FLASHBACK: The week past

2002 — The Jewish Star’s front page features a photo of 10-year-old Zachary Thurm about to shlug kaparos at Yeshivat Siach Yitzchak of Far Rockaway. “You’re never to young to shlug kaparos,” read the headline.

2003 — Star columnist Rabbi Avi Shafran (director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America) ponders the plague of assimilation and suggests that as we prepare “to take our yearly flu shots, we might well ponder a different vaccine, the vital Jewish one, and just how we might make it more widely available.”

2004 — “The OU and FEGS join forces to create synagogue-based Project Parnossahworks,” reports the Star.

2005 — An editorial asks, “Where was the media” when “last week, several synagogues in the evacuated Gaza settlements were torched and looted by Palestinian mobs.” The New York Times reported on Israel’s pullout “but never mentioned the synagogue desecrations in its headlines.”

2006 — “Five Towns Kosher Standards Higher Than Many,” reports the Star. “Other Communities Rush to Catch Up After Monsey Fraud.”

2007 — As Rosh Hashana approaches, the Star’s editorial concludes, “For most of us, if we’re here to ask the question, how did last year go? the correct answer is: Baruch Hashem. K’siva V’chasima Tova.”

2008 — Once again, students at Five Towns yeshivot protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

2009 — Members of the generally wacko — and explicitly anti-Semitic and homophobic —Westrboro Baptist Church were set to demonstrate at Jewish locations in Great Neck, Queens and Brooklyn. The church is an “extreme group that spews hate wherever it goes,” said Ron Meier, New York region director of the ADL.

2010 — Cedarhurst psychologist Penina Zilberberg’s “Making your children successful” column is titled, “Self-Control, Success and Marshmallows.”

2011 — Columnist Jeff Dunetz asks, “Why does Steve Israel accept donations from a man linked to Iran?”

2012 — A news story reports that anti-Jihad subway ads placed by firebrand Pamela Geller had been defaced. One of the billboards read, “In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

2013 — Agudah of the Five Towns warns of the holiday-linked dangers of carbon monoxide, which is an odorless killer.