1,981 Jews have ascended the Temple Mount over the Sukkot holiday so far, 1,026 of whom visited the holy site today. Visitors reported that prayers were held among the groups that visited the Mount Many rabbis were among the visitors to the Temple Mount today, including Rabbi Gur Galon, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Bracha, Rabbi Yitzhak Brand, Rabbi Yehuda Shalosh, Rabbi David Ben Natan, Rabbi Yishai Engelman, Rabbi Yoel Elitzur, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Hayat, Rabbi Michi Yosefi, Rabbi Yitzchak Levy, Rabbi Azaria Ariel, Rabbi Shlomi Badash, Rabbi Dvir Tal, Rabbi Eliyahu Weber and Rabbi Elisha Wolfson. A group of hundreds of residents of the Samaria community of Har Bracha ascended the Temple Mount together, led by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Gur Galon. . "We make a pilgrimage to the closest place p...
Baltimore, MD – Sept. 2021 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for Yiddishkeit and for HaShem with their children. Unfortunately, our schedules are hectic and many people don’t have the time to prepare themselves to utilize the Shabbos table to its fullest. Therefore, we at ACHIM created TableTalk as a pre-packaged talking points pamphlet which is attractive, fun and has something for everyone. Limited copies are distributed to many shuls on a weekly basis but they are snatched up very quickly. Get yours ASAP or click on the graphic below and print your own.What’s in it and what’s all the excitement about?TableTalk features:•    Weekly halachic dilemma creating ...
New York state Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker has submitted his resignation, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday. Zucker will stay on board until a replacement is made to assist in the transition amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which he has helped lead the state through for the last year and a half, Hochul said. The Democrat said she agreed with his decision to step down, thanked him for his years of service and said Zucker was moving on to other ventures. She didn't specify what kind of ventures as she dropped the news at the tail end of her COVID briefing but said, "I made it very clear on my first day in office that I'd be looking to build a new team" as she tries to restore faith in Albany following her predecessor's scandal-plagued resignati...
A UK man is on trial for vandalizing 17 bus stops in Jewish areas of North West London with anti-Semitic graffiti that claimed Jewish people were “grey aliens,” the Mirror reported. Nicholas Lalchan, 49, also allegedly defaced windows at an accounting firm. The graffiti was written on bus stops with a black marker in Jewish areas of London such as Edgware, Hendon and Finchley, according to court proceedings. Prosecutor David Patience told the jury that the vandalism was prompted by malice towards the Jewish community. Lalchan admitted to criminal damage and possessing an article with intent to commit criminal damage, but pleaded not guilty to the charge that the graffiti was religiously or racially motivated and to the charge of stirring up racial hatred, reported...
5,921 new cases were reported on Thursday with 723 people in serious condition Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash said on Thursday that further restrictions on gatherings could be considered in Israel, as coronavirus infections remain high. "A limitation on the number of people in events should be considered again. The coronavirus cabinet is expected to meet soon and discuss it," Ash said. "I am in favor of reducing large gatherings, including in football stadiums, so that there are no more than 400 people in an enclosed area and no more than 500 people outdoors," he added.
A flood warning has been issued for parts of Maryland Thursday due to heavy rain. The rain accompanies a slow-moving cold front pushing through the Eastern United States that has areas from Virginia to New York on alert about potential flooding as a result of the moisture, according to the National Weather Service. Multiple flood warnings have been posted in Maryland after inches of rain fell Thursday morning. "Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads," officials said. "Most flood deaths occur in vehicles." Seven counties in Maryland as well as Baltimore City are under the flood warning until 2 p.m
Hadar Goldin once painted a wonderful picture of a boy sitting under a tree. The boy looks out at nature and changes the living world he sees into music. This painting was recently made public with the approach of Sukkot, along with a request to hang it everywhere as a sukkah decoration. We are supposed to bring into the sukkah all aspects of our lives - to eat and drink and converse in it. And so we are also presented with the opportunity to bring into the sukkah our obligation to return the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul from Gaza, as well as Avera Mengistu who has been taken captive there.Rina Shnerb was intensively involved with our enslavement to cell phones. As a high school student, she felt that they had taken control of us instead of our being in control of them. She was co...
Murders rose by almost 30 percent nationwide in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a tumultuous presidential election and pushback against police-related killings of Black people, according to data gathered by the FBI for its annual Uniform Crime Report, reports The New York Times. The Times said it appeared to be the biggest spike in murder since national record-keeping began in 1960. Data indicates that murders continue to rise in 2021, although at a slower rate, and that the national rate – murders per 100,000 – remains below its levels in the early 1990s. The 29 percent rise in murders in 2020 was the biggest since the FBI started collecting crime records in 1960, according to the Times.
Since 1995, Helmut Oberlander fought Canadian officials trying to kick him out for being part of death squad A 97-year-old interpreter for the Nazis facing deportation from Canada died Wednesday, according to local media. Helmut Oberlander died Monday after fighting the Canadian government to stay in the country since a formal investigation launched in 1995, Canadian papers The Globe and Mail said. Born in Ukraine in 1924, the ethnic German joined Einsatzkommando 10a death squad during World War II, but he alleged he was forced to and only acted as an interpreter. In 1952, a court found that Oberlander “significantly misrepresented his wartime activities to Canadian immigration and citizenship officials when he applied to enter," before immigrating...
Biden administration notified Congress in March of $75 million in financial assistance to Palestinians US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch is releasing the remaining $20 million in humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians that he had been holding up since the Biden administration committed $75 million in aid last March, The Times of Israel reports. A spokesperson from Risch's office said on Wednesday night that the Idaho senator had agreed to approve the remaining funds “as long as it is reprogrammed to be used for food aid, and will not be in the hands of terrorists.” The US president notified Congress in March of the $75 million in financial assistance to the Palestinians for economic support.  The earmark was part ...
Call was first between two leaders since France recalled ambassador over US-Australia submarine deal US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had a "friendly" phone call Wednesday to defuse a deep row over submarine sales to Australia, promising to meet in person to repair the transatlantic relationship. The call, which the White House said lasted about 30 minutes, was the first between Biden and Macron since France recalled its ambassador over the surprise US announcement of a deal to build nuclear submarines for Australia — scuppering a previous French deal to sell conventional submarines. Paris called the US-Australian plan, which was launched as part of a new Indo-Pacific security group along with Britain, a stab in the back and also p...
Bill would make it official US policy to refer to West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza as 'occupied territories' A liberal Jewish lawmaker on Thursday is set to introduce a bill that would make the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict official United States policy, Politico reports. Andy Levin, a Democratic representative from Michigan, will unveil the legislation on Capitol Hill that is adding to an already heated debate about the US approach to the Jewish state that has divided Democrats between the moderate and progressive wings of the party. That divide was clear this week when progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives blocked $1 billion in funding to replenish Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system that was depleted d...
The U.S. Senate aims to vote next week on raising Washington’s borrowing authority and keeping the government funded, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat said on Wednesday, but strong Republican opposition could lead to a historic default on the nation’s debt. Sen. Dick Durbin said the chamber sometime next week would take up the bill passed in a party-line House of Representatives vote. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said his caucus will sink the emergency legislation to suspend the $28.4 trillion federal debt ceiling. Republicans have said Democrats should act alone to raise the debt ceiling, using a maneuver called “budget reconciliation.” Time is short as funding for federal agencies expires on Oct. 1 and the U.S. Treasury has warned it...
President Biden's Special Envoy for Haiti Ambassador Daniel Foote resigned Thursday, saying he will not take part in the United States’ "inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees," amid a surge in migrants from Haiti across the southern border.  In his resignation letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, first reported by PBS News Thursday, Foote said the Biden administration’s approach to Haiti "remains deeply flawed," and said his recommendations have been "ignored and dismissed."  "With deep disappointment and apologies to those seeking crucial changes, I resign from my position as Special Envoy for Haiti, effective immediately," Foote, a career member of the foreign service, wrote. "I will not be associated with the Un...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announced that Dr. Joseph Ladapo would be the state’s new surgeon general and secretary of its health department. “Joe has had a remarkable academic and medical career,” DeSantis, a Republican, said of the Harvard-trained M.D. and Ph.D., according to the Florida news station WJHG7. Ladapo, who is awaiting the approval of the Florida Legislature, says that “we’re done with fear,” according to Real Clear Politics. “That’s something that’s been unfortunately a centerpiece of health policy in the United States ever since the beginning of the pandemic, and it’s over here. Expiration date, it’s done.” Ladapo said that the state will approach...
The number of Americans filing for first-time jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week. The Labor Department said Thursday that 351,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits in the week ended Sept. 18, an increase from the previous week’s upwardly revised 335,000 filings. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting 320,00 new filings.  "Despite the rise, claims are still near a pandemic-era low," said Chris Giamo, head of commercial banking at TD Bank.  Continuing claims for the week ended Sept. 11 jumped to 2.845 million, worse than the 2.65 million that analysts were expecting. The prior week’s reading was revised higher by 49,000 to 2.714 million filings.  The increase in continuing claims came a week after the expiratio...
A recent survey among Palestinians revealed around 78 percent want Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, to leave office. The poll was conducted by Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research, and asked 1,270 Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza for their input. “This is the highest number we have seen calling for Abbas’s resignation since Abbas’s election,” Shikaki said, reported in The Times of Israel.
Here are a few words from Rabbi Professor Jonathan Sacks about the sukkah and about us:"The festival of Sukkot takes us back to the most elemental roots of our being: We are made keenly aware that we do not have to live in a palace to be surrounded by clouds of glory. It is precisely into our simple sukkah that the fathers of the nation enter as guests. On this festival, a little hut is revealed to be far more beautiful and meaningful than a luxurious home because it reminds us that we are only temporary residents in God's world. Joy, the overwhelming theme of the festival, is what we feel when we are reminded that it is a privilege simply to be alive, to breathe in the intoxicating beauty of this moment amidst the profusion of nature, and to connect to all of our brothers, to our his...
'A hate crime is a crime against all of us,' LA district attorney says in announcing charges Two men have been booked on hate crime and assault charges for an incident in May during Israel's conflict with Gaza when a group of Jewish diners in Los Angeles were subjected to antisemitic abuse before a fight broke out. Xavier Pabon, 31, and Samer Jayylusi, 36, were charged with one count each of assault with a hate crime enhancement, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The two defendants allegedly participated in the brawl on May 18 outside of a sushi restaurant in the western section of the city when a caravan of cars waving Palestinian flags stopped near diners. People exited the vehicles and began throwing bott...
Baltimore, MD – Sept. 23, 2021 – Due to the petira of Mrs. Sylvia Hirsch, a’h, mother-in-law of Ronnie Rosenbluth and grandmother of Baruch Rosenbluth, Tov Pizza will be closed today, Thursday, and will reopen on Friday.
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