Although a major hail storm pounded Denver, Colorado on Wednesday May 17th, this did not stop Pirchei Agudas Yisroel of Denver from hosting a Shabbos of chizuk, ruach and Limud Mishnayos on Shabbos Parshas Behar Bechukosai for the Pirchei Agudas Yisroel of America Western Regional Siyum Mishnayos. The event, which began Thursday night and ended Motzaei Shabbos with the grand Melava Malka, took place at Yeshiva Toras Chaim of Denver and was coordinated by Mordechai Joseph and Shmuel Kagan.   Throughout the Shabbos, the Pirchim from the Denver neighborhoods and Phoenix AZ were learning Seder Moed with their Mashpiim and enjoying the yeshiva’s warm atmosphere. Speakers over shabbos included the Rosh Hayeshiva, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan shlit"a; Mashgiach Rabbi Dovid Nussbaum ...
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson was questioned by Israel Police in an ongoing investigation against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. According to reports, the questioning involving Adelson pertains to Case 2000, which addresses allegations the prime minister in 2015 negotiated a deal to receive favorable media coverage from Yediot Achronot. Adelson, who control the Yisrael Hayom newspaper and is a rival to Yediot, is a major supporter of PM Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and the Republican party. Adelson visits Israel regularly and was questioned near Tel Aviv on a trip, with authorities stating he is not a suspect in the investigation.
A glance of the leaders meeting with Donald Trump during his first Group of Seven summit as U.S. president, in alphabetical order by country. The summit takes place Friday and Saturday in Taormina, on the Italian island of Sicily. Trump joins the leaders of France, Britain and Italy in making their G-7 debuts this year, although he met some of them already on Thursday at the NATO summit in Brussels. ——— BRITAIN Theresa May, 60, entered 10 Downing St. last July to shepherd Britain’s exit from the European Union, as decided in a nationwide referendum. Despite backing the campaign to remain in the EU, May has pledged she will make a success of Brexit and is spearheading tough negotiations to untangle Britain from the EU apparatus after 44 years of ties, while forgi...
As the school years across the country come to an end, the academic successes of our children and our students bring to mind a Torah thought that was expressed by Rav Moshe Weitman z”l who quoted the Slonimer Rebbe zt”l (as heard again from RW’s son). The Gemorah in Sanhedrin (19b) cites a statement from Rabbi Yochanan: Whoever teaches his friend’s son Torah it is as if he gave birth to him. The traditional understanding of this idea is that it refers to the reward that one gets for teaching another person Torah. The Slonimer Rebbe, however, gives a different understanding of the Gemorah. He says that the successful learning that the child experiences can only happen if the teacher displayed the love of a parent toward that student. Only then, can the c...
Former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has been injured by an explosion inside his car in Athens. Reports say the blast may have been caused by a letter bomb. Mr Papademos, 69, and his driver have suffered leg injuries but their lives are not believed to be in danger, the reports add. Mr Papademos was appointed caretaker prime minister in November 2011 amid political and economic turmoil. He served in post until May 2012. Mr Papademos has also served as vice-president of the European Central Bank. Current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is attending a Nato summit in Brussels, is being kept informed of the incident, Greek news agency ANA said. Mr Papademos and his driver, who has not been named, were reportedly rushed to Evangelismos Hospital. Some reports say two banking off...
Annapolis, MD – Teach MD, a project of the Orthodox Union, praised Gov. Larry Hogan for signing a new school security bill (HB 1661). Teach MD worked with Maryland Parents for Education (MPFE), Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk, and Senator Roger Manno to draft and advocate for the legislation. The new bill will authorize the Maryland Center for School Safety to make grants for security related projects. Schools and childcare centers deemed at risk for hate crimes or ideological attacks will be eligible for the grants. In the wake of increased threats and anti-Semitic incidents, Teach MD has been a leader in advocating for the bill’s passage, recently testifying before the Maryland Senate Education Committee on behalf of HB 1661. In Maryland, the Rockville an...
While Bayit Yehudi, Shas and Yahadut Hatorah are in the same coalition, presumably at peace with one another, when it comes to appointing chief rabbis, all bets are off. Take the recent appointment of a new Chief Rabbi of Nesher, which went to a second round and Shas emerged the victor. Now, the drums of war are beating as there are openings, including a major appointment like Tel Aviv followed by Beit Shemesh, Lod, Sderot and Ramat Gan to name some. The races to elect a new chief rabbi have potential to get quite dirty and ugly, as has been the case in previous races. The person who handles these elections in Bayit Yehudi is Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, who ran the office of the late Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Eliyahu ZT”L as well as standing at the h...
It’s a moment all leaders dread: Standing on television to tell the nation there has been a bombing — and another attack might be coming. British Prime Minister Theresa May, an unelected leader in office for less than a year, handled this week’s bombing in Manchester with a somber dignity that reassured many Britons, and will likely give her a boost when voters go to the polls on June 8. “When you get an attack of this kind there’s a sort of ‘rally round the flag’ effect,” said Rob Ford, a professor of political science at Manchester University. “Support for all the institutions goes up, and normally support for the incumbent president or prime minister goes up.” May is Britain’s surprise prime minister, selected by the C...
Baltimore, Md - May 25, 2017 - There may not be a word in our vocabulary adequate to express the depth of our gratitude to the Ribono shel Olam for returning Yerushalayim to Jewish hands in our lifetime after two thousand years, Rabbi Menachem Goldberger said Tuesday night. “At the same time,” he said, “words are all we have.” In a talk delivered at Congregation Tiferes Yisroel, entitled “Jerusalem: Fifty Years Since the Liberation,” the shul’s founding rav offered personal memories, historical accounts, stories of tzadikim in Yerushalayim and Eretz Yisroel, and political and kabbalistic perspectives to portray the relationship of the Jews to the Holy City from ancient through modern times. The talk was sponsored by Eliahu and Leah Weinberg, l&rsqu...
Historic initiative bearing over 500,000 signatures from 168 countries a global statement of support for a united Jerusalem Jerusalem, Israel – May 25, 2017 -  Just prior to US President Donald Trump’s whirlwind tour of Israel and the breathtaking and emotional 50th anniversary Jerusalem Day celebrations across the country, the staff of United with Israel, the world’s largest grassroots pro-Israel movement, met with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to present him with the ‘Jerusalem Declaration,’ a historic book containing the names of over 500,000 individuals from around the world who recognize Jerusalem as both the eternal capital of the Jewish People and the undivided capital of the State of Israel.  Mayor Barkat, an outspoken proponent of mainta...
U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron barely know each other but they seemed to have a hard time letting go when they first met on Thursday. Each man gripped each other's right hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench. Images from the photo session at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Brussels showed Trump finally giving up, his fingers loosened while Macron is still holding on tightly. Macron's determination may be a lesson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who on a recent visit to the Oval Office tried and failed to get Trump to shake her hand. Both Trump and Macron were in Brussels to attend a NATO summit. After their meeting, they had veal filet and Belgian chocolate mousse for lunch.
Russia’s main domestic security agency says it has arrested four members of the Islamic State group who have been preparing attacks in Moscow. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main KGB successor agency, said the suspects arrested in Moscow Thursday were preparing to strike at the capital’s transport network. The agency said in a statement that the four were working under directions from IS in Syria to prepare attacks using self-made explosive devices. The FSB said that the suspects were planning to join the IS in Syria after the attack. It didn’t give their names, saying only the group included citizens of Russia and ex-Soviet Central Asian nations. The arrests follow last month’s suicide bombing in St. Petersburg’s subway that left 16 dead and wou...
Baltimore, MD – May 25, 2017 – A motor vehicle accident on Park Heights Ave. between Clarks Lane and Bancroft has forced Baltimore Police to shut down that area for traffic  Please steer clear of the area.
The powerful personal story of a young woman’s survival of a terrorist attack in Israel made its way into the New York Times this week, following the horror of Monday’s night atrocity outside a concert arena in Manchester, in which 22 people were murdered and dozens of others were wounded by an Islamist suicide bomber. Tanya Weisz was 17 and living in Tel Aviv on June 1, 2001, when she and three friends — Liana, Oksana and Tanya —  headed to their regular haunt, the Dolphinarium discotheque. Recalled Weisz:
Girls could get in to the club free before midnight — and we didn’t have any money, so we decided to go early. We bought a bottle of cheap vodka from a convenience store and hung out on the ...
 Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Sheba Medical Center have developed a new method for treating atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The treatment prevents heart failure by reducing inflammation in the cardiovascular system and plaque in the arteries. According to the 2015 Lancet Global Burden of Disease Report, 56 million deaths around the world each year result from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis is caused by high blood pressure, smoking or high cholesterol, and damages the thin layer of cells in the arteries called “endothelium” that keep blood flowing smoothly. This damage causes plaque to form in the arteries and can eventually lead to heart failure. “Our E-selectin-targeting polymer re...
The Czech Parliament approved a resolution Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, while condemning recent anti-Israel resolutions passed by UNESCO. The resolution, which was approved by 116 of 156 members of the parliament’s lower chamber, calls on the Czech government to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to stop paying membership fees to UNESCO until it stops its anti-Israel bias. In early May, UNESCO passed a resolution denying Israel’s claims over Jerusalem. Last year, UNESCO passed two resolutions denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. At a dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the Czech lawmakers for the resolution. “The parliament ...
Over the years, Palestinian leaders have “excelled in two things: rhetoric and missing opportunities,” a Saudi journalist wrote in a column published this week. “Young Palestinians deserve to live, aspire, and act like the young people of other nations,” Mash’al Al-Sudairi said in a piece published by the London-headquartered Asharq al-Awsat daily newspaper and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “We have had our fill of sorrow, oppression, idiocy, and the spouting of extremist slogans, that have eliminated wisdom and at the same time [forfeited] much land.” Addressing Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh directly, Sudairi noted, “When you determined [in the new Hamas policy document that the borde...
New York’s Democratic governor says a new federal budget proposal from Republican President Donald Trump would be “devastating” for his state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Wednesday the proposed spending plan amounts to “the Niagara Falls of trickle-down economics,” referring to the economic philosophy that tax cuts for the rich will result in more jobs and prosperity for everyone else. Cuomo says the budget plan would jeopardize vital housing assistance, health care and other programs that protect the most vulnerable in society. Cuomo has also criticized Republican health care plans, saying they will put services for millions of New Yorkers at risk. The second-term executive is widely believed to be a possible White House contender in 2020. Cuomo has ...
Brussels (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Thursday ran into the first problems of a landmark European trip, embarrassingly called out in public over Russia and on leaks into the Manchester terror attack. His carefully choreographed visits to the EU and NATO in Brussels were designed to heal divisions caused by the billionaire's harsh campaign criticisms of both institutions. Trump was to take a "tough" stance with NATO -- the US-led military alliance he once dubbed "obsolete" -- to push it to take more action on Islamist terrorism and to pay its way. But differences immediately emerged after his talks with the European Union's top officials Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker on climate change, trade, and above all Russia. "I'm not 100 percent sure that we can say to...
 How much would you pay for a Zionist icon’s passport? The question will be answered next month when J. Greenstein & Company, an auction house specializing in antique Judaica items, takes bids for the passport of Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Born in Russia, Jabotinsky (1880-1940) founded a movement known as Revisionist Zionism and the Irgun, the Jewish underground militia in British Mandatory Palestine. His passport will be auctioned off June 13 in Cedarhurst, N.Y. Historian Dr. Rafael Medoff has written for JNS.org that while Jabotinsky “was arguably the most controversial Zionist leader of his era” and was branded a racist, the Zionist pioneer actually had an anti-racist vision of a Jewish state in which the Arab minority “would have full civi...
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