Statement from Agudath Israel of America on the passing of Shimon Peres

Agudath Israel of America notes with sadness the passing of Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister and President of the state of Israel, at the age of 93. Throughout his long political career, Shimon Peres displayed great respect for the Orthodox Jewish community and its rabbinic leaders. Mr. Peres repeatedly defended the religious status quo against those who sought to undermine the Jewish character of Israel. On a personal level, he enjoyed a warm relationship with a number of charedi and dati leaders and activists. On one of his last trips to Israel, the late president of Agudath Israel, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, met with then Prime Minister Peres and praised him for his strong support of maintaining the unity of the Jewish people by standing firm in support of the religious status quo. Agudath Israel extends its deep sympathies and sincere condolences to the Peres family. HaMakom yenachem osam b’soch she’ar aveilei Tzion v’Yrushalayim – may Hashem comfort them among the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim.

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres passes away at 93

Hamodia YERUSHALAYIM - On September 28, 25 Elul, Shimon Peres passed away.
Peres, 93, who had served as prime minister and in various ministerial capacities in successive administrations, recorded a range of achievements in the areas of defense, economy and social justice in the country.  Peres fought for his life during his final weeks after a serious stroke, but on Tuesday his medical condition deteriorated dramatically, organs failed, and family members and close friends were summoned to his bedside at Tel Hashomer hospital to bid him farewell.
Peres, a key figure in Israel’s founding generation, was at the center of the state’s development in the 68 years since its inception. He served in a dozen cabinets and twice as prime minister, even though he never won a general election outright in five tries from 1977 to 1996. He later served as president, a largely ceremonial role in Israel, from 2007–2014, before leaving government.

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Day of Jewish unity

An Orthodox Jewish outreach group that last year called for a “Day of Jewish Unity” to oppose the Iran nuclear deal is repeating the event this year, this time with the goal of countering the “polarizing political climate.”

Acheinu, based in Lakewood, New Jersey, and Israel, is encouraging yeshivas, synagogues and individuals to study and pray for peace and unity on Sept. 27, one day after the first presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

Comments from both candidates are featured in a promotional video for the event as examples of “the rancor rampant in the discourse between both campaigns.”

The organization is urging Jews around the world to recite selections from the Book of Psalms and study works by the Chofetz Chaim, the nom de plume of Israel Meir Kagan, an Eastern European rabbi of the late 19th and early 20th centuries best known for his works about the dangers of gossip. Acheinu is the kiruv, or outreach, arm of Dirshu, an organization dedicated to the works and legacy of the Chofetz Chaim.

The day will include a visit by rabbis associated with Dirshu to the Chofetz Chaim’s grave in Radin, Belarus.

Watch LIVE: Agudath Israel yom Iyun Emes and the Law

A Few Musings from Vacation on blogsphere

Rabbo Avrohom Gordimer who is one of the selfless individuals defending the torah from the onslaught of bloggers and the like took a vacation from writing, below are 6 points he has gleaned since he stopped contributing. In A blog post here in 2013 Klal yisrael is nod trending online  we shared a similar take.

By Rav Avrohom Gordimer posted on Cross Currents
My “vacation” from writing articles about the issues and controversies of the day has been quite refreshing – and quite educational. I think that I have learned or reviewed more life lessons in the past five weeks than I have done in a while. Although I am still on break, I’d like to share a bit of what I have gleaned from my return to the outside of the Orthodox blogosphere. These are not new ideas, but they are ideas which become exponentially clearer and compelling upon taking a step back from the action:

1. Many issues are not as important as the blogosphere makes them out to be. In the real world of Orthodox Jewry, most people are focused on learning Torah, doing mitzvos, working and taking care of their families. Numerous issues that become of central interest online are of little or no importance to much of the hamon am, and these issues do not affect it in any substantial way. Furthermore, the bulk of the novel and attention-grabbing Torah notions floated in the blogosphere don’t make it to the beis medrash or to the discourse of serious talmidei chachamim – and, when they do on occasion make it to the shaarei ha-Torah and are given consideration, they are quite often dismissed by the Torah masters as unfounded or as of amateur quality.

European Jews afraid to go to shul for Yomim Noraim

 Jpost- Seventy percent of European Jews will not go to synagogue on Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur this year, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey was conducted last week by the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) among a representative sample of 700 capital cities and communities in the periphery throughout Europe - from Britain in the west to Ukraine in the east.  

Respondents --which numbered 78-- included rabbis as well as Jewish community leaders, both religious and secular. The margin of error was ±4.9%. The pollsters explained that while the number of respondents is far lower than the number of communities represented, each respondent speaks for multiple communities as within certain cities and areas, many communities share similar characteristics.

Advertising in Jewish Media Driving Kosher Sales, according to some experts

New York – (Koshertoday)Wednesday is an important day of the week in the kosher market in that it not only ushers in the three day shopping period for the upcoming Shabbat, but it is also the day when the growing cadre of Jewish publications are displayed in kosher grocery stores and newsstands. The experts say that media for kosher foods includes the weekly national newspapers (i.e. Hamodia, Yated Ne’eman and Jewish Press), national magazines (i.e. Binah, Mishpacha and Ami), and free local publications (i.e. Five Town Jewish Times and the Flatbush Jewish Journal). Other smaller publications are also in the mix but clearly the bulk of kosher advertising is in the three categories. Also part of the media pool these days are several major on-line sites like Yeshiva World, Vos Iz Neias, and Matzav.

Tempest in a Tallis

By Rabbi Avi Shafran in Hamodia,
The image was, to be sure, jarring: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump being draped in a tallis.

By an African-American pastor.

In a Detroit church.

To resounding applause.

Bishop Wayne Jackson of the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit effected the atifah while most of us were listening to the Krias HaTorah of Parashas Re’eh, after the candidate addressed the minister’s congregation in an attempt to garner votes from a segment of the population not naturally supportive of his candidacy.

“Let me just put this on you,” Pastor Jackson said, identifying the garment as a prayer shawl “straight from Israel,” and The Donald, although he did look a mite befuddled, didn’t resist.

The congregation was effusive in its praise of the spectacle. Some Jewish media, clergyfolk and armchair pundits, though, considerably less so.

New shul dedicated at Moscow Domodedovo international airport

Hamodia In a simple, yet impressive ceremony last week, a beautiful new shul was dedicated in Moscow’s international airport for the benefit of the many Jewish travelers arriving in Russia or just passing through.

Present at the shul’s dedication ceremony were the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar, the Bareli family who sponsored the shul, and many others.

After affixing a mezuzah to the shul’s main doors, a special, mehudar sefer Torah was completed and placed into the beautiful aron kodesh while the participants sang and danced. It was a great kiddush Hashem amongst the many passengers who were in the airport during this time.

Tragedy near Monsey, 1 yeshiva bachur killed in car crash R'L

JP-A 20 year-old yeshiva student standing outside his yeshiva with another student Wednesday night were struck by a off duty police officer from the Peekskill Police Department who was speeding down route 202 in his personal vehicle, one boy who is from Argentina was transposed to Good Samaritan Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries,the second boy originally from mexico was transported to Westchester Medical Center, and is in stable condition.

The crash happened at around 11:45 o’clock Wednesday night just outside Yeshivat Tiferet Torah, a group of students were standing in the parking lot of the yeshiva when the off duty police officer from the Peekskill Police department in Westchester  was traveling on route 202 in his Lexus, apparently on high speed struck a Honda accord car who attempted to make a left turn to the yeshivas parking lot, as he struck the Honda he struck the two boys who fall down and suffered serious injures.

Posting gedolim pictures with a title of Harav Hagaon, does not make your site kosher

The frum news sites have strayed very far and more and more people are keeping away and not clicking or visiting those sites. Lately the frum websites are posting Gedolim pictures with big screamin headlines Harav Hagaon this doin this etc.. . A poor attempt to portray themselves as kosher, yeshivish, frum and somewhat associated with these gedolim. in between these posts and photos of Gedolim and Admorim they willl post Lahon Hora, inappropriate videos an what not. Its a way to sandwich the shmutz. Its time to call them out for it and stop patronizing them. Just today at YWN they posted a disgusting video from the lowest of the low in Israeli society who attack keduhas yisrael and are koifer in the taryag Mitzvos. perhaps the editors are clueless, but thats not an excuse. There cant be two sets of rules one for print media and than another one online were the bar is as low as can be.

New Organization Formed to Manage Lakewood Busing for frum schools

LAKEWOOD -( Hamodia) One month after an innovative piece of legislation that massively re-structured how busing for Lakewood’s private school community is administered became law, a new consortium to manage transportation for the town’s 125 mosdos, known as the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority (LSTA), is at the head of this daunting task. At its helm is Avraham Kraweic, who is leading the freshly inaugurated organization amid a feverish effort to arrange busing for tens of thousands of students as schools begin this week.

The law has created a three-year pilot program that takes busing for all of Lakewood’s non-public school students away from the authority of the local Board of Education, and instead gives a cash amount to the consortium on a per-student basis. This has left LSTA with the charge of rebuilding the massive transportation apparatus. They are partnering with mosdos, askanim, the Board of Education and township officials in their efforts.

“It’s definitely a challenge, but we want to put in all of our efforts to set up a healthy system for the next three years and hopefully beyond that,” Mr. Kraweic told Hamodia. “We are partnering with anyone and everyone; there’s no way to transition a behemoth like this without help.”

New York Times Column Smears Satmars as Ignorant Welfare Sponges

Algemeiner.com  by Ira Stoll

The latest salvo in the New York Times’ one-sidedcampaign against traditional Jewish education comes in the form of a column by Ginia Bellafante that is one of the nastiest and most unfounded attacks on a Jewish group published by the Times in recent memory.

The Times columnist accuses Satmar Hasidim of being welfare sponges:

Politicians who might otherwise feel free to lecture black and Hispanic communities on the importance of grit, self-reliance and the sacred path of higher learning express remarkably little outrage over the habits of a group that essentially enshrines its own dependency on the system. According to a 2011 study by the UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish philanthropic organization, just 11 percent of Hasidic men and 6 percent of Hasidic women in and around New York City hold bachelor’s degrees, while the poverty rate among Hasidic households stands at 43 percent, nearly twice the figure citywide.

A reliance on public assistance is remarkably common among the Hasidim, explained Lani Santo, the executive director of Footsteps, an organization begun in 2003 to help those who decide to leave the ultra-Orthodox world.

This is problematic on at least two levels.

Elul Zman 5776 begins in the Yeshiva world

Bein hazmanim comes to a close, and Elul Zman begins  in the yeshiva world. Yeshiva Ner Yisrael of Baltimore will began the new zman on Sunday night at Maariv. Lakewood yeshiva BMG began the new zman a day earlier on Motzei Shabbos, the first day of Rosh chodesh Elul. There are some yeshivos (Telz) who started the Zman already.  B"H there are new yeshivos opening to accomodate the growth and need for more yeshivos. Many new shtelles were created as well, adding new shiurim or replacing positions previously held by other maggidei shiur who moved to other yeshivos.

Rebel Rabbis- profiling Niturei Karta

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