Animal accused of vandalizing four NYC synagogues Arrested and charged with hate crime

 

A Brooklyn animal was charged with a hate crime Thursday for allegedly desecrating four synagogues last week, police said. 

Emil Benjamin, 39, is accused of vandalizing the four houses of worship in Midwood with graffiti last Saturday, authorities said. 

The targeted synagogues were Kahal Darkei Noam on Avenue J, Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood on Ocean Avenue, Khal Toras Chaim D’Flatbush on Avenue L and Knesses Bais Avigdor on Avenue J, police said. 

At the last location, Benjamin allegedly broke into the synagogue, graffitied the inside, broke two cabinets and swiped $20, police said.

Cops said the graffiti at all the synagogues included derogatory phrases, but didn’t elaborate.

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Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin announces death of 25-year-old son

 

Thomas Bloom Raskin

The 25-year-old son of U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has died, the congressman’s office said on Thursday.

Thomas Bloom Raskin, a second-year student at Harvard Law School, was remembered as “pure magic” in a statement from his parents. 

“His brilliance and compassion knew no bounds,” the lawmaker and his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, said of their son.

“He passionately loved his family, friends, and animals, and was devoted to the cause of the global poor. We are devastated and demolished to be without him.”

The statement did not provide a cause or manner of death.

Raskin’s office said the congressman and his family are “grateful for the outpouring of support and love from neighbors, constituents, and friends” but asked everyone to “observe strict COVID-19 protocols during this time of grief.”

In addition to his parents, Thomas is survived by his sisters, Hannah and Tabitha, grandparents, Arlene Bloom and Lynn Raskin, and dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, the statement said.

Tributes to the young man and condolences for the family poured in on Thursday night.

“My heart completely shatters for my dear friend @RepRaskin, Sarah, and their family in this devastating loss,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

“Tommy was an incredible and brilliant beam of light. All our thoughts are with the Raskin family, and we pray for support to envelop them in this unimaginable time.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wrote that, “The First Lady and I extend our deepest sympathies over this heartbreaking loss.” 

“I ask all Marylanders to keep the Raskin family in your prayers.”

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Realistic Baby Dolls Will Creep You Out

 

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Yeshivah Bochur's Date Falls Down and Bochur Won't Help Her Get Up ... Girl Drops Him

 

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Israel vaccinates 800,000 people against virus as campaign enters 2nd week

 

As Israel's coronavirus vaccination campaign set to enter its second week, the Health Ministry reported Thursday that almost 800,000 Israelis have been inoculated against the virus so far.

Keeping with a pace of 150,000 injections a day, the ministry reported that about 33% of the country's over 60 population has received the first of the needed two doses.

Israel still leads the world in vaccinations per capita, with 7.74% of its population inoculated.

"Within 11 days of Operation Latet Katef (Give Shoulder) we vaccinated almost 800,000 civilians," said Health Minister Yuli Edelstein on Twitter.

"Thank you to the medical staff for the hard and important work, always provided with a smile! Thanks to the medical staff and the rapid deployment of no less than 257 vaccination stations, Israel has already vaccinated more than 150,000 people a day," he added.

On Wednesday, coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash warned that Israel may face a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines if local authorities ignore Health Ministry regulations and administer the inoculation to those not considered eligible for the first tranche.

Ash told Ynet that there may be a need to slow the pace of vaccinations if additional doses do not arrive in the country in an expedited manner.

With reports that municipalities were planning to administer vaccines to local residents in violation of government rules, Ash said there could be chaos and confusion and a shortage of doses for the more vulnerable members of the population.

Tel Aviv municipality has said it would begin vaccinating teachers this week, ahead of tentative plans for them to be added to the priority list from next week. 

"We must act responsibly," Ash said. "I agree that it is a good idea to vaccinate teachers and school staff and we are preparing an inoculation schedule for them. But the more vulnerable in the population – the elderly and those with underlying conditions, must come first." 

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At Least 140 Gerer Chassidim in Arad Have Covid

 

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Satmar Prohibits it's Chassidim from Going to the Kotel But Permits Going Up to "Har HaBayis"

Watch Satmar chusid on Har Habayis making a Mi-Shebeirach for R' Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe, that has Covid...

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The Top Five Most Suppressed News Stories Of 2020

Back in the day, when I was managing editor at the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., I enjoyed the end-of-year ritual of voting in the Associated Press’s poll of the Top 10 news stories.

When I started participating in the year 2000, my list would include many of the same stories that made the final AP list, although often with differences in ranking. But by the time I retired in 2018, my view of the news had sharply diverged from the AP’s consensus view. I’d become something of a gadfly by then, questioning what seemed to be an ever more transparent left-leaning bias in mainstream reporting.

That divergence was probably magnified by the 2016 candidacy of Donald Trump and the bright light he had shined on Fake News, but my disenchantment with my profession had been growing for years, as chronicled in my book “The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake?”

Still, there is no way that even as recently as four years ago I would have predicted just how abysmally irresponsible the media would become by 2020. Major newspapers are winning Pulitzer Prizes for blatantly false reporting on topics such as “Russian collusion.” Meanwhile, Silicon Valley oligarchs have appointed themselves censors — warning the American people not to read or watch anything that hasn’t been “fact-checked” by their hand-picked thought police.

The situation has gotten so bad that it’s no longer worth ranking the top news stories of the year because so little that is covered is news and so much that is news is written off as a “conspiracy theory.” That’s why I’m introducing Heartland Diary USA’s first annual presentation of “Last Chance to Wake Up and Smell the News They Tried to Kill.”

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Once Netanyahu’s Greatest Rival, Israel’s Gantz is Down, if Not Out

 Benny Gantz, the former general who came close to ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long dominance of Israeli politics, is finding his star is fading fast as a new rival from the right emerges as a challenge in an election set for March.

With his centrist Blue and White party on the verge of demise, Gantz has said he will press on and bring Netanyahu’s more than decade-old reign to an end.

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It's starting: ....REPORTERS GROW FRUSTRATED AS BIDEN TEAM REFUSES QUESTIONS

 

President-elect Joe Biden's transition team disabled the chat function for reporters on conference Zoom calls, where journalists had been pressing officials to take more questions.

"The Biden transition team appears to have disabled the public chat function on its transition zoom calls, a place where I and others had been routinely complaining to them to take more questions," incoming Politico White House editor Sam Stein tweeted Wednesday. 

Reporters on the call had to use a "raise hand" function to register they wanted to ask a question.

Stein and other reporters expressed frustration on the chat on Dec. 18 after one Zoom call where the transition team took only five questions.

"Hey guys, there [are] tons of folks looking to ask questions and since this is being done once a week, could we PLEASE go longer or at least hold more frequent briefings," Stein wrote on the chat.

"Any chance you can take a few more questions? There are a lot of folks here with questions," Zeke Miller from The Associated Press added. 

"Is there a point in saying we want to ask questions if you only call on the same small group every week?" said White House reporter Andrew Feinberg.

Biden's transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

Biden campaign press secretary T.J. Ducklo told CNN last month that Biden believed "transparency is incredibly important" regarding his relationship with the press.

"He also believes, though, that it's the media's job to hold him accountable," he said. "He's there to do the people's work and he welcomes that relationship. He welcomes their role, the media's role in our democracy and I think it will be, frankly, the polar opposite of what we've seen over the last four years... I think you'll see a huge change in the culture in the way this White House treats the media."

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