Crazy Israeli politics... when I made aliyah almost 4 years ago, all my friends told me that they eat only "Badatz" or "Beit Yoisef" but never anything that that has a Rabbanute Hechsher, because it is not at all reliable
“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
There is a halachic debate whether placing a filter in a mikva, invalidates the entire mikva. Most modern poiskim do not allow a filter placed into a mikva.
This is not the place to discuss the reasons, however, know, that even the Zionist Rabbanute doesn't allow it! To keep the mikva clean they change the water on a daily basis or place a floating filter on the surface.
The Eida Hachreidis has their very own Torah and their very own Shulchan Aruch, and they permit placing a filter in the mikva, specifically in the Zupnik Mikva in Yerushalyim.
Well, one of their own, Rav Tuvia Shulzinger, sent off a very strong worded letter to the "tazaddikim" of the Eida Hachreidis warning them that most poiskim are against it ...
A teenage girl in India was allegedly beaten to death and publicly hanged by male family members for wearing jeans.
The mother of Neha Paswan, 17, said her daughter’s grandfather and uncles attacked her with sticks in her own home following an argument about her clothes, according to the BBC.
The deadly beating happened last week in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, one of the nations least developed regions, according to the outlet.
“She had kept a day-long religious fast. In the evening, she put on a pair of jeans and a top and performed her rituals. When her grandparents objected to her attire, Neha retorted that jeans were made to be worn and that she would wear it,” Shakuntala Devi Paswan, told BBC Hindi.
When the argument turned violent and a gang beating left the girl unconscious, male relatives said they were calling a driver to take her to the hospital, according to the report.
“They wouldn’t let me accompany them so I alerted my relatives who went to the district hospital looking for her but couldn’t find her,” Shakuntala Devi reportedly said.
The next morning, the girl’s mother found Neha’s body hanging from a bridge over a river, according to the article.
Ten people are reportedly being investigated for murder and destruction of evidence, including the teen’s grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and the driver of the auto rickshaw that was supposedly taking her to be treated. Four of them have been arrested, the outlet said.
Shakuntala Devi reportedly said that her in-laws were pressuring Neha, an aspiring police officer, to abandon her studies in a local school, even as her father worked as a day laborer in Punjab to pay for the girl’s education.
The sickening case illustrates the violence that women and girls face at home in the patriarchal society, where misogynistic attacks are often sanctioned by family elders, the BBC said.
On average, 20 women are killed every day in India for bringing in insufficient dowries, according to the outlet.
Last month, footage emerged of a 20-year-old woman being beaten by her father and three male cousins for running away from an abusive husband in the nearby state of Madhya Pradesh, according to The Indian Express.
A week before, two girls in the region were slapped, kicked, dragged by the hair and beaten with sticks by family members for talking to a male cousin on the phone, according to NDTV.
Police reportedly arrested seven people after the footage went viral, but video showed onlookers gawked at the public attack and failed to intervene.
In another viral June attack in the state of Gujarat, two teenage girls were beaten by a mob of at least 15 men for talking on their cell phones, according to India Today.
“It’s shocking that in the 21st Century, we are killing and assaulting girls for wearing jeans or talking on a mobile phone,” Gender activist Rolly Shivhare told the BBC.
“The government says girls are our priority and announces grand schemes for their welfare, but nothing happens on the ground,” Shivhare reportedly said.
“The shelter homes and crisis centres in India are few and most are so badly run that no-one would want to go live there. Our government needs to allocate more funds and improve their condition.
“But the only long-term solution is to make girls more aware of their rights.”
A 2018 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation found that experts ranked India as the most dangerous UN member country for women and girls.
Any goodwill that House Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) momentarily garnered by rebuking Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from those offended by her anti-Semitic June 7 tweet has been resoundingly undone, thanks to his latest gaffe.
More concerned with maintaining the facade of Democratic Party unity, Schneider—in the most obsequious of gestures—actually joined Omar and other progressives in issuing a letter to Secretary of State Blinken calling on the Biden administration to create the position of “Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Islamophobia.”
This was a case of Schneider’s rubbing salt in the wound, as the position whose creation he was embracing is modeled on the existing office of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, created in 2004.
Schneider—a practicing Jew, elected by Jews and from a congressional district with one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the state of Illinois—had appropriately labeled Omar’s vile comparison of the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban as “offensive and misguided.” Omar called Schneider’s proper rebuke “Islamophobic.”
In his eagerness to welcome Omar back into the tent, however, Schneider unwittingly committed the same offense for which he had lambasted her. By equating the totally fraudulent offense of Islamophobia with the very real data as it pertains to anti-Semitism, he ignored the gross imbalance that exists between the two.
The most recent FBI statistics show that anti-Arab hate crimes in 2019 represented a mere 2.6 percent of the total. In contrast, anti-Jewish acts of hatred constituted 60 percent.
According to the report “Terrorism by the Numbers,” published by World101, on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations, political Islamists acting under the dictates of Shariah law have been responsible for acts of terror that have left approximately 214,470 dead globally. This would include fatalities from the recent showering of more than 4,000 missiles at Israeli population centers in May by Islamist Iranian proxy Hamas.
A 2013 Pew survey of 11 Muslim-majority nations indicated that many citizens of those countries oppose Islamic extremism—from 75 percent on the high side to 38 percent on the low side. Given that the global Muslim population is estimated at 1.4 billion, would it be unreasonable for non-Muslims to be concerned with the percentage who, to varying degrees, support Islamist extremism?
Islamophobia is a label, insidiously designed by political Islamists to staunch the flow of dialogue related to this legitimate concern.
Omar’s plan is to create another organ of government empowered to police all conversation pointed at the anti-Western excesses of political Islam. The above staggering numbers are proof that the dialogue on political Islam needs to see more daylight, not less.
It is unfathomable for Schneider to consent to a plan that will allow Omar to handcuff him and others in the effort to provide that daylight. Censoring the right to raise uncomfortable questions is not the way to keep Americans, especially Jewish Americans, safe.
If Omar has her way and Schneider is ever again moved to call out her anti-Semitic epithets, it is she who will be placing handcuffs on him.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed legislation (S.3086/A.3891) raising the age of consent to be married in New York State to 18. This new measure builds upon legislation eliminating child marriage that the Governor signed in 2017 by removing the ability for 17-year-olds to be married with parental and judicial consent.
“This administration fought hard to successfully end child marriage in New York and I’m proud to sign this legislation to strengthen our laws and further protect vulnerable children from exploitation,” Governor Cuomo said. “Children should be allowed to live their childhood and I thank the many legislators and advocates who worked diligently to advance this measure and further prevent forced marriages in this state.”
This legislation takes effect 30 days after becoming law and will apply to licenses issued after that date and marriages that had not been solemnized prior to that date.
Senator Julia Salazar said, “Regardless of maturity level, minors lack sufficient legal rights and autonomy that they need to protect them if they enter a marriage contract before becoming adults. The vast majority of minors who enter a marriage are teenage girls, and getting married before adulthood often has devastating consequences for them. I thank Governor Cuomo for signing this bill to finally prohibit child marriage without exceptions in New York, and commend the continued work of Unchained At Last in advocating to prohibit child marriage nationwide.”
Assembly Member Phil Ramos said, “The cruel and callous practice of child marriage has traumatized too many children to count. Nalia’s Law, which will raise the age of consent for marriage to 18 and prohibit marriage if either person is underage, is named after one brave survivor of forced child marriage who I was lucky enough to meet. With the passage of this crucial legislation, minors in New York will be further protected from this predatory practice, and we can prevent stories like Nalia’s from repeating themselves.”
Far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir (Religious Zionism) was forcefully removed from the Knesset podium and ejected from the plenary hall Monday night after he called the Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi, who was chairing the session, a “terrorist.”
Ben Gvir, who took to the podium during a debate on coronavirus restrictions, began his address by saying, “With the permission of the Knesset speaker, Mr. minister, your excellency,” referring to the dignitaries in the hall but notably not to Tibi, who, as deputy Knesset speaker, was filling in at the time for speaker Mickey Levy.
Tibi, who heads the Ta’al faction in the predominantly Arab Israeli Joint List party, interrupted Ben Gvir and demanded to be addressed as “Mr. Deputy Speaker,” as is Knesset tradition.
Ben Gvir responded, “You are a terrorist, not a sir or a Mr. You should be in the Knesset in Syria, not here.”
Tibi then ordered the Knesset Guard to remove Ben Gvir from the podium and then the plenum, but the firebrand MK held on to the podium before being physically dragged from the hall. Levy, who arrived at Tibi’s side, appeared to back him up as Tibi repeatedly demanded that Ben Gvir be forcibly removed from the plenum.
The unrest in the hall continued for several minutes, as MKs from Likud argued with Tibi that he should have sought a more peaceful resolution, while Tibi said he had shown “the utmost restraint” toward an MK who had called him a terrorist.
In a statement following the incident, Ben Gvir refused to back down, saying, “Ahmad Tibi is a terrorist who gave security guards instructions contrary to his authority. This will not pass quietly.”
He continued, “There is no clause in the Knesset rules that requires me to say ‘Mr.’ to whoever is conducting the yeshiva, certainly not if he is a terrorist who was [Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser] Arafat’s adviser and should be in the Syrian parliament.”
Ben Gvir said he would request Levy remove Tibi as deputy Knesset speaker for abusing his authority.
Tibi also released a statement, slamming Ben Gvir for his slur and for refusing to leave the plenum, forcing the Knesset Guard to remove him.
“This is disgusting, violent and racist behavior that must be stopped,” Tibi said, adding that the incident would be brought before the yet-to-be-formed Knesset Ethics Committee.
Ben Gvir entered the Knesset in March’s election after merging his far-right Otzma Yehudit party with Religious Zionism, in a deal brokered by then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Otzma Yehudit is made up of followers of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane, a former MK whose Kach party was banned from the Knesset in the 1980s — the first instance of a party being banned for racism. Otzma Yehudit supports encouraging emigration of non-Jews from Israel and expelling Palestinians and Israeli Arabs who refuse to declare loyalty to Israel and accept diminished status in an expanded Jewish state whose sovereignty extends throughout the West Bank.
Rav Moshe Shternbuch was addressing the kollel guys of "Kollel Zechor Avraham" run by R' Pinchas Samit, and urged them to learn "halacha le'maaseh" halacha's that are in the here and now.
He told them of a Din Torah about a Sholom Bayis issue, between a kollel guy and his wife.
During the discussions between the Bais Din and the young couple it was discovered that the kollel guy wasn't at all knowledgeable in halacha and specifically Hilchos Shabbos.
The father of his wife wanted to renege on his promise of buying them a dira, since his condition to the shidduch was that his daughter was going to marry a "Talmud Chacham, " but he has since discovered that yes, he was the top kollel guy in Yeshivas Chevron, but was only great in "pilpul of sugyois" but was a total ignoramus in basic hilchas shabbas, and when he wanted to know a halacha on shabbos he turned to his educated wife for a psak halacha. What good is it to be the top bachir in Yeshivas Chevron and at the same time be a big "am haaretz"
צורבא מדרבנן, עם הארץ מדאורייתא
The KOF-K Kashrut Organization, which provides certification to Ben & Jerry’s, responded on Monday to calls on the organization to pull their certification of the ice cream following parent company Unilever’s decision to boycott Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.
The organization said it will not be pulling its certification at this time, but will use its influence to ensure that the new policy from Ben & Jerry’s will never be implemented.
“Although Ben and Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever announced that they will not be leaving Israel, the KOF-K is quite concerned about Ben & Jerry’s decision not to sell to Yehuda and Shomron as of January 1, 2023. Unilever has committed that the company will adhere to their contract. The KOF-K has been in contact with the Israeli Government and the Yesha Council to determine the most effective way to respond. Based on the advice of the Yesha council the KOFK will continue to fulfill its contractual obligations to Ben & Jerry’s while using its influence to make sure that this anti-Israel policy never becomes implemented. The KOF-K has expressed to Unilever and Ben and Jerry’s CEOs the negative repercussions of this policy,” the statement said.
“We encourage everyone to advocate on behalf of Israel. Please address your concerns about this policy directly to Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s. This is a highly volatile situation and the KOF-K remains in contact with the Israeli Government and the Yesha Council as the most prudent way to make sure the policy never becomes implemented,” it added.
A number of supermarket chains have already announced that they will no longer stock Ben & Jerry's products following its controversial decision to boycott Judea and Samaria, including Glatt Express Supermarket, Seasons, Morton Williams Supermarkets, and others.
In addition, several US states have taken action against Ben & Jerry’s. The Texas State Comptroller announced this past Thursday that the government is examining whether the Ben & Jerry's ice cream company violated the state's anti-BDS laws.
n Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has calledon the State Board of Administration (SBA) to immediately place Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever on the Continued Examination Companies that Boycott Israel List and initiate the process to place both companies on the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List.
Other states, including Illinois and New Jersey, are also reportedly considering stopping their state investment in Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever.
Pro-Syria news outlets in Lebanon reported recently that Moscow is taking a new tactic with regards to Israel's attacks in Syria.
Last week, a "well-informed" Russian source has told London's Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Russia has "run out of patience" with Israel's strikes on Syria, after receiving the impression that "Washington does not welcome the continuous Israeli raids."
The report added that as a result of this impression, Russia is now supplying Syrian forces with more advanced anti-missile systems, to aid them in shooting down the Israeli armaments.
In addition, another senior Russian source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Russia has begun helping the Syrian government "close Syrian airspace to Israeli planes." The source added that the decision "is directly connected to the summit between President Putin and President Biden last month."
According to the reports, the communication line for early coordination between Israel's security forces and Russian security forces in Syria no longer exists, since it operated thanks to the direct connection between former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who now heads the opposition, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who saw eye-to-eye with Netanyahu on the issue of preventing Iran's entrenchment in Syria.
A senior Russian official was quoted by Lebanese media as saying that "the early coordination with Israel ended the moment the new government was formed and Netanyahu resigned from his position. You could say that today our connection with the Israeli forces which are on the Israeli side of the border with Syria is completely concrete and interest-based."
The Russian sources told the newspaper that "Moscow was cautious" with regards to Israel's attacks in Syria, "since Israel had a direct line" to Washington, "and coordinated all actions with the US. Now that Russia has a direct connection to the Americans to coordinate, we succeeded in confirming the belief that Washington does not give its blessing to these attacks."
Lady Kitty Spencer, an English fashion model and niece of Princess Diana, married her long-time beau, Michael Lewis, in Italy over the weekend.
The wedding was held at the Villa Aldobrandini near Rome Saturday, with an extravagant ceremony, almost a year and a half after the couple announced their engagement in early 2020. As early as June 2019, Spencer had been photographed wearing an engagement ring purchased by Lewis.
Lewis, 62, was previously married and has three children from his first marriage. Lewis married his first wife, Leola, in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in 1985, before He has been chairman of the Foschini Group, a South African clothing retail group, for the past six years. His father, Stanley Lewis, bought a controlling share of the group in the 1980s.
Spencer, 30, the daughter of Charles Spencer – the 9th Earl Spencer and brother of Princess Diana – was reportedly preparing to convert to Judaism ahead of her marriage to Lewis. While sources cited by the Sunday Times in 2020 said Spencer was receiving ‘religious instruction’ ahead of her wedding, it is unclear whether she underwent a conversion prior to her marriage.
Spencer has been photographed attending the synagogue Lewis is affiliated with.
The final victim of the condo building collapse in Florida has been identified, a relative said Monday, days after rescuers concluded the painstaking task of removing layer after layer of dangerous debris and pulling out 98 bodies.
Estelle Hedaya A”H, an outgoing 54-year-old, was the last victim identified, ending what her relatives described as a torturous four-week wait. Her younger brother, Ikey Hedaya, confirmed the identification to The Associated Press. He had given DNA samples and visited the site twice to see the search efforts for himself.
“She always mentioned God anytime she was struggling with anything,” he said. “She had reached a different level spiritually, which allowed her to excel in all other areas.”
Her brother said he is drawing strength from God, just as he’d seen his sister do in troubling times.
Dr. Brad Cohen, z’l, was the second last Jewish victim from the Surfside condo collapse to be buried last week. The last Jewish missing victim was identified on Monday.
Dr. Cohen’s remains were actually found 12 days prior to his burial but the authorities were having difficulty identifying the remains due to the time that had passed since the disaster.
One factor that contributed to Dr. Brad’s eventual identification was a metal tag found next to the body with the words: “From: Rabbi A. D. Davis, Children’s Town, Jerusalem, Israel, Kikar H’Shabbat reported.
The rescuers working at the site decided to locate the “Rabbi Davis” on the tag and they contacted rescue services in Israel for assistance, who in turn contacted the director of Children’s Town, HaRav Aharon Dovid Davis.
When the rescue authorities at the site spoke to Rav Davis and told him about the tag, he immediately identified the owner as Dr. Brad Cohen, z’l. Rav Davis said the tag was attached to a gift that he gave Dr. Cohen 13 years ago.
Thirteen years ago, Dr. Cohen, z’l, then 38, and his wife Soraya (שתבלח”ט), organized a fundraising event, one of many, for Children’s Town. At the event, the Cohens decided to commit to financially support two children from the home for a year. In appreciation for their generosity, Rav Davis gave the Cohens a gift with the inscribed metal tag attached to it.
Thirteen years later, Dr. Cohen, z’l, merited to be brought to Kever Yisrael in the zechus of the tzedaka he gave to support and educate a yasom.
Of coursed the DemonRats are blaming guns, it's like blaming cars for fatal car accidents .... but if you look carefully over 90% of the shootings took places in States that have the toughest gun control laws, you see, the shooters don't care about "gun control laws" they manage to get guns despite the laws.
At least 915 shootings took place across the country last week, leaving at least 430 people dead, according to ABC News
The shootings, which occurred between Saturday, July 17, and Friday, July 23, wounded 1,007 people, according to ABC.
The stunning numbers illustrate the spike in gun violence across the U.S.
There were more than 43,000 gun deaths in 2020, which was the largest number in at least two decades, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks gun violence data. The number of gun-related deaths, however, is expected to eclipse that record this year, with more than 24,000 gun fatalities already recorded in 2021.
Of the 24,000 individuals who have died from gun violence this year, more than 800 were under the age of 18, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Data shows that 174 of them were under 12 years old.
Some of the incidents on record for this year were mass shootings, which are defined as incidents where four or more people were injured or killed, not including the suspect, according to ABC News.
The Gun Violence Archive is reporting that 18 mass shootings have taken place in 12 cities in the U.S. this week alone, leaving 19 dead and 74 wounded.
Gun violence was prevalent throughout the U.S. this past week, with 47 states and the District of Columbia all being impacted by it.
Gun violence was seen most over the past week in Illinois, with 109 incidents, according to ABC News. Texas was next with 63 incidents, followed by Pennsylvania, California and New York, with 59, 52 and 48 incidents, respectively.
Texas, however, led the states in the most gun-related incidents that led to death, with 35 fatalities, according to ABC News.
Illinois reportedly saw the highest number of people wounded from a firearm, at 124 individuals.
July 18 was the worst day for gun violence in the U.S. last week, according to ABC News. Roughly 22 percent of all gun-related incidents occurred between midnight and 3 a.m.
Biden discussed the surge in gun violence at a town hall event last week. He called the idea that people need weapons that can fire up to 120 shots “ridiculous.”
“I'm continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things. But I'm not likely to get that done in the near term. So here's what I've done. The people who, in fact, are using those weapons are acquiring them illegally. Illegally. And so what happens is, I've gotten ATF out, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. I have them increase their budget and increase their capacity, along with the Justice Department, to go after the gun shops that are not abiding by the law of doing background checks,” Biden said.
He also said his administration is “going to do major investigations and shut those guys down and put some of them in jail for what they’re doing,” referring to shadow gun dealers and gun shops that do not follow the law.
Gun violence also includes suicide, which reportedly makes up 60 percent of adult firearm deaths, according to the Department of Justice, cited by ABC News.
There have been more than 13,500 gun-related suicides this year already, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In 2019, an average of 66 people per day reportedly died by suicide with a gun.
Alleged domestic disputes also reportedly account for a portion of gun violence incidents every year.
Menachem Begin was born in 1913 in Brest, Russia, now Belarus. Motivated by strong Zionist ideological beliefs and the anti-Semitism he saw around him, he became active in the Zionist youth movement, and in 1940 was arrested and imprisoned in a Soviet gulag. His parents and most of the rest of his family were murdered in the Holocaust.
After his release from a Soviet labor camp, he made his way to Israel, then administered by the British under a League of Nations mandate. There, he became a leader in Irgun, an underground Zionist paramilitary organization that had split from the mainstream Zionist movement to pursue the more aggressive goal of forcing the British army out of Israel by publicizing British repression and carrying out acts of violence against British personnel.
When the British Army did leave and the State of Israel was reborn in 1948, Begin became the leader of a conservative political party, Herut (Freedom), which for 30 years was in opposition to the dominant Labor Party. Labor’s reign ended in 1977 when Begin’s newly formed coalition, known as Likud, shocked the Israeli political establishment. Begin became prime minister, largely by organizing and energizing so-called Mizrachi voters—Jews who had immigrated to Israel from the Arab world and North Africa.
During his time in Israel’s top job, Begin showed that he was capable of making both war and peace. Not only did he preemptively attack and destroy an Iraqi nuclear power facility in 1981, but he also made peace with Egypt and Anwar Sadat, the first such accord between modern Israel and an Arab country.
That is the outline of Begin’s life and career, as depicted in compelling detail in “Upheaval.” And these are the lessons I draw from it for our time:
ריזן רעפער געפאוסט אויף אינסטעגרעםhttps://t.co/GkpOWmi5fV pic.twitter.com/gnp35XKm72
— Hasidic2 (@hasidic_1) July 25, 2021
We will IY”H address also the following items at length in following articles: NOTE: Be aware that the KCL and Star-K, does threaten publications that allow the truth to be written about KCL and Star-K kashrus issues. The Lakewood Times & the Lakewood weekly among others were threatened by the KCL Administrator and by the Star-K of Baltimore.
Some history is in order; A Lakewood kashrus organization (LKO) opened under the guidance of Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi ( who doesn’t see eye to eye with BMG’s higherups.) Therefore, the BMG Rosh Yeshiva called in R’ Zeev Rothchild זצ’ל to immediately start a kashrus Organization in Lakewood.
As the saying goes “an Organization that is formed for an illegitimate purpose can only produce an illegitimate result”. Let us see how BMG’S KCL, has done in their many years pretending to be a reliable kosher agency!
NOTE: It may very well be that the catastrophe of the Lakewood kashrus or lack of it, is BMG’s fault, but it’s still your problem.
BMG’s KCL certified Caterers have served Milchig ice-cream after fleishig meal, while being kosher certified. We don’t know if there was a Mashgiach at those affairs. At some Shabbos Kiddush’s, Milchig Danishes were at the fleishig (cholent) Kiddush”, while being kosher certified by the BMG’S KCL.