ZAKA chairman Yehuda Meshi Zahav lost both his parents to COVID-19 in recent weeks.
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“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Yisrael Beytenu chief Avidgor Liberman excoriated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday morning, slamming his plans to extend the ongoing lockdown by a week and accusing him of failing to confront violent protests in the haredi sector.
In a social media post to Twitter Tuesday morning, Liberman dubbed the recent acts of violence during protests in haredi-majority neighborhoods a “haredi intifada”, and linked the protests to the government’s consideration of an additional extension of the lockdown.
“Netanyahu is tough on seculars,” wrote Liberman. “Instead of getting tough on the haredi intifada, he is punishing all of us by extending the lockdown. The time has come to cut spending on lawbreakers and to release all towns where infections are low [from the lockdown].”
Earlier on Tuesday, Liberman called on Netanyahu to impose closures on areas where rioting has taken place.
“The prime minister has two effective tools that he isn’t using: cancelling spending on the yeshivas and giving closure orders for rioting centers,” Liberman told Kan. “But it looks like the real prime minister is Yanki Kanievsky,” Liberman continued, referring to the grandson of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a senior rabbinic authority in the haredi sector.
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Israel’s Labor Party elected Merav Michaeli on Sunday as its new party leader ahead of the March elections. Michaeli easily defeated several rivals in the party’s primaries, receiving 77% of the vote.
A month ago, outgoing Labor chairman Economy Minister Amir Peretz announced he is stepping down as the leader of the beleaguered party.
An intriguing fact about Michaeli is that she is the granddaughter of Rudolf Kastner, a Hungarian-Jewish journalist and lawyer who, on one hand, is known for having helped Jews escape from Europe during the Holocaust on the Kastner train. He was assassinated in 1957 after an Israeli court accused him of having collaborated with the Nazis. The verdict triggered the fall of the Cabinet. The courts then reversed themselves and found him not guilty
Michaeli is the daughter of Kasztner’s only child, his daughter Zsuzsa. In her inaugural speech to the Knesset, Michaeli described her grandfather as a man who saved “tens of thousands of Jews” by negotiating with Eichmann.
Michaeli is a leading progressive voice in the Knesset.
The Labor party, which led Israel for its first 30 years, dwindled down to only three MK in the previous election: Peretz, Welfare Minister Itzik Shuli, and Michaeli, who joined the opposition due to her fierce opposition to Peretz’s decision to join the Likud/Blue and White unity government despite his promise not to join a Netanyahu government.
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Notice that they watered it down with writing "no one would ever dream of befriending the provocatuers from outside of our camp who ignite the flames of violence." this give the impression that it was the "outside" people... that is misleading and absolutely not true .... anyone watching the videos or who walked the streets during these hafganos could clearly see that 99.9999999999999% were residents ...
This is too little ... too late and a good part is misleading ...
Following the past few days of violent Hafganos around Chareidi neighborhoods in Eretz Yisroel, a statement was released by Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky and Hagaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponavezh.
The following is a loose translation of the statement which is posted above:
Ruling of our Rabbis, Roshei Kol Bnei HaGolah, Maran the Prince of Torah [Rav Chaim Kanievsky] Shlita and our Master, the Rosh HaYeshiva [Rav Gershon Edelstein] Shlita:
Even though it is understood that no one from the congregation of those who are Charedim Lidvar Hashem would participate in violent Hafganos (protests) where it is well know that this is not the manner of Torah,
And certainly, no one would ever dream of befriending the provocatuers from outside of our camp who ignite the flames of violence.
In addition, it must be pointed out that no one should approach or come close to these places [of violence] because it involves a violation of, “Harchaik min hachi’ur – Distance yourself from ugly matters” [See Meseches Derech Eretz 1:12]
It is also proper to temper our sense of curiosity in this matter, for the very act of seeing such [violent] behavior damages the soul
And there should be mercy from Heaven that those who err gain wisdom and walk in the path of Torah.
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Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, founder of Arizona Jews for Justice, is excited about Biden’s commitment to reunite migrant families, but he’s also preparing for a new kind of border crisis.
A substantial portion of AJJ’s work involves assisting asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. But since January 2019, when Donald Trump’s administration instituted the “Remain in Mexico” policy to deter asylum seekers from entering the U.S. on the southern border, there haven’t been many to assist.
Biden has pledged to do away with the program, which means Phoenix and its Jewish community need to be prepared to help and welcome newcomers, Yanklowitz said.He anticipates up to 300 asylum seekers per day will need immediate assistance.
“We are right now calling for volunteers in the community,” he said, adding the group is in need of lawyers, medical professionals and people to contribute supplies and donations to cover costs. Fundraising over the past year has been a challenge, he added, and the effort is around $100,000 short of “where we need to be” within the next three months.
Still, he remains hopeful about the change in the White House. “This country was founded on inclusivity and was built by immigrants.”
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THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
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Before the state Senate and Assembly meet on January 7 and 11, please urge all three of your state legislators (800-792-8630/LegInfo@NJLeg.org) to help kill two anti-moral bills—which both threaten to pass if we don’t speak out. One, A4454/S2781, aims to propagandize the LGBT lifestyle—to kindergarteners and up in the public schools. The other, S2545, seeks the transgenderization/homosexualization of the state’s long-term healthcare facilities. (For more details see http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/12/10th-of-teves-alert-making-lgbt.html, http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-rabbis-should-fight-lgbt.html.)
Tell them: We refuse to vote in the upcoming elections for those who exploit children, no matter how much government largesse they offer.
The “education” bill (A4454) seeks to escalate the existing mandate to teach LGBT indoctrination in New Jersey public schools.
By teaching children to respect, “welcome” and “include” even flagrant practitioners of LGBT acts, the schools themselves erode the natural revulsion for such transgressions, and even cultivate admiration for them, all under the fraudulent pretext of “education.” We’re not talking about extending compassion to those struggling with their Evil Inclination. This is the government forcing schools to indoctrinate children to “welcome” and “include” those who brazenly flaunt abominable conduct.
Clearly, to teach children such immoral ideas and attitudes is reprehensible, even if it would never affect a single Jew. More specifically, sodomy, which all of these bills seek to legitimize, is a capital crime (VaYikra 20:13, Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, Ch.9:6). In fact, that sin is specifically branded an “abomination” (VaYikra (Lev.) 18:22) within the enumerated forbidden relationships in VaYikra 18, all of which are categorized as “abominations”; it’s “an abomination among abominations,” as the renowned sage known as “the Maharal,” (Prague, 1520-1609) explains on the Gemara Chullin 92b.
Some secular Jews are prominent among the proponents of this and related legislation. We must clarify our unwavering, Torah-based opposition to anything remotely similar to these bills—and the extreme sins they seek to legitimize under the rubric of teaching respect.
As leading rabbis have publicly articulated since 1982, Jews are responsible for the counter-moral actions of their legislators, particularly those for whom they vote, especially due to the public chillul Hashem involved. We must not convey the terrible misimpression that Orthodox Jews care more about financial needs than spiritual threats.
Consider how many Jewish children within the New Jersey public school system, including Orthodox ones—especially those in special education classes—are being forcibly indoctrinated into respecting flagrant homosexual advocates, in direct contradiction to the Torah and what many of them were raised with. Further, allowing this nonsense to be taught in public schools will ultimately facilitate the push to teach it in yeshivas and Bais Yaakov schools.
In a war for the very souls of our children, we need to understand that the LGBT activist agenda is fundamentally not only anti-child and anti-parent, but anti-God.
Rabbi Noson Shmuel LeiterTHANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Reb Aaron Dovid Neuman, interviewed in his home in Williamsburg in 2013.
“In the midst of all this chaos and upheaval, my family was forced to split up. Only after the war did I get to see them again. Meanwhile, I was sent to an orphanage in Marseille.
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