DNA tests confirm, Jews of Africa belong to the Jewish race

North African Jews

The Jewish people across the world all have very close DNA similarities, according to a new study.

North African Jews are more closely related to Jews around the world, rather than of their non-Jewish neighbors in North Africa, a new study of DNA has found.

In addition, their DNA carries a record of their migrations through the centuries. Some parts of their DNA dates back to the ancient people of the Middle East believed to have migrated to North Africa more than 2,000 years ago, while other bits are connected to Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled to North Africa after their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century, the study authors have said.

The finding is consistent with other research showing that the Jews of Europe and the Middle East share more DNA with each other than with external groups, said Dr. Harry Ostrer, a medical geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and author of the report, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Jews tend to be more interconnected than they are to non-Jews, including non-Jews living in their same area, which is true in all regions," he said.

Ostrer previous work has focused primarily on DNA samples collected from American Jews. Hoping to "catch up" and present a fuller picture of Jewish history and diversity, he and his colleagues analyzed DNA samples from 145 people of Jewish origin from North Africa, from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Djerba which is an island off the coast of Tunisia and Libya.

Comparing the DNA genetic data obtained from a variety of other Jewish groups and non-Jews, they found that the Jewish populations of North Africa have clearly genetic patterns more similar to European and Middle Eastern Jews than non-Jews who currently live in region. The data indicates that, once established in their communities, Jews in this region did not marry their non-Jewish neighbors.

The scientists also found that North African Jews formed two main groups, Morocco and Algeria Jews

shared more DNA with the European Jews as was seen by Tunisia, Libya and Djerba.

This is probably due to the fact that Jews living in West Africa married with Sephardic Jews who fled there after their expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century, the researchers wrote.

Yeshiva University historian Lawrence Schiffman said that the results are well aligned with the historical record.

"It's exciting to see what we know from the history books and that all of it is backed by genetics," he said.

Jewish Doctor dies saving 2 drowning boys

A doctor died while saving two boys.
Dr. Donald Liu did not hesitate when he saw the two children struggling to swim in the rough waters of Lake Michigan.

Despite the objections of his own children, who were concerned about the dangerous conditions, Liu ran along the beach in Berrien County, Michigan, and plunged into the lake to help the boys, who had fallen from a kayak, according to Liu's wife and the authorities.

An elite pediatric surgeon of Chicago, Liu reached the two boys, said his wife, Dr. Dana Suskind. However, the rip current emerging from beneath the waves of 5 feet of water dragged the doctor below the surface, said Bruce McKamey, a police officer from Chikaming municipality.

Emergency personnel who arrived around 10:40 am local time on Sunday, took Liu, 50, from the water and Suskind, who is also a surgeon, performed CPR on her husband of over 17 years. The

children, to who the doctor swam to save, were friends of the family. They did return safely to shore thanks to the help of the doctor. But Liu was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

"It was horrible," Suskind said Monday. "He had the biggest heart. He was a brilliant surgeon, but what was amazing about him was that he was the best father, this was his priority in life, and he loved me with all his heart."

Liu and Suskind belong to a prominent Jewish community in Chicago.

Dov Berish Englander dies while toiveling in the ocean

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi drowned while performing a ritual immersion in the sea off the resort town of Aberystwyth in West Wales.

Dov Berish Englander, 47, described as a highly respected member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in London, on vacation in the picturesque seaside town of Aberystwyth, where he died while diving into the sea, using it as a "mikvah" ritual bath, in the traditional cleansing of the body in a natural water body that symbolizes a return to purity.

A hotel guest called the emergency phone number after seeing Rabbi Englander fighting for his life at sea.

A lifeboat and rescue helicopter arrived and the team took the rabbi out of the water. Paramedics tried to revive him, but the rabbi was pronounced dead at Bronglais General Hospital in Aberystwyth, the news media reported.

Rabbi Berish Englander, of Stamford Hill, north London, was described as "well respected" for his religious knowledge and charity. "He was a rabbi that was categorized as very fair and very, very

prominent and respected in the community," said a member of the community.

"He was a good example to all. He was the kind of man to show as a role model for children," he said. "He was very kind and generous and gave huge amounts of money to charity. He will be missed by all who knew him."

Police said they are not treating the incident as suspicious. In June, the Satmar Rabbi Chaim Breisch died after struggling in the sea off the coastal town of Broadstairs, Kent, about 80 kilometers southeast of London.

Frum Jewish Store Owner found murdered! UPDATED AUG5

A father of four was found dead on the floor the last night in his 99-cent store in Brooklyn, New York police said.

Two customers entered the store at 1877 86th Street in Bensonhurst at 8:45 pm and found Isaac Kadare, 59, unconscious. Doctors found that he had suffered a head injury.

An employee told the news media that he spoke to a detective who said that police were investigating the death as a likely homicide. A police source said police have not ruled out a heart attack followed by a fall.

His family was devastated this morning.
"I do not know what to say. He loved his family, his four children," sobbed his wife, Nancy Kadare, who wanted to celebrate his birthday with him next week.
"He was a hard working man, I do not understand. A person who is alive one day and the next day he is not."

Margarita Roman, 38, who has lived in the building of the store said, Kadare had bought the store 11 years ago.

He operated two stores on the ground floor and rented apartments above,she said.

Neighbors said Kadare had come to the United States from Israel. He and his wife have two teen daughters, a teen son and a daughter that is 10 years old.

"His family is always there," said Roman. "Your children are always there. His wife is always there. They were not there tonight."
After hearing the news yesterday afternoon, relatives of the businessman came rapidly.
"His wife seemed lost, the little girl was crying, not know what was going on,'' said another neighbor.
"They wanted to go into the store, but they were not allowed.”

UPDATE! AUG 5

Police have a suspect in mind in the apparent homicide of Bensonhurst store owner Isaac Kadare.

Kadare, 59, was found dead around 9 p.m. on Thursday by two customers inside the “Amazing 99 cents Deals” store in the 1800 block of 86th Street. He was found shot in the head, the Medical Examiner confirmed with CBS 2.

Police told 1010 WINS that they believe that the same suspect who murdered Kadare also killed a Bay Ridge shopkeeper on July 6. The suspect description is similar, and ballistics tests confirm that the same .22-caliber gun was used in both murders.

Strangely the addresses of the two shops are similar, with the first owner killed at 7718 Fifth Avenue and the second businessman killed at 1877 86th Street.

Mazel Tov to Klall Yisroel on the Siyum Ha'Shaas

 Some 90,000 people packed MetLife Stadium to celebrate the completion of the page-a-day Talmud cycle in the largest-ever Siyum HaShas.

The gathering Wednesday evening, which was simulcast to some 60 U.S. cities and more than 20 countries, marked the completion of the 7 1/2-year cycle it takes to complete the Talmud (known collectively as Shas) at the rate of a folio -- two sides of a page -- per day. The program, known as Daf Yomi, was begun by the late Rabbi Meir Shapiro in 1923, and the first siyum, or completion, was celebrated in Lublin, Poland, in 1930. This year's siyum -- the cycle technically ends Thursday -- celebrated the completion of the 12th cycle since that time.

"Fortunate is the person who sees, who experiences, this great gathering," said Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz, the emcee of the event. "Try to visualize the singing and dancing that's going on right now in shamayim [heaven] watching tens of thousands celebrating the masechtos [tractates] they worked on so diligently!"

The stadium event consisted mostly of speeches in English and Yiddish and short video tributes, including to the late Jerome Schottenstein, to whom the event was dedicated and whose family sponsored the ArtScroll English translation of the Talmud. No women appeared onstage or on the videos, but several thousand women were seated in an upper tier of the stadium outfitted with curtains that were pulled closed during the prayer services that opened the event.

Rabbi Malkiel Kotler of the Beth Medrash Govoha, a yeshiva in Lakewood, N.J., taught the final section of the Talmud to the crowd. Once the ceremony was complete, the crowd erupted in thunderous singing and dancing.

The new Daf Yomi Talmud cycle begins Friday with page 2 (all Talmudic tractates begin on page 2) of Tractate Brachot.

Mass Jewish grave, Jews murdered by the Romans during destruction of 2nd Bais Hamikdash, Found!

A mass grave most probably of massacred Jews was found on the Temple Mount.

The remains of thousands of Jews massacred by the Romans on the Temple Mount during the destruction of the Second Temple may have been recovered, according to veteran archaeological reporter.

According to an Israeli news media source, a video clearly shows thousands of human skeletons in what appears to be a mass grave.

The reporter told the audience, that the film had been shot in an underground cave in the area of the Gate of Mercy, a sealed door in the wall of the Old City in Jerusalem, opposite Mount of Olives, near the east wall of the Temple Mount, the news media reported. He raised the possibility that the skeletons were the remains of 6,000 Jews, mostly women and children that were killed on the Temple Mount, when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple.

The slaughter is described in the writings of Josephus Flavius, a Jewish general of the Jewish forces  who witnessed the destruction.

The film shows archeologists enter the cave, followed by a lighting technician and camera. The three first pass through a narrow hallway and then enter the cave with clearly visible human remains. As soon as he left the cave, the Israel Antiquities Authority or IAA, staff resealed the entrance to it, he said.

The Romans stayed on the Temple Mount for a month after the destruction of the Temple and then  

went on to conquer of the upper city.

They had to get rid of the thousands of decaying bodies and the most obvious place to do this would have been the natural caves in the hillside, around the Gate of Mercy.

Couple watched in horror as their front lawn suddenly falls down a cliff.Video

The front yard just disappeared in front of their eyes.
A couple of Whidbey Island has spent the last week watching the front yard disappearing, falling piece by piece over a cliff 200 feet deep.

The worst is that they were unable to stop it.

Rosalee Ballinger has seen the pieces fall. She sees the hole 50 feet wide, where a tree 500 years old, once stood.

Her husband, Roy, said it started a week ago.

"Suddenly one day, there was a geyser that squirted probably 25, 30 feet in the air," he said.

The geyser seemed to come from nowhere.

"We cried and laughed," said Rosallee. "I do not know what we will do. It's devastating, absolutely devastating."

Roy said he did not think it will get his home destroyed, but said his store, that he calls his pride and joy, is definitely on the path of destruction.

"I know of no way to stop it," he said. "Only God will have to stop it."

The fire department is concerned about the decline, too. Hidden in the earth is a propane tank 

underground. On Wednesday morning the tank was 12 feet from the edge, but this afternoon it was just 12 inches.

"It could explode a valve, or slip down the slope innocently. We do not know," said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Cotton.

The water department and the fire department checked all the lines in the area and found no leaks. They say the likely cause is a natural spring that apparently changed its course.

There are no homes below the Ballinger property.

Frum Girl running for New York State Senate!

An ultra-tan and, like, totally cool 22-year-old from Brooklyn is running for state Senate, landing on the usually stuffed-shirt political scene in an explosion of pink and bling — and sporting a Web site that’s more “Legally Blonde” than “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

“I’m Senator and I Know It,” newbie candidate Mindy Meyer’s Web site declares in tricked-out letters as an instrumental version of LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” plays.

The clearly fun-loving, Orthodox Jewish law-school student cites Rudy Giuliani as her political idol and hails Reese Witherspoon’s character in the comic movie “Legally Blonde” for showing her that “you can take pink and make it sophisticated.”

n one photo on MindyMeyer4Senate.com, the cute candidate is superimposed over the dome of the US Capitol — not the Senate chamber she’s running for in Albany.

In another photo, she’s holding a bow and arrow as Katniss from the “Hunger Games,” alongside her position on poverty and unemployment: “No more ‘Hunger Games’ in our district!”

Meyer may be a political neophyte, but “I can tell you one thing, I have no experience in corruption,” says the Touro College alum, who majored in political science.

The site also claims: “A lifelong Flatbush resident, Mindy is the first young woman in the history of New York to run for New York State Senate.”

Meyer, who works for a Flatbush real-estate lawyer, said her Web site “was 100 percent my own. We need to get young people involved in politics. The Senate doesn’t have to be a senior citizens home.”

She said she “fell asleep” looking at other state senators’ Web sites. She called hers “substantive — the only difference is it’s actually exciting.”

Running as a Republican and Conservative, Meyer will face Democratic incumbent Kevin Parker.

Parker didn’t return calls from The Post but told the Web site City & State he’s taking her campaign seriously.

“Every challenge is a credible challenge,” he said. “This is the American democratic process, but I don’t know Ms. Meyer at all. She is rather young.”

But her candidacy is making Brooklyn’s Conservative Party chairman very happy.

“She’s a law-school student, she’s extremely intelligent, she is very focused on this race, and I’m excited to have a candidate who’s getting all this attention!” gushed Jerry Kassar.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/pink_can_gal_bold_sen_bid_mqhoZFFgQxFqtFGkiiFqtO#ixzz21ZaRWPkZ

'Batman shooter' worked at Jewish camp

James Holmes, who allegedly murdered 12 people in Colorado movie theater on Friday, worked at Jewish summer camp.

The alleged shooter who killed 12 in a crowded Colorado movie theater worked at a Jewish summer camp for underprivileged children.

James Holmes spent a summer working as a counselor for Camp Max Straus in Glendale, Calif., which is run by Jewish Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

Holmes, 24, is suspected of setting off a smoke bomb late Thursday night in a midnight screening in Aurora, Colo. of the new Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" and then opening fire on the crowd, killing 12 and injuring dozens. He was arrested early Friday morning

In a statement to The Los Angeles Times, Randy Schwab, chief executive of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles and director of Camp Max Straus, said of Holmes: "His role was to ensure that these children had a wonderful camp experience by helping them learn confidence, self-esteem and how to work in small teams to effect positive outcomes," he said. In a later e-mail, he added: "That summer provided the kids a wonderful camp experience without incident."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent a letter to US President Obama on Saturday, expressing his condolences and those of the Israeli people to the families of the Americans who were murdered in the Aurora movie theater.                                                                                                   

"All Israelis stand alongside the American people in mourning over this terrible tragedy which claimed the lives of so many. We well understand the pain and loss that you are experiencing," Netanyahu wrote.

Monsey Pedophile, Shmul Dym withdrawing guilty plea!

A 21-year-old confessed pedophile from Monsey, New York wants to withdraw the guilty plea he entered, the Journal News reports.

Shmul Dym pleaded guilty in June to two felony counts of sexual conduct against a child and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He admitted in court to repeatedly touching the genitals of two young brothers, one 6-years-old and the other 8-years-old.

Rockland County prosecutors reportedly will oppose Dym’s bid to withdraw his guilty plea when the case returns to court Wednesday.

He could have been sentenced to as much as 14 years in state prison, but instead was offered a sentence consisting of no prison time and 10 years’ probation in what prosecutors said was an attempt on their part to save the young children from having to testify in court.

Dym would have also been compelled to register as a sex offender. His younger brother Betzalel is already registered as a Level sex offender after being convicted of repeatedly molesting a young boy six years ago.

Shmul Dym now wants to withdraw his plea and go to trial, his attorneys Kenneth Gribetz and Deborah Wolikow Loewenberg said.

The attorneys said that Dym has retained new counsel from Maryland

Gribetz was once the county’s district attorney. Loewenberg is a former prosecutor.

The two said they asked state Supreme Court Justice William A. Kelly on on July 17 to remove them from the case, but the judge refused to do so until Dym’snew attorney had actually notified the court that Dym had retained him.

Rockland County D.A. Thomas Zugibe noted that to have his guilty plea voided, Dym will have to show that it wasn’t made voluntarily.

He also reportedly said that he was confident his prosecutors would convict Dym if the case does go to trial.

The victims’ parents were harassed and pressured by some local rabbinical leaders to drop the charges against Dym, the D.A. said. Among the threats made was to ostracize the family from their religious community, he said.

“It would be a travesty to put the victims and their families through this emotional roller coaster, again. They were intimidated not to cooperate and they did cooperate. We’re going to vigorously oppose letting him withdraw his plea,” Zugibe reportedly said.

Lipa Schmeltzer sings for Rabbi Elyashiv's 98th birthday, Video

Lipa Schmeltzer sings for Rabbi Elyashiv on his 98th birthday.

Judge Noah Dear thrown off criminal court!

Judge Noach Dear has been booted from Brooklyn Criminal Court a month after his bizarre ruling barred police from ticketing public drinkers unless cops lab-tested their booze.

The ouster comes amid outrage over his June 14 decision, which dismissed a case against a Brooklyn man, Julio Figueroa, who admitted he was sipping a beer on the street.

The judge concluded that enforcement of laws on drinking in public is racially biased.

Dear, 59, a scandal-scarred ex-city councilman elected to the bench in 2007 and relegated to hearing low-level debt disputes in recent years, had volunteered to take criminal cases on the weekends in a bid to get promoted, courthouse insiders said.

“Somebody here messed up,” a court source said. “He never should have been given that assignment.”

The state acknowledged that Dear’s part-time gig was over.

“The judge was, in fact, volunteering on the weekends because of a resource shortage, but at this point his services are no longer needed,” said courts spokesman David Bookstaver.

Dear’s ruling nullified a long-accepted police practice — sniffing a suspect’s beverage — and meant police would be required to conduct a chemical analysis to make their cases stick.

Open-container summonses are a widely used policing tool, resulting in more than 12,000 arrests for other crimes in 2011, by one police supervisor’s estimate. Cops wrote 124,498 drinking tickets during the year.

“I’d say 10 to 15 percent of the time we issue a violation, we find they’re wanted for something else,” a NYPD source said.

Legal experts slammed Dear’s ruling for going well beyond the scope of a judge’s authority.

“He’s legislating from the bench,” said legal analyst Arthur Aidala. “He’s saying we’re not going to enforce the law even though people of color violate the law. That’s ludicrous.”

The ruling raised memories of how Dear got his gavel — in a backroom deal orchestrated by Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez.

Dear, who spent 18 years as a Democratic city councilman before being term-limited out in 2001, was dogged by scandals, many involving improper overseas junkets paid for by charities. When he ran for Congress in 1998, his staff allegedly forged signatures to duck campaign-donation laws.

In 2003, after two years as TLC commissioner, he tried to run again for City Council but was knocked off the ballot for accepting campaign financing from taxi companies.

Because he had nearly defeated Kevin Parker in a state Senate race in 2002, Lopez saw him as a threat to the party’s candidates.

So the boss backed him for judge — even though Dear was never a practicing lawyer and got a thumbs down from the Brooklyn Bar Association.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/testy_judge_sacked_after_beer_blunder_ZO7vrjarJD716CtPLYuZqL#ixzz21OBRwOW5

The "Holy" Vishnitzer Rebbe will boycott Siyum HaShass because Rabbi Lau the "Zionist" will speak!

Rabbi Lau Shlita went thru the seven gates of hell when he was only a child in concentration camp, and was invited by Agudah to address the Sium Hashas. The Vishnitzer Rebbi refuses to attend because Rabbi Lau is a Zionist! Well, listen to me Rabbi Hager, the "Zionists" gave him a country to escape the horrors of Europe, after his parents were brutally murdered by the Nazis! The Zionists also saved the Satmerer's Rebbi life! The Zionists also gave thousands of boys and girls the opportunity to learn our Holy Torah! Have some "hakoras hatoiv."

According to a Kikar Shabbat report, the Vishnitzer Rebbe from Monsey Shlita may boycott the main Siyum HaShas because “Zionist rabbis” are expected to address the tzibur. This apparently may also lead to other prominent rabbonim and admorim shlita to boycott the event.

Until this announcement, residents of Eretz Yisroel were envious of Jews in North America which was holding one major siyum for all as opposed to in Eretz Yisrael there are siyumim for Ashkenazim, Sephardim, litvish and dati leumi. The rebbe’s announcement however changes all of this.

Invited to address that forum is Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau Shlita as well as Rosh Yeshivas HaMekubalim Ahavas Shalom HaRav HaGaon Yaakov Hillel Shlita.

The Vishnitzer Rebbe Monsey, told organizers earlier in the week he cannot attend since the “Zionist rabbis” will be attending in an official capacity.

Leaders of Agudas Yisrael in the United States are working to find a solution, and they are quoted anonymously by Kikar Shabbat as saying “we are taking about important admorim, rabbonim and mashpi’im, but on the other side of the coin, we must remain cognizant of the fact that 80% of those who will be participating in the siyum are identified with the Modern Orthodox world, and for them, dafka the addresses from these “Zionist rabbonim” as it were is what is drawing them to attend.

Anti-Semitic Public School Parents trying to oust Frum School Board!

The Jew Haters at the  Journal news printed the following article on the front page....
please write comments to the Journal News to set the record straight.
Also its time to register ALL our children in Public School and see what they will do then.
Here is the link:
Journal News
Critics of the East Ramapo Board of Education are asking the state education commissioner to remove Orthodox and Hasidic board members they say have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to support private religious schools while ignoring the growing needs of students in the public schools.
The New York-based public interest law firm Advocates for Justice, on behalf of 14 East Ramapo parents and community members, said it is calling for the removal of five board members and the appointment of a state monitor to oversee all spending and special-education placements at the district.
The nonprofit organization said it sent the state education commissioner a 52-page document Wednesday that accuses the East Ramapo school board of, among other things, improperly placing students with disabilities in private schools, conducting real estate transactions based on faulty appraisals, and buying religious textbooks to loan to religious schools.
The petition addresses school board President Daniel Schwartz, Vice President Yehuda Weissmandl, and members Moses Friedman, Moshe Hopstein and Eliyahu Solomon, and calls on the state education commissioner to bar them from holding future office.
The men are part of the seven-member board majority that often represents the interests of the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities of the East Ramapo school district. These communities send their children to private schools within the public district and receive textbooks, transportation, special education and other services provided by the district, which account for millions in East Ramapo’s budget each year.
The petition “emerges from several years of problems and tensions” within the district, as public school parents have become increasingly concerned about the board’s financial decisions, including budget cuts that have eliminated hundreds of teachers and curtailed kindergarten programming, the group said in the statement.
“The East Ramapo school board has repeatedly snubbed the parents, students and teachers of the district. ... The board members have abused their authority and then thumbed their noses at the state, which gives them their authority,” said petitioner Steven White, a former school board candidate and frequent critic of the board whose son is a graduate of the district.


The petitioners’ major concerns include:

• The district’s noncompliance with rules governing placement of students with disabilities, which have resulted in the state withholding money this year.

• The board’s attempts to sell two former elementary schools to yeshivas that are leasing the buildings —- using what petitioners say were “fraudulent” appraisals that wouldn’t garner a fair price for the district. Following petitions by White and others, the state annulled the Hillcrest school sale and has stayed the Colton school deal while it conducts a review. The real estate dealings are the subject of an investigation by the state attorney general.

• Buying religious textbooks to loan to private religious schools using public funds.

Petitioners also find fault with the lack of “no trespassing” signs on school grounds that they say the board has ignored requests for despite repeated trespassing by strangers; and the replacement of the district’s attorney several years ago with a firm that costs at least double, according to the document.

Friedman said the board has acted “100 percent legally” and the petition would drive up the district’s legal fees and subsequently “hurt children” by taking money away from them.


“It bothers me that they get up there and they say that they’re there for the children and meanwhile, they’re the ones hurting the children,” Friedman said, referring to White and other vocal opponents of the school board who have filed complaints in the past.


In addition to White, petitioners include two parents, Hiram Rivera and Kim Foskew, who ran unsuccessfully for seats on the school board during the spring, and the president of the district’s Parent-Teacher Association Council, Rebecca Montesa.


Schwartz said the board intends to “vigorously and aggressively defend” itself and has approved hiring two law firms, in addition to using the district’s regular attorneys, to do so.
He dismissed the petition as an attempt by the former board candidates — White, Foskew and Rivera — to “usurp the electoral process,” and called the petition a “quest to deprive Orthodox Jews of their civil rights” by removing them from an office they have the right to hold.
White said Schwartz’s comments about the board election were baseless personal attacks that didn’t warrant a response.
The state Education Department declined to comment on the petition. Under state education law, the commissioner has the right to remove board members if “willful misconduct or neglect of duty” can be proved. School officers have the right to legal representation at a hearing before any decision is made.
Attorney Arthur Z. Schwartz, president of Advocates for Justice, said the group was seeking to oust the board members “not because they’re Jewish, but because they’ve so offended the trust that the public” puts in elected officials.
“I happen to be an observant Jew,” he said. “But I also ... believe that public money should not be used to further anyone’s religion and that’s a concept that’s firmly ingrained in our Constitution.”
Arthur Schwartz said the organization took on the East Ramapo case pro bono.
The group expects to follow the petition with a lawsuit that could focus on the alleged purchases of religious textbooks by the district with public money, he said. He added that a separate 2011 petition to remove board members is under review by the state.

Frum 12 Year Old Killed after "sand Tunnel" he built collapses! Video

The scene at the sand tunnel

A Frum boy suffered a fatal injury when a sand tunnel he was building at the beach collapsed.

The  12-year old Ezra Cornman was enjoying a day at Long Branch beach, New Jersey, with his mother and brother.

The tunnel, which measured about six feet long and was about two to three feet below the surface, completely submerged him.

A witness, Iris Tergola of Staten Island, told DelawareOnline.com what happened.

'We were sitting on the beach, looking at the ocean, and we saw someone jump with a shovel, who ran over to a little boy,' she said.

Ms Tergola said that lifeguard responded to the trapped boy immediately.

The boy was unconscious and had blood coming out of his nose after he was pulled from the sand.

A local policewoman, Officer Heather Valdes, gave him CPR until the rescue crew arrived.

'I didn't know if he was alive at that time or not,' said Ms Tergola.

The boy was taken to intensive care at Monmouth Medical Center.

Unfortunately, the accident provoked another incident, which resulted in further injury.

A fire truck responding to the emergency hit a 46-yer-old man who was carrying his four year-old daughter on the nearby paved promenade.

Richard Polasdas, from Lakewood, Colorado, was in Long Branch for a family reunion.

He had to throw his child to the ground, out of the way of the truck, and suffered a broken hip when he was struck.

The infant was treated for abrasions. 

NJ.com reports that the truck was travelling at low speed and had its flashing lights and sirens on when it struck Mr Polasdas.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv niftar at age 102: BDE

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the leading rabbi of the Ashkenazi haredi community, died Wednesday afternoon at Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, aged 102. Elyashiv, one of the leading forces behind the formation of the haredi political parties, had suffered from congestive heart failure and been hospitalized several times in recent years.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed great sorrow at Elyashiv's passing and said that the "nation of Israel has lost a great rabbi, an unmatched and sharp authority."

Rabbi Elyashiv had been in the cardiac intensive care unit of the Jesselson Heart Center under the supervision of cardiology branch head Prof. Dan Tzivoni and his personal physician.

The medical center’s entire 10th floor is dedicated to cardiac care, from diagnosis and treatment to prevention and rehabilitation. Thus the large foyer managed to accommodate the rabbi’s family members who came to pray for him, consult with the medical staff and “stand guard.” But police were needed to keep out curious onlookers and nonrelatives, who reached the main fourth-floor lobby.

Only months ago, Elyashiv – who lived in a modest Mea She’arim apartment – underwent the insertion of a supportive stent in his aorta because of a leak.

During previous hospitalizations, surgery to implant a ventricular support device to strengthen the pumping of his own heart was ruled out because of the patient’s age and condition.

Elyashiv, an only child, was born in Siauliai (Shavel in Yiddish), Lithuania, came to Mandatory Palestine in 1922 when he was 12 years old. He lost his wife, Sheina Chaya, (a daughter of the famed Rabbi Aryeh Levin) in 1994, as well as five of their 12 children; his surviving “children” are in their 70s and even older.

Elyashiv controlled the “Lithuanian” Degel Hatorah political party that, which together with the hassidic Agudat Yisrael party, make up the United Torah Judaism faction in the Knesset. Additionally, Elyashiv, as the leading figure in Lithuanian haredi Jewry, had huge influence over the outlook and stance of the community toward contemporary issues within Israeli society.

He was widely seen as having continued along the same conservative path that was laid out by Degel Hatorah founder Rabbi Elazar Shach, who split from Agudat Yisrael in the late 1980s.

Shach, who died in 2001 at age 103, came to lead the Lithuanian, or non-hassidic, haredi world and opposed haredi integration within Israeli society, such as service in the army and integration in the workforce.

Elyashiv, on the other hand, having less charisma and dynamism than Shach, had sought to preserve the established order and has opposed what some refer to as the “new haredim,” those from a small but growing community who serve in the IDF and have joined the mainstream labor force.

There are two leading haredi figures who may succeed Elyashiv as the spiritual and political leader of the Lithuanian community: Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, who lives in Bnei Brak and heads the Ponovitz Yeshiva kollel; and Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, who lives in Jerusalem, heads the Maalot Hatorah yeshiva and is the son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, who was the greatest haredi arbiter of Jewish law before his death in 1995.

Shach, in the years before he died, unofficially designated Elyashiv as his heir apparent, overlooking Shteinman, who is now 97.

Shteinman is seen as slightly more moderate than Elyashiv was, and has supported the Nahal Haredi army battalion set up to enable ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the IDF and preserve their lifestyle. He also does not oppose the increasing trend of haredim joining the army and the general workforce.

Auerbach, however, was closer to Elyashiv and more inclined to his conservative outlook, opposing the “new haredim” and seeking to preserve the old order. He is charismatic and has many devoted followers.

Need a "pilegesh" a concubine? Rabbi says its ok!

Jerusalem - The Chief Judge of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and a Sephardic Rabbi in Israel has ruled that the taking of a concubine is an act that in certain instances is permissible by halacha, the code of Jewish law.

Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel

Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel, a Talmudist who has published dozens of books and thousands of responsa on Jewish law, wrote in his recent publication Divrot Eliyahu (Eliyahu’s Words) that a man prevented from having children, whether because his wife refuses to procreate or because she is unable to, may take a concubine with whom to procreate, because his first wife is “preventing him from building a family and spreading his seed,” adding even that “the concubine may also live with the couple.”

According to some Jewish legal definitions, a concubine is a woman who does not receive a kesuba, or marriage contract, from her husband, emphasizing the difference in social and domestic status between the main wife and the concubine, considered a mistress.

he 64 year old Rabbi Abergel is by no means a fringe voice, holding the title of Chief Judge of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and heading the Tzuf Dvash rabbinical school in Jerusalem. Rabbi Abergel was also a previous contender for the title of Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, a position that eventually went to Rabbi Shlomo Amar in 2003.

It is unclear if concubinage is practiced significantly in communities in Israel, or if it will increase based on the new ruling. However, Rabbi Abergel does relate that his ruling had practical implications for a head of a major Jewish institution, who was allowed to take a concubine after learning his first wife could not bear children.

Polygamy in its many forms has been a hotly contested subject of debate in centuries of Jewish law, most notably under the ban instituted by Gershom ben Judah’s synod of circa 1000 CE. The current ruling is specific to those whose childbearing attempts have been frustrated, and is additionally localized to Sephardi Jews, who have divergent legal customs from their Ashkenazi counterparts. Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions are sufficiently different to necessitate a separate post of Chief Rabbi in Israel for each of the two traditions.

Disney owner boycotts Israeli company Ahava

Remember this the next time you plan a trip to either Disney World or Disney Land

The boycott against Israeli companies reached a new high as American Disney owner announced a boycott against Ahava Products.

The campaign to boycott goods produced in settlements is gaining ground both among the Jews of America and in Israel, where thousands of people have joined Peace Now in a call to challenge a law prohibiting boycotts and avoid buying anything produced east of the Green Line.

Now, the campaign just got a little more lively: Abigail Disney, whose grandfather, Roy O., and uncle Walt Disney founded the entertainment giant that bears his name, has issued a statement this morning defending the boycott of skin care product maker Ahava. The Ahava factory and visitor center is located in Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement about a mile from the western shore of the Dead Sea.

The declaration of Disney, is far from theoretical: She is a principal investor and former vice chairman of the board of Shamrock Holdings Inc., the investment firm founded by her father, Roy E. Disney, which owns about 18.5 percent of Ahava. "Recent evidence from documents of the Israeli Civil Administration showed that Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories clay sources used in their products are from the shores of the Israeli controlled Dead Sea, which is in direct contravention of the provisions of the Hague Regulations and Geneva Conventions prohibiting the exploitation of natural resources from occupied territories, "Disney said in a statement.

"While I always keep my colleagues and co-workers in the highest sense, I cannot in good conscience keep of what is technically the 'looting' of the occupied natural resources and the company is placing a factory in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. Due to the complicated legal and financial restrictions I cannot withdraw my investment at this time, but will donate the body of the

investment and profits accrued to me during the term of my participation of the organizations in working to end this illegal exploitation."

This marks the latest achievement of the global campaign against Ahava, entitled "Stealing Beauty".

Since the campaign began in 2009, Ahava was forced to close shop in Covent Garden in London, the loss of its distributor in Japan, was banned by a major retail chain in Norway, and was named specifically in the call conducted last week by the Presbyterian Church to boycott settlement products.