The airline says the suspension applies regardless of routing and will remain in place "until further notice," though it is working on a solution to restore eligible shipments.
.@SecRubio needs to release a statement. The money hungry ambassador to Turkey @USAMBTurkiye who is only in his position because he’s a rich billionaire (he has zero foreign policy background) just said Israel isn’t a democracy, and that monarchy is the best form of government.… https://t.co/8IO1VkeC2m
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 7, 2025
Chassidim and Yeshivish circles often criticize Chilonim relentlessly, sometimes even going so far as to deny their Jewishness altogether.
One prominent leader of a major Chassidus even questioned Chabad’s campaign to encourage secular Jews to put on tefillin, offering the twisted logic that such efforts are futile since they have “hirhurim.” It sounds absurd, but I’ve seen people on my own blog defending this childish sevarah.
And yet, when one of their own makes far more outrageous claims, the silence is deafening. Reb Mendele Viznitzer — who himself once referred to his own role as a “shvantz,” a tail — has followers who treat him as immortal, even divine.
If he calls himself a “shvantz,” who am I to argue?
The irony is glaring. The very Chilonim whom these groups disparage do not worship avoda zara. But within their own ranks, they tolerate and even celebrate behavior that borders on idolatry.
Jewish-American actor and comedian Michael Rapaport shared his journey of reconnecting to Judaism, writing: “It charges me up and connects me to my identity.”
The Jewish-American actor posted a photo of himself laying tefillin on Sunday, along with a heartfelt message about his spiritual growth over the past two years.
"I started wrapping tefillin about two years ago," Rapaport wrote on X. "I didn’t grow up doing it. I didn’t grow up understanding it. And to be totally honest, when I’d see guys in NYC doing it on the street or outside a bagel shop or in the park, I thought it looked weird. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand the beauty or the meaning."
He continued: "But now? Now when I wrap tefillin, especially first thing in the morning, it hits me in my chest. It centers me. It charges me. It makes me feel focused, grounded, and armed - not with weapons, but with purpose, discipline, and identity."
Rapaport added, “It’s not just a ritual - it’s how I talk to G-d. It’s how I talk to my people. It’s how I talk to myself. And I love it. I really love it.”
He concluded by describing the powerful feeling after prayer: “I feel like a superhero when I walk out the house after praying. Not invincible - but connected.”
He ended the post with the words: “Am Yisrael Chai”
Rabbi Rabinowitz arrived in the US last week for his granddaughter's wedding, which took place on Tuesday in Williamsburg. On the night of the wedding, he began feeling unwell, and after dancing the traditional "Mitzvah Tanz" dance with the bride, he went to rest.
On Friday night, he was hospitalized after contracting a virus and passed away the following morning, during the week of the "sheva brachot" celebrations.
Rabbi Rabinowitz was known for his precision in prayer, and he taught the Belz Rebbe grammar methods. As a result, the Belz community began praying according to precise pronunciation using the "Avodat Hashem" prayer book.
Rabbi Rabinowitz suffered the loss of his son, Rabbi Yosef, and his daughter during his lifetime.
The funeral took place on Saturday night at the Belz synagogue on 43rd Street in Borough Park. His coffin was flown to Israel, and the funeral procession will leave Sunday night at 10:00p.m. from the Sanhedria funeral home in Jerusalem, passing through the Belz Great Synagogue in Kiryat Belz, and will continue to the "Kahal Mahzikei Dat" section of Mount Hamenuchot, where he will be buried.
A senior Egyptian official stated Sunday evening that the joint declaration issued by eight Arab and Islamic states supporting the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip was the result of a coordinated diplomatic initiative led by Egypt.
The declaration was formulated following the visit of Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty to Qatar and after a series of consultations he held on the matter.
According to the official, Egypt and Qatar - the primary mediators of the ceasefire agreement - have expressed growing concern in recent days over the potential collapse of the American plan, citing Israeli measures such as opening the Rafah crossing in only one direction and delaying the full withdrawal of IDF forces from the Gaza Strip.
The official added that the timing of the declaration was not coincidental, as it precedes the anticipated meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He warned that this meeting could lead to changes or a new interpretation of the agreement’s clauses - a move that might contradict the understandings reached at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in October.
The official emphasized that the purpose of the joint declaration is “to block the path to new American-Israeli understandings that could reshape the second phase of the agreement, contrary to the understandings achieved through Egyptian and Qatari mediation.”
President Trump unleashed on Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) after the congressman, freshly pardoned on federal bribery and corruption charges, announced he would seek reelection as a Democrat.
Cuellar, 70, had faced sweeping allegations — including bribery, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent — stemming from what prosecutors said was $600,000 in payments funneled through shell companies tied to Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil enterprise and a Mexican bank. The Biden-era Justice Department accused Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, of concealing the funds through “sham consulting contracts” and corporations that performed “little to no legitimate work.”
Trump issued the rare, unconditional pardon last Wednesday, but within hours Cuellar declared he would run again in Texas’ 28th District — one of the most vulnerable Democratic seats in the country.
“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again… as a Democrat,” Trump wrote in an extended Truth Social tirade. “Such a lack of LOYALTY… next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”
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| Shvut Ra’anan |
In recent days, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee headed by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth has been the scene of a sharp public outcry which has gained the attention of all national media outlets.
As Bismuth discusses the explosive issue of a draft deferral bill for yeshiva students (and for others who are not part of the charedi quotas required by the bill), numerous elements have protested the bill’s exemption and lenient demands from the charedi community.
In particular, a young religious lawyer named Shvut Ra’anan, a leader of the “Reservists” party, was unstinting in her criticism of the bill, claiming that it states that “Your blood (charedim) is bluer than ours” and that other sectors are bearing the brunt of the charedi isolationism.
In response, the Shas party launched a harsh and unprecedented attack against the religious activists who are leading the campaign against the draft bill. In an editorial published in the party’s newspaper it was written, among other things: “At the forefront of those raising the raucous voices stand people wearing kippot, but the messages coming from their mouths are far more repulsive and sickening than those of any adversary from other sectors.”
The party further claimed: “The poisonous and horrific statements being heard these days in the general media, led by women wearing head coverings who speak in the name of the Torah against those who toil in Torah, are unprecedented in their brazenness. They have no fear whatsoever of the severe spiritual pitfalls awaiting their husbands and sons, those who keep Torah and mitzvot, if they serve in the army.”
In even sharper language they added that these religious activists “stand in arrogant insolence as the modern-day heirs of Dathan and Abiram. They are not willing to tolerate even a single Torah student.”
Shas claimed further: “This is the same intense hatred that characterized Akiva before he became Rabbi Akiva — ‘Give me a Torah scholar and I will bite him like a donkey.’”
“They now orchestrate the bonfire of incitement. They pour oil and fuel onto the flames of hatred bursting out in public,” the editorial said.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded: “To all those in Shas who disgrace the sons of Religious Zionism (and to all those who support this in silence): You will not be granted forgiveness, not in this world and not in the next,until you walk past the hundreds of graves of the holy fallen soldiers from Religious Zionism, who combined Torah and arms in their lives and in their deaths. You will go past each grave one by one and ask forgiveness for degrading them and their wives (‘women who do not understand the spiritual dangers their husbands face’).”
“And by the way,” Bennett added, “regarding the citation about Rabbi Akiva: Rabbi Akiva, even as a rabbi, served as the armor-bearer of Bar Kokhba in his war against the Romans. I am certain he would be ashamed of you for saying such things.”
Former minister Yoaz Hendel commented: “A government that relies on such a party will never be able to fix anything here. A party that denies the basics.”
Former minister Matan Kahana wrote in response: “Aryeh Deri calls Religious Zionism the heirs of Dathan and Abiram. Shame has disappeared. We need a coalition of servants!”
Levi Aron, 49, was serving a sentence of 40 years to life at the Wende Correctional Facility for the 2011 killing that shocked the Jewish community in the United States and abroad. According to the Department of Corrections, Aron had been admitted to an outside hospital, and officials noted that his death was expected. The family therefore did not request an autopsy. He had previously been hospitalized in August due to an undisclosed medical condition.
Aron pleaded guilty to abducting Kletzky in July 2011 after the young boy became lost while walking home alone from summer camp for the first time. Aron, then working in a hardware store, drugged and murdered him, later dismembering his body. Most of Kletzky’s remains were found in a dumpster, while his feet were discovered inside Aron’s freezer.
The murder prompted an outpouring of grief across the Jewish community in Brooklyn and beyond, with thousands joining the search efforts during the hours Leiby was missing. His death led to an intense communal response, including calls for improved child safety measures and initiatives to assist families in crisis.
The exact cause of Aron’s death was not immediately released. In 2017, his 29-year-old brother was also found dead inside Aron’s home.
Some 200 high-profile actors and musicians, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Sir Ian McKellen, Paul Simon, Sting and Brian Eno, have called for pressure on Israel to release the former Fatah terrorist leader, Marwan Barghouti, from prison.
Barghouti, 66, consistently comes top of opinion polls asking Palestinian Arabs who they want to replace 90-year-old Mahmoud Abbas as head of the Palestinian Authority.
Now these celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon, describing Barghouti as a “powerful symbol of unity and a longtime advocate for freedom and dignity for the Palestinian people” and claiming that he has been “illegally held by Israel” for more than two decades.
