Although the FBI initially said the man who held four people hostage at a Texas reform temple was focused on an issue “not specifically related to the Jewish community,” the captor voiced beliefs that Jews controlled the world and had the power to arrange the release of a prisoner, survivors said after their escape. The gunman’s words were all too familiar to Jewish leaders and terror experts, who saw the attack on Congregation Beth Israel as yet another in the rising number of antisemitic hate crimes, a sign of the continued need of vigilance and interfaith solidarity. The hostage-taker — identified by authorities as Malik Faisal Akram — “thought he could come into a temple, and we could get on the phone with the ‘Chief Rabbi of America&rsq...
The status of land in and around Yerushalayim is especially complicated. Ownership and laws have changed under various rulers over the centuries. From the Ottomans to the British, to the new State of Israel, captured by the Jordanians and occupied from 1948-1967, lands and ownership have changed hands repeatedly. A property in the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood or more commonly known recently as the Sheikh Jarrah has made international headlines.  Mohammed Salhiya ignoring court-ordered eviction orders since 2017 went to the roof of his house and threatened to set himself on fire to avoid eviction. On a zoom press conference organized by Media Central, Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum discussed details of the situation and provided visual slides to show the...
Once again, most of the Baltimore area will have to brace for some more winter weather over the next couple of days. First, rain could start after 10 p.m. Wednesday. Then, it transitions into snow around 5 a.m. Thursday and ends near 11 a.m. Unfortunately, road crews will not be able to pre-treat before this one, because it will start as rain, but there is still some residual salt left on the roads from the previous events. Expect as much as a light coating to 2 inches for the Baltimore metro area. Friday night into Shabbos As for the potential coastal storm Friday night into Saturday, models are showing another low system could form along the coast. Early forecast models indicate this one seems to track farther east than the last one. If it tracks too far offshore, it could mis...
Baltimore, MD – Jan. 18, 2022 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Yehuda Bortz (St. Louis) and Hannah Grayman (Baltimore)  on their engagement. יה"ר שיזכו לבנות בית נאמן בישראל. אמן!
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday advised against travel to 22 nations and territories because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases, including Israel. The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to “Level Four: Very High,” telling Americans they should avoid travel to those destinations, which also include Panama, Qatar, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Suriname, Saint Lucia and Bolivia. In total, the CDC now lists just over 100 countries and territories at “Level 4.” The CDC also raised another 20 countries to Level 3: High,” including Uganda, Kuwait, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba. The CDC recommends that unvaccinated Americans avoid nonessential travel to those destinations. ...
Baltimore, MD – Jan. 18, 2022 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Faiga Bracha & Tzvi Piasek on the birth of a daughter. Mazel Tov grandparents Shana & Moshe Kravetz  יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בתם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן!
The surge in coronavirus infections due to the fast-paced spread of the omicron variant is expected to peak in a week, a top Israeli health official said. “In the coming week, we will still see increasing numbers, but in another week we will start to see a decline,” Health Ministry Director General Nachman Ash said in an Army Radio interview on Tuesday. “There are another two or three difficult weeks ahead.” There have been about 50,000 new cases of coronavirus confirmed daily in the past few days, and the number of severely ill patients has climbed to about 500, Ash said. Israel is currently offering a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine to older adults, medical personnel and people at risk. Ash said health officials weren’t surprised by preliminary data fro...
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) must not care much about her congressional salary, the Daily Beast reports. According to documents provided to NBC News, Greene has spent more than half of her $174,000 salary on mask fines in her first year in Congress, paying out more than $88,000 from her paychecks. First-time offenders of the House mask mandate must pay $500, with each subsequent violation totaling $2,500. Greene has railed against the House mask mandate, filing a lawsuit last year alongside fellow Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde over the mandate. In it, they accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of using the order to attack her “political opponents,” according to The New York Times. Greene has proudly proclaimed her opposition to any form of COV...
With traffic fatalities spiking higher, the nation’s top safety investigator says a widely cited government statistic that 94% of serious crashes are solely due to driver error is misleading and that the Transportation Department should stop using it. Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she’s surprised the wording remains on the department’s website even as the Biden administration pledges to embark on a broader strategy to stave off crashes through better road design, auto safety features and other measures. Auto safety advocates have been calling on the department for years to stop using the statistic, including requests by Homendy in recent months as well as a letter fr...
The fast-moving omicron variant may cause less severe disease on average, but COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are climbing and modelers forecast 50,000 to 300,000 more Americans could die by the time the wave subsides in mid-March. The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been trending upward since mid-November, reaching nearly 1,700 on Jan. 17 — still below the peak of 3,300 in January 2021. COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents started rising slightly two weeks ago, although still at a rate 10 times less than last year before most residents were vaccinated. Despite signs omicron causes milder disease on average, the unprecedented level of infection spreading through the country, with cases still soaring in many states, means many vulnera...
California prosecutors have filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot who ran a red light, slammed into another car and killed two people in 2019. The defendant appears to be the first person to be charged with a felony in the United States for a fatal crash involving a motorist who was using a partially automated driving system. Los Angeles County prosecutors filed the charges in October, but they came to light only last week. The driver, Kevin George Aziz Riad, 27, has pleaded not guilty. Riad, a limousine service driver, is free on bail while the case is pending. The misuse of Autopilot, which can control steering, speed and braking, has occurred on numerous occasions and is the subject of investigations by two federal a...
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has been targeted in more than 700 ads on Facebook and Instagram by Democrat colleagues since the House sent President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better package to the Senate on Nov. 15, Newsmax reports. The multitrillion package has been stalled in large part due to Manchin. He has said the package is too expensive. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema also objects to some of the plan, but has not faced the same sort of backlash as Manchin. In addition, the two are opposing plans by Democrats to change the Senate filibuster rules. “It is extremely uncommon to name a party colleague in a negative ad outside of a primary— but then again Joe Manchin isn’t a typical Democrat,” Nate Lerner, founder of digital political consultancy Build The Wav...
NYC Mayor Eric Adams confessed to a roomful of reporters Tuesday that he has his own trepidations about riding the subway — just three days after the tragic murder of Michelle Go, a Manhattan woman who perished after being pushed into the path of a train by a mentally ill homeless man, the NY Daily News reports. “Day One, January 1, when I took the train, I saw the homelessness, the yelling, the screaming early in the morning, crimes right outside the platform,” he said during an in-person City Hall press briefing. “We know we have a job to do — and we’re going to do both. We’re going to drive down crime, and we’re going to make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system. And they don’t feel that way now. I don’t...
The British terrorist who took four people hostage at a Texas reform temple had been investigated by UK intelligence services, but determined not to be a terroristic threat, according to reports Tuesday, the NY Post reports. Malik Faisal Akram, who had a history of mental illness, was investigated by MI5 “in the second half of 2020” after a tip that he could be a possible Islamist terrorist threat, government sources told the Guardian. It was “closed shortly afterwards with an assessment that there was no indication he presented a terrorist threat at that time,” a government source also told the Telegraph. Although he was put on a list of Subjects of Interests (SOI), the spy agency concluded that he did not “pass the threshold” for a full-blo...
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection issued subpoenas to members of former president Donald Trump’s outside legal team on Tuesday who pursued and disseminated unfounded claims of mass election fraud, including Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House aide Boris Epshteyn, and lawyers Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell. “The four individuals we’ve subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. Thompson’s statement added, “We expect these individuals to join the nearl...
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski spoke with C4 and Bryan Nehman and provided details on COVID-19, his personal COVID-19 diagnosis and a continuation of bulk trash pickup for country residents.  Olszewski said the county will resume bulk trash pickup this week. It was discontinued in 1992. He said the idea came from one of the town hall meetings, calling the move "what responsive government is supposed to be like, listening to people and then trying to act." Olszewski, who said he had very mild symptoms of COVID-19 after contracting the virus over the holidays, addressed COVID-19 cases in the country and said cases are starting to decrease following the latest surge. Olszewski said he talks with all Baltimore County hospital leaders each ...
Covid infections are falling in the U.S. for the first time since the Omicron variant erupted at the end of 2021, with cases falling at least 10 percent in over the past seven days as former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Scott Gottlieb saying that there is hope on the horizon that infections will drop even lower and that the virus will enter an endemic state in the near future.  Gottlieb's predictions are the opposite of what Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, predicted during a conference earlier this week - when he said there was potential for another resistant strain to emerge in the future.  The U.S. recorded 721,651 new cases on Monday, a steep fall from the 1.364 million cases reported last Monday. America's new daily case av...
AT&T and Verizon on Tuesday each agreed to temporarily delay their 5G rollouts near certain airports amid concerns over possible flight disruptions. The move follows mounting outside pressure and comes amid warnings from U.S. airlines that new 5G wireless service that was set to start Wednesday could ground flights and leave potentially thousands of Americans stranded while also delaying goods. “At our sole discretion we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the FAA to provide further information about our 5G deployment, since they have not utilized the two years they’ve had to responsibly plan for this deployment,” an AT&T ...
Jerusalem, Israel - Jan. 18, 2022 - United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs treated a bus driver in his 40s for light injuries after his bus was hit by a firebomb - molotov cocktail - near the Makassed Hospital in the neighborhood of A-Tur by the Mount of Olives in North-East Jerusalem.
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