Matisyahu the reggae star, Shaves his beard! "no more Chassidic reggae superstar"

Orthodox Jew rapper Matisyahu took a razor blade to the face this week ... and shaved off his trademark beard ... or so it seems. 

Matisyahu just posted the shorn pics of himself on his Twitter page ... along with the message, "At the break of day I look for you at sunrise ... When the tide comes in I lose my disguise."

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Jewish reggae star Matisyahu shaved his signature beard and issued a statement saying "No more Chassidic reggae superstar."

The artist posted two photos of his beardless face on Twitter and a statement about his decision on his website.

"When I started becoming religious 10 years ago it was a very natural and organic process," he wrote. "I felt that in order to become a good person I needed rules -- lots of them -- or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself."

He signed off, "Get ready for an amazing year filled with music of rebirth. And for those concerned with my naked face, don’t worry…you haven’t seen the last of my facial hair."

Born Matthew Miller, Matisyahu has been the most visibly Jewish artist in the hip-hop world since his debut album "Shake Off the Dust... Arise" was produced by JDub Records in 2004. While he first affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Matisyahu later distanced himself from the movement and moved on from JDub, which closed its doors this year.

Klausenberger Rebbe's Son dances with his wife in public, holding hands

Rabbi Hertz Frankel re-writes Satmar History in Ami Magazine

Rabbi Hertz Frankel has been writing a weekly series called "The Principal" in Ami magazine, basically describing his experiences as English Principal of Bais Rochel school for girls, a Satmar girl school.

Hertz Frankel

First let me inform my readers that any graduate of Bais Rochel could not pass a fifth grade reading level at any Bais Yaakov School, let alone other subjects. This is not a reflection of the girls, it just speaks volumes of Rabbi Hertz Frankel. Frankel would probably say that this was the intention of the school when it was founded under the direction of the late Satmarer Rebbi Z"L; to that I answer, that he should not masquerade these secular subjects as English and then call himself an "English" Principal.

The series should have been named "My Experiences with the Satmar Rav," because very little in the article describes his experiences being an English Principal; there is very little taught there, that resembles English. The series  is all about the Satmar Rebbi Z"L and is basically a forum and a publicity stunt to  take away any negative views  the readers of Ami magazine  might have about the Rebbi Z"L.  This year the Satmars started a massive campaign to re-write the history of Satmar Rebbe who was a rabid anti-Zionist and couldn't bring himself to ever praise the Zionist, Rudolf Kastner, who was the Shliach from Hashem to save him from the claws of the Nazis. Feldheim put out a book about the Rebbi Z"L and from the book you would have never known that the Rebbi had a history of Machlokas going back to pre-war Szigat, Krula, and Satmar leaving controversy in his wake wherever he went.

Which brings me to this past week's column of Ami Magazine.

Hertz writes,  I will take excerpts of his writings and comment.
( my comments are in red):

"The Jewish street was very sympathetic to Zionism in the '50 and '60s"
 maybe they were sympathetic to the Zionists because those Jews that made aliyah before the war, survived? 

 "and the Rebbe's outspoken opposition to Zionism didn't make him very popular. On the contrary, he was shunned by the Jewish community and denounced at every opportunity. "
I don't have a clue who shunned and denounced him? Frankel chose not to  name anybody! 

"There was, consequently, no person in Jewish history who was so limited in his ability to raise funds as the Satmar Rebbe.
No Jewish group permitted Satmar to make an appeal in their shul." 
A blatant lie. I davened in Chovevei Torah on Eastern Parkway, a shul that had an Israeli Flag, which had tens of Satmar Bochrim collecting every single day. " Everyone gave them money and no-one said boo" The Young Israel of Eastern Parkway had Satmar Bochrim collecting there every single Sunday (a Zionist shul). Satmar had the biggest Schnorrer Campaign, more than any other Heimishe yeshivah.

In "Jewish History?" Why don't you read up on Jewish history....Mr. Principle.

The Rebbe, nevertheless, would have gladly accepted money for his mosdos from other frum Jews. However, they all boycotted him. Most kehillos would permit Bobov, Torah Vodaath, or Chaim Berlin to make an appeal. But not Satmer.
This is a lie..everyone growing up in Crown Heights and Brownsville can never forget hundreds of Satmar boys collecting every single day in all shuls and Shteeblich. I remember when I was a child growing up in Brownsville, Satmer boys were collecting in the Gerrer Shtibal on Howard Ave, Raim Ahuvim on Prospect Place, and in Crown Heights they were collecting every single day in Bobov on Brooklyn Avenue. In fact they were the only ones to do so....only Satmar!!!!!!!!!!!!
And when did Satmar allow appeals for Yeshivah Chaim Berlin, Lakewood or for that matter any other Yeshivah in their shuls??? 

"The frum world, which was at that time quite supportive of Zionism, had no interest in this campaign of the Rebbe, and therefore ostracized him."
They were supportive of Zionism, because they were Holocaust survivors who had their wives, husbands, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, children and grandchildren murdered, and were thrilled that they now had a nation that would be their own, a place of refuge if a Holocaust would ever happen again. Not all Jews were as lucky as the Rebbi to have been saved by a Zionist!
The Satmar Yeshivas were the only Mosdos Hatorah in the entire history of the Jewish people that were based on a political agenda of Anti-Zionisim! All other mosdos like Bobov, Ger, Kloizenberg, Tzelem, Pupa, Lubavitch, Skver,were busy teaching their student's Torah, not infusing their precious little Neshamois with hate against fellow Jews.
 Maybe that's why they were "ostracized."
The Rebbi "ostracized" himself, by not allowing his Chassidim to learn the Daf Hayoimie!
Unbelievable!!!! Do the readers of Ami know that all of Klall Yisroel...and I mean all...Lubavitch, Ger, Kloizenberg, Skver, Belz, Pupa etc , Litvish, YU and Young Israel  ...are all united to learn the Daf, except Satmar?
 ....so who "ostracized" who? (the reason the Daf is banned in Satmar, because it is sponsored by Agudah ...all the Rebbe's decisions were political)

"As a result, everything the Rebbe built had to be funded from within; he was forced to obtain financial backing for his many projects solely from his followers. How these few Holocaust survivors found the means to do that is beyond me"
It's not beyond me.... they took it from government grants .... and guess who helped them get these grants? Yes! You guessed it: Aguda, who Satmar hated with a passion, because they wouldn't denounce Zionism. And the card carrying Aguda member Hertz Frankel knows this better than anyone but didn't mention it in any one of his articles.

The Rebbe refused to take money from a person who was Mechalel Shabbos, or from anyone else who the Rebbe believed had money that was tainted.
The Government Grants were Shomer Shabbos? The summer programs, the lunch programs, the pall grants, were Shomer Shabbos? How about all the money that the mosdos stole from the New York City Board of Education (remember that Mr. Hertz Frankel?)....
that wasn't tainted?

"There has been no leader in the history of Klal Yisrael who has been as abused, maligned, and insulted as the Satmar Rebbe."
Again, Reb Hertz, you obviously are clueless about Jewish History! And the Rebbe was the one abusing, maligning and insulting other Rabbonim. He had no respect for the Bobover Rebbe Z"L, or for that matter the Skverer Rebbe Shlitah,(we won't mention Kloizenberg, Belz and Ger that he loathed) those on the inside know exactly what I mean.(Vehameiven Yovin)

Now let me tell the readers of Ami something that Frankel will never write. We are not all Bais Ruchel Graduates, some of us actually attended schools that teach secular subjects in a Torah setting, and have some knowledge of  recent history.

The reason the Rabbonim and other frum Jews "ostracised" the Rebbi was that the Rebbe never condemned any of his students and Chassidim when his Chassidim were terrorizing Kloizenberger Rebbi Z"L,
(the Kloizenberger Rebbe finally escaped to Union City New Jersey).
Who can forget when his Chassidim beat up the Lubavitcher Chassidim (they would walk in on YomTov from Crown Heights to be samaich  the broken Holocaust survivors) putting many of the Chabadnikis in the Hospital.
He had by in large a bunch of hoodlums that would terrorise anyone that didn't agree with their views on Zionism (except for Gerrer Chassidim. They were terrified to mess with Ger  because they would have broken their bones).
Who can forget when they kidnapped  a bunch of Satmar Chassidim that decided to join Chabad and proceeded to cut their beards and peios (the last time someone did this to a Jew, the guy was a Nazi)?  
Satmar burns the Israeli Flag in public infuriating Holocaust Survivors even Satmar Holocaust Survivors. Satmar is constantly  protesting  the Jewish State, infuriating other Frum Jews  that are of the opinion that the State of israel was a gift from Hashem.
Tell me Rabbi frankel, how many Jews became Frum witnessing an Israeli Flag being burned? How many Jews became Frum witnessing the protests in front of the Israeli Mission?
 Satmar say "Yemach Shemo" (a name reserved for Hitler YM"S) whenever they hear the name Harav Kook Z"L, Satmar say Yemach Shemo when they hear the  Belzer Rebbe Shlita mentioned.
Who can forget the grafitti on the Gowanas Expressway that read "RASHA," "Shaigatz""Yemach Shemo" when the Belzer rebbe visited New York. The Belzer Rebbe is the leader of thousands of Jews, but that doesn't mean anything to these Romanian hooligans.

The reason other Jews "ostracised" the Rebbe, was because instead of trying to be Mekariv Jews he pushed them away with his violent tactics.... his shita was not to be inclusive, his shita was to be exclusive (even of other Chassidus).... his shita did not bring ONE JEW that wasn't frum to Yiddishkeit! Not one!
 The Jews that he was "mekariev" were the Moroccans and Yemenite Jews, and that is a post or even a book in itself.
The Satmars scream that the Zionists kidnapped Yemenites in 1949 and secularized them, but wait till you hear what the Satmars did to them.

The fact is that his shita needs allot of explaining... 
B"H, the State of Israel is  a fact, and there are now more Jews living in The State of Israel then any other place on earth, there are more Jews learning Torah in Yeshivos in the Zionist State than any other place on earth. There are more Jews learning torah in the State of Israel since Matan Torah (no thanks to Satmar).
The State of Israel is flourishing and now is in 4th place as far as longevity is concerned. The country is not in a recession, and is doing economically far better than the USA.

 Yes, it has its problems, but when did Eretz Yisroel ever have peace? Only a few years when Shlomo Hamelech was King... How many leaders of the Jewish people since Dovid Hamelech were frum? Only a handful!
This phenomenon didn't start with the Zionists! The Gemarrah records for posterity that the Kohanim Gedolim during the second Bais Hamikdash wern't frum and some wern't even Kohanim. We don't read about the Tanaim telling their students not to go to the Bais Hamikdash, because the leadership wern't frum! 
And now Mr. Principle let me so bold as to teach you a bit of Jewish History.
 The fact is that 99% of all Jews murdered, were murdered before the State of Israel was even created. In the last 63 years, since the State was created less Jews were murdered than in the entire Jewish History up to Shlomo Hamelech! B"H!
Yes, Israel is in danger of its neighbors, but give me a time in Jewish History when it wasn't? Yes, The State of Israel needs Rachmei Shomyim but so does the entire world. The Satmar Rebbe Z"L was a divisive person, and Frankel knows it but chooses to re-write history....
Now a word about Kosher Products with a "Heimishe" Hashgacha: Hertz Frankel had previously written that Satmar was instrumental in bringing Kosher products to the market... one can debate that, but what is irrefutable.... is that all Kashrut Scandals in the last couple of years were only the products with a Heimeshe Hashgacha not one scandal where the product had as a symbol an  OU.... just a thought!
Rabbi Hertz Frankel, you are a Galizyaner, who panders and sucks up to the Hungarian and Romanian gypsies..... stop doing it, they will never accept you as one of their own, you will always be an outsider.

Satmar Gangsters place posters that say that Elimelech Weiss Z"L who got killed in an accident deserved to die!

Paskeveil Credit: Failed Messiah

Elimelech Weiss Z"L who got killed Friday night  by a car, was a Klausenberger Chasid. The Satmar bastards went ahead and posted a Pashkevel that Weiss got killed because he used the Eiruv on Shabbos. Harav Menashe Klein Z"L and other Gedolim were Mater (permitted) the Eiruv in Williamsburg and Boro-Park.

Elimelech Weiss Z"L

I remember as a young child the Satmar Gangsters thinking they were still in Saint Mary (Satmar) Romania, would send the Kloizenberger Rebbe Z"L shipments of Treif pizza and furniture on Shabbos, and once even put live wires in his mikvah, this was while Reb Yoilesh Z"L was still alive, and he never ever publically condemned these violent attacks. The Kloisenberger Rebbe Z"L who lost a wife and 10 children in the Holocaust, had to escape  Williamsburg and go into exile in Union City, New Jersey, because of the persecution. Reb Yoilish Z"l never said a word against his Chassidim about them torturing his own nephew because the Kloizenberger took money from the "Zionists." (the Satmar Mosdos all take money from the Zionists, but not directly, they set up "dummy" mosdos and funnel all the money back to Satmar)
When the Belzer Rebbe Shlitah came to the USA, he needed Police Protection from these very Satmar gangsters, and this was when the Beirach Moshe Z"L was still alive, and he also never had the guts to  condem these violent attacks on innocent Rebbonim that did not agree with their "shitois."
Just one question to the ones' who put out this poster: How about all those Satmar Chassidim who frequent the disco clubs on Broadway on Friday night, do they also deserve  to die? How about those Satmar Chassidim that live in Monroe that frequent the bars in Nyack on Friday night, while their wives think that they are hanging out at the Tish, do they deserve to die?
All Satmar chessed projects are meaningless if their leaders remain quiet while their Chassidim do their dirty work. The Salvation Army also does chessed.

Andrew Goodman finally arrested in child abuse, 144 count indictment

He looks like a movie star, but many members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community believe he is a monster.

Andrew Goodman, 27, who worked for Jewish social-service agencies, is charged with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys for years in Flatbush — one from age 11 to 15, the other from age 13 to 16.

Andrew Goodman

Goodman filmed sex acts with the youngsters on a Web cam, according to the 144-count indictment, which alleges numerous violations since 2006. He has pleaded not guilty.

The handsome Goodman, who held parties in his home with liquor and child porn, also “threatened the life” of a boy who reported him to authorities, court papers and sources say.

Goodman’s case, which Hynes’ office hasn’t publicized, shows how the community’s response has started to change. Rather than keeping it among the Orthodox, some alleged victims turned to sympathetic religious leaders and outside authorities to help lock up a menace.

“Andrew Goodman is known in our community as a lifelong molester who preys on young boys and ruins their lives,” a Talmudic scholar at Congregation Bais Torah wrote to Brooklyn Judge Martin Murphy, who is hearing the case.

Neighbors were shocked when Goodman, freed on $10,000 bail after his arrest in July 2010, still had boys sneaking into his 15th Street home, where he lives with his parents and sister, in the middle of the night.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/orthodox_sex_abuse_scandal_Vzaqd3TbKtikUv0h6b3clI#ixzz1gEhBhwR1

"Palestinians are an invented people, and their leaders are terrorists" Gingrich

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says he is being factually accurate when he calls the Palestinians an “invented” people and says they are the creation of anti-Israel propaganda.

Gingrich’s chief rival for the presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, says the former House speaker has made a mistake in the description and has made it more difficult for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate toward peace.In remarks Saturday night at a candidate debate, Romney said the United States should allow both sides to talk without signaling a preference.
Gingrich responded to the criticism by saying he is speaking as a historian but adds that it’s time for a candidate to stand up and call Palestinian leaders “terrorists.”

Criticism of Islam could soon be a crime in the USA

Attorney General Eric Holder speaking to US Attorney Dwight C. Holton in Oregon:
 "training materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive, and they are contrary to everything that this president, this attorney general and Department of Justice stands for. They will not be tolerated."

Read more: familysecuritymatters.org

Elimilech Weiss killed crossing Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg

Williamsburg, NY - A car driving through the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn struck and killed a pedestrian who was crossing the intersection of Flushing Avenue and Bedford Avenue. The 21-year-old driver of the Mitsubishi sedan remained on the scene.

According to two witnesses, the victim 62-year-old R’ Elimilech Wiess, was heavily bleeding from the impact of the collision.

Hatzolah volunteers transported Weiss about 9:00pm to Bellevue Hospital, where he was r"l pronounced dead.

The NYPD of the 90th Precinct and NYPD Highway are investigating this accident, no charges have been filed.

From VIN news

'I am NOT the victim, I'm the victor': Extraordinary moment furious victim confronts teenage sex attacker in court as he is jailed for 15 years

Heidi Damon waived her right to anonymity to be allowed to be filmed in court unleashing her anger as her attacker Javon Cooper was jailed for 15 years after attempting to kill and rape her.

Heidi Damon

The 40-year-old told Cooper, 18: 'I just want to tell you — and I want you to look at me when I address you — I woke up ecstatic today, happier than ever. You know why? Because I'm alive. I'm alive, alive, alive.

'You have not broken my spirit. You have not changed my belief in God. If anything, you've strengthened both. I am not a victim. I am the victor, the stronger and the winner.'

As Ms Damon spoke, Cooper, dressed in a prison issue orange jumpsuit, shifted uncomfortably and tried to avert his gaze from his victim.

Cooper had pleaded guilty to attempted murder and attempted sexual battery.

He was 16 when he pounced on Ms Damon in a multi-storey car park in Ybor City, Florida, in August 2009

Cooper choked Ms Damon until she blacked out, and stripped her off her trousers and underwear.

Such was the force of the strangling that her eyes turned red and she was covered in bruises.

Ms Damon was out of work for a year and still suffers from chronic headaches. She told the court she is still afraid.

At his sentencing Ms Damon stood a few feet from her attacker as she lashed out at him.

She told him: 'My desire to be all that I can be cannot be broken by you or anyone. I survived.'

She told Cooper that he will always be a boy, that a man could never do what he had done.

She said: 'I will never forgive you because what you have done to me is never forgivable.

'I contribute to my community. You help decay yours.

'My life will never be the same. You know why? It's going to be better than it was before.

'My tears are out of joy,' she told him. 'Because I'll never see you again. Ever.

'Oh and by the way, I do have one more thing,' she said. 'My name is Heidi Elizabeth Damon. I have a name. I have a name that will go on forever. 

'You have a number and the title of the crimes that you've committed. Your name is Sex Offender, Attempted Murderer. Nice to put you away.'

Speaking out: Ms Damon, with her back facing the viewer, reads out her statement to her attacker Javon Cooper, who looked away throughoutMs Damon said she agreed to waive her anonymity as she wanted to speak out for other 'silent victims' of rape.

She said: 'I feel proud because I was able to stand there and get what I wanted out and articulate it without falling apart.

'I'm satisfied with the fact that he's going away. I'm ecstatic that I lived to tell the story, and he was caught and that I potentially saved someone's life that day by being the one that was chosen to be attacked, and I lived through it.'

Cooper was jailed for 15 years and ten years probation.

The judge told him he would have liked to lock him up for life.

Jon Stewert makes fun of Republican candidates for sucking up to Jews, Video

To Watch Video Click Here

The Republican Jewish Coalition 2012 Presidential Candidates Forum was held on Tuesday in Washington, DC. On tonight'sDaily Show, Jon Stewart described the forum as a holiday celebrating "the miracle of incredibly Christian presidential candidates fighting over who loves Jews more" before ranking each one based on how much—and how "shamelessly—"they managed to suck up to Israel.

Yeshiva University cuts funding to student online newspaper after it refused to take down column detailing a sexual encounter

An online student newspaper at a private Jewish university in New York lost its funding after it refused to take down a literary column detailing a sexual encounter between two students.

The column, published Dec. 5 in the YU Beacon, one of Yeshiva University’s four student newspapers, was written by an anonymous female author who describes a sexual tryst with a young man inside a Manhattan hotel room.

The writer identifies herself as a 20-year-old modern Orthodox Jewish woman who attends Stern College for Women – one of the university’s three undergraduate schools – and whose conscience weighs heavily on her as she engages in an alcohol-fueled rendezvous with a secret lover.

The piece, titled “How Do I Even Begin to Explain This,” concludes with the young woman’s regret over the encounter: “The only thing I learn is how to do the walk of shame the day after,” the author writes.

The column, however, did not sit well with university officials or the student council, which threatened to remove the newspaper’s funding if it did not pull or alter the piece, one of the newspaper’s editors told FoxNews.com.

Simi Lampert said she and coeditor Toviah Moldwin met Wednesday night with three school administrators, as well as the president and secretary of student council, in an attempt to resolve the issue.

Lampert claims the school asked them to either remove the column from the newspaper’s website or “change some of the wording” in it – options Lampert said she could not accept.

“They were offering compromises and we didn’t want to make those compromises,” she explained. “We then said we didn’t want to be an official publication of YU.”

Lampert said the YU Beacon is reimbursed up to $500 a semester by the school for any work-related costs. If the newspaper is no longer affiliated with the university, it is not eligible for funding, she said.

Matt Yaniv, Yeshiva University’s associate director of media relations, said in a statement Thursday that the school did not pull funding from The Beacon.

“The Beacon received their funding from the school’s student government, who allocates funds to all student clubs,” he wrote in an email to FoxNews.com. “After posting an article that made many students uncomfortable, the student council president approached The Beacon editors on behalf of the students, asking them to take it down.

“After an amicable discussion between the two sides, The Beacon decided to part ways and become an independent publication.”

The university, Yaniv said, acted only as a “mediator” between the newspaper and student council.

Under Orthodox Jewish law, premarital sex is prohibited. In its mission statement, Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish school with two undergraduate campuses, says the school strives to “Infuse the student body with a spirit of leadership and a sense of responsibility to the Jewish people and society in general.”

It also looks to “build, cultivate and support communities and their lay and rabbinic leaders” and “create a global movement that promotes the values of Yeshiva University.”

An editor’s note posted above the article describes the newspaper’s column section, “The Written Word,” as a section “designated for student literary expression with both fictional and nonfictional content.”

“Literary works occasionally contain material that can be perceived as offensive by some readers, so reader discretion is advised,” the statement reads.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/08/jewish-university-school-newspaper-cut-ties-over-controversial-sex-column/#ixzz1fzKwKni2

Jewish Lady dies right after giving birth to twins after 7 years of trying

Michal Lura Friedman wanted more than anything to be a mom.

Jay and the twins

On their second date, her husband, Jay Snyder, recalled, she just came right out with it: “I want to get married and have kids.”
With her husband at her side in the OR, Friedman delivered a healthy 6-pound girl at 4:48 p.m. on Nov. 25 and a 7-pound, 12-ounce boy two minutes later.

After seven years of trying, the 44-year-old singer-songwriter became pregnant with twins. The next nine months were the happiest of the Manhattan couple’s lives.

Four and a half hours later, she was dead.

Michal Friedman

“One of the many things that is despicable about this is that she didn’t really even get a chance to hold her kids,” a tearful Snyder told the Daily News. “They held up the babies to her, she saw them and smiled at me, but she was kind of out of it from the drugs. She wanted to be a mother more than anything else in the world.”
Friedman, who described her tiny, 100-pound frame as “5 foot nothing,” had just the usual morning sickness — with no hint that anything terrible could happen as her due date approached.
Because one of the children was a breech baby, a C-section was scheduled for Nov 28. The children were full-term — 38 weeks.

The day after Thanksgiving, an elated Friedman went to NYU Langone Medical Center for her preop appointment. Her blood pressure was elevated, Snyder said, so doctors made the decision to admit her and do the C-section that day.
A grieving Snyder, and dozens of relatives and friends who loved the spirited and spiritual woman known as “Michal the Girl,” now struggle to understand what happened.
It is an unspeakable tragedy that Snyder, 41, is trying to absorb, replaying in his head her final hours as he watched doctors try to stem her postoperative bleeding, and then saw her slip away on an ICU table.

As doctors worked frantically to save her, he rooted her on.
“Please, please, please stay with me, Michal, you have to be here,” Snyder repeated to himself, just 90 minutes after hearing his newborns wail healthily in the delivery room.

Breaking down in sobs, Snyder described how the team was able to bring Friedman back after her heart stopped. But as the situation spiraled downward, he was asked him to leave the room.

He was given a private room, where sleeping newborns Jackson and Reverie were brought to him to hold. He whispered over and over in their ears a father’s desperate prayer:
“Please reach out to Mommy to help keep her here.”
About 9:30 p.m., Snyder was given the news.
It was over.

NYU Langone officials declined on Wednesday to comment on Friedman’s death.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to the family at this difficult time,” said a spokesman in a written statement to The News. “Pursuant to HIPAA [confidentiality laws], we are precluded from commenting further.”
The family is waiting for the medical examiner’s report for a conclusive cause of death. The state Health Department is also investigating.

Snyder, an actor who does voice-overs and animation, finds himself in a surreal state, a swirl of emotions and numbness. Nothing is as it was supposed to be. Friedman’s memorial service last week was part wake, part celebration of the babies.
The Inwood apartment the couple just moved to from Brooklyn is eerily quiet, broken only by the sounds of the babies crying. Snyder and his devastated mother-in-law take turns changing diapers and doing the feedings.

Although they need time to mourn and process what has happened, there is no time for that now.
‘It feels like such a ripoff’
The babies’ cries and coos are a call back to the living — that no matter how hard, how painful, how permanent a mother’s death, there is life she created that must be lived.
There are two beautiful babies to be fed, to be sung to, to be held close and

kissed. Explanations will come in the years ahead.

For now Snyder wants their children to know how wonderful their mother was, how he was smitten with her beauty and honesty when they first met in Greenwich Village, how they married atop their Williamsburg apartment building, and how all they talked about was the day they would have kids together.
As he diapered and fed little Rev on Wednesday, Snyder said he has been overcome with thoughts of how happy Friedman would be “doting on the kids, how happy she would be to be holding them and breast-feeding them.
“She did such an amazing job of getting there, and she doesn’t get the payoff to be the mom she was supposed to be. It feels like such a ripoff.”

And while he is grateful for the outpouring of support of friends and family, Snyder is deeply saddened.
“Those kids are going to miss out on her very special kind of love, the love that Michal couldn’t wait to give them,” he said, choking up. “When Michal loved someone, and I was the recipient of that, it was effortless and generous and incessant and pure. She was really a kid at heart.”
According to the Washington-heights-inwood paper: Laura was a practicing Buddhist r"l.
"A memorial for Friedman, a practicing Buddhist, was held Wednesday in Chelsea at the New York Shambhala Center on West 22nd Street."

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20111203/washington-heights-inwood/singer-michal-girl-dies-after-giving-birth-twins#ixzz1fzGvPXyr

G-D's Greatest Miracles! Lizards that resemble a leaf and other camouflage experts!

Stare at these pictures for long enough and you might just spot some clever creatures playing the ultimate game of hide and seek.

This Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko is barely visible against the leaves in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Madagascar.

These amazing animals are true masters at blending effortlessly into their environment as a means of survival in the natural world.

Blending in: This Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko hides from predators in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Madagascar, or is it just a leaf?

Nothing to see here: A  Toad hides among dead leaves in Amacayacu National Park, Colombia

A Speckled Sanddab blends perfectly with the pebbled ocean floor

A Righteye Flounder camouflages himself on the ocean floor

This Peppered Moth has found the perfect hiding place on a rock

A Vietnamese Mossy Frog is perfectly adapted to his surroundings
 

The Great Potoo hides in a tree in Brazil as it searches for food
 

A Katydid blends into foliage in Costa Rica

This Mossy Leaf-tailed Gecko is a master of disguise in Montagne dAmbre National Park, Madagascar

This Sandhopper protects itself by covering red sand all over its body in the desert

Young Jewish Girls, some 12-13 years old, marrying Arabs!

Deputy Mayor of Afula: "Mothers come to me and cry that their 12 and 13 year olds have moved into Arab village

A growing number of young Jewish girls are marrying Arabs, according to Dr. Boris Yudis, deputy mayor of the northern town of Afula.

Yudis was interviewed for a report on intermarriage in the regional newspaper Index Haemek Vehagalil.

"The phenomenon of girls aged 12 and 13 who are in Arab villages breaks my heart, but unfortunately my hands are tied," he was quoted as saying. "Mothers come to me and cry that their 12 and 13 year olds have moved into minority villages, this is a painful thing that wounds my heart."

He was further quoted as saying: "I am really frustrated and this is not about Jews and Arabs - it is about the fact that instead of learning and studying they waste their lives. It is a sad phenomenon that we are unable to treat in a thorough way, from the root. I no longer believe only in law enforcement; I think we will have results if we act through education."

Israel's pro-Jewish Identity NGO Yad L'Achim confirmed the claim. Its chairman was quoted as saying that they receive requests to assist in similar cases nationwide. The girls involved are aged 11 years and upward, he said.

The Family Lobby responded to the report by saying that "the painful phenomenon of Jewish girls who cross over into Arab society is the direct result of the weakening of the family unit and the deterioration of the status of fathers in the Jewish family in recent decades – due to the activity of militant feminist women's groups."

Family Lobby chairman Gil Ronen explained: "The inflated propaganda about battered women in the Jewish sector and the encouragement of divorce through unwarranted perks for single parent households wind up hurting these girls, who end up in the Arab sector, where their chances of being battered are far higher."

Underage Yeshivah Bochur arrested for DWI, coming home from a Wedding!

Time for the Rabbonim to admonish the ladies to dress more tznisdik! Why? You ask? If the Bochur would have killed another Yid, C"V, while drunk, the Rosh Yeshivas would have come out with a Kol Koreh warning the ladies to dress tznisdik.... but now that he only wound up in the back of a police car .. nothing will be done!
I am sarcastic of course, what my real message is that instead of dealing with the issue, like banning underage Yeshivah Bochrum from drinking at weddings, bar-mitzvas etc, the Rabbis admonish the ladies!

Read the report from, yes, Yeshivaworld.

A Yeshiva Bochur returning from his friends Chasunah was arrested for DWI, Tuesday night.
According to our sources, the boy was stopped by officers from the NYPD in the Flatbush area, after displaying signs of being intoxicated. The 19-year-old Bochur, who is a student at a prominent Yeshiva was taken into custody, and will now need to face the consequences of his irresponsible, and potentially deadly actions.
Thankfully, he did not hurt or kill anyone – including himself – while at the wheel.
YWN spoke with a leading Rov on Wednesday morning to hear his thoughts on this story.
“It’s time people dig their heads out of the sand, and deal with this issue head-on”, he said.
“This story should be a wake-up call for Klal Yisroel, and no I don’t mean to discuss it at an Agudah Convention. I mean to DEAL WITH THE ISSUE, and once and for all eradicate this plague of Yeshiva Bochrim drinking at weddings, vorts, shabbos meals etc.”
He added that “Klal Yisroel should give Shevah V’hodaah to the Robono Shel Olam that this Bochur ended up in police car, rather than in an emergency room or worse, Chas Veshalom”.