‘Pioneer’ Anesthesiologist Rebecca Twersky Dies at 67

 

Dr. Rebecca Twersky, former chief of anesthesia at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Josie Robertson Surgery Center, died in mid-May at 67.

“In addition to her many professional accomplishments, Dr. Twersky was well known for her devotion to her family and friends and her deep religious faith,” the ASA Monitor, of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, published on May 18.

Twersky led development of the ambulatory (outpatient) anesthesia field. “She played an enormous role in the genesis of the ambulatory surgery unit at Long Island College Hospital, widely recognized as a model for other such units,” per the ASA. “She also served as the department’s vice chair for research, serving as a mentor and guide to residents and faculty alike.”

“There was no ambulatory anesthesia expert until she came along. She was a pioneer,” said Dr. Kara Barnett, a mentee of Twerksy’s, as quoted in a July 6 article by Alex Abel, editor-in-chief of Jew in the City.

Twersky—who was also known as Shani Schreiber—came from a large Chassidic family. She would wait on Fridays until her last patient was discharged, even if it meant walking home for three hours since Shabbat had already begun, Abel wrote.

“She was much more than an outstanding anesthesiologist. She was a trailblazer, a role model and a friend to many,” said Dr. Shmuel Roth, during a video tribute to Twersky, which the Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association hosted on June 28.

Many of the speakers, including colleagues and mentees, remembered spending Shabbat meals together at conferences. One spoke from the operating room. Another said she was like a big sister.

“She always cheered for my successes, and she helped me lick my wounds when there were disappointments,” said Dr. Beth Popp. “More importantly, she always helped me pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again.”

Dr. Babak Balakhaneh reflected on how Twersky consulted her rabbi before accepting the position at Memorial Sloan Kettering. “It was just so amazing to recognize that such an accomplished academic professor, who is one of the top anesthesiologists in the country—that Torah was so important for her,” he said.

“I don’t actually have a clear memory of when I learned that Mrs. Schreiber had a secret identity, or a dual identity, as Dr. Twersky,” said Dr. Sarah Becker, who knew the former as her friend’s mom. “At the time as a kid, I didn’t really appreciate Mrs. Schreiber was anything different.”

David Schreiber, Twersky’s husband, said that “When she put her mind to something, she always accomplished it and saw it to the end. She also did it without ever compromising her religion or standards. She was able to do things in a very natural way. That’s what was so remarkable about her,” as quoted in Jew in the City.

Rabbi Dov Landau 0f Bnei Brak Attacks New Yeshiva in Beit Shemesh Combining Secular Studies

 

Before I comment on the article below I want to let you guys know that in Israel having over 100,000 Avrachim learning in Kollel, is not sustainable, not for the families of the Avrachim and not for the State. The Avrachim have an average of 8 children, bli ayin hara, and even though they all get government subsidies, they cannot make it financially. There isn't enough income to generate savings to make weddings or other simchas or to buy them diras! 

Their wives work, true, but most of them work as teachers, or assistant teachers in the Bais Yaakovs and make a pittance, ask MK Minister Goldknaupf, the Gerer Chasid who is presently the Minister of Housing. When he ran the Bais Yaakovs in Bnei Brak, he made sure to fire the Teachers right before they became eligible for benefits. 

Article:

 It was recently announced that a new yeshiva  will be opening in Beit Shemesh headed by Rabbi Dovid Leibel which will incorporate secular studies outside the yeshiva in an Open University format.

On Monday, Rabbi Dov Landau, who currently heads the Council Of Torah Sages, wrote a sharp letter criticizing the initiative. The letter was published in Yated Neeman and signed by all of the members of the council except for Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, who is currently hospitalized in serious condition with respiratory problems.

DIN: Let's not forget that for years, The Yated's prime and distinguished writer was none other than the author of Kid's speak, Chaim Walder, the sexual predator and rapist who broke up countless families. Chaim Walder was also the founder and director of the Child and Family Center of Bnei Brak, and performed all kinds of Torah prohibitions under the noses of Rabbanim such as Rav Landau and his late father.  The paragraph hints that the only reason Harav Ezrachi (who Should have a Refuah Shleimah) didn't sign the letter was because he "is currently hospitalized. 

Interesting, that both Rav Ezrachi & Rav Zilberstein would sign a letter against a Yeshiva incorporating secular studies, since they made it their business to address The Agudah Yarchei Kallah in Yerushalayim in 2022 to an audience of Baalei Batim of whom 90% graduated college, and of whom 100% attended Yeshivas with secular studies!

Rabbi Landau heard about the initiative during a trip to the US from a Rosh Yeshiva who explained to him the details and warned of the dangers in establishing such an institution. 

DIN: Who was the Rosh Yeshiva? What is his name? 

I'm wondering if this "Rosh Yeshiva" himself attended a Yeshiva that had secular studies? 

All Litvishe Yeshivas in the USA have secular studies in their curriculum and most have their students take the regents! Why would a US Rosh Yeshiva who most probably attended a Yeshiva with secular studies and has his own children in a Yeshiva that has secular studies, put his nose in Israeli Chareidie education? 

Rabbi Landau requested that his letter be signed by the other Gedolim and published in Yated Neeman.

DIN: He will no doubt find "other Gedolim" who are worried that Avreichim will finally come to their senses and start learning a trade and leave them. R' Landau wants it published in the "Yated" the paper of the notorious pervert!

The letter was co-signed by Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman, Rabbi Baruch Dov Povarski, Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein and Rabbi Zvi Drabkin.

The letter states that “Torah study has always been clean and unsullied by any trace of mixing with other disciplines, and our rabbis devoted themselves and fought holy wars against any plans to mix even the slightest amount of other studies within the walls of the Torah fortresses and holy yeshivos.

DIN: Having secular studies in a Torah environment  is something "not clean and sullied?" 

Rabbi Landau with all due respect, Yeshiva Torah Vadaas, Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, Yeshiva Mir, Yeshiva Chasan Sofer, Veener, Ger, Stolin, Bobov, Tzelem,  and yes even Satmar all have secular studies in their curriculum. These Yeshivas were headed by the greatest Gedoilim of the 20th century including Rav Moshe Feinstein, R' Yaakov Kaminetzki, Mattesdorfer Rav, Tzelemer Rav and R' Gedalyeh Schorr etc. etc. 

“However we have now heard that people are planning to establish an institution called a yeshiva gedolah which mixes the holy and the profane, Heaven forfend, in the city of Beit Shemesh.

DIN: Excuse me... did they just write "that people are planning?"  Who are those "people?" Rav Rabbi Dovid Leibel, the president of the Achvas Torah communities, is just "people?" So he isn't a "gadol" because he disagrees? 

Most people in Ramat Beit Shemesh where they are planning this Yeshiva are Anglos, who want this Yeshiva for their children, to make it possible that their children become financially independent and would be able to support their wives as promised in the kesuba, they don't want to come to the US to schnoor because they're children cannot make it financially. 

Kol Ha'Kovod to these parents. 

By the way, these parents are Bnei-Torah, who sacrificed to make Aliya, run to shiurim, and set up massive Chesed Organizations. They moved to Beit Shemesh, not to Bnei Brak, because this is exactly what they want for the children!

“It is our duty to warn against this and to raise a huge storm to alert the Yere’ei Hashem wherever they are that they should not send their children and disciples to this place or give them any support G-d forbid.

DIN: "G-d forbid????" "Alert the Yere'ei Hashem?" ????????

Did you "alert the community" of Bnei Brak when a Chareidie harbored knowingly an illegal Arab and his brother in his home, that turned out to be a terrorist that stabbed his neighbor an avreich.?

Did you "alert the community" the "Yer'ei Hashem" when Chaim Walder was sleeping and raping married women of your community? 

This little fact was known by the Bais Din of Bnei-Brak for 5 years before the community  was "alerted." One of those women went public and stated that she took the sex-fiend Walder to Bais Din in Bnei-Brak, five years prior,  and that the Bais Din ruled that she must leave her husband but refused to notify Walder's wife, the woman subsequently learned of 4 other woman in the exact same circumstances. And even when the facts came out, most of the Litvishe Gedoilim said it was "Loshon Hara" to expose him. 

Are we living on different planets? 

If you don't want to send your children to this school , then great, but to announce in the "Yated Pervert Paper"that people should "not support" them is a chillul Hashem, and is actually going against countless Gemarras that not only advocate work, advocate  a trade but in fact state that working in Israel and learning a trade is a parent obligation!

“Happy is he who can uproot this scourge before it begins, and will keep the House of Israel faithful to Hashem and his Torah free of any aspects of this iniquitous culture, remaining sanctified to Torah study, keeping Mitzvos and following the Torah path.”

DIN: Happy is the one who can learn a trade, support his family in comfort, and still keep up with learning Torah "be'naachas ube'kavod" 

A Kiddush Hashem would be to support this new Yeshiva Gedoileh headed by an outstanding Talmud Chachem and a prominent leader of a great community!

Rabbi arrested for Taking Money From The "Medinah"

 

According to those in the "know" this Rabbi doesn't belong to Satmar!

The National Fraud Investigations Unit at the Israel Police's Lahav 433 station this morning (Monday) arrested a Rabbi from a local council in the south of the country and several other suspects on suspicion of fraudulent offenses involving the funds of state institutions and theft of public funds.

Among those arrested were the rabbi's son and the headmistress of a school belonging to the association he leads.

The three are being interrogated, and at the end of their investigation, the police will request to extend their detention at the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court.

The undercover investigation began over a year ago, following information received in the unit's offices from Army Radio, according to which the head of the regional council manages an association that operates schools benefiting from government funding. He and his family members embezzled the association's funds and used the funds extensively for their own personal needs.

The investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Office of the Jerusalem and South Investigations Assessor, the Investigations Unit of the National Insurance Institute, the Supervision and Control Unit of the Ministry of Education, and with the legal support of the Taxation and Economic Attorney's Office as well as Lahav 433's Claims Unit.

Bnei Brak Chareidie arrested For Employing and Supplying Lodgings to Terrorist Who Injured Avreich Last Week

 

The prosecution unit of the Tel Aviv District Police filed an indictment today (Sunday) against a Bnei Brak resident who employed and provided lodging for the terrorist who carried out the stabbing attack last week in Bnei Brak.

The suspect is charged with harboring and employing illegal residents and obstructing legal proceedings, and a request has been submitted for his arrest until the end of the proceedings. The 68-year-old suspect was arrested the day after the attack, and he was taken for questioning, at the end of which he was imprisoned 

The unit's investigators conducted an extensive investigation, and according to the findings of the investigation, the defendant employed the terrorist and his brother for three months at his business complex designated for the sorting of iron waste in Bnei Brak

 The unit's officers discovered that the accused deleted conversations he had with the terrorist and his brother from the cell phone in his possession the day after the The attack was carried out on Monday by a 16-year-old Palestinian terrorist, a resident of Jenin, who stabbed a man in Bnei Brak with a knife, causing minor injuries. His father and brother were arrested in the city shortly after the attack.

The 28-year-old injured man was taken to Mayanei HaYeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak. The wounded man later recounted shouting that he had been stabbed.

According to Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, the terrorist carried out the attack in response to the recent operation in Jenin.

Menachem Salbotitsky, a medic from United Hatzalah, said: "I gave him first aid at the scene and then sent him to the hospital in the ambulance to continue receiving medical treatment. The victim was a 26-year-old man with minor The attack was carried out on Monday by a 16-year-old Palestinian terrorist, a resident of Jenin, who stabbed a man in Bnei Brak with a knife, causing minor injuries. His father and brother were arrested in the city shortly after the attack.

Ukraine Keeps Stabbing Israel in the Back...Israeli ambassador to Ukraine – You want our help but vote against us in the UN

 

Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine criticized the country constantly asking for Israel’s help in its fight against an ongoing Russian invasion for not providing Jerusalem with any kind of quid pro quo in the United Nations.

In an interview with the local ZN.UA news site, Ambassador Michael Brodsky said that Kyiv “supports 90% of the anti-Israel resolutions in the UN.” This, he said, “is unusual, considering Kyiv often turns to the Israeli authorities for various requests. If Ukraine sees Israel as a friendly nation and makes requests from it, then it needs to support us in the matters that are important to us just as Israel works with Ukraine on matters important to it.”

In just one example, Ukraine voted for a Palestinian-backed draft resolution in November that denied Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and called for an International Criminal Court advisory opinion on Israel’s settlement activities in Judea and Samaria. After the Foreign Ministry called in Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk to protest, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s personal aide said it had been a “grave mistake” and that Kyiv “must at least abstain from such votes.”

Ukraine abstained in the subsequent voted by the full UN General Assembly’s subsequent vote on the issue, which passed easily.

Israel has airlifted hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, sent a field hospital for several weeks in the early stages of the war, trains Ukrainian trauma specialists, and treats dozens of wounded Ukrainian soldiers, and has backed Ukraine in many votes in the world body.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also said in May that Israel is helping Ukraine clear mines from territory its forces have liberated from Russian control.

Israel has airlifted hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, sent a field hospital for several weeks in the early stages of the war, trains Ukrainian trauma specialists, and treats dozens of wounded Ukrainian soldiers, and has backed Ukraine in many votes in the world body.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also said in May that Israel is helping Ukraine clear mines from territory its forces have liberated from Russian control.Korniychuk announced in May that the system had begun operations and “hopefully” his countrymen will be able to “copy-paste it to all major cities,” he said.

Brodsky has criticized anti-Israel remarks made by his host country before, and Israel has summoned Ambassador Korniychuk for a dressing-down more than once for statements made by his government that have accused Israel of “immorality” and worse in supposedly supporting Russia, such as by failing to impose Western-style sanctions on Moscow due to its aggression, or refusing to supply Kyiv with the military equipment it wants.

The last time it did so was less than two weeks ago, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that one reason why Israel will not provide weapons to Ukraine is the fear that those assets could fall into Iranian hands.

The Sheer Barbaric Slaughter of Jews by Ukrainians

The day after the proclamation of Ukrainian nationalist leader Yaroslav Stetsko’s state of Ukraine, on July 1, 1941, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) pasted posters around Lviv with Mykola Mikhnovsky’s slogan, “Ukraine for Ukrainians,” printed in white letters against a red background. 

On the same day in Lviv and in many other localities of Galicia and Volhynia, another poster appeared, authored by Ivan Klymiv sometime earlier; it instructed Ukrainians: “People! Know! Moscow, Poland, the Hungarians, the Jews are your enemies! Destroy them!” 

These posters issued a clear signal as to what non-Ukrainians in Lviv could expect. And under the conditions of Nazi occupation, the only non-Ukrainians who could be targeted with impunity were Jews.

Bedouin extortion gangs target Bnei-Brak

 

Bedouin-Israeli organized crime gangs are targeting businesses in Bnei Brak, a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city in central Israel and suburb of Tel Aviv, according to a Mako report.

Israel’s peripheral northern Galilee and southern Negev desert regions have long been plagued by the phenomenon of “protection,” in which mafia members threaten to torch small businesses or harm their owners and families, should proprietors refuse to pay thousands of shekels each month to the gangs.

Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has pledged to crack down on this type of extortion, which severely impacts small businesses’ ability to operate, but the practice is showing little signs of slowing down.

Leftists in Israel Take Up Rav Shach's Cause Against Chabad

 

 

Rabbi Dr. Shalom Gold has passed away

 

Rabbi Dr. Shalom Gold passed away peacefully on Shabbat (Saturday).

Born in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NY, Rabbi Gold zt"l attended Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in NY, Ner Israel in Baltimore, and Yeshivot Ponevezh and Hevron in Israel. He received semicha from Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Halevi Herzog and from HaRav Yaacov Yitzchok Halevi Ruderman.

Rabbi Gold was in the vanguard of building communities both in the Diaspora and Israel. As a young man in 1959, he came to Toronto to establish the Ner Israel Yeshiva, where he also built and developed Congregation Bnei Torah in Willowdale, a northern suburb of Toronto.

DIN Pinchos Musings

 

There is a Targum Yonasan (Shemos 4:13) that states that Moshe wanted Pinchos to be the leader and thought all along that Pinchos would succeed him but changed his mind after witnessing Pinchos' act of zealotry, against Zimri.

 His hunch turned-out to be to be correct! 

A "kanai" may be a good thing; it saved the lives of thousands of Jews but he cannot be a leader, a "kanai" acts on impulse and even though it can be a plus, the "minus" factors are of a greater concern. 

A lesson one should keep in mind when appointing or following a religious leader, if he is a "kinai" stay away from him... far far away, even though he may be doing things altruistically!

Another point.

In this weeks parsha Hashem instructs Moshe to count the Jewish people after the plaque that killed 24,000 Jews.

Rashi asks why now? 

Rashi has two answers:

The first one is very interesting but problematic. 

Rashi compares this to a shepherd who counts his flock after it has been ravaged by wolves, so too Hashem wanted to count His children who had survived the plague.

The obvious question is, what kind of comparison is this? 

In the case of the shepherd, he really doesn't know how many were killed, so he needs the count, but in our case, we have the exact count of those who perished, as the Torah tells us in the last verse of last week's Parshas Balak, that the count was 24,000?

It could be that Rashi was also bothered by this comparison, hence his second answer, that when the Jews left Egypt, Moshe became the leader, and was given the exact count of how many Jews there were, and now that he was about to hand over the leadership to Joshua he wanted to give the new leader an exact count. 

The question now is, if Rashi had a problem with his first answer  the one with parable of the shepherd and the wolf, why didn't he just give us his second answer straightaway?

Could it be that Rashi wants to give us a message with the parable?

I'm sure my intelligent talmedei chachamim readers will come up with different ideas.

I believe that Rashi's message is very poignant in our days!

There are frummies who keep harping on the past. Oy, the Zionists built the State to uproot the Torah, to uproot Jewish values. 

Oy the "yaldei Tieman!" etc etc.

But notice, Rashi's "wolf/shepherd" parable should have been on the words

שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל 

"Take a count of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel"

isn't  the parable about the count? Yet Rashi addresses the words two verses back

ויהי אחרי המגפה

"It was after the plague?"

 Rashi is telling us that the time has arrived to stop harping on the past and move forward.

It's after "the plague"... Hellllow! It's AFTER the plague! let's move forward, let's get  every Jew to feel special that he is being counted no matter the past and just like the shepherd, though he suffered a devastating loss will inexorably move forward as his flock multiplies and recovers, stronger than ever, so too will we the over 7 million Jews living in Eretz Yisrael move forward stronger than ever, despite, the frummies harping on the not-so-great beginnings.