Study finds eating Israeli Bamba drastically cuts peanut allergy risk in young kids

 

ating Bamba, Israel’s quintessential peanut-butter-flavored snack, is proven to reduce peanut allergies in children by 75 percent, according to a recent study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, bearing out what many Israelis already know.

The longitudinal study began in 2008 when a group of British and Israeli researchers were intrigued by how peanut allergy in Israeli children was significantly less common compared to Jewish children in the UK with similar genetic backgrounds.

They hypothesized that the low level of peanut allergy in Israeli children resulted from their high level of peanut-flavored snacks from an early age. They set out to test it, eventually proving right their hypothesis.

The research created a buzz in the Hebrew media after Dr. Elee Shimshoni and Dr. Sagie Brodsky, two scientists who volunteer at Little, Big Science, wrote about the landmark study. According to its website, this organization is made up of volunteer scientists who explain science in simple Hebrew to the general public.

In their article, the authors explained the researchers’ Bamba study in easy-to-understand language with a bit of humor.

“Slackers, give yourselves a pat on the back for giving your children Bamba” instead of a “fresh and nutritious zucchini quiche,” Shimshoni and Brodsky begin. “You may have prevented your children from developing a peanut allergy.”

In their article, The New England Journal of Medicine researchers said that peanuts are a common culinary ingredient, and “hard to avoid.”

Treatments to protect children against reactions from peanut exposure “would improve the children’s socialization and the quality of life of the children and their families,” the researchers wrote.

Peanut allergy is a common cause of pediatric anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can cause a range of symptoms, including difficulty breathing, swelling, hives, and a sudden drop in blood pressure that requires immediate medical attention.

Although treatment strategies are emerging,  therapies for children under 4 years of age do not exist.

Unlike many other food allergies that develop in childhood, peanut allergy can persist into adulthood.

Meet Morgan Overton the Harris Delegate Pushing a BDS Resolution That Would Cripple Pittsburgh’s Jewish Orgs and Punish Local Hospitals

 Morgan Overton is a Pennsylvania delegate for Kamala Harris at next week’s Democratic National Convention, a member of Democratic governor Josh Shapiro’s advisory council for women, and a Planned Parenthood Western Pennsylvania board member. She’s also a quiet supporter of a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) ballot initiative that would cripple the city’s Jewish organizations and punish its largest hospital system.

Overton, who said she is “so energized” to back Harris in Chicago, signed a petition that would trigger a BDS ballot measure come November, documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. If passed, the measure would force the city of Pittsburgh—and all of its nonprofit entities—to cut ties with Israel or lose tax-exempt status and all public funding. Overton, who has been described as “besties” with Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, signed the petition on July 27, though she has not voiced public support for the measure.

Rabbi "Paskens" That ‘Sacred Texts’ Require Jews To Vote for Harris

An influential Washington, D.C., synagogue is facing backlash from furious congregants after its rabbi claimed Jews “need to elect Vice President Kamala Harris” in order to comply with “sacred texts.”

Adas Israel, whose membership has included Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is one of the oldest and largest synagogues in Washington, D.C. But members have become increasingly frustrated with the leadership’s “insulting” left-wing advocacy that has left congregants “dreading the upcoming high holidays,” the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The controversy came to a head at a Jewish Democratic Council of America event earlier this month, when Adas Israel Co-Senior Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt cited Jewish scripture as a basis for why Jews must vote for Harris.

“I could tell you that we need to elect Vice President Kamala Harris because as Jews our sacred texts tell us we need to build a world where we feed the hungry, where we care for the sick, where we love the stranger, where we guard and nurture this planet,” said Holtzblatt on the JDCA Zoom call with Harris supporters. “Those are her values. That is what her policies seek to achieve.”

Holtzblatt, who officiated Ginsburg’s funeral and has appeared on The Forward’s “Forward 50” list, is a vocal supporter of Harris and led a Passover seder at the vice president’s home last spring. She did not respond to a request for comment regarding which Jewish texts support her assertion that Jews “need to elect” Harris

Holtzblatt’s comments drew criticism from some Adas Israel congregants, who said the synagogue’s political bias has become “insufferable.”

“[T]o be lectured that as Jews we are compelled to vote a certain way is frankly insulting,” wrote a longtime congregant in an email to Adas Israel’s rabbinical leaders. Two other Adas Israel congregants independently shared the exchange with the Free Beacon.

“[T]ying ‘our sacred texts’ to a political candidate in this way is, at best, simplistic. And easily rebutted with myriad other examples from scripture,” wrote the members. “The reality is that Adas has become borderline insufferable for anyone who doesn’t share what is assumed by leadership to be the universal point of view. It’s politics all day everyday; politics always from the same direction—no balance.”

Members are also reportedly irked by Adas Israel’s decision to have Hamilton director Lin-Manuel Miranda, a non-Jewish Democratic activist, headline the synagogue’s Yom Kippur programming in October.

“[T]here are many more Adas members than you might realize, who are put off as well (some of whom are BCC’d here),” wrote the congregants. “I have spoken with a number who are dreading the upcoming high holidays, headlined bizarrely by father and son Miranda (hawking his book no less!).”

 

Mendel Furst a Satmar Lakewood Rebbe accused of grabbing a 10-year-old student by the neck and dragging him up stairs

The prosecutor in the case of a Yeshiva teacher accused of endangering the welfare of a child by grabbing him by the neck and dragging him up a flight of stairs has offered the teacher a deal in which he would avoid trial but would have to forfeit his teaching position – or any work at a school – for three years.

The deal was proposed in Ocean County court on Wednesday. It follows a July 10 hearing at which the prosecutor asked for additional time to determine that the victim’s family wasn’t being subject to “undue pressure or threats” from rabbis. If he accepts, the Hasidic schoolteacher who faces charges of abusing the 10-year-old boy will be admitted to New Jersey’s Pre-Trial Intervention program.

The defendant, Rabbi Mendel Furst, who teaches at a Satmar boys’ school in Lakewood, allegedly grabbed the child by the neck and dragged him up a stairwell, leaving scratches and bruising around his neck, according to a Lakewood police report from January.

Furst was seen in surveillance video committing the offense as a way of scolding the boy on Nov. 12, 2023, police said. He was charged with fourth-degree cruelty and neglect of a child.

In response to Shtetl’s request, the police only released heavily redacted bodycam videos of officers executing their search warrant, while neither prosecutor nor police would share the surveillance footage they obtained from the school. However, the attorney for the boy’s family wrote a memo describing what he saw in the school surveillance footage. A man’s “right hand was wrapped around the child's hand in a head lock,” the attorney, Terrance Turnbach, wrote. “At one point in time on the video, the child's feet are actually in the air while being restrained.”

“The child was visibly carried up the staircase in this manner while the Rabbi was chanting ‘What do you say to the wicked, there will be no peace to the wicked’ in Hebrew in a sing song chant,” Turnbach added.

In Ocean County criminal court on Wednesday, the prosecutor, Kimberly Carr, said that she and the alleged victim’s father supported pre-trial intervention, a program that allows defendants to avoid a trial, as long as Furst agrees to certain conditions.

Furst would have to avoid contact with the alleged victim and his family, go to anger management classes, and not work as a teacher or school administrator for three years. Furst’s attorney, Yosef Jacobovitch, said they needed time to consider the proposal; they are due back in court on Sep. 4.

But at the previous hearing, on July 10, Carr was reluctant to agree to  PTI. She said that the victim’s father who had initially opposed Furst’s participation in the program “received phone calls from rabbis on behalf of this defendant inquiring as to the basis for his opposition to the program.”

The morning of that hearing, the father’s attorney told Carr the father had a “change of heart” and now supported PTI. The prosecutor was suspicious about this change and said she would evaluate further, before agreeing to the deal.

“I want to have an opportunity to make sure that that change of heart is not a result of undue pressure or threats that are coming on behalf of the defendant,” Carr said. “To not ask those questions, I feel, would not be doing my due diligence.”

In response, Jacobovitch said that any inappropriate calls made to the alleged victim’s father were not made from him. “There was absolutely nothing that was presented to the victim or his father that would make him change his position,” Jacobovitch said. “That definitely did not come from us. And if that was the case, you know, obviously we would apologize for that.”

The judge, Linda Baxter, then advised Jacobovitch: “I’m going to underscore what I know the state is going to say to you, which is that your client and you should both do whatever you can to make sure that third parties do not reach out to the alleged victim or his father, because that’s not helping.”

At the time, the judge proposed the next hearing be on Aug. 7, but postponed it to Aug. 14 after Jacobovitch asked to have it changed — likely because Aug. 7 would’ve fallen during the last nine days of the Three Weeks, a period between the fast days of Shiva Asar B'tammuz and Tisha B’av, which many Orthodox Jews consider an unlucky time. 

Jacobovitch would not stop to talk to Shtetl’s reporter at the courtroom on Wednesday, and his law firm has not returned a call from Shtetl.

New details of how Israel eliminated Fuad Shukr

A Hezbollah official revealed new details about the assassination of the terrorist organization's most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit, Fuad Shukr, last month, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the source, on the day on which Shukr was eliminated, he received a phone call telling him to go up the five floors to his apartment in which he had stayed throughout the day.

As soon as Shukr entered his apartment, an Israeli airstrike blew up the apartment, killing him and other members of his family instantly.

According to the report, the phone call to Shukr was made by someone who hacked Hezbollah's internal communication network.

Shukr was assassinated on July 30 in an airstrike in a suburb of Beirut, days after he was responsible for the massacre of 12 children in a Hezbollah rocket attack that struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams in northern Israel.

Shukr was also responsible for the bombing of the US marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 in which 241 American servicemen were murdered. The US has a $5 million bounty on his head

 

Don Lemon of CNN "Surprised" when he interviews Atlantic City Residents

 

 In a recent on-the-ground interview, former CNN anchor Don Lemon found himself at odds with the sentiments of Atlantic City residents regarding the state of the U.S. economy. The segment, intended to gauge public opinion, quickly became a contentious exchange as multiple locals voiced their support for former President Donald Trump, citing a stronger economy and greater financial stability during his administration.

Lemon, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, was visibly surprised as interview after interview revealed a consistent theme: many residents felt more financially secure under the previous administration.

“Four years ago, it was a lot better. I made a lot more money than I do now,” said one man, reflecting on his personal experience. When Lemon attempted to fact-check the claim, the man responded with laughter, dismissing Lemon’s statistics with a simple, “I know nobody likes him, but we had good times with Donald Trump.”

Another woman echoed these sentiments, expressing frustration with the current economic climate. “The economy was good, life was good,” she said, underscoring a growing disconnect between the realities faced by many Americans and the messaging they receive from the media.

Throughout the interviews, Lemon repeatedly insisted that the economy has improved under Joe Biden. However, these assertions were met with skepticism and even outright laughter from the locals. Many residents pointed to their struggles with rising grocery prices and the overall cost of living as evidence contrary to Lemon’s claims.

This street interview highlights a significant divide between media narratives and the lived experiences of everyday Americans. While economists may present data supporting economic growth under the Biden administration, many people, especially in working-class areas like Atlantic City, are not feeling the benefits.

President Herzog Is Surveying the Jewish People – Go Tell Him How You Feel!

 

President Isaac Herzog announced the launch of a pivotal global survey to shape dialogue and leadership development within the Jewish world — the first step of his Voice of the People initiative. The survey will help create a new worldwide Jewish advisory council to address the most pressing challenges facing Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora.

President Isaac Herzog said, “We are currently engaged in safeguarding the State of Israel and reinforcing the strength of the Jewish people amid a challenging war and rising antisemitism. Simultaneously, we face critical issues that demand our attention. In response, we are establishing the Voice of the People council, which will ensure the Jewish people’s ability to thrive in a changing world. The survey we are launching today will shape the council, and therefore shape the discussions impacting the future of the Jewish people. I encourage everyone to participate and contribute to help build our collective future.”

Voice of the People, Kol Ha’am, in Hebrew, was launched to become an incubator for innovative and practical solutions to the pressing challenges facing the Jewish people worldwide, while also fostering international Jewish leadership. Led by CEO Shirel Dagan-Levy, the initiative will set goals and objectives to implement the ideas generated in working groups, aiming to bring about real change in shaping the Jewish future.

The initiative will include the establishment of an international Jewish council composed of 150 leaders from communities around the world — 50 representatives from Israel, 50 from the US and Canada, and 50 from other countries. This council will convene online once a month for two years, culminating in a conference in Israel in March 2025, with all representatives attending in person.

The first step in launching the project involves distributing a survey to the global Jewish community to select the topics for discussion in the first council meeting. This survey will be open for responses for the next 45 days, after which the results will guide the council’s priorities and strategic actions. Twenty survey respondents will be selected to participate in a private conversation with the President during the virtual launch event on September 15, 2024.

NY Times reporter leaked Jewish WhatsApp group data that fell into hands of anti-Israel activists who harassed members

The New York Times said it took disciplinary action against a reporter who acknowledged leaking data about a WhatsApp group chat for Jewish business people that led to its members being doxxed and harassed by activists sympathetic to Palestinians.

Natasha Frost, a Times reporter who was based in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year, downloaded and shared 900 pages of content from the private WhatsApp chat that was launched by Jewish professionals in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists that claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis.

Frost acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal that she shared the information with one individual before it fell into the hands of anti-Zionist activists.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Ve'Etchanan

 

Trump and Elon Musk Dance a "Mitzvah Tanz"

 

Haters will say this is AI 🕺🕺 pic.twitter.com/vqWVxiYXeD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2024