Neutrogena & Aveeno Sunscreens Recalled Due To Cancer-Causing Chemical

 

Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that it is recalling five of its sunscreen products after some samples were found to contain low levels of benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer with repeated exposure.

The affected products, packaged in aerosol cans, are Aveeno Protect + Refresh aerosol sunscreen, and four Neutrogena sunscreen versions: Beach Defense aerosol sunscreen, CoolDry Sport aerosol sunscreen, Invisible Daily Defense aerosol sunscreen and UltraSheer aerosol sunscreen.

The recall includes all can sizes and all levels of sun protection factor, or SPF. The products were distributed nationwide through retailers.

The health care giant said the benzene was found after testing by the company and an independent laboratory. It is investigating how the chemical got into the products.

J&J said it’s working to get all lots of the five products removed from store shelves. It urged consumers to stop using the sunscreens immediately and said customers can get a refund by calling J&J’s Consumer Care Center at 1-800-458-1673. More information is available at the websites for Neutrogena and Aveeno.

J&J said in a statement that “use of these products would not be expected to cause adverse health consequences” and that it voluntarily decided to recall them “out of an abundance of caution.” The statement added that people should use an alternate sunscreen to protect themselves from the skin cancer melanoma.

Benzene is a highly flammable, widely used chemical that’s present throughout the environment. It can cause cancer with repeated exposure at high enough levels. It also can damage the immune system and prevent cells from functioning properly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The chemical’s effects vary by whether a person accidentally inhales or ingests it or gets it on skin and clothing. Symptoms range from dizziness and irregular heartbeat to convulsions and, at very high levels, death.

J&J, which is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, said it has notified the Food and Drug Administration of the recall.

HaRav Yoel Kahan ZT”L, Chief “Choizer” Of The Lubavitcher Rebbe

 

We regret to  inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav Yoel Kahan ZT”L, who served at the chief choizer (reviewer and teacher) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L’s teachings and the Head Mashpia of the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch. He was Niftar after suffering a massive heart attack on Thursday. He was 91.

Known as “Reb Yoel,” he was revered by generations of Chabad students and scholars for his brilliance and his ability to distill and communicate subtle, complex concepts of Chabad philosophy to a wide and diverse audience. He was also the editor-in-chief of the highly acclaimed encyclopedia of Chabad Chasidic thought, Sefer Ha-arachim.

Born in the Soviet Union in 1930, he emigrated with his family to Israel at the tender age of five, where he studied in Yeshiva Achei Temimim in Tel Aviv. He spent his teenage years studying with several prominent Chabad Chasidic scholars. In 1950 he boarded a ship to New York where he quickly became attached to the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L, devoting all his energy to interpret and disseminate the Rebbe’s teachings.

Reb Yoel’s unique talent for memorization, along with his intellectual abilities, made him the official “reviewer” and the authoritative exponent of the oral discourses of the Rebbe. Often held on Shabbos, when writing was not possible, Reb Yoel led the effort to reconstruct the Rebbe’s talks, with a team of scholars under his tutelage.

In his role as the head mashpia of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva at 770, Reb Yoel guided thousands of students in the teachings of Chassidus. He also traveled far and wide to give shiurim in Chassidus and to farbreng. His audio recordings, and books, are used by many more around the world.

He is survived by his wife, Rebbetzin Leah Kahan.

The Levaya will be leaving Shomrei Hadas Chapels – 3803 14th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11218 on Friday 9:45 AM.

The procession will be passing Lubavitch World Headquarters – 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213 on Friday 10:45 AM.

The Kevura will be at the Lubavitch section of Old Montefiore Cemetery – 226-20 Francis Lewis Blvd, Cambria Heights, NY 11411.

From Bais Yaakov to Becoming an Anaesthesiologist

 

A Post-Charedi Bais Yaakov Graduate Speaks Out 

Guest post by Dr. Efrat Bruck

I surreptitiously angled my test paper so that light would filter through and I would be able to see the question. I was in the 9th grade, and we were taking the NYS regents biology exam. A giant white sticker covered question #19. Luckily, it was a sunny day and faint rays of sunlight filtered through. I could just make out a diagram of male anatomy with an arrow pointing to the vas deferens. Funny how the topics our school avoided teaching us ended up seared into our minds. “The arrow is pointing to which structure?” I filled in the correct answer knowing it wouldn’t help. We would all automatically get that question “wrong”. That was my high school’s policy. 

It wasn’t surprising to us. After all, they tore out of our textbooks all the chapters covering evolution and reproduction. The former, perhaps is understandable, but the latter still baffles me; some of the students were literally 3 years away from getting married and starting families. I recall feeling anxious and angry. Somewhere, is some recess of my mind, I wanted to become a doctor. Would there be another five questions on reproduction or evolution causing my baseline score to tank? Would it affect my chances of going to college? My older sister had started the exam off with a 90% and I had even heard of one class that sunk to the 80’s. 

But I shouldn’t have been so worried. There were only two “bad” questions on our exam and we started off with a 99%. In addition, it would be a while till I would actually pursue medicine and by then, this particular score wouldn’t matter that much. What should have worried me more was how the philosophical underpinnings of my environment would affect me in the coming decade. For example, the time a seminary teacher spent an entire lesson telling us a story of a graduate from our school who went to Touro College in Brooklyn (a college that is set up to serve the frum community, with separate classes for men and women and professors staying clear of topics that would be considered inappropriate) and then went on to marry her non-Jewish professor and become irreligious. The teacher then paused, closed her eyes dramatically, and said: “Then she got cancer. May it be a kaparah for her.”

I’m writing this essay in a format addressing those who are part of the charedi leadership. I’ll be using “you” when referring to the charedi world/leadership and “we” collectively to address myself, as if I am part of the charedi world, simply because this makes for easier writing. If you are curious to know why an otherwise successful product of charedi chinuch chose not to continue in this path, read on. If you are a charedi leader, you probably care to know why people are “leaving”, and rest assured, they are. Some make a lot of noise or go OTD. Some just want to live their life peacefully and make a quiet, graceful (I hope!) exit, finding other branches of Orthodoxy. 

Rivka Morgenshtein 36 from Geula Section Missing

 

The last time she was reported seen was on  on June 6 in Tel Aviv. Police ask that you call them if you see her!

רבקה מורגנשטיין מירושלים, נעדרת כבר למעלה מחודש, והיום (חמישי) המשטרה מבקשת שוב את עזרת הציבור, לסייע לה בחיפושים אחריה.

רבקה מורגנשטיין היא בת 36, ומתגוררת בשכונת גאולה בירושלים - ברחוב נחום.

לדברי המשטרה, היא נוהגת להסתובב בתל אביב, שם היא נראתה בפעם האחרונה בתאריך 11.6.21.

תיאורה: גוון עורה בהיר ושיער כהה, מבנה גוף בינוני. לבשה חולצה שחורה עם פסים אפורים, חצאית שחורה ארוכה, כפכפי קרוקס ומטפחת ראש שחורה.

"כל היודע דבר על מקום הימצאה מתבקש לדווח למוקד 100 של המשטרה או לתחנת לב הבירה טל׳ 02-5391550", נמסר מהמשטרה.

Cuban Refugees Will Not be Allowed in the USA because they will Vote Republican

 

The new rule is that only refugees the Democrats presume will vote Republican will be turned away https://t.co/XzTA7L6QSm

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 14, 2021

Now listen to this interview! 

Peter Doocy asks why the U.S. is rejecting refugees from Cuba

"Do you think that people are leaving Cuba because they don't like communism?"@PressSec: "I think we've been pretty clear... they are opposed to the oppression to the mismanagement of the government in the country." pic.twitter.com/Tce23ykuDn

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 14, 2021

Lightning Now Considered "racist" because it destroyed a memorial of the criminal George Floyd

 

A George Floyd memorial was taken out by lightning... you know what that means... pic.twitter.com/2arGM5zTSb

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 14, 2021

Someone Please Explain this.... Please please

 

The absolute state of our FBI pic.twitter.com/t0nx4x78rZ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 14, 2021

Photos of the Chareidim That are Destroying the Photos of the Meron Victims in Meron

 

Solo Performance ... Memories of a Widow

 

Eichah yashavt badad … (Lamentations, 1)

How did you sit in seclusion, in your apartment, in your neighborhood, in your city Jerusalem. Eichah … How did you sit there widowed, a mother, grandmother, a great grandmother to dozens, sitting for over three months, lonely, although never alone.

You woke in the morning, showered and dressed, applied your make-up, ready for morning prayers, ready for telephone calls, ready for lessons and zoom meetings. And at the end of each week you readied for Shabbat.

Surely the angels are with you, invisible angels standing beside your chair, staring across at the portrait on the wall. Despite the harsh conspicuous wrinkles ingrained in the contours of his skin, his face radiates from the artists painting. Your husband seems happy in the world to come, listening to you sing Sholom Aleichem. You sing each stanza three times, exactly as he did. His balding forehead looks like you could play tic tac toe on the lines etched there, lines that developed on his handsome face, wrinkles that developed not only from age.

The empty armchair at the head of the table is where he once sat. He always seated himself after greeting the angels, and then chanted a page or two of text before Kiddush. You never knew what that text included, but now you know, and you chant as he did, prayers to “Adon HaShalom, King of the Universe for blessing to find peace and good life for you and your family, to find favor and wisdom in the eyes of the Almighty…that I merit to receive Shabbat with joy…and say a blessing at my table that is set.”

He stares at the table, set for his queen, and he doesn’t have to ask, “Who set the table?” Only you set the table, with two small challot positioned on your father’s silver challah tray, a silver knife, European china that you purchased as a young couple over half a century ago, Wallace sterling flatware, a wedding gift from your family sixty years ago, and fresh flowers arranged in a bowl that you buy every erev Shabbat, same as he did.

You fill his silver cup. The cup you purchased as a gift for his 26th birthday after you settled in Jerusalem. You fill it first with a little wine, and then grape juice to keep the drink mild, same as he did. He appears to be listening to your Kiddush, although your voice is not the pleasant voice of the Baal Tfilla; your voice is not his voice, and it never will be. Most disturbing is that you cannot remember his nussach, you cannot make the blessing as he did. You cannot remember his specific melodious kiddush tune. You can’t even be sure that he is still smiling. Your eyes are glued to the blessings in his little booklet. And then the memory of his kiddush suddenly gets stuck in your throat.

Lapid Will Have Last Laugh as Bennet Slowly Becomes a "Footnote" in Jewish History

 

In the leadup to the 9th of Av, Rabbi Nosson Slifkin recounted in his blog the Talmudic story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. 

In the story, Bar Kamtza had good reason to angry for his humiliation by the party host and the Rabbis who remained silent. But Bar Kamtza’s anger and hatred was so intense and unbridled (sinas chinam) that he pursued a course of action destructive to himself and the Jewish people – involving and inviting in the Romans which ultimately led to Jerusalem’s destruction.

The lesson is that hatred and anger, even if not baseless, should never drive us to pursue a course of action that harms ourselves and our people.

Rabbi Slifkin, a supporter of Naftali Bennett and Yamina, drew a parallel between Bar Kamtza and Bibi. Humiliated and outraged at being forced into opposition despite having secured the most seats, Bibi and Likud, he wrote, responded by withholding support for the Citizenship bill, thereby harming Israel. 

Though Rabbi Slifkin’s application of the Bar Kamtza lesson to Bibi and Likud seems fair and well taken, he would have done much better to apply that same lesson to Bennett and Saar. 

Bibi’s personality flaws and alleged untrustworthiness may well have given Bennett and Saar every reason in the world to hate and distrust him, and to want nothing to do with him. But politics compels you to make choices and compromises. Bennett and Saar’s hatred of Bibi was so intense and unbridled that rather than forming a right-wing government under Bibi and Likud, they decided to invite an anti-Zionist Arab party and the anti-Zionist leftto join in forming the ruling Israeli coalition.

The ramifications of that decision are enormous. Likud’s lack of support for the Citizenship bill is correctable – the bill can be re-tabled in the future, an alternative bill can be presented, etc. The same cannot be said for Bennett and Saar’s decision.