On the occasion of the 39th yartzheit of Rabbi Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan, NCSY – the national youth movement of the Orthodox Union – has launched the NCSY Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan Library. The reissuance of Rabbi Kaplan’s illuminating writings is designed to help preserve his unique legacy and introduce it to contemporary youth. Rabbi Kaplan, one of the central figures in the American Jewish spiritual awakening “teshuva movement” of the 1960s, was one of NCSY’s foremost thinkers who influenced thousands of unaffiliated Jewish teens over the course of several decades. The physicist-turned-rabbi’s prolific output of books, essays, pamphlets and translations of complex Kabbalah works were clear and compelling. Most notably, perhaps, Rabbi K...
Average age of survivors of Nazi genocide during World War II is 85 years old today Israel is home to 165,800 Holocaust survivors, 90 percent of whom are over 80 years old, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. The data was published prior to the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will be commemorated on Thursday — the date that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945. The average age of Holocaust survivors is 85, with 19 percent of them, or about 31,000 people, over the age of 90. More than 950 are over 100 years old. Figures also show that 60 percent of survivors are women — around 105,000, with an average age of 85.4. In addition, 64 percent of the survivors are...
A bipartisan group of 42 members of Congress in a Tuesday letter called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to lead an effort to defund the United Nations’ just-established Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Israel. Created by the UN Human Rights Council, the COI is a permanent and open-ended entity dedicated solely to investigating alleged Israeli malfeasance in its actions toward the Palestinians. Critics have regarded it as a biased mechanism that is an expression of the UN’s notorious hostility to the Jewish state. The congressional letter, spearheaded by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), called the COI “outrageous and unjust” and objected to its “carte blanche mandate — in perpetuity — to investigate any allegati...
Fire officials announced that the fourth Baltimore firefighter from Monday's fire and collapse at a vacant rowhome is in fair condition. Fire Chief Niles Ford said EMT/firefighter John McMaster is conscious and alert at Shock Trauma. "While he has a long way to go, I am incredibly optimistic, and we will continue to pray for and support EMT/FF McMaster and his family during his time of recovery," Ford said in a statement.
An Ontario school teacher’s license was revoked after it emerged that he promoted Holocaust denialism, blamed Israel for the September 11th attacks, and raised other antisemitic conspiracies in the classroom, the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) announced recently. The OCT confirmed in December its decision to rescind the license of Joseph DiMarco, a former history teacher in the Northeastern Catholic District School Board. He has previously been terminated by his employer, O’Gorman High School, in November 2019. According to the 17-page decision, complaints about DiMarco date back to 2016, when he openly harassed a student, telling him, “looking at your face is starting to make me feel hate.” The report, which concluded an investigation of the allegations, ...
Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who was sentenced on fraud and tax evasion charges, was released from federal prison. 11 News I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller has learned that Pugh has been released from the Alabama prison where she had been serving a 36-month sentence, according to on line record of Bureau of Prisons, about 12 months earlier than previous release date Pugh, was sentenced to three years in federal prison and three years of probation for using fraudulent book sales to funnel illegal donations to her campaign and evade taxes in 2020.
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 25, 2022 - On Sunday, January 9, Yeshivas Ner Yisroel held their 88th Annual Dinner. With the theme "Building Greatness: One Talmid at a Time," the event paid tribute to Harav Sheftel Neuberger, zt"l, the esteemed Menahel of the yeshivah. In truth, the event was much more than just a dinner, but a full day yarchei kallah held on the yeshivah campus, which was attended by over 1,000 alumni from around the country. As Rabbi Baruch Neuberger, Menahel of the yeshivah, remarked on the success of the yarchei kallah, “In our wildest dreams, we could not have imagined such a beautiful scene as over a thousand guests spent the day learning in the beis medrash, hearing words of Torah and chizuk from their Rebbeim, and reconnecting with chaverim.” The dinner its...
Former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s bid to be restored as a party MP was voted down on Tuesday by Labour’s ruling body. Left-wing members of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) engineered a motion to have the parliamentary whip reinstated to the former party leader, but it was voted down, The Independent reported. Corbyn, who has been sitting as an independent MP since October 2020, thanked his supporters as he reacted to the result. “Today’s NEC vote and Keir Starmer’s ongoing decision to bar me from sitting as a Labour MP is disappointing,” he tweeted. “I am grateful for and humbled by the support I've received, especially from my Islington North constituents. The struggle for peace, justice and...
The New York City Police Department is searching for the assailant who punched a 21-year-old Jewish man in the face on Jan. 22 in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Surveillance video footage shared by the Jewish news outlet COLlive shows the attacker crossing the street early Saturday morning and approaching two Jewish men standing outside of a yeshivah dormitory. The suspect harassed the two men before punching one of them in the nose. The perpetrator fled the scene. Police and an ambulance were called to treat the victim’s injuries. The Anti-Defamation League said on Monday that it is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect. “These attacks on Jewish individuals appear to have becom...
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it had approved 90% of the nation’s commercial plane fleet to land when visibility is poor at airports where there is a risk of interference from 5G wireless signals. The latest approvals, which include more small regional jets and some turboprops, should smooth airline operations, which have faced some disruption since the rollout of new 5G services by Verizon and AT&T last week. But the agency has warned some planes will prove too susceptible to interference to be cleared. The FAA has been assessing devices called radio altimeters, which use radar to give precise measurements of a plane’s altitude, to determine whether they could give inaccurate readings because of interference from new 5G towers. The towers and radars op...
Most cases of Covid in children are mild, but PIMS can cause hospitalization and death Israel's Health Ministry officials are reportedly discussing revising Covid quarantine requirements for children, just days after the new rules were announced, Israeli media reported Tuesday. The new rules, which are set to go into effect on Thursday, will end isolation requirements for children who've come in contact with a confirmed carrier of Covid in an attempt to keep children in school. Children will instead take two at-home Covid tests a week, only entering quarantine if they test positive. Health officials, however, are considering reversing the decision due to concerns over pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS) cases in children who recover from omicron, Israel&#...
Federal health officials reported Tuesday that the omicron variant caused less severe illness in hospitalized patients than earlier virus lineages, even though its explosive transmissibility has caused far more infections and led to more than 2,200 deaths a day on average, one of the highest tolls since early last year. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that people hospitalized with the omicron variant had shorter stays and less frequent admission to intensive care compared with those hospitalized with other coronavirus variants. Despite record infections and hospitalizations caused by omicron, the percentage of hospitalized patients with severe illness are lower compared with those in earlier pandemic waves. That lower disease severity is partly ...
Monday's fatal fire in southwest Baltimore shocked the city fire department and fire departments across the country as an investigation gets underway. This investigation is personal for the federal, state and Baltimore City agents investigating an origin and cause of Monday's fire at a vacant rowhouse in the 200 block of South Stricker Street. "It is a tragic loss for all of us because we are family and we lost a lot of family yesterday," Maryland State Fire Marshal Brian Geraci said. "There's a lot of damage to the structure. We may not be able to determine a cause." City fire officials said the fire started around 6 a.m. and the building partially collapsed, trapping four firefighters inside. Three fire service members died, and a fourth remains hospitalized a...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 25, 2022  - Ever since one of our community's newest Kosher eateries, Quarry Lake Playa Bowls, opened a few months ago, many customers have been asking the same question: "Which bracha should I make on each bowl?"  The various combinations possible and different ingredients in each of the store's offerings have led to multiple calls to community rabbonim asking different variations of this same question.   When Rabbi Duvi Rubin of Kehillas Ohr Yisrael of Baltimore was approached by the owners of the store to help develop a guide to the brachos on all menu items, he quickly agreed.   According to Rabbi Rubin, "Hilchos Brachos is an area in halacha which every Jew needs to be fluent in. The food industry, along with everyday home cooking, ...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 25, 2022 - Please join us tonight, Wednesday evening at 9:00PM for an evening of chizuk to address the difficult times we are facing and to give chizuk for those families who are dealing with a sick family member or the loss of one.  L’Ilui nishmas Chana Tova bas Yechiel Moshe and for a Refuah Shelaimah for the many cholim in our communities. Click on the graphic below to view a larger copy
A group of pro-democracy hackers calling themselves “Cyber Partisans” said they had infiltrated the Belarusian rail network in an effort to “disrupt” the movement of Russian troops into the country as tensions over a potential renewed invasion of Ukraine grow. The “hacktivists,” who announced the cyberattack in posts on Twitter and Telegram, said that they had encrypted some of the railroad’s “servers, databases and workstations” because it facilitates the movement of “occupying troops to enter our land.” The group said it would return the network to “normal mode” if 50 political prisoners in need of medical care were released and Russian military personnel were barred from Belarus. The Belarusian Defense Minis...
Baltimore, MD – Jan. 25, 2022 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Yehuda Trout (Baltimore) and Eliana Korn (Monsey/Seattle) on their engagement. Mazel Tov to Mr. Akiva and Mrs. Miriam Trout and Mr. Yaakov and Mrs. Andrea Korn יה"ר שיזכו לבנות בית נאמן בישראל. אמן!
An appellate court judge has granted New York State’s motion to stay, putting the state’s mask mandate back temporarily as the case makes its way through the appeals process, according to a copy of the judge’s decision. The New York attorney general also tweeted the news. “A judge has granted our motion to keep New York's mask mandate in place while our appeal process continues,” Attorney General Letitia James tweeted. “Protecting the health of New Yorkers during the #COVID19 pandemic is our top priority," she continued. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul applauded the court for “siding with common sense and granting an interim stay,” and commended Attorney General Letitia James for defending the health of New Yorkers by ...
The Biden administration on Tuesday said it is withdrawing its vaccine-or-test mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees after the Supreme Court earlier this month blocked the requirement from being enforced, ruling that it was a federal overreach. Given the Supreme Court's decision, the Biden administration filed a motion on Tuesday to have the existing lawsuits that were filed against the employer vaccine mandate dismissed. Twenty-seven Republican-led states and a coalition of businesses had brought those legal challenges against the mandate. “The federal government respectfully moves to dismiss the petitions challenging the Vaccination and Testing emergency temporary standard (Vaccination and Testing ETS) issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Admin...
Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. have reached the highest level since early last year, eclipsing daily averages from the recent Delta-fueled surge, after the newer Omicron variant spread wildly through the country and caused record-shattering case counts. The seven-day average for newly reported Covid-19 deaths reached 2,188 a day by Monday, up about 1,000 from daily death counts two months ago, before Omicron was first detected, data from Johns Hopkins University show. While emerging evidence shows Omicron is less likely to kill the people it infects, because the variant spreads with unmatched speed, the avalanche of cases can overwhelm any mitigating factors, epidemiologists say. “You can have a disease that is for any particular person less deadly than another, ...
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