Sfardie Rabbi Mocks Chassidishe Davening and their "Havarah"

 

הרב מוצפי לועג לתפילות האשכנזים

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Apple, Amazon join Google in suspending Parler

 Amazon joined tech giants Apple and Google in taking swift action against Parler, the social media platform favored by President Trump’s supporters, by suspending the app from being active on its servers on Saturday.

Jeff Bezos’ company kicked Parler off its web hosting services, meaning that if Parler doesn’t find another host, the social media platform will go offline starting Sunday, BuzzFeed News reported.

In an email obtained by the outlet, Amazon told Parler’s chief policy officer that the app’s content inciting violence violated its terms of service.

“Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms. It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service. [W]e cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others,” the email says.

“Because Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and poses a very real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler’s account effective Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59PM PST,” the email continues.

Earlier Saturday, Apple also suspended Parler, which describes itself as “unbiased social media,” from it’s application store, citing it has failed to follow Apple’s guidelines by not removing harmful content from the platform.

“Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety,” the company said in a statement. “We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”

In a letter sent to Parlers’ developers, Apple further states, “Parler has not upheld its commitment to moderate and remove harmful or dangerous content encouraging violence and illegal activity, and is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.”

The move comes a day after Google banned Parler from being downloaded on its Google Play store.

On Friday, Twitter also permanently suspended President Trump’s personal accountciting “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

“We will try our best to move to a new provider right now as we have many competing for our business, however Amazon, Google and Apple purposefully did this as a coordinated effort knowing our options would be limited and knowing this would inflict the most damage right as President Trump was banned from the tech companies,” Parler CEO John Matze said in a statement.

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Charedim respond to financial sanctions, not force

 The coronavirus crisis has turned into a research laboratory that allows us to study the relationship between the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community and the state of Israel.

Haredim flock in masses to leading Torah authority Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky for guidance on lockdown-related issues. But the rabbi does not give any answers, or answers each person differently.

On Tuesday, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri abstained from voting when the government was deliberating whether to tighten the lockdown. It is a peculiar event as, until now, Deri has consistently supported the government's lockdown decisions.

Perhaps he realized he could not vote in favor of the lockdown if the very people he represents do not support it. Or maybe Haredi politicians find it increasingly challenging to remain key influencers in the machine that runs the modern Jewish state.

When the government considered closing synagogues on the High Holidays, Deri fought to prevent the vote but failed. Afterward, he ran to every radio station and begged the Haredi public not to worship indoors, but pray outside.

Silence can reflect a political stance, too.

When controversy erupted over continuing the country's vaccination campaign on Shabbat, neither Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef nor Shas publicly expressed any opinion. As often happens in their interactions with secularism, they chose to turn a blind eye.

Ingratitude hit new heights this week occurred this week when Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, who is handling the coronavirus in the Haredi sector for the IDF Homefront Command, was attacked the Haredi public after saying in a briefing that the lockdown was not enforced in the ultra-Orthodox community due to political pressure and the upcoming election campaign.

Numa took the concept from the relationship between the Haredim and the military and applied it to the current relationship between the ultra-Orthodox and the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the government is unable to conscript Haredim, it grants them draft deferments and other exemptions that allow them to continue studying and avoid enlistment, legally.

The same with COVID – since the government is incapable of closing Haredi schools and yeshivas, it creates exemptions for them.

But those who say that Haredim should be forced to comply with lockdown restrictions are wrong. Forceful policing is not only ugly, it is ineffective. When the police arrive in Bnei Brak to close a synagogue, half of Bnei Brak goes outside to watch and gets infected while standing in the street.

The only solution is to deny the Haredi community budgets and fine them for violations. IN the first lockdown, when fines for breaking rules were more substantial, many Haredi school principals ran to their rabbis for permission to close the institutions.

Why should the Haredim allow the government to impose fines and deny budgets? Because if they do not, they will continue to clash with police and will end up with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Opposition, which will see the funds allocated to them by the government shrink much more considerably.

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The USA Moving Away From Free Speech as Google Play suspends Parler, Apple threatens to

 The app for a favorite social network of President Trump supporters will no longer be sold on Google Play — and Apple is also threatening to pull it, according to reports.

Parler, which bills itself as “an unbiased social media focused on real user experiences and engagement,” can’t be sold on Google Play until the platform develops some moderation policies, according to Axios Tech Reporter Ashley Gold.

Apple, meanwhile, is giving the app 24 hours to introduce policies before pulling the plug, BuzzFeedNews reports.

“We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 that led (among other things) to loss of life, numerous injuries, and the destruction of property,” Apple wrote to Parler, according to the news site. 

“The app also appears to continue to be used to plan and facilitate yet further illegal and dangerous activities.”

Trump falsely claimed he won the election and was the victim of unsubstantiated election fraud on the Twitter-like service, which gained millions of users after Election Day, according to ABC News.

Google and Apple’s moves against Parler come after Twitter and Facebook suspended the president’s accounts indefinitely.

On Friday, YouTube banned alt-right leader Steve Bannon’s podcast “War Room,” following an appearance by the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani where he continued to make baseless claims about election fraud.

On Friday, Twitter suspended the accounts of former Gen. Mike Flynn and lawyer Sidney Powell for spreading the same misinformation.

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Jewish woman, 102, describes disturbing memory of her neighbor — Adolf Hitler

 

A Jewish woman who revealed last year that she used to live next door to Adolf Hitler prior to World War II, has provided new details about the Nazi leader’s life.

Alice Frank Stock, who recently turned 102, said that she spent her early years living near Hitler in Munich during the 1920s and 1930s, according to British news agency SWNS. Stock, whose family lived on Prinzregentenplatz, added she saw a coffin coming out of Hitler’s apartment, rumored to contain his niece, Geli Raubal.

“We heard many [rumors], from the cook and others,” Stock said. “We saw a coffin being carried out of the entrance. I think a niece of Hitler’s was living there and then she died. There was speculation of how and when she died. I think there was truth in it that the coffin was carried out and in it was a woman.”

This is Adolf Hitler with his class as he attended high school at the age of 14, circa 1904. Hitler is at the extreme right in the upper row.

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Sheldon Adelson Undergoes Cancer Treatment

Las Vegas Sands chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson is taking a break from the job to undergo cancer treatment.

The billionaire casino magnate and Republican megadonor started a medical leave of absence after resuming his treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the company said Thursday.

Adelson, 87, first announced in March 2019 that he was being treated for the disease. Las Vegas Sands didn’t disclose how long he would be away, but the company said president and chief operating officer Robert G. Goldstein will serve as acting chairman and CEO in Adelson’s absence.

Adelson’s casino empire has taken a massive hit from the coronavirus pandemic, which essentially emptied the Las Vegas Strip last year and sparked a gambling shutdown in Asia.

In October, Las Vegas Sands said it was considering selling its Vegas properties — the Venetian Resort, the Palazzo and the Sands Expo Center — which would leave it with a half-dozen sites in the larger Asian markets of Macau and Singapore.

Adelson’s family owns more than half of Sands’ stock, and his son-in-law Patrick Dumont is the company’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Las Vegas Sands shares dropped 1.1 percent to $57.50 as of 12:58 p.m. Friday after the company announced Adelson’s medical leave.

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Rush Limbaugh deactivates Twitter account Taking With him 88.6 million Followers

 Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh deactivated his Twitter account on Friday, soon after the social media giant permanently banned President Trump from posting.

Twitter confirmed to Fox News that the radio host and Trump backer had taken down his account, which had 88.6 million followers.

On Friday, Twitter suspended the accounts of former Gen. Mike Flynn and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.

Some prominent Trump supporters have been fleeing to Parler as an alternative, but that conservative social media platform was also sanctioned by app stores Friday.

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Trump fans ditch Twitter en masse after president’s suspension

 Trump superfans are heading for the exits. 

Just hours after President Trump was permanently banned from Twitter, his diehards on the platform vowed they would move on as well.

“Goodbye Twitter” trended during the early morning hours Saturday as people continued to come to grips with the leader of the free world being deplatformed.

“Goodbye Twitter friends. See you @parler,” said one user, citing a more pro free speech social media alternative to Twitter that is popular with conservatives. 

“I’m a small MAGA account and I have lost 400 followers in 3 days. Goodbye Twitter. You don’t want me, I don’t want you. I’m at Parler @snakeoil. I hope PATRIOTS will come join me! Flag of United States.” said another unhappy user.

Moments after Trump was dumped, the website for Parler crashed, likely as a result of a crush of new users overwhelming their servers. The outage lasted less than an hour. Even before recent tumult, Parler had become a popular spot for conservatives, with more than 2 million daily active users in October, according to CNN. 

Multiple high profile conservative-leaning and pro-Trump accounts have reported sudden and unexplained drops in follower count.

“Now, down nearly 29,000. I think about 1500 of that came slowly between election and early January, when I was writing that results showed Biden victory and Trump legal options narrowing, then finished. Angered some followers. But big, precipitous drop has come in recent hours,” said conservative columnist Byron York.

Ryan Fournier, founder of Students for Trump, said he was off by 60,000 over a three day period.

The topic was also a subject of conversation for platform lefties, who said they were happy to see pro-Trump accounts go.

“Trump supporters really trended “goodbye twitter”?? as if we cared, god they’re so embarassing [sic],” said one.

In a statement, Twitter confirmed they are also purging accounts without verified ID information, which is likely adding to the exit count. 

“As part of our work to protect the integrity of the conversation on Twitter, we regularly challenge accounts to confirm account details such as email and phone number. Until the accounts confirm additional account information, they are in a locked state and do not count towards follower counts,” a spokesperson told The Post.

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Cover Up? Charedi newspaper photoshops masks onto picture of rabbis meeting

שמירה מלאה על ההנחיות: המבקר של עיתון 'המודיע' הדביק מסכות לרבנים שביקרו אצל הרבי מביאלא pic.twitter.com/ioP80OK5Kg

— משה ויסברג (@moshe_nayes) January 8, 2021

 An ultra-Orthodox newspaper was exposed Friday for having photoshopped masks onto the faces of a group of rabbis who were holding an indoor meeting in violation of the government’s health guidelines.

The widely-read Hamodia newspaper affiliated, with the United Torah Judaism party, included the photo alongside an article about a meeting Rabbi Bezalel Simcha Menachem Benzion Rabinowitz held in his home where he and his followers discussed ways to encourage the ultra-Orthodox public to study Torah in marking the anniversary of Maimonides’ death.

The photo of Rabinowitz, known as the Rebbe of Biala, was printed in several other newspapers, but those outlets used the original version. Ultra-Orthodox journalist Moshe Weisberg noted the difference and posted photos of it on Twitter.

Leaders of the ultra-Orthodox have come under fire in recent months for setting a poor example for their followers by violating public health guidelines or encouraging them to do so.

Ultra-Orthodox papers have been criticized in the past for photoshopping pictures, most notably blurring out, or removing women from images.

The Health Ministry official overseeing action to counter the coronavirus among Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population revealed earlier this week that the community has recently accounted for over a quarter of all the new cases diagnosed, even though it makes up little more than a 10th of the total population.

This week saw several instances of mass weddings going ahead in the community.

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Zera Shimshon Parshat Shmot

 

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