AOC Throws Schumer Under The Bus!

High-level Democrats said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) may primary Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) or Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), according to a report.

Top Democrats reportedly told Axios that they expect the progressive and freshman Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to primary Sen. Schumer in 2022 or Sen. Gillibrand in 2024. Gillibrand continues to campaign for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, despite her low polling numbers across the country.

Ocasio-Cortez has made national fame for her primary victory against former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), who was expected to one day hold a high-ranking House leadership position such as House speaker or House majority leader.

The report arises as a Harris poll for Axios found a rising interest in socialism, especially among women. The survey found that 55 percent of women aged 18 to 54 approve of more progressive policies.

How A Talmud Of Reb Chaim Brisker (An anti-Zionist) Wrote a Pro-Zionist Sefer!

Epitaph on Tombstone of Rabbi Eliezer Don Yahya in Ludza (Lutzin)

צנא מלא ספרא

כלו ספרא מבעל —-מגזע רבני מחבר אבן שתיה הרב הגאון ר’ אליעזר בהרב ר’ שבתי דון יחייא

ויאסף אל עמיו ד’ ימים לחדש תמוז שנת תרפו

from the SefarimBlog

by  Bezalel Naor

In 1901 there appeared in Vilna a 32-page booklet entitled, Ha-Tsiyoniyut mi-nekudat hashkafat ha-dat (Zionism from the Viewpoint of Religion). The author was Yehudah Don Yahya. The final eight pages of the work contain a supplement (Milu’im) by one Ben-Zion Vilner, criticizing the anti-Zionism of the Rebbe of Lubavitch. (One ventures that “Ben-Zion Vilner” is a pseudonym.)

What is remarkable about this manifesto that argues that Zionism is totally compatible with traditional Judaism, is that the author, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Don Yahya, was an intimate student of Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik, a most outspoken opponent of the Zionist movement.

To add to the intrigue, Don Yahya’s grandfather, Rabbi Shabtai Don Yahya of Drissa, had been an ardent Hasid of Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Lubavitch (known by his work of Halakhic responsa as “Tsemah Tsedek”). Yehudah Leib himself would go on to serve as rabbi of the Habad Hasidic community of Shklov. Although, as we shall see, within the Habad community, there were differing responses to Zionism along the fault line of the Kopyst—Lubavitch dispute.

Brave Jewish woman outrages 1.6 billion Muslims on Har Habyit

Lauren Isaacs, 23, a Toronto native, had no idea that during her vacation to Israel she would end up leaving “a mark of disgrace on the forehead of 1.6 billion Muslims,” to quote the Palestinian al-Quds channel, a pro-Hamas station.

Lauren, who works as the Toronto director of Herut Canada, a pro-Zionist organization, went up to the Temple Mount on June 11 with her mother. Excited to be at Judaism’s holiest site, she unfurled her Herut Canada flag, which resembles an Israeli flag, and her mom snapped a picture of her with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

“I wasn’t trying to provoke anyone. I don’t believe that flags incite anything. I think everyone should hold their flags proudly. It’s really a mark of pride,” Lauren told World Israel News.

“I’m a proud Jew, an unapologetic Zionist and I was standing on my holy ground. And when you’re standing on your holy ground I don’t think there’s anything wrong with holding your flag with pride,” she said.

Jews went like ‘meek lambs to gas chambers,’

A Dutch right-wing senator said that Jews during the Holocaust were driven to gas chambers “like meek little lambs.”
Toine Beukering, who on Tuesday joined the Eerste Kamer — the upper chamber of the Dutch parliament — made the assertion in an interview published Saturday by the Telegraaf daily.

A lawmaker for the Forum for Democracy Party, Beukering drifted into the subject during a talk about his candidacy for speaker of the Dutch Senate.

Recalling his long years of service in the armed forces, he said that the Holocaust was one of the reasons he enlisted.

Satmar Rebbe Gives His "Krepel Pshetel" On Shevuois!

Velvel Pasternak Jewish Music Publisher Dies At 86

Musicologist and publisher Velvel Pasternak, who published more than 150 volumes of Jewish music, has died.

Pasternak, who also conducted and arranged music, died on Tuesday in New York City at the age of 86.

He founded Tara Publications in 1971. The goal of the company was the publication, preservation and dissemination of the heritage of Jewish music, the company’s website says.

The earliest publications were collections of Chasidic songs based on recordings arranged and conducted by Pasternak. These were followed by Israeli, Yiddish, Klezmer, Choral, Cantorial and Instrumental music collections. He also published anthologies of Sephardic music, including Ladino, Spanish-Portuguese, and music from Bosnia, Sarajevo, and Calcutta. He also published a volume of Holocaust music.

Entrance to Jerusalem closing to cars for 3 years in July

The entrance to Jerusalem will be blocked to private vehicles starting July 14, likely exacerbating traffic jams leading into the capital, as the government constructs a new entryway into the city.

The thoroughfare will remain closed for three years, although public transportation will continue to function as normal, according to a Monday report by Channel 12.

The construction project will shutter the area between the Chords Bridge and the International Convention Center. An alternative route will open that will pass through Herzl Boulevard and go around the government offices on its way to the city center.

Work began this week on the new road into Jerusalem, touted as one that will “free up the bottleneck” of traffic at the main entrance to the city and significantly mitigate congestion.

Mary Max, wife of famed artist Peter Max, kills herself in Upper West Side apartment

Peter & Mary Max

Mary Max, the wife of world-renowned psychedelic artist Peter Max, killed herself in her Upper West Side apartment over the weekend, police said Monday.

Mary Max, 52, died of nitrogen asphyxiation and was discovered in her apartment on Riverside Drive near West 84th Street on Sunday evening, cops said.

She had been involved in an ugly legal battle with other members of the family over her dementia-afflicted, 81-year-old husband’s artwork.

In a 2015 lawsuit, Max’s stepson, Adam Max, accused Mary of attempting to kill her husband so she could take control of his multimillion-dollar art collection.

In response, Mary accused her stepson — who is three years younger than she is — of stealing $4.3 million worth of artwork that her husband gave her in a prenuptial agreement.

Peter, who married Mary in the late 1990s, grew old and frail in recent years and grew ill during the court cases over his fortune.

Peter Max rose to fame in the art world during the pop art era of the 1960s and 1970s.

He drew extremely wealthy paintings for private organizations, including the NFL, FIFA and cereal companies.

Author of "Making of A Gadol" Passes On

HaGaon HaRav Nosson Kamenetzky ZT”L, son of HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Kamenetzky ZT”L, one of the Gedolei Hador of the previous generation in the United States, was niftar in Yerushalayim on Shabbos.

Rav Kamenetzky was niftar at his home on Sorotzkin Street. The Rav was hospitalized on numerous occasions during recent months.

The rav was born 89 years ago to Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky in Europe, and immigrated with the family to Brooklyn, NY and learned in Yeshivas Torah Vodaas. He made aliyah to Eretz Yisrael at the age of 40, and he was among the founders of Yeshiva Itri in Yerushalayim.

His sefer ‘Making of a Godol’ “גידולו של גדול” was published about 17 years ago, dealing with Gedolei Torah over a period of 150 years from Rav Yisrael Salanter until the beginning of World War I.

The Sefer was banned and placed in Cheirim by Chareidie Gedolim because Rav Kamenetzky wrote the naked truth,  didn't cover up or censor any of his stories about the gedoilim of the previous generation. 

Nine out of ten  Gedoilim who signed the Cheirim couldn’t read English, and and the remaining signature who could read English (Rav Scheinberg zt”l) didn’t read it. 
They all signed after  Rav Elyashiv signed it, who listened to the  askanims version which was based on testimony of a pack of liars. 

The niftar was a brother of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Kamenetzky Shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia, and a member of the Moetzas Gedolei Hatorah.

The levaya took place on motzei Shavuos at 11:30PM from Yeshivas Torah Ohr to Har Menuchos.

תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים

Published on Isru Chag Shavuos from Jerusalem.

Chag Samaich Shavuot