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November 15, 2018 at 7:53 pm
Tucked away in this weeks Parsha, unbeknownst to many, is one of the chief M’koros the Gemara uses for the Mida of Tznius. The Gemara cites Rochel Imainu as the standard bearer for Tznius, telling us that it was on account of her great Tznius that she was Zocheh to have Shaul Hamelech as a descendant. Precisely what behavior was manifested by Rochel Imainu that caused the the Gemara to hold her out as the pinnacle of this Mida?
Consider, in the last few weeks we have been told many classic examples of modesty by the Imahos and others, why wait for Rochel before citing an example? The Mepharshim discuss Sarah as being “B’Ohel”, in her tent, as a testament to Sarah’s modesty (Vayera 18:9); Rivka covered her face upon se...
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November 15, 2018 at 7:53 pm
Washington - Melania Trump says she’s OK with the criticism and ridicule she has received for tackling online bullying and remains committed to the issue because “it will provide a better world for our children.”
The first lady told attendees Thursday at an annual online safety conference to consider using “negative words” directed at them as motivation to help encourage responsible behavior online.
“It is not news or surprising to me that critics and the media have chosen to ridicule me for speaking out on this issue, and that’s OK,” she said at the Family Online Safety Institute’s annual conference, where the theme was “Creating a Culture of Responsibility Online.”
“I remain committed to tackling this topic becaus...
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November 15, 2018 at 7:49 pm
Baltimore, MD - Nov. 15, 2018 - This past Motzaei Shabbos, Nov. 10, an overflow crowd of about 150 watched and cheered as 20 teams competed in the 3rd annual Jtap3on3 Tournament. This years event brought in just over $100,000 for JTAP, the organization that supports young women in their search for meaning and stability.
The winners of Tier 1 was Team Sephardic 2.0 captained by Eitan Hariri Brothers. Danny Steger’s team, The Latecomers took Tier two, and Richard Klein's Attorney Big Al took tier 3. In the 1st ever 35 and over tournament Ben Blackman’s team took home the trophy!
The highlight of the night was 12-year-old Avi Bookman proving himself to be the best shooter in Baltimore, hitting a money Ball shot to win the 1st ever 3 point shooting contest. He raised ov...
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November 15, 2018 at 6:12 pm
Despite our nation’s many successes and contributions to the benefit of humanity, our people are often targeted and blamed for the problems that plague the world. This has been our history. Despite the lands we occupied as guests, becoming loyal and valued citizens, there have always been an infiltration of voices who would condemn our behavior and question our intentions.
The saintly Arugas HaBosem, as quoted by the renowned Mashpia, Rav Moshe Wolfson, suggests that the entire episode portraying the many blessings Yaakov brought to his ‘loving’ father-in-law, Lavan, and his enterprise, where Lavan angrily turns against him, accusing Yaakov of manipulation and devious intent, serves as a portent of this reality that Yaakov’s descendants would face time and again ...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:47 pm
Washington - Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has told Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation will proceed. That’s according to a person familiar with the meeting.
Graham and Whitaker met Thursday as a bipartisan group of senators pushes legislation to protect Mueller’s job. The senators are concerned about Whitaker’s past criticism of the probe, which is looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The person says Whitaker told Graham the investigation would be allowed to proceed. The person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Mueller, calling the investigatio...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:46 pm
allahassee, FL - Florida’s secretary of state has ordered a manual recount in the state’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race.
Department of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell said in a news release Thursday evening that unofficial returns from a machine recount had triggered a second recount in the Senate race and the state agriculture commissioner’s race.
The release said the results of the manual recounts are due by noon Sunday.
Unofficial recount results on the secretary of state’s website show Republican Gov. Rick Scott with a .15 percentage point lead over Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. State law requires a hand recount of races with margins of 0.25 percentage points or less.
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November 15, 2018 at 5:46 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
The incoming Mayor in Tiveria, self-hating Jew Ron Kobi, has once again shown his hatred towards Chareidim. Kobi went to the Shul of HaRav Avraham Dov Auerbach in the city on Tuesday evening, and personally ripped down signs that the Rav Auerbach wrote and posted against any cooperation with the new mayor.
According to eyewitness testimony given to Bechadrei Chareidim – and video footage posted below – Koby arrived at the Shul around 7:30PM, accompanied by television cameras. The mayor read the letter aloud to the gathered media and then proceeded to tour the premises and tear down the sign that had been posted. He tore it up in anger before leaving the shul.
Rav Auerbach had written:
הננו מגלים דעתנו דעת תור�...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:36 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she has "overwhelming support" from House Democrats to become the next speaker. Asked if sexism might block her second act, she shot back that's a question for the mostly male lawmakers signing a letter against her.
A group of 17 Democrats led by Rep. Seth Moulton D-Mass., have pledged to vote against Pelosi's return as the first female speaker of the House. The list includes a dozen incumbents and five newcomers, including two Democrats whose races have not yet been decided. Confirmed by an aide to one of the organizers, the list was first published in the Huffington Post. It includes just three women.
"If in fact there is any misogyny involved in it, it's their problem, not mine," Pelosi told reporters. "I intend to win ...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:33 pm
Amid criticism against his government for agreeing to a cease-fire with Hamas after communities in southern Israel were pounded by Hamas’ rockets and shells, Netanyahu remarked: “I hear the voices of Israeli citizens and the residents of the Gaza area communities. They are dear to me, and their words touch my heart.”
The ceremony was held at Kibbutz Sde Boker, Ben-Gurion’s home and burial place. In attendance were President Reuven Rivlin, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and other generals, as well as outgoing Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh.
“I hear what is being said,” the prime minister continued, “and I can’t share [the information] with the public. I wish I could tell citizens everything I know.”
He added: “Lead...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:33 pm
TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River office of the New Jersey's Motor Vehicles Commission has been shut down temporarily after employees in the office were exposed to someone with measles, the Ocean County Health Department said Thursday.
There are 12 confirmed cases of measles and 11 that are under investigation as of Nov. 15, the health department said, and the list of places where people have potentially been exposed is growing.
The exposure at the Toms River MVC office on Hooper Avenue happened Nov. 7 between 2:30 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. , the health department said. The office will be closed until Monday, Nov. 19, they said. Other offices in the area will be open in the meantime and can be found by clicking here.
Other places where people may have been exposed to those contag...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:26 pm
South Korea - South Korea exploded one of its own front-line guard posts Thursday, sending plumes of thick, black smoke into the sky above the border with North Korea, in the most dramatic scene to date in the rivals’ efforts to reduce animosities that sparked last year’s fears of war.
Last week, the two Koreas finished withdrawing troops and firearms from some of the guard posts along their border before dismantling them. The steps are part of agreements signed in September during a meeting between their leaders in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
On Thursday, South Korea’s military invited a group of journalists to watch the destruction of a guard post with dynamite in the central border area of Cheorwon. The journalists were asked to stay hundreds of meters (y...
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November 15, 2018 at 5:25 pm
The Foreign Ministry announced the appointment of George Deek as Israel’s next Ambassador to Azerbaijan on Thursday, making him Israel’s first ever Christian Arab ambassador.
Deek, a highly acclaimed diplomat, is currently a senior adviser to Director-General Yuval Rotem.
Deek joined the ministry in 2008, and served as deputy head of mission at Israel’s embassy in Norway from 2012 to 2015, and as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Nigeria from 2009-2012.
“We are proud of his appointment, which perfectly symbolizes the integration of Israelis from different backgrounds in the representation of the state,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.
Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country, is extremely important for Israel, as it sits on Iran...
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November 15, 2018 at 4:44 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook said it's making progress on detecting hate speech, graphic violence and other violations of its rules, even before users see and report them.
Facebook said that during the April-to-September period, it doubled the amount of hate speech it detected proactively, compared with the previous six months.
The findings were spelled out Thursday in Facebook's second report on enforcing community standards. The reports come as Facebook grapples with challenge after challenge, ranging from fake news to Facebook's role in elections interference, hate speech and incitement to violence in the U.S., Myanmar, India and elsewhere.
The company also said it disabled more than 1.5 billion fake accounts in the latest six-month period, compared with 1....
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November 15, 2018 at 4:29 pm
Habayit Yehudi had allegedly planned on resigning from the coalition, only to be preempted by outgoing Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Liberman announced on Wednesday that he will resign his position and pull his Yisrael Beytenu faction out of the government. In a dramatic press conference, Liberman said that the recent ceasefire Israel signed with Hamas was “a capitulation to terrorism” and called for early elections “as soon as possible”.
According to Kan, Habayit Yehudi intended to resign as well on Wednesday to show their displeasure with the cease-fire, which came after hundreds of missiles rained down on southern Israel, only to be blindsided by Liberman’s announcement.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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November 15, 2018 at 4:24 pm
Mount Holly, NJ - A feel-good tale of a homeless man using his last $20 to help a stranded New Jersey woman buy gas was actually a complete lie, manufactured to get strangers to donate more than $400,000 dollars to help the down-and-out good Samaritan, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Burlington County prosecutor Scott Coffina announced criminal charges against the couple who told the story to newspapers and television stations along with the homeless man who conspired with them to tell the story.
He said the money, donated to the homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt, will be refunded to people who saw the story and contributed to him through a GoFundMe page set up by the couple, Mark D’Amico and Katelyn McClure.
“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Coffina said. “I...
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November 15, 2018 at 4:23 pm
Beijing - At least four major international hotel chains apologized Thursday after hidden camera video of their room cleaning practices in China was posted online.
The 11-minute video shows cleaners wiping cups and sinks with dirty towels and sponges. Some use the same towel to wipe the toilet seat.
The Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou said the actions in the video violate its hygiene standards, while the Park Hyatt in Beijing called it an isolated occurrence. The Waldorf Astoria in Shanghai and the Sheraton in Guiyang city also apologized and said they were reviewing their procedures.
An activist blogger who uses the pseudonym “Huazong” posted the video late Wednesday on his verified account on Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter. It was picked up by Chinese media and had been sh...
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November 15, 2018 at 4:22 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told senators Thursday that employees' morale has suffered because of the bitter political climate, and he apologized for sending a tweet in 2015 that suggested renaming the Democratic Party as the "NeoKlanist" party.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony on whether to confirm Ronald Vitiello as head of an agency that some Democrats want to abolish. Vitiello said ICE employees are threatened with violence or targeted at their homes.
"They should not have to bear the burden of attacks motivated largely by political and policy disagreements," he said.
But Vitiello was questioned by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., about a tweet Vitiello sent from a personal account ...
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November 15, 2018 at 4:21 pm
New York - Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 38-year-old man was arraigned on an indictment in which he is charged with assault as a hate crime, menacing as a hate crime and related charges in connection with a seemingly random attack against three Jewish men that took place on a Borough Park street.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “An investigation into this disturbing incident concluded that the defendant’s alleged unprovoked attack was motivated by hate and that he only targeted those who were dressed in traditional Hasidic attire. Our community has zero tolerance for such bias-motivated crimes. We will now seek to hold the defendant accountable.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Farrukh Afzal, 38, of Mariners Harbor, S...
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November 15, 2018 at 4:11 pm
A former state trooper shot Greg Griggers, the district attorney for Alabama’s 17th Judicial Circuit, in the face Thursday afternoon, according to Michael Jackson, district attorney for Alabama’s 4th Judicial Circuit.
After he shot Griggers, the former trooper – whose name has not been released – was shot to death, reportedly by a law enforcement officer.
“Griggers got shot in the face and they killed the ex-state trooper who shot him,” Jackson told AL.com Thursday afternoon.
Griggers, who serves as district attorney of Greene, Marengo and Sumter counties, was transported to a hospital and is expected to survive, according to Jackson.
“They say he’s going to recover,” Jackson said. “I got an investigator go...
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November 15, 2018 at 3:48 pm
Baltimore, MD – Nov. 15, 2018 - It is with sadness that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Hayaldah Bracha Golda Friedman, a’h, daughter of Rabbi & Mrs. Shmuel Zanvil Friedman.
The levayah will take place graveside this morning at 10AM at Agudath Israel Cemetery, 6300 Hamilton Road, Rosedale, MD, 21237
Shiva will be observed at 2901 Taney Road, Baltimore, MD, 21215
Minyanim: Shachris 7:15 Mincha 2:30 Maariv 10:15
Bila HaMaves LaNetzach...
