Yeshiva Bochrim From Williamsburg in Serious Car Crash in Israel

A serious motor vehicle accident on Highway 1 in the “Jordan Valley” in Israel has left multiple people seriously injured – including two Yeshiva Bochrim from Williamsburg.

According to a Magen David Adom statement, the accident happened on Highway 1 between the Almog and Arava junctions just before Route 90.

The two vehicles collided head-on, entrapping some of the occupants. Rescue personnel needed to extricate some of the victims. Both vehicles were occupied by Chareidim. One had American Yeshiva Bochrim inside reportedly returning from Meron.

MDA and IDF Paramedics were on the scene treating the victims, and some were airlifted by IDF choppers. A total of four victims (from two cars) were seriously injured. Some were taken to Shaare Zedek and some to Hadassah Hospital.

MDA says that a woman in her 40’s was the most critically injured. Three Bochrim in their 20’s were injured – two of them critically.

Additional victims included a 19-year-old girl, 17-year-old boy and two children ages 16 and 2.

Please be Mispallel for Yitzchak Issac ben Sara Esther, Asher Zelig ben Rochel, and Zev ben Sima.

'Deri is a criminal, has no right to slander religious Zionists'

Harav Dovid Stav Shlitah

Aryeh Deri

Chairman of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization Rabbi David Stav responded this morning to comments made by Minister Aryeh Deri against a number of senior religious Zionist rabbis within the context of their struggle with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Speaking with Reshet Bet, Rabbi Stav said,

 “I don’t think that you expect that, at the beginning of the month of Elul, the month of forgiveness and mercy, a rabbi heading an organization of hundreds of rabbis working day and night to sanctify life would react to the words of any activist convicted of criminal offenses who dares to slander an entire public and a rabbinical organization numbering hundreds of rabbis. We didn’t convene for the sake of responding to convicted criminals.”

 Deri was convicted of a felony in the past, but served the sentence meted out by the courts. He is being interrogated currently for alleged misuse of funds.

Rabbi Stav called to address essential points, saying that “the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization has struggled against the Conversion Law, whose beginning and end were an act of deceit by that same activist.”

“We all want to prevent the possibility of Sudanese refugees and others from immigrating to Israel under false pretenses. [Deri] tricked government ministers, telling them that he was proposing a law to prevent this possibility, which we all share a desire to prevent.”

"The [Conversion] Law doesn’t talk about the Law of Return or about foreign workers,” Rabbi Stav explained, “but stipulates that the state of Israel will not recognize any conversion undertaken in Israel if it is not carried out within the system of that activist (referring to the Chief Rabbinate, ed.).”

Regarding the assertion that the activity of Tzohar rabbis resembles that of the Reform movement, Rabbi Stav said, “This is ignorance of a man who doesn’t know his right from his left, neither in Torah, halakha [Jewish law], nor in the Reform movement.”

On Monday, Deri had said in a closed conference, "Even those with knitted skullcaps (religious Zionists), in very large communities, are already on the edge of the Reform Movement.”

"Anyone who knows how the synagogues and prayer services are run there...there are really big changes. True - there are more kippot and they are more Israeli, but they are on the edge of the Reform (referring to some groups within liberal Orthodox Jewry, ed.)."

Minister Deri's recording of the conference was broadcast on Channel 2 news. 

He also referred to the conversion law and said that "the greatest fighters against this law were Tzohar rabbis, together with the Reform movement, because they knew that the goal was to destroy. They enjoyed the tolerance of others, in order to slander the rabbinate and to look for all the faults."

The Shas chairman attacked the Tzohar movement. "Everything is free (referring to Tzohar's performing marriages without charge, ed.), with a smile, with a bright face, when we all know the truth."

Entire Prominent Beit Shemesh Family Goes "Off the Derech"

Cheli Heller after becoming Modern Orthodox

A flood of ugly rumors were the final straw that pushed Yisrael Heller to flee the strict, ultra-Orthodox community with his family, in the dead of night. The Hellers are part of a wave of Israelis who are severing ties with the Haredi world.

Evening was beginning to fall on the playground that one sees from the balcony of the Heller family home in Beit Shemesh. Six-year-old Pini entered the house excited, his cheeks flushed. “Mom, I played with the ball,” he declared, speaking in Yiddish. There was an unmistakably triumphant tone in his words.

Yisrael Heller and his wife, Rachel “Cheli” Heller, exchanged a quick look. They were sitting at a table on the balcony, their 1-year-old baby cavorting between them. It looked like another ordinary day, as though a boy coming into the house holding a ball was an everyday event. In fact, it was one more sign of the revolution the family is undergoing.

In the closed Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community in which the Hellers lived until not long ago, children only came home from school at this time of the day, playing with a ball was beyond the pale and Hebrew was the language of the “Zionist heretics”: 

To speak it was strictly forbidden (other than as the holy tongue).

A few months ago, the Hellers and their four children left Ramat Beit Shemesh, a Haredi neighborhood within Beit Shemesh, a city between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They stole out from their apartment late at night, without telling family or friends. Their move had been preceded by an ugly wave of rumors, accompanied by pressure that pushed them into a corner and made their lives intolerable, until they were forced to leave ignominiously.

The target of the firestorm was Yisrael, head of the household and a man of power in the community. He had trimmed his beard and had gradually started to deviate from the community’s stringent dress code, referred to as the Yerushalmer [that is, "Jerusalemite," which is also the name of the sect] style. The members of the community are quick to spot the slightest change in shirt style or hat size; such behavior is considered a gross infringement of the rules and traditions to which it adheres.

“Within a single day, rumors spread that I was becoming a ‘questioner’ [giving up the religious life],” Heller relates now. “That I was studying ‘The Guide for the Perplexed’ [a forbidden text even though it is by Maimonides, the 12th-century Torah scholar].

 In Jerusalem every Sabbath eve, that men and women attended the tisch [a gathering of Hasidim around their rebbe] I went to, where I was playing a musical instrument. I started to receive threats, questions from functionaries. I realized that I was under surveillance.”

In their former small, insular community, identified with the most extreme sects of Haredi society, the disappearance of the Heller family is perceived as desertion, the crossing of a red line. Still, everyone expected them to return. Within hours, all 12 employees of his consulting firm resigned. Heller was not surprised: The move was intended to signal him that his livelihood would be harmed if he didn’t return to the straight-and-narrow. But he did not yield, nor did he beg for mercy.

“There is a great deal of fear. But after you contend with it, you feel good,” he says, a thin smile on his lips.

Brave new world

Michael Savage Slams Rabbi Haskel Lookstein & Liberal Rabbis Over Anti-Trump Comments

Trump supporter wearing Israeli flag told to 'get the f--k out' of Boston by hecklers

Among the eclectic throng of demonstrators in Boston on Saturday, a supporter of President Trump found himself surrounded by protesters who yelled profanities at him.

A man wearing an Israeli flag as a cape can be seen in a video shared by Univision's Jessica Weiss, walking through a crowd of protesters. One person rips off his "Make America Great Again" and throws it away.

"You shouldn't be afraid to go outside and say you're conservative," he added "And it's pretty sad that things like this happen."

Thousands of protesters descended on Boston on Saturday, including a "free speech" rally organized by some right-leaning groups. These groups were reportedly far outnumbered by groups of counter-protesters.

Bannon: Mahmoud Abbas is a terrorist, I'd never meet with him

Steve Bannon, the former Breitbart News editor-turned-White House strategist may be out of the Trump administration, but he has far from given up on influencing President Trump’s policies.

Last week, the White House announced that Bannon was leaving the administration, after just seven months as White House Chief Strategist.

"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement quoted by The Hill.

There are conflicting reports over who was ultimately behind the push to oust Bannon, with the Daily Mail claiming Sunday that it was President Trump’s daughter Ivanka who led the effort to remove the firebrand whose support for populism and economic nationalist frustrated Washington insiders. Breitbart News, however, cited a White House aide who said the claim was “totally false”.

Inside the Trump White House, Bannon clashed with the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, leading the president to order the two down to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting to iron out their differences.

Following his ouster, Bannon remained defiant, saying that he would be “going to war” for President Trump.

Sources close to Bannon told Vanity Fair that the 63-year-old former naval officer planned to continue his struggle with Kushner and other administration foes from the outside, looking to influence President Trump externally – perhaps via Breitbart News.

Bannon allies cited both personal disagreements as well as a series of substantive policy differences between Bannon and Kushner.

According to the Vanity Fair report, Bannon, among other things, advocated strongly for a pro-Israel approach in the Trump White House, pushing for the president to make good on his campaign promise to relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and to take a tougher line on the Palestinian Authority’s support for terrorists jailed in Israel.

In May, a photograph of Bannon’s agendadrawn up on a white board in the White House also suggested his support for the embassy move.

Sources cited by Vanity Fair claimed that while Bannon pushed the embassy issue, it was Kushner who blocked the relocation.

No fewer than three sources close to the former White House senior strategist also said it was Bannon who pushed for a hardline against the PA, including PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, while Kushner and other White House officials opted for a maintaining a more cordial relationship with the PA leader.

The three sources claimed Bannon refused to attend the White House meeting with Abbas this past May, saying he preferred to stay home rather than meet with “that terrorist”.

“I’m not going to breathe the same air as that terrorist,” Bannon reportedly texted a friend.

View Eclipse Without Solar Glasses

Missed out on snagging a pair of solar glasses needed to watch the first total solar eclipse of the 21st century without the naked eye?

Well, considering wearing protective eyewear to view the eclipse is a must, you may think you're out of luck.

Actually though, you do have a couple of options.

First, TV and the Internet. The eclipse will be broadcast and streamed live on numerous outets.

Second, there's a trick you can do.

Turn your back to the sun and moon, raise your mobile phone in selfie position and watch the eclipse through your phone. You can even snap some photos. But there are also important safety tips if you go the selfie route you can read by clicking here. Experts also warn aiming the lense of the phone at the sun for too long a period of time may damage the lens.

On Monday, Aug. 21, everyone in the continental United States, in fact, everyone in North America -- plus parts of South America, Africa, and Europe -- will have at least a partial solar eclipse. The thin path of totality will pass through portions of 14 states.

Weeks of anticipation have been tempered by a big variable: the weather forecast and whether the possibility of cloudy skies might prevent Hudson Valley residents from seeing it.

Now though, there is no uncertainty.

The forecast for Monday calls for sunny skies and warm temperatures, with a high in the mid- to upper-80s.

Though New York will not be one of the 14 states seeing the full total eclipse, for an animation of what you may see from your Hudson Valley location on Monday, click here.

The eclipse will be visible starting at 1:23 p.m. Monday with a partial eclipse. Peak viewing time with about 71 percent coverage expected will be around 2:44 p.m. The event will wrap up at around 3:59 p.m. with a partial eclipse.

Check out the timeline for viewing by clicking here.

The sun will disappear behind the moon, turning daylight into twilight, and leading to a quick plunge in temperature before streamers of light streaking across the sky around the moon's silhouette.

It will mark the first time a total solar eclipse will be visible from the mainland United States since 1979.

How long ago was that? Well, consider this. Jimmy Carter was president and 63 Americans were taken as hostages in Iran shortly after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.

"A total eclipse of the sun belongs on everyone's bucket list," said Hudson Valley resident and renowned astronomer and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson of North Salem.

The eclipse will also be the first to sweep across the entire country since 1918.

Given all that, excitement is building. You can check out a website devoted just to the eclipse -- eclipse2017org -- by clicking here.

After Monday, the next total solar eclipse is due for April 2024.

The Atlantic Claims Monday's Solar Eclipse is Racist

Essayist professor says that the solar system has an 'implicit bias' against African-Americans

Return your solar eclipse glasses and cancel your sun-watching parties, America. According to The Atlantic, Monday's predicted total solar eclipse is, it turns out, racist.

At first glance, the headline, "American Blackout" appears to be an attempt to one-up the Boston Globe, who claimed that the sun, dastardly conservative that it is, was biased towards Trump supporters, since the swath of the country that will witness 100% coverage, is made up, mainly, of counties that went for Trump in the 2016 election.

But no, the essay, penned, unsurprisingly, by a university professor – Alice Ristroph of Brooklyn Law School – insists that the solar system, which itself exhibits signs of "implicit bias" has it out for minorities.

On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will arrive mid-morning on the coast of Oregon. It has been dubbed the Great American Eclipse, and along most of its path, there live almost no black people. Presumably, this is not explained by the implicit bias of the solar system.

I think we can safely presume, yes, that the solar system is not capable of exhibiting either implicit nor explicit biases or, frankly, any preferences whatsoever. But of course, that doesn't mean the solar system itself isn't guilty of, say, "inanimate object privilege."

Jerry Lewis, Jewish comedy icon and philanthropist, dead at 91

Jerry Lewis, the rubber-faced, squeaky-voiced Jewish comedy legend who starred in movies and musicals and also was known for his unflagging work on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, died on Sunday, his publicist confirmed. He was 91 years old. 

Lewis had been touring Australia to raise money for the country's Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, which is separate from the American association, where he served as president.

He announced in 2011 he was retiring as host of the association's Labor Day Telethon, which he began hosting in 1966.

In recent years, Lewis also suffered from a back condition linked to a comedic pratfall from a piano, as well as heart problems. He reportedly had at least two heart attacks.

The comedian who first gained fame as part of a duo with singer Dean Martin was born Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey.

His parents were entertainers and young Jerry made his debut at age five on New York's Catskill Mountains entertainment circuit.

He began using the professional name Joey Lewis, but later changed it to Jerry, reportedly to avoid confusion with comedian Joe E. Lewis.

In the summer of 1946, Lewis teamed up with Martin – first with a nightclub act, then radio and television appearances. Martin was the suave, debonair singer while Lewis was the zany, boyish sidekick with the huge grin and squeaky voice.

They went on to make a series of movies together before the partnership ended in 1956 and both launched successful solo careers.

Lewis became a major comedy star with his first solo film, 1957's "The Delicate Delinquent," followed by "Rock-A-Bye Baby" and "The Geisha Boy." His later films included "The Bellboy," "Cinderfella," "The Nutty Professor" and "The King of Comedy."

He also appeared in stage musicals and in 1994 made his Broadway debut as the Devil in a revival of "Damn Yankees."

Lewis was consistently respected abroad and a perennial favorite of French critics, sometimes to the amusement of fans at home. In 2006 the French Minister of Culture awarded him the Legion d'Honneur, saying he was the 'French people's favorite clown."

Throughout his career, Lewis worked ceaselessly to raise funds for muscular dystrophy and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

He was married twice, to Patti Palmer from 1944 until 1980 and to SanDee Pitnick from 1983 until his death. He had five surviving sons from his first marriage (a sixth died) and a daughter from his second.

Fascinating Article From 1940 About The Chofetz Chaim & The Solar Eclipse Translated Into English

The following is a translation of an article found in the Journal “Bais Yaakov”[1], written by Rabbi Shmuel Pliskin[2], about the solar eclipse[3] which the Chofetz Chaim viewed.

(Translation and footnotes by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Biron)

It was a typical summer evening, a warm Tuesday, and the elderly Chofetz Chaim had just finished Aleinu. After placing his siddur down on the table, the Chofetz Chaim looked around, scanning the crowd which had packed the narrow room for maariv.[4] Finally, the Chofetz Chaim gave a klop on the edge of the table and began.

“טוב ללכת אל בית האבל מלכת אל בית המשתה כאשר הוא סוף כל האדם”[5]. “The implication is that at a beis ha’mishteh one can also learn the same lesson; no one’s life is eternal.

“Just as when a ruling governor sends a new minister to a city, the previous minister knows his days are numbered, so too when a child is born we are in essence being reminded that nobody is here forever. Death is not exclusive to those in a “membership club”. Everyone’s turn will come, no creation is immortal.”

The Chofetz Chaim continued “Hashem has implanted in his creation the phenomenon of a solar eclipse, as a means of refuting those misguided souls, who believe in other immortal powers. The time comes when the sun is eclipsed, so that we all know and internalize; the sun is a creation and not a creator! And us mankind…we’re no different.”

Once again the Chofetz Chaim tapped on the table and with an expression of triumph he smiled and added “let them all come and see!”

He continued, “It’s a mitzvah for us all to come and see…to see with our own eyes…it’s only a mortal chunk of creation.” The Chofetz Chaim tapped softly once again and smiled quietly.

The crowd slowly filtered out of the narrow room, deeply inhaling the cooler outdoor air, while chattering about the upcoming event, the rare solar eclipse early the next morning.

As lightning, the word spread throughout the entire village, in every house the news was relayed “the Chofetz Chaim has announced it’s a mitzvah to go and see the next morning’s sensation.”

The search began for broken shards of glass, usually a valueless commodity strewn about under ones feet, yet now a sought after material in light of the upcoming event. They set out industriously preparing their sophisticated equipment, blackening their glass shards with soot from a burning candle.

Morning came, seemingly another casual day, yet a sense of something different was in the air. The streets of Radin had never been as teeming at such an early hour[6]; men, women and children were all up and about.

And the sun…paraded along on its usual course, with confident strides, ascending with all its prowess, a blazing sun beating down, on the masses who had gathered, on the marketplace and on the green treetops swaying in the distance.

The small narrow room was also flooded with sunlight, spreading a golden glow, as a carpet to the feet of the Chofetz Chaim, who sat in his slippers at his table, arm wrapped in the straps of his Tefillin…the straps which tied his arm to his heart…and the heart to the mind. His fist waves in the air as his voice roars “יוצר אור וברא חושך…”.

The shadows, which roll around at the feet of the elderly sage, seem to be so peculiar now.

The sun’s brilliance, the blinding glow, has now been replaced by brilliant red, the redness now overpowering, as if its heart had been deeply plunged and wounded. The huge solar sphere… in midst of its youthful bloom has suddenly been cleaved. Fresh youthful life slowly being chiseled away. Not the groaning sound of a dying old man, it was the powerful gush of blood…draining from the wound inflicted by a cannon shell. Darkness…the animals in the field frightened, while the eyes of the townsfolk sparkled from content and satisfaction.

Here and there groups formed, on the porches and on the bridges, peering through their blackened glass at the waning sun, now half darkened. Near the Yeshiva building as well, stood groups of bochurim gazing upward. In the corner near the blossoming cherry tree[7], whose white flowers were turning a reddish hue, stood Reb Naftali the Rosh Hayeshiva of Radin[8], intensely peering through his glass shard, with eyes deeply sunk in their sockets. With a waved fist he explained to those around him, “M’darf nit kuken, m’darf zen!” (One should not simply look, one should see.)[9]

The Mashgiach[10] was also seen coming out from the Yeshiva building with rushed strides, quickly taking hold of a glass extended to him by one of the bochurim.

Off in the distance a large group formed around the aged Chofetz Chaim. He had davened earlier than usual on that day, and the members of his Minyan huddled around him anxiously anticipating…maybe they would be the one to merit having their glass used by the Chofetz Chaim. It was the black bearded Reb Yitzchok, energetic and calculated, the one who had left his parents as a young child,(leaving being his father who had been a Rov in Russia) and escaped the Soviet authorities, he was the one who was ready with a specially prepared perfectly shaped glass shard for the holy tzaddik to use.

The Chofetz Chaim gazed with awesome respect, the same way he quietly stared at his Chanukah candles, not turning his gaze as long as the light still flickered.

The courtyard of Yeshiva had turned into a veritable observatory; there was no peering through telescopes, but there was intense gazing through primitive blackened glass.

Darkness descended on the entire sphere, as if a huge inkwell had blotched out the entire sun. It was an eerie darkness, not the darkness of dusk nor the darkness of midnight. A black screen stretched across the entire sun… and then the marveling spectacle…the sun is born once again, just as it happened during the six days of creation. Not suddenly, rather a slow growth, as a child slowly developing, first a thin red sliver, slowly widening, the bright red color slowly overpowering the darkness. Once again red spills across the entire sphere, the redness of life, blood once again gushing through the arteries.

The cherry tree once again goes back to its light colored blossoms, in the fields morning is once again promising. The birds beat their wings in flight with greater assurance, though still tinged with a bit of doubt. And mankind…small creatures, blink their eyes, filled with satisfaction and contentment. The sun, once again in its full radiance, reclaims its prowess.

The elderly Chofetz Chaim sits and rests a bit on the chair which had been brought out for him near the door of his house, enveloped in silence. Slowly, step by step, the Chofetz Chaim makes his way back inside followed by his son-in-law Reb Mendel[11]and the  black bearded Reb Yitzchok, who’s carrying the chair back in. The pure and holy saint stops at the simple wooden table in the middle of the room and with an expression of victory emits a joyous call, “…just a mortal creation”.

[1]Vol. 40 published Elul 5722 (1962). I came across the article after seeing it referenced in the introduction to the Sefer Chidushei Grn”t.

[2] Rabbi Shmuel Pliskin was a Talmid of the Radin yeshiva from the year 1925 until 1937. He later was a Rov in Baltimore and was niftar in 1978. His son, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin Shlita, is a well-known author and educator.

[3] The article does not mention the date of the eclipse being related. After some research, it seems the eclipse referred to is the total solar eclipse on June 29, 1927. The article mentions it was during the later years of the Chofetz Chaim (who was niftar in the year 1933), yet Reb Naftali Trop (who was niftar in the year 1928) was the Rosh Hayeshiva at the time. This would imply that the eclipse took place in the mid-late 1920’s. The only eclipse during that time period which would fit the description would be the eclipse of June 29, 1927. This would also coincide with that which the article mentions that the eclipse occurred during the early morning hours on a Wednesday. However, the drawback with this assumption is that the article connotes that a total eclipse was visible in Radin. The eclipse of June 1927, although indeed being a total eclipse, totality was only viewable from regions further north than Radin, such as Norway, Finland, and far-north parts of the United Kingdom. Radin (54) would have only seen a 75% blockage of the sun.

[4] During his later years the Chofetz Chaim rarely left his house, and minyanim were held there.

[5] Koheles 7:2. The Chofetz Chaim seems to understand Beis Ha’mishteh to be referring to the celebration of the birth of a child.

[6] Sunrise on that day was 4:45 in the morning, the eclipse began at 6:23.

[7] In March 2017, I had the opportunity to visit Radin and see the Yeshiva building which still stands today. I made a point to try and locate the cherry tree mentioned, but was not successful. (The tour was led by an amazing tour guide Reb Yehuda Geberer, who also provided some important comments for this article.)

[8] Reb Naftali Trop (1871-1928), served as the Rosh Hayeshiva in Radin from 1904 until his passing in 1928 at the young age of 57. Although the Chofetz Chaim, who was much older than Reb Naftali and recognized as the Gadol Hador, was actively involved in the establishment of the Yeshiva as well as in all the important decisions,he was not officially the Rosh Hayeshiva.

[9] Apparently what Reb Naftali meant was to not simply look, but to internalize the lesson.

[10] Seemingly this would refer to Reb Leizer Kaplan (son-in-law of Reb Hersh Levinson, who was actively involved in the Yeshiva along with his father-in-law the Chofetz Chaim, and brother of Reb Yisroel Chaim Kaplan) who served as the mashgiach at that time. (The famed Mashgiach Reb Yerucham Levovitz also served as the mashgiach in Radin for a short period before becoming the mashgiach in Mir, but clearly he is not the one mentioned here, since he had already left long before this time period.)

[11] Reb Mendel Zaks (1898–1974) was the youngest son-in-law of the Chofetz Chaim and helped him in his old age.

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New York Times Mocks Breitbart Because it Advocates "fanatically" For Israel!!

The New York Times Magazine concludes in a lengthy article that Breitbart News has made a “fundamental commitment” to advocate for Israel.

Wil S. Hylton writes in a rare in-depth feature article Breitbart News:

No criticism of Breitbart irritates its leadership more than the charge of anti-Semitism. That’s partly because many of the top figures at Breitbart, including Andrew Breitbart, Larry Solov and the entire editorial team when the site relaunched in 2012 — Joel Pollak, Ben Shapiro and Alex — were all of Jewish descent, but also because a fundamental commitment on the site is to a borderline fanatical advocacy for Israel.

Read the full New York Times Magazine story here.

Barcelona’s chief rabbi urges Jews to move to Israel as he warns Europe is 'lost'

Barcelona's chief rabbi Meir Bar-Hen told his congregation to move to Israel to flee terror

Barcelona's chief rabbi has urged Jews to move to Israel after warning that Europe has been 'lost' because of the threat from radical Islam.

At least 14 people were killed and some 130 others injured when attackers ploughed into pedestrians on a promenade in the tourist area on Thursday evening.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Barcelona outrage and another attack in Cambrils yesterday, which resulted in one person dying and seven people being injured after five men wearing fake suicide belts drove an Audi A3 into crowds on the seafront.

Western Europe has been a regular target for jihadists over the last few years. And Barcelona's chief rabbi Meir Bar-Hen told his congregation to move to Israel to flee terror.

In an interview with Jewish news agency JTA, he said: 'I tell my congregants: Don't think we're here for good, and I encourage them to buy property in Israel'

'This place is lost. Don't repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better (get out) early than late. Europe is lost.'

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain did not to share Bar-Hen's pessimistic outlook. The organization issued a statement Thursday, saying: 'Spanish Jews trust the State Security Corps that work daily to prevent radical fanatics and Islamists from sowing chaos and pain in our cities.'

The group also urged politicians to 'deal intelligently and determinedly with the struggle against fanaticism and in favor of freedom and democracy.'

The terrorists had originally planned to drive three vans packed with explosives into iconic parts of Barcelona including the Sagrada Familia cathedral, it has been reported.

Had their butane-filled gas containers not accidentally detonated the night before the atrocities on Thursday, the 12-person terror cell would have used them to maximise deaths in the tourist hotspots of the Spanish city, local media suggest.

They intended to explode one van in Las Ramblas, a second by the world-famous Sagrada Familia cathedral and the last in the port area of the city, El Espanol has claimed.

The cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the most visited attractions in Europe.

Architect Antonio Gaudi began construction in 1882 and, despite him dying in 1926, it is still officially incomplete.

In 2010 it was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI as a minor basilica. 

Cleveland Family Involved In Serious Crash; Children Listed In Critical

A Frum family returning home to Cleveland from the East Coast was involved in a very serious accident in Pennsylvania, late Thursday night, leaving children in critical condition.

According to PA State Police, the accident occurred around 2:29AM on I-80 near mile-marker 66.6

A tractor-trailer was disabled from a previous crash and was facing south. The truck was turned over on its passenger’s side, and the trailer was blocking both westbound lanes of I-80.

The family travelling were travelling in a minivan in the right lane when it came around a bend and was directly upon the tractor-trailer in the westbound lanes. The van hit the trailer, penetrating halfway into the unit causing multiple air bags to deploy, as well as severe damage to the front of the vehicle.

The van came to a final rest, still lodged inside the trailer.

All occupants of the van were transported to medical facilities, including Children’s Hospital.

Two children were airlifted from the scene by STAT MedEvac, and a third was later flown by STAT MedEvac from Clarion Hospital.

Everyone is asked to please daven for the children who are in very critical condition.

*Leah Hadassah bas Michal Chana (11-years-old)
*Chava bas Michal Chana (7-years-old)
*Yocheved Rivka bas Michal Chana (5-yeras-old)
*Gedalya Dovid Ben Michal 

$25,000 Reward In Mahwah Eruv Vandalism Offered By NJ Attorney General

New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever vandalized a recently-erected eruv in Mahwah.

The mission of the Bias Crime Unit, within the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, is "the statewide coordination of efforts to eliminate crimes motivated by prejudice against others based on race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disability or ethnicity," Porrino wrote.

Porrino's announcement came after Mahwah Mayor Bill Laforet offered a $1,000 reward that was matched by Teaneck Councilman Mark Schwartz and a fellow Teaneck resident (The total: $27,000).

"This is the second crime of this nature," Laforet told Daily Voice Saturday morning. "This sends a very strong message to anyone involved in this crime: We are not a community of hate, and hate has no home in Mahwah."

Last week, township Police Chief James Batelli announced that anyone caught vandalizing the PVC piping along utility poles would be prosecuted under state bias crime statutes.

The piping creates a religious enclosure, known as an eruv, for Hassidics attending temple services across the state line in Rockland County.

Damage was found earlier this month and last month, amid a backlash from residents.

A Monsey-based group has sued the township in federal court, contending that its members' civil rights were being violated by officials and residents who are trying to have the eruv removed.

Rockland Utilities said the work was done legally after the proper documentation was filed and approved.

ANY TIPS on the Mahwah eruv vandalism should be reported either by phone at 1-800-277-BIAS or online atwww.nj.gov/oag/bias .