The Sri Lankan government blocked access to social media platforms on Sunday in the wake of explosions that killed more than 200 people on the holiest day of the Christian calendar. The blasts, which targeted churches during Easter Sunday services and luxury hotels, also prompted the government to impose an immediate nationwide curfew. Officials said they ordered the social media blackout in an attempt to stop the viral spread of misinformation about the attacks online, a digital scourge that typically follows international news events and one that major tech giants long have struggled to curtail. Already, researchers said they had seen a spike in false reports about the perpetrators and the number of victims in Sri Lanka, a country where regulators previously have accused sites, includin...
An 11-year-old boy suffered life-threatening injuries Sunday night, when he was struck by a car in a suspected hit-and-run in Yerushalayim. The child, who was not named, was rushed to the city’s Shaare Zedek hospital in critical condition. Police were searching for the driver of the vehicle. The car was located near the settlement of Givat Ze’ev, adjacent to the capital. Read more at Times of Israel.
President Reuven (Ruvi) RIvlin, on Friday 19 April / 15 Nissan, celebrated the Passover  Seder with IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi and 400 lone soldiers from some 35 countries at the Yahad-United for Israel’s Soldiers (UFIS) facility at Givat Olga. They were joined by the Chairman of UFIS Maj.-Gen. (res) Yoram Yair, Chief Education Officer Brig.-Gen. Zvika Faireisen and CEO of UFIS Brig.-Gen. (res) Ilan Tal. From the president’s remarks to the soldiers Friday night: “I am delighted to be celebrating this festive holiday evening with you, dear soldiers. Our ancestors celebrated the first Passover as they were leaving Egypt for Israel, and it marked their move from slavery to freedom. Today, Passover is a holiday where families gather for the Seder mea...
Moscow - Jewish officials say an arson fire was set at the largest yeshiva in Russia as the faithful were gathered there for a Passover meal. No one was reported injured in the Friday fire at the Torat Chaim school in an eastern Moscow suburb. Olga Esaulova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s chief rabbi, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the fire was set in a storage area for kosher meat and that swastikas were drawn at the yeshiva’s entrance. There were about 60 students, rabbis and guests in the building at the time, the state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
TAOS, N.M. (Reuters) - The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, the leader of an armed group that is stopping undocumented migrants after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border into New Mexico. The arrest came two days after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the group of illegally detaining migrants and New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered an investigation. Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. “We’re not worried about it, he’s going to be cleared,” said Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the United Constitutional...
Washington - Republican Sen. Mitt Romney says he’s “sickened” by the level of dishonesty the special counsel found in President Donald Trump’s administration. Romney also said Friday he was “appalled” that, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings, Americans working on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign welcomed election help from Russia. The one-time GOP presidential nominee tweeted that it’s “good news” Trump was not charged with wrongdoing in the investigation. But Romney, who’s now a senator from Utah, was critical of what he called the “pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection” at the highest levels of the administration, “including the president.”
The US Department of Justice released on Thursday the highly anticipated report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that shows the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election despite Moscow’s attempt to influence it. Two Israel-related matters were mentioned in the report, which have previously been reported in the press: Led by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the Trump transition team attempted to persuade foreign governments, with then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn talking to Russia, to oppose the December 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334, condemning Israeli neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria. The resolution passed as the United States did not exercise its automatic veto power and instead abstained.While Ge...
Shmuley Boteach is at it again. Now he is telling me what I can and can’t say to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a friend of nearly half a century who values my advice. When Bibi won the election last week, I tweeted the following: Mazal tov to @IsraeliPM @netanyahu, who I’ve known since he was a student at MIT. Waiting for the new peace plan to be implemented. Time for a fair two-state solution that assures Israel’s security. That was too much for Boteach. How dare I express my views to my friend. I should be expressing Boteach’s views. After all, he is a know-it-all when it comes to Israel’s security. Here is what Boteach wrote: [S]omeone ought to notify Dershowitz that Netanyahu is no longer a student at MIT. He is a public servant and ...
Washington - U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan will not involve giving land from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula to the Palestinians, an American envoy said on Friday. Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy, apparently sought to deny reports on social media that the long-awaited plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would involve extending Gaza into the northern Sinai along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. “Hearing reports our plan includes the concept that we will give a portion of Sinai (which is Egypt’s) to Gaza. False!”, Greenblatt, one of the architects of the proposal, tweeted on Friday. The American plan is expected to be unveiled once Israel’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a government ...
Washington - U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is wishing “happy Passover” to Jews commemorating the holiday in her home state of Minnesota and around the world. Omar is a Somali American and one of the first Muslims elected to Congress. She’s been criticized for remarks in recent months on Israel, Jewish influence in Washington, and 9/11 that have drawn accusations of anti-Semitism and insensitivity. She says criticizing the Israeli government is not anti-Semitic. In a tweet Friday, Omar said, “The story of Passover has resonated with and given hope to so many Jewish families in times of oppression.” She also gave a traditional Hebrew Passover greeting. Omar says she’s faced increased death threats since President Donald Trump spread a video that purports to sho...
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites on Easter Sunday killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds more in Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago. Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks. The explosions — mostly in or around Colombo, the capital — collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailin...
Possible Public Exposures at Location in Pikesville; Outbreak Localized to Zip Codes 21208, 21209 and 21215 Baltimore, MD – The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) has confirmed a fourth measles case in a Maryland resident. The MDH wants to inform anyone who visited 4000 Old Court Rd in Pikesville on Tuesday, April 16 from 9:15 a.m. till 12:30 p.m. that they may have been exposed to measles. Individuals who may have been exposed at additional locations are being notified directly. Measles cases in Maryland have been localized to a small geographic area within zip codes 21208, 21209 and 21215. “While the outbreak is currently localized to a small area of the state, the best way to prevent measles in Maryland, or anywhere people might travel, is through vaccination,”...
Nirtzah: Not Just the closing Ceremonies There are two major concepts which form the driving force of the Hagaddah and the Seder in general.  First, is the Chiyuv Sipur Yitzias Mitraim,  and the second is that one must feel as if he himself is being taken out of  Mitzraim on the night of Pesach, as discussed more fully in the Hagaddah. With these two concepts being the principal themes, how then does the final part of the Seder, Nirtzah, fit into this framework?  These intriguing, yet seemingly unrelated songs, raise a significant question as to exactly what role they play in the Seder and by extension, the Yom Tov of Pesach.  On a simplistic level one could answer their function is similar to that of the Afikoman and Mah Nishtana - to heighten the interest and...
Trash/Recycling on Friday: Baltimore City: No, Baltimore County: Yes!  Good Friday, April 19, 2019, is a City holiday. Department of Public Works’ offices and yards will be CLOSED. There will be no solid waste or recycling collections on Good Friday. Baltimore City Councilman Yitzy Schleifer has arranged for recycling dumpsters to be available at no charge at the public Chometz burning at Pimlico Trash or recycling that is normally collected on Fridays, will be collected on the make-up day, Saturday, April 20, 2019.  No bulk trash collections are scheduled for that day. All Citizen Convenience Drop-off Centers will be closed, including Quarantine Road Landfill. Mechanical street sweeping will not take place that day. Street sweeping no parking signs will not be in ef...
Erev Pesach 5779 / Baltimore Zmanim / Eruv is UP!   Baltimore, MD – Apr. 19, 2019 End time for eating chametz: 10:18AM End time for burning (biyur) chametz: 11:34 AM Today:    14 Nissan Chatzos: 1:06 PM Hadlakas Nairos: 7:30 PM Shkiah:                   7:48:11 PM Tzais HaKochavim:  8:39/9:01 PM Chag Kasher V’Sameach
Louisville, KY - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he plans to introduce legislation to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 nationally. The Senate leader said Thursday his bill will cover all tobacco products, including vaping devices. The Kentucky Republican represents a state that for generations was a leading tobacco producer in the U.S. But tobacco production has dropped dramatically in Kentucky in the past decade. McConnell said his bill will continue to hold retailers responsible for verifying the age of anyone buying tobacco products. He said 12 states have already enacted laws raising the minimum legal age to 21. McConnell made the announcement at the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky in Louisville, an organization that promotes health initiati...
France - Paris police investigators think an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, a police official said Thursday, as France paid a daylong tribute to the firefighters who saved the world-renowned landmark. A judicial police official told The Associated Press that investigators made an initial assessment of the cathedral Wednesday but don’t have a green light to search Notre Dame’s charred interior because of ongoing safety hazards. The cathedral’s fragile walls were being shored up with wooden planks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak by name about an ongoing investigation. Investigators so far believe the fire was accidental, and are questioning both cathedral st...
New York - - A Brooklyn judge on Thursday ruled against a group of parents who challenged New York City’s recently imposed mandatory measles vaccination order, rejecting their arguments that the city’s public health authority exceeded its authority. In a six-page decision rendered hours after a hearing on the matter, Judge Lawrence Knipel denied the parents’ petition seeking to lift the vaccination order, imposed last week to stem the worst measles outbreak to hit the city since 1991. The judge sided with municipal health officials who defended the order as a rare but necessary step to contain a surge in the highly contagious disease that has infected at least 329 people so far, most of them children from Orthodox Jewish communities in the borough of Brooklyn. Another ...
Boston - As thousands of Stop & Shop workers remain on strike in New England, some Jewish families are preparing for Passover without the region’s largest supermarket chain, which has deep roots in the local Jewish community. A number of rabbis in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have been advising their congregations not to cross picket lines to buy Jewish holiday essentials at the store that one analyst says has the highest sales of kosher products among New England grocery stores. More than 30,000 Stop & Shop workers walked off the job April 11 over what they say is an unfair contract offer, a claim the company disputes. “The food that you’re buying is the product of oppressed labor and that’s not kosher,” said Rabbi Barbara Penzner, of...
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 19, 2019 - For your Yom Tov shopping convenience Shabsi's Judaica is open until 11PM this evening
More articles