My 12-year-old son has autism, and playdates have always been hard to come by. For this reason alone, I was happy to have him be part of a local bar mitzvah project program that matches neurotypical kids with kids who have disabilities.
The young volunteers receive credit for every playdate completed. I started welcoming kids to our house a few years ago for weekly visits, despite the awkwardness that comes with knowing my child is someone’s mitzvah project.
The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) today blasted Democratic presidential candidate Pete The BUTTigieg after he proclaimed that “the Netanyahu government is turning away from peace” and declared that if he is elected President, the United States would cut U.S. aid to Israel if Israel annexed parts of Judea and Samaria.
"Addressing his foreign policy goals for the first time as a presidential hopeful, The BUTTigieg used an address at Indiana University to assail Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,"
More than a dozen kosher eateries — selling pizza, bagels, falafel and schnitzel — dot Main Street in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens. But a newcomer on the block is sure to turn some heads, and maybe stomachs, too.
Sushi Kingdom & Asian Fusion may look like a typical kosher Japanese joint, but in addition to classic dishes such as salmon avocado and spicy tuna, the menu offers rolls stuffed and topped with traditional Jewish food.
There’s a gefilte fish roll, where the traditional Ashkenazi loaf is wrapped with seaweed and rice and topped with carrot and horseradish. Another roll is topped with such a generous serving of cholent, the heavy bean stew traditionally served on Shabbat afternoons, that it nearly disappears. A falafel-filled roll is deep fried and served atop hummus or tehina.
“We need to stand out from everybody else, so we decided that we’re going to have some special rolls that nobody had them before,” owner Rabbi Nahum Kaziev said.
A massive fire in the Midwood section of Brooklyn torched at least three buildings early Thursday morning, injuring at least 12 people, including a baby.
The blaze broke out just after 4 a.m. and quickly escalated to four alarms.
Video from the E. 17th Street scene showed flames leaping from the roof of one home, and the structure to its left already little more than a charred hulk. Firefighters reported that two roofs had completely collapsed.
There was no word on a cause for the fire, which was still smoldering more than 90 minutes after the FDNY first reported to the scene.
Neighbors were alerted to close their windows - not just for the smoke, but for debris blowing off the houses as the fire reduced them to rubble.
The injuries included nine civilians, one of them a baby, as well as three firefighter. All of the injuries were considered minor.
As of 7:18 a.m. the fire was under control.
The civilians were taken to Maimonides Medical Center for treatment. The Red Cross is also on scene to assist those displaced by the blaze.
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, a Democratic representative for New York’s 9th District which includes Crown Heights, has seemingly flipped on her support for Israel, again.
Clarke, who was touted by Crown Heights politicians as a friend of Israel, is presently a Co-Sponsor to bill H.R. 2407: “Promoting Human Rights For Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation.” She is Co-Sponsoring the bill with Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Who has caused repeated uproar for her anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric.
During the last incident in which Rep Omar had accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of paying members of Congress to support Israel, in addition to an anti-Semitic insinuation, Clarke had stood up with other Democratic politicians to condemn the remarks. Now, she appears to be working with Rep. Omar in her anti Israel agenda.
Yvette Clarke has been in Congress since 2007, and was re-elected recently with the endorsement of Crown Heights politicians.
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.
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.
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.
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.
