Question #1: The Missing Speaker The audience waited patiently for the guest speaker from America who never arrived, notwithstanding that he had marked it carefully on his calendar and was planning to be there. What went wrong? Question #2: The Missing Reading "I will be traveling to Eretz Yisroel this spring, and will miss one of the parshiyos. Can I make up the missing kerias haTorah?" Question #3: The Missing Parshah “I will be traveling from Eretz Yisroel to the United States after Pesach. Do I need to review the parshah twice?” Question #4: The Missing Aliyah “May I accept an aliyah for a parshah that is not the one I will be reading on Shabbos?” Introduction: As we explained in the first part of this article, this year we have a very interesting pheno...
Baltimore, MD – May 29, 2016 - On Wednesday night, Lag BaOmer, there were many  annual Hadlakah ceremonies throughout the community. Khal Chassidim D’Baltimore had a record crowd turn out, as over 200 participants braved the late hour. The children were treated to marshmallows and hot dogs while each adult was honored with pouring shemen zayis on the madura. Each Kollel Yungerman dedicated himself to learn a certain amount of hours "retzufos," while Nachman Bergman and Ben Tzion Bluming brought the music of Meron to Baltimore. Khal Chasidim D'Baltimore            At Machzikei Torah, on the corner of Biltmore and West Strathmore, with Yehuda Mond One-Man Band you had almost as close as you can get to a Meron-style Lag...
In a letter to Head Police Commander of the Yerushalayim district Yuram Halevi, eight Rabbonim of the Old City asked him not to allow Arabs to pass through the Old City’s Jewish Quarter to reach Har Habayis during the upcoming Ramadan month. The signatories included Rav Shalom Cohen, head of the Shas Moetzes and the Old City’s Porat Yosef Yeshiva, and Chief Rabbi of the Old City Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl. Last year, they pointed out, thousands of Muslims passed through the quarter in large groups yelling their war cry, “All-hu akbar,” and, “Atbach al Yahud (slaughter the Jews),” spitting at and shoving any Jews who crossed their path. The rabbonim emphasized that they wished to prevent terror like the murder of Rav Reuven Biermacher of Yeshivas Aish Ha...
I hope the title of his article doesn’t have you thinking that I have found some great shortcut to weight loss.  There isn’t one.  We still don’t have a proven and safe medication, nor do we even have a surgical procedure that we are absolutely sure is safe or even effective in the long-term.  As much as my clients would love it if I pulled some magic wand out of my desk drawer and waved it over their head a few times and over the next few days they lost 15 kilograms, it just won’t happen.  As a matter of fact, weight loss is exactly the opposite.  It takes hard work, along with awareness and mindfulness, good planning and investing time into proper eating and exercise.  But, what if there was a way to change your focus to make it easie...
Jerusalem -  Israel’s internal security service says it has arrested six Palestinians from the West Bank suspected of preparing explosives and planning the bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem that wounded 21 Israelis last month. The Shin Bet said Sunday that the suspected militant cell from the Bethlehem area was planning other car bombings and shooting attacks. It says one of the detained suspects, Mohammad Sami Abed al-Hamid al-Azza, from the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, learned how to build explosives from online videos. It says he procured the explosives from others affiliated with the Islamic militant group Hamas and that they recruited and trained the bomber, Abed al-Hamid Abu Sarour, who died from his wounds in the April 18 explosion. Below: IDF arresting a ...
(JTA) — A probe into alleged fraud and misuse of public funds at the Israeli prime minister’s residence yielded evidence that police said may support a conviction against Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara. The probe concluded Sunday was initiated last year amid claims that Sara Netanyahu expensed services provided to her family for their private use, falsely claiming it was for the residence, which is not owned by the Netanyahu and whose maintenance is paid for by the state. She has denied any wrongdoing throughout the investigation, in which Benjamin Netanyahu is not a suspect. “At the conclusion of the investigation, all the alleged evidence, findings and analyses gathered during the police’s investigations have been transferred to the Jerusalem D...
"In the late hours of Saturday night crisis was averted. Five American tourists from the NEW YORK area saved the day. Mr. Y Nadoff, Mr. J Newman, Rab. A Klatzko, Mr. S Kleiman and his son Ben were out walking in the Mamilla mall. They hey had just finished  dinner nearby and were heading back to their hotel just across the road. They were approached by three terrified young ladies who pleaded with them for help.  A Palestinian  man possibly from near by E. Jerusalem, had been following them for the past half hour.  He would come close to them and whisper obscene and offensive comments, while trying to corner them into a secluded area.  The five Americans immediately sprung into action. They escorted the young ladies safely to thier car and proceeded  to call ...
The final of the nation’s most prestigious spelling bee took a Yiddish turn Thursday night. Scripps National Spelling Bee finalist Jairam Hathwar, a 13-year-old from Corning, New York, was asked to spell the word “chremslach” in the ultimate rounds of the competition. Not up on your Yiddish and wondering what the word means? You probably aren’t alone. Chremslach are small, flat fried matzah meal cakes traditionally eaten by Jews during the Passover holiday. Mazel tov to Jairam, who spelled the word correctly and went on to be crowned spelling bee co-champion, along with Nihar Janga, an 11-year-old boy from Austin, Texas. (After 39 rounds, the contest ended in a tie for the third consecutive year.) Jairam and Nihar were among ten spelle...
Baltimore, MD – May 26, 2016 - The Not Just a Sta"M Event this past Sunday, was not like any other, it was NOT STAM! On a rainy Sunday afternoon, adults and children convened for a wholesome, educational and engaging program built from scratch around the theme of STa"M: Sefer Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzah, under the auspices of Shearith Israel Congregation, also known as the Glen Avenue Shul. It ‎is NOT STAM when ‎teenage boys sit beside experienced Sofrim practicing how to form safrus letters as they appear in a mezuzah.  It is NOT STAM to see a display of Wimpels (pronounced vimpels) dating back to 1906 – as was the Wimpel of Mr. Martin Bamberger, Z’L, patriarch of the chashuva Baltimore Bambergers - or the original vimpel of TA’s popular Rebbi, Rabbi...
The pilot of a World War Two-era plane killed in a crash in the Hudson River off Manhattan on Friday evening was trying to execute an emergency landing, the museum that owned the vintage aircraft said. The P-47 Thunderbolt crashed just south of the George Washington Bridge. The New York Police Department identified a body recovered from the plane as that of William Gordon, 56, of Key West, Florida. Police would not comment on a cause of death. The American Airpower Museum, which owned the plane, said in a statement on Facebook on Saturday that Gordon was an "extraordinary" aviator who brought the plane down in a "forced emergency landing" on the Hudson. Gary Lewi, a spokesman for the museum in Farmingdale, New York, told Long Island newspaper Newsday that the aircraft...
Terrorist killed after being neutralized was laid to rest in Hevron on Saturday, as residents waved Hamas flags calling for revenge. The family of Abedel Fattah al-Sharif, the Arab terrorist who was neutralized and later killed by IDF soldier Elor Azariya during a terror attack in Hevron in March, buried al-Sharif in Hevron on Saturday, amid demands for revenge. The body of al-Sharif was returned to his family on Friday, before it was examined at the Al Ahli hospital in Hevron. Relatives of the dead terrorist called upon Arab residents of Hevron to join in a mass demonstration during al-Sharif’s funeral, which included demands for revenge and the waving of Hamas flags. The body of al-Sharif was also wrapped in a Hamas flag. Relatives of the soldier now standing trial for k...
Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the new software announced this week to make sure police officers know the latest policies expected of them, will "move the police department into the 21st century." Speaking on the Jimmy Mathis Show on Saturday, said the plans for this software were in the works last fall. The question of whether officers were aware of a new policy requiring prisoners to be put in seat belts in police transport vans has come up in the trials of the six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray.   On Monday, in announcing the acquittal of Officer Edward Nero, Judge Barry Williams said it was not clear if Nero was aware of the polciy, and therefore could not be convicted of two crimes, reckless endangerment and misconduct, for viola...
Anthony Graziano attacked New Jersey synagogues, home of rabbi with firebombs in 2012. He could now face life imprisonment. A 24-year old Lodi, New Jersey man was convicted of terrorism on Friday for his 2012 attacks on two synagogues and the home of a local rabbi. Anthony Graziano, who carried out the attacks in January 2012 with an accomplice, Aakash Dalal, is the first person convicted under New Jersey’s anti-terrorism law, which was enacted after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Dalal has yet to be tried for his involvement in the attacks. Graziano and Dalal had previously been arrested for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti on several synagogues in 2011. On January 3rd, 2012, the pair hurled firebombs at a Paramus, New Jersey synagogue. Four days later the pair planned to ...
San Diego - Donald Trump brought his message of walls and deportations to the doorstep of America’s busiest border crossing on Friday as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee greeted supporters in San Diego, amid one of the largest counter-protests organized against him. The scene inside the San Diego Convention Center during Trump’s speech was relatively placid, while outside demonstrators opposed to his controversy-ridden White House bid marched and chanted, carrying signs criticizing his rhetoric against illegal immigration. Waving U.S. and Mexican flags, more than 1,000 people turned out for anti-trump rallies in San Diego, a city on the U.S.-Mexico border whose San Ysidro port of entry sees nearly 300,000 people a day cross legally between the countri...
Los Angeles, CA -  Newly released autopsies of the 14 victims of the San Bernardino terror attack reveal horrific details of the carnage. The autopsies were released Friday as part of a public records request by The Associated Press. They confirm all victims were shot at least twice and died quickly. The reports also detail the chaos inside the large conference room where most took their last breaths. They had been attending an annual training of San Bernardino County health workers on Dec. 2. The body of 46-year-old Harry Bowman was nearest the northernmost door of the conference room. Bowman, who had only recently been hired by the county, was shot five times. Other bodies were more than 50 feet from where Bowman lay. Three victims were found clustered near a Christmas tr...
Research in rats is re-igniting the long-running debate over whether mobile-phone use can cause cancer. Two types of tumors — one in the brain, one in the heart — were spotted in some male rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation at levels used by the U.S. telecommunications industry, according to a 74-page report on partial findings from the U.S. government-funded study. The study follows a flurry of reports published in 2011 that confused more than clarified the cancer risk faced by the world’s billions of mobile-phone users. “These findings appear to support the International Agency for Research on Cancer conclusions regarding the possible carcinogenic potential of radiofrequency radiation,” the researchers wrote in the report. “Given the w...
Longtime Jewish leader Abraham Foxman sharply rebuked the Guggenheim Museum on Friday for publishing an article on its website accusing Israel of a litany of serious crimes.  Foxman — who was tapped to head a new center on the study of antisemitism at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage following his retirement as national director of the Anti-Defamation League — was commenting on an article by Israeli artist and curator Chen Tamir, titled “Censorship in Israel,” which accuses “racist and lopsided” Israel of failing to uphold freedom of speech, oppressing Palestinians and acting as an occupying power. “The metanarrative in Israel is one of continuous existential fear and victimization, which leads to the increased just...
Toronto - Toronto’s Trump tower is close to being sold and may not bear the name of presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump after it changes hands, a lawyer for its owner said on Friday. Symon Zucker, who represents Talon International Development Inc, said the 65-storey hotel and condominium building in the city’s financial district has found a potential buyer and the sale will conclude “hopefully shortly.” The tower is operated for Talon by the Trump Hotel Collection, presided over by billionaire businessman Trump and his children. Zucker said Talon’s contract with Trump Hotel would not apply to the new owner, which would be free to change the building’s name, though he declined to comment on whether it may do so or the ...
New York - A New York City man has been sentenced to six years in prison for calling 911 more than 50 times to report fake emergencies. Ronald DeShields was sentenced Thursday. The calls, made between January and February 2014, included false claims of police-involved shootings, law enforcement in need of assistance and fires with people trapped. DeShields had the phone used for the calls when he was arrested. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown says his actions put lives at risk by preventing rescuers from responding to real emergencies. DeShields was convicted in April on charges of falsely reporting an incident and reckless endangerment.
Cairo - The search for the EgyptAir plane which crashed last week killing all 66 people on board has narrowed to a 5-kilometer-wide area in the Mediterranean Sea, based on signals from the craft’s emergency beacon, Egypt’s chief investigator said. The chief investigator, Ayman al-Moqadem, said late Thursday that Airbus had given Egyptian authorities information on the Emergency Locator Transmitter, or ELT, from the doomed aircraft. An official from the Egyptian investigation team on Friday clarified that the beacon information was from the day of the crash, May 19, and that no new signal had been found. An Airbus official said he was unaware of any ELT received or given to the Egyptians. Both officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because h...
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