Major League Baseball Set to Draft First Orthodox Jewish Player

 

An openly Orthodox Jewish player may be soon be drafted for the first time by Major League Baseball.

The New York Post reported that Jacob Steinmetz — an observant Jew who walks to tournaments on the Sabbath, brings his own kosher food on tour, and recites the traditional prayers daily — has already received a sports scholarship to Fordham University and is projected to be picked by the MLB draft in rounds 3-7.

He has already worked out with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels, and is ranked as the draft’s 181st top prospect by the outlet Baseball America and 121st by MLB.com.

“It’s never been frustrating to me,” Steinmetz said of his Judaism. “It’s just something I’ve always done. It makes me who I am.”

“It’s definitely made [my life] different, but in a good way,” he added.

Fordham has agreed to accommodate Steinmetz’s religious practices, and MLB teams who have been in touch with him and his family have agreed to do the same.

Steinmetz’s father Elliot said his son’s discipline and his commitment to baseball “comes from his relationship with religion. The fact he’s able to interview the way he [does] or have poise the way he does or figure out things the way he does, a lot of it is because of his religious background.”

Steinmetz hit his stride during the COVID-19 pandemic, when without distractions, he began lifting weights and developing his pitching. Within a short time, he was throwing above 90 mph on a consistent basis.

His summer coach, Daniel Corona, said, “He’s already got good stuff and you feel he can get better. He’s not done maturing physically.”

“There’s a difference between being committed, doing all this hard work and having this extra layer,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s ever going to be another Jacob, as far as this whole process goes. He set an example that anything is possible as far as being committed to multiple things at once and still believing in yourself, your dreams, to make them happen.”

Elliot Steinmetz sees his son as a role model, saying, “It’s a great opportunity for [Jacob] to continue to evolve as a leader and continue to show people you can break down certain walls, do certain things, and not have to necessarily sacrifice your background for it.”

“I think he’s the right kid for it, just because he has a good head on his shoulders and he’s mentally tough,” he added. “Hopefully, he’s able to be a light for everybody else.”

Tamir Goodman, a youth basketball star who eventually went professional in Israel after US teams would not accommodate his Orthodox practices, said, “When I look back at it and hear stories about what Jacob’s doing, it just makes me so happy because it makes me feel that these ups and downs I went through [happened] so the next generation — Jacob’s generation — could be a little smoother for them.”

“Maybe he doesn’t need to explain as much, or God forgive he doesn’t have to go through some of the things I went through,” he said.

“It’s very exciting for the Jewish community,” Goodman added.

Did the Newly Found Artifact Belong to the Biblical Judge Gideon? Who was a "Shoifet"

 

For the first time: an inscription from the time of the biblical Judges and relating to the Book of Judges has been recovered from excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Qiryat Gat. The rare inscription bears the name ‘Jerubbaal’ in alphabetic script and dates from around 1,100 BCE. It was written in ink on a pottery vessel and found inside a storage pit that was dug into the ground and lined with stones.

The site, which is located at the Shahariya forest of the KKL-JNF, has been excavated every summer since 2015 and the current excavation season is its seventh. The excavations are being conducted on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, under the direction of Prof. Yossef Garfinkel, Sa‘ar Ganor, Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davies. The program is funded by Joseph B. Silver and the Nathan and Lily Silver Foundation, the Roth Families Sydney, Aron Levy, and the Roger and Susan Hartog Center for Archaeology at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology.

The inscription was written in ink on a jug – a small personal pottery vessel that holds approximately one liter, and may well have contained a precious liquid such as oil, perfume or medicine. Apparently, much like today, the vessel’s owner wrote his name on it to assert his ownership.

The inscription has been deciphered by epigraphic expert Christopher Rolston of George Washington University, Washington DC. It clearly shows the letters yod (broken at the top), resh, bet, ayin, lamed, and remnants of other letters indicate that the original inscription was longer.

Prof. Garfinkel and Ganor explain, “The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben

912% increase in antisemitic content on TikTok

 

Antisemitic content on TikTok has rapidly increased this year, a new study has revealed, with an alarming 912% increase in antisemitic content.

The study, led by Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at University of Haifa, in conjunction with Natalie Masri, a research assistant at the IDC Herzliya’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), discovered a seismic increase in antisemitic tropes, images and rhetoric when compared to their 2020 study.

In addition, the study also revealed a 41% increase in antisemitic postings and a 1,375% uptick in usernames with antisemitic titles (e.g. @holocaustwasgood or @eviljews). The analysis reached its findings through systematic content analysis of videos, comments and usernames over a four-month period in 2021.

TikTok is one of the most rapidly growing social media platforms online and attracts mostly young people, with 41% of its 1.2 billion users between the ages of 16 and 24. The combination of popularity, exposure, and openness of TikTok is recognized by many extremist, racist, and radical groups including neo-Nazi and antisemites.

“It may be easy to dismiss the platform as an innocuous forum for children who want to be creative, however, TikTok’s catering to young, impressionable and naive audiences, combined with bad-faith actors who are posting hateful content online, is something that should be taken very seriously,” stated Weimann, who is also a senior researcher at ICT.

How to dine with your chick

5,000 New Immigrants from the US and Canada are Scheduled to Make Aliyah by the end of 2021

 

Nefesh B'Nefesh, the non-profit organization who in conjunction with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and JNF-USA facilitate Aliyah from North America reports incredible increase in numbers as its summer season is readily underway.

According to data published by the organization, an expected 5,000 new immigrants from the US and Canada are scheduled to make Aliyah by the end of 2021. During the COVID pandemic the number of Aliyah requests and files opened spiked and in 2020 Nefesh B'Nefesh recorded a total of 14 000 requests, compared to 4,582 in 2019. As of July 2021, over 4000 applications have already been submitted.

In 2020, a total of 3,168 immigrants from North America arrived in Israel through Nefesh B'Nefesh. Since January 2021, 1500 Olim from North American have already arrived in Israel, showing a 95% increase over the same time period in 2020 and 22% more than in 2019, the organization reported.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, despite all the challenges and uncertainty, interest in Aliyah has continued to rise. As a result, we have worked harder than ever to overcome the hurdles and prepare for the unexpected as best as we can,” said Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Nefesh B’Nefesh. “Our dedicated staff has been working round the clock to support and help facilitate the Aliyah of our Olim, who have shown incredible resilience in the face of delayed dreams and continue to inspire us with their commitment to the Zionist dream of living in Israel.”

This year's Aliyah wave is expected to reach its peak this summer with over 2000 Olim, where 1000 are planned to arrive in August alone.

"We have always wanted to live in Israel but leaving family has always been a big deterrent. Our parents both live in America but we really believe that the best place to live is Israel and we hope that our parents will come to visit and also eventually move after us,” said Lilian Aharon, one of the hundreds of Olim making Aliyah this summer with her husband Joseph and their two sons, Michael and Nathan from Florida to Efrat.

“We have always wanted to move but were always too scared to make the jump, but we have come to understand that now is the best time for us and we are very very excited!" She added.

3-year-old Emunah Cohen dies after getting trapped in family's car while playing during the Sabbath in southern Israel.

 

The toddler who died over the weekend after becoming trapped in a locked car has been identified as Emunah Cohen, a resident of the town of Ma’agalim, an Orthodox town in the Sdot HaNegev Regional Council in southern Israel.

Cohen, 3, was the great-granddaughter of Rabbi Baruch Hori, a prominent Tunisian rabbi.

According to an investigation of the incident, the girl apparently entered the car on her own Saturday while playing. She was unable to open the car door from the inside, and was trapped inside for some two hours, before family members found her.

A team of MDA emergency first responders rushed her to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba while performing resuscitation techniques. However, doctors were ultimately forced to pronounce her dead.

Shimon Maman, a senior MDA paramedic, said: “When we got there, we saw a girl about three years old unconscious outside of a car with a high body temperature. She had no vital signs. We provided medical treatment and performed advanced resuscitation techniques, then we evacuated her to the hospital while she was in critical condition.”

Aliyah Can Save American Jews – And Israel

 

By

Faigie Heiman

 

We’ve been told a picture is worth a thousand words, yet sometimes additional text creates a clearer understanding of the photograph. I refer to the photo snapped last week in the White House of President Joe Biden kneeling before Rivka Ravitz, Israeli President Rivlin’s chief of staff and Orthodox Jewish mother of twelve children.

Biden was impressed by Ravitz’s maternal status. His introduction to Mrs. Ravitz – her work title as well as her maternal title – sincerely touched the president. He led Ravitz into an adjoining room and showed her a picture of his mother, whom he remembers fondly.

So how does one explain the fact that the same president, who claims to be an observant Christian who personally believes in family values, heads a party and a nation that has accepted non-Christian values, a party and nation that is slowly turning hearts and minds toward a far-left ideology that was considered nearly dead when John Kennedy became president, in the early sixties of the last century?

An article on The Jewish Press’s website informed me of the politically correct expression for the institution of motherhood today. No longer referred to as “Mom” or “Mother,” we are now expected to perceive women like Rivka Ravitz and refer to them as “birthing persons!”

Too many parts of The United States are under sway to a far-left, almost Marxist, ideology, the foundation for a crumbling empire. Is that where America is headed? If the politically correct term for “mothers” has now become “birthing persons,” then yes, America is self-destructing.

The Charedi Conundrum

 The repugnance and absurdity of Dan Perry’s Jerusalem Post screed against Haredim is readily apparent from the headline:

 “Haredim, not Arabs or Iran, are the biggest threat to Israel.” 

Although you can’t always blame the writer for the headline, in this case you can, because in his text he calls Haredim the “primary threat” to Israel’s future.

One must be filled with loathing to reach the conclusion that faithful Jews are a bigger threat to Israel than hostile Arabs who wish to dismember the state or Iran that yearns for Israel’s nuclear destruction. From where does such antipathy arise? One never knows the internal motivation and biases of another but we can ascertain the sources of his fears from his world view.

According to Perry, the Haredim endanger Israel’s existence because they have no discernible or foreseeable role in the “Start-up Nation that is a world leader in cybertechnology, agrotech and venture capital, punches above its weight on Nobel prizes and exported television formats, is a global leader on gay rights and decriminalizing cannabis and has developed Iron Dome to zap rockets out of the sky.”

In other words, the writer’s conception of the Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, is a sort of weird hybrid of Singapore and Sodom. While the technological feats should make us all proud (some others are more dubious), they hardly constitute sufficient reason for Israel’s existence and the sacrifices required to sustain it.

Centuries of Jews did not dream of returning to Zion so that Jews should be world leaders in cybertech. 

How the Zionist IDF Rescued 102 Jews 45 Years Ago in a Daring Mission in Africa

9 Minute Version  

44 Minute Version 

Vintage Video of Rav Chaim Kanievski with his Rebbetzin Visiting Harav Eliyashiv in the Sukka

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Towards the end of the video , Rebbetzin Kanievski the daughter of Harav Eliyashiv tells him a bizarre story, that a neighbour of hers has an aquarium with 5 fish, and when the neighbour's husband left for shul on Erev Yom Kippur, the fish stood up in the aquarium and wouldn't move until the husband came home from shul. 

She asks her father Harav Eliyashiv "what the significance of this story is?"Rav Eliyashiv brushes off the story ....