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Saturday, October 2, 2021

How a Jewish scientist quietly helped the Soviets get the bomb

 

In 1948, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was sharply focused on the Communist Party of the USA to root out Russian espionage — and with his attention concentrated there, missed the escape of a highly accomplished Soviet spy hiding in plain sight.

Born into a Jewish family that had immigrated from czarist Russia to the United States, George Koval habitually joined groups and clubs — a bowling league, bridge-playing circles, an honorary fraternity of electrical engineers. He also joined the US Army and conducted top-secret work at two locations of the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs that exploded over Japan in 1945.

In 1949, the year after Koval’s return to the USSR, the Soviets successfully and shockingly detonated their own atomic bomb.

Now, Koval’s life is the subject of a new book, “Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America Who Got Away,” by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ann Hagedorn.

“I just think there’s a lot to be learned by George Koval’s story,” Hagedorn told The Times of Israel in a phone interview.

Greta Thunberg the certified lunatic

 


Camel'a Turns to Top Democratic Strategist for Help on Israeli Genocide Fiasco

 

On Thursday,  Kamala Harris’ senior staff enlisted the emergency help of Mark Mellman, president of the group Democratic Majority for Israel (and architect of Yair Lapid’s victory in Israel), to fix the unmitigated disaster caused by Harris on Wednesday, Politico reported

As you may recall, when the VP visited George Mason University in Virginia, she conducted a class where one female student wanted to know why the US continues to support Israel despite all the Arab babies the Jews are murdering and the Zionist apartheid system

As we reported on Wednesday, instead of challenging those shocking lies by arguing that those Jews actually murder far fewer Arab babies than one would think, Harris kept nodding approvingly throughout that anti-Zionist diatribe, and in the end told her, again approvingly, that she, Kamala, “was glad” the student had shared her concerns, and that her opinion should be heard in a democracy.

It didn’t go over well with the potential Jewish voters who will consider, come 2024, whether they want Harris to get the DNC’s nod and run against Donald Trump for the presidency. Turns out we, Jews, become very upset when some ignorant student in a Virginia college blames us for adding Christian blood to our matzos and the second most powerful Democrat in the land praises her for participating in the political process.

So Melman went to war right away, and issued a statement saying, “We were pleased Vice President Harris’s senior staff reached out to us today to confirm what we already knew: Her ‘commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering.’”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that nodding scene a show of a little wavering? I’m just saying. We’re not expecting VP Harris to sing Hatikvah, we only wished she were able to tell that barely coherent student that she was wrong, that’s all, instead of reassuring her that “this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right? And one of the things we’re fighting for in a democracy, right?”

The Brief Jewish History of Herring

 

Pity the poor pickled herring. The small preserved fish sold in jars in the refrigerated section of most delis gets no respect. I am an unabashed fan. I love its sweet and salty taste, alone or in a herring salad. I know I’m not the only one. 

But I also know herring is a secret delight that some fans won’t even talk about in public. In many households, herring lovers are forced to sneak bites straight out of the jar by the light of the refrigerator when no one else is home. “My husband says it makes him gag,” confessed a herring lover who asked to remain anonymous. 

Rabbi David Eliach Longtime dean of Yeshiva of Flatbush dies at 99

 

The longtime and pioneering leader of Brooklyn’s Yeshivah of Flatbush, Rabbi David Eliach, died Thursday.

Rabbi Eliach, who was 99, supervised the education of thousands of children at the Modern Orthodox school between 1953, when he moved from Israel to teach there, until his retirement as dean in 1997 at age 75. He remained closely involved at the school for the rest of his life, visiting multiple times a week to mentor teachers until the pandemic forced him to transition to phone calls instead.

“His contribution to Jewish education across the globe is unparalleled and his impact on thousands of students will be felt for generations,” the school wrote in an email announcing Eliach’s death late Thursday.

“To me, Rabbi Eliach is synonymous with YOF,” the head of the high school, Rabbi Raymond Harari, told the school’s magazine last year.

Born in Jerusalem in 1922, Eliach studied at a yeshiva in Hebron and devoted himself to teaching after working with children who had come to pre-state Israel after being orphaned or separated from their parents during the Holocaust. It was in that context that he met his wife Yaffa, a Lithuanian survivor who later became a pioneering Holocaust historian. Yaffa Eliach died in 2016.

The couple moved to the United States after Eliach was recruited to join the Yeshivah of Flatbush by its founder, Joel Braverman. He quickly gained a reputation as an inspiring teacher who was deeply devoted to Modern Hebrew.

He spoke in “a very clear, beautiful Hebrew that was so expressive,” Joseph Telushkin, the rabbi and author, told the New York Jewish Week in 2012 about Eliach, who had been both his teacher and camp counselor.

Friday, October 1, 2021

Zera Shimshon Parshas Bereishis

 


Did escaped terrorists use Coca Cola to break up the concrete?

 

A preliminary report into the intelligence failure which led to the escape by six terrorists from the Gilboa Prison found that the terrorists likely crumbled the concrete on the floor of the cell using acid or Coca-Cola. Kan 11 News reported.

The terrorists dug 29 meters (about 100 feet) of tunnel.

The report commissioned by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) also shows that the escape route of the prisoners included lifting a marble slab in the shower cubicle and digging a tunnel shaft through layers of steel and concrete to the space below.

On the question of how the terrorists dug in the concrete, the IDF unit of the IDF unit writes that "concrete can be weakened and crumbled over time by using various acids, without the use of special means, a cola drink can be used. The metal netting can be cut with the help of an improvised nail file over time."

The report details how the terrorists got to the space under the cell: "The prisoners' escape route included digging a tunnel shaft under a marble slab in the shower cubicle, passing through the top tin (5 mm of steel) and through the ground floor (20 cm of concrete) into the underground space."

The report reveals that the terrorists were forced to dig 29 meters underground: "The length of the escape tunnel is about 35 meters, w29 meters of which they dug themselves, with an average diameter of 0.5 meters, ie an amount of 5-6 cubic meters of soil. The excavation material was used to line the excavated route inside the spaces of the link beams, saving the need to evacuate the excavation material into the prison."

Meanwhile, the police and the Shin Bet finished investigating the six terrorists who escaped from Gilboa Prison earlier this month. A prosecutor's statement was submitted through the State Attorney's Office in preparation for an indictment to be filed against them in the coming days.

According to a report by Channel 12 News, the investigation raised suspicions that five other inmates from Gilboa Prison cooperated and assisted in the escape of the six inmates. One of the inmates charged with abetting in the escape was originally supposed to be among the fugitives - but he backed out and Zakaria Zubeidi from Fatah took his place.

The escape occurred on September 6. The six escapees were recaptured about a week later.

Buy Israeli during shemita, don't strengthen Hamas

 

Leading Religious rabbis called on Israelis to use the Heter Mechira and Otzar Beit Din methods to purchase produce grown in Israel during the shemita year so as not to strengthen Hamas in Gaza.

According to the rabbis' call, in addition to the question of observing the laws of the shemita, there is also the question of preserving the well-being of the nation country and providing a livelihood for Jews.

"Our brothers, lovers of Torah and lovers of Israel and our holy land. We have merited a holy year, the year of the shemita. A year about which the mitzvos and warnings about keeping it abound. We city dwellers are warned about forbidden work in gardens and courtyards, work that is relatively scarce. Therefore, we are required to be especially careful about consuming the fruits and vegetables that come to our home," the rabbis wrote.

The reading was signed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman, Rosh Yeshivat Or Etzion and Chairman of the World Heritage Committee, Rabbi Dov Lior, former Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hebron and President of Yeshivat Nir, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, former Rabbi of Ramat Gan, Rabbi David Chai HaCohen, Rosh Yeshivat Netivot Israel in Bat Yam, and Rabbi Yosef Artziel, chairman of the Association of Rabbis of the Good Land.

"Our recommendation for consumption in the shemita year is according to the following order: 1. Otzar Beit Din. 2. Heter Mechira. 3. Crops from abroad, and then only when there is no other choice. 4. A foreign crop coming from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, G-d forbid."

The rabbis' call comes in the wake of the public controversy over buying fruits and vegetables in the shmita year. Among other things, the call is a response to opinions that give a clear preference for foreign crops coming from the PA and Gaza, which strengthens Gazan agriculture over strengthening Israeli agriculture.


They tried to burn Jews alive. Again.


 

I checked the major newspapers and news websites in the days following the attack. Except for Jewish media, not a word


I wouldn’t have imagined that 76 years after the Holocaust ended, I would be writing these words but here we go again. Last week, anti-Semites tried to burn Jews alive. And the world looked away.

Several hundred Jewish worshippers were on their way to hold peaceful, legal religious services on the holiday of Sukkot, at the tomb of the biblical patriarch Joseph, located in the city of Shechem. The city, better known by its Roman name, Nablus, had a sizeable Jewish community until Palestinian Arab rioters drove them out in the 1930s. Today’s generation of Palestinian Arab terrorists ambushed last week’s worshippers. The Palestinian Authority, which governs the city, did nothing to intervene.

The attackers hurled “homemade explosives”—that is, Molotov cockta

Iranian site damaged by fire was a missile production facility

 

Satellite pictures published on Thursday by the ImageSat International company reveal that an Iranian instillation which caught fire earlier this week is a missile storage facility used by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The photos show the building before and after the mysterious fire. ImageSat International said the building is the IRGC secret missile base of Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.

On Monday, the IRGC said that two people were killed in the mysterious fire at the facility.

The Revolutionary Guard identified the research facility where the fire broke out as a “research self-sufficiency center”, without provided further details either on the identity of the facility, nor on the fire which damaged the center. 

Rand Paul blocks swift passage of Iron Dome funding bill

 

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has objected to swift passage of a bill to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, five congressional sources told Politico on Thursday.

The bill, which the House overwhelmingly approved last week by a vote of 420-9, would appropriate $1 billion for the Iron Dome.

The House-passed bill was brought up as a “hotline” for both parties, a process that requires the consent of all 100 senators in order for the bill to hit the Senate floor immediately for a vote.

While Democrats cleared the hotline unanimously, the sources told Politico, the GOP hotline didn’t go through due to Paul’s concerns that the new funding for the Iron Dome was not offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

An effort — supported by Republicans — to hotline an amendment to the funding bill that would add the Iron Dome money also fell apart this week.

A spokeswoman for the Kentucky senator said in response, “He proposed that we pay for the House bill with money that is going to go to the Taliban.”

The bill was introduced after far-left Democratic Congressmen got a provision providing $1 billion for resupply of Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system removed from an emergency government funding bill.

Paul has blocked US military aid to Israel in the past. In 2018, he put a hold on the US-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018, which codifies into law the $38 billion defense aid package for Israel over 10 years that was negotiated in the final days of the Obama administration.

In 2011, Paul was one of only two GOP senators who withheld their signatures from a letter by 11 GOP senators who have vowed continued financial support for Israel.

Thursday, September 30, 2021

YOUTUBE BANS ALL 'ANTI-VAX' CONTENT

 

YouTube is taking down several video channels associated with high-profile anti-vaccine activists including Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who experts say are partially responsible for helping seed the skepticism that’s contributed to slowing vaccination rates across the country.

As part of a new set of policies aimed at cutting down on anti-vaccine content on the Google-owned site, YouTube will ban any videos that claim that commonly used vaccines approved by health authorities are ineffective or dangerous. The company previously blocked videos that made those claims about coronavirus vaccines, but not ones for other vaccines like those for measles or chickenpox.

Misinformation researchers have for years said the popularity of anti-vaccine content on YouTube was contributing to growing skepticism of lifesaving vaccines in the United States and around the world. Vaccination rates have slowed and about 56 percent of the U.S. population has had two shots, compared with 71 percent in Canada and 67 percent in the United Kingdom. In July, President Biden said social media companies were partially responsible for spreading misinformation about the vaccines, and need to do more to address the issue.

Father who lost wife and children in crash regains consciousness

 

Reuven Ben Eli, the father who was severely wounded in a traffic accident in northern Israel, regained consciousness on Thursday morning, Israel Hayom reported.

He has now been informed of the deaths of his wife Moran, 35, and children Dekel (15), Liam (12) and Anael (5), who were driving with him in the family vehicle at the time of the crash.

Reuven, 36, is now in moderate to serious condition, and he is hospitalized in the ICU at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Later on Thursday, he will be transferred to the surgical ward.

The funeral of Moran, Dekel, Liam, and Anael will be held later on Thursday.

Reuven's brother Ami told 103 FM Radio: "It's important to us to bring my sister-in-law, niece, and nephews to rest as quickly as possible. Any kind of delay desecrates the honor of the dead. It's a dream that is reality, I simply don't even know to say how I feel, I can't describe it."

He added: "We were preparing for the bar mitzvah of my nephew, who was killed yesterday. About 4-5 months before the bar mitzvah there are preparations for the whole family. He had already started to learn for it, and it already won't happen."

At the time of the crash, the Ben Eli family had been on their way to a family celebration in Hatzor.

"It started as something good that we wanted to do as a family, and in the end this disaster exploded in our faces," Ami told 103 FM. "I have a brother who lives there, and he wanted to do a kind of thanksgiving meal, we were all supposed to gather in the synagogue in Hatzor. We finished the afternoon prayer and then we received the worst news of all."

Also hospitalized at Rambam is an 11-year-old girl who was injured in the crash. She is unconscious and on a respirator in the pediatric ICU, in serious condition and suffering from a head injury.

Dr. Hany Bahouth, Director of Rambam's Trauma and Emergency Center, said, "Both of them are in stable condition. The adult patient progressed excellently overnight, the girl is still hospitalized in the pediatric ICU unconscious and on a respirator."

Hospitalized at Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat are one boy who is in the ICU, and 16 other children who are in light to moderate condition, as well as four adults in light condition.

Earlier on Thursday, Maariv reported that the bus driver, 76-year-old Asher Bason, had 51 prior convictions for traffic violations. Police investigations show that Bason, who died in the crash, veered out of his lane in a no-pass zone, hitting the guardrail and three private vehicles.

Career criminal busted for trying to sexually assault two Hasidic girls in Crown Heights

 

A career criminal was arrested Tuesday for trying to sexually assault two Hasidic teens in a Brooklyn apartment building.

Gessley Olivier, 20, stalked the duo into a Crown Heights apartment building on Eastern Parkway before trying to attack them at about 1:25 p.m. on Monday, according to law enforcement sources. 

In a desperate bid to escape the creep, the frightened girls ran into the bathroom of a friend’s first floor apartment and locked the door.

Olivier followed them and screamed “You are going to fu–!” before busting through the locked door with his pants down, the sources said.

The brave girls then kicked the pervert and fled from the building to a nearby synagogue for help, sources said.

Investigators working the case retrieved surveillance footage that captured Olivier. A sharp-eyed officer from the 71st Precinct recognized the suspect from prior crimes in the neighborhood.

The creep has more than two dozen previous arrests on charges including burglary and grand larceny.

Police sent out a department-wide alert Monday that Olivier was wanted in the 71st Precinct. Later that day, Oliver allegedly stole a 2019 Jeep Cherokee from a Midtown parking garage.

The car’s owner reported it stolen on Tuesday and cops tracked the vehicle to Lower Manhattan, where they arrested Olivier and learned he was wanted for the previous day’s attack in Brooklyn.

For Monday’s attack, Olivier was charged with burglary, sex motive burglary, criminal trespass, criminal mischief, lewdness, and harassment.

Peter Max a Holocaust Survivor Trapped in A "Guardianship" Isolated from Family Controlled by Strangers

 

It’s not just Britney Spears who is trapped in a guardianship, isolated from friends and family, with all personal, financial, and legal decisions controlled by others. 

In New York, legendary pop artist Peter Max also is being held against his will in a legal guardianship, in which every aspect of his life is controlled by court-appointed strangers, says his daughter Libra Max, 54. 

She complains that she is not allowed to visit her 83-year-old father at the Upper West Side apartment that was her childhood home. She is permitted to see him only on a public bench in Riverside Park, and only for an hour at a time after requesting the appointment 48 hours in advance. 

The visits are limited to three per week and can be canceled without explanation, as happened this week after she spoke to The Post. 

“He is being treated like a prisoner,” she says. “Every single time I see him, which has to be approved and scheduled, he says, ‘Sweetie, please come up to the apartment.’ How many times can someone ask for companionship? He must feel tremendously abandoned. 

“I see his disbelief when I tell him that I cannot accept his invitation to come up. . . . Instead, he is left with a cast of strange nurses [who] change constantly and he does not know their names. 

“My father [is a] Holocaust survivor. His deepest fear was having friends and family taken away from him.” 

Max, a counterculture icon of the 1960s and 1970s, whose works hang in the Museum of Modern Art​, has an estimated fortune of at least $65 million. An intimate of the Rolling Stones, the German immigrant became rich plastering his psychedelic designs on postage stamps, cereal boxes, album covers, even a Continental Airlines Boeing 777. Nancy Reagan asked him to paint portraits of the Statute of Liberty at the White House, after which he helped raise money to restore the monument. 

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

5 Killed as Bus with Bnei Akiva youths overturns after colliding with car

 


At least five people were killed and several others were injured in a serious traffic accident in northern Israel Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred when a bus with members of the Bnei Akiva youth group collided with a private vehicle on Route 89, causing the bus to overturn. The injured are in moderate and serious condition. Large numbers of police, United Hatzalah, and Magen David Adom personnel have been dispatched to the scene.

Ziv Medical Center in Safed received 20 injured patients from the accident, two in serious condition, one in moderate condition and 17 in light condition. One seriously injured man arrived at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. 27 children and adolescents were evacuated to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, 26 of them in light condition and one in moderate condition.

The bus that overturned in the accident belongs to the Bnei Akiva movement and was transporting campers back home from a Sukkot trip. The injured campers were evacuated to Ziv Hospital in Safed and the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya. The movement's leaders are on the ground and on their way to the hospitals.

Among the passengers on the bus were 17 children from the locality of Mevo Dotan in northern Samaria. The children were on their way back from a Bnei Akiva Sukkot trip with other children from Harish.

Due to the nature of the incident, United Hatzalah's Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit has been dispatched to respond to the incident and provide emotional and psychological support in addition to emergency medical services (EMS) that are active at the scene.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT and chapter Head of the Ma'alot region Oshri Eliyahu reported from the scene: "The incident involves a bus that is flipped over on its side as well as a large van and a private car. Thus far our volunteers have treated upwards of 20 people injured who are conscious. There are other injured who are unconscious as well as those who are still trapped that we haven't been able to reach yet. Firefighters are currently working to extricate them from the wreckage."

Eliyahu added: "Sadly, four people from the private vehicle involved in the crash were pronounced dead at the scene. These include a 35-year-old woman, a boy aged 15, another aged 12, and a 5-year-old girl. Our volunteers who are part of the Emergency Room Relief Project have gathered and are assisting with the reception and triage of patients in Ziv Hospital, The Galilee Medical center in Nahariya, and Rambam Hospital in Haifa."

MDA paramedic Kold Issa stated: "this was a very serious accident. We arrived with many MDA teams including mobile intensive care units, ambulances, Medi-cycles and an MDA helicopter. 

A bus was turned on its side across the road and the commercial van which had been severely damaged at the back was on the shoulder of the road with approximately 5 unresponsive victims trapped inside. While extrication efforts were under way, we were forced to declare 4 of the patients deceased and the driver was severely injured and evacuated in a helicopter while undergoing medical treatment. The bus driver was extricated while unresponsive and with severe multisystem injuries and after medical examination, we pronounced him deceased as well. 2 of the passengers from the bus, who were severely wounded were lying on the road with severe injuries to their limbs and tens of additional victims were walking around the scene. We provided them with medical treatment at the scene, the 2 severely injured victims were evacuated by helicopter to the hospital and the lightly injured victims were evacuated in MDA ambulances and mobile intensive care units to hospitals in Safed and Nahariya."


1 out of 10 Uman visitors test positive for COVID

 

Among the 30,000 Israelis who traveled to Uman in Ukraine to worship at the grave of Rabbi Nahman of Breslev over the High Holidays, some 3,440 have already tested positive upon their return to Israel, health authorities reported Sunday evening.

Of the positive cases among the Uman pilgrims, 25% were hospitalized and 19 were listed in serious conditions. Four of the Uman visitors have already died, with two of the deaths confirmed to be from COVID and the two other fatalities under investigation. A whopping 81% of the Uman visitors who contracted COVID were unvaccinated, and 91% are under age 50.

"This is a 10% positive rate, which is very high. The confirmed carriers cooperated only partly with the contact tracing, but I hope that they protected themselves and their family members," a senior healthcare official said.

New York Times Blames "rabbis" for overwhelming Vote Funding the Iron Dome

 

In purporting to “report” — not editorialize— about why AOC changed her vote from “no” to “present” on the iron dome funding, The New York Times congressional correspondent Catie Edmondson “reported” the following:

“[Progressives] have been caught between their principles and the still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party, such as influential lobbyists and rabbis.”

COST OF BIDEN’S LIES

 

Biden lied, they died. 

That’s no longer just an accusation. It’s now a fact, with Tuesday’s Senate testimony shredding President Biden’s nonsensical fictions about Afghanistan and confirming that he alone made the fateful decisions that created the chaotic and deadly withdrawal. 

We now know for certain what was suspected all along — that the president rejected the advice of his top military aides about how to reduce the troop numbers while keeping the Taliban in check. He also falsely claimed to the public that al Qaeda was no longer in Afghanistan and declared the withdrawal a ringing success.

Reluctantly, but clearly, his commanders begged to differ. One by one, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said they advised the president either to keep 2,500 troops in Kabul or supported the proposal. 

All three also said al Qaeda remains in Afghanistan and, as Milley put, is still at war with us. And none dared call the conclusion a success. 

“The war is lost,” Milley said. “The enemy is in control in Kabul.”

Rabbi Dr Moshe Dovid Tendler 95 passes away over Yom Tov

 

Rabbi Moshe Tendler passed away during the Shmini Atzeret festival Tuesday at the age of 95. He was proceeded in death by his wife, Shifra, who passed away in 2007.

A noted bioethicist, Rabbi Tendler was a prominent halachic decisor on issues of medicine and medical ethics as they pertained to Jewish law.

His views on medical matters were influential in shaping the rulings of his father-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, on matters including the determination of death based on the termination of brain functions.

Ordained at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in 1949, Rabbi Tendler also studied microbiology, earning a PhD from Columbia University in 1957.

He later served as a dean of the RIETS seminary, and taught bioethics at Yeshiva College.

Rabbi Tendler was a member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and served as president from 1971-1972.

He was a big proponent of going up to the Har Habayit.