“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
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
"Chilitzah" in Boro Park ... Hundreds attend
Am I missing something? Aren't there mitzvois done in private? The reporter in the clip asks this question, the guest being interviewed answers that if the pair are ok with it, then she sees no problem!
I have. a lot to comment about certain mitzvois done in private and what if the couple doesn't mind people watching?
I know that this ceremony needs a minyan, but hundreds? Little children?
Vaccine Mandate on New York Yeshivas Begins Today
Today is the day. Mayor Bill deBlasio’s tyrannical vaccine mandate on yeshivas and other private schools officially began on Monday.
All Rebbeim, teachers, administrators, office staff, and other employees of yeshivas throughout the five boroughs are legally required to be vaccinated, at least one dose, or stay home.
It is not clear whether yeshivos are planning to enforce the mandate, or whether the city is going to crack down if they do not comply. Private schools are officially required to submit proof of compliance by December 28th, and if they don’t, they may face penalties.
Meanwhile, in a few days, Eric Adams will take over as mayor. He has been extremely vague about whether he plans to enforce the mandate, or even keep it intact.
Many are outraged that the unpopular lame-duck deBlasio instituted such a broad sweeping mandate with just a few days left as mayor. Some have speculated that this was deBlasio’s way of sticking it to Adams, and placing him in a tough spot to begin his term.
In the meantime, thousands of Rebbeim, teachers, and administrators will need to wait and see how this plays out.
In total, the mandate affects about 56,000 employees at 930 schools.
Illinois tells Ben & Jerry’s to go to hell and will Divest this week
The state of Illinois is expected to divest its pension funds of investments in Unilever this coming Wednesday, JNS has learned.
This looming decision in Illinois marks the latest domino to fall as the global conglomerate continues to come under fire after ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever, publicly announced in July that it intended to cease distributing its products in areas it deemed “occupied Palestinian territory.”
The Illinois Investment Policy Board (IIPB) is scheduled to vote on the matter at its regular meeting on Wednesday morning in Chicago. Multiple sources told JNS that a majority vote to divest is assured, barring a change in Unilever’s posture. The board will also consider taking action in another, perhaps more consequential matter related to the Israel boycott movement, involving the financial services firm Morningstar and its subsidiary, Sustainalytics. JNS has also learned that American Muslims for Palestine organization is attempting to organize a large-scale protest and potential disruption of the public meeting.
Now Anti-Vaxxers Harass HaRav Chaim’s Daughter
Anti-vaxxer women came to the kabalas kahal of HaRav Chaim Kanievsky’s daughter, Rebbetzin Leah Koledetsky, and called her a “murderer” and other derogatory terms and said they won’t leave until the Rebbetzin convinces HaRav Chaim to issue an anti-vaccine statement, Kikar H’Shabbat reported.
Many members of the Kanievsky family have been subject to harassment and abuse by anti-vaxxers in recent weeks.
“A few women came in, one of them brought me a stack of medical records, claiming that she took care of children with COVID and saved them without vaccines,” Rebbetzin Koledetsky told a friend.
“She asked how we recommend vaccines, claiming that the vaccine kills people. She told me that I’m a murderer and insisted that in middle of kabalas kahal I should leave everything and go speak to the Rav. They wanted me to go upstairs, tell the Rav all the stories and show him the medical records and convince him to make a statement against vaccines. She threatened that she won’t move until I go to the Rav. I told her that I’ll call the police but she responded that she won’t move even if I call the police. I, of course, told her that I’m not going up to the Rav and the Rav isn’t feeling well right now and therefore isn’t dealing with this topic right now.”
Monday, December 20, 2021
Israel adds US to no-fly list for the first time
Israel’s cabinet voted on Monday to add the U.S. and Canada to a rapidly growing “red list” of countries to which Israelis are banned from traveling, over fears of the spread of the Omicron variant in those destinations.
Israelis wishing to fly to countries on the list must receive permission from an exceptions committee, typically for humanitarian purposes.
With a maximally restrictive blanket ban on foreigners already in place, the ban primarily affects Israeli citizens returning from red list destinations.
Regardless of vaccination or recovery status, Israelis flying to the Jewish State from red list countries will be forced to isolate in state-run quarantine hotels.
USC student: ‘I want to kill every single Zionist’
The University of Southern California is under fire this week after a student tweeted that she wants “to kill every motherf–king zionist” as well as other postings denounced as anti-Semitic.
The student, Yasmeen Mashayekh, is listed as a diversity and inclusion (DEI) senator for the University of Southern California Viterbi Graduate Student Association. The school has refused to take action against Mashayekh, but other students have objected that the school would not have been so circumspect if Mashayekh said that she wanted to kill others like BLM supporters.
Mashayekh also tweeted in June “Death to Israel and its b–ch the US” and later declared that “if you are not for the complete destruction of Israel and the occupation forces then you’re anti-Palestinian.” In a May tweet, she stated “Yes I f–king love hamas now stfu.” On June 21, she tweeted “Zionists are going to f–king pay.” s
When asked about her calls for violence, Mashayekh was unapologetic on a podcast by Palestine in America on Dec. 2: “I still don’t feel any pressure to change any stances or apologize for anything at all.”
Other students have objected. Molly Davis, a student at USC, told Fox News that “while students are being forced to go through a virtual ‘diversity’ training, DEI senators are tweeting how they want to literally end the lives of humans who support the Jewish people. It’s dark and severely twisted.”
Sixty-six current and former faculty members at USC signed a letter to the university’s leadership, calling on it to “publicly and explicitly rebuke Yasmeen Mashayekh for her offensive behavior and to distance USC from her hateful statements.”
However, a USC spokesperson told Fox News that the statements are “disturbing” but legally protected.
“The individual is a member of a graduate student group that is self-organized, elects its own council members and does not set the university’s policies. Even though the statements at issue are legally protected, we understand they are disturbing. USC rejects and condemns hatred in all its forms.”
It’s hard to believe Biden never talked with Harris about 2024
On its face, the claim by Vice President Kamala Harris that she and President Biden have never discussed whether he would seek re-election seems the kind of ridiculous lie that only a politician would tell. With Biden’s growing age and declining faculties, and their party’s troubled state, not to mention Harris’ staff problems and low standing with voters, it is impossible to believe the president and vice president have never talked about 2024.
In Argentina: Jewish Community Member Found Murdered In His Home
The Jewish community in Buenos Aires is reeling following the discovery of the murder of a member of the community Shaul Chilo, 77, z’l, on Friday, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported.
Chilo’s housekeeper and daughter found him lifeless in the bathroom of his home with his legs bound together and alerted the police. Following an initial police investigation, the police believe that he died of strangulation.
Footage from the home’s security cameras shows thieves entering the home without breaking down the front door, instead seamlessly opening the door with a magnetic card.
Chilo’s friends and acquaintances say he was a beloved member of the community. He was the father-in-law of Yehoshua Ahurdai, the director of the local Chevra Kadisha.
HaRav Eliyahu Hamra, the president of the Jewish community in Argentina told B’Chadrei: “The community received the news with complete shock. The victim was well-known in the community.”
“We were at the scene from the afternoon hours of erev Shabbos. We supported the family and requested that the security authorities speed up the process of evacuating the niftar from the murder scene prior to Shabbos. This is one of the most upper-scale neighborhoods in Buenos Aires and this was a shocking and rare case of entry and murder in a private home. We’re strongly demanding from the authorities to take all necessary measures to carry out the investigation of the incident and arrest those responsible.”
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Biden Will Track Jew Violence on Palestinians ...all while Palestinians are Murdering Jews
The U.S. State Department has included extensive reporting on alleged "settler attacks" on Arabs in Judea and Samaria in its annual terrorism report, marking a shift in how the State Department handles the issue after the end of the Trump administration.
The 2020 report on terrorist violence, released Thursday, includes three paragraphs reporting on alleged acts of "settler violence", the most it has included in years.
The incidents have become a point of contention between the Biden administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, disrupting efforts by both sides to keep relations on an even keel.
Violent attacks by both Jewish settlers and Palestinian Arabs have increased over the past year, according to the report.
A 25-year-old Israeli Jew was ambushed and killed in his car by Arab terrorists on Thursday.
The Israel-Judea and Samaria section of the 2020 State Department report begins, as it has for years, with an accounting of Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks on Israelis and notes the cooperation between Palestinian Authority and Israeli forces in preventing the attacks.
Then it shifts to reporting on alleged attacks by Israeli Jews on Palestinian Arabs or their property, citing claims by left-wing non-governmental organizations in Israel.
“Israelis living in the West Bank also committed a variety of physical attacks and property crimes against Palestinians, some of which caused serious injury, according to Israeli human rights organizations and media reports,” the report said.
The reports on allegations of settler violence under the Trump administration were never longer than a paragraph, sometimes only two sentences. Moreover, the Trump administration stopped citing human rights groups in its second report, for the year 2017.
The report issued last year, for the year 2019, removed the word “settler” entirely. Trump administration officials, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former ambassador to Israel David Friedman, sought to bring State Department nomenclature.
The Biden administration’s return to citing human rights groups for information and statistics is significant given Israel’s decision this year to ban six Palestinian non-governmental organizations from operating.
Israeli officials have said that the Biden administration’s focus on "settler violence" is “obsessive,” The Jerusalem Post reported this week. But one Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Bennett government was not concerned that the Biden administration was overly concerned with the issue.
Officials of the Biden and Bennett governments are endeavoring to keep any bickering behind closed doors, wishing to avoid the open confrontations that marked the 12 years that Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister.
The reporting on alleged attacks by Israelis against Arabs in Judea and Samaria also noted that Israeli law enforcement was often the victim of settler attacks and noted Israeli efforts to constrain the phenomenon.
Ice Cream Truck Funeral
just witnessed an ice cream man’s funeral and all the ice cream vans came and followed in solidarity I AM SOBBING pic.twitter.com/bJhyJj4JoK
— Louisa Davies (@LouisaD__) December 17, 2021
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