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May 20, 2017 at 10:01 pm
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - President Donald Trump basked in Saudi Arabia’s lavish royal welcome Saturday as he left behind, at least temporarily, the snowballing controversies dogging him in Washington. Trump rewarded his hosts with a $110 billion arms package aimed at bolstering Saudi security and a slew of business agreements.
“That was a tremendous day, tremendous investments in the United States,” Trump said during a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
The visit to the kingdom’s capital kicked off Trump’s first foreign trip as president, an ambitious, five-stop swing that will take him through the Middle East and into Europe. He is the only American president to make Saudi Arabia — or any Muslim-majority nation — his first overseas trip...
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May 20, 2017 at 10:00 pm
For the second time this year, Russian authorities have ordered out of the country a foreign Chabad rabbi who had lived there for years.
This week, a Moscow district court ordered Yosef Khersonsky, an Israeli who heads one of the capital’s communities, to leave the Russian Federation in connection with his “setting up without permission a for-profit foreign entity,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported. The court did not specify the nature of the entity.
In a hearing, Khersonsky denied the allegation, arguing that he acted as a consultant on religious matters for existing Jewish institutions, the report said. He intends to appeal the ruling.
In March, a Russian appeals court affirmed an expulsion order issued against an American rabbi working i...
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May 20, 2017 at 9:59 pm
A poll in Israel about President Donald Trump suggested his popularity among Jews there has declined since he first took office.
In the poll of 500 Jewish-Israeli adults conducted this week for The Jerusalem Post, 56 percent said they considered the Trump administration more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian. In January, 79 percent of respondents in a similar poll had said this about Trump, who is scheduled to visit Israel on Monday as part of his first presidential trip abroad.
The latest poll, whose results were published Thursday, found that 4 percent consider the administration to be more pro-Palestinian, rising from 3 percent in the January survey.
Those who deemed the administration to be neutral doubled to 21 percent, compared to 10 percent in January. Nineteen percent of...
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May 19, 2017 at 5:33 pm
Today marks the yahrtzeit of my great aunt, Lady Amélie Jakobovits, a"h. The shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmasah, Mayla bas Eliyahu.
This coming Sunday, 25 Iyar, marks the yahrtziet of my mother, a"h. The shtikle is dedicated as well le'iluy nishmasah, Tzirel Nechama bas Tovia Yehudah.
Parshas Behar deals largely with the laws pertaining to the shemitah and yoveil years. The Torah addresses the understandable worry of the farmer who is forced to leave his field fallow for an entire year. "Lest you shall say what will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow nor gather in our crops!. I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth produce for the three years." (25:20-21) This is, indeed, quite a valua...
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May 19, 2017 at 3:43 pm
A couple of things about the WannaCry cyberattack are certain. It was the biggest in history and it’s a scary preview of things to come — we’re all going to have to get used to hearing the word “ransomware.” But one thing is a lot less clear: whether North Korea had anything to do with it.
Despite bits and pieces of evidence that suggest a possible North Korea link, experts warn there is nothing conclusive yet — and a lot of reasons to be dubious. Why, for example, would Pyongyang carry out a big hack that hurt its two closest strategic partners more than anyone else? And for what appears to be a pretty measly amount of loot — as of Friday the grand total of ransom that had been paid was less than $100,000.
Within days of the attack, respected cy...
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May 19, 2017 at 3:40 pm
A pair of Chinese fighter jets conducted an “unprofessional” intercept of an American radiation-sniffing surveillance plane over the East China Sea, the U.S. Air Force said Friday, the latest in a series of such incidents that have raised U.S. concerns in an already tense region.
On Wednesday, the two Chinese SU-30 jets approached a WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft — a modified Boeing C-135 — conducting a routine mission in international airspace in accordance with international law, Pacific Air Forces spokeswoman Lt. Col. Lori Hodge said in a statement.
The WC-135 crew characterized the intercept as unprofessional “due to the maneuvers by the Chinese pilot, as well as the speeds and proximity of both aircraft,” Hodge said.
She declined to provide fur...
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May 19, 2017 at 3:34 pm
Baltimore, MD - May 19, 2017 - Just a reminder that the Shabbos of Preakness can be a little chaotic.
We can expect to see a LOT of people in our neighborhood who are not familiar with either speed restrictions or our own customs. Many of these many will be inebriated, a (hopefully very) few will be potentially violent, and none of them will have any expectation whatsoever of encountering pedestrians walking down the middle of the street. It is a very good time to be particularly cautious and to keep children closer than usual.
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Below is the photo of a man for whom there is an arrest warrant outstanding. He was with 3 others on May 12 when they attempted to carjack a car on Fords Lane, and they have been seen at other times as well.
If you see him, call 911 and Sho...
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May 19, 2017 at 3:21 pm
A Syrian military official said Friday that an aerial “aggression” by the U.S.-led coalition on a government military position near the border with Jordan the day before killed several soldiers and caused material damage.
The strike was the first such close confrontation between U.S. forces and fighters backing President Bashar Assad and the development is likely to increase tensions in the war-torn country.
The unnamed official’s comments were carried by Syrian state TV a day after the strike.
The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday that a U.S. airstrike hit pro-Syrian government forces it said posed a threat to American troops and allied rebels operating near the border with Jordan.
The attack comes at a time when the U.S. presence in Syria is becoming more visible, mo...
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May 19, 2017 at 3:19 pm
Fox News on Friday announced that it had fired "The Five" co-host Bob Beckel for a remark he made to an employee of color.
"Bob Beckel was terminated today for making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee," a network spokesperson said in a short statement.
It wasn't immediately clear who would replace Beckel on "The Five" and Fox News did not provide details on the incident that led to his firing. Beckel was not immediately available for comment.
Douglas Wigdor and Jeanne Christensen, lawyers handling a growing racial discrimination lawsuit filed by current and former Fox employees, said in a joint statement that Beckel told one of their clients, a black IT worker, that he was leaving the office while the employee serviced his computer because the employee is b...
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May 19, 2017 at 1:21 pm
Parshas B’Har/Bechukosai / Baltimore Zmanim / Eruv is UP!
Baltimore, MD – May 19, 2017
Omer 38
Parshas: B’Har/Bechukosai
Today: 23 Iyar
Chatzos: 1:04 PM
Hadlakas Nairos: 7:59 PM
Shkiah: 8:17:30 PM
Tzais HaKochavim: 9:08 PM
Yom Yerushalayim, 28 Iyar - May 24
Rosh Chodesh Sivan, Friday, May 26, 2017
Kiddush Levanah: Sun., May 28, 2:11 PM - June 9, 8:33 AM
Kiddush Levanah may only be said at night
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May 19, 2017 at 12:34 pm
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein firmly stood by the memo he wrote that outlined James Comey’s offenses – and later was cited by the White House to support President Trump’s decision to fire the FBI director – during briefings with Capitol Hill lawmakers, according to remarks obtained by Fox News.
“I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it,” he said, according to the opening statement provided by senior Justice Department officials. He maintained that Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe was “wrong and unfair.”
The statement was first delivered to Senate lawmakers on Thursday and to House lawmakers during a similar briefing on Friday.
After the first briefing, Democratic senators said Rosenstein revealed he ...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:29 pm
Iranians voted Friday in the country’s first presidential election since its nuclear deal with world powers, as incumbent Hassan Rouhani faced a staunch challenge from a hard-line opponent over his outreach to the West.
The election is largely viewed as a referendum on the 68-year-old cleric’s more moderate policies, which paved the way for the nuclear accord despite opposition from hard-liners.
Economic issues also will be on the minds of Iran’s over 56 million eligible voters as they head to more than 63,000 polling places across the country. The average Iranian has yet to see the benefits of the deal, which saw Iran limit its contested nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful man in Iran,...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:28 pm
A culinary school student has alleged that Canada’s Humber College refused to accommodate her need for time off to observe major Jewish holidays.
Esther Belne told The Algemeiner on Thursday that she was a month into school at the start of this academic year when she reached out to the bakery and pastry program coordinator to arrange permission to miss classes for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
In an email correspondence, the program coordinator told her, “Unfortunately, we only recognize statutory holidays which are marked in the calendar outline…your absenteeism will be considered a zero.” Belne’s father then reached out to the dean of the culinary arts program, she said, but he never heard back.
Belne left Humber in December,&nbs...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:26 pm
A new report by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) predicts nearly half of Israel’s population will be comprised of Arabs and haredi Jews by 2059, which would be a major demographic shift for Israel as well as an economic and political challenge.
According to the report, Israel’s population is expected to rise to nearly 18 million by 2059 from the current 8.7 million, with 14.4 million Jewish and another 3.6 million Arab. As such, haredim and Arabs will account for 49 percent of the population. Today, they account for 32 percent of the population.
The IDI report said the projection should be a “call to action for the government and civil service leaders” to best integrate the haredi and Arab populations into the state.
“It is time to stop tre...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:25 pm
An Israeli reporter who was denied a visa to Saudi Arabia to cover President Donald Trump’s visit to the desert kingdom this weekend told The Algemeiner she thought the rejection was a “huge humiliation” for the White House.
Orly Azoulay — the Washington bureau chief for the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth — explained that she had been approved to travel on the press plane accompanying the president to Saudi Arabia in his first overseas trip since taking office. But at the last minute, Azoulay stated, Saudi officials called the White House and said her visa request had not been approved.
The reporter, a dual Israeli-American citizen, said she believed she was not granted a visa because of her affiliation with&...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:24 pm
Ahead of his first official visit to Israel next week, President Donald Trump refused to rule out the possibility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could accompany him on a visit to the Western Wall.
The decision to visit the Western Wall “with the rabbi is more traditional, but that could change,” Trump told Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth at the White House Thursday, when asked why Netanyahu would not accompany him.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster had said earlier this week that Trump’s visit to the Western Wall would not involve any Israeli officials.
“No Israeli leaders will join President Trump to the Western Wall,” McMaster told reporters as he outlined the president’s trip.
In the same news conference, McMaster also refu...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:23 pm
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel fails to update its list of mohelim, Yediot Achronot reports, explaining some mohelim who have been suspended still appear on the list of certified mohelim.
The report documents that while a mohel’s license may have been suspended, this is not reflected in the list which one may access on the Chief Rabbinate of Israel website, which many do after a son is born in search of a licensed approval mohel.
Leading to the report is the publication of minutes from the Rabbinate’s Committee overseeing mohelim, in which errors made by a mohel are discussed and at times, documenting the revocation of his license to practice. However, the Rabbinate doesn’t bother to update its list of recommended mohelim, which is made available to the public.
YWN-ISRA...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:16 pm
Former Vice President Joe Biden took a swipe at Hillary Clinton on Thursday, saying upon further reflection she wasn’t a “great candidate” for president.
The former VP, who continued to leave the door open just a crack to a possible 2020 run, spoke at a hedge-fund manager conference in Las Vegas.
According to Fox Business Network, Biden addressed the Democratic presidential nominee’s surprise November defeat to President Trump in blunt terms.
"I never thought she was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate," he said, adding:
"No man or woman should announce for the presidency unless they genuinely believe that for that moment in the nation’s history they are the most qualified person to deal with the issues facing the country."
B...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:14 pm
Ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn will not honor a subpoena issued by a Senate committee looking into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the panel’s chairman said Thursday.
Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina told reporters that Flynn’s lawyer has informed the panel he will not abide by a subpoena for private documents.
The decision comes as no surprise, legal experts say, given that Flynn would be waiving his constitutional protection against self-incrimination by turning over personal documents to the committee. Flynn, though his lawyer, had earlier asked for immunity from “unfair prosecution” in exchange for agreeing to cooperate with the committee.
“We’ll figure out on Gen. Flynn what the next step i...
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May 19, 2017 at 12:10 pm
Kever Rochel will be closed to mispallalim on Tuesday, 27 Iyar from 6:00AM to 2:00PM during the visit of US President Donald Trump.
This is just one of the many institutions that will be impacted by the visit, not to mention traffic in the capital.
The presidential delegation will occupy the entire King David Hotel, and that area and the hotel will be restricted to persons with authorization.
