MY AUTISTIC SON IS MORE THAN YOUR KID’S MITZVAH PROJECT

BY LARA STOLMAN/JTA

 JUNE 13, 2019 05:27

My 12-year-old son has autism, and playdates have always been hard to come by. For this reason alone, I was happy to have him be part of a local bar mitzvah project program that matches neurotypical kids with kids who have disabilities. 

The young volunteers receive credit for every playdate completed. I started welcoming kids to our house a few years ago for weekly visits, despite the awkwardness that comes with knowing my child is someone’s mitzvah project.

Young Israel slams Presidential Candidate Buttigieg over Israel comments

The BUTT

The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) today blasted Democratic presidential candidate Pete The BUTTigieg after he proclaimed that “the Netanyahu government is turning away from peace” and declared that if he is elected President, the United States would cut U.S. aid to Israel if Israel annexed parts of Judea and Samaria.

"Addressing his foreign policy goals for the first time as a presidential hopeful, The BUTTigieg used an address at Indiana University to assail Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," 

New Sushi Rolls Include "Chulent" & "Gefilta Fish" Rolls

Chulent Roll

Gefiltah Fish 

More than a dozen kosher eateries — selling pizza, bagels, falafel and schnitzel — dot Main Street in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens. But a newcomer on the block is sure to turn some heads, and maybe stomachs, too.

Sushi Kingdom & Asian Fusion may look like a typical kosher Japanese joint, but in addition to classic dishes such as salmon avocado and spicy tuna, the menu offers rolls stuffed and topped with traditional Jewish food.

There’s a gefilte fish roll, where the traditional Ashkenazi loaf is wrapped with seaweed and rice and topped with carrot and horseradish. Another roll is topped with such a generous serving of cholent, the heavy bean stew traditionally served on Shabbat afternoons, that it nearly disappears. A falafel-filled roll is deep fried and served atop hummus or tehina.

“We need to stand out from everybody else, so we decided that we’re going to have some special rolls that nobody had them before,” owner Rabbi Nahum Kaziev said.

3 Midwood Homes Torched by Arsonists ...Uh Oh!

A massive fire in the Midwood section of Brooklyn torched at least three buildings early Thursday morning, injuring at least 12 people, including a baby.

The blaze broke out just after 4 a.m. and quickly escalated to four alarms.

Video from the E. 17th Street scene showed flames leaping from the roof of one home, and the structure to its left already little more than a charred hulk. Firefighters reported that two roofs had completely collapsed.

There was no word on a cause for the fire, which was still smoldering more than 90 minutes after the FDNY first reported to the scene.

Neighbors were alerted to close their windows - not just for the smoke, but for debris blowing off the houses as the fire reduced them to rubble.

The injuries included nine civilians, one of them a baby, as well as three firefighter. All of the injuries were considered minor.

As of 7:18 a.m. the fire was under control.

The civilians were taken to Maimonides Medical Center for treatment. The Red Cross is also on scene to assist those displaced by the blaze.

When Will We Ever Learn? Shvartzah Congresswoman Endorsed By Chabad Askanim Kicks Them To The Curb Again!

by CrownHeights.info

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, a Democratic representative for New York’s 9th District which includes Crown Heights, has seemingly flipped on her support for Israel, again.

Clarke, who was touted by Crown Heights politicians as a friend of Israel, is presently a Co-Sponsor to bill H.R. 2407: “Promoting Human Rights For Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation.” She is Co-Sponsoring the bill with Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Who has caused repeated uproar for her anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric.

During the last incident in which Rep Omar had accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of paying members of Congress to support Israel, in addition to an anti-Semitic insinuation, Clarke had stood up with other Democratic politicians to condemn the remarks. Now, she appears to be working with Rep. Omar in her anti Israel agenda.

Yvette Clarke has been in Congress since 2007, and was re-elected recently with the endorsement of Crown Heights politicians.

AOC Throws Schumer Under The Bus!

High-level Democrats said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) may primary Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) or Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), according to a report.

Top Democrats reportedly told Axios that they expect the progressive and freshman Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to primary Sen. Schumer in 2022 or Sen. Gillibrand in 2024. Gillibrand continues to campaign for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, despite her low polling numbers across the country.

Ocasio-Cortez has made national fame for her primary victory against former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), who was expected to one day hold a high-ranking House leadership position such as House speaker or House majority leader.

The report arises as a Harris poll for Axios found a rising interest in socialism, especially among women. The survey found that 55 percent of women aged 18 to 54 approve of more progressive policies.

How A Talmud Of Reb Chaim Brisker (An anti-Zionist) Wrote a Pro-Zionist Sefer!

Epitaph on Tombstone of Rabbi Eliezer Don Yahya in Ludza (Lutzin)

צנא מלא ספרא

כלו ספרא מבעל —-מגזע רבני מחבר אבן שתיה הרב הגאון ר’ אליעזר בהרב ר’ שבתי דון יחייא

ויאסף אל עמיו ד’ ימים לחדש תמוז שנת תרפו

from the SefarimBlog

by  Bezalel Naor

In 1901 there appeared in Vilna a 32-page booklet entitled, Ha-Tsiyoniyut mi-nekudat hashkafat ha-dat (Zionism from the Viewpoint of Religion). The author was Yehudah Don Yahya. The final eight pages of the work contain a supplement (Milu’im) by one Ben-Zion Vilner, criticizing the anti-Zionism of the Rebbe of Lubavitch. (One ventures that “Ben-Zion Vilner” is a pseudonym.)

What is remarkable about this manifesto that argues that Zionism is totally compatible with traditional Judaism, is that the author, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Don Yahya, was an intimate student of Rabbi Hayyim Soloveitchik, a most outspoken opponent of the Zionist movement.

To add to the intrigue, Don Yahya’s grandfather, Rabbi Shabtai Don Yahya of Drissa, had been an ardent Hasid of Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Lubavitch (known by his work of Halakhic responsa as “Tsemah Tsedek”). Yehudah Leib himself would go on to serve as rabbi of the Habad Hasidic community of Shklov. Although, as we shall see, within the Habad community, there were differing responses to Zionism along the fault line of the Kopyst—Lubavitch dispute.

Brave Jewish woman outrages 1.6 billion Muslims on Har Habyit

Lauren Isaacs, 23, a Toronto native, had no idea that during her vacation to Israel she would end up leaving “a mark of disgrace on the forehead of 1.6 billion Muslims,” to quote the Palestinian al-Quds channel, a pro-Hamas station.

Lauren, who works as the Toronto director of Herut Canada, a pro-Zionist organization, went up to the Temple Mount on June 11 with her mother. Excited to be at Judaism’s holiest site, she unfurled her Herut Canada flag, which resembles an Israeli flag, and her mom snapped a picture of her with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

“I wasn’t trying to provoke anyone. I don’t believe that flags incite anything. I think everyone should hold their flags proudly. It’s really a mark of pride,” Lauren told World Israel News.

“I’m a proud Jew, an unapologetic Zionist and I was standing on my holy ground. And when you’re standing on your holy ground I don’t think there’s anything wrong with holding your flag with pride,” she said.

Jews went like ‘meek lambs to gas chambers,’

A Dutch right-wing senator said that Jews during the Holocaust were driven to gas chambers “like meek little lambs.”
Toine Beukering, who on Tuesday joined the Eerste Kamer — the upper chamber of the Dutch parliament — made the assertion in an interview published Saturday by the Telegraaf daily.

A lawmaker for the Forum for Democracy Party, Beukering drifted into the subject during a talk about his candidacy for speaker of the Dutch Senate.

Recalling his long years of service in the armed forces, he said that the Holocaust was one of the reasons he enlisted.

Satmar Rebbe Gives His "Krepel Pshetel" On Shevuois!

Velvel Pasternak Jewish Music Publisher Dies At 86

Musicologist and publisher Velvel Pasternak, who published more than 150 volumes of Jewish music, has died.

Pasternak, who also conducted and arranged music, died on Tuesday in New York City at the age of 86.

He founded Tara Publications in 1971. The goal of the company was the publication, preservation and dissemination of the heritage of Jewish music, the company’s website says.

The earliest publications were collections of Chasidic songs based on recordings arranged and conducted by Pasternak. These were followed by Israeli, Yiddish, Klezmer, Choral, Cantorial and Instrumental music collections. He also published anthologies of Sephardic music, including Ladino, Spanish-Portuguese, and music from Bosnia, Sarajevo, and Calcutta. He also published a volume of Holocaust music.

Entrance to Jerusalem closing to cars for 3 years in July

The entrance to Jerusalem will be blocked to private vehicles starting July 14, likely exacerbating traffic jams leading into the capital, as the government constructs a new entryway into the city.

The thoroughfare will remain closed for three years, although public transportation will continue to function as normal, according to a Monday report by Channel 12.

The construction project will shutter the area between the Chords Bridge and the International Convention Center. An alternative route will open that will pass through Herzl Boulevard and go around the government offices on its way to the city center.

Work began this week on the new road into Jerusalem, touted as one that will “free up the bottleneck” of traffic at the main entrance to the city and significantly mitigate congestion.

Mary Max, wife of famed artist Peter Max, kills herself in Upper West Side apartment

Peter & Mary Max

Mary Max, the wife of world-renowned psychedelic artist Peter Max, killed herself in her Upper West Side apartment over the weekend, police said Monday.

Mary Max, 52, died of nitrogen asphyxiation and was discovered in her apartment on Riverside Drive near West 84th Street on Sunday evening, cops said.

She had been involved in an ugly legal battle with other members of the family over her dementia-afflicted, 81-year-old husband’s artwork.

In a 2015 lawsuit, Max’s stepson, Adam Max, accused Mary of attempting to kill her husband so she could take control of his multimillion-dollar art collection.

In response, Mary accused her stepson — who is three years younger than she is — of stealing $4.3 million worth of artwork that her husband gave her in a prenuptial agreement.

Peter, who married Mary in the late 1990s, grew old and frail in recent years and grew ill during the court cases over his fortune.

Peter Max rose to fame in the art world during the pop art era of the 1960s and 1970s.

He drew extremely wealthy paintings for private organizations, including the NFL, FIFA and cereal companies.

Author of "Making of A Gadol" Passes On

HaGaon HaRav Nosson Kamenetzky ZT”L, son of HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Kamenetzky ZT”L, one of the Gedolei Hador of the previous generation in the United States, was niftar in Yerushalayim on Shabbos.

Rav Kamenetzky was niftar at his home on Sorotzkin Street. The Rav was hospitalized on numerous occasions during recent months.

The rav was born 89 years ago to Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky in Europe, and immigrated with the family to Brooklyn, NY and learned in Yeshivas Torah Vodaas. He made aliyah to Eretz Yisrael at the age of 40, and he was among the founders of Yeshiva Itri in Yerushalayim.

His sefer ‘Making of a Godol’ “גידולו של גדול” was published about 17 years ago, dealing with Gedolei Torah over a period of 150 years from Rav Yisrael Salanter until the beginning of World War I.

The Sefer was banned and placed in Cheirim by Chareidie Gedolim because Rav Kamenetzky wrote the naked truth,  didn't cover up or censor any of his stories about the gedoilim of the previous generation. 

Nine out of ten  Gedoilim who signed the Cheirim couldn’t read English, and and the remaining signature who could read English (Rav Scheinberg zt”l) didn’t read it. 
They all signed after  Rav Elyashiv signed it, who listened to the  askanims version which was based on testimony of a pack of liars. 

The niftar was a brother of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Kamenetzky Shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia, and a member of the Moetzas Gedolei Hatorah.

The levaya took place on motzei Shavuos at 11:30PM from Yeshivas Torah Ohr to Har Menuchos.

תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים

Published on Isru Chag Shavuos from Jerusalem.

Chag Samaich Shavuot

Knesset Member to American Jewish Palestinian Terror Lover " Protecting Israel’s Security Is More Important Than Pleasing You"

Watch a video of the entire town hall meeting below (the final exchange

 begins at the 14:15 remaining mark):

As Goethe stated,
 "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." 
This cretin wanted to show her fellow lowlifes how liberal, understanding and multicultural she could be. An 
embarrassment to all Jews and to our country.

During a town hall meeting near Boston on Wednesday,

 four Israeli Knesset members — from across the political spectrum — each gave powerful responses to an audience member who questioned the Jewish state’s commitment

 to making peace with the Palestinians.

At the conclusion of the discussion — which was organized by 

the Ruderman Family Foundation and moderated by The Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune — an American Jewish woman named Shifra came to the microphone in the 

sanctuary of Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline and

 warned the Israeli guests, 

“You are losing me and you are losing many, many, many people

 in the Jewish community…I cannot look the other way when

 three Israeli teenagers are brutally murdered, and the response

 is to kill 2,300 Palestinians” —  a reference to Operation 

Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 and the events that 

preceded it.

“I want to know what you are doing to make peace with the Palestinians,” she continued. “I want to know what the 

government is doing to make peace.”

Ohana was the last to speak. “War is horrible. I lost friends, 

I lost family, Mickey lost two brothers. But to say that the

 response to the murder of the three youngsters was the

 killing of 2,300 [Palestinians] is to ignore the thousands and thousands of rockets thrown from Gaza to Israeli citizens. 

Each and every one of them [was] targeted to kill us. 

And if I will have to choose between losing more lives of 

Israelis, whether they are civilians or soldiers, or losing 

you, I will sadly, sorrily, rather lose you.”

Rabbanim's New Rule! "No Goyishe Music At Weddings!"

A new list of rules for weddings was recently released, and undersigned by prominent Rabbonim. The rules are regarding the music at wedding. 

The text below has been transcribed by YWN.

Dear Choson,

You are, with Hashem’s help, planning to build your new home, a בית that will be לכבוד ה’ ולתפארתו, a בית נאמן בישראל – בית שמגדלים בו תורה ויראת שמים.

The חתונה is the foundation of, and an integral component, of your future home. It is therefore crucial to ensure that the chasuna be imbued with a spirit of kedusha and be a Yiddishe simcha – and not chas v’shalom the opposite.

Unfortunately, in recent times – even at frum and ehrlicha chasunos – it has become accepted to compromise the kedusha of this special occasion with inappropriate music, coming from non-Jewish sources.

There was a time when a chasuna was a truly uplifting occasion, as is befitting of a Yiddishe simcha – permeated with kedusha and simcha. Tragically, today, a Jewish wedding can sometimes appear to be no different from a disco party. What should be an opportunity for the choson and kallah to start off this bayis ne’eman appropriately, complete with uplifting Yiddishe music, has been lost, due to goyisha music and inappropriate dancing. These influences only cause destruction of the yesodos of kedusha of Am Yisroel. This is the opposite of what should be seen and heard at a Yiddishe chasuna.

Our dear choson, at this seminal point of your life – as you prepare for this auspicious day – do what you can to ensure that you are laying the foundation of your bayis ne’eman on yesodos of kedusha, and not chas v’shalom the opposite.

We therefore appeal to you to adhere to the following guidelines:

1. No non-Jewish songs or intros may be used, either from the original online sound track or played manually.
2. The bass level should be kept at a medium level.
3. No beats should be used with loud electronic sound effects, or electric guitar and synth sounds at high volume.
4. There should be no flashing, moving, or color changing lights.
5. One should be very careful which singer they hire. The singer should not be dancing in an inappropriate fashion. The חתן should only hire a singer that will sing in a proper Yiddishe fashion.
6. It is important to bear in mind that the band is solely in the employment of the חתן, therefore, the choson’s friends may not request anything of the band without permission from the חתן.

We sign on this with an emphatic plea: Please be vigilant about the בית הגדול you are attempting to build, and lay the יסודות with חכמה ודעת.

HaRav Matisyahu Solomon, Mashgiach Lakewood
HaRav Yisroel Neuman, Rosh Yeshiva, Lakewood
HaRav Dovid Schustal, Rosh Yeshiva, Lakewood
HaRav Shmuel Kaminetzky, Rosh Yeshiva, Philadelphia
HaRav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, Rosh Yeshiva South Fallsburg
HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, Rosh Yeshiva, Lakewood Mesivta
HaRav Eliezer Lieff, Rosh Yeshiva, SOuth Monsey
HaRav Yaakov Forchheimer, Dayan, Lakewood
HaRav Ahron Zuckerman, Rav, Zichron Pinchas
HaRav Yaakov Landau, Rav, Chanichei Hayeshivos
HaRav Yisroel Brog, Rosh Yeshiva, Cleveland
HaRav Chaim Meyer Roth, Rav, Sterling Forest
HaRav Yosef Dovid Neuschloss, Rav, Agudas Achim
HaRav Avrohom Spitzer, Skverrer Dayan
HaRav Tzvi Noach Portugal, Admor Skulen, Lakewood