Baltimore, MD - Aug. 5, 2024 - I sat down this morning and tried to write a eulogy for our teacher, our mentor, our rabbi, and our friend, Rabbi Chaim Landau. While I struggled to find the words to properly encapsulate the impact this one man had on so many, I realized where I was – the chair I was sitting in, the desk I was working on, the walls I was surrounded by – Rabbi Landau’s old office, and I noticed it was filled with ghosts.
I saw the hundreds, maybe thousands, of Bar and Bat Mitzvah boys and girls nervously shifting in their seats as Rabbi Landau spoke to them about their big day ahead. I saw the countless beaming couples discussing the details of their upcoming wedding. I also saw those same couples as they came back to that office time and time agai...
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 7, 2024 - This week, members of OCA’s staff and administration had the opportunity to take a day away from the office for their annual retreat at Pearlstone Center. With a focus on team building, communication, and learning from one another’s strengths, they dove deep into ways to enhance their processes and create a more vibrant learning environment. This time together helps strengthen their connections, improve their approaches, and ultimately, provide an even better experience for their students and families. Together, they’re making a difference every day!Photos: Courtesy OCA
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 1, 2024 - As the Nine Days begin, below is a list of meat restaurants that will be open.
All dairy and pareve restaurants are open as usual. Star-K policy only allows meat restaurants to offer exclusively a non-meat menu for dine-in. This means that no meat is used; however, the food is prepared on meat equipment, so it should not be eaten together with actual dairy. Some restaurants may have a meat menu available for take-out only. Please call each restaurant to confirm.
On Sunday evening, Aug. 4, 2024, erev Rosh Chodesh, all meat restaurants will be closing meat dine-in service by 8:15 p.m. (last seatings 7:30-7:45 p.m.).All take-out places (7 Mile Market, Market Maven, Knish Shop) are open as usual, many offering expanded fish/pareve options.Accents/Serengeti &nda...
Rep. Cori Bush (D) lost her primary in Missouri on Tuesday in the latest blow to the progressive “squad” on Capitol Hill, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ.
Bush’s loss to St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in the 1st Congressional District’s Democratic primary makes her the second member of the group to lose reelection after Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) earlier this year.
The racial justice activist’s failure to secure a third House term came after her race received outsized attention for the amount of money that poured in. Pro-Israel special interest groups spent the most on the race, with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the United Democracy Project (UDP), AIPAC’s s...
Disclaimer: The individual discussed in this video has since moved out of town.
Annapolis, MD - Aug. 6, 2024 - Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday issued a state of preparedness declaration as remnants of Tropical Storm Debby are expected to bring multiple days of heavy rainfall and storms to Maryland.
Debby brought prolonged downpours and flooding to the southeastern United States on Tuesday and is expected to hover over the Atlantic Ocean for the next few days, then boomerang back onto the mainland, leading to potentially record-setting rainfall.
The storm is forecast to move relatively slowly across some of America's most historic Southern cities in Georgia and South Carolina before moving northeastward across eastern North Carolina and Virginia later this week, the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast.
While the storm's track rem...
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 6, 2024 – 5:26 PM - The traffic light at the intersection of Park Heights and Seven Mile Lane is facing the wrong way. Also, a disabled vehicle is blocking traffic in the right southbound lane at the intersection causing delaysApproach the intersection cautiously.
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 6, 2024 - On July 22, the bochurim of Mesivta Kesser Torah celebrated their year of growth with a Grand Siyum on masechtos Rosh ha’Shanah, Sukkah, Brachos, and Kiddushin. During this annual event, bochurim are joined by their fathers, rebbeim, and hanhala as they participate in the siyum.After Mincha, each bochur had the opportunity to learn b’chavrusa with his father and grandfather. The nachas felt by each father as he learned with his son and saw him as a burgeoning Ben Torah and Talmid Chacham was palpable. All attendees then headed to the yeshiva’s dining room for a siyum, speeches, and leibedic dancing.A hallmark of this siyum is that each talmid is made to feel as if he is the center of the yeshiva. Every rebbe sha...
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 6, 2024 - (Baltimore Sun) Several Baltimore City Council members and union leaders demanded improved safety measures and investigative hearings following the death of sanitation worker Ronald Silver II, who succumbed to hyperthermia while on duty during extreme heat. Councilmen Zeke Cohen, Isaac Schleifer, and Antonio Glover called for reforms, including hiring more staff for the Department of Public Works (DPW) and dedicating an investigator to workplace safety. They emphasized the need for better treatment of DPW workers and proposed visits to DPW work sites over the next year.Union leaders from AFSCME and the City Union of Baltimore outlined additional demands, including a prevention plan for heat-related illnesses, union involvement in injury investigat...
A Pakistani man with ties to the Iranian government sought to carry out a political assassination in the United States, a case that was investigated weeks before a gunman tried to kill former President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.
Asif Merchant, 46, traveled to New York City and worked with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, federal prosecutors said in a court complaint. The complaint says the plot was intended to target high-ranking U.S. officials, potentially including Trump.
"Fortunately, the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI Agents," said Acting Assistant Director Christie Curtis of the FBI New York Field Office. "This case underscores the dedication and formidable efforts of our agents, analysts ...
Jerusalem, Israel - Aug. 6, 2024 - During the Nine Days in 1991, an Israeli adult Yom Iyun intensive learning program was started on the grounds of the Har Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut.
Multiple Tanakh sessions were given in Hebrew to people who traveled from near and far to learn Chumash from learned Rabbis and exceptional female educators.
In 2009 an English track was added to the complicated schedules that usually covered four weekdays. During Covid, the entire program had to go online.
This year despite the war and difficulty traveling there were approximately 5,000 participants. For the first time, there was an in-person schedule for Russian speakers with 660 participants. Also, for the first year a French schedule is online.
The annual problem is to deci...
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 6, 2024 - The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for eastern Baltimore County on Tuesday afternoon due to a severe thunderstorm. The warning is in effect until 5:30 p.m. Doppler radar detected thunderstorms producing heavy rain, with 2 to 3 inches already fallen and an additional 1 to 3 inches possible. Flash flooding may occur in small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets, underpasses, and other poor drainage and low-lying areas.
The Hamas terrorist organization announced Tuesday evening that Yahya Sinwar, the terrorist organization's leader in the Gaza Strip, will replace Ismail Haniyeh as the leader of the organization's political bureau following Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran last week.
Sinwar is one of the masterminds behind the massacre of October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 250 were taken hostage into Gaza, where 115 remain in captivity 10 months later.
Red alert sirens were activated in many localities in southern Israel shortly after the announcement was made, including in Sderot and Ashkelon.
The IDF announced that following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in southern Israel, approximately three launches were identified crossing from northern Gaza. One...
The Jewish Chronicle revealed new details of how the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh last week was carried out.
Contrary to a previous report by the New York Times that the bomb that killed Haniyeh was planted in his room two months before the assassiantion, the Chronicle reported that the bomb was planted the same day it was detonated by two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' al-Mahdi security unit, the unit that was tasked with securing the building and the guests staying there, who were recruited by the Mossad.
According to the report, Iranian investigators learned this after observing security footage of the pair entering and then leaving the room. The two were reportedly promised a large sum of money and an immediate eva...
A U.S. district judge denied Harvard’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by six Jewish students alleging that the University failed to address “severe and pervasive” campus antisemitism.
The 25-page ruling on Tuesday will allow the lawsuit against Harvard to proceed to discovery, dragging out the case for months if not years. The process will also likely force the University to provide greater evidence that it has taken measures to protect Jewish students on its campus.
U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns wrote in the ruling that “in many instances” Harvard did not respond to “an eruption of antisemitism” on campus, citing its failure to take disciplinary measures against “offending students and faculty.”
“In other...
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 6, 2024 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Ariel & Eliana Woodland on the birth of a son.
Mazel Tov to the grandparents Dr. Arie Michelsohn and Mrs. Adina Michelsohn
יה"ר שיזכו לגדל בנם לתורה, לחופה, ולמעשים טובים. אמן!
A Tisha b'Av Kinah for October 7th by Rabbi Moshe Hauer "Tisha b’Av is a day when we mourn the range of tragedies that have marked Jewish history, beginning with the destruction of both batei mikdash. Many of these calamities from throughout the ages are represented in the book of Tisha b’Av kinos that we read in our shuls. While we are generally extremely cautious about adding contemporary prayers, the kinos are an exception, such that most shuls include a kina commemorating the Holocaust. In this spirit, there have been efforts to write kinos for this Tisha b’Av that reflect on the profound tragedy of October 7 and its aftermath. While all of us will have these events on our mind during Tisha b’Av, some shuls and individuals will seek to express those thought...
Baltimore County, MD - Aug. 6, 2024 - Please see the following update my office received this week about the Reisterstown Road water main line project (from I-695 to Irving Place), per the the Baltimore County Department of Public Works and Transportation: “The crews are currently testing the cathodic protection system and continuing water main abandonments. Curb and sidewalk repairs will begin this week, and paving restoration is scheduled for the week of Aug. 12, specifically between I-695 and Old Court Road.” -Baltimore County Council Chairman Izzy Patoka
