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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
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דאגי מיט ציצית pic.twitter.com/ouAx8GF33Y
— Hasidic2 (@hasidic_1) May 4, 2021
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President Reuven Rivlin is likely to task Opposition Leader Yair Lapid with forming a new government once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mandate expires, Israel Hayomreported Tuesday morning, citing senior political officials.
Netanyahu’s mandate to form a coalition expires at midnight between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
While Netanyahu could request an extension, it is unclear if the prime minister will seek an extension.
A senior official in the president’s office told Israel Hayom that Rivlin is leaning towards giving the mandate to Lapid rather than Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett.
The official explained that the President has reasoned that “one bloc” – the Right – has “already had a chance” and failed, and there is no reason to expect that another party from the same bloc will be more successful.
In addition, the official cited in the report said that Rivlin won’t hold another round of consultations with faction leaders, but will accept comments from lawmakers regarding any changes in the political situation.
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Avigdor Hayut, whose son was among the 45 people killed in the Meron disaster last week, met Monday with the police officer who saved his life and the life of one of his sons during the Lag Ba’Omer catastrophe.
The officer, Rami Olan, visited the Hayut family Monday to offer his condolences on the loss of their son.
During Olan’s visit, Hayut recalled how Olan rescued him, did not, "ask me about my religious background, which party I supported, or if I were Jewish, Druze, or Muslim."
“I was lying on the floor, down on the ramp, with the mass of hundreds of people pressing down on us,” said Avidgor Hayut.
“I saw Rami yelling to me, ‘Give me your hand, I’ll pull you out.’ But I said ‘forget about me, save the boy.’”
“At that point, Rami tried, but was unsuccessful.”
"What Rami did for me shows that we can make coexistence work if we really put our minds to it, that it’s in our hands," he said and continued, "We can do it when disaster strikes, but that doesn't have to be the case. We can also do it on an everyday level."
"What happened is in the past. God took my son's life and my student's but thanks to Rami my life and my son's were saved."
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While it sounds like the stuff of science fiction, a cancer treatment in which a patient’s own cells are engineered to hunt down and wipe out their disease — and then linger in the body to stop the cancer returning — is helping to save patients’ lives.
The results of the treatment, known as CAR T-cell therapy, have been astonishing.
Patients who had exhausted all other options and been told they had just months to live have gone into remission. Others have even been cured by the one-off dose.
In trials, all signs of cancer disappeared in more than 80 per cent of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia — the most common cancer in children — after receiving CAR T-cells.
Success stories include Emily Whitehead, now 16, who in 2012 became the first child in the world to take part in a CAR T-cell trial.
Emily, who only had weeks to live when her leukaemia became resistant to conventional therapies, had the revolutionary treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the U.S. when she was six years old. She is still cancer-free today.
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by Josh Vlessing
We arrived at the entrance of the mountain shortly before midnight. My friends and I had come from Tel Aviv on a private bus through Jeff Seidel’s Jewish Student Center, seeking out the eccentric celebration that takes place on Mount Meron every Lag B’Omer. As secular students on Young Judaea Year Course, we didn’t know exactly what we’d be doing all night, but we knew it would be a night of “culture shock” we’d never forget.
Once the shuttles dropped us off, we were able to quickly meet up with some friends from other gap year programs who had been at the mountain since before dark. We rejoiced at having made it. After more than three long hours on the bus, we had finally reached the gathering of tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews from around the country. Why were we here again? To experience another crazy night in Israel, of course.
Our friends pointed us in the direction of “the main event” – the bonfire at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the second-century Talmudic scholar who is credited with authoring the central text of Kabbalah called the Zohar. A small group of us sprinted up the mountain as if we were making our way through a crowded music festival in the United States. We got lost in crowds, separated from each other, and as I looked around, my best friend Ayden Wells and I realized we had been cut off from the others. We couldn’t wait any longer to see all the excitement. We took off.
We jumped over a railing and dashed through a congested corridor, following black hats and letting the momentum guide us. We found ourselves in a pit next to a stage filled with rabbis and one large bonfire at the center. There were an unfathomable number of faces above us as if we were in the center of a stadium. On the ground, though, the situation became worrisome. Neither Ayden nor I had control over our bodies; we were unable to reach for our phones and the pressure on our chests increased drastically due to severe overcrowding.
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אזוו געריפענע 'בארדיטשוב רבי' באשולדיגט תולדות אהרן. pic.twitter.com/WLIOmk012g
— Hasidic2 (@hasidic_1) May 2, 2021
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An Orthodox man was shot dead last in the heart of Baltimore’s Jewish community.
The incident took place between Park Heights Avenue and Reisterstown Road at approximately 12:05 AM. Fox 45 News (https://bit.ly/3vEvoYc) reported that police who responded to the scene found 31 year old victim Ephraim Gordan suffering from a gunshot wound. Gordan was transported to an area hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
90 minutes later, another 31 year old man survived a shooting that took place near the Pimlico Race Course. Police are investigating both incidents and it is unclear at this time if the two are related.
A joint statement released by Councilman Yitzy Schleifer and Maryland State Delegate Dalya Attar that appeared on Baltimore Jewish Life(https://bit.ly/2QHAAvF) said that Gordan was visiting family on Fords Lane and was killed as he entered their home.
Anyone with any information is asked to call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-8LOCKUP.
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Heard the joke about the horse that walks into an elevator? Israeli police didn’t find it too funny when it happened in a luxury Tel Aviv apartment building.
Security camera footage showing two people bringing the horse into the building and then into the elevator prompted two arrests on Wednesday, after footage of the incident was shared widely on social media.
The horse is seen being led all the way into the elevator by one of the men, and the door closes behind them; horse and man then come back out.
“I came to visit a friend. I didn’t think it would be a problem to bring a horse into the building,” the horse’s owner told police investigators, according to Channel 12 news.
“It wasn’t written anywhere that it’s forbidden to bring a horse in,” he added. “I couldn’t leave it outside. It’s an expensive horse and it would have been stolen from me.”
The network said the two were arrested after a resident of the building saw the security video and contacted police.
One of the men was released with restrictive conditions, while the second remains in custody over suspicions he violated house arrest in an unrelated matter.
Police are seeking to ascertain whether the horse suffered harm in the incident and have asked Tel Aviv Municipality veterinarians to look into the matter.
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As Israel is still grappling with its biggest civilian disaster in the country's history, one of the officials at the local authority where Mount Meron is located said on Sunday it's impossible to even "move a stone" at the location without facing opposition from Chassidic groups.
A stampede that broke out at the Lag BaOmer festivities on Mount Meron overnight Thursday claimed the lives of 45 worshippers, including 10 children. The investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy in underway, with high-ranking Israeli officials being blamed for not appointing a body to oversee the annual event.
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Rabbanim of the Eidah Charedis held an emergency meeting on Sunday night, to discuss the Meron tragedy that took place early on Friday morning of Lag Ba’Omer.
Hagon HaRav Moshe Sternbruch led the discussion that included all of the Dayanei Badatz of the Eidah. During the discussion, Rav Sternbruch broke out in pitiful cries over the horrible tragedy that claimed the lives of 45 people. Rav Sternbruch blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the incident.
“During the Meron tragedy 45 people were killed. During the recent (Corona) plague more than 45 people died. Hashem is knocking on our door trying to bring us closer to him.”
Rabbi Sternbruch said about Netanyahu, “They (the Charedi MKs) are not speaking to us, they only speak to Netanyahu. They say that he is the big boss and that we owe him our thanks. He is a rasha and is evil. He desecrated Shabbos, eat neveilos, uproots Israel, he is the one who is doing all of this evil to us.”
Rabbi Sternbruch concluded by saying: “We have a lot of power of half-a-million Jews who follow us. Only 7 percent of them go with leadership. Each and every one of us needs to strengthen ourselves with the commandments between man and his fellow man. We may not speak ill of anyone, even about those people we don’t agree with.”
The Beis Din published a statement that the Rabbonim unanimously agreed to hold a memorial ceremony on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. which will be a public display of mourning. It will be held near Kikar Shabbos. According to the announcement, everyone who considers themselves to be a part of the Eidah Charedis is obligated to participate in the gathering. This includes both the men, the women, and the children.
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A few overpowering facts, not least that nearly all the victims were Haredi, are driving an unusual new introspection, and leading the major media outlets of the community to turn against one of its characteristic traits: its longstanding and much-criticized “autonomy” from the Israeli state.
Haredi Israelis are simultaneously part of and apart from broader Israeli society. Making up as much as 12 percent of the Israeli population, the community is not uniform; different sects and subcultures interact in very different ways with the state and with other subgroups. While the “autonomy,” as Israelis often refer to the phenomenon, does not encompass all Haredim, it encompasses enough of the community to be — so growing numbers of Haredim now believe — a serious problem.
One sees the autonomy in studies of Israel’s cash economy that point to mass tax evasion in the Haredi community; in routine clashes with police in parts of Mea Shearim, Beit Shemesh, and other places; in the refusal to take part in national service; in school networks that refuse to teach the basic curriculum taught in non-Haredi schools; and, most recently, in the refusal of many Hasidic sects over the past year to obey pandemic lockdowns.
It is a community that talks about itself in the language of weakness, always a street scuffle or political squabble away from talk of “decrees,” “persecution,” and “antisemitism.” Proposals for welfare cuts or calls to introduce more math education in their schools are described in Haredi media in terms borrowed from czarist oppression in Eastern Europe.
That rhetoric of weakness and victimhood has a purpose: to cloak or perhaps to justify the opposite reality. As a group, Haredim are not weak. They are powerful enough to constantly expand and defend their separate school systems, to found towns and neighborhoods for their communities, to maintain a kind of self-rule that forces Israeli politicians to literally beg Haredi rabbinic leaders — usually unsuccessfully — to adhere to coronavirus restrictions.
The story of the Meron disaster cannot be divorced from this larger story of Haredi autonomy, from the Haredi habit of establishing facts on the ground that demonstrate their strength and independence, and then crying “persecution” when those steps are challenged.
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A Bronx judge on Sunday night ordered the alleged Riverdale synagogue vandal be cut loose on supervised release — reversing an earlier decision by a separate jurist to hold the suspect on $20,000 bail.
The suspect, 29-year-old Jordan Burnette, was granted supervised release by Judge Tara Collins in Bronx Criminal Court — hours after he was ordered held on bail on 42 charges stemming from his alleged 11-day crime spree, Patrice O’Shaughnessy, a spokeswoman for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, said.
Under New York State law, a suspect hit with Burnette’s charges cannot be held on bail.
But that didn’t stop Judge Louis Nock, who earlier Sunday ordered Burnette be held in lieu of $20,000 — even though prosecutors insisted the man had to be sprung under the state’s controversial bail-reform laws.
“Given the number of attacks, we probably would have asked for substantial bail before January of 2020,” Assistant District Attorney Theresa Gottlieb told Judge Louis Nock earlier Sunday.
“The legislature did not include hate crimes in its revision of bail reform and, under the law as it exists today, this is not eligible,” she added. “We will not violate the law.”
But Nock made his ruling after deciding that the “shattering of glass” constitutes a violent felony.
Burnette is accused of shattering synagogue doors and windows, smashing multiple car windows — and dousing prayer books from Adath Israel in hand sanitizer before tossing them in the woods nearby.
A number of charges against Burnette are hate-crime related offenses.
It was not immediately clear why Burnette was called back into court Sunday night — or why he was granted supervised release.
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The family of Chaim Yitzchak Icht can take a deep sigh of relief as the 39-year-old man who went missing on Friday morning during the tragedy in Meron, has been found alive and well. Chaim participated in the celebration in Meron and his family feared that he was among those injured or killed in the tragedy, but he could not be located at any of the hospitals where the injured were taken to.
Earlier, the police announced that they had begun a widespread search for Chaim after he had not been seen since Thursday night. The police advertised his image and asked for the public’s help in finding him.
Sophia, Chaim’s mother told Ynet that Chaim used to travel to Meron and Uman every year. A friend of his told him not to go up to Meron this year as there are a lot of people in a small area and it wouldn’t be healthy. “When we heard about the tragedy, we tried to contact him but we couldn’t get in touch. I tried to call him, as did his wife but to no avail.”
Icht, a resident of Beer Sheva, was last seen on Thursday at 20:30 at Meron. Tonight, he called his family and told them he was on his way home.
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Lady has some street skills 🙌🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/cVAXB44Mqy
— Evelyn Rae (@_evelynrae) May 1, 2021
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A shooting was reported in central Samaria Sunday afternoon, outside of the Israeli town of Kfar Tapuah.
Initial reports indicate the attack was carried out by terrorists firing from a vehicle as it drove by Tapuah Junction. The shots were fired at Israeli civilians waiting at a bus stop.
MDA reported that three people, all said to be in their 20s, were wounded in the terrorist attack.
United Hatzlah and MDA emergency first responders were dispatched to the scene to assist IDF medical teams in treating the wounded and evacuate them to hospitals for further treatment. One of the wounded is said to be unconscious.
Two of the victims are reportedly in serious condition, while a third is in light condition.
The attack occurred at 5:54 p.m. Sunday afternoon, MDA said.
IDF forces are currently in pursuit of the terrorists, who fled the scene in their vehicle immediately after the shooting attack.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Menachem Bakush, who was one of the first responders at the scene relayed, "When I arrived I saw three young people each with varying injuries. One was in critical condition, one in serious condition and one in moderate condition. After receiving initial treatment at the scene, they were all transported to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah."
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תאורו: גובהה 1.85, מבנה גוף רזה, שיער חום בהיר, עיניים חומות. מזוקן עם פיאות. מרכיב משקפי ראיה עם מסגרת שחורה. לבש בגדים בצבע שחור/לבן. מגבעת שחורה או קסקט שחור / אפור.
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Tim Scott, a black United States Senator who in 2016 won 61 percent of the vote in the conservative state of South Carolina, who earned more raw votes and won by a wider margin than Donald Trump, has done more in just a few days to drag the racism of the Democrat party out into the sunlight than the feckless Republican party ever has.
On Wednesday night, during his brilliant rebuttal to His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s congressional address, and through the simple act of stating a truth, Scott smoked these racist monsters out and proved once again that racism is still very much a part of the Democrat party’s DNA, a DNA that stretches back to their creation of the Jim Crow South and their willingness to go to war to stop a Republican president from taking away their slaves.
“Hear me clearly,” Scott said. “America is not a racist country.”
With those nine words, Scott undermined everything that motivates today’s organized left, and to prove Scott wrong, to prove America is indeed a racist country, Democrats hurled the worst kind of racism directly at Scott.
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Soldiers of the Israel Defense Force’s Home Front Command were physically and verbally attacked by ultra-Orthodox Jews while they were assisting in searching for dead and wounded in the stampede during Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron, the IDF said late Saturday.
“We entered the gravesite to search for injured people and suddenly a commotion began that there are female soldiers in uniforms who are touching the wounded,” a soldier told Army Radio earlier.
“They started to kick and spit on us. The female soldiers were kicked, spit on, and punched from every direction,” the radio station quoted the soldier saying. Hebrew media reports said five female soldiers were targeted.
The military confirmed the incident, saying in a statement that “the force continued on its mission and ignored the harmful behavior.”
“The IDF views this incident very gravely and condemns any violence — physical or verbal — toward female and male soldiers. The IDF in general and the Home Front Command in particular will continue to extend a hand, to assist and to save any citizen or resident in a time of need,” a spokesperson for the military added.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement: “Saving live is a supreme value and I’m proud of all IDF soldiers in treating the wounding in the disaster at Miron and firmly condemn whoever attacked the soldiers there.
“Many citizens owe their lives to those who were called to the event. Just like at Moron, just like during the coronavirus, IDF soldiers will continue to save lives wherever they are needed.”
On Friday, a spokesperson for the IDF said “Search and Rescue Brigade troops, Northern Command medical teams and a number of IAF helicopters with medical teams and Unit 669 forces are assisting in the mass casualty incident in Mount Meron.”
Forty-five people were crushed to death and more than 150 people hurt, including several in critical condition.
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Social media companies would be unable to permanently kick people off their platforms under a tough new Florida law.
The bill, passed by the GOP-dominated state Legislature Thursday and awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature, would make it a crime to remove state political candidates from Twitter and Facebook, and would mete out penalties of $250,000 a day for any statewide candidate who is deplatformed.
Removing more local candidates would cost the company $25,000 a day.
The bill also requires tech companies to give users seven days notice that they are at risk of being banned and offer them the opportunity to correct the issue. Suspensions of up to 14 days would still be allowed.
“What this bill is about is sending a loud message to Silicon Valley that they are not the absolute arbiters of truth,” GOP state Rep. John Snyder said Wednesday, NBC News reported. “What this bill does is send a loud message that the Constitution does not have an asterisk that says only certain speech is free and protected.”
Big tech advocacy groups have struck back saying the law would violate their First Amendment right to decide who can participate on their platforms.
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