jefferson was “self evident,” may be not evident for others?

What unites us all is that we are created by one G-d who conferred upon each person infinite dignity. The more I recognize G-d, the more I recognize the oneness of humanity and all of creation, because it is the G-dliness in us which makes us one. If Darwin taught that existence was essentially a war between natural forces and only the “fittest” survived (“survival of the fittest”), Judaism taught that there is an inherent symmetry between everything in the universe. The more I am entrenched in my ego, the more I am separated from people. The more I am one with G-d, the more loving I am toward people, because it is in their face that I encounter myself, my Divine Self, which is part of your Divine Self. If I am truly one with G-d, I can never ignore the cry of a fellow Jew, and of a fellow human being.

Rabbi Tzvi Dechter is the director of Chabad of North Broward Beaches, located in the Venetian Isle Shopping Center at 2025 E. Sample Rd. in Lighthouse Point. For all upcoming events, please visit www.JewishLHP.com.

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

It was one of those endless rainy May days — this one, and at that particular moment, especially torrential. It was the kind of day that anyone who had a slight inclination towards depression could latch onto as an excuse to inhibit a smile or a warm hello. And there I was waiting for an elevator in the lobby of Boca Regional Hospital shaking out my soaked umbrella and shivering as my wet clothes were assaulted by the icy air conditioning. My ultimate destination: a visit with a friend who had experienced a series of orthopedic screw-ups landing her here for the second time in two weeks, and, she was a legitimately unhappy “camper.” What’s more, the elevators were operating on a “don’t-rush-me-I’ll-be-there-eventually” current.

“You’re one smart lady,” said the 60-ish-year-old tall well put-together gentleman sitting on the waiting-bench, in clothes that looked like they hadn’t reached the washing machine rinse cycle, evidently unprepared for the sudden deluge.

“Uh — you mean the umbrella?” I asked

“Yeah. I usually keep about a half dozen of them in my car. And, dummy that I am, they are all still there,” he said in mild self-deprecation.

“Well, here, would you want to use this to get one from your car – and I’ll wait at the entrance for you to return it?” I asked.

“No, no, no, thanks. I’m going to visit my mother. I will probably be here for hours. Maybe the rain will stop by then, but thanks anyway,” he responded.

The elevator arrived and we entered together and, as it creeped vertically at a horse and buggy pace, this stranger, whose last name, “Friend,” I could read from the hospital ID pasted to his jacket — made my day.

“Ya know,” he told me, “I buy a bunch of umbrellas at Walmart for a couple of bucks, cheap, ya know … and every so often, when it rains, I give them to people I see in the street — some of them homeless, others just caught in a mess of rain getting battered and wet. They are so surprised and grateful — and I just keep on driving.”

What a great thing to do!

Then, “Friend” exited from the elevator on the floor below mine — poof and gone!

I had just enough time to reconfigure my negative thoughts for the day. By God, the “good people” are going to win. Assaulted day and night in all venues by the ugliness and selfishness, and corruption and veniality, that seemingly has overtaken our social norms, we tend to forget — or not be exposed to — the inherent good that goes on behind the pages of newspapers and the cable newsrooms. And I reminded myself, as I so often have to do lately, that good and evil have been in conflict since the beginning of time. Nor is that conflict ever likely to abate. And, by my calculation, “good” still had the statistical edge.

And with an extra bounce, I entered my friend’s hospital room with this story on my tongue noting the quick change of expression on her face – from a deep frown of physical pain to her old smile. We both know that the sun will come out tomorrow — well, maybe the next day — but eventually.

For more information visit http://floridarevenue.com/DisasterPrep/Pages/default.aspx