The Shiur of a Kzayis (Olive) as we know it and have been taught , is totally wrong!

Rashi almost certainly never saw an olive. The same goes for other medieval authorities in Ashk’naz (Germany-Northern France). This little-known but indisputable fact should matter to you. It has everything to do with the following question: Is Halakhic Judaism rational and rooted in reality, or is it a hypothetical construct unconducive to engaging the real world?

It is a simple matter to ascertain, or describe to another, the volume of an average olive, a ‘k’zayit’…provided you have olives. But what if you have never seen an olive? How would you understand the concept? How would you describe it to someone unfamiliar with olives?

This was the reality in Ashk’naz in the Middle Ages, and there is no mystery as to why. The olive tree is native to the Mediterranean basin, from Israel in the East to Spain in the west; it does not naturally grow elsewhere. In Roman times, due to the trade routes which crisscrossed the Empire, olives may have made their way to Germany and beyond. The collapse of Rome, however, led to a breakdown of law and order, and therefore trade.

Medieval Ashk’nazim were unfamiliar with olives, a fact confirmed by R. Eliezer b. Yoel’s (d. circa 1225) discussion of the minimal amount required for a b’rakha aharona: “Wherever a k’zayith is required, one needs a sizeable amount of food, because we are unfamiliar with the size of an olive…” (Ra’avya, B’rakhoth 107).

Some Ashk’nazi authorities concluded that an olive was half the volume of an egg, while others demonstrated, based on Talmudic sources, that it must be less than one third of an egg. How much less they could not say. The truth, of course, is different, as was clearly perceived by one 14th century authority who actually made it to Eretz Yisrael. Responding to the proposition that a person could swallow three k’zaytim at once (which is quite impossible if one assumes a k’zayit to be half of an egg in volume) he wrote: “As for me, the matter is plain, for I saw olives in Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim, and even six were not equal to an egg.” S’pharadi authorities, on the other hand, had no such difficulties. One wrote that an olive is “much less” than a quarter of an egg (Rashba), while another mentions in passing that a dried fig is equal to “several olives” (Rittba). The last three statements, made by sages who saw olives, are entirely accurate.

In present day Halakhic practice, predicated on opinions rooted in the aforementioned lack of knowledge and experience, a k’zayit is often said to be 30 cc, while others say 60 cc. These figures bear no relation to the real world olives of Eretz Yisrael which average 3-5 cc.

It is claimed by some that once upon a time olives were much larger. This claim is false.

Olives and olive trees have not changed, as evidenced by the fact that there are over 70 olive trees in Israel ranging between 1,700-2000 years old, and 7 are approximately 3000 years old. These trees continue to produce fruit identical to the olives of younger trees. Halakhic responsa from the G’onic period echo these facts, stating plainly that olives do not change. Some would have you believe that there are two kinds of olives: real olives and ‘Halakhic’ olives. In their view, Halakha need not reflect reality; it exists in an alternate reality of its own. This is a tragedy because it paints Judaism as divorced from reality and irrelevant to a rational person. This is a lie because Torah was intended by Hashem as our handbook for operating in the real world.

The ultimate purpose of Judaism was announced by the Creator before He transmitted the Torah to His people: “And you shall be for My purpose a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). The nation of Israel is the priest connecting God and mankind. “I, God, have summoned you for a righteous purpose…. and have assigned you for my covenant with humanity, a light for the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).

The Jewish people, in order to succeed, have to live and lead in the real world. To deal with the challenges facing us as a nation we must think, act and believe rationally. A rational person does not believe in olives 2o times the size of the olives we see with our own eyes. To deal with reality, we have to get real.

We are described as being created in the image of Hashem because we can think and reason. To convince ourselves that Halakha can be based on irrational claims is an insult to our God-given intelligence. Not to mention that it places Judaism squarely in the realm of fairy tales. What kind of message does that send to our children?

Nothing could be more pernicious than the notion that truth and Torah do not mix. The same goes for the idea that Halakhic opinions rooted in Exile-induced misconceptions are sacrosanct and immutable. A philosophy that turns aberration into truth, the Torah of Galuth into the real McCoy, is intolerable. The clear implication is that Judaism, as a system, is broken and beyond repair.

Before you eat your k’zayit of matza at this year’s seder, you might pause to consider what you are about to say about yourself, and what message you are about to send to your family and friends.

I can tell you what message I will be sending: that Torah and Halakah are as real as it gets.

David Bar-Hayim is an Israeli rabbi who heads the Machon Shilo Institute in Jerusalem, Israel. HaRav Bar-Hayim’s beth din is well-known for having issued a p’sak halakha permitting the consumption of kitniyot for all Jews residing in Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky says Metziza P'peh should only be done with a pipe!

Rabbi Kamenetsky told the Jewish Week  that in his community “as far as I know, they do metzitzah with a tube!

R’ Kaminetzky expressed surprise that any Mohel would perform metitzah b’peh, given the links between the practice and transmission of certain diseases to infants, saying that under the circumstances, performing metitzah b’peh would run counter to halacha.

The rabbi also expressed disbelief about those who would insist on the practice despite its links to the transmission of disease to infants.

“Chas v’shalom [God forbid], if [children are] getting sick [from oral suction], [you] wouldn’t do it,” under Jewish law, he said.

For its part, the Agudah, the haredi umbrella group, has never explicitly denied the risk of herpes transmission through metzitzah b’peh. But its spokesman, Rabbi Avi Shafran, recently told The Jewish Week that “to scientifically assess the risk … one would have to have more [information] than a number like the 20 [cases The Jewish Week counted in the literature],” namely the total number of metzitzah b'peh procedures done over the same time period.

Rabbi Kamenetsky also stated that because it is permissible to do the suctioning with a tube, which poses “no risk at all” to the infant, this should be the practice.

Meanwhile, a paper published in the Winter 2012 issue of the haredi periodical Dialogue — entitled “Is Metzitzah bePeh Dangerous?” — has apparently become a reference for those seeking to defend the practice.

The paper, by Dr. Daniel S. Berman, an infectious disease doctor, seeks to challenge those who argue that metzitzah b’peh carries serious helth risks and falls within a tradition of writings that defend against potential government interference for health reasons.

In the paper, Berman, who has a letter in this week’s Jewish Week, attempts to cast doubt on public health officials’ findings linking the herpes simplex virus to a particular mohel — presumably Yitzchok Fischer, who has been tied to at least four neonatal herpes infections, including one death. Berman argues that absent DNA “fingerprinting” that matches the baby’s virus to that of the mohel involved, one cannot claim that metzitzah b’peh was responsible for the baby’s infection.

Dr. Jonathan Zenilman, former president of the American STD Association and professor of medicine and chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, rejects that argument. In insisting that DNA fingerprinting is the only way to conclusively demonstrate a link between MbP and a case of neonatal herpes infection, Zenilman says, Berman denies “the validity of standard epidemiological methods which are widely accepted by pretty much everyone else.”

In fact, while blood tests can determine if someone is infected with — and thus capable of transmitting — the herpes virus, it is not always possible to obtain the virus’ DNA, which is most likely to be obtained from fresh sores that have not yet scabbed over. “The lack of genetic sequencing to conclusively demonstrate that these are the exact same strains of herpes is not necessary, or even relevant, from a public health standpoint,” Zenilman emphasized.

Even when a mohel does not cooperate with testing — which has apparently happened in several reported cases — causal inferences can be made. “There is a whole paradigm of causal inference in epidemiology,” noted Zenilman, “which includes things like temporal association and biological plausibility,” a term that refers to a cause-and-effect relationship that is consistent with existing biological and medical knowledge.

Indeed, Berman himself seems to acknowledge that Fischer failed to cooperate with an investigation by the New York City department of health, refusing to undergo DNA testing because the city “offered the testing in a way that was extremely unfavorable to the Mohel with regard to his future.”

(Both the city and state departments of health have declined to comment on the investigation into Fischer, who was ordered to stop doing MbP in New York state in 2007; it appears, based on taped conversations obtained by The Jewish Week, he may have defied the order.)

Berman ultimately concludes, based on his summary of reported cases, that there is a “small risk” of herpes transmission through MbP.

However, experts like Zenilman caution that there is likely substantial underreporting of these infections because, for example, recognized cases are not always reported and other cases may not be recognized. “It’s the tip of the iceberg,” Zenilman believes, noting that once a child is infected with herpes, if he survives, he has the virus “for life.”

Without addressing the issue of underreporting, Berman asserts that it is reasonable to assume that any “small risk” of herpes transmission can be eliminated by the mohel rinsing his mouth with Peridex or Listerine, a claim Zenilman calls “nonsense.”

In the second half of the paper, Berman criticizes the New York City health department for declaring that there is “a definite risk of infection” from MbP, and seems to suggest that Jews in particular are being targeted because he “cannot find any recommendations from the Department of Health to members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith telling them of the dangers of refusing blood transfusions, which is part of their faith.”

However, there have been numerous cases in which the courts have ruled that the interests of the child and the interests of the state outweigh the parents’ rights to refuse medical treatment, and in some states parents who have declined to seek medical care for their children outside of their own religious treatment have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

In fact, according to Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, though it has not attempted to do so, the government does have the power to ban metzitzah p’beh in the interest of protecting the public health.

“A practice that can cause infants to die or be infected with a sexually transmitted disease is certainly a practice that the government can constitutionally ban, even if the practice is a religious ritual of some sects,” Luchenitser told The Jewish Week. 

Starbucks bugs frappuccinos

The Rabbis weren't kidding when they said Starbucks needs an hashgacha.... they dye the Strawberry frappuccinos with  cochineal bugs!

Read this from CBS NEWS

Are you a fan of Starbucks Strawberry Frappuccinos? How do you feel about eating bugs?

The website thisdishisvegetarian.com reports Starbucks' Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino is not vegan, even if it contains soy, after a barista alerted the site that the company's new strawberry flavoring contains "cochineal extract" - which is essentially crushed up dried bugs used as dye.

"My guess would be that the recipe changed about three or four weeks ago, when our strawberry sauce got new packaging," the barista told the website. "I was hoping you guys could help get the word out there so that no vegans end up drinking this formerly vegan frappucino by mistake!"

Cochineal extract comes from the dried bodies of cochineal bugs and has been used for thousands of years to color fabrics. The extract is also known as "carmine" or "crimson lake."
A Starbucks spokesperson replied to the vegetarian website on March 16, according to the site.
"At Starbucks, we strive to carry products that meet a variety of dietary lifestyles and needs. We also have the goal to minimize artificial ingredients in our products," the spokesperson said. "While the strawberry base isn't a vegan product, it helps us move away from artificial dyes." HealthPop could not reach Starbucks for comment at press time.The report has prompted a petition on Change.org that calls on Starbucks to use other natural alternatives for food coloring, including red beets, purple sweet potatoes and paprika. The news has also prompted some to point out that a whole lot of our food already contains cochineal extract - and has for quite some time. The FDA says the dye is safe and food and cosmetic labels must state if cochineal extract is present. That means it may be found in wines, yogurts, candies, fruit drinks, ice creams, ketchup, lipsticks, eyeshadow, nail polish - you name it. The Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the FDA in 1998 to get the product labeled on packaging after a study found the dye caused an allergic reaction in one patient. The CSPI hasreceived many complaints since, it said in a 2009 article.The Daily Mail reports that the World Health Organization says consuming cochineal extract has been tied to asthma for some. Some consumers have recently been concerned with another common additive that's found in their food, ammonia-treated lean beef tips, also known as "pink slime." The public response on the additive has prompted several grocery chains and school districts to stop carrying the product, HealthPop reported.

American Media ignored story of Arab slaughter of French Jews!

The New York Post had the story on page 16, The New York Times in the second section, ABC, NBC, CBS and even Fox News by in large hardly gave coverage to the deliberate slaughter of  French Jews by an Arab. If this was Israeli Soldiers killing Palestinians the news would have been 24 hours.

Michael Savage

Talk show host and best-selling author Michael Savage blasted the mainstream media Wednesday for side-stepping the obvious in its coverage of the massacre of Jewish schoolchildren in France – that the likely culprit was an Islamist terrorist.

That proved to be the case early Wednesday when French elite forces stormed the house of a man identified the likely perpetrator. Not only was Mohammed Merah an al-Qaida sympathizer, he had actually been trained in terrorist camps in the Middle East, according to reports.

“When four Jewish children were brutally murdered in France on Monday, the media immediately began to tell us who the murderer was. ‘It was a random attack. It was a serial killer. It was a racist, neo-Nazi murder.’’ Savage wrote on his website. “Every possible alternative was used in order to avoid coming to the conclusion that this was a Muslim terrorist attack.

“Slowly, but surely, the case of the paid shills in the media began to fall apart,” Savage wrote. “First a group of neo-Nazi suspects in the murders was cleared by the French police. And then, early this morning, French authorities closed in on Mohammed Merah, who admitted to killing both the French paratroopers who had died at his hands earlier and the Jewish schoolchildren.

“But the media hasn’t stopped its lies yet,” Savage added. “Again, expert after expert is claiming that this radical terrorist was nothing but a ‘lone wolf.’ And yet the terrorist himself claims that he is affiliated with al-Qaida.”

Read more on Newsmax.com: Savage Rips Media Coverage of Massacre of Jewish Children
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

French Police have Al-Qaeda Suspect who murdered Jews in France!

A gunman claiming Al Qaeda links and suspected in the killings of three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers barricaded himself in an apartment building Wednesday. He is surrounded by hundreds of police officers and has stopped talking to negotiators.

An early morning police raid to arrest the 24-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent erupted into a firefight. Three police officers were wounded, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said. After hours of trying to persuade him to surrender, police evacuated the five-story building, escorting residents out by the roof and fire truck ladders.

The suspect told police he belonged to Al Qaeda and wanted to take revenge for Palestinian children killed in the Middle East, Gueant said. The suspect also said he was angry about French military intervention abroad, and had spent time in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Gueant said.

The suspect threw a handgun out a window in exchange for a communications device, but he has more weapons, authorities said. Gueant said weapons had been found in the suspect's car.

An Interior Ministry official identified the suspect as Mohammad Merah, who has been under surveillance for years for having "fundamentalist" views. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Police swept in soon after 3 a.m. (0200 GMT; 10 p.m. EDT Tuesday) on the residential neighborhood in northern Toulouse where the suspect was holed up. At one point, volleys of gunfire heard around the neighborhood were exchanged. An elite squad was handling the negotiations.

It was part of a manhunt for a shooter who has killed seven people, including French soldiers and Jewish school children, in three attacks in the Toulouse area. In Monday's attack, the three young children and a rabbi were killed.

A few hours into the raid, Gueant said the suspect "is no longer talking." Earlier, he had promised several times to surrender in the afternoon, Gueant said, without explaining how negotiators were talking with him.

"Terrorism will not be able to fracture our national community," President Nicolas Sarkozy said, calling in a declaration on national television before heading to the funeral services for two paratroopers killed and another injured in nearby Montauban.

The series of attacks -- every four days since March 11 -- began with the killing of another paratrooper in Toulouse.

The interior minister, who was at the scene of the standoff, said the suspect tossed from his window a Colt 45 used in each of the three attacks. He has other weapons, like an AK-47 assault rifle.

"The main concern is to arrest him, and to arrest him in conditions by which we can present him to judicial officials," Gueant said, explaining authorities want to "take him alive ... It is imperative for us."

A judicial official said the suspect's mother, his brother and a companion of the brother were detained for questioning. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

The interior minister had said the suspect's brother "is also engaged in the Salafi ideology," a reference to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.

The suspect "said he wants to avenge the deaths of Palestinians," Gueant told reporters, adding that he is "less explicit" about why he killed French paratroopers. The paratroopers were of Muslim and French Caribbean origin, but the interior minister said the suspect told them the ethnic origin has nothing to do with his actions. "He's after the army," Gueant said.

Police, who were still questioning people elsewhere, have followed every lead and hypothesis from Islamist terrorist to a deranged ex-soldier or someone following in the footsteps of Norway's Anders Behring Breivik, the rightist extremist who killed 77 people in a rampage last year.

Sarkozy had said that a "monster" was on the loose in France and vowed to track him down. Sarkozy has played up nationalist themes in his bid for a second term in upcoming elections. He raised the terror alert in the region to its highest level ever Monday, which put hundreds of reinforcements into the area.

Cedric Delage, regional secretary for a police union, said a key to tracking the suspect was the powerful Yamaha motorcycle that he has used in attacks.

Delage confirmed reports that the motorcycle was a dark gray one that had been stolen March 6. The frame was painted white, the color witnesses saw in the school attack.

According to Delage, one of the suspect's brothers went to a motorcycle sales outfit to ask how to modify the GPS tracker, raising suspicions. The vendor then contacted police, Delage said.

The shooter has proved to be a meticulous operator. At the site of the second paratrooper killing, police found the clip for the gun used in all three attacks -- but no fingerprints or DNA on it.

Police studied the online communications by the first paratrooper killed. He was shot March 11 after posting an announcement online to sell his motorcycle, the police official said, and investigators believe the gunman responded to the ad and lured the paratrooper into an isolated place to kill him.

The schoolchildren killed, all of French-Israeli nationality, were buried in Israel on Wednesday. Relatives sobbed inconsolably by the gravesides.

In Paris on Wednesday, a package bomb exploded at the Indonesian Embassy on Wednesday, causing minor damage, but no injuries, police said. The source of the package was unclear. Indonesia's foreign minister said it was too early to say whether there was any link between the mail bomb and an attack on the attacks in southern France.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03/21/french-police-investigating-school-shooting-raid-house-2-officers-injured/#ixzz1pkktoh7D

Torah Giant Rav Scheinberg Passes Away ay 101,Video

We regret to inform you of the Petira of Hagon HaRav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg ZATZAL, one of the Gedolei & Poskei HaDor, at the age of 101.

See his life story:

YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Hagon HaRav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg ZATZAL, one of the Gedolei & Poskei HaDor, just moments ago, at the age of 101.
Rabbi Scheinberg was the founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Ore, and also served as the rav of the Kiryas Mattersdorf neighborhood of Yerushalayim.
He was admitted to Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Yerushalayim before Shabbos, and his condition deteriorated rapidly, suffering from a a blood infection, major kidney problems, and was placed on a respirator.
Despite his old age, Rav Scheinberg would travel to the United States with great Mesiras Nefesh to fund-raise for his Yeshiva – even at the age of 100.
Rabbi Scheinberg was born in 1910 in Ostrov, Poland, the second son of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Scheinberg and Yuspa (Yosefa) Tamback.
At age 9 the Rav Scheinberg moved with his family into a small apartment on the Lower East Side, where his mother gave birth to twins, Shmuel and Chana Baila. After briefly attending public school, he enrolled in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School (RJJ), where he studied until age 14. At that time, Rav Yaakov Yosef Herman, who influenced promising young Jewish men in New York City to advance in their Torah learning, encouraged him to transfer to Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg’s Beis Medrash LeRabbonim yeshiva in New Haven, Connecticut, where no secular subjects were taught. Rav Herman also decided that the youth would make a good husband for his third daughter, Bessie, who was then only 12 years old.
By the time Rav Scheinberg left the yeshiva at the age of sixteen and a half, he was regarded as a masmid and had already made a siyum on Shas.
At age 17 Rav Scheinberg progressed to Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. There he learned under Rabbis Shlomo Polachek (known as the “Meitcheter Ilui”), Rav Moshe Soloveichik, and Rav Shimon Shkop.
His Chavrusas included Rav Avigdor Miller, Rav Moshe Bick, Rav Mordechai Gifter, and Rav Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, future Gedolei Yisroel of American Torah Jewry.
When Rav Scheinberg was 19, Rav Herman suggested the Shidduch with his 17-year-old daughter and the Scheinbergs agreed.
Hagon HaRav Boruch Ber Leibowitz ZATZAL, who was a guest at the Herman home at that time, wrote out the tenaim.
With the encouragement of his father-in-law, Rabbi Scheinberg and his new wife spent their first five years of marriage in the town of Mir, Belarus (then Poland). They lived next-door to the yeshiva, where he immersed himself in learning while his wife coped with the impoverished lifestyle. There was no running water, the only source of heat was an oven in the center of their apartment, and the unpaved streets were always muddy. Bessie, however, encouraged her husband to grow in learning, and he developed a reputation as one of the yeshiva’s biggest masmidim.
While in Europe, Rabbi Scheinberg also learned at the Kaminetz yeshiva and received semicha from Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz.
In 1935 the Scheinbergs returned to America because his American citizenship would have expired after more than five years abroad. Soon after his return, he was offered the position of mashgiach ruchani of the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens founded by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz. He served in that position for 25 years, until leaving to open his own yeshiva, Torah Ore.
Rabbi Scheinberg also became the Rav of Congregation Bakash Shalom Anshei Ostrov on the Lower East Side, where he gave shiurim to working men.
With the help and encouragement of his brother, Rabbi Shmuel Scheinberg, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Chaim Dov Altusky, Rav Scheinberg opened the Torah Ore yeshiva in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in 1960. The yeshiva opened with six students and grew steadily, enrolling many local Sephardi boys who were attracted by Scheinberg’s Torah knowledge and warmth. The Scheinbergs treated their students as their own children, raising money to marry them off and even pay their dentist bills.
In 1963 Bessie’s sister Ruchoma visited their father in Israel and toured a planned Charedi housing development in northern Jerusalem called Kiryat Mattersdorf, which was being developed by the Mattersdorfer Rebbe, who was Ruchoma’s neighbor in New York. Upon her return, she told Bessie about her desire to buy an apartment there, and Bessie also expressed interest in buying an apartment. Though Rabbi Scheinberg was skeptical about relocating his family and his American yeshiva to Israel, he made a pilot trip to tour the development and decided that it could work.
The Scheinbergs, their daughter Fruma Rochel and her family, their son Simcha and his family, and over 20 of his Talmidim moved into their new homes in May 1965, and built a Makom Torah, and Yeshiva which has been the home to thousands upon thousands of Talmidim over the years.
As was reported by YWN, Rebbitzen Scheinberg A”H was Niftar in October of 2009.
Rabbi Scheinberg was famous for wearing many layers of Tzitzis. In the past he would wear about 150 pairs, but recenty, due to his fragile health, he only wore about 70 pairs. Although there is much speculation as to why he did this, it doe not apepar that anyone knows the reason.

This innocent child murdered for being Jewish! Video

Photo of 3-year old Gabriel Sandler who was killed together with hsi father French Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and brother Arieh in a shooting attack at the Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse, France, early Monday morning. March 19, 2012. 

Photo By Flash90

Reproduction photo of 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego, daughter of school headmaster Rabbi Yaacov Monsonego, who was killed in a shooting attack at the Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse, France, early Monday morning. March 19, 2012. Photo By Flash90

Barbarians kill Jewish Children in France!

President Nicolas Sarkozy called the shooting an “abominable drama and a frightening tragedy.” He cancelled his appointments and left for Toulouse on Monday morning, accompanied by Education Minister Luc Chatel and the president of the CRIF French Jewish 

association, Richard Prasquier.

Sarkozy and Socialist presidential nominee François Hollande announced the suspension of the election campaign. French police heighten security around Jewish schools across France closing streets.

The president met with local police officers. Speaking in Toulouse he said that “the investigation will be completed in its entirety. Whoever did it was crazy to murder Jewish children.”

The commander of the local police said they didn’t yet have a lead, but that a suspicious white car was seen at the scene of the crime.

Sarkozy said that on Tuesday, every school in France will stand for a moment of silence for the victims of the Toulouse shooting.

Hollande, the socialist presidential candidate for the French presidency announced that he will also travel to Toulouse to “express solidarity with the victims’ families and the French Jewish community.”

French authorities were stepping up security at all Jewish schools in France, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said, adding the suspect made his getaway on a dark-colored scooter.

The school behind a high white wall with few external markings was cordoned off Monday by police, who then escorted other children out. One officer held a distraught girl, her face in her hands. A mother and son wearing a yarmulke walked away from the site, their faces visibly pained. A video camera was visible at the school’s entrance.

“The drama occurred a bit before 8 a.m. A man arrived in front of the school on a motorcycle or scooter,” Valet said, adding that the man got off his scooter outside the school and opened fire.

“He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults,” he said. “The children were chased inside the school”

The prosecutor said the suspect probably used two weapons, including one of a large caliber.

It was the latest in a week of motorcycle shooting attacks in France. A gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at a bank machine Thursday in Montauban in southern France, killing two and critically wounding the other. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday it will investigate eventual terrorist links to Monday’s killing and the two killings of paratroopers last week. The prosecutor’s office, in a statement, did not indicate any evidence so far of any form of terrorism.

Both the prosecutor and Brandet said there were similarities with the attack four days ago in Montauban. Brandet noted that in both cases scooters were used and both suspects were apparently very determined.

Rav Moshe Zigelman jailed for refusing to testify against Spinka

Rabbi Moshe Zigelman, a 64-year-old devout Hasid, who was ordered to jail for his refusal to testify before a federal grand jury against fellow Jews, which he believes is forbidden by his faith.

An orthodox rabbi who refused to testify before a federal grand jury, saying his religious beliefs prohibit informing on fellow Jews, was ordered jailed Friday by a District Court judge for contempt of court.

Moshe Zigelman, a 64-year-old Hasidic rabbi, was ordered to report Wednesday to a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Until he chooses to testify, he will remain behind bars up to a maximum of 18 months, according to federal prosecutors

Zigelman has previously pleaded guilty and served a prison sentence for his role in a tax-evasion scheme by his Brooklyn-based orthodox sect, Spinka. After his release, he was subpoenaed to testify before a Los Angeles grand jury continuing its probe into the scheme.

Citing an ancient Jewish principle, Zigelman refused to testify, telling a federal judge forcefully during a contempt hearing through a Yiddish interpreter: “Because the transgression of mesira is so dire, my mind won’t change until I die.”

The rabbi had asked that he be allowed to enter custody after observing Passover, in April. Prosecutors objected, saying March will mark one year since Zigelman was first called to testify and additional delays will require extensions to the grand jury’s term of service.

Morrow ordered him to surrender to the prison March 21

Shlomie Gross collapses and dies!

Shlomie Gross with Rav Berenboim of Mir Z"L

YWN reports the sudden Petira of Reb Shloime Yehuda Gross Z”L, on Friday afternoon, at the age of 50 R”L.Reb Shloime was a tremendous Baal Tzedakah, who helped Mosdos and gave Tzedakah around the globe with an open heart. He was a true Ben Torah, who was extremely close with Maran Hagon Rav Shmuel Berenbaum ZATZAL, the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva, and was a Mispallel at the Bais Medrash of HaRav Avrohom Schorr Shlita, Khal Tiferes Yaakov.
Reb Shloime suddenly collapsed into cardiac arrest on Erev Shabbos. Hatzolah Paramedics attempted to save his life, but were R”L unable to. He was taken to Methodist Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
He leaves behind an Almana, and Yesomim R”L, and will be sorely missed by his friends, and the thousands of Mosdos which he supported during his lifetime .
The Levaya is scheduled for Motzei Shabbos, at 8:30PM at Khal Tiferes Yaakov, 1212 East 15th Street near Avenue L, and the Kevura will be in Eretz Yisroel.
Boruch Dayan Emmes…

Kotel Wedding interrupted by Police, Video!

Chassidim adopting Arab Minhagim?

Vishinitzer Rebbe of Bnai Brak Passes away at 96

Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the fifth Vishinitzer Rebbe in Bnei Brak and president of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudath Israel, passed away this evening just three months shy of his 96th birthday.

From Vosizneias by Sandy Eller
R’ Hager was the oldest son of the previous Vishnitzer Rebbe, R’ Chaim Meir Hager, also known as the Imrei Chaim, and succeeded his father upon his death in 1972.  The Rebbe’s health had been failing over recent years and the with the exception of holidays and the occasional tish, the Rebbe rarely appeared in public.

R’ Hager was born in Romania in 1916 and was appointed by his father to serve as the Rov of the Hungarian town of Vilchovitz at the age of eighteen.  When World War II spread into Hungary in 1944, the Hager family, with the help of local residents and askanim, made the arduous six month trek by foot, rail and boat from Hungary to Israel, where they were welcomed by joyous Vishnitzer chasidim in Haifa.

R’ Hager was also named by his father as the Rov and Av Beis Din of Kiryas Vishnitz, where he created the “Tzirei Vishnitz” youth movement in both elementary and high schools, to keep young Hungarian and Romanian Vishnitzer refugees close to the chasidus of their families.  R’ Hager served in these positions until the death of his father, whereupon he took over his father’s position as the Admor of Vishnitz.  His brother, R’ Mordechai Hager, was named the Admor of Vishnitz in Monsey at that time.

Upon arriving in Eretz Yisroel, R’ Hager was appointed by his uncle, R’ Eliezer Hager, also known as the Damesek Eliezer, to be the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Beis Yisroel V’Damesek Eliezer.  The yeshiva was originally located in Tel Aviv but later moved to Bnei Brak after the establishment of Kiryas Vishnitz and, in fact, R’ Hager was known to be his father’s proverbial right hand and was instrumental in establishing the Vishnitz community and its mosdos in Bnei Brak. 

R’ Hager was renowned for both his great skills as a lamdan and his extreme vigilance in shemiras eynayim and was instrumental in the establishment of Mehadrin bus lines in Eretz Yisroel.  As president of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudath Israel, R’ Hager established many Vishnitzer schools serving over 10,000 children. Both his davening and his legendary tishes, which were held until R’ Hager’s health began failing, were known to be events of great enthusiasm and joy and were attended by thousands.

A massive celebration was held last year on Rosh Chodesh Nissan in Binyanei Hauma in Yerushalayim to commemorate the R’ Hager’s creation of the Vishnitzer yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel seventy years ago. R’ Hager is credited for stressing the importance of serious learning and proper education among thousands of the Vishnitzer sect, second only in size to the Gerrer chasidim.

R’ Hager, who suffered from Alzheimers, had been in poor health for the last several years and had been in extremely serious condition for the last several months.  Last week, R’ Hager developed an infection in his leg which spread throughout his body causing his kidneys to shut down and calls had gone out to Jews worldwide to daven for R’ Hager’s recovery.

R’ Hager was niftar in his home on Rechov Ahavat Shalom in Kiryat Vishnitz just after midnight amid cries of “Shema Yisroel” from his sons, grandsons and gabbaim who were present at the time of his petira.

R’ Hager is survived by his second wife, Sheindel, his sons, R’ Yisroel and R’ Menachem Mendel and his four daughters, Rebbetzin Chana Chaya Twersky, wife of the Skverer Rebbe, Rebbetzin Sosha Teitelbaum, wife of R’ Aaron Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe, Rebbetzin Sara Rokeach, wife of R’ Yisochor Dov Rokeach, the Belzer Rebbe of Yerushalayim and Rebbetzin Hinda Ernster, Rosh Yeshiva of the Vishnitzer Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and thousands of loyal followers consider themselves to be orphaned as well.  The paroches was removed from the Aron Kodesh in the large Vishnitz Beis Medrash and hundreds of people have congregated outside R’ Hager’s home in Kiryat Vishnitz.

Thousands are expected to attend the levaya, which will take place tomorrow from the large Beis Medrash Ahavas Yisroel in Bnei Brak’s Kiryat Vishnitz and the kevura will take place in the Zichron Meir Beis Hachaim, where R’ Hager will be laid to rest near his father.  The Israeli police, Bnei Brak city officials, Magen David Adom and other agencies will be working together to close down sections of the area as needed and announcements will be made banning all work during the levaya.

R' Yitzchok Fischer still performing "Metzitzah" after being banned!

Hella Winston Special To The Jewish Week
A mohel who was ordered to stop the circumcision practice of metzitzah b’peh in 2007 by the New York State Department of Health is apparently still engaging in the controversial practice of “oral suction,” The Jewish Week has learned.

In a recording made within the past two weeks and obtained by The Jewish Week, Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer can be heard scheduling a bris with a caller who asks him to perform metzitzah b’peh. On the recording, Rabbi Fischer asks the caller whether the bris will take place “in Monsey or the city,” noting that he “can only do it in Rockland County.”
At one point during the call, the caller asks Rabbi Fischer, “We’re frum yidden [religious Jews], I want to do metzitzah b’peh, it’s not a problem?” to which Rabbi Fischer responds, “No, it’s not a problem.”
Asked to comment on the information in the tape, Michael Moran, a spokesman for the state health department, said: “The Department of Health will be contacting Rabbi Fischer to advise him that the order prohibiting him from practicing this ritual in New York State remains in effect.”
In 2005, it was reported that Rabbi Fischer had been linked to the infections of three infants, one of whom died, with the herpes simplex 1 virus. All three infants were circumcised by Rabbi Fischer in New York State. At the time, the city ordered Rabbi Fischer to stop practicing metzitzah b’peh temporarily while it investigated the matter.
When the city learned that Rabbi Fischer was not complying with the order, it ended up suing to compel him to do so, though the Bloomberg administration ultimately withdrew the suit. The city Health Department passed the matter on to a Jewish religious tribunal.
The state health department also issued a ban against Rabbi Fischer in 2005 but, according to reports, withdrew it in April of that year “after receiving a written assurance from a Hasidic business man, Jacob Spitzer, that the community was instituting its own self-policing procedures.” In 2006, an agreement between the state department of health, headed by Pataki appointee Antonina Novello, and a “broad array” of Orthodox rabbis resulted in what was called a “circumcision protocol regarding the prevention of neonatal herpes,” which outlined guidelines for the practice of metzitzah b’peh and steps the state health department would take if an infant were to become infected with the herpes simplex type 1 virus.
Last week, The Jewish Week learned that those protocols — which were widely criticized as ineffective by then-New York City health Commissioner Thomas Frieden and others — were rescinded the following year by Dr. Richard F. Daines, the late health commissioner under Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
In 2007, after Rabbi Fischer was linked to another case of neonatal herpes in May of that year, he was prohibited under Section 16 of the Public Health Law by the state Department of Health from performing metzitzah b’peh “in and throughout the state of New York.” Rabbi Fischer was also prohibited from engaging in any other practice in which he “[allows his] mouth or oral fluids to come in direct contact with an infant’s genitals…”
At one point during the phone conversation, the caller asks to be reassured by Rabbi Fischer about metzitzah b’peh.
“It’s perfectly OK,” Rabbi Fischer answers, and then goes on to claim that the recently reported death of an infant in September from a herpes simplex 1 infection was mistakenly reported to the public as being the result of metzitzah b’peh. He added that “the baby’s death had nothing to do with the mohel.”
“The baby passed away on Rosh HaShanah,” the mohel continued, claiming “it took five months for the health department to convince the medical examiner to add the words ‘oral suction’ to the cause of death. The medical examiner did not want to do it … but the newspapers picked it up and it was enough to make the issue.”
When asked by The Jewish Week about Rabbi Fischer’s claims, Ellen Borakove, director of public affairs for the chief medical examiner of New York City said, “Let me tell you that that cause of death was the way it was back in September. It was finalized [shortly after the death].”
Several attempts by The Jewish Week to reach Rabbi Fischer by phone at his home were unsuccessful.
Reached at his office and asked for comment, attorney Mark J. Kurzmann told The Jewish Week he hasn’t represented Fischer since 2005 and had no knowledge of the 2007 ban.
According to state health department spokesman Peter Constantakes, if the DOH were to receive a complaint with credible evidence that Rabbi Fischer was in violation of the order, the matter would likely be referred to the New York State Attorney General’s office for enforcement.
Calls to the Attorney General’s office were not returned.

Avram Simcha Samet killed by Car in Boro Park

A pedestrian by the name of Avram Samet z"l was killed while crossing a street in Borough Park Monday afternoon, according fire officials.

The accident occured at New Utrecht Avenue and 49th Street about 12:30 p.m., the fire department said.

The 68-year-old victim who lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center by a Hatzolah ambulence where he was pronounced dead.

NYPD of the 66th Pct and Chesed Shell Emes are all on the scene, Highway units responding.

While Jewish Children in Israel are getting Bombed, Satmar & Neturi Karta Gangsters burn Israeli Flag!

Rashi z"l wrote long ago "we don't need your honey or your bite"
Its time to tell the Romanian Satmars gangsters , we don't need your "chesed" and don't give us your "Chillul Hashem"
Notice there is not one Satamar guy who has guts to stop this atrocity! This is what they teach their children, hate for a fellow Jew!

Rottenberg doesn't believe his car was burned because of the New Square controversy !

A village dissident once set on fire for bucking rabbinical orders said his car was torched Thursday night by a drunken Purim reveler who was angry when he was denied more booze, according to Ramapo police.

Based on those circumstances, Aron Rottenberg doesn’t believe the arson fire to his car at 10:40 p.m. resulted from his previous problems with the New Square theocracy, police said.

“We’re looking to talk to that young man,” Ramapo Police Chief Peter Brower said.

Brower said Rottenberg told investigators that he “tried to counsel the young fellow against the dangers of drinking.”

“That led to some words along the line of ‘Don’t Tell me what to do’ and he left,” Brower said. “The next thing you know the car is ignited. Mr. Rottenberg stated there is no nexus between the incident last year and the incident last night.”

Parents of child that died because of Metzizah Be'peh, don't care if other children die !

According to a New York Daily News article the parents of the boy that died because the Mohel that  did Metzizah B'peh had herpes are stonewalling the investigation thereby causing hundreds of future children to be contaminated by that Mohel!

Authorities are being stonewalled by the family of a newborn boy who died after contracting herpes through a controversial religious circumcision ritual, the Daily News has learned.

Multiple sources in the Orthodox Jewish community said the 2-week-old boy’s parents were related to a herpes-infected rabbi who conducted the circumcision according to tradition — using one’s mouth to remove blood from the wound.

“You guys are barking up the right tree,” a law enforcement source said of word that the mohel was related to the boy. “But we don’t know yet who did what.”

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is investigating the death and trying to identify the rabbi, or mohel, but family members have not been cooperative, sources said.

City health officials have criticized the religious practice, saying that putting the open wound into contact with the mouth of the rabbi carries “inherent risks” for the infant.

The unidentified infant died at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center last Sept. 28. An autopsy listed the cause of death as

“disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction,” according to a spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner.