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August 11, 2020 at 3:14 pm
NEW YORK (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – A Chasidic synagogue in Borough Park has become the recipient of what is believed to be the single largest philanthropic donation to a religious group after being gifted 3 million shares of Eastman Kodak on the day that the company stock peaked.
The Wall Street Journal (https://on.wsj.com/3as53TX) reported that billionaire investor George Karfunkel and his wife Renee donated nearly half of their 6.3 million shares of Eastman Kodak to Congregation Chemdas Yisroel on July 29th. Karfunkel, a member of Kodak’s board of directors since 2013, is listed as president of the synagogue on its charity registration filings.
Kodak stock ranged from $17.50 to $60 per share on the day that the Karfunkels gifted their shares to the synagogue according to Moth...
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August 11, 2020 at 2:01 pm
BALTIMORE (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – Members of Baltimore’s Jewish community extended a helping hand to first responders searching for survivors of a major gas explosion that leveled three homes, showing up at the scene with cold drinks, food and other emergency supplies. As previously reported on VIN News (https://bit.ly/3kBIcKi), one woman was confirmed dead and four people were injured in the explosion that was reported to the fire department shortly before 10 AM Monday morning.
After hearing about the explosion located not far from Baltimore’s Jewish community, Frank Storch, founder of The Chesed Fund and Project Ezra, pulled dozens of bottles of cold water out of the refrigerator used by the synagogue located at the back of his home and loaded them into a giant cooler ...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:58 pm
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the country has become the first in the world to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, according to multiple reports.
The Russian leader claimed that the vaccine underwent clinical testing and has proven to offer immunity from the coronavirus. However, the approval was granted by Russian health officials after just two months of human testing, Reuters noted.
Read more at The Hill.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:58 pm
At a campaign fundraising event in New Jersey on Sunday, US President Donald Trump claimed there would be a new deal with Iran “within four weeks” if he was re-elected in November.
The gathering took place at the home of the late Stanley Chera, who passed away in April at the age of 77 after contracting COVID-19.
In May 2018, Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear agreement Iran reached with six world powers three years earlier, when Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was in office.
The withdrawal was part of a “maximum pressure” strategy adopted by the Trump administration against the Tehran regime.
Any new agreement with Iran could address matters not covered by the 2015 deal — such as Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its supp...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:55 pm
The number of new COVID-19 cases among children in the United States jumped by 90% during a recent 4-week period, according to a report that confirms children are not immune to the coronavirus.
“In areas with rapid community spread, it’s likely that more children will also be infected, and these data show that,” Sally Goza, MD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a written statement. “I urge people to wear cloth face coverings and be diligent in social distancing and hand-washing. It is up to us to make the difference, community by community.”
The joint report from the AAP and the Children’s Hospital Association draws on data from state and local health departments in 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puert...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:51 pm
Asserting that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state amounts to “dissemination of incorrect information,” an Italian court has ruled, Middle East Monitor reported Monday.
The lawsuit in question was sparked by L’Eradità, a popular Italian quiz TV show, which saw one of the participants asked to name Israel’s capital in May.
The host, Flavio Insinna, did not accept “Tel Aviv” as an answer, saying the correct response was “Jerusalem.”
This drew the ire of two pro-Palestinian groups: the Palestinian Association in Italy and the Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People filed lawsuits against the company airing the show.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:49 pm
Iranian authorities shut Jahane Sanat newspaper after it cited an expert as saying that Iran’s official coronavirus figures could be only the tip of the iceberg, Associated Press reported Monday.
Sunday’s edition of the newspaper reportedly featured an interview with Dr. Mohammad Reza Mahboobfar, an epidemiologist who, as per Jahane Sanat, had been involved in Iran’s national COVID-19 response.
The expert said that the authorities had spotted the virus four weeks before the first cases were officially announced in mid-February as the government braced for parliamentary elections and the celebrations of the Islamic Revolution’s anniversary.
On an even more worrying note, the expert said that the authorities had been doctoring the stat...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:46 pm
The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday called for the dissolution of the Department of Homeland Security, calling it a “fail[ed] experiment” that has become a “badge of shame” under President Trump.
“Nearly 20 years of abuse, waste, and corruption demonstrate the failure of the DHS experiment. Many knew DHS to be an ineffective superagency, but President Trump has converted DHS into our government’s most notable badge of shame,” the organization said in a series of tweets Monday.
“Dismantling DHS, breaking it apart into various federal agencies, and shrinking its federal budget will allow for more effective oversight, accountability and public transparency,” it added.
Read more at The Hill.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:45 pm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he had agreed to support legislation that would delay the collapse of the government by putting off the deadline for passing the state budget.
The bill, proposed by the Derech Eretz faction comprising Knesset members Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser, seeks to extend the Aug. 25 deadline for passing a state budget, buying more time for Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to work out their differences over it.
The bill will be brought to the Knesset for a vote on Wednesday, Hendel wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
According to a statement from his office, Netanyahu was contacted by Hauser about the bill, and agreed to support it in the interest of stabilizing the political system amid the coronavirus crisis.
“I am consta...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:44 pm
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pulled back some of the reinforcements deployed in Israel’s north amid tensions with Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, the army said Monday.
Some of the roadblocks in the border area have reportedly been removed after a “situational assessment” conducted by the Israeli military.
While some of the additional forces deployed on the border with Lebanon and Syria are withdrawing, those remaining are still on high alert.
The withdrawal appears to hint that the IDF estimates the probability of a Hezbollah attack to be decreased in the near future as Lebanon is being rocked by economic and political crises.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:42 pm
UK national air carrier British Airways resumed flights between Israel and the United Kingdom, Globes reported Monday.
As per the company’s website, the earliest flight connecting London with Tel Aviv will take off on August 13.
From there and on, British Airways airliners will circulate between Ben Gurion airport and Heathrow every Sunday, Monday and Thursday.
The airline suspended its flights to the Jewish state back in March and had to postpone their resumption on several occasions over COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:40 pm
A Lebanese man and his daughter with possible connections to the Hezbollah terrorist organization were shot dead in their car in northern Tehran, Iranian news agencies reported on Saturday.
Dr. Habib Dawoud, 58, and his daughter Maryam, 27, were shot in their car on Friday night by a man on a motorbike.
The murder occurred near the house of Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the former Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Popular Recruiting Forces (IPRF), who was killed on January 3 in a US drone strike targeting former Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:39 pm
A group of over 100 Black male leaders is declaring that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “has” to name a Black woman as his running mate.
In a letter made public on Monday, the signatories warned the former vice president that “failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election.”
And pointing to the intense scrutiny some of the running mate contenders have endured in recent weeks, the group wrote that it “disgusts us that Black women are not just being vetted in this VP process but unfairly criticized and scrutinized.”
Read more at Fox News.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:36 pm
The Republican National Committee has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a case involving relaxing some signature and witness requirements for mail-in ballots.
The case involves several voting rights groups and Rhode Island officials. The RNC and the Republican Party of Rhode Island have asked for a decision before mail-in ballots are due to go out Aug. 12.
Republicans are challenging moves to eliminate the state’s requirements for witness and notary requirements for voting by mail because of the coronavirus crisis.
Read more at Fox News.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:33 pm
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on Monday defended his opposition to President Trump‘s use of executive orders to address the coronavirus pandemic, hours after the president publicly called the GOP senator out over his criticism.
Sasse — in a note tweeted from his campaign account and signed “Gym Rat” — indicated he would rather have the discussion privately with Trump but added “since you moved our conversation from private to public, here we are.”
“On the topic that had you mad this weekend: No president — whether named Obama or Trump or Biden or AOC — has unilateral power to rewrite immigration law or to cut taxes or to raise taxes. This is because America doesn’t have kings,” Sasse wrote.
Read more at&nbs...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:31 pm
President Trump on Monday said he plans to deliver his acceptance speech during the Republican National Convention (RNC) from either the White House or the battlefield at Gettysburg.
“We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations – The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!” Trump tweeted.
The president’s stated shortlist of potential locations comes two weeks before the RNC is set to begin.
Read more at The Hill.
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August 11, 2020 at 1:22 pm
A Minnesota nonprofit that saw a huge windfall in donations during the protests and riots that followed the death of George Floyd in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department reportedly has been putting up money to bail out people charged with serious violent crimes, including sexual assault, attempted murder and murder.
A new FOX 9 report shows that among the people helped by the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) – which received donations from a number of Joe Biden campaign staffers as it saw a $35 million fundraising windfall in the weeks after Floyd’s death – are Darnika Floyd, who was charged with second-degree murder after allegedly stabbing a friend to death, and Christopher Boswell, who is facing charg...
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August 11, 2020 at 1:15 pm
A coalition of 128 organizations has sent an open letter to Facebook’s board of directors calling on the social media giant to officially adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism as a guiding policy on combating online Jew-hatred.
The letter noted that Facebook’s director of content policy stakeholder engagement, Peter Stern, “admitted that Facebook does not have a policy aimed at combating online antisemitism” and that the IHRA definition had not been adopted because it included antisemitism related to Israel.
The letter pointed out that almost 40 countries, including the US, had adopted the IHRA definition in some form, and “the overwhelming majority of civil society organizations at the forefron...
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August 11, 2020 at 11:57 am
Woodburne, NY - Aug. 11, 2020 - The beloved Niklesburg Rebbe warmly welcomes all and thanks everyone for their partnership and unity.
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August 11, 2020 at 11:35 am
PA reportedly agrees to renew ties with US after receiving assurances there will be no Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has received a promise from the United States that Israel will not unilaterally apply its sovereignty over any part of Judea and Samaria, Channel 12 News commentator Ehud Yaari reported.
According to the report, the PA agreed to renew ties with the US after receiving the promise.
MK Ayelet Shaked reacted with anger to the reports that the US was now officially against the application of Israeli sovereignty. Read more at Arutz-7
