What in the name of sundowning is going on here?
— Media Kane (@MediaKane) January 26, 2021
The man can't handle a pen. pic.twitter.com/ZRCIhPnjnB
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
When you take questions from the class on a presentation you didn’t put together. pic.twitter.com/HPe1KqoUYa
— JT Lewis (@thejtlewis) January 27, 2021
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The truth will out. What media reports and grieving family members have been telling us for months has now been confirmed by a fellow Democratic politician: The Cuomo administration sent thousands of infected elderly people to their deaths in nursing homes. These may in turn have infected others, who also died.
“Government guidance requiring the admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes,” concludes a new report by state Attorney General Letitia James, “may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities and may have obscured the data available to assess that risk.”
Her report also accuses the Cuomo-ites of releasing conveniently erroneous statistics regarding virus-related deaths in nursing homes. Its “publicized data vastly undercounted these deaths,” it says.
Using a sample of a few dozen nursing homes that revealed discrepancies between what those homes told investigators and what the state Department of Health told the rest of us, the AG’s office estimates the official death toll has been off by 55.4 percent.
Fifty. Five. Point. Four. Percent.
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| Yeshayahu Drucker (on right) in Polish Army uniform with fellow soldiers (Courtesy Yad Vashem) |
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| Children at the children's home in Zabrze after the war. From the album of Yeshayahu Drucker, a Polish Army chaplain who retrieved Jewish children from Christian homes and convents, and brought them to the children's home in Zabrze as part of the process of returning them to the Jewish fold. |
From the moment that WWII ended, Holocaust survivors had to begin to come to terms with the anguish of their newfound reality. Utterly destroyed by years of abuse, starvation, disease and the constant fear of death, the realization that most of them were all alone was the final blow. Yet, they hung onto every last ounce of hope they could muster and tried to locate loved ones displaced and dispersed to the four corners of Europe — and oftentimes even further. Any sign of life or connection was painstakingly checked. But for the many thousands of Jewish children who spent the wartime years in hiding or were entrusted to non-Jewish families for safekeeping, there was often no one left to look for them.
Yeshayahu Drucker, a chaplain in the Polish Army, took it upon himself to redeem these lost children. He fervently believed that the continuity of the Jewish nation was dependent on locating as many of them as possible and restoring them to their people.
Drucker was determined to identify, locate and rescue as many children survivors as he could, initially taking them to a children’s home in Zabrze, Poland. The children came from monasteries, orphanages and Polish families. Many of them, and their caregivers, were reluctant to accept Drucker’s mission. In his testimony years later, Drucker recalled:
“In most cases, child survivors living with Poles didn’t want to part from these Polish families. It was extremely rare for a child to agree to leave… Even when they had been badly treated, they didn’t want to go.”
Nevertheless, from 1945-1948, Drucker located and cared for some 700 Holocaust survivor children, mostly orphans, aided by a dedicated staff of educators, doctors, therapists and counselors.
Many of the children arrived at the home traumatized, either from the shock of being torn away from the only parents they knew, or with no idea of their Jewish heritage, having been forced by their adopted families to assume Christian identities. Smuggled out of the ghettos moments before their parents were deported, and hidden in attics, ditches or farms, a number of them had lived for years in complete silence out of fear of being discovered and sent to their death. They found it very difficult to adjust to their new freedoms and needed to regain trust in other human beings.
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Who was Yeshayahu Drucker?
Yeshayahu Drucker was born in 1914 in a town near Krakow. He grew up in a Zionist home and belonged to the religious Zionist Mizrachi movement. He graduated from the State Seminary for Jewish Religious Teachers in Warsaw. Shortly after the war broke out, Drucker was arrested by the Soviets and sent to a forced labor camp. In 1943, he enlisted in the Polish Kosciusko Division, which fought alongside the Red Army and took part in the Battle for Berlin. Even while serving on the frontlines, Drucker organized prayer services on Jewish holidays, made sure to observe Jewish laws, and tried to offer comfort to fellow Jewish soldiers. Prior to his discharge from military service, he was recommended for a position as a chaplain in the Polish Army with the rank of major, despite having no formal rabbinical certification.
Drucker traveled all over Poland wearing his Polish officer’s uniform, which facilitated his negotiations with the Poles in order to free the children from their custody.
Alfred Mazeh: Starting Anew
One of the children Drucker rescued was Alfred-Fredek Mazeh. Born in 1938 in Warsaw, Alfred had very limited memories of his family. His parents Yishai and Helena managed to have him smuggled out of the ghetto in late 1942 or early 1943. He later recalled:
“I heard the Polish woman telling a neighbor that they were burning the Jews. After the neighbor left, I went into the kitchen and asked her if it was true that they were burning the Jews. She told me that it wasn’t true, they weren’t burning everyone… and that my parents would come to get me… After that, the daughter arrived, and because we were already on good terms, I asked her and she said, ‘They are burning all the Jews now, and your parents will not be coming back. They’re dead.’ I cried for several hours.”
Throughout the course of the war, Alfred was hidden by several different Polish families. Shortly after liberation, Drucker located the young boy and brought him to Zabrze.
Alfred remembered:
“He [Drucker] spoke to the Polish woman. I don’t know what they talked about. He visited twice, and I feared that nothing good would come of it. One day he came, and they said: ‘You completed fourth grade at the top of your class’ – I was very proud of the report card I had brought home – ‘and they’re going to send you to study in England.’ England – that was a dream come true! I was pretty naïve and I swallowed it ‘hook, line and sinker,’ as they say. They told me, ‘This man, Captain Drucker, will take you to England, and you’ll come back in a few months’ time.’
Alfred immigrated to Israel in 1949, settling in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel. In 1985, he submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of his parents, Helena and Yishai. He passed away in 2000.
The story of Yeshayahu Drucker and Alfred Mazah are just two of the many accounts housed in Yad Vashem’s Archives, and included in a new online exhibition “My Lost Childhood,” uploaded to Yad Vashem’s website to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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| The Wedgwood arriving in Haifa, 1 July 1946. (Donated to the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum, Haifa by Brigadier General Nir Maor/ Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0) |
In the early hours of June 19, 1946, the Wedgwood, a former Canadian naval ship disguised as a banana boat, stole quietly away from Vado on the coast of the Italian Riviera.
But the ship wasn’t carrying fruit; onboard instead were over 1,000 Holocaust survivors secretly bound for Mandate Palestine. Conditions aboard the grossly overcrowded corvette were dire — water was rationed and sanitation poor — and before reaching its destination, the ship would have to run the naval blockade Britain had imposed to impede Jewish immigration.
The largely unknown story of the Wedgwood and its passengers is the subject of a new book — “The People On The Beach: Journeys to Freedom After the Holocaust” — by British journalist and author Rosie Whitehouse.
The Wedgwood was just one of many unheralded ships which, in the years between the end of World War II and the creation of the State of Israel, carried thousands of Holocaust survivors from the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea to Palestine.
After delivering its precious cargo, the flower-class corvette would return to battle, serving extensively as a gunship in the Israeli Navy — including during the 1948 battle for independence — before being retired in 1954.
“This is more than just the story of one boat; it is an account of that biblical exodus,” writes Whitehouse. “It looks at why so many Holocaust survivors felt they could not return to or remain in the places where their families had lived for generations, and how Zionism offered them a future.”
Whitehouse came across a reference to the Wedgwood while updating her travel guide to Liguria in northwestern Italy. That chance discovery sparked a four-year quest to find out how the survivors came to be on the beach at Vado. It took her across Central and Eastern Europe — to Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Bavaria — and over the Alps into Italy.
Whitehouse’s journey led her to death camps and the sites of appalling Nazi atrocities. But it also revealed the extraordinary daring, creativity and, at times, sheer chutzpah of those who made possible the Wedgwood’s voyage and that of the countless other ships which ferried the survivors to their promised land. Among them were an American army chaplain, a young doctor who had survived the camps, Jewish Brigade soldiers and secret agents dispatched by the Haganah, the main Jewish paramilitary organization in pre-state Israel.
“This was a massive Jewish rescue mission, Jews saving Jews,” Whitehouse says in an interview with The Times of Israel.
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A popular satirical television show sparked outrage on Wednesday with its portrayal of a top ultra-Orthodox rabbi, with politicians and members of the public calling the skit disrespectful and offensive to the religious community.
However, the skit from the hit show “Eretz Nehederet” (A Wonderful Land) also won praise from many for its “courage” in tackling the issue at a time of increased tensions with the Haredi community over defiance by some of its members in the face of efforts to impose a coronavirus lockdown.
The past week has seen widespread rioting, clashes with police trying to enforce lockdowns, and open rebellion despite virus rates being significantly higher in ultra-Orthodox communities.
The “Eretz Nehederet” skit focused on Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, widely acknowledged as the preeminent living Ashkenazi Haredi sage, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship with him, which has been criticized as overly deferential.
The skit opened with anchor Eyal Kitzis welcoming the prime minister of Israel to his show, but instead of Netanyahu, an actor playing Kanievsky, 93, was wheeled out, accompanied by another actor portraying his grandson, Yaacov (Yanki), who acts as a spokesman and surrogate for the rabbi.
The portrayal had Kanievsky mumbling mostly incoherently into his beard in Yiddish, while his grandson asked him questions and interpreted the answers in an exaggerated Ashkenazi Hebrew accent.
A short while later Netanyahu shows up, begging the rabbi for permission to do almost everything: come on the show, sit down, or take a sip of water.
A brief attempt by Netanyahu to assert his authority was immediately shut down by Kanievsky suggesting that the ultra-Orthodox parties would support Netanyahu’s rival Gideon Sa’ar in the upcoming election, which quickly had Netanyahu promising that all they would hear about from him in the future was giving them money.
The skit was largely a parody of the situation where Netanyahu has had to repeatedly beg the ultra-Orthodox to abide by lockdown rules and keep schools closed, often with minimal effect. Critics have accused Netanyahu of avoiding cracking down on the Haredi public in order not to anger his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.
Earlier this week, Netanyahu was asked about why he recently spoke with Kanievsky’s grandson about closing schools during the lockdown and not with the rabbi himself.
“Rabbi Kanievsky isn’t available. Everyone who speaks with him speaks with the grandson. I also spoke with the grandson. I don’t see this as an insult,” he said during a press conference.
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US President Joe Biden has halted several arms sales negotiated by the Trump Administration, the Associated Press reported.
Among the sales which have been temporarily halted is the sale of F-35 stealth fighters to the United Arab Emirates as well as arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
The UAE had ordered 50 F-35s.
The State Department in a misleading statement called the suspension of the sales "a routine administrative action” which all new administrations implement upon taking office.
“The department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending US defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review,” the department said.
The Trump Administration agreed to sell the advanced aircraft to the UAE following the signing of the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
The Israeli government has favored the sale of the F-35 aircraft to the UAE.
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Some claim that the origins of the custom to celebrate Tu-beShevat as a holiday that includes eating fruits and other rituals, is Sabbatean. In the main, this assertion is based upon identifying the work Hemdat Yamim as the source for Tu-beShevat as a holiday and eating fruit and other rituals. Thus, an article in Ha’aretz trumpets, “The New Year for the Trees, Isn’t it for Sabbatai Zvi.” And the National Library of Israel’s blog includes a post “The Holiday of Tu-beShevat is an Auspicious Time to Pray for the Only (?!) Jewish False Messiah.” They even include the above photoshopped image.
However, a closer look at the history reveals, that although some of the customs on Tu-beShevat can be traced to Hemdat Yamim the actual celebration dates much earlier. Contrary to the popular song, Tu-beShevat hegihu hag ha-ilannot, the 15th of Shevat was not a “chag” of the trees. Instead, the earliest discussions regarding Tu-beShevat do not mention any holiday associated with the day. The first Mishna in Rosh Hashana, identifies the 15th of Shevat as the new year for trees. This designation merely defines how to calculate annualized tithes and is otherwise silent as to the significance of the date. One can’t tithe fruits from one year using a different year’s fruits. Thus the 15th of Shevat is the cut-off point. [For other contemporaneous examples see Safrai, Mishnat Erets Yisrael, Mesekhet Rosh HaShana (Jerusalem: Mehlelet Lifshitz, 2011), 305-06]. It was not until R. Gershom’s time that there were any of the traditional holiday markers, but only that fasting is prohibited.
The first mention of the custom to eat fruit and other holiday rituals appears in 16th century Machzor, published between 1548 and 1550.
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THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Radio waves emanating from Apple devices may disrupt the workings of implanted pacemakers and defibrillators, the company warns.
In a recent update, Apple said iPhones have magnets, components and radios that release electromagnetic fields, which can potentially interfere with sensors on the medical devices when brought in close contact.
Pacemakers and defibrillators are life-saving devices designed to regulate the heartbeat, with the latter sending off a more powerful shock to the heart if it detects a dangerous rhythm.
Apple said that all iPhone models pose about the same risk of interference, despite the latest iPhone 12 containing more magnets. Apple also warned of radios and magnets in MagSafe accessories, which offer wireless charging capabilities.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“To avoid any potential interactions with these devices, keep your iPhone and MagSafe accessories a safe distance away from your device (more than 6 inches / 15 cm apart or more than 12 inches / 30 cm apart if wirelessly charging),” reads the update, issued on Saturday. “But consult with your physician and your device manufacturer for specific guidelines.”
Stop using iPhones or MagSafe accessories after any suspected interference with medical devices, Apple advised.
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Chief Justice John Roberts’ refusal to preside over former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is raising questions about whether he views the first-of-its-kind proceedings as constitutional.
The Supreme Court has been declining to comment when reached by The Post, as well as other outlets, on why its top jurist will not take part in the historic trial.
Speaking to MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Monday evening, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) revealed that Roberts “did not want” to take part in the trial.
“The Constitution says the chief justice presides for a sitting president,” the top-ranking senator said. “So it was up to John Roberts whether he wanted to preside with a president who is no longer sitting, Trump, and he doesn’t want to do it.”
Roberts has not offered any comment on his role in a second impeachment trial since the House of Representatives voted in favor of taking the matter to trial in the Senate earlier this month.
That silence has been noted by those opposed to impeaching a former president.
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The stock market posted its biggest drop since October Wednesday, led by declines in several Big Tech companies. The S&P 500 gave up 2.6%. The selling was broad, though technology giants including Facebook, Netflix and Google’s parent company accounted for a big part of the pullback. The Federal Reserve stressed its commitment to keep interest rates low.
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President Joe Biden has issued an executive order banning the use of terms such as “China virus” and “Wuhan virus” when referring to COVID-19.
The order applies to federal agencies and public health documents and resources.
Former President Trump routinely called COVID the “China virus” or and other conservatives linked it to Wuhan, China where the virus is thought to have originated in a government lab. Trump blamed China for the global coronavirus pandemic.
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| The identity tag of Deddie Zak (Yoram Haimi), pictured (l) with a relative. |
Archaeologists carrying out an excavation dig at the Sobibor death camp in Poland unearthed the identity tags of four Jewish children murdered there during the Holocaust, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.
The discovery left the archeologists in tears.
The four metal personal identity tags belonging to four Dutch children – ranging in age from 5-12, bore their names, their dates of birth, and their hometowns: Lea Judith De La Penha, Deddie Zak, Annie Kapper and David Juda Van der Velde.
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| Lea De La Penha (on right) with a family friend |
“As far as we know, identity tags with children’s names have only been found at Sobibor, and nowhere else,” said Yoram Haimi of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who is involved in an excavation at the site prior to the construction of a new visitors center, together with a Polish archaeologist, a Dutch archaeologist and local residents.
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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul declared former President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial "dead on arrival" on Tuesday after 45 Senate Republicans voted against holding the proceeding, viewing it as unconstitutional.
Rand, a Kentucky Republican, had called for a procedural vote regarding holding a trial, claiming the Senate shouldn’t address the article of impeachment against Trump filed by the House this month because Trump is now out of office.
Five GOP senators voted not to dismiss the impeachment trial of President Trump: Susan Collins, Maine, Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Ben Sasse, Neb., and Pat Toomey, Pa., and Mitt Romney, Utah. They voted with all 50 Democrat senators to table the point of order.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has indicated he has an open mind on whether Trump should be convicted, voted against ending debate.
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The mob who stormed the capitol to try to stop Congress from carrying out its constitutional responsibilities were behaving like domestic enemies of our country. But let us be clear, the John Brennan's, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in Big Tech who are... pic.twitter.com/Q3VssCiz5l
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) January 26, 2021
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, made headlines on Tuesday for asserting in a social media video that Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former CIA Director John Brennan should be considered "domestic enemies" of the U.S., deeming them a greater danger to the country than the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.
Gabbard doubled down on her comments on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday. During her appearance, she denounced the violent demonstrators, but warned of efforts to combat domestic insurgents through surveillance and other monitoring activities.
"We recognize that those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 trying to stop Congress from fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities, they were acting as domestic terrorists undermining our Constitution," Gabbard told host Tucker Carlson.
"[However,] those like John Brennan, Adam Schiff and others are also acting as domestic terrorists because they are also undermining our constitution by trying to take away our civil liberties and rights that are guaranteed to us," she added.
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