Getting free at-home COVID-19 tests is supposed to become easier starting this week. Health insurers are now covering the cost, and the federal government has launched its website for free tests. Federal government The federal government's test website, COVIDtests.gov, is now live and began accepting orders Tuesday, one day ahead of schedule. The Biden administration is using the website to distribute half a billion promised tests at no cost. You can get four tests per household. They are expected to be mailed out seven to 12 days after your order. There will also be a helpline to call and order tests. Health insurers Private health insurers are being ordered to pay for up to eight tests per person, per month. You don't need a doctor's order, but the tests must...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 16, 2022 -  Accu Testing is now expanding our hours to be able to accommodate the community needs. Starting tomorrow Monday January 17, we will be open at 122 Slade Ave Monday thru Thursday ALL DAY from 9am until 8:15pm. Sunday hours remain 10am-12pm and 7-815pm and Friday 730am-11am. Click here to register.
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 2, 2022 - “Ashrei ayin ra’asah eileh. Fortunate are the eyes who saw this.”   With these poignant words, Harav Moshe Heinemann, shlita, Rav of Agudath Israel in Baltimore, penned his feelings after his recent visit to K’hal Chasidim of Baltimore Cheder and School.   Turning emotional at the sights and sounds that greeted the Rav, he took in the charming strains of Yiddish conversation in the air and the curly peyos bobbing in the wind with wonder. These are sights you wouldn’t usually expect to see in a Torahdiga American community.   To see how a young Chasidisha mosad planted itself ...
One person has been charged with first-degree arson in connection with an apartment fire in Reisterstown that broke out Monday night, according to authorities. Crews were called at 8:17 p.m. to an apartment fire in the unit block of Brookebury Drive, and they called for a second alarm at 8:21 p.m. As a result of the fire, officials said one dog died. No people were injured, according to the Baltimore County Fire Department. Twenty tenants were displaced and are being assisted by the Red Cross, officials said Tuesday.
Budapest, Hungary - Jan. 18, 2022 – A special website dedicated to broadcasting recollections of Holocaust survivors and their rescuers was inaugurated yesterday evening by the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities (EMIH), marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto. The new website, which is in Hungarian with English translation available, contains programming that will air consecutively for the next 77 hours (starting 18.00 on 17th of Jan).  A new video featuring interviews with survivors and their rescuers will be shown every hour.  The videos include heartbreaking testimonies of those who survived as children, including an interview with Miklós Szinetár, and these rec...
The Coalition for Jewish Values says 'Islamophobia' is 'fake news' A coalition that represents more than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish rabbis on American public policy issues condemned a recent report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) regarding "Islamophobia in the Mainstream," calling the report "both pro-terror and antisemitic." "In every case, CAIR is deliberately claiming that to reject terrorism is anti-Muslim," Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), told Fox News Digital. "It is hard to imagine something that incites animus towards Islam and all who practice it more than the idea that tolerance for Islam requires acceptance of atrocities committed by purported believers." The CAIR report faul...
Israel is set to distribute millions of free COVID-19 antigen tests to the public, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Tuesday. The plan to provide 25-30 million tests to various sectors was approved by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman during the daily coronavirus assessment, Bennett’s office said in a statement. The goal of the plan is to keep the economy running while safeguarding public health, particularly among vulnerable populations, according to the PMO. Bennett emphasized that the distribution of the test will be carried out “as quickly and reliably as possible”—and prioritizing welfare-service recipients, retirement-home residents, educators and students. The announcement c...
Yitro and Matan Torah Yitro is memorialized in this parsha in appreciation of both his recognition of truth and his sage advice to the Jewish people. Many heard of the miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim, but only Yitro came forward to give praise. When he saw Moshe judging the people alone, he suggested the system of delegation that was eventually implemented.[1] Chazal[2] tell us that he was given the name Yitro because he “added” this parsha to the Torah. Not only was this piece added, the entire parsha is named after him! Yitro’s greatness makes the conclusion of the story all the more interesting. The story ends with Moshe sending Yitro away right before Matan Torah.[3] If Yitro was such a special person, why not let him stay for Matan Torah? Rashi explains that Yitro re...
A Monday letter from top officials in the the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned that faith-based groups are likely to remain targets of violence. "Faith based communities have and will likely continue to be targets of violence by both domestic violent extremists and those inspired by foreign terrorists," FBI deputy director Paul Abbate and John D. Cohen, who is the top intelligence official at DHS, said in the letter, which was obtained by CNN. The letter also said online platforms linked with domestic violent extremism had discussed Jewish targets in connection with conspiracy theories about the pandemic, the results of the 2020 election and "even the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and resettlement of Afg...
Anthony Fauci said on Monday that it is too soon to say whether omicron is the final wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House chief medical adviser, while speaking at the World Economic Forum's Davos Agenda online conference, said that "it is an open question whether it will be the live virus vaccination that everyone is hoping for," according to CNBC. "I would hope that that’s the case. But that would only be the case if we don’t get another variant that eludes the immune response of the prior variant,” he added.  Omicron is the most transmissible variant to appear so far, but seems to cause fewer hospitalizations and deaths than previous mutations of the virus, which has made many question if the pandemic is finally close to an end. The new...
The long-simmering tensions between former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are reaching a boiling point ahead of a potential 2024 primary clash. Trump has griped behind the scenes for months about DeSantis’s rapid political rise, including chatter about a future White House bid. But the complaints from the former president have only grown louder, raising concerns among some Republicans about a looming brawl between two GOP heavyweights. “President Trump is the one clearly picking a fight here, and it’s a fight that's too early and unnecessary,” said Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump who stressed that he is neutral in a dustup between Trump and DeSantis. “We’re not in Republican primary season. This is a f...
After months of consideration, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday he will not run for governor, NBC reports. “No, I am not going to be running for governor of New York state,” De Blasio said in a video tweeted Tuesday morning from his block in Brooklyn. “But I am going to devote every fiber of my being to fight inequality in the state of New York.” The former mayor said he would share more news in coming days about his plans. For months, De Blasio had done nothing to tamp down the “will he or won’t he” speculation, filing paperwork to lay the groundwork for a campaign and telling supporters he was strongly considering a run – but also steadfastly refusing to answer questions about whether he was actually in, or...
Pages come from the only existing copy of a ca. 1492 edition of "Arba'ah Turim", one of history's most important works of Jewish law The National Library of Israel (NLI) has acquired 90 singular pages from the earliest period of Hebrew printing. The pages come from the only known copy of a late 15th century edition of Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher's "Arba'ah Turim", a seminal codification of Jewish law. Yehoshua Soncino, a leading figure in the early Hebrew printing industry, published the edition in Italy around 1492. No complete copies of it have survived, and the pages acquired by the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem are not found in any other collection in the world, public or private. Prior to the acquisition, the NLI already held 59 pages from the book. Works pu...
The Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) will host today's launch event for the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), chaired by Ambassador Sam Brownback. The event will be livestreamed on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 12pm EST on RFI’s website, YouTube channel, and Facebook page.  NCRF is a non-partisan, non-profit organization established to defend religious freedom for all Americans and all their religious communities by supporting political candidates at the local, state, and national levels—regardless of party affiliation—who support the free exercise of religion. Rabbi Menken was invited to be a founding member of the advisory board of this important new effort. Others on the board include Jeff Ballabon, Founder and Director of the...
Brooklyn, NY - Jan. 17, 2022 -  Mrs. Chana Freedman, a'h, mother of Baltimore's late Rabbi Mendel Freedman, zt"l,  passed away this morning in New York. She passed away on Tu BShvat, her 101st birthday.The levaya will be held in New York on Tuesday, Jan. 18 @ 11AM.Click here to watch the Livestream
Last fall, one of the towns with camps that draws thousands of kids to the Catskills each summer imposed its first restrictions on them, confining new camps to two areas and setting rules about their capacity, fencing and even cabin occupancy. Wawarsing now faces a federal discrimination lawsuit charging that those requirements would place illegal burdens on the town’s predominantly Orthodox Jewish camps, Record Online reports. The eight Orthodox camps and one school that sued say the new rules would prevent them from expanding or making improvements without triggering a set of impossible constraints. Several camp representatives and attorneys had warned of litigation and urged leaders of the Ulster County town to table the proposed restrictions at two public hearings in ...
Israel’s ever-changing coronavirus travel policies during the spread of the Omicron variant have wreaked havoc on Israelis, Jewish Americans and the Diaspora alike. Jerusalem barred travel from Dec. 22 to Jan. 7 to and from several “red countries,” including the United States, despite America’s open borders. Some exceptions were made for humanitarian cases, such as traveling for funerals, physical or mental-health emergencies, and parents traveling to their child’s wedding. When travel recently reopened and the United States was removed from Israel’s “red list,” Israeli bureaucracy did not immediately catch up with the changes and transmit them to ground personnel worldwide, who were still struggling to process prior changes. Israel’s...
The brother of a Lancashire man who took four people hostage at a Reform temple in the US before being shot dead has demanded answers about how he was allowed to travel, the Manchester Evening News reports. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, held four hostages at the Congregation Beth Israel temple in Colleyville, Texas, US. All of the hostages were released without being injured, but Akram was shot and killed by the FBI a short time later. Two teenagers have since been detained in south Manchester by officers from Counter Terror Policing North West in connection with the hostage attack. Speaking to Sky News, Akram’s brother, Gulbar demanded more information about how the incident had been allowed to unfold. “He’s known to police. Got a criminal record....
Hundreds of people in Maryland no longer require hospital care for COVID-19, but some doctors are saying we need to still be on guard. As of Monday, there are 3,062 people being treated for COVID-19 in Maryland hospitals. Although that may still be a high number, the recent data is showing a slight downward trend. From Saturday through Monday, the state reported more than 300 people no longer needed hospital care. "Across the entire (University of Maryland Medical System), we have seen a decline on the total number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 infections. Over the course of the past week or so and that's not just the total number of patients hospitalized. We're also seeing a decline in the past few days in the number of new admissions due to COVID-19," said Dr. Gregory...
A fire displaced more than 20 residents of a Reisterstown apartment building, according to the Baltimore County Fire Department. Fire officials said firefighters were called around 8:17 p.m. Monday to the unit block of Brookebury Drive, where there were heavy fire conditions at an apartment building. Fire officials said there were no injuries. The Red Cross is assisting those displaced. The fire is under investigation.
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