HaRav Yoel Kahan ZT”L, Chief “Choizer” Of The Lubavitcher Rebbe

 

We regret to  inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav Yoel Kahan ZT”L, who served at the chief choizer (reviewer and teacher) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L’s teachings and the Head Mashpia of the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch. He was Niftar after suffering a massive heart attack on Thursday. He was 91.

Known as “Reb Yoel,” he was revered by generations of Chabad students and scholars for his brilliance and his ability to distill and communicate subtle, complex concepts of Chabad philosophy to a wide and diverse audience. He was also the editor-in-chief of the highly acclaimed encyclopedia of Chabad Chasidic thought, Sefer Ha-arachim.

Born in the Soviet Union in 1930, he emigrated with his family to Israel at the tender age of five, where he studied in Yeshiva Achei Temimim in Tel Aviv. He spent his teenage years studying with several prominent Chabad Chasidic scholars. In 1950 he boarded a ship to New York where he quickly became attached to the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L, devoting all his energy to interpret and disseminate the Rebbe’s teachings.

Reb Yoel’s unique talent for memorization, along with his intellectual abilities, made him the official “reviewer” and the authoritative exponent of the oral discourses of the Rebbe. Often held on Shabbos, when writing was not possible, Reb Yoel led the effort to reconstruct the Rebbe’s talks, with a team of scholars under his tutelage.

In his role as the head mashpia of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva at 770, Reb Yoel guided thousands of students in the teachings of Chassidus. He also traveled far and wide to give shiurim in Chassidus and to farbreng. His audio recordings, and books, are used by many more around the world.

He is survived by his wife, Rebbetzin Leah Kahan.

The Levaya will be leaving Shomrei Hadas Chapels – 3803 14th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11218 on Friday 9:45 AM.

The procession will be passing Lubavitch World Headquarters – 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213 on Friday 10:45 AM.

The Kevura will be at the Lubavitch section of Old Montefiore Cemetery – 226-20 Francis Lewis Blvd, Cambria Heights, NY 11411.

From Bais Yaakov to Becoming an Anaesthesiologist

 

A Post-Charedi Bais Yaakov Graduate Speaks Out 

Guest post by Dr. Efrat Bruck

I surreptitiously angled my test paper so that light would filter through and I would be able to see the question. I was in the 9th grade, and we were taking the NYS regents biology exam. A giant white sticker covered question #19. Luckily, it was a sunny day and faint rays of sunlight filtered through. I could just make out a diagram of male anatomy with an arrow pointing to the vas deferens. Funny how the topics our school avoided teaching us ended up seared into our minds. “The arrow is pointing to which structure?” I filled in the correct answer knowing it wouldn’t help. We would all automatically get that question “wrong”. That was my high school’s policy. 

It wasn’t surprising to us. After all, they tore out of our textbooks all the chapters covering evolution and reproduction. The former, perhaps is understandable, but the latter still baffles me; some of the students were literally 3 years away from getting married and starting families. I recall feeling anxious and angry. Somewhere, is some recess of my mind, I wanted to become a doctor. Would there be another five questions on reproduction or evolution causing my baseline score to tank? Would it affect my chances of going to college? My older sister had started the exam off with a 90% and I had even heard of one class that sunk to the 80’s. 

But I shouldn’t have been so worried. There were only two “bad” questions on our exam and we started off with a 99%. In addition, it would be a while till I would actually pursue medicine and by then, this particular score wouldn’t matter that much. What should have worried me more was how the philosophical underpinnings of my environment would affect me in the coming decade. For example, the time a seminary teacher spent an entire lesson telling us a story of a graduate from our school who went to Touro College in Brooklyn (a college that is set up to serve the frum community, with separate classes for men and women and professors staying clear of topics that would be considered inappropriate) and then went on to marry her non-Jewish professor and become irreligious. The teacher then paused, closed her eyes dramatically, and said: “Then she got cancer. May it be a kaparah for her.”

I’m writing this essay in a format addressing those who are part of the charedi leadership. I’ll be using “you” when referring to the charedi world/leadership and “we” collectively to address myself, as if I am part of the charedi world, simply because this makes for easier writing. If you are curious to know why an otherwise successful product of charedi chinuch chose not to continue in this path, read on. If you are a charedi leader, you probably care to know why people are “leaving”, and rest assured, they are. Some make a lot of noise or go OTD. Some just want to live their life peacefully and make a quiet, graceful (I hope!) exit, finding other branches of Orthodoxy. 

Rivka Morgenshtein 36 from Geula Section Missing

 

The last time she was reported seen was on  on June 6 in Tel Aviv. Police ask that you call them if you see her!

רבקה מורגנשטיין מירושלים, נעדרת כבר למעלה מחודש, והיום (חמישי) המשטרה מבקשת שוב את עזרת הציבור, לסייע לה בחיפושים אחריה.

רבקה מורגנשטיין היא בת 36, ומתגוררת בשכונת גאולה בירושלים - ברחוב נחום.

לדברי המשטרה, היא נוהגת להסתובב בתל אביב, שם היא נראתה בפעם האחרונה בתאריך 11.6.21.

תיאורה: גוון עורה בהיר ושיער כהה, מבנה גוף בינוני. לבשה חולצה שחורה עם פסים אפורים, חצאית שחורה ארוכה, כפכפי קרוקס ומטפחת ראש שחורה.

"כל היודע דבר על מקום הימצאה מתבקש לדווח למוקד 100 של המשטרה או לתחנת לב הבירה טל׳ 02-5391550", נמסר מהמשטרה.

Cuban Refugees Will Not be Allowed in the USA because they will Vote Republican

 

The new rule is that only refugees the Democrats presume will vote Republican will be turned away https://t.co/XzTA7L6QSm

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 14, 2021

Now listen to this interview! 

Peter Doocy asks why the U.S. is rejecting refugees from Cuba

"Do you think that people are leaving Cuba because they don't like communism?"@PressSec: "I think we've been pretty clear... they are opposed to the oppression to the mismanagement of the government in the country." pic.twitter.com/Tce23ykuDn

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 14, 2021

Lightning Now Considered "racist" because it destroyed a memorial of the criminal George Floyd

 

A George Floyd memorial was taken out by lightning... you know what that means... pic.twitter.com/2arGM5zTSb

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 14, 2021

Someone Please Explain this.... Please please

 

The absolute state of our FBI pic.twitter.com/t0nx4x78rZ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 14, 2021

Photos of the Chareidim That are Destroying the Photos of the Meron Victims in Meron

 

Solo Performance ... Memories of a Widow

 

Eichah yashavt badad … (Lamentations, 1)

How did you sit in seclusion, in your apartment, in your neighborhood, in your city Jerusalem. Eichah … How did you sit there widowed, a mother, grandmother, a great grandmother to dozens, sitting for over three months, lonely, although never alone.

You woke in the morning, showered and dressed, applied your make-up, ready for morning prayers, ready for telephone calls, ready for lessons and zoom meetings. And at the end of each week you readied for Shabbat.

Surely the angels are with you, invisible angels standing beside your chair, staring across at the portrait on the wall. Despite the harsh conspicuous wrinkles ingrained in the contours of his skin, his face radiates from the artists painting. Your husband seems happy in the world to come, listening to you sing Sholom Aleichem. You sing each stanza three times, exactly as he did. His balding forehead looks like you could play tic tac toe on the lines etched there, lines that developed on his handsome face, wrinkles that developed not only from age.

The empty armchair at the head of the table is where he once sat. He always seated himself after greeting the angels, and then chanted a page or two of text before Kiddush. You never knew what that text included, but now you know, and you chant as he did, prayers to “Adon HaShalom, King of the Universe for blessing to find peace and good life for you and your family, to find favor and wisdom in the eyes of the Almighty…that I merit to receive Shabbat with joy…and say a blessing at my table that is set.”

He stares at the table, set for his queen, and he doesn’t have to ask, “Who set the table?” Only you set the table, with two small challot positioned on your father’s silver challah tray, a silver knife, European china that you purchased as a young couple over half a century ago, Wallace sterling flatware, a wedding gift from your family sixty years ago, and fresh flowers arranged in a bowl that you buy every erev Shabbat, same as he did.

You fill his silver cup. The cup you purchased as a gift for his 26th birthday after you settled in Jerusalem. You fill it first with a little wine, and then grape juice to keep the drink mild, same as he did. He appears to be listening to your Kiddush, although your voice is not the pleasant voice of the Baal Tfilla; your voice is not his voice, and it never will be. Most disturbing is that you cannot remember his nussach, you cannot make the blessing as he did. You cannot remember his specific melodious kiddush tune. You can’t even be sure that he is still smiling. Your eyes are glued to the blessings in his little booklet. And then the memory of his kiddush suddenly gets stuck in your throat.

Lapid Will Have Last Laugh as Bennet Slowly Becomes a "Footnote" in Jewish History

 

In the leadup to the 9th of Av, Rabbi Nosson Slifkin recounted in his blog the Talmudic story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. 

In the story, Bar Kamtza had good reason to angry for his humiliation by the party host and the Rabbis who remained silent. But Bar Kamtza’s anger and hatred was so intense and unbridled (sinas chinam) that he pursued a course of action destructive to himself and the Jewish people – involving and inviting in the Romans which ultimately led to Jerusalem’s destruction.

The lesson is that hatred and anger, even if not baseless, should never drive us to pursue a course of action that harms ourselves and our people.

Rabbi Slifkin, a supporter of Naftali Bennett and Yamina, drew a parallel between Bar Kamtza and Bibi. Humiliated and outraged at being forced into opposition despite having secured the most seats, Bibi and Likud, he wrote, responded by withholding support for the Citizenship bill, thereby harming Israel. 

Though Rabbi Slifkin’s application of the Bar Kamtza lesson to Bibi and Likud seems fair and well taken, he would have done much better to apply that same lesson to Bennett and Saar. 

Bibi’s personality flaws and alleged untrustworthiness may well have given Bennett and Saar every reason in the world to hate and distrust him, and to want nothing to do with him. But politics compels you to make choices and compromises. Bennett and Saar’s hatred of Bibi was so intense and unbridled that rather than forming a right-wing government under Bibi and Likud, they decided to invite an anti-Zionist Arab party and the anti-Zionist leftto join in forming the ruling Israeli coalition.

The ramifications of that decision are enormous. Likud’s lack of support for the Citizenship bill is correctable – the bill can be re-tabled in the future, an alternative bill can be presented, etc. The same cannot be said for Bennett and Saar’s decision.

US Court Holds Iranian Banks Liable For Murder Of US Citizen

 

Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin, h'yd.

In the first decision of its kind, a federal court in Washington D.C. ruled that Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, three Iranian banks, and Syria are liable for a terror attack perpetrated by Hamas in 2015.

The decision marks the first time that an Iranian bank has been held liable for the death of a US citizen.

Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin, h’yd, were killed on Chol Hamoed Sukkos while driving to their home in the Shomron by five Hamas terrorists, who brutally gunned them down in front of their four children in the back seat. The children, ranging in age from 10 months to nine years, survived the attack.

Rabbi Henkin was a US citizen, and his relatives, in the name of the children and the estate of their parents, filed a lawsuit to a US court under the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

The plaintiffs claimed that Hamas was funded, trained, and equipped with weapons by Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Syria. Additionally, they placed blame on three Iranian banks, all already sanctioned by the US for financing terror, for funneling funds to Hamas.

None of the defendants responded to the lawsuits.

“Financing is the oxygen needed for terrorism,” said Gavriel Mairone, one of the plaintiffs’  lawyers said. “Bank Markazi serves as both the Central Bank of Iran and the Central Bank for financing international terrorism directed against Americans and our allies. The Treasury Department has sanctioned Melli and Saderat as facilitators and financiers of international terrorists such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The court has yet to determine damages.

Shmuel Weinberger 6 Killed by car in Chicago

 

Tragedy hit the Chicago community on Wednesday afternoon, when word spread of a young child struck and R”L killed by a vehicle.

Sources say that Shmuel Hershel Weinberger Z”L (9-years-old) was riding his bicycle when he was R”L struck by a vehicle on N. Sacramento Ave and W. Chase Ave on Wednesday afternoon at around 8:00PM. Chicago Hatzolah rushed to the scene, and was transported to the hospital but unfortunately he was Niftar.

Police are investigating the incident.

He is the son of R’ Shamai and Mrs. Sara Leah of West Rogers Park, Chicago. They are Lubavitcher Chassidim.

Part of Jerusalem's city wall, encountered by Babylonians on eve of First Bais Hamikdash's destruction 2,600 years ago, uncovered near Old City.

 

Archaeological excavations in the City of David National Park have uncovered the remains of the city wall, which was built during the Iron Age - the days of the First Temple in the Kingdom of Judah, to protect Jerusalem from the east.

The excavations are conducted at the City of David National Park on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with the City of David Foundation, as part of the development of the National Park.

According to the directors of the excavation, Dr. Filip Vukosavović of the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center and Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority: "The city wall protected Jerusalem from a number of attacks during the reign of the kings of Judah, until the arrival of the Babylonians who managed to break through itand conquer the city. The remains of the ruins can be seen in the archaeological excavations. However, not everything was destroyed, and parts of the walls, which stood and protected the city for decades and more, remain standing to this day. "

The new section that was exposed connects two sections that were previously excavated on the eastern slope. In the 1960s, British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon uncovered a section of the wall in the northern part of the slope and dated it to the days of the Kingdom of Judah.

About a decade later, archaeologist Yigal Shiloh uncovered a long section of the wall, in excavations in the southern part of the slope.

Over the years, claims have been made that despite the impressive nature of the remains, these remnant stone structures should not be seen as wall remains. However, with the uncovering of this new section that connects with these past discoveries, it seems that the debate has been settled, and that this was unequivocally the eastern wall of ancient Jerusalem.

Reconstruction of the sections that were dismantled during previous excavations in the early 20th century, makes it possible to trace almost another 30 meters of the surviving wall to a height of 2.5 meters and a width of up to 5 meters.

In the book of 2 Kings, 25:10, there is a description of the conquest of the city by the Babylonians: “The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.”

However it looks like the Babylonians did not destroy the eastern wall, possibly due to the sharp steepness of the eastern slope of the City of David, which slopes towards the Kidron Valley at over 30-degree angle.

The findings of the destruction can be seen in the building that stood next to the wall and were exposed during the previous excavations: inside the building, rows of storage jars were discovered, which were smashed when the building burned and collapsed.

The jars bear "rosette" stamped handles, in the shape of a rose, associated with the final years of the Kingdom of Judah.

Near the wall, a Babylonian stamp seal made of stone was unveiled, depicting a figure standing in front of symbols of the two Babylonian gods Marduk and Nabu.

Not far from there a bulla (a stamp seal impression made in clay) was found bearing a Judaean personal name "Tsafan".

The findings of the excavation will be presented this coming October at the Israel Antiquities Authority's conference "New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region".

When Harav Ovadia Yosef Made Fun of "Stinky" Ashkanizim Who Don't Shower in 9 Days

 

Biden’s petty, foolish push to undermine the Abraham Accords

 

Team Biden seems determined to dismantle all its predecessor’s policies — even those that promised to transform the dysfunctional Middle East for the better.

The White House “suspended the Abraham Fund indefinitely,” Israeli financial paper Globes reported last week, citing US and Israeli sources. The public-private partnership was established last year after Israel signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, the first peace deals between the Jewish state and Arab nations in decades. 

The Trump administration called the Abraham Fund “an integral part” of the peace deals; it would “mobilize more than $3 billion in private-sector-led investment” to demonstrate “the benefits of peace by improving the lives of the region’s peoples.” It was opened to Morocco and Sudan when they joined the accords too.

It was smart diplomacy: The fund would nurture more peace deals as it showed how Arab-Israeli cooperation brought prosperity all over the Middle East.

Fund officials had approved more than a dozen projects in the energy, financial and food-technology sectors and were reviewing hundreds of others when President Donald Trump left office. But the day President Joe Biden succeeded him, the fund’s head, Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, stepped down, and Biden never replaced him. Worse, administration officials made it clear to the Israelis that he had no interest in continuing the fund’s work.

Why? Team Biden says it wants to keep the cash to spend in this country. Funny: This has to be the only area (besides wall construction) where the new administration is pinching pennies. 

Then again, Biden quickly started moving to undermine the accords themselves. He froze for months, for example, a weapons deal with the UAE as an incentive to bring it on board.

It seems the administration won’t even permit use of the name “Abraham Accords.” In April, State Department spokesman Ned Price went through contortions as he tried not to use the term, instead calling them simply “normalization agreements.” An ex-Trump official tells The Post a friend in the Energy Department was told to avoid the term.

Yet the Abraham Accords enjoy wide bipartisan support: Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a bill, cosponsored by more than half the Senate, to “build on the success of the Abraham Accords.”

It’s pretty low for the White House to choose petty politics at the expense of the most positive Middle East development in decades.

Brooklyn Journalist Was targeted by Iran in Twisted Kidnapping Plot

 

Four Iranian intelligence operatives schemed to kidnap a Brooklyn-based journalist and smuggle her to Iran in a bid to silence her criticism of human-rights abuses in the Islamic republic, federal authorities said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Post, writer and activist Masih Alinejad acknowledged she was the target, and she did the same in a series of tweets.

Mahmoud Khazein and Alireza Shahvarohi Farahani were charged in the alleged plot.

Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori were also charged.

A source familiar with the matter also confirmed Alinejad was the target.

Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss, who didn’t identify Alinejad by name, said she would have faced a fate that’s “uncertain at best” if the plan hadn’t been foiled by the FBI.

On Monday night, Alinejad told The Post that she was approached 8 months ago by about a dozen FBI agents who alerted her to the plot and later put her family up in three safe houses across New York. 

“‘You are not safe here,’” Alinejad said the feds told her in their initial meeting.

FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said, “This is not some far-fetched movie plot.”

“We allege a group, backed by the Iranian government, conspired to kidnap a US-based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran. Not on our watch,” he said.

The ring, led by Iranian intelligence official Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, allegedly began conspiring to kidnap Alinejad inside the US since as least as early as June 2020.

Second Jewish Player Drafted In Two Days Elie Kligman Drafted To MLB Will Not Play On Shabbos

 

For decades, Jewish baseball fans have looked to Sandy Koufax as a role model for refusing to pitch in game one of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. While that stood out as an example for Jews everywhere, one Nevada teen is hoping to take it a step further and become the first Shomer Shabbos, kosher-food-eating professional baseball player.

In the final round of the MLB draft, the Washington Nationals selected Elie Kligman, from Nevada, who has said he won’t play on Shabbos.

On Monday, Jacob Steinmetz was drafted to the Arizona Diamondbacks. As DIN reported, Steinmetz recently told the New York Post he keeps Shabbos and eats only Kosher food, but plays during the Shabbos and on Jewish holidays – although he walks to games rather than taking transportation.

Guiding him in his life and career has been his father, Marc Kligman, an attorney and professional sports agent who has coached Elie and younger brother Ari in the finer points of baseball over the years. He has also worked hard to provide his boys with opportunities to compete at a high level.

2,000-year-old coins hailing ‘freedom’ of Zion, Jerusalem uncovered in Binyamin Region

 Two rare coins dating back to the Jewish revolts against the Romans were recently discovered by Israeli archaeologists in the Binyamin region of the Shomron.

The first coin was discovered on the ground at the Khirbat Jib’it archaeological site, just south of the West Bank town of Duma. It dates back to the Great Revolt, the first Jewish–Roman War in Judea, according to researchers from Bar-Ilan University.

The Khirbat Jib’it coin was minted around 67-68 CE, according to Dr. Dvir Raviv, who led the survey. On one side it bears a vine leaf and the Hebrew inscription Herut Zion (the freedom of Zion). The other side is decorated with an amphora and the inscription “Year Two.”

Just one kilometer north, a second coin was found in a cave on the Wadi Rashash cliffs, dating back to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, the final major war fought between Jews and Romans.

According to Raviv, the second coin was minted around 134-135 CE, and it bears a palm branch, possibly a lulav —  one of the ritual plants used during the Jewish Sukkot holiday — and a wreath surrounded by the inscription LeHerut Yerushalayim (for the freedom of Jerusalem).

The other side of the Wadi Rashash coin is decorated with a musical instrument, likely a lyre according to Raviv, as well as the inscription “Shimon,” the name of the rebel leader, Shimon Ben Kosevah, better known as Bar-Kokhba.

Ceramic shards that were brought to the cave by Jewish refugees and rebels during the revolt were also discovered.

The Araq en-Na’asaneh Cave in Wadi a-Daliyeh, some six kilometers south of the Wadi Rashash cave, was previously considered the northernmost refuge cave of the Bar-Kokhba revolt in the Judean Desert.

“The Bar-Kokhba coin from Wadi Rashash indicates the presence of a Jewish population in the region up to 134/5 CE, in contrast to a previous claim that Jewish settlement in the highlands north of Jerusalem was destroyed during the Great Revolt and not inhabited afterward,” Raviv said.

“This coin is also the first evidence that the Acrabatta region, the northernmost of the districts of Judea during the Roman period, was controlled by the Bar-Kokhba administration.”

The site of the Khirbat Jib’it coin has seen the discovery of ritual baths, hiding complexes, chalkstone vessels and burial caves. All of them belonged to a Jewish settlement that existed at the site until the revolt some 70 years later, according to the archaeologists.

Khirbat Jib’it and Wadi Rashash are located some 30 kilometers northeast of Jerusalem.

Forgotten Heroes: The Jewish Resistance and Exodus 1947

 

July and August 2021 mark the 74th anniversary of the Exodus 1947 ship (originally named the President Warfield), perhaps the most dramatic post-WWII attempt to breach the British naval blockade and bring Holocaust survivors to Mandatory Palestine.

The ship, with over 4,500 Jewish refugees on board, left the French port of Sète on July 11, 1947. It was intercepted by the British, and after a determined resistance its passengers were returned to Port-de-Bouc in France on three deportation ships. The refugees refused to leave the French coast, and stayed on the ships under difficult conditions in the heavy August heat. They were ultimately led by force by the British to Hamburg, Germany – the country that had just slaughtered six million of their brethren.

DemonRat Socialists ignore Cuban protesters railing against communist dictatorship

Anti-government protests broke out Sunday in Cuba demanding freedom and calling on the disbandment of the country’s communist dictatorship, all while some of the U.S.’ most outspoken, self-professed Democratic socialists appear to be in lockstep by not acknowledging the historic events unfolding on the island about 90 miles from Florida.

Fox News has emailed Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Sen. Bernie Sanders and has yet to receive a response from any of them. As of early Monday, none have even mentioned the protest on social media.

But Tuesday afternoon, asked by Fox News for comment on Cuba, Sanders said: "Well, I support throughout Latin America and Cuba and every place else the right of people to protest for a decent economy and for political freedom." 

-BERNIE SANDERS: well, I support throughout latin America and cuba and every place else the right of people to protest for a decent economy and for political freedom

Jews Don't Really Take anti-Semitism Seriously .. Few Showed at Capital rally

 

The first thing to be said about the “No Fear” rally against anti-Semitism held in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sunday was that it was a noble effort. 

The organizers and those who showed up deserve credit for trying to shine a spotlight on a surge in hate crimes against Jews. A new group called Alliance for Israel was the primary organizer of the effort; it was launched in the aftermath of the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in mid-May that led to a torrent of incidents of anti-Semitic incitement and violence across the nation. It was joined by Elisha Wiesel, the son of the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who appears to have played a key role in bringing together a broad array of national Jewish organizations.

Indeed, it’s a cause that ought to unite almost the entire Jewish world, and to that end, religious denominations as well as groups from the left, center and right, like the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Zionist Organization of America, signed on as endorsers of the rally. If that weren’t enough unity on display, the leaders of both the Jewish Democratic Council of America and the Republican Jewish Coalition both spoke alongside each other, sounding a bipartisan note.

'The Gaza Disengagement was a terrible mistake'

 

Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope), who also serves as Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, on Tuesday lamented Israel’s 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip, saying the move had empowered the Hamas terrorist organization.

Speaking at the seventh Katif Conference, marking the 16th anniversary of the August 2005 Gaza Disengagement, Elkin blasted the decision to dismantle Israeli towns in the Gaza Strip and withdraw IDF forces from the coastal enclave.

“The Disengagement was a terrible mistake which should never have been carried out,” Elkin said. “It became fuel for Hamas as a terror group and helped them get stronger and bolder and ultimately to take over the entire Gaza Strip and to attack Israeli citizens time and again.”

Turning to the Bennett government and its anti-terror policies, Elkin said the new coalition “is working to change the equation and to respond to every single provocation and act of terror by Hamas.”

“As far as we are concerned, a terror balloon will be treated the same as a rocket. We need to have an aggressive policy.”

UN funneling millions to terror-linked Palestinian NGOs

 

From 2016 to 2020, the United Nations (UN) has funneled at least $40 million to radical Palestinian Authority (PA) NGOs that have ties to terrorist organizations and promote BDS, a new report by the Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu revealed.

The report, which surveyed 19 PA NGOs that receive funding from the UN, revealed that nearly all of them support BDS and eight of them have ties to Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror groups.

Some of the terror-linked NGOs named in the report include the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Health Work Committees, which have been identified by USAID as the respective agricultural and health arms of the PFLP, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which has ties to Hamas and PFLP, according to Israel's Ministry for Strategic Affairs.

"As with most rabidly anti-Israel NGOs, their names are innocuous and mislead people into thinking they promote human rights, but in reality they peddle malicious anti-Israel agendas," said Eytan Meir, director of external relations and development for Im Tirtzu.

The report further notes that the UN is not entirely transparent in its reporting. The UN reporting "often omits the 'implementing partners' that receive the funding to carry out the programs. This creates a situation in which millions of dollars in funding are unaccounted for," Im Tirtzu asserted.

The report also highlighted the United States' disproportionate role in UN funding, noting that the US funds 22% of the UN's core budget and 25% of its peacekeeping budget.

"Support for terrorism and BDS is directly opposed to the values and wishes of the United States," the report states. "In July 2019, the US House of Representatives passed an anti-BDS resolution by an overwhelming majority and to date more than 30 states have passed anti-BDS legislation."

As a solution, Im Tirtzu advocated increased transparency and the passing of a UN-equivalent Taylor Force Act.

The Taylor Force Act, signed into law by then-US President Donald Trump in March 2018, requires the US to halt its aid to the Palestinian Authority so long as it continues paying stipends to individuals or families of individuals who committed acts of terror.

"A similar law can be implemented in regards to the UN," Im Tirtzu stated, "which would stipulate that the US will halt its aid to the UN so long as it continues to fund propaganda organizations that have ties to terrorist groups, promote BDS, and lobby international bodies against Israel."

"Such a law would require the UN to cut its funding of these organizations out of fear of losing funding from the US, its largest donor."

No safe haven for Diaspora Jews but Israel

 

About the prospect of raising his Jewish family in Belgium: "I believed I could. Now I doubt I can," wrote Joel Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism, in an opinion piece published in a local newspaper.

This sentiment is increasingly common in Europe and the United States alike. Despite the rise in antisemitism in Belgium, the government there decided to remove military security from Jewish institutions. Now without state protection, the Jewish community is asking for help from Israel. This or any other security scheme would be useless until they realize where Jews can really find a safe haven and their role.

Should the State of Israel intervene in the security situations of the Jewish communities in the Diaspora? Absolutely not. Today it is Belgium, tomorrow it will be another country in Europe or elsewhere. The State of Israel must urge Jews living abroad to fend for themselves and not become involved in safeguarding the Jews in other countries against antisemitism.

The Jews in Belgium are not so poor as to lack the means to maintain security around themselves, so why do they demand the State of Israel to do so? Why should Israeli money fund security services to guard them so that they can live comfortably in Belgium? I am definitely opposed to the Jews in Israel taking responsibility for the Jews of Belgium and the Jews of the Diaspora in general. We have no interest in keeping them there.

Even if the Jews decide to move from Belgium to another country where they feel safer, they will have to learn firsthand that the place for Jews is the Land of Israel. Beyond Jews realizing that they have a state and a homeland here in Israel, they must decide on their own to return to fulfill the exalted role of the Jewish nation – to create a model society of love that covers any hatred that might reveal itself within it, a society of mutual guarantee in accordance with the laws of the supreme power.

The phenomenon of antisemitism is revealed in the world as a natural response designed to remind the people of Israel why it exists in the world. Our only option and shield for defending ourselves against hatred is the implementation of our role as "light unto the nations."

Therefore, the solidarity we feel with the Jews of Belgium should not be expressed by rushing to invest our money in safeguarding their institutions – a move that would be futile – but by explaining, both to ourselves and to them, the cause of the animosity against Jews, and what we must do to fix the problem for the world and ourselves.

If we do not start moving towards carrying out our role, we will find ourselves with no place to hide. As it is written, "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees and the stones and trees will say, 'O Muslim, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." (First extract, The Victory of Muslims Over Jews, Hadiths)

Our Jewish sources say that eventually all the Jews, including the Ten Tribes we lost along the way, will return to the Land of Israel to unite. Although there seems to be no place to absorb them all, there is plenty of room. The Book of Daniel calls the Land of Israel the "land of the deer."

As the Talmud explains, "Just as the hide of the deer has the capacity to encompass its body, but shrinks when separated from its flesh, so too can the Land of Israel expand to encompass its rightful inhabitants but shrinks when we are exiled from it."

As in this allegory, in the same way that the deer can expand its skin, we can accordingly expand our hearts to be as one, a safety net for the Jewish people and for peace in the world.

Rabbi says electric shavers compatible with Torah

 

One of the first things ultra-Orthodox boys are taught once they start shaving is that they cannot just use any electric razor they want, because under Halachah (Jewish law) damaging your skin is forbidden. 

According to most interpretations, this means electric shavers are forbidden in the many Orthodox communities.  The few that were allowed had to carry a special hechsher (rabbinical approval).   

However, in what could be unprecedented, a new halachic interpretation in the Tchumin religious journal, which brings together rabbis from different streams of Judaism to discuss and innovate on matters of Jewish law under the auspices of the Tzomet Institute, has made this prohibition all but obsolete. 

The institute announced the decision in a special post claiming that based on the latest inteprertation, "almost every type of electric shaver which operates as described above can be used."

The decision followed extensive deliberations by American Rabbi Chaim Jachter and his son Benjamin, who wrote the new article in the journal. The two based their analysis on their correspondence with senior engineers at several leading manufacturers, such as Philips and Procter & Gamble, and learned that modern electric shavers use a so-called "lift-and-cut" technology, which lifts the hairs and cut them without the blade injuring the skin.

According to Tzomet, "If anything, this mechanism makes the operation even closer to that of scissors, since it uses three elements in the cutting process: the blade, the screen, and the 'lift and cut' device," and therefore it would make no sense to take it out of such electrical appliances for religious reasons. 

New Evidence Indicates Enough Illegal Votes In Georgia To Tip 2020 Results

 

New evidence indicates that more than 10,300 illegal votes were cast in Georgia in the November 2020 general election — a number that will continue to rise over the next several months, potentially exceeding the 12,670 votes that separated Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

While this evidence does not change the fact that Joe Biden is our president, all Americans who genuinely care about free and fair elections and the disenfranchisement of voters should demand both transparency and solutions to prevent a repeat in future elections. This evidence also vindicates former President Trump and his legal team for the related public (and private) comments and legal arguments made in challenging the Georgia election results.

Under the cover of COVID-19, Georgia, like many other states, flooded residents with absentee ballot applications. Also like sister states, Georgia ignored various legislative mandates designed to prevent fraud and to ensure the integrity of the vote. These facts, coupled with the closeness of the presidential contest in Georgia and other states, led to a flurry of accusations and litigation charging vote fraud, illegal voting, and violations of the Elector’s Clause of the constitution.

In Georgia, there was both an audit and a statewide recount confirming Biden’s victory, but ignored in the process was evidence that nearly 35,000 Georgians had potentially voted illegally.

Under Georgia law, residents must vote in the county in which they reside, unless they changed their residence within 30 days of the election. As Jake Evans, a well-known Atlanta election lawyer, told me, outside of the 30-day grace period, if people vote in a county in which they no longer reside, “Their vote in that county would be illegal.”