Thursday marked the 27th anniversary of the passing of Reb Shlomo Carlebach, who once told his friends that he had stood at an intersection where three different wedding halls stood and heard his songs emanating at the same time from all three simchas.
Our good friend Ezri To Be sent us an unusual sky drone video, bearing down through the clouds on the assembly of holy Chassidim who commemorated the Rebbe the way he would have wanted it: singing his songs with a lot of strumming.
Reb Shlomo was only 69 when he was taken away from us – way too early. He showed us a sweet and uplifting Judaism the likes of which we hadn’t seen anywhere else before. We miss him today more than ever before, in our era of strife and war among brothers.
Dear Park East Community,
Tamar Stern was 52 years old and a mother of 9, initial reports from the media indicate that the son, Shimon Stern, had mental issues and just yesterday was begging his neighbors for cigarettes and told them that his mother refuses to let him buy cigarettes.
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| Robert Bierenbaum said he strangled his wife, Gail Katz, in 1985 in a fit of rage because he was “immature.” |
A former Manhattan plastic surgeon convicted in his missing wife’s murder has fessed up to tossing her body from a private plane into the Atlantic Ocean, more than three decades later.
Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, a trained pilot serving 20 years to life in prison, admitted to the crime at a parole hearing for the first time since his wife, Gail Katz, 29, vanished in 1985, ABC News’ “20/20” reported.
“I went flying. I opened the door and then took her body out of the airplane over the ocean,” Bierenbaum told the parole board in December 2020, according to a newly obtained transcript.
Bierenbaum told the board that he strangled her in a fit of rage because he was “immature” and “didn’t understand how to deal with his anger,” the outlet reported.
“I wanted her to stop yelling at me, and I attacked her,” he said.
Though Katz’s body has never been found, Bierenbaum was found guilty of her murder in 2000.
Prosecutors were able to secure the conviction based on circumstantial evidence, presenting a theory of what happened to Katz identical to the doctor’s confession.
“I was like, ‘Holy s—, are you kidding me?’” one of the prosecutors, Dan Bibb, told the outlet of the admission.
“I was stunned because I always thought that that day would never come, that he would own up, take responsibility for having killed his wife.”
Bierenbaum was denied parole. His next hearing before the board is set for November.
Katz’s family has found little solace in the bombshell confession.
“This is exactly the same man that I knew 35 years ago,” Katz’s sister, Alayne Katz, told ABC News. “He hasn’t changed … he is incapable of a shred of remorse.”
She added, “My sister’s body has never been found … Gail doesn’t rest anywhere.”
A video has come to light of two Lev Tahor members praising the state of Israel, a stark departure from their usual vehement anti-Israel and anti-Zionist rhetoric and quite risky since they currently are engaging in efforts to reach Israel’s archenemy Iran.
Uriel Goldman, who is now in the Kurdistan area along with two other cult members, is seen in the video praising Israel for its behavior during its recent war with Gaza and in previous operations, when the Israeli army does everything it can to avoid harming civilians.
The Zoom video was recorded shortly after Operation Guardian of the Walls, which took place in May.
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| Transformed: Michael Isaacson recently and years ago ( |
A father and son practicing as Orthodox rabbis in America have been accused by anti-missionary investigators of being secret evangelical Christians.
The claims over Michael and Calev Isaacson — who have changed their family name from Dawson — would cause disastrous halachic problems for the Jewish community if true.
Sacred rituals performed by the two men include writing holy scrolls, washing the dead, and conducting weddings, divorces and even conversions.
Investigators allege neither man is Jewish, making any rituals in which they took part invalid.
They are suspected of being a “sleeper cell” of evangelical Christians who may ultimately attempt to make aliyah and embed themselves within Israeli society.
The Isaacsons have been accepted and welcomed in a number of Orthodox Jewish communities in locations across the US.
Extensive research has uncovered no evidence of traceable Jewish heritage or any official conversion by members of the Isaacson family.
An investigation by the JC has revealed that Michael Dawson grew up in a Lutheran home and he and his wife were married in a Lutheran wedding.
An aunt of Michael Isaacson was shocked to hear about his professed Jewish identity, telling the JC she found his claims over his background “bizarre”.
There is no evidence that the Isaacsons are attempting to convert Jews to Christianity, but when confronted over their true faith they have refused to renounce their belief in Jesus.
The Isaacsons currently reside in Phoenix, Arizona. The family was based in Texas between 2014 and 2016, when Michael Isaacson worked as a supervisor in the Houston Kashrut Association.
They have also lived as Orthodox Jews in Portland, Oregon and Milwaukee.
srael will begin allowing tourists who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus into the country starting November 1, the Prime Minister's Office announced Thursday.
Tourists will be allowed from all countries except 'red' countries and countries which are seeing an outbreak of the new AY4.2 variant.
Six cases of the AY4.2 variant have been discovered in Israel so far.
The first case to have been discovered in Israel was that of an eleven-year-old boy who had recently returned from Moldova and was already in quarantine when his test came back positive.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held a consultation with senior government and ministry figures on ways to combat the spread of the new mutation. The Prime Minister stressed that developments must be closely monitored and acted upon quickly.
Bennett ordered that each case of the new strain in Israel be focused upon with an increased epidemiological investigation. It was also decided to contact countries in which the variant exists, in order to clarify and share information.
