This past April 26th marked the 64th anniversary of the Israel Border Police. In the brief accompanying video, we learn there are 7,397 members of the force today, representing 24.5% of Israel Police’s total manpower. There are 1,035 females on the force, including 745 in combat positions as well as 16 reserve duty companies and 7,550 volunteers. There are also 64 units which deal with crime and combating terror exclusively. Border police are divided into seven district, covering all of Israel.
Baltimore, MD – Apr. 28, 2017 - It is with sadness that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of R’ Moshe Kamanezky, a’h, father of R’ Moty Kamenezky. The levayah/kevurah will take place on Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 10:00 AM in Petach Tikvah Shiva will start in Bnei Brak. Please call (410) 358-1510 for contact information For Bila HaMaves LaNetzach...
Dear Friends: My name is Tzipi Tivon. I am 54 years old and a Hebrew teacher at the Chabad Hebrew Academy (CHA) in San Diego, where I love teaching my students in 2nd through 8th grades. I have a husband and three beautiful children. My son, please G-d, will be barmitzvah'd this year and is a student at CHA and my two daughters, 22 and 25 live in Israel. I feel very blessed to be part of the San Diego community and we have had a good life since we immigrated in 1998. Unfortunately, in January 2016, our lives changed dramatically as I was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease (kidney failure). Following an acute episode that landed me in the ER and a 30-day hospitalization stay, I have been on a grueling schedule of kidney dialysis 3 days per week at 3 hours per session, which I go...
On the eve of Israel's 57th Memorial Day, the Defense Ministry published the official figures of the number of fallen soldiers in Israel. Twenty-three thousand, five hundred and forty four Jewish and Israeli soldiers, policemen, and guards have fallen in defense of the State of Israel and the pre-state Jewish community from 1860, when the Jewish community of Jerusalem expanded beyond the walls of the Old City and began to provide its own security, until today. Sixty casualties have been added to the number of fallen soldiers since last Memorial Day (May 6, 2016), Additionally, 37 IDF veterans died over the past year as a result of injuries they received in combat. The number of bereaved families in Israel in 2017 includes 9,157 bereaved parents, 4,881 widows of IDF soldiers and sec...
Parents of fallen soldier: 'On Pesach, we leave two extra chairs, one for Elijah the Prophet, and one for our son Oren." Shira Noach, a student of the Bnei Akiva Ulpana (religious girls' highs chool) Tzfira, conducted a meticulous research project on the life of fallen IDF soldier Oren Noach, who died in Operation Protective Edge. As part of the special project held at the Ulpana for Memorial Day next week, Shira documented information about Oren's life, mainly from his parents Chava and Yigal, residents of the town of Hoshaya in the Galilee. "They told us to choose a song about a fallen soldier and I thought about Oren, who wrote the song 'Tikkunot,'" Shira told Arutz Sheva. "We are cousins, but most of the things [I found out about him] I did not know a...
HaGaon HaRav Tzion Boaron warns against the setting of a workplace in which men and women work side-by-side. Addressing a kenos Asifa, Rav Boaron spoke of the need of strengthening tznius ahead of the hot summer months, telling the Bnei Brak audience that one serious danger is a workplace in which men and women work together. In his letter, he warns of the breach in modesty standards, stating this refers to not minimizing men and women speaking with one another. He states this holds true with family members too and anyone engaging in frivolous conversation and idle chatter strays from the Torah path. He explains men and women working together is another breakdown in modesty standards and may R”L lead to the destruction of entire families. In his letter he concludes “השי...
A senior administration official said Thursday the White House plans to push its tax overhaul without any support from congressional Democrats. It’s a sign of the intense partisanship over President Donald Trump’s outlines for cutting tax rates in hopes of stimulating faster economic growth, increasing business activity and helping the middle class. The proposal unveiled Wednesday would also repeal several taxes that target the wealthy but eliminate many deductions they use. Democratic lawmakers say the plan would favor the wealthy and blow a deep hole in the federal budget. An independent estimate by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates federal revenue would plunge $5.5 trillion over a decade under the Trump plan, likely causing the deficit to...
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife along with Minister of Sport & Culture Miri Regev met with the Israelis selected to light the Independence Day torches this year ahead of the ceremony. Next week, on Independence Day 69, they will light the torches in the official state ceremony. While 5 Iyar falls on Sunday night and Monday, festivities are pushed off a day since Independence Day is preceded by Memorial Day and if the latter began on motzei Shabbos, this would result in widespread chilul Shabbos. Hence, Memorial Day is observed this year on Sunday night and Monday, and Independence Day on Monday night and Tuesday, 6 Iyar.
PM says German Foreign Minister refused his phone call, describes meeting with anti-IDF groups ahead of Memorial Day as 'tactless'. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Friday over Gabriel’s recent meeting with radical left-wing organizations during his trip to Israel, calling the decision to meet with the groups “tactless”. Gabriel met with representatives of the anti-IDF organizations Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem a day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, despite an admonition by Netanyahu that a high-level meeting between a representative of the German government and fringe groups would not be tolerated by Israel, and would result in the cancellation of planned meetings between the Prime Mini...
Head of far-left Meretz party accuses Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria of perpetrating 'pogroms' against Arabs, IDF soldiers. Members of the far-left Meretz party toured the Jordan Valley Friday together with members of the fringe Peace Now group. During the tour, Meretz chairwoman Zahava Galon slammed Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria with an unprovoked, bizarre and fabricated accusation, claiming “settlers” had committed “pogroms” against left-wingers, Arabs, and even the IDF. The Knesset member said: “On a tour with Peace Now in the Jordan Valley, following the pogroms settlers are doing against left-wing activists, against Palestinians, and against IDF soldiers.” Galon failed to specify which acts by “the settlers&rdquo...
U.S. diplomats used a meeting with their Iranian counterparts to press for the release of Americans being detained in Iran, the Trump administration said Thursday, according to The Associated Press. It is the first public acknowledgment of direct U.S.-Iranian discussions since President Donald Trump took office. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the talks occurred on the sidelines of a meeting in Vienna this week that focused on implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. Although Trump and his top advisers have publicly criticized Iran for its support of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Yemeni rebels and other jihadist groups throughout the Middle East, American officials haven't spoken about any continuation of U.S.-Iranian conversations that became routine under the ...
University of Wisconsin students who disrupt speeches and demonstrations could be expelled and campuses would have to remain neutral on public issues under a bill Republican legislators are pushing this week. The bill comes as free speech issues have grown more contentious on college campuses across the country. Conservatives are worried that right-wing speakers aren’t given equal treatment as liberal campus presenters and some students have complained about free expression fanning racial tensions. In Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus, students shouted down and traded obscene gestures with ex-Breitbart editor and conservative columnist Ben Shapiro during a presentation in November. This week, supporters of conservative commentator Ann Coulter rall...
The Tel Aviv municipality on Friday reversed an earlier decision to seize the assets of the city’s historic Great Synagogue. On Thursday, the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv’s president, Shlomo Pivko, announced that the historic house of prayer would be closing, noting that the City of Tel Aviv had seized the synagogue’s bank account to cover back taxes. According to Behadrei Haredim, the synagogue owed a total of 2 million shekels ($550,000), for seven years’ worth of back taxes. While Pivko has raised hundreds of thousands of shekels to help stabilize the synagogue’s finances, he was unable to secure sufficient funds to pay off the debt. "Unfortunately, I have to close the gates of the Great Synagogue. The Tel Aviv municipality, in the spirit o...
A global conference in London promoting trade with Iran has drawn a warning from a leading advocacy group opposed to the Tehran regime’s nuclear program about the “severe political, financial and reputational risks associated with doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In a full page advertisement published in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper to coincide with the Global Trade Review’s (GTR) 2017 Iran Trade Business Briefing in London, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) listed ten major risks associated with doing business in Iran. These include the dangers of unwittingly trading with front companies for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), violating international sanctions and money laundering rules, the potential harassment and...
The American Heart Association (AHA) boasts some 700 international training centers throughout the world. According to Glenn Vanden Houten, the AHA’s Regional Director for Europe and Africa, “United Hatzalah became one of our authorized training centers. We are proud that you have become part of that family.” The new authorization provided by the AHA recognizes the United Hatzalah education and training of its EMTs and paramedics as well as other community-based training initiatives such as the “Family First” project, which teaches basic CPR skills to the general public in a four-hour class. “Both the basic life support (BLS) education as well as the advanced life support (ALS) training that United Hatzalah does will now come with international standar...
The Jerusalem Municipality launched a plan to construct 1,000 new classrooms throughout the city, offering a solution to the shortage of classrooms in all sectors of the city. For the past few years, the city has suffered from a shortage of approximately 3,800 classrooms, as determined by a recent mapping project of the city’s educational system: 505 in the general sector, 1,938 in the Arab sector and 1,410 in the chareidi sector. The cost of closing this gap is estimated at roughly NIS 5 billion. This shortage is the result of a number of interrelated factors, including a lack of state funding and a city growth rate which dictates the need for an additional 186 classrooms per year. Mayor Barkat led this breakthrough through the development of a unique financial model, in which var...
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that China has threatened to impose sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests. “We know that China is in communications with the regime in Pyongyang,” Tillerson said on Fox News Channel. “They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear test.” Tillerson said China also told the U.S. that it had informed North Korea “that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own.” Earlier Thursday, the senior U.S. Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific said the crisis with North Korea is at the worst point he’s ever seen, but he declined to compare the situation to the Cuban missile cr...
House Republican leaders have delayed a vote on an Obamacare replacement plan until next week at the earliest, denying President Donald Trump a major victory during his first 100 days in office. At least 15 House Republicans remain solidly opposed to a revised leadership health-care plan, and another 20 are leaning no or still undecided, according to GOP lawmakers and aides. House GOP leaders can only lose 22 votes.
The Tourism Ministry is working with airlines in Russia to incentivize them to open new routes into Israel, using grants and marketing assistance, while at the same time working with tour operators and wholesalers. Most of the large and medium-size tour operators in Russia are already offering vacation packages to Israel. The Tourism Ministry in Russia recently launched the Two Cities One Break campaign, designed to encourage incoming tourism to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in particular. Half of the campaign’s 3 million euro budget has been allocated to advertising on TV, radio, billboards and print media, with the other half to online marketing. The marketing program is concentrated on Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Samara. The Tourism Ministry Director-General Amir Halevi h...
The United Nations’ cultural organization UNESCO is to vote next Tuesday, May 2, on a resolution introduced by the Palestinians and several Arab states rejecting Israeli sovereignty over the entire city of Jerusalem, including its majority Jewish western half. The draft resolution, submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan on behalf of the Palestinians, with input from European Union countries as well, states that “any action taken by Israel, the Occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the City of Jerusalem, are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever.” Both the Israeli government and the Trump Administration, which has frequently hinted that it will recognize Jerusalem as ...
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