MK Moshe Gafni was recently unable to go to Shacharis after opponents of his political opinions jammed his front door lock with superglue.
The Oz Unit, responsible for the security of MKs, increased the number of patrols near his home and installed more security cameras.
{Matzav.com Israel News}
The remarkably inspiring event took place at the Leonardo Plaza Hotel and began with Mincha. Seeing Shuvu boys Davening Mincha together is in itself an experience! What Kavanah! What Ratzon to get closer to the Ribbono Shel Olam!
We were honored to have so many distinguished guests with us, including Shuvu’s Nassi Dayan Abraham Shlita who flew in specially for the event, the Chief Rabbi of Israel Harav David Lau Shlita, Chairman of the Finance Committee MK Rav Moshe Gafni, Director General of the Chinuch Atzmai Rav Eliezer Sorotzkin, Shuvu UK Chairman R’ David Blachman, Director of Shuvu’s Kiruv Rabbonim Project Rav Yehuda Butterman, and many of Shuvu’s major supporters including R’ Ralph Herzka, R’ Reuven Wolf, R’ Moshe Fuchs, R’ Bernie Englard, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Penson, Mr. Chaim Turpiashvili, Mr. Moishe Schimmel, and Mrs. Tirtza Faust.
What a perfect way to come into Zman Matan Torateinu! Chag Sameach!
Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Gershon Edelstein wrote a letter to the Conference of European Rabbis warning its rabbonim “not to accept dayonim from Israel who come to convert people and immediately return to the Holy Land,” as this can lead to many pitfalls. In general, the letter added, a beis din should not be involved exclusively with conversions.
Chief Rabbi of Geneva Yitzchok Dayan said that he was happy with the letter.
“The letter we received from the two… gedolei hador is a source of pride,” he said, noting that unauthorized people were traveling to Europe to conduct conversions.
“I’m definitely concerned,” Rav Dayan added. “This is not a problem of Geneva or any particular country but of the Jewish people. We will sign a document stating our refusal to accept any rabbi who comes on his own and conducts all sorts of conversions in Europe. We have botei din which are recognized by the Chief Rabbinate.”
{Matzav.com Israel News}
Ostensibly offended by the immodest garb of Rachel Asraf, a woman in her fifties who was on her way to visit her grandchildren, a chareidi Beit Shemesh boy hurled a stone at her. A light head injury led to her evacuation to Yerushalayim’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Despite chareidi volunteers providing immediate first aid, the victim’s daughter, Karin Asraf, wrote a scathing diatribe of the incident on Facebook and branded the incident as worse than a terrorist attack.
She noted this was not the first such incident. Extremist had thrown stones at her own car in the past and spat at her and her mother. She concluded her message by expressing hope that the boy would realize that the correct path in life is not to harm other people’s health.
Chareidi mayor Moshe Abutbol visited the victim and Internal Security Minister Gilad Arden told the family that he would conduct an official meeting to evaluate the situation.
Karin Asraf opened a Facebook group titled, “Stopping the violence of extremist chareidim.” It received wide support.
{Matzav.com Israel News}
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri submitted a Knesset bill which, if passed, will invalidate all conversions conducted in Israel except those performed by the Israeli Rabbinate. The bill’s purpose is to circumvent a 2016 Supreme Court ruling which demanded state recognition of conversions conducted by private Orthodox rabbinical courts in Israel for the purpose of Israel’s Law of Return. Following the court ruling, Conservative and Reform groups petitioned that it should also apply to their conversions and were scheduled for a hearing this week.
The 2016 court ruling was in response to an appeal of the Itim conversion advocacy organization, which is actively converting minors from the former Soviet Union with their parents’ consent. Opponents of the Supreme Court ruling argue that conversion should require state authorization just as people need state authorization for car licenses and marriage.
{Matzav.com Israel News}
Shas representatives forced the government to include a chareidi station in a new state radio authority, Kan, set up by Prime Minister Netanyahu to replace the left-wing and inefficient Israel Broadcasting Authority which once had a stranglehold over Israeli broadcasting. The station’s longest running TV news program, Glance at the News, was just shuttered after running for forty-nine years. Shas representatives had threatened to vote against the plan unless it included a chareidi station.
Deri instructed MK Yoav Ben Tzur of Shas to do everything possible to stop plans to establish the new radio station’s offices at the entrance to Yerushalayim’s chareidi Har Nof neighborhood, as this would expose it to mass chillul Shabbos.
“There is no shortage of places in Yerushalayim for the corporation’s offices,” Deri said.
{Matzav.com Israel News}
A unique collaboration Featuring The A Team, Levy Falkowitz, & The Shira Choir.
Arranged by Avremi G. Featuring a 35 piece A Team Orchestra.
Fronting the celebration are Shira Choir and Levy Falkowitz.
Credits:
Produced by: Yitzy Schwartz
Arranged by: Avremi G
Choir Arranged and Conducted by: Yoly Horowitz
Live Sound: M Zukerman
Mixed and Mastered by: Yaniv Balas
Israel Concierge: Rabbi Steve Jobs
Post Production: Platinum Productions, Moshe Krausz, Avrumi Berko, Ian Freitor – Play Masters Studio
No title: Moe Wasserteil
Video by: Motty Engel
Additional Cameras: Max Verano, Mendel Mish & Jakob Barak
A very special thank you to the following people who worked closely to ensure the success of this production, and work closely with the A-Team to ensure the success of many high-end productions throughout the year: Yanky Schwartz Avrum Mordche Schwartz Avremi Gourarie Ben Mayer Motty J Ilya Lishinsky Moshe Zukerman Yumi Kleinbart – B&B party rental.
Shulem Schwartz – master event planner at The Palace Ballroom, Brooklyn NY
Shraga Gold, Hershy Weinberger & Yoly Horowitz of The Shira Choir Asher Werner Yisroel Aurbach.
The A Team musicians are: Gal Gershovsky Motti Feldman Yitzy Schwartz Ramon De Bruyn
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Sheets of a Sefer Torah used around the time of the Holocaust in a Polish city were returned to Jewish hands this week.
The decision to return the sheets, which include passages from the book of Genesis, was made after Israel Hayom reported on a 1925 medallion found in Poland. The medallion, issued to mark the inauguration of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, features a Star of David and Hebrew writing.
A Polish woman saw the translated article and told From the Depths, an Israeli organization dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and education, that her grandmother in Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Poland, possessed an item that could have Jewish significance.
“She showed me this surviving part of the Torah scroll, and I was extremely moved,” Jonny Daniels, head of From the Depths, told Israel Hayom. “This is a relic of a glorious Jewish community in the city. Only a few survivors remain, and now that this is handed back just before Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah, it is nothing short of amazing….I expressed my deepest gratitude to this Polish woman for preserving it…and she was extremely happy to hand it back to Jewish hands because it gave her closure. I plan to bring it to Israel and to give it to people who lived there.”
(JNS.org)
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Seven years ago, the nephews of a deceased Uruguayan Jew told a beis din that he was childless and received his inheritance. Three years later, a man appeared in beis din and claimed to be the deceased’s son. The Haifa Beis Din examined his claim in great depth and concluded that he was indeed telling the truth.
The cousins appealed the Haifa decision in the Yerushalayim’s Beis Din of Appeals. Arguing that the self-claimed heir was a fake who had no contact with the deceased or his wife for thirty years and was not present at the levayah, they demanded a DNA test to reveal the truth. Two members of the beis din argued that the thorough investigations already conducted made any more tests superfluous. The third dayan, Rav Eliezer Igra, argued that due to modern advancements in DNA testing, such a test would provide incontrovertible evidence of the truth and should be used.
The psak followed the majority opinion. At a subsequent appeal in Israel’s Supreme Court, Justice Manny Mazuz took the beis din’s side, writing: “The Beis Din Hagadol explained in detail how the dayonim operated to reach a correct decision and there is no sign in their mode of operation of any defect in the principles of natural justice.”
{Matzav.com Israel News}
A body found in Brooklyn may be a brother of child-killer Levi Aron, who is serving decades in prison for kidnapping, killing and dismembering a young boy in 2011, law enforcement sources say.
Relatives found the body duct-taped and wrapped in a sheet in the basement of a home on East 2nd Street in Kensington Heights, the sources said.
The home was blocked off with crime scene tape on Friday afternoon. It’s unclear who it belongs to.
Police have not identified the body, but they believe it to be a brother of Aron who has been missing since Tuesday, according to sources, who cautioned the information is preliminary. Read more at NBC.
{Matzav}
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Brooklyn Councilman David G. Greenfield is giving away free helmets on Sunday, June 4th, from 12:oo p.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Kolbert Playground, which is located on Avenue L between 17th and 18th Street in Midwood.
The event is open to everyone, children and adults alike, though children will need a parent or legal guardian to sign a form in order to participate. “We are giving away free bike helmets on a first-come, first-served basis,” Greenfield said. “However, helmets don’t work if they are not fitted. So you must be there in person to get the helmet fitted by an expert in order to get the free helmet,” Greenfield said.
Studies show that bike riders are 10 times more likely to get seriously hurt or even killed when they are not wearing a helmet.
“This event is about protecting people. It’s simple: wearing a helmet is the easiest way for bicyclists to stay safe on the road,” Greenfield said.
The event is part of the city’s Vision Zero program, which Greenfield funds and which aims to reduce traffic accidents and ensure pedestrian safety.
“Biking is a wonderful activity for your body, but a concussion isn’t. Riding a bike is only truly healthy when you’re wearing a properly fitted helmet,” Greenfield said.
{Matzav.com}
The township has exceeded 100,000 residents, making it the eighth largest in New Jersey, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent data.
The Ocean County town now has approximately 100,758 residents, according to the bureau’s data from 2016. That’s a 1.5 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Very few local municipalities are expanding the way Lakewood is, said James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
Lakewood had 99,231 residents in 2015, and added more than 26,529 people to its population since the recession. In 2000, the township had just 60,352 residents.
Lakewood’s growth is due to an increase in the town’s Latino community, its senior citizen community and its Jewish community. The 25-square-mile town is the largest yeshiva in North America, and is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish Communities on the East Coast. Hughes said Lakewood is unique because its growth stems from a religious group that wants to live in the same community.
In 2016, Lakewood also had the most new home construction in the state. Developers were issued 710 permits. A total of 560 permits were issued to one- and two-family homes and 150 went to multifamily homes.
The public school system has about 6,000 students, and approximately 30,000 students who attend private school, which cater to the town’s burgeoning Jewish population. Read more at NJ.COM.
{Matzav}
The levaya of Rav Shmuel Faivelson zt”l, rosh yeshiva of Bais Medrash L’Torah of Monsey, NY, will be taking place in Yerushalayim at 8 p.m. Israel time and 1 p.m. EST. Listen to an audio hookup of the levaya by calling 515.604.9031 and entering access number 248476.
British Jews reacted with horror to Saturday night’s terrorist attack on an area of London known for its teeming bars, restaurants and night clubs – the third such outrage on UK soil in the space of ten weeks – calling as well for heightened vigilance at synagogues and other community buildings.
The Community Security Trust (CST) – which works closely with the police and other authorities to ensure Jewish communal security – noted in a statement that “These attacks are at a time of many warnings from Police and Government regarding the high level of terrorist threat.” In the wake of Saturday night’s attack, British authorities raised the threat level from terrorism to “severe,” meaning that the prospect of yet another assault is “highly likely.”
The CST stressed that it had no specific information about a planned attack on Jewish institutions, but urged communal officials to “fully implement” existing security measures. A list of necessary security procedures included an instruction to “Prevent ‘tailgaiting’ – stopping someone close behind you attempting to gain access to the building when gates or doors are opened.”
Seven people were killed and nearly 50 others injured during Saturday night’s attack, when a van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge. The three terrorists in the van then climbed out and ran to nearby Borough Market where they began stabbing people. Within eight minutes, armed police officers were on the scene, shooting all three terrorists dead. Eyewitnesses reported that the terrorists were screaming “this is for Allah!” as they attacked. The terrorists also wore fake suicide bomb vests.
The Metropolitan Police announced on Sunday afternoon that 12 people had been arrested in connection with the attack, following a raid on a flat owned by one of the terrorists in Barking, on the outskirts of east London.
British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis reflected with sadness that the London Bridge attack had followed a similar Islamist attack on Westminster Bridge on March 22, in which four people died, as well as the suicide bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on May 22, in which 23 people, many of them children, were killed.
“After Westminster and Manchester we stood together defiant,” Rabbi Mirvis said. “Yet it seems the terrorists believe that where they have previously failed to poison our communities, with their destructive ideology of hatred and prejudice, they can succeed with still more bloodshed and murder. But we must not let them.”
Gillian Merron – chief executive of the UK Jewish Board of Deputies (BOD) – said: “We condemn last night’s terrorist incident in the London Bridge area in the strongest terms. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and our gratitude is with the emergency services. People of all faiths and none must come together to defeat this evil.”
The London Bridge attack came five days ahead of Britain’s much-anticipated General Election. The government has confirmed that the June 8 poll will go ahead.
(C) 2017 . The Algemeiner Ben Cohen
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-Communicated-
In a single instant, a young Rabbi’s life became a nightmare.
The mashgiach, HaRav Segal, was in the midst of preparing food for a group that would be staying in Lodz, when he collapsed due to cardiac arrest.
For 10 excruciating minutes, the Rav lay on the floor, lifeless. When help finally arrived, medical personnel had to work hard for 20 precious minutes to bring him back to life. Eventually, they gave up. The Rav’s family begged the first aid crew to resume, and they continued. After another 25 minutes and 4 shocks from a defibrillator they brought him back to life.
When he arrived to the hospital in Lodz, his whole body function was diagnosed as collapsed, and the doctors didn’t have much hope for him. However his family continues to believe in Hashem’s rachmonos.
Rabbi Segal is in need of emergency major heart surgery immediately so that he can wake up.
Despite a minor operation in Lodz, he is still in critical condition. Doctors are hoping to stabilize him to be ready for a medical emergency airlift transfer to Israel to undergo heart surgery. The Israeli hospital is more equipped to save the Rav’s life. The doctors in Israel are hopeful that the operation could be successful.
However, Rabbi Segal is stuck in a foreign country with staggering medical expenses weighing down heavily on his family. While his family pray for a miracle, they desperately need to finance the flight, and all the medical care costs.
8 children & their mother plead: Please open your heart and give life to Rabbi Shimon Dov Ben Rochel Breindel. Every donation could mean saving this precious life.
We ask you to please be mispallel for Shimon Dov ben Rochel Breindel for a complete Refuah Shleima.
Thanks,
The Segal Family.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL CAMPAIGN
Directors of chareidi educational institutions met to discuss how to stop attempts of Education Ministry Inspectors to alter the traditional curriculum of chareidi kindergartens. Some inspectors have even recommended against teaching young children ma’asei Bereishis, arguing that it is above their intellectual understanding.
A special message sent to the meeting by Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Rav Gershon Edelstein, and Rav Dov Landau stated that kindergartens should continue to put emphasis on rousing children’s emotions with stories related to the parsha and yomim tovim.
“Kindergarten teachers are to receive no educational instructions from external inspectors,” the letter said. Instead, directors of educational institutions are to cooperate with chareidi inspectors appointed by a supervisory board which will be established with the blessing of Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman. Rav Meir Kessler assured attendees at the meeting that the Education Ministry was not waging war against the chareidi community.
“That’s why we must stand strong,” he said. “Not everything a supervisor on the job says needs to be listened to, even if she has an official supervisory role.”
He said, “the attitude of the Education Ministry heads is not insistent and forceful,” and its officials “understand our needs.” Therefore, “no kindergarten teacher needs to fear what a supervisor says or threatens.”
{Matzav.com Israel News}
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