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June 30, 2016 at 9:00 pm
Theresa May has launched her bid for the Conservative leadership, pledging that “Brexit means Brexit” and that there would be no general election before 2020.
The home secretary, who campaigned to remain in the EU, positioned herself as the candidate of stability and experience.
Asked for her pitch, she said: “I’m Theresa May and I’m the best person to be prime minister.”
The event was electrified by Michael Gove’s surprise announcement just minutes before she stood up that he would run for the leadership because, he said, Boris Johnson was not a suitable candidate.
Bookmakers were making May the favourite, followed by Gove, even before Johnson dramatically announced later in the morning, after she had made her speech, that he was not going ...
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June 30, 2016 at 9:00 pm
[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was.
The Gemara tells us that the color of the techeiles [the blue string of the Tzitzis] is similar to the color of the sea, which is similar to the color of the sky, which is similar to the color of Hashem’s throne; hence t...
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June 30, 2016 at 8:55 pm
The Israeli rabbinate investigative department has nabbed a recalcitrant husband after he hid from his wife for ten years.
The story began when the couple, parents of four children, decided to divorce but ran into financial issues that were dragged out in civil court. Rav Eliyohu Maimon, head of the Rabbinate’s agunah department, said that the beis din eventually ruled that the husband must divorce his wife immediately despite the outstanding financial issues.
The husband disappeared, leaving no forwarding address for his mail.
“A year ago, the beis din handed the case to our agunah department so that we could locate him,” said Rav Maimon. “We hired a private investigator but it was very hard to find him. He hid himself effectively and had help from his...
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June 30, 2016 at 8:41 pm
According to the Insurance Information Institute, 1.6 million deer-vehicle collisions occur each year, resulting in 200 fatalities, tens of thousands of injuries and over $3.6 billion in vehicle damage. Being prepared can help prevent you from adding to these statistics.
When driving this summer in Upstate, NY, you should:
Watch for the rest of the gang. Deer are pack animals, and rarely travel alone. If a deer crosses in front of you, chances are there are more nearby. Slow down and keep an eye out for more deer darting across the road.
Timing is everything. Deer are most active at dusk and dawn: periods when your vision is most compromised. To add to their terrible timing, deer are on the move during mating season (between October and January) when you’re more likely to travel a...
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June 30, 2016 at 8:28 pm
Orlando, FL - Emergency call logs released Thursday show that victims of the Pulse shooting in Orlando pleaded with sheriff’s deputies and dispatchers to save them as they described losing their breath and feeling their bodies go numb from their wounds.
Gunman Omar Mateen’s rampage at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 left 49 people dead and 53 injured before police fatally shot him after a more-than-three-hour standoff. It was the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history.
In the most recent batch of 911 logs released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, dispatchers describe calls from multiple victims, including an 18-year-old woman who said “she is losing eyesight and feeling in her body.”
Orlando Police initially responded to Pulse at 2:02 ...
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June 30, 2016 at 8:25 pm
Washington - Conservative radio host and columnist Howie Carr, opening for Donald Trump at a presidential campaign rally in Maine, brought up Hillary Clinton and her potential running mate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“You know Elizabeth Warren, right?” Carr asked the crowd.
He then put his hand up to his mouth and mimicked a stereotypical Native American war cry — the same call that Trump supporters sometimes let fly when Trump mentions Warren at his events. That’s because Trump regularly refers to Warren as “Pocahontas,” for her claim that she is part Native American. The nickname and other Trump comments have been derided by some as offensive.
But Carr, in a column Thursday in the Boston Herald, said that Trump advised him off-stage: “&ls...
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June 30, 2016 at 8:21 pm
Lafayette, LA - A south Louisiana sheriff was taped making anti-Semitic threats that he apparently directed at a federal prosecutor assigned to a civil rights case against him, according to a court filing.
Prosecutors said in Wednesday’s court filing that an “unsolicited informant” recently provided them with a series of recorded conversations between Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal and others. A transcript of one conversation includes Ackal recounting a meeting with a prosecutor in which the sheriff claims he threatened to shoot the prosecutor right between his “Jewish eyes” after the prosecutor vowed to send him to prison.
Ackal’s meeting with the prosecutor and other federal authorities occurred before Ackal’s original March 9 indi...
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June 30, 2016 at 6:57 pm
The drama unfolded quickly. The Spies came back from their expedition and reported that our enemies within Eretz Yisrael were giants and much too powerful to overcome, and that it was a bad land to live in for it “eats its inhabitants”. With just these few short sentences, the Spies succeeded in creating a storm of panic, anxiety, and fear amongst the Jewish nation. In fact, the entire Jewish nation, en masse, were literally brought to tears, and cried “it would have been better if we died in Egypt or the wilderness! …Why is Hashem bringing us to this land to die by the sword?” (14:1-3).
Now, I can understand that tensions were high, but still, did the Jews really believe that Hashem had taken such great care of them for so long just to abandon them now? Thi...
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June 30, 2016 at 6:56 pm
Agudath Israel expressed gratification at the news that due to the 55% increase in appropriations for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), 81 new institutions across the United States received funding in 2016. This represents a 40% increase in the number of institutions receiving enhanced security.
In New York alone, 66 Jewish organizations received a combined total of over $5.1 million dollars from the NSGP for the 2016 fiscal year.
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program, managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provides funding to acquire cameras, concrete barriers, security doors, and other security enhancements for nonprofit institutions, in selected cities, at high risk of terrorist attack.
Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel's Vice President for Federal A...
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June 30, 2016 at 5:59 pm
This week’s Torah potion discusses the mitzva to wear Tzitzit. (Bamidbar 15, 38)
The following true story reflects an interesting moral dilemma that relates to the mitzva of tzitzit as well as the mitzvah to avoid a Chillul Hashem, desecrating Hashem’s name.
Ronen was a thoughtful, secular Israeli Jew. He was also a professional soccer player, playing for a pro team in Israel. He was used to playing in large stadiums filled with adoring and passionate fans.
One day, after an encounter with an inspiring Torah teacher, Ronen decided that he would like to slowly become more observant of mitzvot. He began to wear tzitzit. He even wore them while he played on the field, and his tzitzes were often seen flapping in the wind as he would run and play. Even when he tucked t...
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June 30, 2016 at 5:41 pm
Nir Barkat recently issued instructions to stop a plan to screen films at the Yovelim community center of Kiryat Yovel on Shabbos. The center’s director had publicized on Facebook that films were to be screened at 10:00 p.m. Shabbos night and 11:00 a.m. in the morning and urged people to “invite friends, family, neighbors and come. Entrance is free.”
After chareidi and religious councilmen protested against the plan, Mayor Nir Barkat instructed municipal representatives at the community center to oppose the Shabbos screenings. They sent a letter to the center’s director and chairman to cancel the plan, writing:
“You should know that this matter is likely to result in many negative consequences due to the public sensitivity and great tension between the d...
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June 30, 2016 at 5:35 pm
The New Jersey Senate will not vote on a bill that would have raised the gas tax and cut the sales tax in the Garden State, Action News/WPVI TV Philadelphia/WABC 6 reports.
The Senate, it seems, is not satisfied with the bill that was approved by the Assembly, so senators are working to draft their own legislation.
The legislation – which has received the vocal support from Governor Chris Christie – would have raised the gas tax to 37.5 cents a gallon from 14.5 cents and cut the sales tax from 7 percent to 6 percent.
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June 30, 2016 at 5:32 pm
London - Embattled Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has been harshly criticized for comments made Thursday during the release of an independent inquiry into anti-Semitism in the party ranks.
The U.K.‘s main opposition party leader said Thursday that “Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those of various self-styled Islamic states or organizations.”
The party leader later denied he was comparing the state of Israel to the Islamic State extremists.
UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called the comments “offensive” and counterproductive.
“The comments by the leader of the Labour Party at the launch, however they were intended, are themselves offensiv...
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June 30, 2016 at 5:28 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Thursday, 30 June 2016), issued the following statement at the Fourth of July event at US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro's residence:
"This night of celebrations comes after a day of tragedy. In Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, the city of our forefathers, young Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13 year old, was murdered lying in her bunk bed.
What makes someone slit the throat of a child? It’s not the quest for peace. It’s the mind flooded with hate and incitement, an ideology that says this child is not a human being.
And this ideology of hate was manifested again when another would be murderer knifed two Israelis in Netanya a few miles from here.
We will always fight the terrorists. We will fight their despatchers; we will fight the inciters...
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June 30, 2016 at 5:22 pm
Baltimore, MD - June 30, 2016 - Chananya Kramer's Kolrom Multimedia is Recognized By Fortune 500 HP (Video)
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June 30, 2016 at 5:09 pm
Washington - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday it is opening a preliminary investigation into 25,000 Tesla Motors Model S cars after a driver of one of the vehicles was killed using the Autopilot mode.
The agency said the crash came in a 2015 Model S operating with automated driving systems engaged, and “calls for an examination of the design and performance of any driving aids in use at the time of the crash.” The investigation is the first step before the agency could seek to order a recall if it finds the vehicles were unsafe.
NHTSA said in a statement the driver of the 2015 Model S was killed while operating in Autopilot mode in a crash on May 7 in Williston, Florida. NHTSA said preliminary reports indicate the vehicle crash...
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June 30, 2016 at 3:39 pm
Washington - A 13-year-old Israeli girl fatally stabbed in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba on Thursday was a US citizen, the US State Department said.
The girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, was attacked after a Palestinian terrorist climbed a security fence and entered a home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron.
“We have now confirmed that she is a US citizen,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing.
Earlier today, the State Department condemned “in the strongest terms the outrageous terrorist attack” in the West Bank, calling the stabbing “unconscionable.”
Netanyahu, in a statement, called on Palestinian leaders to condemn the attack and take immediate steps to stop what he described as incitement that Israel has cited as ...
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June 30, 2016 at 3:36 pm
Kiryat Arba, Israel - Crying, Rena Ariel caressed the blue shroud covered body of her daughter Hallel Yaffa, 13, before uttering her final parting words, to the girl who had been a brilliant student and who loved to dance.
“I am giving you one last hug,” Rena said on Thursday evening as she eulogized Hallel in front of the hundreds of mourners who filled the small public grass lawn, just a short walk away from their home in the West Bank Kiryat Arba settlement.
Just the night before, Hallel had performed in Jerusalem with Harikod dance troop. In the morning she slept late. She was alone in the house when a Palestinian teen, Mohammad Tarairah, 17, snuck in her bedroom through an open window and stabbed her to death.
At the funeral, Rena called out to Tarairah’s...
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June 30, 2016 at 3:35 pm
New York - Former President Bill Clinton spoke with Attorney General Loretta Lynch during an impromptu meeting in Phoenix, but Lynch said the discussion did not involve the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use as secretary of state.
Lynch told reporters that the meeting at a Phoenix airport on Monday was unplanned and happened while the former president was waiting to depart and walked over to the attorney general’s plane after she landed there.
Lynch was traveling with her husband and said her conversation with the former president “was a great deal about his grandchildren” and their travels. The former president, who recently became a grandfather for the second time, told her he had been playing golf in Arizona and they discussed former Attor...
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June 30, 2016 at 3:35 pm
Washington - American sailors who were detained by Iran in January gave away too much information to their captors and were seized in the Gulf following a series of missteps by the crew and their superiors, the U.S. Navy said in a report on Thursday.
The report said some of the 10 crew members, detained at gunpoint Jan. 12 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had revealed sensitive information, such as phone and laptop passwords, to the Iranians.
At the time of their capture, an international incident that rattled nerves days before the implementation of a nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, the sailors were in transit in two vessels from Kuwait to Bahrain.
Iran used the detentions for propaganda purposes that kept the incident in the headlines fo...
