Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Insurgent Who Toppled Joe Crowley, Is A Strong Critic Of Israel

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the insurgent firebrand who Tuesday toppled the No. 4 Democrat in the House of Representatives, is a strong critic of Israel who denounced the killings of Palestinian protesters as a “massacre.”

Ocasio-Cortez, 28, stunned the political world by decisively beating Joe Crowley, a Queens powerbroker who had been mentioned as a possible future candidate for Speaker of the House.

With about 90% of precincts reporting, Ocasio-Cortez was ahead by 58%-to-42%, making Crowley the first incumbent Democrat to lose his seat this year.

Ocasio-Cortez said she feels as strongly about the killings in Gaza as she would if the slain protesters were in Ferguson, Missouri or in Puerto Rico, where her family has roots.

“Especially in New York people say this is political suicide,” Ocasio-Cortez told Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept, referring to her criticism of Israel. “But I had a lot of my constituents thanking me for taking that position. I had a lot of Jewish Americans who thanked me.”

Israel to bar entry to divorce-refusers

Meir "bugeye" Kin, Get "refuser"

A new law has been passed in Israel barring entry to men who refuse to grant their wives a Get, or traditional Jewish divorce document.

Over the last few months, the bill was drafted and has since been passed through various Committee stages. Now, the Knesset has passed the bill, which will be enshrined in Israeli law.

The legislation was passed on the recommendation of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER).

The CER had previously urged the Knesset to pass an amendment to Israel’s divorce law, with the hope of alleviating the plight of Agunot, or “bound women” who are unable to remarry until they receive the necessary divorce document (the “get”) from their husbands.

Under the new law, a man who has been identified by a Diaspora Rabbinical court as a recalcitrant husband may be detained upon arrival in Israel. The amendment strengthens the power of Israeli law to force recalcitrant husbands to comply with the decisions of Diaspora Rabbinical courts and attend divorce proceedings. Detainment upon entrance to Israel acts as a deterrent to these men and will help to prevent divorce-refusal.

Reflecting on the new law, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, said: “This is a huge step and we are incredibly proud that this idea has now been enshrined in law.”

“It is my fervent prayer that the new law will pave the way to hope for women who seek to live their life free of the shackles of an unwanted and dysfunctional marriage. 

Get -refusal is a form of domestic violence and the global Jewish community must act to protect its women. Israel is the only country whose Rabbinical courts have the power to pressure recalcitrant husbands and the new law will ensure that all men, regardless of their citizenship, feel the force of disgust from the global Jewish community.”

EL AL: Don't want to sit next to women? Don't fly

El Al, Israel’s national airline, has adopted a new policy regarding the handling of male passengers who refuse to sit next to women, following criticism of a series of incidents on a recent flight.

Last Thursday night, four male passengers, all members of the haredi community, refused to take seats assigned to them after they discovered that they had been seated next to female passengers.

Mazal Tov Schumer announces his daughter is marrying another woman

Sen. Chuck Schumer used the occasion of Sunday’s NYC Pride March to announce that his daughter, Alison, will be marrying her fiancée, Elizabeth Weiland. The women plan to walk down the aisle on Nov. 18.

“Marching in the #NYCPride Parade has special meaning this year as I am marching with my daughter Alison and her wonderful fiancée Biz! #HappyPride,” tweeted the politician, who wore a lavender shirt to the pride parade.

Alison, 29, is an executive at Facebook, while Weiland’s LinkedIn page says she is in her second year of an MBA program at Columbia University.

Wonder who will be the Mesader Kiddushin!

One tablespoon of olive oil a day is all you need to slash stroke and cancer risk

Eating one tablespoon of olive oil a day could help you live longer, according to experts.

Olive oil, a key component of the health-giving Mediterranean diet, has long been said to be beneficial to health.

Now, medical consultant Dr Sarah Brewer and dietitian Juliette Kellow claim in their new book 'Eat Better Live Longer' that the oil could add years to your life.

A VOICE FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO: THE LIFE OF CANTOR GERSHON SIROTA

In the summer of 1939, on the eve of World War II, the world-famous cantor Gershon Sirota could look back on a glittering career spanning nearly four decades. He had sung before audiences of thousands all over the world, earning huge fees for his concert appearances and even for his synagogue services. But in December 1942, a few months before he perished during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Ringelblum ghetto archives tell us that he had to turn to a self-help committee for a hand-out, and was given 200 zlotys to buy food for his family.

Costco is selling an avocado that won't spoil before you make guac

Avocados are notorious for spoiling almost immediately after you buy them, and there's nothing more disappointing than cutting into one just to find a shell full of mush. Thankfully it's 2018 and, while we still don't have flying cars, scientists in California have gifted us with avocados that stay ripe for twice as long - and shoppers can find them right at Costco.

Prior to hitting store shelves, each avocado — sold by the Del Rey Avocado Company and treated by Apeel Sciences — is sprayed with a special solution made from fats found in the skins and peels of fruits and vegetables, such as apples and raspberries. This natural substance helps trap moisture inside the fruit and keep it from oxidizing until you cut into it.

Regular avocados stay fresh for three to four days on the shelf and seven to 10 days in the fridge. This new variety reportedly lasts twice as long. Most importantly, they don't come with a hefty price tag. One five-count bag only costs $5 at Costco! Guacamole for days!

Apeel has tested its product on tons of different fruits and vegetables, but decided to roll out avocados first, because, "People have a more visceral reaction to throwing away an avocado than lettuce," CEO James Rogers told BuzzFeed News. The company is hoping their invention will promote more sustainable growing practices, better quality of food, and less food waste.

Reb Reuven Chaim Biller, Z”l, Niftar in Tragic Car Crash

Reb Reuven Chaim was born and raised in Boro Park. His father, ybl”c, Reb Dovid, was one of the original members of Hatzolah.

Sadly, this is not the first time that tragedy has struck the Biller family, as Reb Reuven’s sister, then a young mother, passed away 12 years ago from an illness. During this difficult period, he focused great attention on his grieving parents, helping them to cope with the loss. Those that knew Reb Reuven praised his tremendous kibbud av va’eim.

As a bachur, he studied in the Slonimer Yeshivah in Bnei Brak and formed a close bond to the Slonimer Rebbe and his Chassidus.

He married Shiffy (nee Mayer) tbl”c, and began a career in chinuch. He taught fourth grade for 14 years before becoming a principal in Mosdos Kehilas Yaakov, Pupa in Boro Park.

For the past eight years, Reb Reuven Chaim served as head counselor at Pupa’s summer camp in Swan Lake. Prior to that, he has been a beloved member of the staff of Skverer-Boro Park’s camp. Reb Reuven Chaim was especially well liked by his talmidim and campers who enjoyed his palpable sense of simchas hachaim. To his own children as well, he was remembered as an especially dedicated father who invested great effort in their chinuch.    

Reb Reuven Chaim leaves, ybl”c, his wife and eight children, six of whom are yet unmarried, and the youngest of whom is 4 years old.

Yehi zichro baruch.

Influential Jewish-Conservative Columnist Charles Krauthammer Dead at 68

Parshat Chukat - Shake Yourself Free ... Rise from the Dust ...

by Rabbi Shmuel Knopfler

One of the most profound mysteries of the Bible is the rite of the red heifer, called a Chok (statute) because it belongs to the group of divine decrees which human logic cannot penetrate.

We must be mindful of the fact that all other impurities other than a death impurity find their purification by the defiled individual’s immersing himself or herself in a mikveh, a gathering of freshly running spring water or specially collected life-giving rainwater; in
effect, in all these instances, the defiled individual actually purifies him- or herself!

Only in this rite of the red heifer does the Kohen, representing Hashem Himself, effectuate the purification. It is as though the Torah is teaching that we can save ourselves from many of our weaknesses, we can rise above many of our temptations, but only Hashem can ultimately redeem us from death.

And from this perspective, the symbolism of the red heifer ritual begins to make sense. A heifer is the consummate symbol of life, the cow’s mother-milk serving as the universal expression of maternal nurturing of her young; red is likewise the color of blood, and blood
is the life-force, the very nefesh of the living organism.

However, although human beings come in various shapes, sizes, personalities, and powers – they can be as tall and proud as the cedar tree and as mean and humble as the hyssop plant – the angel of death ultimately conquers them all, because the scarlet thread of human sin condemns each of us to the common destiny of mortality.

Following the sacrifice, the personage of purity gathers the ashes of the remains, mixes them with the life-giving waters of the divine and, born-again, purified life emerges even from the surrealistic specter of death itself. Inherent in this symbolism is that historic Israel –
mother nurturer of the continuity of humanity by means of the Abrahamic “compassionate rightness and moral justice” which Israel taught and must continue to teach – is destined to be slaughtered, but will always rise again to life and to the fulfillment of her mission and destiny.

During the Holocaust, Hitler succeeded in destroying six million of us, but as he records in Mein Kampf, he wasn’t waging a war just against six million Jews. He was waging a war against the last Jew, against Judaism itself, against what he called a slave morality of compassionate righteousness and moral justice, of sensitive concern for the weaker vessels, of an Almighty of ultimate power who insists  upon human protection of the powerless. And in that war, Hitler failed!

Yes, we won that war. Alas, the brilliantly alive “red heifer,” a metaphor for the Jewish people, a people who nurture the world with the milk of morality of the Ten Commandments and the milk of human kindness of “You shall love the stranger” and “You shall love your
neighbor like yourself” was, to a large extent, tragically and  inexplicably slaughtered beyond the “human encampment” in Auschwitz and Treblinka.

But Hashem, the “Personage of Purity” Himself, gathered the ashes, Himself mixed them with living waters of rebirth, and Himself transformed those ashes into the fertile soil of the recreated sovereign State of Israel - "Medinat Yisrael."

And the “Personage of Purity” Himself mixed the ashes with the life-giving wellsprings of Torah, our tree of eternal life, and in addition to our national physical being, likewise revived our spiritual being, and Torah centers to an unprecedented and unparalleled degree all over the world!

B'Ahavat HaTorah V'Haaretz

Shabbat Shalom

Shmuel Knopfler