We are taught by tradition to observe “minhag hamakom”, the custom of the “house”. When in someone’s territory, we are to respect and abide by his rules and traditions. Our rabbis were clear that this is the best path for coexisting peacefully with our fellows. Writ large, it is this tradition that has Jews in America singing the “Star Spangled Banner” while Jews in Britain sing “God Save the Queen”.
However, there are limits to the Jewish version of “When in Rome…”
In Vayikra, we are warned against being seduced by the immorality of the nations. “Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: I am Hashem your God. Do not perform the practice ...
Iraq - Australia’s most dangerous known Islamic State movement operative had been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, the government said Thursday.
The United States had confirmed that Neil Prakash, also known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, was killed in Mosul on Friday, Attorney-General George Brandis said.
The 24-year-old Australian citizen of Cambodian and Fijian heritage converted from Buddhism in 2012 and traveled to Syria a year later.
The former rapper from Melbourne city featured in Islamic State recruitment videos, was linked to several attack plans in Australia and had urged lone wolf attacks against the United States.
“Prakash was a very important, high-value target,” Brandis told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
“He was the most dangerous Aust...
Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, in Israel is different. It is hard to miss.
Finally. Long overdue. I made an appointment to get my (not so annual) eye exam. Flipping the pages on my calendar, as the appointment was for months away, I set it for 9:20 am, on Thursday, May 5. Only later did I realize I would be inside with eyes dilated for the 10:00 am siren.
9:58 am: I jumped up and asked the receptionist, “Where is the nearest window?” She must have thought I was having some sort of panic attack. But responded, “oh, for the siren? We hear it in here.”
10:00 am: The siren outside started. A few tenths of seconds later, inside the building had its own. So instead of another video of traffic coming to a halt on t...
Israel - The Israeli military says it has discovered a new tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip underneath the border and into Israel.
The military announced the discovery Thursday amid a new escalation in violence with Gaza militants. Earlier Thursday, the military said it launched airstrikes on four Hamas targets in response to to violence that erupted along the Israel-Gaza border as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged fire.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the rare flare-up along the frontier, which has been largely quiet since a 2014 war.
The outbreak of violence coincided with work by the Israeli military to uncover tunnels being built by Gaza militants that Israel fears could be used to infiltrate its territory. The Palestinians fired mortar...
The ‘bookends’ of this week’s portion, Acharei Mos, couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.
We begin with a detailed description of the Yom Kippur Service pinnacled with the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies, where even angels may never enter, offering the special incense in total privacy with G-d, on this extraordinary once a year opportunity.
At the other end of our portion the Torah enumerates the detailed laws governing the full gamut of forbidden intimate relationships, an area of life and compulsion we share with the animal kingdom.
On the simplest level this dichotomy accentuates the realities that although man can be elevated to levels of spirituality that transcend even those of angels, and may even traverse territory forbidden to angels, we ...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:53 pm
Washington - An Army captain sued President Barack Obama on Wednesday, alleging that he doesn’t have the proper congressional authority to wage war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
Capt. Nathan Michael Smith filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington as the president is deploying more special operations forces to the region — and a day after a Navy SEAL was killed in combat in Iraq, the third since a U.S.-led coalition launched its campaign against the Islamic State in the summer of 2014.
Smith supports the war on military and moral grounds and considers the Islamic State an “army of butchers.” But he wants the court to tell Obama that he needs to ask Congress for a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force.
The White Hou...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:50 pm
New York - Mothers in the United States make 73 cents for every dollar earned by fathers, a wage gap even wider than the one between men and women overall, according to research released on Wednesday by a national women’s rights group.
The motherhood gap yawned widest in the southern state of Louisiana, where mothers are paid just 53 cents for every father’s dollar, said the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC).
Nationwide, Latina mothers are paid 47 cents and black mothers are paid 53 cents compared with every dollar paid to white fathers, the Washington-based non-profit organization said.
Nationwide, women overall earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to U.S. Census data.
“The price of motherhood shouldn’t be a smaller paycheck,&rd...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:48 pm
Washington - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took quick aim at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying United States should not take a risk on an unreliable candidate.
“He is a loose cannon, and loose cannons tend to misfire,” Clinton said in an interview with CNN, citing Trump stances including a claim that climate change was a Chinese hoax.
Clinton, a former secretary of state and the front-runner to win the Democratic nomination, said Trump would have to offer policy specifics in the general election on Nov. 8 and criticized him for his positions on issues including nuclear weapons and abortion.
“He makes these grand statements and grand accusations,” Clinton said of the real estate magnate and former ...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:46 pm
New York - A new security pavilion was dedicated Wednesday at a federal courthouse where high-profile terrorism trials have taken place blocks from where the Sept. 11 attacks downed the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Multiple airport-style screening machines await the more than 160 people who can fit inside a 3,250-square-foot facility alongside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in lower Manhattan.
Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska told several judges and other courthouse employees at a ceremony that the attacks were a catalyst for the $11 million construction project.
She said the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Protective Service and others repeatedly noted since 2001 that one of the busiest courthouses in the nation failed to screen people for weap...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:46 pm
New York, NY - DoubleLine Capital LP Chief Executive Jeffrey Gundlach on Wednesday warned that increasing investor demand for ostensibly safe low-volatility stocks and utility stocks is a major risk facing markets.
The closely watched investor, speaking at the Sohn Investment Conference, also said investors should prepare for a Donald Trump presidency, an election result that could lead to higher government debt.
Trump’s support for infrastructure spending and desire to amp up job growth could lead to higher debt, Gundlach said.
He said utilities offer only a “puny” yield compared with those of mortgage real estate investment trusts, which he recommended buying.
Buying baskets of low-volatility stocks has been one of the most popular investment strategies using...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:44 pm
Germany - Production of the 500-euro banknote is being discontinued amid concerns it had become too popular among crooks and money launderers.
The European Central Bank, the monetary authority for the 19 countries that use the shared currency, made the decision at a meeting Wednesday.
The ECB said it was taking into account concerns that the banknote, which is worth around $580, “could facilitate illicit activities.”
The banknotes currently in circulation will remain legal money for now but no additional ones will be issued from existing stocks after late 2018.
The central bank assured that the bills could be exchanged at national central banks of euro member countries “for an unlimited period of time.”
The 500-euro bill — the biggest denominatio...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:41 pm
Seoul - Residents and U.S. military personnel in a South Korean city rescued a woman and her three children from a fire by safely catching them with a blanket as they fell four floors, fire officials said Wednesday.
About 10 people held the blanket and persuaded the woman to drop her children from a fourth-floor window and then jump herself before rescue workers arrived at the scene last week in the city of Pyeongtaek, said Moon Sang-hyeon from the Songtan Fire Department.
The children — aged 1, 3, and 4 — were not hurt and their mother, a 30-year-old Nigerian, suffered only minor injuries, Moon said.
The four-story building stood on a narrow alley near a busy outdoor market and a U.S. military base, which made it difficult for fire trucks to reach the scene quick...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:41 pm
New York - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will probably work with the Republican National Committee to raise $1 billion to beat likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.
“We’re going to try and raise over a billion dollars which is what’s going to be necessary. The Democrats maybe will get as high as two billion dollars,” Trump said in an interview with NBC Nightly News.
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May 4, 2016 at 11:37 pm
Jerusalem - The Israeli army’s deputy chief of staff ignited controversy late Wednesday evening with his remarks which seemed to suggest a parallel between present-day Israel and 1930s Germany.
Maj. Gen. Yair Golan made the comments during a Holocaust Remembrance Day address at Tel Yitzhak.
“It’s scary to see horrifying developments that took place in Europe begin to unfold here,” the officer said.
The comments unleashed a torrent of criticism against Golan on social media, with Twitter users accusing the deputy chief of staff of “forgetting the lessons of the Holocaust.”
“The Holocaust should bring us to ponder our public lives and, furthermore, it must lead anyone who is capable of taking public responsibility to do so,” Golan sai...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:36 pm
Washington - The reaction of congressional Republicans to Donald Trump’s ascension ranged from subdued to silent on Wednesday, a day after the billionaire TV personality was all but anointed as the party’s presidential nominee.
A day after a decisive Indiana primary victory left Trump the sole GOP presidential contender standing, aides to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.
Other Republicans offered less than full-throated promises to help him win the White House.
“I plan to put all of my support behind the Republican nominee and do whatever is asked of me to ensure a Republican is elected president,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texa...
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May 4, 2016 at 11:33 pm
New York - Aeropostale, once the vibrant epicenter of the U.S. mall scene, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closing 20 percent of its stores in North America.
The New York company said Wednesday that it is closing 113 of its 739 U.S. stores and all 41 locations in Canada. Going-out-of-business sales at those U.S. stores will begin this weekend.
Aeropostale expects to emerge from bankruptcy protection within six months as a smaller company after renegotiating contracts and resolving an ongoing dispute with the investment firm Sycamore Partners, a major shareholder that pushed through changes in company leadership.
In the filing, CEO Julian Geiger lashed out at Sycamore, which he accused of hampering the company’s turnaround plans.
“The ripple effects of...
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May 4, 2016 at 10:13 pm
Jerusalem, Israel - May 4, 2016 – The official Opening Ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 5776 took place on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, in Warsaw Ghetto Square, Yad Vashem, Mount of Remembrance, Jerusalem, Israel.
"Everything is Forbidden to Us, and Yet We do Everything":The Struggle to Maintain the Human Spirit during the Holocaust was the central theme for this year's commemoration.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both delivered remarks. Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, lit the Memorial Torch. Zahava Roth spoke on behalf of the survivors.
During the ceremony, Holocaust survivors lit six torch...
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May 4, 2016 at 10:13 pm
Baltimore, MD - May. 4, 2016 26 Nissan 5776 - Daily Dvar Halacha - Coffee With Milk And Sugar Before Davening?
Brussels - NATO said on Wednesday it had agreed to non-member Israel setting up representation at its Brussels headquarters, a tentative sign of rapprochement between the Jewish state and NATO member Turkey.
Israel and Turkey have stepped up efforts to patch up a relationship badly damaged following an Israeli raid in 2010 on a Turkish boat, the Mavi Marmara, which had been trying to breach a blockade on the Gaza Strip.
NATO said in a statement that Israel’s ambassador to the European Union, David Walzer, would now also head its mission at alliance headquarters.
The foreign ministry of Israel, which is not a NATO member but has partner status as a participant in the alliance’s Mediterranean Dialogue programs together with six other non-NATO countries in the region, ...
Washington - A federal judge said Wednesday he may order Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton to testify under oath about whether she used a private email server as secretary of state to evade public records disclosures.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan signed an order granting a request from the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch to question six current and former State Department staffers about the creation and purpose of the private email system. Those on the list were some of Clinton’s closest aides during her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat, including former chief of staff Cheryl D. Mills, deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin and undersecretary Patrick F. Kennedy.
Also set to testify is Bryan Pagliano, the agency employe...
