Jerusalem - Israel is marking its annual Holocaust remembrance day, in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Ceremonies are held around the country on the solemn day, which is marked from Wednesday evening. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attending the main ceremony at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. On Thursday, Israelis will come to a mournful, two-minute standstill to remember the dead. A siren will sound, pedestrians will stop in their tracks and motorists will pull over on highways and roads. The names of those killed will be read out in parliament. This year’s memorial day comes as a report by Tel Aviv University found a drop in violent attacks against Jews last year, but said the number remains hig...
Baltimore, MD - May 1, 2016 - It was a beautiful, albeit windy, morning at Pimlico Race Course as Baltimore's Jewish community members joined together to burn their chometz in preparation for the first Pesach Seder.  This year marks the fourth annual Chometz Burning and Food Drive, sponsored by Baltimore City Council President Jack Young’s office, in partnership with Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. (CHAI) and Park Heights Renaissance (PHR).  The Chesed Fund worked with Jack Young’s office to coordinate the city agencies that were instrumental in helping to make this day possible. The event was held at the Pimlico Race Course Clubhouse Parking Lot, from 6:30 – 11:30 a.m. and over 5,000 Jews from all denominations were on hand to participate. Park Hei...
Baltimore, MD – May 4, 2016 - It is with deep regret that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah in Lakewood of Mrs. Sheila Brisk, a'h, wife of Reb Shia Brisk, (formerly of Baltimore, MD) mother of Rochel Lea Tepfer, Tamara Schwed, Naomi Ellenbogen, Tova Hershkowitz The Levaya will be taking place at 6:30 PM at the Country Place Shul, 124 Azalea Court. The Kevurah will take place in Lakewood.  Shiva at the home of the Brisks 75 Privet Way, Lakewood, NJ 08701 Bila HaMaves LaNetzach...
Belgium - An Orthodox Jewish toddler died this morning in a freak elevator accident in Antwerp. According to reports the two and a half year old boy Chezky Gross, a member of a prominent family of Belzer chasidim in the city’s Jewish community fell when he entered the old-style elevator and his head somehow got caught in the doors when the elevator began to move. The two year old boy was with his father and another child at the time of the accident, which took place in an apartment building on the Charlottei in the city’s diamond district, according to the Belgian news site Het Nieuwsblad.  Hatzolah was called to the scene to extricate the toddler but were unable to save the child, who was pronounced dead at the scene.  Police sealed off the entire building...
Washington - Ohio Gov. John Kasich is leaving the Republican presidential contest, giving Donald Trump a clear path to his party’s nomination. Kasich will announce the end of his underdog White House bid on Wednesday, according to three campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the candidate’s plans. The decision comes a day after Trump’s only other rival, Ted Cruz, dropped out. With no opponents left in the race, Trump becomes the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee to take on the Democratic nominee in November — presumably Hillary Clinton. Though armed with an extensive resume in politics, the second-term Ohio governor struggled to connect with Republican primary voters ...
Jerusalem - A Tel Aviv University report has found a drop in violent attacks against Jews last year, but said the number remains high and that “institutional anti-Semitism” is on the rise. The university’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry says it tracked 410 violent cases of anti-Semitism across the globe last year, down nearly 50 percent from 2014. The study was prepared with the European Jewish Congress. Moshe Kantor, president of the group, says the results were not all encouraging. He says that 2014 was the worst year on record. He believes attacks went down because of heightened security following a deadly attack at a kosher market in Paris in January 2015. Kantor also said that nonviolent attacks and slander against Jews in Europ...
London - It’s a rock for the ages. A 3-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball — the largest discovered in over a century — could sell for more than $70 million, auctioneer Sotheby’s said Wednesday. The auction house plans to offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29. The diamond was unearthed in November in Botswana at a mine owned by Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corporation. It measured 1,109 carats, the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered. Its name means “our light” in the Tswana language of southern Africa. The auctioneer said the rough gemstone “of exceptional transparency” could yield the largest top-quality diamond ever cut and polished. David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s ...
Washington - One of Ted Cruz’s staunchest financial backers is signaling support for Donald Trump now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee. Mica Mosbacher writes in an email to The Associated Press that she is calling “on fellow conservatives to unite and support our new nominee Trump.” Mosbacher was a key part of Cruz’s finance team. She is the widow of Bob Mosbacher, a Houston oilman who served as President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of Commerce. She says she supported her senator, Cruz, because she saw him as giving voice to the American people. Trump, she says, “also listened to the people.” Cruz abruptly quit the race after Trump won a resounding victory over him in Indiana Tuesday night.
(CNN)John Kasich is dropping out of the Republican presidential race, two sources familiar with the plan confirmed to CNN. Kasich's decision came after he improbably became the last challenger to Donald Trump, who emerged as the presumptive GOP nominee Tuesday night when Ted Cruz dropped out. Even before winning his home state of Ohio in March, Kasich was facing pressure to get out of the race, with no clear path to victory. His campaign never became more than a spoiler run, designed to keep Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination before a contested convention. Kasich was a somewhat offbeat Republican contender, who laughed at himself on the trail, occasionally took positions more in line with Democrats (like expanding Medicaid in Ohio) a...
Helsinki - Social media giant Facebook has paid a $10,000 reward to a 10-year-old Finnish boy for finding a glitch in its picture sharing app Instagram. Jani, whose last name was not released for privacy reasons, is the youngest ever recipient of Facebook’s “bug bounty”, paid to users who find bugs or weaknesses in its platforms. “I wanted to see if Instagram’s comment field could stand malicious code. Turns out it couldn’t,” Jani told Finland’s Iltalehti newspaper. Facebook said the glitch was fixed in February and the reward was paid in March. Jani, who is still too young to have a Facebook or Instagram account of his own, said he learned coding from Youtube videos and found a way to delete user comments from Instagram accounts. &...
Beijing - Apple Inc. has lost a legal fight with a Chinese company that a Beijing court says is allowed to use the iPhone name on wallets and handbags. The court said Apple failed to prove iPhone was a “famous brand” in China before the local company applied for a trademark in 2007, an official legal newspaper reported. Such status under Chinese law might limit its use on other products. The ruling in late April allows Xintong Tiandi Technology to keep using the iPhone name, according to the Legal Daily, which is published by the ruling Communist Party’s legal affairs committee. The company registered the name for use on handbags, mobile phone cases and other leather goods. Phone calls to the Beijing Higher Level People’s Court were not answered. China ...
(CNN) Navy SEAL Charles Keating IV, the grandson of savings-and-loan financier Charles Keating Jr.,died in combat against ISIS in northern Iraq, his family said Tuesday. "He is our family hero in every sense of the word," cousin Elizabeth Ann Keating told CNN. Keating, 31, is the third American combat casualty since the U.S. redeployed forces to Iraq in the summer of 2014 to advise local forces and conduct special operations against ISIS. He was an adviser to Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting ISIS, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement Tuesday. He died as a result of a "coordinated and complex attack" by roughly 100 ISIS fighters nearly 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of Mosul, Pentagon officials confirmed Tuesday. "This sad news is a reminder of the dange...
Thousands of Jews from all over the world participated in an unprecedented day of events at the top of Har Hazeisim on Israel’s 2nd day of Chol Hamoed (April 25th). The event was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, headed by Minister Miri Regev, the Jerusalem Development Authority and the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeisim (ICPHH). Police estimated that nearly 4,000 people participated in an event they expected no more than 1,000 people to attend. The day of events took place in the plaza in front of the Seven Arches Hotel (formerly the Intercontinental Hotel) and include greetings from Deputy Mayor Moshe Lyon, Minister Miri Regev and Rabbi Pesach Lerner, who represented the ICPHH. The event did not take place in the holy cemetery below but ...
↑ State Sen. Pugh State Sen. Catherine Pugh emerged victorious in Tuesday's mayoral primary. That means, in this largely Democratic city, she is more than likely Baltimore's next mayor. Though she may be displeased at the increased scrutiny she's under—with questions swirling about the ethics of some of her campaign contributions from lobbyists and others—she will have to get used to the spotlight. There's a tremendous opportunity to right this listing ship, Baltimore, and we were delighted to hear her affirm, the day after the primaries, that Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano would be one of the first to get the ax. ↑ Political change Baltimore's political establishment took a mighty hit on Tuesday night as the City Council el...
London - A Jewish group has launched a lawsuit against British local authorities that called for boycotts of goods from Israeli settlements, claiming the actions are anti-Semitic. Jewish Human Rights Watch is asking the High Court to rule against three councils: Leicester in England and Swansea and Gwynedd in Wales. It claims the authorities have failed to consider “the impact of their actions on the Jewish community.” Leicester and Swansea councils say their resolutions calling for sanctions are nonbinding, apply only to illegal settlements and are not attacks on the state of Israel. Gwynedd says it backed a trade embargo with Israel in 2014 to condemn “attacks by the Israeli state on the territory of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.” A two-d...
Washington - Senator Elizabeth Warren has taken to Twitter to attack what she calls presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “toxic stew of hatred & insecurity.” The Massachusetts Democrat issued a series of tweets Tuesday night as results from the Indiana GOP primary forced Texas Senator Ted Cruz from the race and left Trump as the overwhelming favorite for the nomination. Warren tweets that Trump has built his campaign on “racism, sexism and xenophobia” and that there’s more enthusiasm for him “among the leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.” Warren says what happens next is “a character test for all of us—Republican, Democrat, and Independent.” Warren has ...
Kif al Harat, West Bank - Maayan Yaacov changed his flight back to the United States so that he could join the thousands of people who hiked late Tuesday night into the Palestinian village of Kifl Haris to visit the tomb of the biblical leader Joshua. A small stone and stucco building with a round roof marks his grave in the center of the village, on the edge of a plaza with apartments and stores. His father Nun is buried nearby, as is Calev Ben Yefuneh. Joshua and Calev were the only two out of 12 spies who trusted that God would bring the Jews safely into the land of Israel. Israelis cannot typically visit the graves, except for on special occasions in the middle of the night when the IDF shuts down a section of the village to allow for their safe passage. A native of the nea...
United Nations -  The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees expressed hope Tuesday that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait will come up with $80 million to ensure that 500,000 boys and girls who are refugees can start the next school year on time in August. Last year, a $101 million shortfall in the budget of the agency, known as UNRWA, almost led to a delay in starting school. Pierre Krahenbuhl told a news conference Tuesday that the three Gulf countries came to the rescue last year and he hopes they will “renew the generosity this year.” “If we could have that, then we will be able to avoid another crisis this summer,” he said. UNRWA operates 700 schools for Palestinian refugees with 22,000 education staff in the West Bank...
Detroit - Fiat Chrysler and Google will work together to more than double the size of Google’s self-driving vehicle fleet by adding 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans. The companies announced the agreement on Tuesday, saying that Chrysler engineers would work with Google to install sensors and software so the vans can drive themselves. The added vehicles are needed as Google expands real-world testing. Google says it will own the gas-electric hybrid vans, and it’s not licensing autonomous car technology to Fiat Chrysler or anyone else. Both companies are free to work with others as well. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The added vehicles are needed as Google increases real-world testing in four cities including Mountain View, California; Austin, Texas; ...
New York - Company founder and CEO Elon Musk may not mention Tesla Motors Inc’s stock price when his electric car company gives its latest financial update on Wednesday, but it will be front and center for investors divided over its seemingly rich valuation. After a rally that ended in April, Tesla’s market capitalization is currently about $31 billion - equivalent to $620,000 for every car it delivered last year, or $63,000 for every car it hopes to produce in 2020. By comparison, General Motors Co’s $48 billion market value is equivalent to about $4,800 for every vehicle it sold last year. Tesla’s heady valuation - about 125 times the next 12 months of expected earnings - and the implication that shareholders may be overpaying for Musk’s small bu...
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