Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Israeli study: 4th shots were key to saving lives among over-60s in Omicron wave
New Israeli research indicates fourth shots of the Pfizer–BioNTech coronavirus vaccine significantly curtailed deaths in Israel’s older population during the Omicron wave.
It also raises the question of how many lives may have been lost due to the world’s slow adoption of fourth shots.
Israelis who topped up their triple-vaccine protection with a fourth shot of the vaccine reduced their chances of death by 78 percent, according to Clalit Health Services and Sapir College.
This was calculated by studying death rates among Israelis aged 60-plus who were four months after their third vaccine, over a 40-day period during the Omicron wave. For every five deaths among those who didn’t get a fourth shot, there was just one death among those who did.
One-year-old Avraham Saadia drowns in bucket of paint
Avraham Saadia, 15 months old, drowned Monday evening in a bucket of paint in the yard of his Netivot home.
Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics attempted to resuscitate the infant, but were forced to declare his death.
MDA paramedics Maoz Wiberman and Osher Assuliin, who arrived at the scene on MDA motorcycles, said, "When we entered the courtyard of the building we saw the infant unconscious and covered in paint. We immediately began providing medical treatment, including [chest] massages and assisted respiration, while drawing out the paint which had entered his lungs, using special medical equipment."
"We continued the resuscitation, together with staff from the mobile ICU, but in the end we were forced to declare his death."
The Saadia family had been painting its home and yard ahead of the upcoming Passover holiday. The infant walked out the back door as his family painted the house, and entered the bucket, where his sister Hilda found him. He is survived by his parents and seven siblings.
Nachum Segal plans to rebuild after fire destroys studio
The Lower East Side studio of Jewish radio personality Nachum Segal was destroyed in a fire on Sunday.
The studio, at 551 Grand Street in Manhattan, was the headquarters for the Nachum Segal Network since 2002, where Segal hosted his popular radio show, “Jewish Moments in the Morning.” Also known as “JM in the AM,” the show was broadcast on WFMU in Jersey City until 2016, and now streams on Segal’s own platforms.
Segal said that fire marshals believe the blaze was an electrical fire, which ended up consuming almost all of the studio. “That destruction is difficult to deal with,” he told the New York Jewish Week.
Numerous photographs had adorned the walls of the studio, which included leading rabbis, Jewish politicians, major league sports stars and more. All were destroyed. “The walls, just themselves, were a tremendous loss,” Segal said.
He added that a 20-volume scrapbook showcasing his career and the network’s growth over the years was salvaged in the fire. “We lost mostly everything,” he said. “All the equipment is destroyed and a lot of the memorabilia is going to be missed, but that multi-volume scrapbook is really important to me and I’m glad it survived.”
Segal said there has been an outpouring of support from his listeners, with many calling and texting to comfort him. “It’s a tremendous feeling of hope and resilience and rebuilding — that’s what we want to focus on today,” he said.
The network launched an online fundraising campaign to help offset the costs of the damage. The campaign, which launched on Sunday, has raised more than $70,000 as of this writing.
“I never expected this kind of outpouring,” Segal said. “It’s hard to believe how much my audience always comes through. There is a tremendous amount of appreciation for what we do.”
Segal will do the show remotely for the time being, though he plans to put money from the campaign toward a new broadcasting space. “I look forward to using the funds to build and rebuild a really beautiful, state of the art studio,” he said. “One that is befitting the mission that we’re on, one that we can take great pride in.”
The show, streaming for three hours each weekday, includes a mix of Jewish music, interviews and rabbinical and political commentary. It is most popular in religious homes; Segal has occasionally done remote feeds from Modern Orthodox redoubts like Teaneck and Tenafly, New Jersey.
Segal, who got his start on Yeshiva University’s radio station, said that the network is “unabashadley pro-Israel,” but also includes Torah study and other religious themes. “Someone said to me that there is so much Torah that emanates from your studio that today’s fire is reminiscent of the destruction of the temple,” Segal said. “They don’t mean literally, but people view it as an important hub of Jewish activity, Jewish education and Jewish themes.”
Segal added that he was “thankful to the Almighty” that nothing worse happened from the fire.
“It could have, God forbid, taken someone’s life,” he said. “It could have been so much more devastating. We get to be in a position to continue, and hopefully continue stronger.”
Monday, March 28, 2022
In An Ironic Twist ...Holocaust survivors flee from Ukraine to Germany for Safety
When the bombs started falling on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, last month, Tatyana Zhuravliova had a horrible deja vu: the 83-year-old Ukrainian Jew felt the same panic she suffered as a little girl when the Nazis were flying air attacks on her hometown of Odesa.
“My whole body was shaking, and those fears crept up again through my entire body — fears which I didn’t even know were still hidden inside me,” Zhuravliova said.
Her eyes welled up with tears as she remembered how she hid under the table from the bombs during World War II, and eventually fled with her mother to Kazakhstan when the Nazis and their henchmen started massacring ten of thousands of Jews in Odesa.
“Now I’m too old to run to the bunker. So I just stayed inside my apartment and prayed that the bombs would not kill me,” Zhuravliova, a retired doctor, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
But as Russia’s military attacks on Ukraine become even more brutal and demolished residential apartment blocks, she realized that she had to flee again if she didn’t want to die. So Zhuravliova accepted an offer from a Jewish organization to bring her out of Ukraine to safety.
In an unexpected twist of history, some of the 10,000 Holocaust survivors who had been living in Ukraine have now been taken to safety in Germany — the country that unleashed World War II and organized the murder of 6 million Jews across Europe.
Zhuravliova was part of the first group of four Jewish Holocaust survivors evacuated from Ukraine by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. The group represents the world’s Jews in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs, and provides welfare for Holocaust survivors around the globe.
A second group of 14 Holocaust survivors, many of them ill and bed-ridden, were brought out of Ukraine on Sunday. The Claims Conference is working with its partners, among them the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC, to get as many Holocaust survivors out of Ukraine as possible.
Around 500 Holocaust survivors in Ukraine are especially in need of help because of their ailing health — their evacuation is a top priority, says the JDC.
It’s a highly difficult and complex operation to transport such frail people out of Ukraine, where constant shelling and artillery fire make any evacuation very dangerous. It involves finding medical staff and ambulances in numerous war zones, crossing international borders and even convincing survivors, who are ill and unable to leave their homes without help, to flee into uncertainty again, this time without the vigor of youth.
Kew Gardens Neighbors Fighting Hatzala's New Building
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| Rendering of a proposed Hatzolah depot on 68th Road in Kew Gardens Hills. |
The Kew Garden Hills block is something out of a bygone era, with many of its mostly Jewish residents living on the same street for half a century, treating each other like family.
But some of the Queens homeowners say they are now living in fear of the “800-pound gorilla” haunting the community — a proposed Hatzolah ambulance depot on their block.
Opposition to the project on 68th Road at Main Street has brought alleged threats and other forms of intimidation, with protesters noting that a key opponent was left in a burn ICU after a mysterious fire started in his car.
“We [are being] blackmailed into being silenced,” said a resident, too afraid to publicly share his name, to the Post.
Locals opposed to the plans by the Queens Hatzolah — a local Jewish ambulance service that aims to provide more culturally sensitive services — have formed a block association to fight the project. The proposed depot would have five ambulance garages and be taller than the houses on the block.
The residents say they are worried about the quality-of-life ramifications to their idyllic block if an outpost of Hatzolah, which responds to 7,000 emergency calls a year, is located there. And that’s not to mention the effect it might have on their home values.
Avi Koenigsberg, president of the 68th Road Block Association, said he used to volunteer for Hatzolah and knows how valuable the service can be to the Jewish community.
The elder Koenigsberg said the plan was made with “no consideration for the neighborhood” and that he and many other residents were never asked for their thoughts.
“People are generally in favor of the operation of this Hatzolah group because they are helpful to the community,’’ Mordecai said.
“We said it may be true that you are doing a lot of valuable things for the community, but there has to be some oversight,” he recalled of conversations with backers of the plans.
Then the threats came, he and other project opponents said.
Backers of the plan reportedly told those who oppose the building that the protests could make volunteers not as willing to help those in the area, Mordecai Koenigsberg said.
“That’s a nasty thing to say,” Mordecai said.
The block is home to many religious Jews .
A supporter of the project allegedly “goes over to a neighbor and says, ‘You have a daughter that’s 21 or 22. If you fight us, your daughter will not get married,’ ” said another block resident, who asked not to be named. “A widow was approached and told, ‘What do you care if your house goes down in value? You will leave it to your children.’
“Our quality of life is being destroyed,” the neighbor said. “I don’t need to live where people are intimidating me, intimidating my children.”
These sentiments were felt even before fire broke out at Avi Koenigsberg’s house in the early morning on March 3. The blaze started in his car, which had been turned off about four hours earlier when he got home and parked it in the driveway.
The smoke traveled upward from the car to the garage and then to Avi’s room above. Firefighters pulled him out of the house unconscious.
“If I had been upstairs for even a few more minutes, I wouldn’t be here anymore,” Avi said.
His insurance company and city fire marshals are still investigating how the fire started, he said. It appears the fire started in the trunk or in his backseat, Avi said, adding that there is no proof it was arson but it also hasn’t been ruled out. The FDNY did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
Some residents noted that the fire happened at the address to which the block association is registered and said they were worried an overzealous supporter of the depot is out there.
There is no indication Hatzolah was involved in the blaze.
Hatzolah did not respond to multiple requests for comments from The Post.
While the block association is trying to stop them in court, it is likely the depot will be built, foes said.
“The irony of this is that nobody [at the top] at Hatzolah — the coordinators, the president — would even think or allow this to happen to their block,” a homeowner said.
Another resident who spoke on condition of anonymity added, “We have the best neighborhood anyone could ask for.
“They put a pall over the block.”
MK Barkat to gun owners: Bring your gun with you - and shoot terrorists
MK Nir Barkat (Likud) called on Israeli gun owners to carry their firearms with them at all times, and to be prepared to gun down terrorists should they be present at the scene of an attack.
Barkat, the former Mayor of Jerusalem, tweeted Sunday night following the deadly shooting attack in Hadera, urged licensed gun owners to remain armed at all times.
“The scenes from the deadly attack in Hadera are disturbing,” tweeted Barkat. “I offer my condolences to the families of the murdered, and I join the whole country in praying for the wounded victims’ recovery.”
“I call on citizens who are licensed to carry [guns] to keep their weapons on their person, and to be prepared to confront and neutralize any terrorist immediately. The police on their own cannot handle the many threats, therefore it is incumbent on citizens to carry the burden of self-defense.”
Barkat also called on the government to loosen gun ownership laws, making it easier for ex-soldiers leaving the army to purchase firearms.
“The government must change its policies and instead of preventing [gun ownership], it must allow demobilized soldiers from combat units to immediately be able to receive a gun license and to own a gun in order to neutralize terrorists as quickly as possible. Every disgusting terrorist who tries to murder Jews should know that his blood will be on his own head.”
Friday, March 25, 2022
Biden's Speechwriter?
This is the funniest thing on the internet today
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 23, 2022
pic.twitter.com/Sm1kHfQXpX
Discovery On Mt. Eival Is ‘Death Blow For Biblical Deniers'
הכתובת העברית העתיקה ביותר עד כה התגלתה על הר עיבל, ההר שעליו נערך מעמד הקללה התנ"כי - כך טוענים מספר חוקרים מישראל ומחו"ל.
— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) March 24, 2022
הכתובת: קללה עם שם ה' המפורש, והמילה ארור שמופיעה 10 פעמים pic.twitter.com/ezTDqbn4MY
A rare archaeological discovery on Mount Eival has shed light on the biblical period and proved a hotly contested fact – that the Jewish nation did in fact speak and write Hebrew 3,200 years ago at the time when they entered the land of Israel. The rare finding, a folded lead panel, contains the earliest known Hebrew writing and remarkably the writing coincides with the biblical description of Mt. Eival as the “Mountain of Curses” at which the Levites pronounce curses on those who do not uphold the Torah’s precepts.
Professor Gershon Galil of Haifa University terms the find a “watershed in Biblical research”. Galil says that before the new finding dated to the 13th century BCE, the oldest known Hebrew writing was from the 10th century BCE. “This was an inscription found at Khirbet Queiyafa near the Elah Valley by Prof. Yossi Garfunkel and I succeeded in deciphering it.”
Professor Galil says that the new find is a “death blow to all Bible deniers: Many biblical critics claimed that in the 13th century BCE the Jews did not know how to read and write and therefore could not have written the bible. Therefore they claimed that the bible was written much later in the Persian or Hellenistic periods.
The panel bears an inscription which says: Curse, Curse,Curse, Cursed to G-d, die cursed, Cursed- he will die, Cursed to G-d, Cursed, Cursed, Cursed.”
Prof. Galil says that this is a sophisticated piece of work: “Whoever knows how to write a text with chiastic structures can write almost anything. At this stage unfortunately we cannot reveal all of the information found since it requires peer review and academic publication but already from what we see today we can say Shehecheyanu on finding Hashem’s name in Hebrew from this period.”
Professor Galil notes the importance of finding these curses on Mt. Eival in accordance with the account in Devarim (Chapter 27) regarding the special ceremony which took place here after the Israelites entered Israel.
Prof. Galil explains that in previous times a legal agreement contained an internal clause which was written on the inner side and when there was a dispute, the sides opened the inner side to see what was written there. This finding also has internal and external text.
In 1980 Prof. Adam Zertal discovered an altar on Mt. Eival and claimed it was that of Yehoshua Bin Nun, based on its unique features and characteristics. Some academics doubted this analysis and thought it was a Canaanite site but the new finding, discovered in earth near the site of the altar, proves that Jews had worshiped here, since the name of Hashem “Yahu” would mean nothing to Canaanites.
The research was led by Dr. Scott Stripling of the Texas-based Associates for Biblical Research which used the successful methods used in sifting the Temple Mount earth to sift the earth near the altar of Yehoshua. Stripling said that he was “amazed” to discover an inscription in Hebrew from the late Bronze Age and Iron Age.
Galil concludes that there is now more and more evidence and findings which support the Biblical account.”
Thursday, March 24, 2022
The Litvishe Israeli Yated Ne'eman Disgrace the Memory of the Murdered Harav Moshe Karvitizki
R' Moshe Karvitzki hy"d who was murdered by an Arab savage, was a devoted Chabad Chasid and a shliach, but reading the Yated, you would never know it.
The arab stabbed his body to death, and frum shoimre shabbas are now destroying his soul.
Every single report even the secular media reported that he was a chabad shliach.
Who was it that said that "litvaks" carry a cross in their hearts?
Biden’s Israel ambassador says he wants Jews out of Jerusalem
Biden’s ambassador to Israel recently told participants in a pro-BDS group’s webinar that the real problem with the Palestinian Authority funding terrorism is that “it gives the ‘haters’ an excuse not to support the P.A. based on the argument that it is ‘paying for people who killed Jews.’”
He also told the anti-Israel group, whose CEO has described Israel as an “oppressive regime” and which cheered the Ben & Jerry’s boycott, that “your agenda is where my heart is.”
At this rate, Thomas Nides will be hugging and kissing Hamas leaders by the end of the year.
Expectations for Nides were already pretty low when the Biden administration announced that it had picked Obama’s former deputy secretary of state as its ambassador to Israel.
Hillary Clinton was going to make Nides her chief of staff, but once Hillary in the White House became as likely as peace with Hamas and the PLO, Nides had to settle for being Biden’s bully in Jerusalem while his wife, who is a VP at CNN, stays on in Washington D.C.
Nides’s main qualification for the job had been yelling “You don’t want to f***ing defund UNESCO” at a former Israeli ambassador. He had also vocally opposed efforts to defund UNRWA and stop subsidizing the terror refugee industry. He has also served on the board of the International Rescue Committee, which has repeatedly attacked Israel.
J Street, the anti-Israel pressure group, welcomed Nides’s nomination and announced that it “looked forward to working” with him. Other anti-Israel groups, including the Israel Policy Forum and Americans for Peace Now (APN), echoed the sentiment.
It didn’t take long for Nides to justify their faith in his hostility to the Jewish state.
The Insane Hilarious Remarks by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at Senate Hearings
Below is a compilation of the many insane remarks made by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Senate hearings this week.
These comments include: Her inability to define “woman”, claiming that calling President Bush a war criminal was not intended to disparage, refusing to acknowledge there are biological differences between men and women, refusing to say whether a Hispanic can decide that he is really an Asian, refusing to say whether an unborn child can feel pain at 20 weeks during birthing, and refusing to regret sentencing a convicted child pornographer to 3 months in jail.
Further proof that choosing a nominee based on gender and race, rather than merit, does not get the highest caliber.
Asked by Senator @JohnCornyn why she referred to a Republican defense secretary and a Republican president as "war criminals" while she was representing a Taliban terrorist, Ketanji Brown Jackson says she "did not intend to disparage" them. pic.twitter.com/zLS3p9nOH9
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 22, 2022
SEN. BLACKBURN: "Can you provide a definition of the word 'woman'?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 23, 2022
JACKSON: "No, I can't"
BLACKBURN: "You can't?"
JACKSON: "I'm not a biologist" pic.twitter.com/i7Rg83z5Y4
Senator @tedcruz: "I think you're the only Supreme Court nominee in history who's been unable to answer the question: what is a woman?" pic.twitter.com/y7MsJLvMU9
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 23, 2022
BLACKBURN: "Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 23, 2022
Jackson refuses to answer. pic.twitter.com/rCN7H4KjBj
Mrs. Devorah Chana Phillipson from Monsey Dies Suddenly
Mrs. Devorah Chana Phillipson of Monsey was 55.
Devorah Chana a”h, was born in Boro Park to Mr. and Mrs. Menachem Mendel Gottlieb.
Mrs. Phillipson’s husband, Rabbi Binyomin Phillipson, is a renowned philanthropist who leads the Yad Elka Foundation, distributing tens of millions of shekels before each yom tov to thousands of needy families in Israel. Additionally, he is a well-known donor to numerous Torah institutions and various tzedakos throughout the world.
Mrs. Phillipson was his partner in all that he does. Her home was known to be open to all, and she was mekarev countless college students who received their first taste of yiddishkeit in the Phillipson home.
She and her husband would visit the Tosher Rebbe before each Yom Kippur, following his advice to a tee and never allowing their own opinions and preferences to guide them. Emunas chachomim and daas torah were the foundation of their home, which was steeped in torah and gemilas chasadim.
The levaya was held at noon in Spring Valley, with the nifteres now being flown to Eretz Yisroel for kevurah.
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Der Yid Satmar Propaganda Paper Misleads It's Readers on The Murderous Iranian Regime
The Satmar Rebbe of Monroe begged his followers to write letters to then president Hussain Obama and Congressmen to back the "Iran Deal" They even sent their "lap-dog" Ezra the "capo" Friedlander out to convince Holocaust survivors living in Boro-Park and Williamsburg that the "Iran Deal" was a "great" thing!
The fact that the Iranian Mullas threatened 5.9 million Jews living in Israel, vowing to wipe them off the map, that didn't faze the Satmar Rebbe!
The latest issue of Der Shturmer, I mean Der Yid, touts the fact that the "Iranian Government sold the tomb of Mordechai & Esther to the Iranian Jews!"
This is on the very front page on the left side, third article from the top.
This was written to give stupid Der Yid readers the impression that the Mullas love Jews but hate Zionists!
But this byline is an absolute lie!
The Murderous Mullas had nothing to do with this sale, it was sold by the Shah to the Jews way back in 1968
Black Lady Judge Who Wants to Become Supreme Court Justice Doesn't Know What a "Woman" is
SEN. BLACKBURN: "Can you provide a definition of the word 'woman'?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 23, 2022
JACKSON: "No, I can't"
BLACKBURN: "You can't?"
JACKSON: "I'm not a biologist" pic.twitter.com/i7Rg83z5Y4
US Colonel Says Zelensky Is Not A Hero
The main media narrative during the Russia and Ukraine war has been that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a brave hero who did the proper thing for his nation.
The media, and people in general, love a simple dichotomy of good versus evil and no shades of gray, but that is not always the reality, nor how everyone sees it.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor had another take on what the Ukrainian president could have done to avoid bloodshed. And while many people in the media are likely to portray his comments as being pro-Russia or pro-Putin all he really did was present his opinion on what could have been done to prevent war.
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