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Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Widower Harry Rosenberg seeking new start in Florida is missing in collapse

 

On a recent morning before communal prayers at a synagogue, Harry Rosenberg told a friend that his new beachfront condo in Florida offered a much-needed change of scenery after an awful year in which he lost his wife to cancer and both parents to COVID-19 in New York.

The home in Surfside was to be a gathering spot for visiting children and grandchildren, and his daughter and son-in-law were doing just that when they traveled to the condo last week from New Jersey to join him for the Sabbath.

Hours later, the building collapsed, and all three family members are missing in the rubble.

Their cascading tragedies — cancer, COVID-19 and now the flattening of the building — are reminders of the excruciating toll the collapse has taken on families after what was already a grief-filled year.

Elsewhere in the building, a woman also sought a fresh start in Florida after falling ill and recovering from COVID-19. Another man was visiting Florida to attend the funeral of an old friend who died after being infected, and a Colombian family was in Miami to get the vaccine.

“He told me, ‘It is the next chapter of my life.’ He went through hell. His parents passed away. His wife passed away,” said Steve Eisenberg, who saw the 52-year-old asset manager last week at the synagogue.

Rosenberg “came to Florida to breathe a little bit,¨ said Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar, founder of the Shul of Bal Harbour, the synagogue he joined.

When the building tumbled to the ground, Rosenberg's daughter, Malky Weisz, 27, and her husband, Benny Weisz, 32, had just arrived for their visit on the second floor of Champlain Towers South. So far, 12 bodies have been recovered. Almost 150 people are still unaccounted for.

Described as a family man and observant Jew, Rosenberg had launched a young adult center for mental healing at a hospital in Israel in memory of his late wife, Anna Rosenberg.

Before his wife died last summer of a brain tumor, he spent three years taking care of her, a close friend said.

“He put his life on hold,” said Maurice Wachsmann, a friend of Rosenberg's for more than 30 years.

Months after her death came more heartache. His father died of COVID-19 in January, and weeks later his mother died of the same.

“It was extremely difficult," Wachsmann said. “He did everything for his parents. Family first, before everything."

Rosenberg decided to move to Florida, first renting smaller apartments and finally buying last month the larger condo in Surfside, north of Miami Beach.

Last week, Rosenberg traveled to New York for the baby-naming ceremony of his second grandchild and rushed back to Miami to prepare for his daughter and son-in-law's visit. She works as an auditor at a branch of the Roth & Co accounting firm in Farmington, New Jersey. Her Austrian-born husband works in finance.

In his short time in Florida, he was already known by people in the community. Fellow members of the synagogue and his family are now anxiously awaiting any news from the scene. In the pile of rubble, family and friends have spotted one remnant of his life at Surfside from afar: a white couch.

Elvis Presley was Jewish?


 The large crate sat unopened in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse here for more than four decades, concealing a little-known fact about one of America’s cultural icons.

Inside was the headstone of Elvis Presley’s mother, Gladys, which had been stored in the Graceland archives along with 1.5 million other items since 1977. And on the upper left side of the long-unseen marker — designed by Elvis himself — is a Star of David.

Yes, the King of Rock and Roll had Jewish roots.

The headstone, which was taken from storage only in 2018, is now on display at the sprawling complex in Memphis where Elvis lived from 1957 until his untimely death 20 years later at the age of 42. It sits in Graceland’s Meditation Garden, just outside the mansion and a few feet from Elvis’ own grave.

Gladys Presley's grave marker Dan Fellner

24 Miami apartment buildings put on structural violations list

 

On Monday, 24 Miami apartment buildings, including two owned by Miami-Dade county, were put on a list for serious structural violations after being flagged during an emergency audit.

The two dozen buildings had not gone through a mandated 40-year recertification process, reported the Miami Herald, citing county records.

The audit took place two days after the 12-story Champlain Towers South building in Surfside collapsed. The back portion of the tower containing 136 condo unit caved in suddenly early Thursday morning, leaving little but a 30-foot high mountain of rubble. The building had been in the middle of its own 40-year recertification process when the disaster occurred.

Two Miami-Dade county owned buildings made the list. The 88-unit Little River Plaza and Ward Tower 1 were built in the 1970s and had violated repair orders.

Local leaders cited a lack of federal funding for the lack of work on the buildings.

The Washington Examiner quoted Michael Liu, Miami-Dade housing director, who said that the county has a regular $10 million annual shortfall and was forced to make difficult choices “based on severity and threats to health and safety.”

Champlain Towers South was reportedly behind in repairs in several key areas, needing $630,000 in electrical repairs, $254,000 in structural repairs, $3.8 million in garage and pool deck upgrades, and $3.2 million in building facade work, according to documents released by the city of Surfside.

Biden to visit scene of Miami building collapse

 

US President Joe Biden will visit the site of the apartment building collapse in southern Florida later this week, the White House announced on Tuesday, according to AFP.

"On Thursday, July 1, the president and the first lady will travel to Surfside, Florida," the Biden administration said in a statement, adding that details for the trip would be provided later.

The 12-story oceanfront condominium in Surfside, a neighborhood near Miami, collapsed in the early hours of Thursday last week, with the official death toll of 11 expected to rise as hope dwindles for 150 people still unaccounted for.

An engineer who three years ago examined the residential building that collapsed found that the complex was suffering from "major structural damage."

The report noted damage to the concrete slabs under the pool and cracks and significant disintegration of the columns, beams and walls of the underground parking garage in the 13-story building.

The damage to the building, which was erected 40 years ago and went through a re-approval process, was apparently caused by prolonged exposure to the salty air of Florida's south coast.

On Friday, reports emerged that a researcher's 2020 paper detailed evidence that the building had shown signs that it had been sinking since the 1990s.

Kuwait arrests man for complaining about the weather

 

Police in Kuwait have arrested a resident - an Egyptian man - for posting a video online in which he rants about bad weather and dust storms, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Kuwait's Ministry of Interior said Sunday the person behind the “offensive” video was arrested and referred to authorities, which would “take the necessary legal action against him.”

In a dashboard camera video posted on the social media app TikTok, the man can be heard complaining about the blinding sandstorm that has engulfed Kuwait for the past few days.

“I'm inside a dust storm right now, I literally can't see anything in front of me,” the man is heard saying, showing the dust coating the highway like a thick fog.

“Fine, Kuwait, fine,” he adds, with an expletive in Arabic. The clip went viral on Twitter, racking up tens of thousands of views.

The arrest of the man underscored the country's restrictions on expression and drew criticism on social media Monday over his detention, according to AP.

Kuwait stands out for its outspoken parliament and relatively vibrant civic life but authorities routinely use the cybercrime law to police criticism and prosecute dissidents.

In 2016, a Kuwait University professor was charged with "blasphemy" after stating that the Kuwaiti constitution holds legal dominance over the Koran.

In 2013, individuals in Kuwait were accused of offending the emir, with a former MP being handed a jail term for insulting the Gulf state's ruler.

Meet the beloved ‘Bitcoin Rabbi’ of Twitter

 

Many of Twitter’s cryptocurrency zealots are often notorious trolls, but one particular thought leader stands out from the rest. He happens to be a rabbi.

“Twitter people either use it to scream at each other and not be nice, which I don’t like,” says micro-influencer Rabbi Michael Caras, also known as @thebitcoinrabbi. ”I enjoy connecting with my two communities through Twitter, both Jewish Twitter and Bitcoin Twitter.”

Caras, a rabbi associated with the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, is fascinated by the way that Bitcoin, both the network and the asset, relates to halacha (Jewish law). And since he’s quite vocal about it online, Caras says that strangers slide into his Twitter messages each week to ask for advice and spiritual guidance on the topic.

Before serving as a public bridge between the two worlds, he studied at Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim in Israel and now teaches both Judaism and technology classes at Maimonides Hebrew Day School in New York. Caras has been interested in Bitcoin since 2017, and in 2019 he published a children’s book about it that has sold more than 10,000 copies. 

The book, a secular introduction to basic economics for kids, tells a tale of children learning about how to use Bitcoin as money by running a lemonade stand in a town called Bitville. 

NYC mayoral primary race thrown into chaos

 

The Democratic primary race for mayor was thrown into chaos Tuesday as the city Board of Elections appeared to have botched the count amid the city’s first ranked-choice election — adding 135,000 pre-election “test” ballots that hadn’t been cleared from a computer.

According to a BOE statement Tuesday night, “it has determined that ballot images used for testing were not cleared from the Election Management System . . .

“The Board apologizes for the error and has taken immediate measures to ensure the most accurate up to date results are reported.”

Preliminary results released earlier in the day showed a total of 941,832 ballots cast for mayor, an increase of more than 140,000 from the 799,827 that were counted on June 22, the day of the primary.

The glaring discrepancy at first went unnoticed until it was flagged by front-runner Eric Adams.

“The vote total just released by the Board of Elections is 100,000-plus more than the total announced on election night, raising serious questions,” an Adams spokesman said.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

California Bans Its State Employees From Traveling to Florida .....

I'm sure Floridians are shaking in their boots....  


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Are you old enough to remember this New York Times Headline in 1995 ?

 


So how did that go down? 
The New York Times predicted in Sept 18, 1995 that most beaches on the East Coast, like New York would be gone.

The photo below shows the Coney Island beach on June 8, 2021

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Man accused of threatening to blow up McDonald’s over missing dipping sauce

 


I'm glad he doesn't dine in Kosher Restaurants ...when did you guys ever get a take out order that wasn't missing anything ?

An Iowa man was arrested over the weekend for allegedly threatening to blow up a McDonald’s because workers forgot to add dipping sauce to his order, a report said.

Robert Golwitzer Jr., 42, is accused of calling in the explosive threat early Saturday night after he ordered chicken McNuggets from the fast-foot restaurant in Ankeny, police told WHO 13.

In addition to the bomb threat, Golwitzer also allegedly said over the phone that he would punch a worker, the report said.

Police called up Golwitzer and he allegedly admitted over the phone — and later at the precinct — to making the threats.

He is charged with false report of explosive or incendiary device.

Golwitzer was jailed Saturday and was out on bond by Sunday.

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IDF Uses tech that makes soldiers virtually 'invisible' to the human eye

 


Israel's Polaris Solutions, a survival product manufacturer, has unveiled a redesigned camouflage net that claims to make soldiers virtually 'undetectable.'

Developed in partnership with Israel's Ministry of Defense (MoD), the Kit 300 sheet is made of thermal visual concealment (TVC) material that combines microfibers, metals and polymers to make soldiers harder to see with the human eye and thermal cameras.

The sheet weighs just 1.1 pounds, allowing soldiers to easily roll it up and carry it while trekking through dangerous war zones.

Soldiers wrap it around themselves when on the move and join their sheets together to build a barrier that resembles rock when they set up a position.



'Someone staring at them with binoculars from afar will not see soldiers,' Gal Harari, the head of the detectors and imaging technology branch of the MoD's research and development unit, said in a statement.

The Kit 300 aims to reinvent the traditional camouflage gear that has gone nearly unchanged.

Camouflage nets haven't changed too much in the past 50 years,' Yonatan Pinkas, director of marketing at Polaris Solutions, told The Media Line. 'We wanted to bring in a new type of material,' he added. 'So TVC was born.'

The Kit 300 is double sided, each with its own colorization to blend into the battlefield.

One side is to be used when in dense vegetation and the other is designed for more desert-like areas.

However, the company will customize patterns and coloring based on need.

The Kit 300 is also waterproof and can provide military personnel with shelter. that can stand like a small tent. 



Although the material is lightweight, it is sturdy enough to mold into three-dimensional shapes and can be used as a stretcher to carry wounded soldiers.   

Pinkas told The Media Line Kit 300 is capable of carrying up to 500 pounds, can be used as a splint and a hypothermia blanket.

The inspiration for Kit 200 came during the Second Lebanon War in 2016, while Picciotto was in a special Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit.

He saw a desperate need for better ground cover for soldiers, who were exposed to thermal cameras and night-vision equipment.

'You have to be better than the enemy and we understood that there were big gaps in the survivability part,' Picciotto recalled. 

'Our product is being tested by several units, which I can't name, and we have some joint operations there.'

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Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may provide LIFETIME protection against the virus, study finds

 

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines may provide lifetime protection against COVID-19, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that people who received either of the two-dose shots, which use new messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, had strong and 'persistent' immune responses.

What's more, the vaccines produced high levels of neutralizing antibodies against two variants of the virus.

This could mean that Pfizer and Moderna recipients could have long-lasting immunity - for years or potentially the rest of their lives - and may not even need boosters, reported first by The New York Times.

'It's a good sign for how durable our immunity is from this vaccine,' lead author Dr Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St Louis told the newspaper

For the study, published on Monday in the journal Nature, the team recruited 14 people who received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Among them, eight people had previously has been infected with COVID-19.

Researchers looked at lymph nodes, which produce a type of immune system cell known as a memory B cell.

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Trump Will Not Be Charged In DA Indictment

 Donald Trump won't be personally charged in the Manhattan district attorney's case against the former president's business organization when the first indictment comes down, his attorney claimed. 

Trump, in a lengthy and rambling statement issued on Monday, called the DA's investigation 'a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time' and claimed prosecutors 'failed' to find a crime even as 'millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted.' 

His words came as an indictment against the business that made his fame and fortune, The Trump Organization, grows closer.  

Ronald Fischetti, a New York attorney who represents Trump, told Politico that, at a meeting with Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance on Monday, he was told the DA's office will not bring charges against Trump himself when the first indictment arrives, which could be as soon as this week.

'They just said, 'When this indictment comes down, he won't be charged. Our investigation is ongoing,' he said.

Trump railed against the prosecution in his response. 

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Who Elects these Dummies?

 

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Crazed White Guy "identifies" as a Korean .. So he has surgery

 

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Summer is Here ...and the Hafganas Return ...

 

Summer is back in full force in Israel and it's hot .. and the Yeshiva Boys who aren't on the internet, and are prohibited from playing sports are gearing up to blow off some of their pent up hormones and frustrations.

What better way than going to illegal hafganas and wrestle with the mishtara! Protest organizers are now looking for different causes to protest to keep the bored Yeshiva Boys busy..

What's interesting about this hafgana is, that they are protesting construction in Gush Etzion.. none of them live there and never ever visit, but a hafgana is a hafgana.... 

There is construction in every part of Israel, and being that Israel is an ancient country, wherever you stick a shovel you will find bone fragments ... 

Legitimate rabbanim concluded years ago that the majority of the bones are gentile..and since we must continue to build, they organized a committee that inspect construction sites, and when they suspect that the bones are Jewish, they collect the bones to inter them in a different location..

in fact the Satmar Bais Medrish in Meah Shearim is sitting on a site that was considered a Jewish burial site for many years, and when I visited Israel in 1968, that site was being protested by R' Amram Blau founder of the Neturi Karta ....when I returned in 1975, Lo and Behold, the Satmar Bais Medrish was built on that very site..

What happened.. what changed?

Nothing changed, Satmar managed to pay off the Asra Kadisha to look the other way ...

Just three years ago there were massive protests in Beit Shemesh when a Chassidishe developer began to build the "Guloivntziz Houses" . The Asra Kedisha protested and said that the site was a Jewish Bais Hachayim... the developer laughed them in the face and refused to pay a "grush" to the Asra Mafiosi ..Well now hundreds of Chareidim live in the "Guloivntziz projects" on top of the "Jewish Bais Hachyim" 

To make their protest legitimate, they are shlepping the very old Gaaved and the even older R' Yaakov Meir Shechter to the protest which will take place at Kikar HaShabbos in Yerushalyim! 

My guess is that both the Gaaved and R Shechter have no clue to why they are going but a day out is a day out..

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London Kehilah Issued a Boycott of all Frum Establishments that Had Photos of Women but Quickly Denied it as the Police Were Closing In

 

I guess no one likes to pay big hefty fines!

Just last week, the big rabbis at the London Hisachdus issued a "fatwa" on all Jewish owned businesses and individuals that had photos of women in their ads. They threatened them with boycotts etc.

Well, they forgot that they live in Chutz Le'aaretz, and so the "goyishe" government started an investigation, because for some crazy reason, discriminating against women in the UK is against the law.

The rabbis of the "kehila" ran around like poisoned rats trying to find ways to retract ....

They couldn't come out with a statement apologising for the "fatwa" because that would mean they are for placing photos in advertisements...

Some "chuchem fin dee ma nishtana" came up with a brilliant idea.

Why not deny that they ever issued the "fatwa" ...

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Monday, June 28, 2021

'Beloved Ottawa community pillar' Rabbi Reuven Bulka passes away

 

Prominent Ottawa Rabbi Reuven Bulka has passed away at the age of 77.

Rabbi Bulka was a rabbi with the Canadian capital's Congregation Machzikei Hadas for over 50 years.

He was a member of the Order of Canada and had been given the Key to the City of Ottawa.

"It is with profound sadness that we inform you that Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka passed away early this morning, Sunday, June 27, 2021," Rabbi Idan Scher of Machzikei Hadas told the congregation in an email.

In the winter, after being diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic and liver cancer, Bulka travelled to New York to be with his family.

His funeral service on Sunday was live streamed from New York. He became a rabbi there at the age of 16, when he took over his father’s congregation.

Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada called Bulka a “beloved Ottawa community pillar.

"A kind soul, an eloquent voice, a wise teacher. Rabbi Bulka was respected by all for his spiritual leadership and many good deeds. He will be missed. May his memory be a blessing,” tweeted Mostyn.

Rabbi Bulka’s son Schmuel Bulka, spoke at the service, saying his father spent his life working to find common ground among everyone, even people he disagreed with.

"Most people today, unfortunately, when they see people who are different — all they do is go toward the differences. Some people make a career out of exploiting differences," he said. "My father was the exact opposite. He would always look for commonalities – for something he would have in common with somebody, even if he was different. It didn't mean he would compromise his principles. But he was always looking for commonalities."

Rabbi Bulka was known for founding Kind Canada, an Ottawa charity that sought to spread kindness. The organization launched Kindness Week.

In early June, a bill passed Canada’s parliament that proclaimed Kindness Week in Canada to be held in the third week of February, reported CTV News.

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In the USA Even "goyim" Go to Kollel . One in Five Young Adults Is Neither Working Nor Studying


 Almost one in five young adults in the U.S. was neither working nor studying in the first quarter as Black and Hispanic youth remain idle at disproportionate rates. 

In the first three months of the year, about 3.8 million Americans age 20 to 24 were not in employment, education or training, known as the NEET rate, the Center for Economic Policy and Research said in a report. That’s up by 740,000, 

Inactive youth is a worrying sign for the future of the economy, as they don’t gain critical job skills to help realize their future earnings potential. Further, high NEET rates may foster environments that are fertile for social unrest. 

The increase last quarter appears to be driven largely by joblessness, while school attendance rose moderately as campuses started to reopen, according to the CE

Read more at Bloomberg

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Ezra Sheinberg, convicted sex offender, asks for early release for 'good conduct'

 

The Nazareth District Court on Monday will hold a hearing to discuss Ezra Sheinberg's request to shorten his sentenceMakor Rishon reported.

Sheinberg, who previously served as a yeshiva dean in the northern city of Tzfat, admitted to and was convicted of sex offenses against women in the community he led.

Sheinberg has asked to be released due to "good conduct" in prison. His request for release will be discussed in court due to requests by the Prosecutor's Office and the women he hurt that the State re-examine the danger he presents and not rush to grant him an administrative release after he served just two-thirds of his sentence.

Meanwhile, Sheinberg's victims are fighting to prevent his early release from prison, which would be allowed under a plea bargain that was accepted against their wishes.

Three weeks ago, Sheinberg was ordered to pay 388,0000 shekels ($119,090) to a resident of northern Israel, in compensation for the emotional damage he caused her after she fell victim to his sexual crimes.

That woman responded to the ruling by saying: "I thank all those who held my hands and supported me. Whoever thought that this world is a free-for-all should know today that there is judgement, and there is a judge, in heaven and on earth."

In April, one of Sheinberg's victims told Kan Reshet Bet: "A sex offender who mocks the judicial system is about to be released. He apologized to the judges for thinking that he is the messiah, but he continues to torture us."

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