Dumb ADL apologizes for opposing Ground Zero Mosque

 

Eleven years ago, the Anti-Defamation League surprised many by opposing an Islamic center planned for Lower Manhattan, blocks from the World Trade Center site the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even as its leader denounced anti-Muslim bigotry.

Now, the ADL’s CEO says the position, taken four years before he joined the civil rights organization, was a mistake.

“We were wrong, plain and simple,” Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in an op-ed published Saturday morning on CNN.

Greenblatt said the group had tried to offer a compromise by supporting the ideas behind Cordoba House, described by its leaders as a prayer space that would facilitate healing and cross-cultural understanding, but recommending that it not be located near Ground Zero. But that compromise hurt Muslims, he said, and ultimately contributed to the project yielding a condo building with little from the original proposal in place.

The apology comes days before the 20th anniversary of the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania It also comes in the days before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, holidays that ask Jews to take stock of their misdeeds and commit to improved behavior.

Greenblatt noted the timing in his piece, which he said he wrote in a spirit of teshuvah, or repentance, and also linked it to what he said was a rising tide of Islamophobia in the United States.

We can’t change the past,” he wrote. “But we accept responsibility for our unwise stance on Cordoba House, apologize without caveat and commit to doing our utmost going forward to use our expertise to fight anti-Muslim bias as allies.”

Greenblatt’s apology is notable because he has largely refrained from undercutting his predecessor, longtime ADL chief Abraham Foxman. It is not the first time, though, that he has openly criticized a choice Foxman made: Earlier this year, he said he would not give an award to Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate who owns Fox News, because he said that network has given a platform to far-right ideas.

Greenblatt, who served as as Special Assistant to the President for US President Obama from 2011-2014, has been criticized for politicizing the ADL in recent years and pushing the organization to support left-wing causes.

Closure to be imposed in Judea and Samaria over High Holidays

 

In accordance with the security situation assessment and the guidance of the political echelon, a general closure will be imposed on the Judea and Samaria area and the crossings in the Gaza Strip will be closed during the High Holidays.

Rosh Hashanah: The closure will begin on Monday, September 6, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The opening of the crossings and the end of the closure will take place on Wednesday, September 8, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Wednesday and Thursday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

Yom Kippur: The closure will begin on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. The opening of the crossings and the end of the closure will take place on Thursday, September 16, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Thursday and Friday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

Sukkot: The closure will begin on Monday, September 20, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The crossings will be opened and the closure will be lifted on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

Simchat Torah: The closure will begin on Monday, September 27, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The opening of the crossings and the end of the closure will take place on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

During the closure, the passage of goods will be prohibited, but passage for humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases will be allowed, subject to the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Zera Shimshon Parshas Netzavim Rosh Hashana

 

R' Shmuel Weissmandel Dies in Car Swamped by Tropical Storm Ida on Tappan Zee Bridge

 

Tropical Storm Ida claimed another victim Wednesday night on the New York State Thruway near the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Rabbi Shmuel Weissmandel, 69, of Kiryat Nitra was trapped by flood waters near the bridge while driving from Monsey to Mount Kisco, where he lived.

MTA Suspends Subway Service, Newark Airport Flooded, as Ida Barrels into NYC Area

The rabbi passed away in his vehicle before anyone could rescue him.

The rabbi was the son of Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandel, who served as the Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra.

It is not clear whether the rabbi drowned, or passed away from a heart attack, officials said.

At least 14 people died in the New York-New Jersey area due to Ida’s fury. Most of them were victims of the flash floods caused by the remnants of what had begun as a Category 4 Hurricane Ida when the storm made landfall in Louisiana earlier in the week.

Lost Tribe of Bnei Menashe Sample their First Gefilte Fish

 

Five hundred and twenty-five Bnei Menashe olim from India who claim they are the descendants of a lost tribe of Israel are gearing up for their first Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish state. The olim, some of whom reside in Shavei Israel’s absorption center in Achziv, moved to Israel from Manipur, India, thanks to the efforts of Pnina Tamano Shata, Minister of Aliyah and Integration, the Jerusalem-based nonprofit Shavei Israel, and the Jewish Agency.

Part of the Bnei Menashe’s preparations for the High Holidays included a Gefilte Fish tasting – a traditional dish associated with the Jewish New Year. Shavei Israel, which has lobbied for the Aliyah of the Bnei Menashe community for the past 20 years, presented the dish to the community members for the first time. Some loved the dish, while others politely declared it to be “an acquired taste.”

Nancy Pelosi Blocks House from Reading Names of 13 Killed U.S. Servicemembers

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday blocked the House from publicly reading the names of the 13 killed U.S. service members in Afghanistan, House Republicans said.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) told the Floridan that Pelosi ignored the Republicans’ request to read the names, instead she “just closed the House down.”

“We gaveled in, had a prayer, said the Pledge of Allegiance, took a moment of silence with pretty much all Republican veterans, then asked to be recognized to read names and bring up Afghanistan legislation,” Mast told the Floridian. “They did not acknowledge us, and just closed the House down.”

Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-FL) tweeted a rhetorical question of whether Pelosi is attempting “to cover up” the Afghan debacle by not allowing the names to be read publicly on the floor.

“How badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle?” Gimenez asked. “They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week. Don’t you think our military deserves better?”

The denied Republican request comes as nearly 40 Republicans have called for president Biden to resign for stranding Americans and abandoning U.S. gear in Afghanistan.

When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) attempted a House vote to “require” Biden to recover the military gear and Americans, Democrats blocked the vote. “Democrats just blocked a vote to require a plan from President Biden to bring Americans home and to account for all the military equipment he left behind,” McCarthy tweeted. “Republicans will not stop until every American is home safely.”

But that did not stop House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member James Comer (R-KY) from requesting a briefing on the deadly evacuation from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

'Lapid doesn't believe his turn in rotation for PM will happen'

 Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) does not believe that the rotation deal with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will come to fruition and allow him to take his turn as the country's leader, News 12's Amit Segal wrote.

In his column in Yediot Aharonot, Segal wrote, "Those who spoke with Lapid received the impression that he is mentally prepared for a situation in which he will have to earn the premiership through another round of elections, and not necessarily via coalition agreements."

"If the rotation comes to fruition, he will be disappointed in a good way, but Lapid is banking on taking power at the poll booths. In any case, he does not arrange his schedule only around his desire to ensure that the rotation is kept."

Biden’s lies that he visited Pittsburgh Shul after shooting

 

The executive director of one of the Pittsburgh synagogues targeted in a shooting attack in 2018 on Thursday disputed US President Joe Biden’s claim that he visited the synagogue after the attack, The New York Post reported.

Biden had told Jewish leaders in a virtual address that he spent time at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people there.

“I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,” Biden said.

However, Barb Feige, executive director of the Tree of Life, told The Post that Biden did not visit the synagogue in the nearly three years since the anti-Semitic attack.

In a phone interview, Feige firmly said “no” when asked whether Biden had visited the synagogue, saying he did not visit even before taking office when he had a lower public profile as a former vice president and then-Democratic presidential candidate.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Then-President Donald Trump visited the Tree of Life synagogue three days after the anti-Semitic shooting attack.

Biden, who was then the Democratic presidential nominee, issued a statement on the second anniversary of the attack last year, in which he said, “When anti-Semitism is allowed to fester, it shreds the fabric of our communities and erodes our soul.”

The Pittsburgh shooter, Robert Bowers, was charged with killing 11 people during the October 27, 2018 attack, and injuring six others, including four police officers.

The shooter was armed with an AR-15 and three handguns and allegedly yelled “I want to kill all Jews” during the attack.

He was initially indicted on 44 counts. Later, a federal grand jury added 19 charges to the 44 counts previously levied against Bowers. He has pleaded not guilty to all 63 federal counts.

A Chasidic rabbi created a Shabbat jacket for carrying guns in synagogues

Rabbi Raziel Cohen demonstrates how to use the Tactical Kapota, a jacket designed by Raziel Cohen

Rabbi Raziel Cohen doesn’t want you to have to draw a gun in synagogue. But if you must, he doesn’t want you to waste precious time unbuttoning your kapota, a type of jacket worn by men in the Chabad Lubavitch hasidic community on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

So Cohen, a firearms instructor who goes by the moniker “The Tactical Rabbi,” worked with Shaul Snovsky, who sells kapotas in South Florida, to create the Tactical Kapota. The jacket, which looks like any other kapota, closes with snaps instead of buttons for easy opening. Its cost: $550.

“The issue came up with when you wear a kapota … the ‘gartel’ gets in the way and the kapota gets in the way and it can make it dangerous to draw your weapon,” Cohen said, using the Yiddish word for the belt worn over the kapota.

By adding snaps underneath the buttons, the Tactical Kapota looks like a regular jacket.

“Usually in a shul (synagogue - ed.) we try to keep a low profile, we don’t want to look like we’re in a war zone,” Cohen said.

A video ad for the kapota shows a man studying in a synagogue when the building is attacked. The man fumbles to unbutton his kapota to reach his holstered gun until the words “every second counts” flash across the screen. The video then shows the man unsnapping the Tactical Kapota in seconds before drawing his gun.

Snovsky said some people thought the video wasn’t for real. It’s completely serious, he insists.

“I’m not selling fear over here, I’m selling awareness,” he said. “Some people are calling me and saying is it a joke, and it’s not a joke. You just never thought about it.”

After Twin Towers, US foiled mega-attack in Tel Aviv clubs

In mid-2002, as the US was still shaking from the trauma of the Twin Towers' fall, the US intelligence community working with Israeli and European intelligence agencies, foiled an Al Qaeda terror attack against several youth clubs in Tel Aviv, Ynet reported.

The attack was in its final stages of planning and almost ready to be carried out, the site said, adding that Al Qaeda's leadership expected that if the attacks were carried out, at least 200 Israelis would die.

Until now, Al Qaeda had been known to have made only one significant plan to harm Israel.

The tipoff came from the FBI's Ali Soufan, who in 2005 was in charge of the Al Qaeda files. Soufan retired from the FBI in 2005.

In an interview published Friday with Yediot Aharonot, Soufan explained how a surprise admission from a wanted terrorist led to intelligence authorities' success in foiling previously-unknown plans for a largescale Tel Aviv attack.

In June 2001, Richard Reid, also known as "the Shoe Bomber," arrived in Israel to examine the possibility of blowing up an El Al plane using an explosive device placed in his shoes. Reid return to his Al Qaeda commanders and in light of Israel's aviation security procedures recommended that the terror group choose a different target, which he attempted to blow up in December.

US intelligence, which was hit hard by the failures which led to the attack, began to strike back. In March 2002, the US succeeded in catching Zayn al-Abidin Mohammad Hussein, also known as Abu Zubaydah, an Arab from the Palestinian Authority who entered and was released from an Israeli prison, and later joined the mujihadeen in Afghanistan, becoming a senior Al Qaeda official.

Di Blassio Upset That The Supreme Court Will Not Allow him to Continue Murder Babies

 

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Matt Gaetz Exonerated from 'Pile of Lies' After Man Charged with Extortion

 

Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz has been exonerated after 62-year-old Stephen Alford was recently indicted by the Department of Justice for extortion. 

"Stephen M. Alford did knowingly and willfully devise, and intent to devise, a scheme to defraud and for obtaining money and property by means of material false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and for the promise of executing such scheme, did cause, and attempt to cause, a wire communication to be transmitted in interstate commerce," the indictment states.

Earlier this year, Gaetz was adamant Alford was making false allegations of sexual misconduct against him in order to extort money from his successful and wealthy family. 

Back in March when news broke that the Department of Justice was investigating Gaetz for sexual misconduct, the congressman maintained he was being extorted. 

Israeli Soldier that got killed by Gaza Border Singing a song on Tisha Be'Ov

 

Yes... he shows them the well deserved "finger" for making "choizik" of him!

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Reporting Jewish sex abuser ‘is sin’, says Chareidie "Gadol"

 

Child abusers from a British religious community should not be reported to the police, one of its leaders has argued.

Paltiel Schwarcz, a leading rabbinical authority among ultra-Orthodox Jews, said informing statutory authorities in the UK of a suspected Jewish child sex offender was generally “a severe sin”.

His written opinion contradicts claims made by an ultra-Orthodox leader last year in evidence to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. The report on the inquiry’s investigation of child protection in religious organisations is due to be published tomorrow.

Schwarcz, 37, presents several instances in which it is forbidden to report child sexual abuse by a Jewish person to “gentile” authorities. They include when the abuser is married with children, because his family would be “destroyed”, and when the abuser can be treated with “medical methods” to “prevent him from carrying out such acts”.

Schwarcz, a judge in a Jewish religious court, said it was not permitted to report an abuser to police if the victim was a girl aged 12 or older or a boy aged 13 or older. A copy of his paper was submitted to the inquiry last week by Migdal Emunah, a charity that helps Jewish victims of sexual abuse. The inquiry said it had “arrived too late to be taken into account”.

Yehudis Goldsobel, the charity’s chief executive, said yesterday that reluctance to report cases of child abuse was a “day-to-day lived experience for Charedi [ultra-Orthodox] victims of sexual abuse”.

Britain’s ultra-Orthodox population, concentrated in Essex, Gateshead, London and Manchester, numbers about 70,000 — a minority among a Jewish population of 300,000. However, a fertility rate between six and seven children per woman led the Institute for Jewish Policy Research to forecast in 2018 that ultra-Orthodox Jews were “expected to constitute a majority of the British Jewish population long before the 21st century is over”.

The insularity of ultra-Orthodox Jews and their distrust of outsiders present a safeguarding risk. In 2013 an episode of Dispatches on Channel 4 showed undercover footage of Rabbi Ephraim Padwa, an ultra-Orthodox authority, telling an alleged child abuse victim that he should not speak to the police.

Padwa is the leader of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. More than 100 synagogues are members of the union, and many other ultra-Orthodox organisations, including schools, are affiliated to it. In the footage he said it was mesirah to contact the police. Under Jewish religious law mesirah, or informing on a fellow Jew to statutory authorities, is banned. In evidence to the inquiry last year Rabbi Jehudah Baumgarten said mesirah was “not applicable where the person being reported was causing harm to others, such as in cases of child sexual abuse”.

Schwarcz is one of the union’s senior rabbis. His paper in April, seemingly sent in response to a request for advice on a specific case of suspected child abuse, is in stark contrast to Baumgarten’s evidence.

The former, from Stamford Hill in north London, sits as a judge (dayan) on the union’s religious court (beth din), heads two of its committees and was hailed by the union last month as a “great scholar”. His nine-page opinion, written in Hebrew, cites Jewish scholars from the 13th to the 20th centuries to support his argument that almost no circumstances exist in which it is permitted to report a Jewish child abuser to the police.

The union said the evidence given on its behalf to the inquiry last year “clearly and unambiguously presented the position of the union that mesirah does not apply where the person being reported is suspected of causing criminal harm to others, such as in the case of child abuse”.

A source close to the union had said Schwarcz was “entitled to his opinion”, but yesterday a spokesman claimed his paper was “merely an unaddressed, unsigned, incomplete” draft of an academic dissertation that he “sent for review and consultation regarding its standing in English law”.

Welcome Home! Gerer Father Who Murdered His Son In Psychotic Fit Is Released From Custody

 

Israel’s Attorney-General’s Office made a decision on Wednesday to suspend the criminal proceedings against the Chareidi father from Kiryat Gat who murdered his 14-year-old son in the course of a psychotic fit.

Deputy Attorney-General Adv. Amit Merri allowed the father to be released from custody on Wednesday evening without any restrictions.

Merri wrote that the decision was made “in light of the exceptional circumstances of the case, including the background of the execution of the offense, its tragic outcome and the personal circumstances of the defendant.”

After the shocking incident occurred in March, a police investigation found that the father was under the influence of illegal hallucinogenic drugs given to him by his therapist which caused him to enter a psychotic state.

He was hospitalized following the incident and was deemed unfit to stand trial even weeks afterward.

“The fact that the attorney-general decided to heed our request and in an unprecedented decision, order the termination of the legal proceedings against our client for murder, proves the validity of our claims from the beginning,” the father’s lawyers stated.

“The picture revealed in the case shows that the tragic murder was the direct result of of the father, a loving and normal family man, falling victim to a charlatan ‘therapist,’ who disgracefully exploited the weaknesses and distress of his patients and gave them – with unforgivable audacity and under the guise of medical treatment – hallucinogenic MDMA drugs – which according to the opinion of the district psychiatrist, led to a severe deterioration in the father’s mental state and a severe psychotic attack which led to the murder of his son.”

“Under these circumstances, it is clear that there is no reason to continue the legal proceedings against the father and instead everything possible must be done to prosecute the therapist for his responsibility for the murder of the child.”

The therapist has been indicted for criminal offenses, including export, import, trade, and supply of dangerous drugs.

"Hamelech"

 

Ger Wants to Continue Beating Up Their Ger Rivals So they are Protesting the Lawyer That 's trying to Stop Them

מי כעמך ישראל

Arabs Packing Aravois as well

Mother of Slain Marine SUSPENDED FROM FACEBOOK for Posts about her Son

 

A Gold Star mother of one of the fallen Marines killed in last week’s suicide bombing at the Kabul International Airport says that Facebook disabled her Instagram account after she posted about her deceased son. Her older posts questioning the results of the 2020 election appear to have been noticed by Instagram censors after her pictures of her son went viral.

Shana Chappell, mother of US Marine Kareem Nikoui, 20, posted on Facebook that Instagram began flagging her posts after she posted about her son on the Facebook owned platform.

“As soon as I posted about what happened to my son Instagram started pulling up my posts from months ago and sending me notifications that if I kept posting stuff like this that they would disable my account. Posts from months ago!”

Chappell’s post was highlighted in a recent New York Times article about the fallen soldiers before it was reportedly censored by Instagram.

“On Friday, Kareem Nikoui’s mother, Shana Chappell, posted a photo on her Instagram account of her son with a broad smile, cradling his rifle amid the crowds of civilians and razor wire at the gate of the airport in Kabul. ‘This is the last picture my son sent me of himself. It was taken on Sunday. I know I am still in shock right now. I felt my soul leave my body as I was screaming that it can’t be true! No mother, no parent should ever have to hear that their child is gone,’ she wrote in the post.”

Following backlash, the account appears to have been reactivated.

American-Israeli Suddenly Passes Away in Uman

 

A tragedy occurred on Tuesday morning in Uman when a 60-year-old Breslover chassid suddenly lost consciousness in his apartment and passed away.

Hatzalah paramedics who were called to the scene carried out resuscitation attempts but unfortunately, it was too late and they could do nothing but declare his death.

The niftar was later identified as Reb Tuvia Berkowitz, z’l, who was born in the US and was a resident of the Har Nof neighborhood of Yerushalayim. Reb Berkowitz had traveled to Uman together with his entire family over a month ago to ensure he could spend Rosh Hashanah by Rav Nachman’s kever.

About two weeks ago, Rav Berkowitz, z’l, felt unwell and was hospitalized in a local hospital and later released.

Askanaim are making arrangements to fly the niftar to Israel for burial