DNA tests confirm, Jews of Africa belong to the Jewish race

North African Jews

The Jewish people across the world all have very close DNA similarities, according to a new study.

North African Jews are more closely related to Jews around the world, rather than of their non-Jewish neighbors in North Africa, a new study of DNA has found.

In addition, their DNA carries a record of their migrations through the centuries. Some parts of their DNA dates back to the ancient people of the Middle East believed to have migrated to North Africa more than 2,000 years ago, while other bits are connected to Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled to North Africa after their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century, the study authors have said.

The finding is consistent with other research showing that the Jews of Europe and the Middle East share more DNA with each other than with external groups, said Dr. Harry Ostrer, a medical geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and author of the report, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Jews tend to be more interconnected than they are to non-Jews, including non-Jews living in their same area, which is true in all regions," he said.

Ostrer previous work has focused primarily on DNA samples collected from American Jews. Hoping to "catch up" and present a fuller picture of Jewish history and diversity, he and his colleagues analyzed DNA samples from 145 people of Jewish origin from North Africa, from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Djerba which is an island off the coast of Tunisia and Libya.

Comparing the DNA genetic data obtained from a variety of other Jewish groups and non-Jews, they found that the Jewish populations of North Africa have clearly genetic patterns more similar to European and Middle Eastern Jews than non-Jews who currently live in region. The data indicates that, once established in their communities, Jews in this region did not marry their non-Jewish neighbors.

The scientists also found that North African Jews formed two main groups, Morocco and Algeria Jews

shared more DNA with the European Jews as was seen by Tunisia, Libya and Djerba.

This is probably due to the fact that Jews living in West Africa married with Sephardic Jews who fled there after their expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century, the researchers wrote.

Yeshiva University historian Lawrence Schiffman said that the results are well aligned with the historical record.

"It's exciting to see what we know from the history books and that all of it is backed by genetics," he said.

Jewish Doctor dies saving 2 drowning boys

A doctor died while saving two boys.
Dr. Donald Liu did not hesitate when he saw the two children struggling to swim in the rough waters of Lake Michigan.

Despite the objections of his own children, who were concerned about the dangerous conditions, Liu ran along the beach in Berrien County, Michigan, and plunged into the lake to help the boys, who had fallen from a kayak, according to Liu's wife and the authorities.

An elite pediatric surgeon of Chicago, Liu reached the two boys, said his wife, Dr. Dana Suskind. However, the rip current emerging from beneath the waves of 5 feet of water dragged the doctor below the surface, said Bruce McKamey, a police officer from Chikaming municipality.

Emergency personnel who arrived around 10:40 am local time on Sunday, took Liu, 50, from the water and Suskind, who is also a surgeon, performed CPR on her husband of over 17 years. The

children, to who the doctor swam to save, were friends of the family. They did return safely to shore thanks to the help of the doctor. But Liu was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

"It was horrible," Suskind said Monday. "He had the biggest heart. He was a brilliant surgeon, but what was amazing about him was that he was the best father, this was his priority in life, and he loved me with all his heart."

Liu and Suskind belong to a prominent Jewish community in Chicago.

Dov Berish Englander dies while toiveling in the ocean

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi drowned while performing a ritual immersion in the sea off the resort town of Aberystwyth in West Wales.

Dov Berish Englander, 47, described as a highly respected member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in London, on vacation in the picturesque seaside town of Aberystwyth, where he died while diving into the sea, using it as a "mikvah" ritual bath, in the traditional cleansing of the body in a natural water body that symbolizes a return to purity.

A hotel guest called the emergency phone number after seeing Rabbi Englander fighting for his life at sea.

A lifeboat and rescue helicopter arrived and the team took the rabbi out of the water. Paramedics tried to revive him, but the rabbi was pronounced dead at Bronglais General Hospital in Aberystwyth, the news media reported.

Rabbi Berish Englander, of Stamford Hill, north London, was described as "well respected" for his religious knowledge and charity. "He was a rabbi that was categorized as very fair and very, very

prominent and respected in the community," said a member of the community.

"He was a good example to all. He was the kind of man to show as a role model for children," he said. "He was very kind and generous and gave huge amounts of money to charity. He will be missed by all who knew him."

Police said they are not treating the incident as suspicious. In June, the Satmar Rabbi Chaim Breisch died after struggling in the sea off the coastal town of Broadstairs, Kent, about 80 kilometers southeast of London.

Frum Jewish Store Owner found murdered! UPDATED AUG5

A father of four was found dead on the floor the last night in his 99-cent store in Brooklyn, New York police said.

Two customers entered the store at 1877 86th Street in Bensonhurst at 8:45 pm and found Isaac Kadare, 59, unconscious. Doctors found that he had suffered a head injury.

An employee told the news media that he spoke to a detective who said that police were investigating the death as a likely homicide. A police source said police have not ruled out a heart attack followed by a fall.

His family was devastated this morning.
"I do not know what to say. He loved his family, his four children," sobbed his wife, Nancy Kadare, who wanted to celebrate his birthday with him next week.
"He was a hard working man, I do not understand. A person who is alive one day and the next day he is not."

Margarita Roman, 38, who has lived in the building of the store said, Kadare had bought the store 11 years ago.

He operated two stores on the ground floor and rented apartments above,she said.

Neighbors said Kadare had come to the United States from Israel. He and his wife have two teen daughters, a teen son and a daughter that is 10 years old.

"His family is always there," said Roman. "Your children are always there. His wife is always there. They were not there tonight."
After hearing the news yesterday afternoon, relatives of the businessman came rapidly.
"His wife seemed lost, the little girl was crying, not know what was going on,'' said another neighbor.
"They wanted to go into the store, but they were not allowed.”

UPDATE! AUG 5

Police have a suspect in mind in the apparent homicide of Bensonhurst store owner Isaac Kadare.

Kadare, 59, was found dead around 9 p.m. on Thursday by two customers inside the “Amazing 99 cents Deals” store in the 1800 block of 86th Street. He was found shot in the head, the Medical Examiner confirmed with CBS 2.

Police told 1010 WINS that they believe that the same suspect who murdered Kadare also killed a Bay Ridge shopkeeper on July 6. The suspect description is similar, and ballistics tests confirm that the same .22-caliber gun was used in both murders.

Strangely the addresses of the two shops are similar, with the first owner killed at 7718 Fifth Avenue and the second businessman killed at 1877 86th Street.

Mazel Tov to Klall Yisroel on the Siyum Ha'Shaas

 Some 90,000 people packed MetLife Stadium to celebrate the completion of the page-a-day Talmud cycle in the largest-ever Siyum HaShas.

The gathering Wednesday evening, which was simulcast to some 60 U.S. cities and more than 20 countries, marked the completion of the 7 1/2-year cycle it takes to complete the Talmud (known collectively as Shas) at the rate of a folio -- two sides of a page -- per day. The program, known as Daf Yomi, was begun by the late Rabbi Meir Shapiro in 1923, and the first siyum, or completion, was celebrated in Lublin, Poland, in 1930. This year's siyum -- the cycle technically ends Thursday -- celebrated the completion of the 12th cycle since that time.

"Fortunate is the person who sees, who experiences, this great gathering," said Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz, the emcee of the event. "Try to visualize the singing and dancing that's going on right now in shamayim [heaven] watching tens of thousands celebrating the masechtos [tractates] they worked on so diligently!"

The stadium event consisted mostly of speeches in English and Yiddish and short video tributes, including to the late Jerome Schottenstein, to whom the event was dedicated and whose family sponsored the ArtScroll English translation of the Talmud. No women appeared onstage or on the videos, but several thousand women were seated in an upper tier of the stadium outfitted with curtains that were pulled closed during the prayer services that opened the event.

Rabbi Malkiel Kotler of the Beth Medrash Govoha, a yeshiva in Lakewood, N.J., taught the final section of the Talmud to the crowd. Once the ceremony was complete, the crowd erupted in thunderous singing and dancing.

The new Daf Yomi Talmud cycle begins Friday with page 2 (all Talmudic tractates begin on page 2) of Tractate Brachot.

Mass Jewish grave, Jews murdered by the Romans during destruction of 2nd Bais Hamikdash, Found!

A mass grave most probably of massacred Jews was found on the Temple Mount.

The remains of thousands of Jews massacred by the Romans on the Temple Mount during the destruction of the Second Temple may have been recovered, according to veteran archaeological reporter.

According to an Israeli news media source, a video clearly shows thousands of human skeletons in what appears to be a mass grave.

The reporter told the audience, that the film had been shot in an underground cave in the area of the Gate of Mercy, a sealed door in the wall of the Old City in Jerusalem, opposite Mount of Olives, near the east wall of the Temple Mount, the news media reported. He raised the possibility that the skeletons were the remains of 6,000 Jews, mostly women and children that were killed on the Temple Mount, when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple.

The slaughter is described in the writings of Josephus Flavius, a Jewish general of the Jewish forces  who witnessed the destruction.

The film shows archeologists enter the cave, followed by a lighting technician and camera. The three first pass through a narrow hallway and then enter the cave with clearly visible human remains. As soon as he left the cave, the Israel Antiquities Authority or IAA, staff resealed the entrance to it, he said.

The Romans stayed on the Temple Mount for a month after the destruction of the Temple and then  

went on to conquer of the upper city.

They had to get rid of the thousands of decaying bodies and the most obvious place to do this would have been the natural caves in the hillside, around the Gate of Mercy.

Couple watched in horror as their front lawn suddenly falls down a cliff.Video

The front yard just disappeared in front of their eyes.
A couple of Whidbey Island has spent the last week watching the front yard disappearing, falling piece by piece over a cliff 200 feet deep.

The worst is that they were unable to stop it.

Rosalee Ballinger has seen the pieces fall. She sees the hole 50 feet wide, where a tree 500 years old, once stood.

Her husband, Roy, said it started a week ago.

"Suddenly one day, there was a geyser that squirted probably 25, 30 feet in the air," he said.

The geyser seemed to come from nowhere.

"We cried and laughed," said Rosallee. "I do not know what we will do. It's devastating, absolutely devastating."

Roy said he did not think it will get his home destroyed, but said his store, that he calls his pride and joy, is definitely on the path of destruction.

"I know of no way to stop it," he said. "Only God will have to stop it."

The fire department is concerned about the decline, too. Hidden in the earth is a propane tank 

underground. On Wednesday morning the tank was 12 feet from the edge, but this afternoon it was just 12 inches.

"It could explode a valve, or slip down the slope innocently. We do not know," said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Cotton.

The water department and the fire department checked all the lines in the area and found no leaks. They say the likely cause is a natural spring that apparently changed its course.

There are no homes below the Ballinger property.

Frum Girl running for New York State Senate!

An ultra-tan and, like, totally cool 22-year-old from Brooklyn is running for state Senate, landing on the usually stuffed-shirt political scene in an explosion of pink and bling — and sporting a Web site that’s more “Legally Blonde” than “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

“I’m Senator and I Know It,” newbie candidate Mindy Meyer’s Web site declares in tricked-out letters as an instrumental version of LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” plays.

The clearly fun-loving, Orthodox Jewish law-school student cites Rudy Giuliani as her political idol and hails Reese Witherspoon’s character in the comic movie “Legally Blonde” for showing her that “you can take pink and make it sophisticated.”

n one photo on MindyMeyer4Senate.com, the cute candidate is superimposed over the dome of the US Capitol — not the Senate chamber she’s running for in Albany.

In another photo, she’s holding a bow and arrow as Katniss from the “Hunger Games,” alongside her position on poverty and unemployment: “No more ‘Hunger Games’ in our district!”

Meyer may be a political neophyte, but “I can tell you one thing, I have no experience in corruption,” says the Touro College alum, who majored in political science.

The site also claims: “A lifelong Flatbush resident, Mindy is the first young woman in the history of New York to run for New York State Senate.”

Meyer, who works for a Flatbush real-estate lawyer, said her Web site “was 100 percent my own. We need to get young people involved in politics. The Senate doesn’t have to be a senior citizens home.”

She said she “fell asleep” looking at other state senators’ Web sites. She called hers “substantive — the only difference is it’s actually exciting.”

Running as a Republican and Conservative, Meyer will face Democratic incumbent Kevin Parker.

Parker didn’t return calls from The Post but told the Web site City & State he’s taking her campaign seriously.

“Every challenge is a credible challenge,” he said. “This is the American democratic process, but I don’t know Ms. Meyer at all. She is rather young.”

But her candidacy is making Brooklyn’s Conservative Party chairman very happy.

“She’s a law-school student, she’s extremely intelligent, she is very focused on this race, and I’m excited to have a candidate who’s getting all this attention!” gushed Jerry Kassar.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/pink_can_gal_bold_sen_bid_mqhoZFFgQxFqtFGkiiFqtO#ixzz21ZaRWPkZ

'Batman shooter' worked at Jewish camp

James Holmes, who allegedly murdered 12 people in Colorado movie theater on Friday, worked at Jewish summer camp.

The alleged shooter who killed 12 in a crowded Colorado movie theater worked at a Jewish summer camp for underprivileged children.

James Holmes spent a summer working as a counselor for Camp Max Straus in Glendale, Calif., which is run by Jewish Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

Holmes, 24, is suspected of setting off a smoke bomb late Thursday night in a midnight screening in Aurora, Colo. of the new Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" and then opening fire on the crowd, killing 12 and injuring dozens. He was arrested early Friday morning

In a statement to The Los Angeles Times, Randy Schwab, chief executive of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles and director of Camp Max Straus, said of Holmes: "His role was to ensure that these children had a wonderful camp experience by helping them learn confidence, self-esteem and how to work in small teams to effect positive outcomes," he said. In a later e-mail, he added: "That summer provided the kids a wonderful camp experience without incident."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent a letter to US President Obama on Saturday, expressing his condolences and those of the Israeli people to the families of the Americans who were murdered in the Aurora movie theater.                                                                                                   

"All Israelis stand alongside the American people in mourning over this terrible tragedy which claimed the lives of so many. We well understand the pain and loss that you are experiencing," Netanyahu wrote.

Monsey Pedophile, Shmul Dym withdrawing guilty plea!

A 21-year-old confessed pedophile from Monsey, New York wants to withdraw the guilty plea he entered, the Journal News reports.

Shmul Dym pleaded guilty in June to two felony counts of sexual conduct against a child and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He admitted in court to repeatedly touching the genitals of two young brothers, one 6-years-old and the other 8-years-old.

Rockland County prosecutors reportedly will oppose Dym’s bid to withdraw his guilty plea when the case returns to court Wednesday.

He could have been sentenced to as much as 14 years in state prison, but instead was offered a sentence consisting of no prison time and 10 years’ probation in what prosecutors said was an attempt on their part to save the young children from having to testify in court.

Dym would have also been compelled to register as a sex offender. His younger brother Betzalel is already registered as a Level sex offender after being convicted of repeatedly molesting a young boy six years ago.

Shmul Dym now wants to withdraw his plea and go to trial, his attorneys Kenneth Gribetz and Deborah Wolikow Loewenberg said.

The attorneys said that Dym has retained new counsel from Maryland

Gribetz was once the county’s district attorney. Loewenberg is a former prosecutor.

The two said they asked state Supreme Court Justice William A. Kelly on on July 17 to remove them from the case, but the judge refused to do so until Dym’snew attorney had actually notified the court that Dym had retained him.

Rockland County D.A. Thomas Zugibe noted that to have his guilty plea voided, Dym will have to show that it wasn’t made voluntarily.

He also reportedly said that he was confident his prosecutors would convict Dym if the case does go to trial.

The victims’ parents were harassed and pressured by some local rabbinical leaders to drop the charges against Dym, the D.A. said. Among the threats made was to ostracize the family from their religious community, he said.

“It would be a travesty to put the victims and their families through this emotional roller coaster, again. They were intimidated not to cooperate and they did cooperate. We’re going to vigorously oppose letting him withdraw his plea,” Zugibe reportedly said.