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June 23, 2017 at 9:35 am
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. State Department’s office to monitor and combat anti-Semitism will be unstaffed as of July 1.
A source familiar with the office’s workings told JTA that its remaining two staffers, each working half-time or less, would be reassigned as of that date.
The Trump administration, which has yet to name an envoy to head the office, would not comment on the staffing change. At full staffing, the office employs a full-time envoy and the equivalent of three full-time staffers.
The State Department told JTA in a statement that it remained committed to combating anti-Semitism – and cited as evidence the tools, including the department’s annual reports on human rights and religious freedom, that existed before Congress mandated the creation o...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:34 am
WASHINGTON (JTA) — American billionaire Sheldon Adelson will provide about $20 million for the major expansion of a West Bank university.
Ariel University, located in the settlement of that name, plans to double in size within the next five years, according to a plan promoted by Education Minister Naftali Bennett.
Part of the project, which includes an additional 10 to 12 facilities, is to build a four-year medical school to be named after Adelson, who owns the Israel Hayom newspaper, and his physician wife, Miriam. It would be the sixth medical school in Israel.
The estimated cost for the entire project is approximately $113 million.
According to Haaretz, though the plan has the support of the finance subcommittee of the Council of Higher Education, it “still needs th...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:31 am
London - A fire that killed at least 79 people at a London apartment block started in a Hotpoint fridge freezer, and the outside cladding engulfed by the blaze has since been shown to fail all safety tests, London police said on Friday.
Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said that in view of the heavy death toll, police were considering manslaughter charges over the disaster.
She said the Hotpoint model, FF175BP, involved was not subject to recall and the manufacturer was doing further tests.
“We now have expert evidence that the fire was not started deliberately,” McCormack told reporters in London.
Britain ordered an immediate technical examination of the Hotpoint fridge model, manufactured between 2006 and 2009, to establish whether further...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:29 am
Riyadh - Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have cut ties to Qatar issued a steep list of demands Thursday to end the crisis, insisting that their Persian Gulf neighbor shutter Al-Jazeera, cut back diplomatic ties to Iran and close down a Turkish military base in Qatar.
In a 13-point list — presented to the Qataris by Kuwait, which is helping mediate the crisis — the countries also demand that Qatar sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and with other groups including Hezbollah, al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the list in Arabic from one of the countries involved in the dispute.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut ties to Qatar this month over allegations the Persian Gulf country funds terror...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:26 am
After becoming the first deaf EMT in Israel, Nechama Loebel has once again broken barriers for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community in Israel by instructing the first EMS course in sign language. Loebel, who recently graduated from both a Psychotrauma and Crisis Response course as well as an EMS instructors course, is certified to instruct basic CPR and EMS classes. She wasted no time in organizing the first ever EMS course in sign language for fellow members of the deaf and hard of hearing community in Israel.
“It is my dream to be able to take this lifesaving information and pay it forward to other members of the deaf and hard of hearing community in Israel,” said Loebel, who only a few weeks prior completed her instructors course.
The course took place in the community c...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:14 am
Parshas Korach / Rosh Chodesh Tammuz / Baltimore Zmanim / Eruv is UP!
Baltimore, MD – June 23, 2017
Parshas: Korach
Today: 29 Sivan
Chatzos: 1:09 PM
Hadlakas Nairos: 8:19 PM
Shkiah: 8:37:26 PM
Tzais HaKochavim: 9:28 PM
Rosh Chodesh Tammuz: Shabbos, June 24 & Sunday, June 25
Kiddush Levanah: Tuesday, June 27, 2:55 AM – Shabbos, July 8, 9:17 PM
Kiddush Levanah may only be said at night
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June 23, 2017 at 9:12 am
President Donald Trump wants to add solar panels to his long-promised southern border wall — a plan he says would help pay for the wall’s construction and add to its aesthetic appeal.
“We’re thinking about building the wall as a solar wall so it creates energy and pays for itself,” Trump said at a rally Wednesday night in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “And this way, Mexico will have to pay much less money. And that’s good, right?”
Trump had previously floated the solar panel idea during a closed-door meeting with Republican members of Congress earlier this month, but this was the first time he’d discussed the idea publicly.
“Pretty good imagination, right?” Trump said at the rally, framing the plan as “my idea.”
Not qu...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:02 am
I was recently reading the great book of letters by the Steipler Rav, “Kiryana D’Igrasa”. In one of these, he was responding to a correspondent who had listed some of his problems. It should be emphasized that the Steipler was not one to make light of other people’s problems, but at the end of his three-page response, in which he considered each problem in detail, he wrote: “But do you want to know what your real problem is? In your letter, you use the word `I’ six times.”
Korach and his cohorts approach Moshe Rabbeinu with a claim against his leadership. They demand to know why it is that he has set himself and Aharon HaKohen as the leaders of the people. Moshe responds with a challenge to bring an offering of Ketores (the mixture of i...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:01 am
It is certain that Russia launched a massive hacking campaign to undermine the U.S. electoral process in 2016. That is a major issue that needs to be thoroughly investigated, and steps taken so that it does not recur.
Though the Russian involvement in the 2016 election targeted both presidential candidates at various times, it likely damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign more. Confirmation in the emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee that the DNC had actively favored Clinton over her chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, infuriated Sanders supporters. Conceivably enough of those supporters could have decided not to vote for Clinton based on those emails to have made a difference in the three crucial battleground states – Pennsylvania, Mi...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:01 am
An Israel Police Traffic Enforcement Unit spokesman reported on Thursday, 28 Sivan, that a driver who has never been issued a driver’s license has been caught again. He was arrested and arraigned immediately.
In an enforcement operation carried out by the police on Wednesday near the Lehavim Intersection, the police arrested a 27-year-old driver from the south who, after checking his identity, discovered that the driver had never been issued a driver’s license.
The report adds that he was apprehended driving in 2014 as well. At that time, the court ruled he may not get a driver’s license for six years. When police on Thursday asked why he was still driving, he apologized for his actions.
However, police were not moved by his apology and he was arrested and taken for an...
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June 23, 2017 at 9:01 am
The number of cabinet ministers and MKs who visited the Beit El protest tent at the Knesset Rose Garden this week is impressive, but for the leaders and residents of the community and leaders of Yesha communities, it may be nothing more than promises that will not be kept.
The persons manning the tent are aware of the painful reality; for Migron residents, who were promised new homes, it has been over five years. It has been years for the residents of the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El too, and PM Netanyahu promised 300 homes for their agreement to leave without confrontation. However, despite seeing a bulldozer or two working on the new community of Amichai this week, they are aware this is a far cry from moving ahead on building a community to provide homes for the former residents of A...
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June 23, 2017 at 8:41 am
The Senate Republican health care bill would guarantee immediate assistance for insurance markets that are struggling in many states. Yet overall it would do the same thing as its House counterpart: less federal money for health insurance and a greater likelihood that more Americans will be uninsured.
The bill’s impact on personal health care costs would be uneven: Premiums would likely go down for younger people, but older people would pay more. Out-of-pocket costs to cover insurance deductibles and co-payments would go up.
For those who believe the government is too involved in health care, the Senate bill stands as an overdue course correction. But those who believe health care is a right will see it as a step back.
How the Senate bill compares to the House bill and to the Affo...
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June 23, 2017 at 8:38 am
The U.S. and Cuba are still cooperating to intercept drug smugglers even through the Trump administration has halted high-level meetings on stopping the flow of narcotics through the Caribbean, a top Cuban anti-drug official said Thursday.
The amount of drugs seized by Cuban authorities has tripled this year over the same period in 2016, to 1.8 tons of narcotics, said Antonio Israel Ibarra, the head of Cuba’s National Commission on Drugs.
That number is tiny compared to drug seizures in neighboring countries, but it represents a surge due largely to U.S.-Cuban cooperation on halting shipments of marijuana through or near Cuban territorial waters, Ibarra said.
Cuba maintains a pervasive state-security apparatus that has managed to keep levels of drug smuggling and serious crime to ...
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June 23, 2017 at 8:38 am
All of the 34 largest U.S. banks are fortified enough to withstand a severe U.S. and global recession and continue lending, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
The first round of the central bank’s annual “stress tests” showed that as a group, the 34 big banks have gained strength thanks to a steadily recovering economy. The banks undergoing the seventh annual check-up included JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo and Co. – the four biggest U.S. banks by assets.
The banks were tested to determine if they have large enough capital buffers to keep lending, even if hit with billions of dollars in losses brought on by a financial crisis and severe economic downturn. Capital is the cushion a bank holds against losses.
“T...
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June 23, 2017 at 8:37 am
New York’s Republican-controlled state Senate has voted to name the new Tappan Zee Bridge after the late Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo.
The Democrat-led Assembly adjourned its 2017 session without taking up the bill after Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan introduced the proposal Wednesday night shortly before his chamber adjourned.
Flanagan’s bill would name the new bridge currently under construction after Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s father, who died in 2015. The elder Cuomo was governor from 1983 through 1994. His son pushed to get a replacement bridge built.
The name of the current span linking Rockland and Westchester counties north of New York City is the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge. Wilson was governor for a year starting in December 1973 after serv...
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June 23, 2017 at 8:31 am
A federal judge refused Thursday to throw out criminal charges that could result in a mandatory life prison sentence for a man accused of plotting bomb attacks in New Jersey and New York that injured 30 people.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman made a series of rulings in the case brought against Ahmad Khan Rahimi, though he said he’ll wait to decide whether a government expert will be permitted to testify about al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. Prosecutors are to submit written arguments on the subject next week.
Berman declined a defense request to dismiss two explosives charges, saying judicial precedent from other terrorism cases make clear their relevance to the eight-count indictment.
Rahimi, 29, pleaded not guilty to detonating a pipe bomb ne...
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June 23, 2017 at 8:22 am
Baltimore, MD - June 22, 2017 - On Sunday June 11th, Baltimore experienced an amazing milestone. Seven precious children of the JEWELS School received their very own siddurim. Seven children with special needs had a siddur party, and performed in front of their siblings, parents, grandparents and even great grandparents. They proudly walked upon the stage and held their siddurim with satisfaction.
A beautiful and emotional ceremony that lasted one hour took five years to produce. JEWELS Inclusive School and Therapy Clinic began five years ago, as a dream of parents of children with special needs. They dreamed that one day children in Baltimore with special needs would have a school that would embrace them and help them develop and reach milestones that most of us take for granted. They dr...
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June 23, 2017 at 5:51 am
Paris - French authorities are investigating the death of a fitness blogger reportedly hit by an exploding whipped cream canister that was withdrawn from the market in 2013, officials and the company that makes the product said Thursday.
The prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Mulhouse said an investigation is underway into Sunday’s death of Rebecca Burger and whether a faulty siphon on a high-pressure canister used to make and dispense whipped cream was at fault. The prosecutor would not comment pending further investigation.
Consumer magazine 60 Million Consumers reported that the exploding canister hit Burger violently in the chest, causing her to suffer a heart attack. The magazine said it had been warning for years of such risks after dozens of incidents, but this...
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June 23, 2017 at 5:48 am
The U.S. military says an American airstrike in Yemen has killed a top commander for the al-Qaida affiliate there and two of his associates.
U.S. Central Command says the strike in Shabwa province killed Abu Khattab al Awlaqi, the emir of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. says he was leading efforts to fuel instability in southern Yemen and to plan attacks on civilians, and was closely linked to AQAP leaders.
The U.S. military has conducted at least 80 airstrikes this year targeting AQAP, which the U.S. considers one of the most dangerous terrorist threats to America and the West.
Officials say they don’t believe he is related to Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric who inspired attacks on America and was killed in a U.S. airstrike in September 2011.
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June 23, 2017 at 5:46 am
What caused Korach to rebel, the sin which ultimately caused him to be punished with the horrific and public death of being swallowed by the ground alive? Korach was jealous of Aharon and desired to be the Kohen Gadol. The character flaw that fueled this jealousy and which ultimately brought about his destruction was his lack of appreciation for the gifts that Hashem had already given him. Korach had a lot going for him. He was not only a tremendous and well respected Torah scholar, he was also a Levi; He was from the tribe that was destined to have the honor of working in the Bais Hamikdash. Furthermore, he and his descendants would have been privileged to have financial security for the rest of their lives, as Levi’im are supported by the Jewish nation via their ma'aser (tith...
