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February 18, 2018 at 11:22 am
White House senior adviser Jared Trump has made more requests for classified intelligence information than almost any other member of White House staff, despite not having a final security clearance, the left-leaning Washington Post reports. Kushner’s requests for information are surpassed only by staffers on the National Security Council, a source familiar with the matter was quoted as saying.
Kushner is one of dozens of staffers operating with an interim security clearance. He is allowed access to the president’s daily briefings along with a slew of other top-secret documents.
White House officials have reportedly expressed concerns about Kushner’s security clearance in private, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, who on Friday announced major ...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:21 am
The Knesset House Committee convened on Tuesday to mark Gush Katif Day, commemorating the evacuation of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005.
Nearly 13 years after the settlers were evacuated from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and from four others in the West Bank, the Knesset committee was told that 160 families still have not been assigned permanent housing in place of the homes they were forced to evacuate.
However, it emerged that all but 28 of those families are expected to move into new homes within the coming year.
The remaining 28 families have used up the grants they received as compensation from the state after the evacuation and cannot afford to purchase new homes. To assist them, the state has offered to install prefabricated structures on their lo...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:19 am
The Israeli Air Force attacked six Hamas targets all across the Gaza Strip today, including an offensive tunnel running from the Zaytun neighborhood in Gaza towards Israel, Ynet reports. Returning fire, a rocket launched from the strip landed on the roof of a residence in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. The family was home, but no one was harmed as the rocket failed to explode.
Ynet reports that the rocket was launched mere hours after four IDF soldiers were wounded—two seriously and two moderately—when an explosive device detonated near the border fence. The IDF responded to the rocket’s launch by again attacking a Hamas outpost in northern Gaza.
Residents reported hearing explosions after Code Red alarms were triggered in several Sha’ar HaNegev and Es...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:17 am
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Eliezer Zvi Biegeleisen z”l of Lakewood, he was nine years old.
Eliezer Zvi was a son of R’ Meir and Chava Esther Biegeleisen.
The levayah will be held at 10 p.m. at the Congregation Sons of Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Chapel, located at 613 Ramsey Street, off of East 7th Street, in Lakewood.
The family will be sitting shivah at 1675 Hidden Lane.
Yehi zichro boruch.
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February 18, 2018 at 11:15 am
Ben Kaspit, author of Netanyahu, A Biography, spoke to Yedi’ot Achronot of what his new book says about Noah Rot, the prime minister’s daughter from his first marriage who became frum in 2003 and lives in Meah Shearim.
Kaspit claims the prime minister’s contact with Noah lessened and almost ceased after the passing of Netanyahu’s mother, Tzilah. When Netanyahu became prime minister for the first time and reporters asked him why her photo wasn’t included among family portraits on his table, he replied, “It’s being framed.”
For a while, Netanyahu would secretly meet his daughter for half-an-hour or so in the back of a restaurant hidden from the street. Netanyahu and his wife Sara attended the bris of No...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:14 am
The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) has called on the United States to make the extradition of known terrorist Ahlam Ahmad Al-Tamimi by Jordan to the U.S. a prerequisite for any new foreign aid to Jordan. President Trump has made clear that the United States is not going to give money while countries that receive such funds act against U.S. interests. Jordan is acting against clear U.S. interests in not extraditing Al-Tamimi to the United States.
Earlier this week, the United States and Jordan signed a memorandum of understanding that obligates the U.S. to provide Jordan with no less than $1.275 billion annually in bilateral foreign assistance. A 27% increase of the United States’ previous bilateral commitment to Jordan, the term of the new agreement was also increased from ...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:12 am
Florida’s state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz’s home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his “final level of risk is low,” despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.
The investigation detailed several unnerving behaviors from Cruz, including that he had cut his arms on Snapchat, had a Nazi symbol and a racial epithet on his backpack and intended to purchase a gun for unknown reasons, according to a Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) report obtained by The Washington Post. Ultimately, the investigation was closed in November 2016, just months before Cruz b...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:11 am
The Hawaii government’s erroneous warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack caused confusion at U.S. military facilities, frustrating senior U.S. military officers and causing them to question procedures for communicating with state officials, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.
The emails were sent in succession after thousands of people received a text-message warning Jan. 13 that prompted hysteria in parts of Hawaii. The U.S. military had no role in sending the mistaken message, but nonetheless had to deal with the fallout.
“Apparently, they were getting ready to do a drill when the ‘drill’ part was lost in translation,” Adm. Harry Harris, the chief of U.S. Pacific Command, wrote to Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chi...
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February 18, 2018 at 11:06 am
Israel is a year from completing its second largest water project in history, a 102-inch pipeline that will transport water from a coastal desalination plant to Yerushalayim’s westernmost Ein Kerem neighborhood.
The project includes what will be the world’s longest high-pressure tunnel pushing water uphill for four miles from near Beit Shemesh to Yerushalayim.
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February 18, 2018 at 11:00 am
af0951cb-ceb0-4754-b8b1-41c8491d888a from BaltimoreJewishLife.com on Vimeo.
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February 18, 2018 at 10:55 am
The father of a Jewish student killed in the Florida high school mass shooting on Wednesday is asking fellow parents to appreciate every moment they have with their children.
“Hugs to all and hold your children tight,” Fred Guttenberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday, following news that his daughter, 14-year-old Jamie Guttenberg, a'h, was among 17 people who died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire on students. Jamie’s brother, Jesse, is also a student at the Parkland, Florida school and survived the shooting unharmed.
“My heart is broken” Fred also said. “Yesterday, [my wife] Jennifer and I lost our baby girl to a violent shooting at her school. We lost our daughter and my son Jesse lost ...
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February 18, 2018 at 10:54 am
The British Parliament has imposed a “de facto ban” on kosher and halal meat in its cafeterias and restaurants, Britain’s Jewish Chronicle (JC) reported.
The ban came to light after senior parliamentary assistant Jay Stoll inquired about providing kosher food in Parliament’s nine restaurants and canteens. He was told that menus are governed by humanitarian guidelines which exceed government standards as they were formulated by animals’ rights groups that oppose non-stun slaughter.
The catering service explained further that it could not “adopt adequate segregation techniques” between regular and kosher/halal food. Even kosher sandwiches could not be sold, the service said, because “the provision of kosher products when weighed aga...
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February 18, 2018 at 10:54 am
President Donald Trump late last night criticized the FBI for failing to act on a tip that might have prevented the recent massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida, and said the bureau was devoting too much time to its investigation of his presidential campaign.
“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter,” Trump said in a Tweet. “This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
The president’s comment marks the first time he has weighed in on the bureau’s failure to investigate a Jan. 5 tip about 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who this week was charged with shoo...
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February 18, 2018 at 10:53 am
Former White House press secretary calls out bias in Russia investigation coverage, slams Joy Behar’s comments about Mike Pence on ‘Hannity.’
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February 18, 2018 at 10:40 am
For the past 18 months, the Yerushalayim municipality has been increasingly cracking down on the illegal mourning posters and amplified funeral announcements. City law prohibits the publicizing of messages by poster or loudspeaker without a license.
The city is fining violators $260 per announcement and impounding vehicles.
People in the business complain the municipality allocates too little space for the posters.
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February 18, 2018 at 10:38 am
In the midst of the Poland Holocaust controversy, Israel’s National Library announced the receipt of horrifying archival material from Yosef Weichert, son of Michael Weichert who served as chairman of the Krakow’s Jewish Social Self-Help Organization during World War II.
Weichert had bought the museum 59 envelopes that once held letters sent between September 1940 and May 1941 to outlying branches of the organization from the central office, where his father worked.
The Polish postal service later returned them to his office with handwritten notes on the envelopes stating: “Left this address,” “The Jews were expelled,” or “The Jewish Council no longer exists.”
There was no doubt that the Polish mailmen were aware of the fate of the recipie...
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February 18, 2018 at 10:37 am
Everyone on board is presumed dead after the ATR 72 aircraft went down and vanished from radar shortly after take-off
An Aseman Airlines plane carrying 66 passengers and crew has crashed into a mountain in central Iran, killing everyone on board.
The airline confirmed there were no survivors after the ATR 72 aircraft went down and vanished from radar on Sunday morning.
One child was said to be among those on board.
The plane was flying from the capital Tehran to Yasuj when it crashed into the Desa mountain in Isfahan province about 50 minutes after take-off.
Victims' families were given the devastating news as they waited to greet their loved ones at the airport in Yasuj.
A passenger on board the doomed plane was reported to have sent a chilling final ph...
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February 17, 2018 at 10:15 pm
Would the Rav please provide a bit of background information?
I am a sixth-generation Rav on my father’s side. While my father was born in America, his forebears were born in Hungary. All were Hungarian Rabbanim from the town of Szerencs in northern Hungary; my great-great-grandfather, Rav Avraham Shmuel Goldberger, z”l, came to America in the 1890s.
My great-grandfather, his son, Harav Yehuda Leib, z”l, was a Rav in Szerencs and then in New York City on the Lower East Side, where he served as Rav at Chevra Bachurim Anshei Ungaren, located on Third Avenue and Avenue C. He was a talmid of the Chasan Sofer and the Unsdorfer Rav, the Be’er Shmuel, zecher tzaddikim livrachah. Rav Yehuda Leib was an outstanding rabbinic figure in those years in New York and was niftar ...
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February 17, 2018 at 8:08 pm
1) Beis Hamikdash - Place of Connection
Ramban and other Rishonim talk about the mishkan and the amazing and beautiful ideas which can be learned from these parshiyos. Ramban explains that the mishkan is a place of connection with the Rebbono Shel Olam and we will learn how to connect with Hashem through learning these parshiyos.
Hidden Dwelling
Ramban writes his famous line (Shemos 25:1), “V’sod hamishkan,” the secret of the mishkan, “Hu sheyihiyeh hakavod”, is that the honor of G-d, “asher shachein al Har Sinai” which dwelled on Har Sinai, “shochein alav b’nistar”, dwells in the mishkan in a hidden manner. When Hashem revealed Himself at Sinai, that was an open revelation where Hashem opened up Shamayim, like the Ramban descr...
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February 17, 2018 at 8:05 pm
Tomorrow, 2 Adar, is the yahrtzeit of my Zadie, Rabbi Yaakov Bulka. The shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmaso, Chaim Yaakov ben Yitzchak, z"l.
In this week's parsha, as part of the description of the construction of the mishkan, the beams are described (36:29) as being paired at the bottom as well as the top. The terminlogoy used (26:24) is, "and they shall be soamim on the bottom and together they shall be samim on top." The words toamim and tamim mean essentially the same thing. They are to be paired. As Rashi describes, the beams had to be flush with each other from the bottom to the top and were joined together with a ring on top. Why is a different word used for the bottom and the top?
When Rivkah gives birth to Yaakov and Eisav, the pasuk ...
