Chareidi Violence in Israel - a Protest
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“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Before the state Senate and Assembly meet on January 7 and 11, please urge all three of your state legislators (800-792-8630/LegInfo@NJLeg.org) to help kill two anti-moral bills—which both threaten to pass if we don’t speak out. One, A4454/S2781, aims to propagandize the LGBT lifestyle—to kindergarteners and up in the public schools. The other, S2545, seeks the transgenderization/homosexualization of the state’s long-term healthcare facilities. (For more details see http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/12/10th-of-teves-alert-making-lgbt.html, http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-rabbis-should-fight-lgbt.html.)
Tell them: We refuse to vote in the upcoming elections for those who exploit children, no matter how much government largesse they offer.
The “education” bill (A4454) seeks to escalate the existing mandate to teach LGBT indoctrination in New Jersey public schools.
By teaching children to respect, “welcome” and “include” even flagrant practitioners of LGBT acts, the schools themselves erode the natural revulsion for such transgressions, and even cultivate admiration for them, all under the fraudulent pretext of “education.” We’re not talking about extending compassion to those struggling with their Evil Inclination. This is the government forcing schools to indoctrinate children to “welcome” and “include” those who brazenly flaunt abominable conduct.
Clearly, to teach children such immoral ideas and attitudes is reprehensible, even if it would never affect a single Jew. More specifically, sodomy, which all of these bills seek to legitimize, is a capital crime (VaYikra 20:13, Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, Ch.9:6). In fact, that sin is specifically branded an “abomination” (VaYikra (Lev.) 18:22) within the enumerated forbidden relationships in VaYikra 18, all of which are categorized as “abominations”; it’s “an abomination among abominations,” as the renowned sage known as “the Maharal,” (Prague, 1520-1609) explains on the Gemara Chullin 92b.
Some secular Jews are prominent among the proponents of this and related legislation. We must clarify our unwavering, Torah-based opposition to anything remotely similar to these bills—and the extreme sins they seek to legitimize under the rubric of teaching respect.
As leading rabbis have publicly articulated since 1982, Jews are responsible for the counter-moral actions of their legislators, particularly those for whom they vote, especially due to the public chillul Hashem involved. We must not convey the terrible misimpression that Orthodox Jews care more about financial needs than spiritual threats.
Consider how many Jewish children within the New Jersey public school system, including Orthodox ones—especially those in special education classes—are being forcibly indoctrinated into respecting flagrant homosexual advocates, in direct contradiction to the Torah and what many of them were raised with. Further, allowing this nonsense to be taught in public schools will ultimately facilitate the push to teach it in yeshivas and Bais Yaakov schools.
In a war for the very souls of our children, we need to understand that the LGBT activist agenda is fundamentally not only anti-child and anti-parent, but anti-God.
Rabbi Noson Shmuel LeiterTHANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Reb Aaron Dovid Neuman, interviewed in his home in Williamsburg in 2013.
“In the midst of all this chaos and upheaval, my family was forced to split up. Only after the war did I get to see them again. Meanwhile, I was sent to an orphanage in Marseille.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
by Rabbi Irwin Katsof
I met Larry King in 1995. Together with my production colleague Lou Rudolph, Aish Hatorah was attempting to launch an international satellite broadcast to bring awareness to the Jewish community about the plight of Soviet Jews. It was called “Help our People Know” and it was failing dismally.
Then a friend of Lou’s announced she had bumped into Larry King at the hair dresser at the Beverly Wilshire hotel and asked him if he'd meet her rabbi about a project to help Russian Jews. He said sure and minutes later we were racing over to the hotel. On the way to his room, I asked Lou, "What should we ask him?”
"Ask him to be the on-air host of the satellite broadcast."
I was petrified. I am going to ask Larry to host the broadcast of a small, and at the time, relatively unknown organization? We had 100 people signed up. Larry had one million plus viewers a night. You've got to be kidding. There was no way he'd agree to go on air with us.
We walked into his suite. I will always remember his warm, gracious welcome. He bellowed from his arm chair, "Rabbi, how can I help you?”
I muttered softly and in embarrassment, "Well we have this idea of an international broadcast to help Soviet Jews. Would you be the on-air host?"
"Of course," he replied. "What else can I do for you?"
Ten minutes later he had called Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chairman of Dreamworks and Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Paramount Studios and gotten them to agree to be the Co- Chairmen and to give us a sound stage at Paramount studios to produce the broadcast. As they say in Hollywood, the rest is history. The project took off and raised over one million dollars.
This was the first of many projects Larry would undertake to help the Jewish people and Aish HaTorah.
I cannot recall him ever saying no to anything I asked of him.
“Larry, we want to bring a group of leading American Jewish businessmen on a mission to Israel. Would you lead the mission?”
"Of course, Rabbi. Done. What else can I do for you?"
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
President Joe Biden has rescinded a Trump administration protection of the United State's power grid from foreign adversaries, through one of his several executive orders signed shortly after entering office.
The executive order responsible aims at carrying out the key parts of Biden's environmental agenda.
Section 7, subsection C of the order suspends a Trump administration executive order for 90 days, called "Securing the United States Bulk-Power System", passed in May 2020 to protect the U.S. power grid from foreign access.
"The following actions are prohibited: any acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of any bulkpower system electric equipment," by persons or parties who may pose "an undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of the design,
integrity, manufacturing, production, distribution, installation, operation,
or maintenance of the bulk-power system in the United States," the Trump administration order reads.
The measure was taken to ensure that the U.S. defense power grid was not exposed to enemies of the U.S. who could exploit an opening in access to hurt the nation.
Biden's new executive order puts this protection on hold for the next 90 days.
"Executive Order 13920 of May 1, 2020 (Securing the United States Bulk-Power System), is hereby suspended for 90 days, the order reads.
"The Secretary of Energy and the Director of OMB shall jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued," it continues.
As Biden's order states, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Neera Tanden, will be in charge of replacing Trump's order after the 90 day period.
Tanden is the president and CEO of left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP), which was closely entangled with the Obama administration, according to the Washington Post. Since 2009, CAP has reportedly sent delegations to China as part of a USEF program, the National Pulse reports.
Biden's son Hunter also has alleged corrupt foreign business ties to China, which prompted an FBI investigation in 2018 into his foreign dealings and taxes.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron, one of the greatest power hitters in Major League History, also helped pave the way for other Black players to succeed.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and the small crowd assembled on the Washington Mall for his inauguration on Wednesday celebrated the event as “democracy’s day.” But in truth, the state of democracy in America today is nothing to celebrate.
The talking heads on TV, Democrats and a smattering of anti-Trump Republicans insist that the fault for all of America’s political woes lies with former president Donald Trump and the senators and congressmen who joined him in questioning the results of the election in several swing states. For refusing to set aside evidence of widespread election fraud, they stand accused of inciting an insurrection and so endangering the foundations of American democracy.
Trump was impeached for his statements at the Jan. 6 rally, and Democrat lawmakers are calling for senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to be expelled from the Senate for questioning the electoral college votes from states with widespread allegations of election fraud.
The accusers forget conveniently that Democrat leaders from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton have insisted since November 2016 that Trump’s electoral victory was “illegitimate” and that the job of good Americans was to “resist” his “regime.” They forget as well that Democrat lawmakers objected to the certification of the electoral college ballots in 2016. And when their objections failed to overturn the election results, a protest broke out in the visitors’ gallery of the Capitol. Several protesters were arrested.
No one in the media or in the coastal elite ever accused Pelosi and Clinton of inciting an insurrection, even as hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets demanding that Trump be overthrown.
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Even without hearing the words, the pictures that animate the “Appreciation Song for President Trump” sung by a group of Hasidic boys clearly spell out the reasons for their appreciation for Donald Trump.
“With devotion so strong, you lead us like you know how,” they sing as a photo of Sholom Rubashkin, the former meat processing plant owner whose 27-year prison sentence Trump commuted in December 2017 appears on the screen.
“The economy is growing like never before,” they sing against the backdrop of a stock ticker.
“The peace that you bring, freedom back to its core,” they sing as a photo of Trump announcing a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates flashes by.
Set to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the song sung by boys from Camp Munkatch, a summer camp run by a Hasidic sect based in Brooklyn, is not the first written in Trump’s honor by an Orthodox singer or group. Last summer, Yaakov Shwekey, an Orthodox soloist, sang a version of one of his songs rewritten about Trump for a Trump fundraiser in Long Branch, New Jersey.
But it was the latest example —and one that came quite late, given that it was uploaded to YouTube the day the Trump presidency ended — of the fervent support for Trump among Orthodox Jews, the overwhelming majority of whom are thought to have voted for his reelection in November.
The Camp Munkatch song, sung equally in English and Yiddish, includes photos from significant moments throughout the Trump presidency as well as video from a trip the camp took to Washington, D.C., in 2019.
“We the children came here from the Munkatcher camp to so proudly say thanks to our President Trump now,” the boys sing as video shows them visiting sites in Washington. It even includes a reference to Trump’s pardon of Sholam Weiss, a Brooklyn-born businessman sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in 2000 in a major insurance fraud scheme, in the final hours of his presidency.
The boys end the song with a phrase from the Jewish prayer for kings.
“Shechalak michvodo levasar vadam,” they sing while the video shows Trump visiting the Western Wall. The phrase refers to God “who shares from his glory with human beings.”
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Dozens of pairs of tefillin (phylacteries) have been discovered hidden in a previously-undiscovered bunker in the Warsaw Ghetto,Israel Hayom reported.
The tefillin are a century old but well-preserved, and seem to have been placed in the bunker by the Jews who hid there during the Holocaust. Though the Jews were removed from the bunker and likely killed, the tefillin remained in their hiding place.
The bunker itself was built by the Warsaw Ghetto rebels.
The discovery comes as Polish authorities began a renewal of the city, destroying Warsaw Ghetto buildings in order to construct residential buildings. During the construction, the entry to a bunker was discovered, leading workers to investigate.
When one of the workers descended into the bunker to clear it out, he discovered dozens of pairs of tefillin hidden in a corner behind books and other objects.
Representatives of the Shem Olam Institute, who are scattered throughout Europe, heard of the discovery from local contacts who they keep in touch with in order to gather information on such cases.
The representatives turned secretly to the construction workers, requesting that they turn over the tefillin that were found. After lengthy negotiations and a promise to keep their cooperation secret from Polish authorities, the tefillin were passed to the representatives. The task of transferring the tefillin was done secretly but under the noses of the authorities. A short time ago, the tefillin arrived in Israel and underwent cleaning and preservation at Shem Olam.
"The discovery of dozens of pairs of tefillin concentrated in one place testifies to the Jewish lifestyle that they kept carefully in the ghetto," said Shem Olam Director Rabbi Avraham Krieger. "Despite the horrors and the brutal reality they lived in, they continued to keep the traditions and customs they were raised on."
"The number of pairs of tefillin testifies to underground minyans (quorum of 10 men for prayer), which they managed to hold within the bunker, underground and under the noses of the Nazis. The tefillin were hidden beside weapons and the equipment that served the rebels of the Warsaw Ghetto, testifying to the importance that they held in the Jews' eyes."
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
Malka Leifer, the disgraced former Australian educator accused of dozens of counts of child sex abuse, was extradited from Israel back to Australia Monday morning, hours before Israel imposes a near-total travel ban to and from the country.
In December, then-Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn signed off on Leifer’s expulsion order, removing the last barrier to her extradition to Australia.
The Supreme Court repeatedly rejected appeals by Leifer, upholding lower court decisions clearing the way for her extradition to Australia to face 74 charges of child sex abuse.
Allegations first surfaced against Leifer in 2008, while she was serving as principal at a haredi school in Melbourne.
Before authorities could arrest her, however, Leifer fled to Israel, moving to the town of Emmanuel.
Since 2014, Leifer has faced efforts to secure her extradition, but managed to stymie the extradition process with legal challenges, claiming that she was mentally unfit to stand trial.
While the claim was initially accepted by a court in 2016, private investigators later uncovered evidence showing Leifer had deceived the court, and that she was in fact capable of standing trial.
The lengthy delays in securing Leifer’s extradition strained ties between Israel and Australia, which repeatedly demanded Leifer’s immediate return to stand trial.
The Magen organization lauded Leifer’s extradition, while lamenting the lengthy legal process required.
“We are so happy that today, Malka Leifer has finally been extradited to Australia,” the group said in a statement Monday morning.
“It has taken over 70 hearings for Israel to rule on her extradition, but this important milestone in the victims’ quest for justice has finally arrived. We continue to stand by the courageous survivors and support them as they begin the next chapter through the Australian justice system.”
“As an organization and as a community, we must continue to take a stand and fight for victims of sexual abuse, that the state of Israel not be used as a safe haven for sex offenders, and that this gross manipulation of the justice system may never happen again.”
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Every time former CIA Director John Brennan appears on cable news to warn about some new “insidious threat to democracy,” I am reminded again that he deserves to be in federal prison.
In this corrupt media environment, however, the official who oversaw an illegal domestic-spying operation on the legislative branch of the US government, who tried to cover it up and blame innocent Senate staffers when discovered and who then brazenly lied about it to legislators and the American people — this man is held up as a paragon of civic virtue.
We still don’t even know what role Brennan played in spying on his political opponents during the 2016 campaign. We do know he went on TV for years after, alleging to have insider knowledge of an unprecedented seditious criminal conspiracy against the United States. Never once was he challenged by his hosts. And when an independent multimillion-dollar investigation couldn’t pull together a single indictment related to those claims, Brennan shrugged it off by saying that he may have “received bad information.”
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMESֱ
In his inauguration speech, President Biden pledged to “defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”
So let’s start by being brutally honest about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been the source of some of the most damaging misinformation about COVID-19.
At the very least, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert and chief medical adviser to Biden is loose with the facts and is prone to changing his mind.
This is the man who dictated coronavirus policy in the Trump administration. If mistakes were made, as the Biden administration claims, they are Fauci’s.
Yet, astonishingly, Fauci told CNN Friday that a “lack of candor” from the Trump administration had cost American lives.
But if people’s lives really were at stake last year, why did he wait until now to tell us?
Chalk it up to another convenient fib from a habitual fibber, who has deceived us on everything from masks to herd immunity.
Even if you decide these are not lies but lapses of judgment by Fauci, they had potentially lethal consequences.
Take, for instance, Fauci’s serenity back on Jan. 21 last year, when he assured us that the virus convulsing China at the time “is not something the citizens of the United States should be worried about.”
To be fair, the pandemic caught a lot of people unaware, but the thing about Fauci is that he always is so sure of himself.
The following week, he was at it again, vehemently opposing Donald Trump’s proposed flight ban from China, which Biden at the time decried as “xenophobia.”
It was Jan. 28, and Trump had asked his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, into the Situation Room to convince Fauci and other officials that the China travel ban would save lives.
“The guy I fought the most that day was Fauci,” Navarro told me Sunday. “He was adamantly opposed to the travel ban. All he kept saying was travel restrictions don’t work.”
Navarro pushed back, “ ‘If you stop 20,000 Chinese nationals coming in every day and some are infected, you’re telling me that’s not going to spread the virus?’ It was like talking to a brick wall.”
The next day, Navarro wrote a memo outlining three options: If you do nothing and there’s no danger, that’s OK; if you do the travel ban and there’s no danger, you lose a few million dollars; but if you do nothing and there is danger, the risk is a million American lives and more than $2 trillion in damages.
“I papered everybody in the task force with the memo and . . . it flipped everyone to supporting the president,” Navarro said.
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The manager of a Brooklyn warehouse was charged with reckless endangerment after fire inspectors nabbed him with a stash of more than 900 propane cylinders, officials said.
Mohamed Mohamed, 58, who runs the Gowanus warehouse, was arrested after fire inspectors uncovered the combustible stockpile of 20-pound propane tanks on Friday, the FDNY said on Twitter.
“If not for the due diligence of our fire inspectors, there’s a great danger,” FDNY spokesman James Long said Sunday. “It could let loose and explode in a manner that could be deadly.”
“You introduce a fire to that scenario and it’s a fire that is advanced,” Long said. “It could level a city block.”
Fire inspectors said the cylinders were stacked “from floor to ceiling.”
“He was charged with storing over 900 propane tanks in an unoccupied building,” a police source said.
Mohamed, of Bayonne, NJ, admitted that he was ordering the tanks in bulk so he could sell them to someone else, who in turn was peddling the propane to Big Apple restaurants so they could heat their outdoor serving areas during indoor-dining prohibitions due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.
In all, the fire marshals uncovered 904 of the cylinders, the department said.
Mohamed did not return a call seeking comment on Sunday.
He was released on a desk appearance ticket, police said.
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