If we could have those emotions by davening like this cello player ....how great would that be?
With Yom Kippur just around the corner, it seems as if the time has arrived to do an honest Chesbon Nefesh (self-searching) concerning the “A” word; Aliyah. In a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released earlier this year before the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic in the United States, about two-thirds of American Jews said they feel less safe than at any other time in the past decade.
The ADL survey also found that more than half of American Jews (54%) have either experienced or witnessed an incident they believe was motivated by antisemitism.
Wherever you look; broadcasters, sports celebrities, local politicians associated with the Democratic Party, social media activists, Black Lives Matter’s leaders, street anarchists, are all expressing with immunity and zero remorse, a common and seemingly coordinated message of hatred towards Jews, that Jews are somehow responsible for the Corona pandemic, and that Jews are financially behind much of the anti-government violence sweeping the streets of America.
The time tested and natural response by most Jews, albeit unconsciously has been to modify their’ daily routine and avoid public displays of Judaism so as to minimize the risk of being targeted. This pretty much sums up the reaction of most American Jews, even if they continue to deny or refuse to admit it. The natural inclination to move on as if nothing has changed is a time tested response by Jews that seems to no longer be relevant or effective in dealing the wide-spread anti-Semitism that has mushroomed everywhere.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a wife, mother of seven and a devout Catholic — but how that may affect the presumptive nominee’s potential rulings on the Supreme Court remains to be seen.
Reportedly tapped by President Trump to replace the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg, the 48-year-old jurist has only sat on the federal bench for three years, after being successfully nominated by Trump to the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
She’s written more than 100 decisions and dissents, according to the Chicago Tribune. And while she maintains that her faith does not enter into her rulings on the law, Barrett twice joined with a minority of judges in dissenting opinions that favored reconsidering rulings that struck down state restrictions on abortion rights.
One case involved an Indiana law that would have required that the parents be notified when minors seek consent for the procedure from the courts, while the other — also passed in Indiana, her home state — banned abortions for reasons related to gender, race or disability, and also required that fetal remains be buried or cremated.
Although the Hoosier State only appealed the decision regarding fetal remains, Barrett and the other dissenters addressed the law’s other provisions, noting that “there is a difference between ‘I don’t want a child’ and ‘I want a child, but only a male,’ or ‘I want only children whose genes predict success in life.'”
“Using abortion to promote eugenic goals is morally and prudentially debatable,” the dissenters argued.
Both of those cases later wound up before the Supreme Court, which reinstated Indiana’s regulation of fetal remains and ordered a reconsideration of its parental-notification law.
Three members of the city’s Orthodox Jewish communities died from the coronavirus over the last four days — all within hours of arriving at the hospital too sick to be saved, The Post has learned.
All three men were fatally ill with the disease by the time they sought treatment at the Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park, one of the neighborhoods at the center of the Big Apple’s latest COVID-19 outbreak.
“There’s rampant COVID denialism and misinformation abound in the community,” one person familiar with the situation said. “People are not getting tested and are refusing care even when sick. This is deeply distressing.”
Not all of the deaths were elderly men, the sources added, though more specific information was not immediately available.
Maimonides is not the only hospital seeing an uptick, the sources said.
Mount Sinai’s hospital system — which includes Mount Sinai Brooklyn in nearby Midwood — has also seen the number of new patients admitted with COVID-19 jump to 40 over the last week, up from an average 20 to 25, the sources said.
“As has been reported, there has recently been an increase in the number of patients with COVID-19,” a spokeswoman for Maimonides said in a statement.
“The hospital otherwise declined to comment on the specifics of the story.”
Representatives for Mount Sinai declined to comment.
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The Israeli government slapped restrictions on outgoing flights on Friday as part of a slew of measures to bolster a second virus lockdown imposed last week.
"The arrangement agreed upon enables leaving the country for whoever bought an airplane ticket prior to the beginning of the lockdown, i.e. today, the 25th, at 2:00 p.m.," Transport Minister Miri Regev said in a statement.
"People who buy a ticket beyond then won't be able to use it," she said, noting Israelis would be able to return to the country "without limitations".
From 2:00 p.m. local time, Israel will tighten its second virus lockdown, after the first week failed to bring down the world's highest coronavirus infection rate.
The new rules, which will close workplaces, shutter markets and further limit prayers and demonstrations, had yet to be finalized in parliament just hours before they were due to come into force.
The lockdown already closed schools and imposed restrictions on work and leisure.
Israel has recorded more than 215,000 coronavirus infections and 1,378 deaths, out of a population of nine million, with more than 7,500 new cases on Thursday.
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| Yochanan in Italy |
Yochanan grew up in a haredi home in Jerusalem, but was kicked out of the yeshivah system at a young age. As a result of the violence and abuse he was subjected to by family members, he decided to leave home and live on the streets.
When, not surprisingly, the street failed to provide him with the care and support he was looking for, he took an unusual step: He obtained a passport, put together a little money and with just the clothes on his back left the country forever.
But he abandoned more than his country. In an attempt to "get back" at those who'd hurt him, he decided to leave Judaism and convert to Christianity.
With that in mind, he headed for Italy. After touring the country and taking in the sights, Yochanan wound up at a monastery in the south, on the island of Sicily. The monk in charge welcomed him with open arms, and Yochanan took the following year to immerse himself in Christian teachings. At the end of the year, he decided to return to Israel to be baptized at the Jordan River.
In an act that was part defiance and part wanting to reconnect to his family, Yochanan sent a message to his mother announcing his planned arrival and its purpose. The mother was beside herself with anguish and called Yad L'Achim for help.
The organization understood that Yochanan couldn't be won over in a straightforward conversation on theology, and thought of another way to reach him, with his guard down.
In coordination with his mother, Yad L'Achim sent one of its people to the airport to pick Yochanan up and drive him home to Jerusalem. The driver, who grew up in a Christian family in Europe, trained to become a priest and became a senior missionary in charge of targeting Jews, started an "innocent" conversation with Yochanan.
Where was the young man coming from? Italy. And the purpose of his visit? To be baptized in the Jordan River.
In the casual conversation that ensued, Yad L'Achim's expert succeeded in opening Yochanan's eyes to a series of contradictions in Christian teaching that shook the foundations of what he'd learned over the past year.
By the time they'd reached their destination, the two had developed a relationship and were exchanging phone numbers. Yochanan asked if he could call later that night to continue their talk.
The conversation, which lasted until 5 a.m., probed theological questions and those relating to the meaning of life. By the time it was over, Yochanan had changed his mind about baptism, but still refused to hear anything about reconnecting to Judaism.
A Yad L'Achim staffer who'd heard about Yochanan's painful personal story rallied to the cause, arranging for him to see top psychologists and social workers. After a long process, during which he slowly began to feel acceptance and support, he decided to return to his family and his people.
Yad L'Achim helped him find a respectable job and, as of this past Rosh Chodesh Elul, he began coming nightly to a yeshiva study hall in the Old City of Jerusalem, where he engages in regular Torah study.
A leading Yad L'Achim official observed: "While the story of Yochanan isn't typical, not even for us, it is just one of hundreds of cases of precious Jews we save every year from the clutches of missionary cults operating in Israel. Every instance in which we bring a Jew back to his Father in Heaven moves us and instills in us renewed determination to continue this difficult work against a missionary operation that is extremely well-funded by Christian churches. Every success like this is a literal expression of 'Shuva banim shovavim.' "
These days, Yad L'Achim continues its efforts to save more and more Jewish souls. "These precious souls who have returned to their core, are the best defenders a person can acquire for himself on the Day of Judgment," the official continues.
