Professor Harry Reicher Passes Away at 66: UPDATED WITH FUNERAL PHOTOS at Har Hazeisim

EXCLUSIVE TO DIN

Written by AK

Reb Moshe Tzvi Reicher z"l, a devout Chasid of Bobov, succumbed to illness, this morning, surrounded by his children in Greenwich Hospital, in Greenwich Connecticut. He was 66 years old.

Professor Harry Reicher, Professor University of Pennsylvania

Reb Moshe Tzvi Reicher z"l, born in Prague moved to Melbourne Australia in the 1950's where he grew up and subsequently became one of Australia's leading experts on International law and taxation..
Reb Moshe Tvi, studied at the Rabbinical College of Australia  and New Zealand, The Melbourne Yeshiva Gedola and Yeshivas Kol Torah in Yerushalyim.

He  graduated with honors from the University of Melbourne and from Harvard Law School.

Reb Moshe Tzvi, was a gifted orator, speaking often in fluent Yiddish and then switching to the Queen's English in perfect harmony. He was a Talmud Chachom of note, giving a weekly Shiur at Kahal Yeshuois Chaim in Flatbush in the deep mystical secrets of Chassidus. With sparks of humor and a small dose of his sheer brilliance, he kept the people at the Shiur in total awe. 

 

Professor Reicher with President Bush after his appointment to the Holocaust Memorial Counsel

In the world of academia, he was known as "Professor Harry Reicher," teaching in law schools including Melbourne University. Recently he was Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor of Law at Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center.

Reb Moshe Tvi was a walking Kiddush Hashem blending his Yirei Shemayim and his total dedication to Torah Umitzvois with the secular world; a feat not easily accomplished. He was able to skillfully dance in both worlds with grace and in perfect step. Never forgetting where he came from and what he stands for. He never compromised his ideals, morals or faith.  He was a true "Chusid" in every respect. 

He was also a much loved respected Professor, with one student commenting: "To be in his class was a treat." 

He was a humble spirit but had a generous heart, and  was always available to those seeking his help. 

His dedication to Klall Yisroel in general, and to his  community in particular, was his precious legacy. 

His sterling character and warm nature, his humility, sense of humor and his acts of kindness were his hallmarks. 

His Torah values and pride in Chassidus was what he transmitted to his family.

Some of his accomplishments"

• Reb Moshe Tzvi, created a precedent in the Australian legal system requiring that an infant passing away from SIDS not be subjected to an autopsy for faith based reasons.

• He served from 1995-2004 as the representative to the United Nations for Agudath Israel World Organization, working closely with Rabbi Moshe Sherer Z"L, whom he considered his mentor. In this capacity, he worked, at the legal and diplomatic levels, on promotion of international human rights, particularly freedom of religion. In particular, he was heavily involved in the protection and preservation of Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe; to protect Jewish schools there threatened with closure; and in a range of other areas.

• In 2004, US President George W Bush appointed him to the US Holocaust Memorial Counsel.

• Professor Reicher was centrally responsible for the first legislation in Australia, and only the second in the world after New York, granting relatives of a deceased person a statutory right to object to the performance of an autopsy, and then to challenge the Coroner’s decision in the courts.

• He was recently awarded the prestigious fellowship to research at the Shoah Center USC.

• Led a team of lawyers who researched and publicized a solution, within the framework of the Australian Family Law Act, to the problem of agunos.

But his goal, was his total dedication to the Jewish people. He was able to receive huge compensation and reparations from Germany on behalf of  Holocaust Survivors and  Mosdos HaTorah, from the "Claims Conference."

He dedicated his life to bringing to light, the atrocities of the Nazi Government perpetrated on the Jewish people, based on the German corrupted legal system. He was at the tail end of completing a College Textbook on the Holocaust to be published by Oxford Press.

Some lessons that he felt legal professionals should learn from the Nazis use of law was:

(1) Democracy is fragile and will not survive without constant vigilance, and to 

(2) Learn to take tyrants at their word.

He authored the following publications:

1. "Columbia Journal of Transnational Law"
2. "Australian International law: Cases and Materials."
3. "Holocaust Law"

He contributed to the following publications:

The Nuremberg Trials: International Criminal Law Since 1945: Published as Chapter IV The Jurists’ Trial and Lessons for the Rule of Law, K.G. Saur (2006)

"The Interface of Halakha and the Secular Legal System: The Australian Experience" published as Chapter 14 in Jewish Law Association Studies VII: The Paris Conference Volume, Scholars Press (1994)

He is survived by his wife: Mrs. Chanie Reicher, Brooklyn New York

His son: Reb Chaim Reicher, Melbourne Australia

His Daughter: Mrs. Elisheva Engel, Melbourne Australia

His Daughter: Mrs. Nechama Haskelevich, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

His Son: Habocher Ahron Reicher, Brooklyn, New York

His sister: Mrs. Susie Engel, Har Nof, Yerushalyim, Israel

He left countless friends in his wake, and he will be missed, he made the world alot better place because of his very existence.

Yehee Zichro Boruch!

Levaye will take place in front of Bobov, 1362 49th Street, Brooklyn at 10:30 AM followed by burial on Har Hazeism in Eretz Yisroel.

PHOTOS 

FROM BURIAL IN HAR -HAZEISIM

Missing Girl in Australia Found Safe

Schoolgirl Michelle Levy has been found safe and well, two days after running away from her North Bondi home.

The 11-year-old was found in Surry Hills, about 20 minutes from where she went missing, at about 10.30am on Monday.

Her parents Adam and Anne Levy left their home to go and pick their daughter up with police.
Members of Hatzalah of Sydney reported that Michelle has been found "Alive and well."

Michelle's mother posted on social media "She's been found. Going to fetch her now. Thank you everyone one and all!"

US calls for investigation of 17year old American terrorist in Yerushayim but doesn't call for investigation of terrorist that killed American 3 moth old baby

Am I going insane? US State Department is calling for a "speedy investigation" on a American savage that was about to throw a Molotov cocktail on a passing car?

Why didn't I hear one word from the State Department on an investigation of the animal that deliberately killed a 3 month old innocent baby?

It get worse: This is what the US Consulate said:

"Hours after a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into a crowd waiting at a light rail station in Jerusalem, the US consulate in the city issued a memo referring to the attack as a “traffic incident.”"

What is going on?
Guys, go out and vote Republican ...any bum that calls himself a democrat should be ousted...

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of a Terrorist boy with American citizenship who was killed by Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
The funeral for Orwa Hammad, 14, took place Sunday afternoon in the West Bank village of Silwad, near Ramallah.
The funeral was delayed until Sunday so that Hammad’s father, who lives in the United States, and his mother, who was in Jordan, could attend, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

The Israel Defense Forces told reporters that the teen was shot as he was preparing to throw a firebomb at cars driving on Highway 60. The soldiers opened fire “in order to neutralize the threat to the lives of civilians driving on the highway,” the IDF Spokesman’s Department said.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement released on Friday that officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem have been in contact with the family and were providing “all appropriate consular assistance.”
“We call for a speedy and transparent investigation and will remain closely engaged with the local authorities, who have the lead on this investigation,” Psaki said.“We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” the statement concluded.

Woman injured in Jerusalem terror attack dies of wounds, bringing death toll to 2

A women who was critically injured on Wednesday night in Jerusalem when a Palestinian man drove his car into a group of people waiting at the Ammunition Hill light rail station died of her wounds on Sunday, Hadassah University Medical Center announced. 

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said a tourist from Ecuador, 22, had died of her injuries. The woman was reportedly in the midst of converting to Judaism. 

A three-month-old girl, Chaya Zissel Braun was also killed. She also held US citizenship. Seven others were wounded when the convicted Palestinian terrorist from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people in the capital.

The attack, which was captured by a security camera took place a few hundred meters from Israel’s national police headquarters, situated across a densely traveled thoroughfare.

The terrorist was shot by police and late Wednesday evening he died in hospital. 

Hamas say that the killing of the baby was because "JEWS live in Israel," they didn't say "Settlers"

It isn't often that we can point to a simple phrase and decipher a world of truths. Today, though, we can, if we have the courage to listen - to Hamas.

According to Hamas, Wednesday's murder of an Israeli infant was, "a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and invasion of Jews in our land."

Note what they did not say. The attack was not a natural response against settlers, not even against Israelis - no, the murder of this tiny child was a natural response against Jews.

Listen to their words; it was not a gaffe, it was not a mis-translation. It was and is, the truest expression of their beliefs.

Two interesting phrases in this short sentence. Each deserves our attention. First, as noted above, we can glean from Hamas' celebration of Abed a-Rahman a-Shaludi's deliberate attack against innocent pedestrians waiting at a bus stop that the target is - Jews.

Second is the term "natural response." A natural response is one that is to be expected. In this, Hamas is correct. We can expect little more than cold-blooded murder and the targeting of innocents from them. That a child died certainly matches their cowardly nature as well.

A natural response is one that is almost uncontrollable. You are tickled and so you laugh; you peel onions and you cry. You inhale and so you exhale and, if you are Hamas, if you inhale, I guess you dream about successfully murdering innocent Jewish children.

Abed a-Rahman a-Shaludi, all of 20 years old, has been arrested twice in his life. The first time, he served 16 months in prison and was then released. In February of this year, he was arrested again and served for one month before being released. This time, he fulfilled his wildest dreams, he became a martyr for Islam and in the twisted, misguided understanding of those who celebrate his actions today, a-Shaludi's supporters believe Allah celebrates that.

If there is anything to be learned from little Chaya's tragic murder - in these minutes when Israel is united in its horror and pain, it is that Chaya was targeted not because she was an Israeli and not because she was a settler (and I have no idea if she was or not, nor do I care). She was targeted because she was Jewish, as Hamas admits.

(It would be nice if just once, just once, Israel's left would admit this simple truth.)

May God avenge the blood of young Chaya and may God bless her memory.

U.S.-Led Air Strikes Kill 32 Civilians In Syria, and the entire world is silent!

Why is it, that the US can kill civilians with impunity, and the entire world watches and doesn't say one word? Where is CNN? CNBC? ABC? CBS? Reuters? AP?
Only Israel that was so careful not to kill civilians gets chastised by the UN!
Bunch of hypocrites!

Thick smoke from an airstrike by the US-led coalition rises in Kobani, Syria, as seen from a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

read the following from the AP bastards!

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Syria have killed more than 500 people, mainly Islamic militants, since they began last month, activists said Thursday, as fighting flared in the northern Syrian border town of Kobani.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said 553 people have been killed since the airstrikes began on Sept. 23, including 32 civilians. The civilians included six children and five women.

The group said it has documented the deaths of 464 fighters with the Islamic State group, adding that the real number could be much higher. Another 57 fighters with the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front were killed in airstrikes on the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib, the Observatory said.

Many of the Islamic State fighters have been killed in or near Kobani, the target of a massive jihadi offensive since mid-September. IS fighters have captured dozens of surrounding Kurdish villages and forced more than 200,000 people to flee for safety in neighboring Turkey.

Earlier this week, The U.S. Central Command said its forces have conducted more than 135 airstrikes against Islamic State militants in and around Kobani, killing hundreds of fighters.

“Combined with continued resistance to ISIL on the ground, indications are that these strikes have slowed ISIL advances into the city, killed hundreds of their fighters and destroyed or damaged scores of pieces of ISIL combat equipment and fighting positions,” Central Command said in a statement.

An Associated Press journalist on the Turkish side of the border said heavy machine gun fire could be heard from Kobani, which is also known as Ayn Arab, on Thursday.

“The fighting has been ongoing since last night on the eastern and southern fronts. It is some of the longest clashes in Kobani,” said Kurdish activist Farhad Shami by telephone from the town. “The fighting usually only takes place at night.”

Shami said the Islamic State group launched an attack from three fronts late Wednesday but failed to advance. Still he said that Kurdish fighters withdrew from the Tel Shair hill that overlooks parts of Kobani.

The Observatory said Islamic State fighters captured the hill, closing in on the town from the west. It said Islamic State fighters are also trying to advance from the eastern side of the town, saying there were casualties on both sides.

The hill was captured by the Kurds from Islamic state fighters earlier this month.

Idris Nassan, deputy minister for foreign affairs in a Kurdish civil administration controlling Kobani, said that although Islamic State fighters moved onto Tel Shair hill, the heavy fighting there was ongoing.

“Kobani has been witnessing fierce clashes since last night. It was one of the bad nights,” Nassan said.

The Observatory meanwhile reported four coalition airstrikes on oil wells in the Jafra field in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour late Wednesday. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist group, also reported the airstrikes in areas held by the Islamic State group.

The U.S.-led coalition has aggressively targeted IS-held oil facilities in Syria, which provide a key source of income for the militants. But such strikes also endanger civilians, which could undermine long-term efforts to destroy the militant group.

The attacks on the oil industry, including refineries, have also led to a sharp rise in the price of oil products in rebel-held areas of Syria.

Grandfather Of Murdered Baby Says Child Born To Parents After Years Of Waiting

3 month old infant Chaya Zisel Braun who was killed in an apparent terrorist attack on Oct. 22, 2014

The grandfather of an infant who died after a car rammed into civilians near a light rail station in Jerusalem addressed reporters outside of the hospital on Wednesday night, saying that the baby girl was born three months ago after her parents had tried for years to have a baby to no avail.

“They had just returned from the kotel (Western Wall). It was the first time in her life that the girl was at the site. She looked at the kotel, they took pictures, they [her parents] held her up to face the Temple Mount, and they told her this is the holy place, this is the temple mount,” Shimshon Halpern said.

He linked the killing to “the Arabs’ merciless hatred of thousands of years”, saying that they killed “a pure girl with a holy soul that never did anything bad to anyone in her life and was murdered for no reason.”

He said that Chaya and her parents were on the sidewalk when the car sped up and hit the baby stroller, sending the infant flying 10-20 meters in the air and landing head first on the pavement, causing her massive cranial bleeding.

IDF Finally Admits: Hamas Planned Terror-Tunnel Massacre

Attack, potentially timed for Rosh Hashana, would have involved 200 heavily-armed terrorists and been on an unprecedented scale.

The IDF has confirmed rumors, circulating since last summer's war with Gaza terrorists, that Hamas was planning a massive attack on Israeli communities by hundreds of terrorists who would infiltrate into Israel via the vast network of "terror-tunnels" dug from Gaza into Israeli territory.

n an exclusive Vanity Fair report, IDF spokesperson Lt. Colonel Peter Lerner finally revealed that in destroying the tunnel Israel may have prevented a coordinated massacre of its civilians on an unprecedented scale.

"Hamas had a plan," he said. "A simultaneous, coordinated, surprise attack within Israel. They planned to send 200 terrorists armed to the teeth toward civilian populations. This was going to be a coordinated attack.

"The concept of operations involved 14 offensive tunnels into Israel. With at least 10 men in each tunnel, they would infiltrate and inflict mass casualties."

An unnamed senior military intelligence figure elaborated further on how the attack was meant to pan-out: "First, get in and massacre people in a village. Pull off something they could show on television. Second, the ability to kidnap soldiers and civilians using the tunnels would give them a great bargaining chip."

Information about the plan was pieced together by an intensive Israeli intelligence operation, including "electronic intercepts, informants, interrogations of Hamas operatives, as well as computers and satellite imagery obtained from Hamas compounds during the war," according to the report.

Among the evidence, Lerner said high-resolution maps pinpointing potential sites in Israel, including civilian areas, were seized by soldiers.

Hamas's political leader Khaled Mashaal admitted to Vanity Fair that the tunnels were seen as a way of gaining the upper hand over Israel, which had effectively minimized the threat posed by rocket-fire via the Iron Dome missile defense system.

"In light of the balance of power which shifted towards Israel, we had to be creative in finding innovative ways. The tunnels were one of our innovations. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention," he said.

According to the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), Hamas began building "crude" tunnels under Gaza as early as 2000. But the breakthrough came with the kidnap of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and the subsequent one-sided prisoner-exchange deal with Israel in which 1,027 terrorists were released.

"This was a proof of concept for them. Tunnels work," said a top Israeli military official.

After that, Hamas created "a secret commando unit", dubbed Nukhba (the “selected ones”), to train terrorists "to fight and maneuver through the tunnels on foot and on small motorcycles."

"They were an elite force... [trained] to execute strategic terrorist attacks... [For the eventual operation, they would be] heavily armed: R.P.G.s, Kalashnikovs, M-16s, hand grenades, and night-vision equipment," a senior Shin Bet official said. Terrorists also possessed IDF uniforms in order to launch surprise attacks.

Regarding rumors that the planned massacre was meant to be timed for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, a top intelligence official admitted it was a possibility - but that Hamas had changed its plans after the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in June sparked an escalation in hostilities with Israel.

"It may have been, but ultimately everything was moved up. Hamas’s grand plan for the tunnels failed because the kidnapping set things in motion before Hamas had everything ready."

After initially denying (but praising) the abduction and murder of Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrah and Gilad Sha'ar, Hamas eventually took responsibility for the attack. However while that "operation" was ordered by senior Hamas leader Salah Al-Arouri, it was evidently not coordinated with the group's military command in Gaza.

Khaled Mashaal admitted as much in the interview, explaining that individual terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria are given a significant degree of autonomy in the kinds of attacks they carry out.

"It turned out that a Hamas field group in the West Bank had killed those three settlers. This was a legitimate operation . . . [but] we never gave orders to execute this operation, or to stop that one. We present general policies."

But even after the tunnel threat has been neutralized in the south (at least for now), the IDF has immediately turned its attention northwards.

As recent Arutz Sheva reports have noted, the IDF is seriously concerned that Hezbollah - which is known to possess an extensive network of tunnels inside Lebanon - is digging its own "terror tunnels" into Israel to carry out attacks against communities and military outposts along the northern border.

Despite trying to play down the threat, the army is actively working to scour the region for signs of such tunnels by Hezbollah - signs which some residents say couldn't be obvious, with some reporting clearly hearing the sounds of heavy digging equipment from the ground beneath their own homes.

Syrian rebels have also been learning from Hamas's success, using tunnels with increasing frequency to target static Syrian regime positions - and to at least some extent they were aided in their efforts by Hamas operatives.

As one rebel commander put it: "They said they had some success in Palestine, so I decided to try it."

Frum Yiddin Cause Huge Chillul Hashem on Delta Airline Flight to Israel, Refusing to sit with Women, Causing 75 Minute Delay

"ZU Torah" ....the frummies are crazy and getting crazier, they don't care if flights get delayed, they don't care if people will get delayed getting to their destinations, they don''t care!

They don't care that the Ribono Shel Oloim's Name is getting desecrated! 

And they won't charter their own planes!

The Delta flight was over an hour late because Charedi men and women preferred to disembark rather than take their assigned seats.

A Delta Airlines flight from New York to Tel Aviv was delayed Monday night after frum men and women refused to take their seats next to members of the opposite sex. Instead, the Charedi passengers decided to get off the plane, rather than take their assigned seats for the flight to Israel. Their baggage then had to be located and removed from the baggage compartment, causing the 75 minute delay!

The Sick Logic of Wealthy Jewish Met Opera Donors

Leon Klinghoffer

by Mark Langfan

On October 20, 2014, I finished a short three-minute speech to about 1,500 Jews in front of the New York City Metropolitan Opera House on the occasion of the opening of the snuff Palestinian terrorist opera, “The Death of Klinghoffer.”  As I was getting off the podium, a rabbi, who shall remain nameless, said to me, “You really shouldn't have attacked the Jews here."  I nodded politely, and went my way.  However, to that rabbi, I can now respond, "I didn't attack rich American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors severely enough."  

Here is why.

One of the things I said in my speech was that if there were 100 rich black Metropolitan Opera donors, and the Metropolitan Opera put on an opera ‘explaining’ the ‘perspective of a white lynch mob’ lynching a black man, the day that the black lynching Opera opened, there would be zero rich black Metropolitan Opera donors.  But, today, with this evil opera glorifying the terroristic Palestinian murder of an American Jew, there are still many, many rich American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors who are still going to donate millions upon millions to the Metropolitan Opera. 

And, that, I said to the crowd, is “sickness.”

I can hear those donors saying:, “There are two sides to every story.  And, since there are two sides, you have to hear what the other side has to say.  Even if it means turning the other side’s ‘story’ into ‘Art.’”

Let's assume, arguendo, that there may be ‘two sides’ to the argument of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

  But, are there really two sides to the argument that because there exists an Arab-Israeli conflict, the murder of an unarmed American Jew in a wheelchair on a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea by a bunch of armed Palestinian murderous terrorists can be justified?

Because, saying there are two sides to the story means is that an argument can be made for one side and an argument can be made for the other side.

What these wealthy American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors are, in fact, really saying when they say that “there are two sides to the conflict” to rationalize their continued donations of millions and millions of dollars to the Met Opera despite the Met’s showing of the Palestinian terrorist glorification opera, is that an argument can be made for the cold-blooded terrorist murder of an American Jew in a wheelchair by a Palestinian terrorist. Why? Because there exists an Arab-Israeli conflict, and because the Palestinians are, therefore, somehow ‘aggrieved.’

These American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors have just legitimized the murder of any, and all, American Jews, in, and out of, wheelchairs specifically, because there exists an Arab-Israeli conflict.

Why not?  If there is an argument for murdering Leon Kinghoffer because there is an Arab-Israeli conflict, then there’s an argument for murdering any American Jew because there is an Arab-Israeli conflict. 

These same wealthy American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors have also legitimized the murder of any non-Jewish Americans who get in the way of a Palestinian terrorist trying to murder an American Jew - because there exists an Arab-Israeli conflict. 

And if these wealthy American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors think that there is an argument for the murder of American Jews because there exists an Arab-Israeli conflict, then can you imagine the argument that now exists for the terrorist murder of Israeli Jews because there is a Arab-Israeli conflict.  After all, if a Palestinian terrorist can murder American Jews because the Arab-Israeli conflict exists, why can't he be understood for the murder of Israeli Jews simply because an Arab-Israeli conflict exists?

The  American Jewish Metropolitan Opera donors have legitimized the murder of all Jews everywhere simply because there exists an Arab-Israeli conflict.  Sick, indeed.

USA Air-drops weapons for ISIS by mistake???

In a new video, ISIS shows American-made weapons it says were intended for the Kurds but actually were air dropped into territory they control.

At least one bundle of U.S. weapons airdropped in Syria appears to have fallen into the hands of ISIS, a dangerous misfire in the American mission to speed aid to Kurdish forces making their stand in Kobani.

An ISIS-associated YouTube account posted a new video online Tuesday entitled, “Weapons and munitions dropped by American planes and landed in the areas controlled by the Islamic State in Kobani.” The video was also posted on the Twitter account of “a3maq news,” which acts as an unofficial media arm of ISIS. The outfit has previously posted videos of ISIS fighters firing American made Howitzer cannons and seizing marijuana fields in Syria.

ISIS had broadly advertised its acquisition of a broad range of U.S.-made weaponsduring its rampage across Iraq. ISIS videos have showed its fighters driving U.S. tanks, MRAPs, Humvees. There are unconfirmed reports ISIS has stolen three fighter planes from Iraqi bases it conquered.

The authenticity of this latest video could not be independently confirmed, but the ISIS fighters in the video are in possession of a rich bounty of American hand grenades, rounds for small rockets, and other supplies that they will surely turn around and use on the Kurdish forces they are fighting in and around the Turkish border city.

On Monday, White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said the U.S. government was confident that the emergency airdropped supplies for the Kurdish forces near Kobani were falling into the right hands.

“We feel very confident that, when we air drop support as we did into Kobani… we’ve been able to hit the target in terms of reaching the people we want to reach,” Rhodes told CNN. “What I can assure people is that, when we are delivering aid now, we focus it on the people we want to receive that assistance. Those are civilians in need. Those are forces that we’re aligned with in the fight against ISIL [the government’s preferred acronym for ISIS], and we take precautions to make sure that it’s not falling into the wrong hands.”

Rhodes was responding to questions about a Monday report in The Daily Beast that U.S. humanitarian aid was flowing into ISIS controlled areas near Kobani by truck. That aid was mostly food and medical supplies, not the kind of lethal weapons in the new ISIS video.

Chief Rabbinate declares validity of conversions by "Voyeurer Rebbe"

Voyeuer Rebbe heading to the Mikvah with his Rebbeshe shirt

B"H "Geloibt ze-Gut" thank G-d for that, otherwise we would have massive problems... Many Rabbonim are found to be frauds years later, so are we going to invalidate their prior conversions? "Ein L'dovor Soif" this would be a catastrophe C"V..

The Chief Rabbinate declared that any converts who converted under the auspices of US Orthodox Rabbi Barry Freundel, who was arrested earlier this week and charged with voyeurism, remain entirely valid.

The decision comes following a report on Monday that the rabbinate was reviewing the status of such converts because of the revelations about Freundel, but this has now been denied.

The rabbi is accused of clandestinely filming women showering in the synagogue’s mikveh.

According to the allegations, Freundel spied on women in the mikvah at least since 2012, according to documents filed in Washington Superior Court. He allegedly hid a camera in a clock radio and installed it in the shower area of the mikvah.

Freunel denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Under certain conditions in Jewish law, if a rabbi on a conversion court is deemed to be unobservant of Jewish law then his conversions might be invalid.

But on Tuesday, the Chief Rabbinate said categorically that there was no question over Freundel's converts.

"After thoroughly reviewing the various aspects of Jewish law on the issue, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel now announces that past conversions of Rabbi Freundel will not be affected by recent events," said the chief rabbinate's spokesman Ziv Maor.

Maor emphasised that "anyone who goes to a local rabbinate in Israel with a conversion certificate signed by Freundel is not expected to face any special problems whatsoever."

It was Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef who took the decision.

Maor noted however that any conversions conducted by Freundel in the future would not be acknowledged by the chief rabbinate.

On Monday, the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest modern Orthodox rabbinical association in the US of which Freundel was a member and a member of its executive committee, ruled that his conversions were valid and that converts who converted with him "remain Jewish in all respects."

Rabbi Seth Farber, director of the ITIM religious services advisory and lobbying group, welcomed the decision having previously held concerns that the chief rabbinate would not follow the RCA's lead.

"I am gratified that the chief rabbinate has learned from its past mistakes and has reassured those who converted that their status is assured," said Farber. "I hope that the rabbinate will use this as an opportunity to review other conversions which they have in the recent past dismissed."

JTA contributed to this repor

Hiker describes how Frum girl IAF Pilot died in Blizzard in Nepal

Tamar Ariel A"H

An Israeli backpacker that survived a snowstorm on the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal almost a week ago recalls the loss of three Israeli hikers and their fight to survive.

Eitan Idan was one of the Israeli survivors of the storm, which took the lives of Nadav Shoham, Tamar Ariel, Agam Luria and Michal Cherkasky, reports the Times of Israel (http://bit.ly/1oq2B61 ).

Idan said Ariel, 25, and the first female Orthodox combat navigator in the Israeli Air Force, was exhausted by helping other hikers and reached the point where she could not walk. Shoham helped Ariel by picking her up as she fell over and over again into the snow.

“I remember that Nadav didn’t stop; he kept on catching her. She fell, and he caught her, and she fell, and I’m helping him from the front, and you reach a point where you closely follow the person clearing the snow from the path so as not to waste your own strength clearing it,” said Idan.

The group of Israeli hikers were following a French group of backpackers who had a GPS unit, however, because of Ariel’s exhaustion, they were not able to keep up with them and soon lost site of the group.

Idan said he made the decision to leave Ariel because he knew they wouldn’t be able to continue with her. In that moment, Idan said, “it was clear to me that if we stay, we die.”

He recalled Ariel’s strength in trying to keep moving forward even through severe exhaustion.

“The whole time it was difficult for her, and she fought and even pressed on,” he said, “far more than any other person would have continued, which revealed her strength.”

Idan and another hiker, Shani, made it through the night, but Shoham had frozen to death overnight.

Approximately 40 people hikers, including those from Canada, India, Israel, Slovakia, Poland and Japan, died in the blizzards in the Himalayas last week. Nepalese officials rescued 407 people total, 226 of them foreigners.

Information taken from Times of Israel