Local civilians in Gaza filmed and uploaded a video to YouTube that shows cattle tied to poles, trees, and vehicles before being stabbed in the neck and eyes. One animal was shot in the kneecaps by an assault rifle.
Animals Australia said the footage, filmed during a ritual called the “festival of sacrifice”, was some of the worst seen in a series of animal welfare outrages involving Australian cattle.
The prophesies of our Holy Neviem coming true with the help of the great Jewish people of the State of Israel!
The annual Arava Open Day celebrated its 25th year with a colorful exhibition that drew crowds from all over Israel and around the world.
The tens of thousands of people visiting the Northern and Central Arava R&D station had two days (January 20 – 21) to see the agricultural, residential and tourism developments in the Arava.
The KKL-JNF pavilion at the exhibition presented its diverse projects for developing agriculture and sustainable water resources.
Dr Michael Salamon, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, is the founder and director of ADC Psychological Services in New York. He is the author of numerous articles, several psychological tests and books including "The Shidduch Crisis: Causes and Cures" (Urim Publications) and "Every Pot Has a Cover" (University Press of America). His newest book is called "Abuse in the Jewish Community: Religious and Communal Factors that Undermine the Apprehension of Offenders and the Treatment of Victims."
Dusizneis posted a video of Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz speaking at a gathering in Lakewood New Jersey a few days ago. The headline read – “A Path-Breaking Speech by R’ Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz About Serious Issue Facing Lakewood Community”. By the time the video was posted on the news site I must have seen Rechnitz’s comments and video links on my Facebook and Twitter feeds posted at least a dozen times. R. Rechnitz is famous for his generosity and is according to Wikipedia “an American businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of TwinMed, LLC and owner of Brius Healthcare Services, the largest nursing home provider in the State of California.” He recently purchased meals for some 400 American soldiers returning to the US who he met by chance while he was traveling to Israel, in the Shannon airport. He also purchased Powerball lottery tickets for his employees.
What Mr. Rechnitz said in Lakewood deserves the attention it is receiving. He called to task the mind set of Lakewood insularity that seeks to exclude certain individuals, especially children, who do not fit exactly into the rigid and increasingly stringent mold that the community stridently demands. You can watch the video and hear his passion and concern, and every word spoken is true. He confronts the false belief of superiority and that “your children are not good enough for my children” to go to school with and he speaks of the unacceptable rigidity the community adheres to exclude others even though they are part of the same group.
Rechnitz is spot on. I cannot begin to tell you how many families I have seen, who have taken a full day to drive to see me, to try to help their children, and themselves get through the trauma of rejection, and THEN go right back to the same community that has rejected them. The rejection is often for things like wearing a kippah that is not large enough for the community standards or davening without a jacket, or a skirt that does not go quite the minimum two and a half inches below the knee, or Gd forbid, speaking to a member of the opposite sex, or wanting to go to college or…well you get the picture.
But beyond this is the fact that there are now a good number of Lakewood people trying to discredit Rechnitz. As the owner of a large chain of health facilities it is inevitable that his organization is under investigation. He has not been personally implicated and there have not been any reports finalized yet. Still, for many Lakewooders Rechnitz is now persona non grata, and someone to vilify. But that cannot happen. And that is what really makes this story so important.
Remember the asaifa, the gathering to demand that the internet be banned? And, that you should only use a kosher phone not a smart phone with an internet connection? Internet connections were and in many communities remain, the work of the devil. This story is precisely why there was such an intense push to ban internet services. Rechnitz’s speech has caught on like wild fire. It has gone viral and that is simply too threatening to certain community members. It is threatening to their power, to their religious and social base and to their rigid but unsupportable lifestyle.
This is not just a clarion issue for Lakewood. Rechnitz has exposed the failings of Hareidi communities everywhere. What happens in Lakewood happens in other places. There will be people who, because of this unwanted media attention will become even more rigid. There will be others, however, who will use this viral event to begin the tedious but necessary process of change, welcoming diversity within the parameters of true Jewish life, not a false rigidity created of whole cloth that has no basis in Halacha.
I welcome his comments. Despite the efforts of some, Rechnitz cannot be easily dismissed. As a philanthropist with well known largess his words carry significant weight. One can only hope that he is heeded. If not, there will be a seismic shift in this, and similar communities with the potential to create havoc between the old order and a young society exposed to the hypocrisy of exclusion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday for his remarks on the Palestinian Israeli conflict.
Earlier in the day, Moon condemned the current wave of Palestinian terror against Israel, but added that "it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism."
"The secretary-general's remarks provide a tailwind for terror. There is no justification for terror. Those Palestinians who murder do not want to build a state, they want to destroy a state and they say this openly," Netanyahu said.
"They want to murder Jews for being Jews and they say this openly. They do not murder for peace and they do not murder for human rights," he added.
Netanyahu then attacked the United Nations in general.
"The United Nations long ago lost its neutrality and its moral force, and the secretary general's remarks do not improve its standing," Netanyahu said.
Moon, Speaking to the UN Security Council in a session on the current situation in the Middle East, Ban said that 2016 had started with "unacceptable levels of violence."
He said, however, that security measures alone could not stop the violence. "They cannot address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians – especially young people."
Ban called for equal justice for both Israelis and Palestinians alike who commit such crimes.
"Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process. Some have taken me to task for pointing out this indisputable truth. Yet, as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism," he said.
The UN chief said that "Progress towards peace requires a freeze of Israel’s settlement enterprise."
"Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community. They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution," he said.
He also addressed the situation in the Gaza Strip, condemning Hamas rocket fire, and warning that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains perilous. "I continue to strongly believe that conditions in Gaza pose a severe threat to long-term peace and security in the region."
Finally these arrogant Lakewood "askanim" getting a kick in the teeth by R' Rechnitz ! The only town in the world with the most Roshei Yeshivos, yet are afraid to put their foot down and instead look away while precious children have no place in a Yeshivah! They shukkle and daven so so so erlich but don't care if a child that doesn't fit into their own agenda ..... have no place in a Yeshivah ..... These Yeshivas schnooor and schnoor but let Jewish children rot ! Finally a guy telling these guys off .... hope it works! Kudos to R" Rechnitz!
The problem Mr. Rechnitz addressed was the growing number of rejected children – children that have been excluded or precluded from attending any of the fine mosdos in Lakewood.
He addressed the bullet-like blow to the self-esteem of these children – to the instantaneous destruction of the self-worth of our youth, possibly never to be restored again.
He first spoke of almanos and young children who have lost their fathers. He spoke of the daily tzaar of the almanah. How they had lost the man who stood with them under the Chuppa not so long ago.. Who smiled, laughed, and danced before them. He spoke how he had spent Shabbos with yesomos and yesomim. Young boys under Bar Mitzvah, who don’t have a hand to hold onto, when they walk to Shul on Shabbos.
And then, Reb Shlomo Yehudah spoke of our own self-made problem – a problem we ourselves have created because of our attitudes. He spoke of fathers who don’t know where to turn, who were made to feel that they failed their innocent children. Of Mothers who cry themselves to sleep every night. He spoke of the children who at a tender young age, try to put on a normal face, but hide in their room and cry and cry more. This child’s parents have already cried their hearts out to their Rabbanim, to the school administration. “Please, please take our child. It’s six weeks, and he’s still not in school.”
He spoke of a 13 year old girl, who clearly sees that nobody wants her. She’s the town’s Pesoles. “Can you imagine,” Mr. Rechnitz asked, “an innocent Bas Yisroel, putting on a face for her friends, claiming she hasn’t had enough time to decide which school to go to, only to lay her head down on her pillow at night, the pillow which is still wet from the tears of the night before?”
He remarked that just on his drive into Lakewood that day, he received three calls from parents who asked him, “I hear you’re coming to Lakewood, can you speak to so and so. And I will address every one of them, because how can I not?
We are a nation who is Noseh B’oel Chaveiro. How can we be comfortable just because everything is fine and dandy by us, while someone else is clearly suffering.
Forget Ahavas Yisroel. I won’t ask for that much, but another Yid needs us, another Yid is crying out to us. How can we not answer him, yet expect Hashem to answer us, to take care of our needs?”
Reb Shlomo Yehudah explained the rishonim on the Takana of Rav Yehoshua Ben Gamla, “Even if ONE child in not in school, any child, Nishtachach Torah M’yisroel.”
“Yehoshua Ben Gamla, as the Kohen Gadol, under Roman rule, knew that it was incumbent on him to make sure that every last child had a Cheder to go to. Zachur oisio ish l’tov, because if not for him, Nishtachach Torah M’Yisroel,” Reb Shlomo Yehuda continued.
And then he delivered the death thrust – the unmitigated, unvarnished truth, designed to open every one’s eyes to the tragedy unfolding in the heart of the greatest Torah city in the country.
“L’tzaareinu Harav, we have a Machla in Lakewood.
No other out of town community would ever allow a child to be left without a school.
In Los Angeles, if a child wouldn’t have a school the first day, the whole community would be all over it. The same thing would happen in Baltimore, Chicago and Toronto or anywhere else.
This is basically a Lakewood Machla. Yes, there’s a few kids in Monsey, more than a few kids in Brooklyn, but nowhere else and in no other time in history was this problem close to the magnitude it is in Lakewood..
Even the children that get in, how many of them and their parents shvitz for months, making phone calls, waiting for phone calls?”
He explained, of course that, “No one will dispute that Lakewood is everything right.. There is nothing as beautiful, no picture or painting, no scenery in the world that even slightly compares to the beauty of Lakewood. Walking into the multiple Chadorim and hearing the chorus of Komitz Aleph-Uh, Komitz Bais-buh, the angelic tune of our Tinokos Shel Bais Raban repeating pasuk after Pasuk after their Rebbe. The Rebbeim have a special place in their heart, a unique love for every single Talmid. You walk into the Kollelim..they’re so arayngetun in their learning. Their Ahavas Hatorah, their Simchas Hachaim. Chaim sheyesh bohem ahavas Hatorah V’yiras Shomayim…
But when it comes to schooling, we become Meshuga L’oisoi Davar..
We profess to teach Torah, and the importance of Daas Torah, yet when any Rosh Hayeshiva calls up a mosad to try to get a child in, they’re turned down with the swipe of a hand. How hypocritical can we be?”
He explained that the Roshei Mosdos shouldn’t take the blame. “They know that it just takes a few missteps, a few wrong decisions, a few wrong children, and next year, they quickly become the nebech school.”
He explained that the blame lies mostly on our shoulders. He said, “Many of us have created for ourselves a new Torah, a new Yiddishkeit, that makes us feel good about ourselves, but has little to do with Hashem’s Torah that He gave us 3300 years ago. We turned our Frumkeit into an idol, and we have forgotten some of the basic tenets of Yiddishkeit.”
He presented a list of five very false Ani Maamins:
1. I believe that “I am better than you.”
2. I believe that I have to show all my chumros, so everyone can see how frum I am.
3. I believe that “your children are not good enough for my children.”
4. I believe that the Torah was given to perfect children and perfect families.
5. I believe there is no room for individuality; we must all fit into the same perfect model.
And then he asked all present to declare the truth:
“1. We believe that Hashem loves every Yid, adult or child, unconditionally, and with tremendous Ahava. We can never know the value of a particular Neshama. Every neshamah is a “chelek elokah memmaal.”
Someone who is really frum loves every Yid with all his heart and all his soul. The notion that some of us are “better,” holier, and superior than others, is primitive, false, and simply foolish. Hashem calls each Yid his only child, yet we say, “You are not really that worthy.”
B’michilas Kvoidchem, we’ve skipped over the fundamentals and went directly to the Chumros. Bein Adam L’chaveiro is a nice thing if we can work it into our schedule, but Chas V’shalom, if my neighbor is struggling, instead of opening my heart to him, I become a cruel and arrogant Jew, and I think I am frum!
This is our Ani Maamin #1. Don’t tell me, you love me and you hate some of my children.it means you do not love me. Do not tell Hashem, I love you but I dislike some of your children.
Ani maamin #2. We believe that Torah is based on humility, on genuine relationships and dedication.. But if a yid is arrogant and elitist, Hashem runs away from him. It is time to realize how our elitism has destroyed our ruchniyus.
Ani maamin #3. We believe that every child is priceless, his or her value is infinite. For every child we need mesiras nefesh. The Midrash says, if one of the 3 million Jews were not by Sinai, the Torah could not be given. Everyone had to be there. How we can say, that some of our children do not belong in our schools? If we would have said that at Har Sinai, we would have never had a Torah!
Ani maamin #4. I believe that we all struggle. Torah was not given to perfect people. It was given to people who struggle with life and who have ups and downs. We all need each other and must learn from each other. The Gemarah says in Shabbos, that Torah could not be given to angels; only to people who fall and stumble. Yet we.. invented that Torah is only for angels!
Ani maamin #5. I believe that not everybody has to be, or even can be, the same. The Mishnah says in Sanhedrin that Hashem created every person different. Why? Because he wants us to be different.
Let us respect differences. Let us respect individual journeys. Let us respect Neshamos not only robots. Let us respect hearts not only machines. Let us not crush every kid into a particular box even if he is sticking out. Let us be a little more confident and secure, and tolerate different types of people.
Reb Shlomo Yehudah continued, “I am heartbroken for one particular conversation that occurs nonstop in Lakewood. Parents call up a school and say: if you take in so and so, I am not sending my child. The school buckles under and rejects that child.
I tell you today with all my heart:
SHUMU SHAMAYIM AL ZOIS! This is a churban for klal yisroel! How dare you destroy another child’s life because if your opinions of the other child?! How dare you become a murderer like that? How dare you face Hashem by davening when you snuffed out a Yiddishe Neshama? How DARE you?”
He exhorted the listeners, “This is mammash shefechus damim. If the school isn’t good enough for your child, shut your mouth and go find him a school that does work, or create your own school just for your child. Make a yeshiva just for him.
I call on every principal, every Rosh Hamosod, no, I’m not calling on you. I’m munning you. That from today on, if you ever get such a comment, that if you take in that kid, the other family will not send their kid to your school, have the courage to tell them, “We apologize, but we clearly are not the place for your child prodigy.”
And then he added, “And if you are afraid of the money.. you call me. I will supplement!”
Reb Shlomo Yehudah ended with the following thought, “Suddenly, when it comes to the most important thing, we leave out Hashem from the entire picture!…There goes that Bitachon.
Hillary addressing the Jewish Federation in Iowa, starts choking and then sips water without making a bracha and then eats a candy without making a bracha just like Eisav! Where was Ezra the Kapo to help her out?
Way before "Satmar re-writers of Jewish History" mocked the view of the Gedoilie Yisroel that said that the "in- gathering of the Jews to Israel and building the infrastructure of the State was the aschalta de'Geulah" .......... Rashi z"l, that lived over a thousand years before the Satmar Dynasty, writes in Mesachtas Sanhedrin 88a on the top of the page ..... "The beginning of redemption will be seen in the fruits of the land of Israel that Israel gives forth, in abundance" Even a blind man can see that the finest fruits in the entire world are grown in Israel. The finest wines come from Israel; Israel having won countless awards for the best wines! So B'H the "aschalta de"geulah" is already here in full force ... something that all frum Jews were waiting for years ... and it has finally come to fruition (no pun intended). But those who deny this premise, should watch themselves since those who didn't believe in the "aschalta De'Geulah" in Mitzraim, remained there! Happy Tu B'Shvat --- Israel Arbor Day!
Thirty-five chareidim joined Israel Police last week as part of their national service. They join the 140 chareidim already serving in Israel Police as an option towards fulfilling their mandatory service – an alternative to IDF service.
They will enter courses to equip them with the necessary knowledge to perform their duties, as well as being certified in the use of a firearm. They will join routine patrols as well as the technological and intelligence branches of the department.
Israel Police officials report that they are continuing efforts to build an environment that will be viewed as comfortable and inviting for chareidim to encourage more members of the chareidi community to select Israel Police as a public service option.
