Baltimore, MD – Dec. 5, 2021 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Mr. And Mrs. Zvi Spiegel on the birth of a son. יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן!
The number of states that have reported cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus has jumped to 17. On Sunday, the Georgia confirmed its first in-state case, while the St. Louis Health Department said a Missouri resident has also contracted the variant. Both cases were in patients who had been traveling—one to South Africa, the other in the U.S. Previously, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin had detected cases of the variant.
More than half of America’s youngest adults – 56 percent of those ages 18 to 25 – are overweight or obese, according to Johns Hopkins research, published in JAMA. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 8,015 people in that age bracket, the researchers compared average weights over the past four decades. In that time, that population’s average body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on a person’s height and weight, had increased by 4.6 points – from 23.1 (considered normal weight) to 27.7 (considered overweight). That shifted the number of overweight young adults from about 18 percent in the late 1970s to nearly 24 percent by 2018. The biggest spike in weight measurements, however, was in the prevalence of obesity, which increa...
Mayor de Blasio says he might require people to get COVID-19 booster shots if they want to attend concerts, restaurants and similar indoor venues, as the new Omicron variant continues to spread citywide, the NY Post reports. “I think it’s a fair question that we’re going to analyze now – with all of our approaches to COVID, we’re going to update them, because we’re dealing with some new challenges at this moment,” de Blasio said during his weekly appearance of WNYC radio’s “The Brian Lehrer Show.” “So, that will be looked at along with a series of other actions, because it’s really dynamic right now.” Such a new mandate could include a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, the city req...
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she is confident House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will take “decisive action” this week against Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., for her anti-Muslim remarks about Omar last month. “I’ve had a conversation with the speaker, and I’m very confident that she will take decisive action next week,” Omar said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” It is unclear what Pelosi’s “decisive action” would include. Omar said that Boebert should be stripped of her committee assignments and that House leaders should rebuke her to send a “clear and decisive” message. “I think it’s important for us to say this kind of language, this kind of hate cannot be condoned by the House of R...
NYC Mayor de Blasio has weighed in on a report first appearing on Matzav.com about an elderly Brooklyn couple was kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to drop a bag holding tallis and tefillin on the floor. Roberto and Elana Birman were returning home from Miami in August aboard Flight 322, when the incident occurred. On Twitter, De Blasio remarked, “This an outrageous insult. Just tremendous disrespect to our entire Jewish community. @AmericanAir, you owe the Birmans a real apology and you need to change this policy. Now.” Roberto, 76, and Elana, 71, boarded the plane with only a briefcase, a handbag, and his tallis bag — a small, 8.5-inch-by-8.5-inch clear plastic carrier. They sat across from one another in a...
Twin brothers Leo and Rudolph Blitz were 16 when they applied to join the Navy. They were so young that their father had to go to the recruiting office in Omaha and give his permission. Rudolph wanted a Navy career. Leo wanted to learn a trade. It was 1938. Times were hard and the boys lived with their family in a two-bedroom house in a neighborhood of Russian immigrants in Lincoln, Neb. They enlisted that May. Three years later, on Dec. 7, 1941, they were killed when their ship, the USS Oklahoma, was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For 78 years, they rested among hundreds of the ship’s fallen who were recovered but never identified, buried as unknowns in a cemetery in Hawaii. Then, in 2019, a remarkable Pentagon forensics project identified them as part of an effo...
MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) on Sunday downplayed the reports on efforts that are allegedly being made to add the haredi parties to the government, and claimed that this was not possible. "That has never happened. I do not know where this is coming from, it is impossible at all to think of entering such a government," he said in an interview with the haredi Radio Kol Chai. Porush commented on the issue of the planned reforms in conversions, after a bill on the issue by MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu) was approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation. "The conversion industry has become 'everyone can come and do it.' Two weeks ago the proposal was that any mayor could convert. Now the proposal is that yeshiva heads will also be able to convert. We are...
For the first time in two months, the U.S. is averaging more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, shortly after millions of Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday. The seven-day moving average of new cases was 121,437 as of Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Prior to this week, the U.S. last topped the 100,000-cases-a-day mark in early October. Also on the rise is the number of COVID-19 deaths, with a seven-day average of 1,651 people dying from the virus each day as of Saturday, the JHU data showed. Average daily deaths haven't been this high in more than a month. The vast majority of new cases in the U.S. continue to be from the delta variant, but U.S. health officials have detected the new omicron coronavirus variant in at least 16 sta...
The Maryland Health Department website was taken offline Sunday due to a "network security incident." As of Sunday evening, the department's website redirected to the state's main website. Andy Owen, a spokesman for MDH, sent a statement to 11 News, saying: "The Maryland Security Operations Center is investigating a network security incident involving the Maryland Department of Health. The Maryland Department of Information Technology, the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland Department of Emergency Management are working closely with federal and state law enforcement partners to address the incident and to gather additional information. Certain systems have been taken offline out of an abundance of caution and other precautions have and will be taken. "The investiga...
Jerusalem, Israel - Dec. 5, 2021 - Sunday afternoon, as it began to lightly rain, the red carpet had to be rolled up after Israeli President Isaac Herzog received the credentials of the new Ambassador of the United States, Thomas R. Nides, at an official ceremony at Beit Hanasi in Jerusalem, Israel. President Herzog and Ambassador Nides delivered statements to the press,  held a working meeting, and wore black yarmulkes to light the candles for the eighth night on the Chanukah menorah in the main diplomatic hall. The President surprised Ambassador Nides by inviting to the ceremony the principal from his old Hebrew school in Duluth, Minnesota, Elizabeth Aloni who mentioned that former US Ambassador Dan Shapiro was also from Duluth. Nides opened his remarks by the ret...
Six months after the formation of the new Bennett-Lapid government, a new poll shows a plurality of Israelis prefer former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm. On Sunday night, Channel 12 published a new poll conducted by the Midgam polling agency which found that 43% of Israelis would rather have a government headed by Netanyahu than the current ‘change’ coalition, compared to 36% who favor the current government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. Nearly half (45%) of respondents preferred Netanyahu as premier over Bennett, with just 25% favoring Bennett. In a head-to-head matchup against Lapid, Netanyahu led by an even wider margin, with 48% of respondents compared to 24% who prefer Lapid. Forty-four percent of respondents said they hope Lapid, who...
Baltimore, MD – Dec. 5, 2021 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Chani Sadwin (Baltimore) & and Binyomin Vilner (LA) on their engagement. Mazel Tov parents Rabbi & Mrs. Ariel Sadwin and Rabbi & Mrs. Menachem Vilner and grandparents Mr. & Mrs. Manny Sadwin and Rabbi & Mrs. Ben Zion Malin
America’s new ambassador to Israel vowed the Biden administration will ensure Iran does not achieve nuclear weapons capabilities, and reiterated the administration’s support for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Speaking at his first address in Israel as ambassador Sunday at an event hosted by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Thomas Nides vowed that the US would continue to back the Iron Dome system, despite pressure by some within the Democratic party to cut defense aid to Israel. “My agenda as Ambassador will be first and foremost to reinforce our unshakeable and enduring commitment to Israel’s defense,” Nides said at a ceremony in Jerusalem marking his reception as ambassador. “And I want to take a moment to reiterate, as President Bi...
Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas) died early Sunday at the age of 98, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation said in a statement. “Senator Robert Joseph Dole died early this morning in his sleep. At his death, at age 98, he had served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years,” foundation said. The former presidential candidate said earlier this year that he had been diag...
On the penultimate day of Chanukah, police detectives discovered a number of valuable archaeological items, among them a coin from the Hasmonean era, in the possession of an Arab from eastern Jerusalem. The Hasmonean-era coin is marked with the image of a menorah, the ritual candelabra that was used in the Holy Temple. Police detectives from the Jerusalem district were searching the home of the Jerusalem Arab, a man in his thirties, when they found dozens of ancient coins of great value. The suspect has been detained for questioning and the coins have been transferred to the Jerusalem police department, prior to being examined by the Antiquities Authority. Among the coins is one that appears to date back to the times of the High Priest Mattityahu Antigonos, who lived in the first ce...
New U.S. coronavirus testing rules aimed at slowing the spread of the omicron variant will begin Monday, when all international travelers must show proof of a negative test taken within a day of their flight to the United States. The new requirement announced this week is part of a strategy that includes the extension of a mandate that people on commercial aircraft and in other transportation settings wear masks, as well as the expansion of a program offering voluntary testing for new arrivals at key U.S. airports. Airline and travel industry officials said Friday they were generally supportive of the temporary measures, seen as a way to ensure passenger health and confidence in flying. The new rules call on airlines to build upon a foundation for testing created earlier in the pandemic....
Israel’s Shin Bet has put Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana under guard after discovering a group saying that he has a ‘din rodef‘ – a ruling sanctioning his murder. Haaretz reports. Sources have tied the threats to Kahana’s efforts to undermine halacha and Yiddishkeit in areas such as kashrus and geirus, conversion. The Shin Bet ordered the boosted security following the discovery that an extremist group had called for applying the din rodef permitting the killing of a person whose actions threaten another’s life. The din rodef is based on the idea that “the saving of the life of a person pursued by an attacker is so important that even the killing of the pursuer is allowed to save the person from the pursuer, if no o...
Baltimore, MD – Dec. 3,  2021 - It is with regret that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petira of Edward Bernard, z’l, father of Rick Bernard. Shiva in Baltimore begins with Mincha on Monday at 4:30PM at 2804 Cheswolde Road, Baltimore, MD 21209 Minyanim:Mincha: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 4:30 pm Shacharis: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - 7:00 am The family requests no visitors between 12:00-1:00, 6:00-7:00 or after 9:00. The family also requests that all visitors wear a mask.  Bila HaMaves LaNetzach…
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