France’s justice minister told a leading Jewish newspaper this week that she was “particularly touched” by the case of Sarah Halimi — the 65-year-old Jewish woman who was brutally beaten and murdered by her Muslim neighbor in a public housing project in April 2o17. Saying that she could “truly understand the emotion caused by this crime,” Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet nevertheless emphasized that she could not comment directly on the widely-protested decision by Paris prosecutors to excuse from trial Halimi’s accused murderer, Kobili Traore, on the grounds that he was delirious from his intake of cannabis on the night of the killing and therefore not criminally responsible. Speaking with the newspaper Actualite Juive, Belloubet said that lega...
Baltimore, MD -  Jan. 19,  2020 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Yonah And Sharona Abramowitz on the birth of a son. יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן Mazel Tov grandparents Alan and Janet Abramowitz
A recycling cage that collects plastic bottles fell on a five-year-old boy on Sunday in Petach Tikvah near a daycare and caused a partial amputation of the boy's finger.  United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yisroel Tzairi who was one of the first responders at the scene relayed: "When I arrived at the scene I was told by the staff that a large metal cage that is used to collect recyclable bottles fell on the boy's hand. Together with other EMS personnel from United Hatzalah's ambucycle unit, I treated the boy for his injury at the scene before he was transported to Tel HaShomer Hospital where the doctors will attempt to reattach the part of his finger that was amputated."  
IDF forces shelled Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip Sunday afternoon, following a balloon bombing in southern Israel, Arab media outlets reported. An explosion was reported shortly beforehand Sunday afternoon in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, near the Gaza frontier, apparently the result of a balloon bombing launched from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip towards Israel. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Sderot. After the bombing in Sderot, Arab media outlets reported that Israeli forces had shelled Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, apparently in response to the balloon bomb. No causalities have been reported in Gaza thus far. Red more at Arutz-7
The body of a 35-year-old man was found in a field near Rehovot.  The man's body was found with no signs of life in a field near one of the bypass roads of Rehovot.  United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Aviran Sasson who was among the first responders at the scene said: "When I arrived at the scene I found a man lying on the ground with no signs of life. Unfortunately, he was pronounced dead at the scene due to the severity of injuries that he sustained. Police have opened an investigation into the incident."  This is the second incident in which a dead body was found in the past seven hours.  Earlier on Sunday morning, just before 7:00 a.m. a man, also in his mid-thirties, was found lifeless in a stadium in Netanya.  United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Ofir Roystone ...
A child is in serious condition and a mand and a woman were lightly injured as a result of a building fire in Nahariya.  The fire took place in a residential building on Yehuda HaMaccabi Street in Nahariya.  United Hatzalah volunteer EMT and Nahariya Chapter Head Menachem Goldberg who was one of the first responders at the scene said: "A boy, approximately 8-years-old, ran out of the burning apartment prior to the arrival of emergency teams. The boy was suffering from burns and severe smoke inhalation. Together with other EMS personnel, I treated a man and a woman who were extricated from the burning apartment by firefighters. Both of the adults were lightly injured and were suffering from smoke inhalation. All three were treated at the scene and then rushed to the Galil Medica...
In a shift toward transparency, the National Security Agency announced a bug that could have left over 900 million PCs vulnerable to attack. Microsoft released a patch for Windows 10 and Server 2016 today after the National Security Agency found and disclosed a serious vulnerability. It's a rare but not unprecedented tip-off, one that underscores the flaw's severity—and maybe hints at new priorities for the NSA. The bug is in Windows' mechanism for confirming the legitimacy of software or establishing secure web connections. If the verification check itself isn't trustworthy, attackers can exploit that fact to remotely distribute malware or intercept sensitive data. "[We are] recommending that network owners expedite implementation of the patch...
Black Americans gave deeply pessimistic assessment of their place in the United States a Washington Post-Ipsos poll of African Americans nationwide shows, which reveals fears about whether their children will have a fair shot to succeed and a belief that white Americans don’t fully appreciate the discrimination that black people experience. While personally optimistic about their own lives, black Americans today offer a bleaker view about their community as a whole. They also express determination to try to limit Trump to a single term in office. More than 8 in 10 black Americans say they believe Trump is a racist and that he has made racism a bigger problem in the country. Nine in 10 disapprove of his job performance overall. The pessimism goes well beyond assessments of the...
A federal judge on Friday sentenced former congressman Chris Collins to 26 months in prison for his part in an insider trading scheme and lying to the FBI. “You had a duty to meet and you betrayed that duty,” U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick said as he handed down the sentence. Collins tearfully apologized to his family and his constituents, acknowledging that he tipped off his son to confidential information that a small Australian biotechnology company’s new therapy for multiple sclerosis had failed a critical clinical trial. Collins’s son and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses. Collins also admitted that he later lied to the FBI about the incident. “I stand here today a disgraced former congressman,” said ...
PEQUANNOCK — A local car dealership is donating a brand-new minivan to the family of the Jersey City police officer who was killed in the line of duty last month. The officer's widow, Laura Seals, will be behind the wheel of a fully loaded 2020 Honda Odyssey EX-L, worth more than $39,000.  Detective Joseph Seals, 40, a 15-year veteran of the city's Police Department, was shot at a cemetery on Dec. 10 by assailants who then drove to a nearby kosher grocery store, where they gunned down three more people. A lengthy shootout with police ensued, and the pair of suspects also were killed. The van is being donated by Route 23 Honda, a dealership operated by Performance Auto Group, near the township's border with Wayne. "That is what she want...
Israeli police ​forces were rushed to a public park in the southern city of Sderot as residents noticed a suspicious bundle of balloons. ​The police forces professionally and carefully examined the balloons which were indeed connected to explosives. The danger was neutralized. Read more at Arutz Sheva.
In his first public sermon in eight years, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 80, told tens of thousands of chanting worshipers on Friday that God’s backing had allowed his country to “slap the face” of the U.S. “We delivered a slap to U.S.’ image as a superpower.” Khamenei spoke at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla, an indoor and outdoor complex used as a communal prayer center for Muslim holidays and as an arena for election campaigns. American flags were spread on the floor in the entrances so that worshipers could tread on them. Banners inside read, “Death to America.”
During a ceremony in the Oval Office on Thursday in which US President Donald Trump issued a new guidance to better protect prayer in public schools and federal funds for religious organizations, he heard from a Jewish public-school student from Florida who recalled being bullied in middle school because of her religion. “In my middle school, I was the only Jewish person and I was very open with my religion,” said Ariana Hoblin. “I would announce when I would have Shabbat plans, which is a day of prayer and rest.” “When we started our Holocaust unit, it ended with everybody being nice to me because I spoke out about it,” she continued. “And I wanted to inform people, and I wanted to help people learn.” Hoblin then went to say tha...
Game changer: After running a pop-up kosher restaurant during winter break, Bryan O’Shields of the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas tells COLlive.com he is working with the local Chabad and OK Kosher to open a Mediterranean-style eatery. Sun, sand, sea and… kosher! A new Glatt Kosher restaurant will be opening at the world-famous luxurious Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, COLlive.com has learned. Thousands of Orthodox Jews flock to the island in the West Indies each year. The Atlantis is a favorite destination for many families, being an all-inclusive resort a three-hour flight from New York with water parks and other family-friendly attractions and activities. Throughout the year, Chabad of the Bahamas directors Rabbi Sholom and Sheera Bluming...
Twelve-year-old Chayale Mendelsohn recently celebrated her bat mitzvah in her hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyo., which is better known for wild elk and exhilarating skiing than Torah study and Shabbat candles. Vivacious and articulate, Chayale is a chip off the old block of her parents, Rabbi Zalman and Raizy Mendelsohn, who have directed Chabad of Wyoming since Chayale was an infant (she now has 5 younger siblings). The bat mitzvah was somewhat of a statewide milestone, attracting guests from hundreds of miles. After the event, Robin Levin from Lander, Wyo., who drove three hours to attend, wrote that it “provided a foundation for a hopeful future, with leadership in the offing.” Still on a high from the beautiful and spiritual ...
Thunderstorms and heavy downpours hit central Israel and are set to spread and intensify throughout the country in the coming days; snowfall in the Golan Heights is also expected to continue A new bout of turbulent weather hit Israel on Sunday morning with heavy rain and thunderstorms hitting central parts of the country. In the north, snow began falling on the Golan Heights and is set to intensify in the coming days. The downpour is also set to intensify and spread to others areas of the country, with flooding expected across the coastal cities, the Judean Desert and the Jordan Valley. Since the early morning hours, heavy rains already forced road closures in some areas of the country. In the central city of Bnei Brak, Lehi Street has been closed off to traffic in both directi...
The number of annual real estate deals has fallen in recent years in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, the Madlan website reports. A slump in the number of deals in Israel's big cities and a slump in the luxury housing market and price rises by tens of percentage points in many cities - these were the more outstanding findings in a report of Israel's real estate market over the past decade by the website Madlan. Madlan CEO Eitan Singer explains that his company gathers data about the real estate market for a range of sources including deals published by the Israel Tax Authority, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Airbnb apartments in every neighborhood, and more. Jerusalem losing ground According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel's populatio...
At the beginning of October, a 31-year-old construction estimator named Samantha parked her Honda Fit on the street in Chicago. She left her backpack with a laptop and external hard drive in it under the backseat, and carefully covered the seat with a black blanket. Yet by the time she came back to her car, a burglar had smashed a window, broken in, and stolen the bag. Samantha reported the incident to the police but never heard back. Unfortunately, car burglaries are common in the United States, especially in large cities. But Samantha's experience also has something else in common with many other break-ins around the country: It felt like the robbers knew there was valuable gear in the vehicle. "I had other things in the car worth money, like a wallet with $50 ...
The number of lists running in the March 2020 elections is the smallest since Israel's founding in 1948, Israel Hayom noted. According to Israel Hayom, a full thirty party lists will be represented in the voting booths, but thanks to mergers on both left and right, just eight of these lists have a real chance of making it into the Knesset. Several of these lists are made of a few different parties. It is estimated that 144,000 votes will be thrown away on smaller parties which will fail to gather the 3.25% support ensuring them a ticket into the next Knesset. The new record replaces the previous one, set in September 2019, when members of the 22nd Knesset belonged to just nine different lists. In April 2019, 11 lists were represented in the 21st Knesset, while in Ap...
Newly discovered documents that were recovered from the drowned body of a patriot pastor shed light on the fight for religious freedom during the Revolutionary War. The water-stained documents, which are being sold by the Raab Collection, were taken from the body of the Rev. Moses Allen, a pastor and patriot who was captured in Savannah, Ga., by British forces in late 1778. Around the same time, Mordecai Sheftall, a prominent figure in the Savannah Jewish community and officer in the Continental Army, was also captured by the British, along with his son. Mordecai Sheftall is described as the highest-ranking Jew in the American Revolution. Allen and the Sheftalls were taken to the prison ship Nancy. “Allen was persecuted for being a parson who preached freedom from the pulpit,&rdquo...
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