Beit Shemesh “Superbus” Driver Suspected of Hitting Children On His Bus

A bus driver in Beit Shemesh is suspected of hitting children who were traveling on his bus on Wednesday. An eye witness alerted the father of one of the children to the situation after the fact and told him that she is willing to testify against the driver in court due to the severity of what he did. The father filed a complaint with the police.

A group of approximately 10 children boarded the route 19 bus operated by Superbus on Nachal Oz Street in Ramat Beit Shemesh. According to reports in BChadrei Charedim based on an eyewitness’s recounting, the driver got up, approached the children, hit two of them, and returned to his position to keep driving after yelling at the children to sit down and not wander around the bus.

Police told BChadrei Charedim that they have opened an investigation into the incident in order to determine what exactly happened.

Mayor Leon Will Change Name of "Har Nof" to "Neot Yosef"

Residents of Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood are in an uproar over a sudden decision by Mayor Moshe Lion to change the neighborhood’s name to “Neot Yosef” in memory of both Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a leader of Sephardi Jewry and the Shas political party, and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.

The announcement was made on the sixth anniversary of Ovadia Yosef's passing. The decision will come before the Naming Committee of the Jerusalem Municipality on Tuesday and the official name change should occur in the near future when it is approved by the city council.

The residents of Har Nof who spoke to The Jerusalem Post requested to remain anonymous, as they felt that having their names publicized could put them at risk.

“A name is not something bought with money or given as a gift,” said Y., a neighborhood resident. “A name is something that people who were born there, grew up there, and have lived there for 35 years connected to emotionally. The name influences the character of the neighborhood.”

Coming to Israel? You Can Basically Eat In Any Restaurant That Has A Kashrut Supervision Certificate ... YES EVEN From THE RABBANUT!

In this article I will discuss the kashrut system in Israel, and explain the need for a kashrut certificate for food, and the difference between a standard kashrut certificate and a mehadrin kashrut certificate (the most stringent level of kosher supervision).

The general rule is that when a business operator has a financial incentive to cheat, supervision is required to ensure he does not do so. 

For that reason, the Torah commanded that merchants be supervised to make sure their weights are accurate, so as not to deceive buyers (Deuteronomy 25:15; Baba Batra 89a).

This does not mean venders and food manufacturers are not be trusted at all, for if so, supervision would be required at all times, and even the supervisors would have to be supervised lest they are dishonest, ad infinitum. 

Actually, the foundation of everything is basic trust in people, requiring reinforcement by means of supervision when they face financial temptation.

Why Isn't There Any Butter in Israel? .. Mystery Solved

Israel’s butter and ingredients to make butter are on Amber Alert for almost a year. 

I believe they are largely being exported to China and elsewhere including Walmart. 

In part, Israel is contributing to China’s food security program and thus to stabilization. Tnuva might be saving China from threats to its authoritarian leadership by exporting dairy products.

Butter made in Israel has been missing from supermarket shelves for nearly a year. 

It is a surprising turn of events since Tnuva is the largest dairy food manufacturer in Israel. Butter and cottage cheese are the company’s momma staples. Tnuva sales account for 70% of the country's dairy market. The Israel Antitrust Authority once labeled Tnuva a monopoly. 

State-owned China’s Bright Foods owns a controlling interest in Tnuva. The behemoth of food security has the power and authority to order Tnuva management to ship products wherever. 

Efraim Stern From London Asks Israel's "Mishmar Ha'Gvul" Border Security to Stop Satmar Rebbe's Entry to Israel

Mr. Efraim Stern of London has written an official letter to the Israeli Commander of Border Patrol, Kubi Shabtai,  requesting the denial of entry of Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg to the Jewish State this coming week.

In his letter, Stern indicated the Rebbe's constant undermining the very existence of the Jewish State and the Rebbe's efforts to have the government of Israel overthrown...... a crime that would be vigorously investigated and prosecuted in any other country.

ימים אלה שלח אדם בשם אפרים שטרן מלונדון בקשה לקובי שבתאי מפקד משמר הגבול בקשה שימנע את כניסתו של האדמו"ר הזאלוני מסאטמאר לישראל. בבקשתו הוא מפרט את הפעולותו שעושה הזאלוני נגד מדינת ישראל

במכתבו מציין שטרן כי הזאלוני מגיע לישראל לעודד מי שיתנגדו לעצם קיומה של המדינה ושיעשו כל מה שהם יכולים להחריבה ולכן יש למנוע את כניסתו

Mafia Cop Who Brutally Murdered Diamond Dealer Israel Greenwald Drops Dead In Jail Hospital

Mafia cop Louis Eppolito — who along with his partner Stephen Caracappa helped whack several men for the Lucchese crime family — died on Sunday while serving a life sentence in federal prison, law-enforcement sources told the Post. He was 71.

The ex-NYPD detective was serving a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson for the eight contract killings that he and Caracappa helped carry out starting in the 1980s.

“Louis died in a hospital with dignity and caring people around him,” his wife, Frances Ann Eppolito, told The Post.

Israel, an Orthodox Jew, was married with two young daughters living in Far Rockaway, NY. He was a devoted husband and loving father and was known for being charitable and kind. He was also very hard working and built himself a successful diamond business called Blue River Inc. where he had an impeccable reputation.

In 1985 a Hassidic jeweler and friend of Israel named “HT” (name has been changed) asked Israel to deposit a bond for him as a favor on one of his frequent business trips to Europe. Unbeknownst to Israel, the bond was stolen. After depositing it and returning back to the U.S., Israel was questioned by FBI at customs about the bond and where it came from. He told the FBI that he had been given the bond by a friend. The FBI told him that he has to cooperate and tape record his friend telling him where it came from and where the money went.  Unaware of how dangerous “HT” really was and who was behind this whole scheme, Israel angrily confronted him and expressed his anger for duping him into doing something illegal and pressed him for the names of who was behind this scheme. He tried to convince him to just come clean and tell the FBI the truth. “HT” refused to divulge that information claiming that he feared for his life and if he would talk he would be killed.(* see below) At some point Israel was forced by the FBI to tape record “HT” admitting to something, but it was unsuccessful and it is unclear from the tape exactly what happened. Did his friend discover the tape? Why did it suddenly stop recording? Only “HT” knows the truth.

What is certain is that Israel did not know that “HT” was working directly under another Hassid named “Banda” who was one of the men behind the T-bond scam. According to testimony during the mafia cops trial, Banda was working with criminal mastermind and later the star witness of the mafia cops trial Burt Kaplan. When his friend told Banda about what had happened, the word got back to Kaplan who feared that everything would go bust now and he would end up in big trouble if Greenwald cooperated with the FEDS. Kaplan, whom never even met Israel Greenwald, decided to get rid of him himself. According to his testimony, he did not tell Banda about his plans to kill Israel, he merely said “Give me his information: Let me talk to him, I’ll convince him to go away on a long vacation”.

Kaplan remembered a guy named Frank Santora who he met back in his prison days. Santora had mentioned to him that he had a cop cousin who would do “work” for money. He called Santora and told him he had a problem that had to be dealt with. Santora contacted his cop cousin Louis Eppolito and partner Stephen Caracappa who said “It’ll be easy without a doubt.” and then, using the police database they got all the information they needed to know about Israel Greenwald (his home address, car make, etc.).

On Monday morning, Feb. 10, 1986 the cops and Santora followed Israel as he was driving to work and pulled him over using their badges. They pretended to arrest him citing that someone fingered him as a hit and run and he has to come to the station to clear it up. Israel willingly went with them, not knowing he was being led to his own execution. It was then that they took him to a Brooklyn garage on Nostrand Avenue, belonging to Pete Franzone (a hard working, non-criminal man who was friendly with Santora) where Greenwald was shot and buried.

His daughter, Andrea Eppolito-Fisher, mourned her father’s death in a Facebook post Sunday.

Trump Administration Offers $20 Million Reward For Jewish American Missing In Iran

The Trump administration on Monday offered a reward of up to $20 million for information about Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, and imposed new sanctions on leading Iranian officials as relations deteriorated further on the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.

The reward for help solving the Levinson disappearance and the sanctions also come as Iran said it was doubling the number of advanced centrifuges it operates to produce nuclear fuel, trimming the time experts believe that the Islamic Republic would need to have enough material to build a nuclear weapon.

The State Department claims Levinson was taken hostage in Iran with the involvement of the Iranian regime. The Iranian government has never acknowledged arresting him. Combined with a $5 million reward already in place from the FBI, this makes a total of $25 million available to the person or persons providing information about Levinson.

Worker Falls To His Death In Ramat Beit Shemesh Construction Site

A worker at a Beit Shemesh construction site fell to his death at about 11:00AM Monday morning, November 4, 2019. 

The fatal accident occurred in Ramat Beit Shemesh Daled.

ZAKA Beit Shemesh volunteer Dov Landau reported that the 43-year-old man fell to his death from the fifth floor of the site. When he arrived, MDA was trying to save the man, who sustained multisystem trauma from the fall.

The victim was pronounced dead on the scene.

Frum Guy Kills Deer On Palisades Parkway

It was a fatal ending for the deer, but thankfully, this driver of this vehicle did what a person is supposed to do in such an incident, and prevented serious personal injury.

The Jewish driver was on the Palisades Parkway heading to Monsey on Sunday night, when a deer jumped out in front of the vehicle. Natural instinct for drivers is to swerve. but studies show that more serious crashes occur when drivers swerve to avoid an animal. Swerving could cause you to lose control of your vehicle and possibly roll over or hit another car or object.

Deer often fixate on headlights, so it may not be effective enough to just flash your lights. Since they’re easy to spook, brake firmly and honk your horn.

If you are driving and a deer is in your path, stay in your lane even if it means striking the deer. Brake firmly, taking your foot off the brake just before you hit the deer (this action should slightly elevate the nose of your vehicle, helping to reduce the chances of the deer hitting your windshield).

Watch the video below, and hopefully never strike a deer – but if you do, this is how to do it.

No more dead ends: Israeli app helps navigate graveyards

An Israeli-developed app offers turn-by-turn voice directions to help cemetery visitors navigate large graveyards in search of a loved one's resting place.

 "It will change everything," said Yehuda Hanfling, a service manager for Chevra Kadisha, the main group that oversees Jewish burials in Israel. The app, 'Gravez' is only available in Israel for now, but its developers plan to expand globally.

For a person visiting a grave or making their way to a funeral, finding the exact location can be tough in a large cemetery that is constantly changing.

"People who haven't been to graves for years and want to reach (the grave) get lost because graves have been added, paths have been added everywhere," Hanfling said. Chevra Kadisha began operating the app in September.

By providing real-time, turn-by-turn directions on smartphones, Gravez aims to save cemetery goers a lot of stress, and time, in reaching the grave they are looking for.

The developers, Corido, used drones and image processing tools to map over 1.3 million graves in 30 cemeteries in Israel so far for pedestrian and vehicle navigation, said Guy Liany, partner chief executive of Corido.

"We map all the geographical elements, the paths, the plots, interest points, everything that depicts the outline of the cemetery," said Liany, adding that the cemetery managers constantly update the system.

A cemetery that contains an average of 30 thousand to 40 thousand graves can be mapped within several days. The app is free for private users but cemetery operators need to purchase the system. The price depends on the size of the grounds.

The app can also suggest nearby parking and provide on-screen prayers traditionally said by the grave. The developers plan in the future to provide paid services like flower delivery or cleaning and renovating tombstones.