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April 27, 2017 at 6:06 pm
Detroit - Old cars can learn new tricks.
For a few hundred dollars, drivers can add new safety technology — like forward collision warning systems or backup cameras — to older cars.
Cars are lasting longer than ever thanks to improving quality. The average U.S. vehicle is now 11.6 years old, according to the consulting firm IHS Markit.
But that means millions of car owners are missing out on technology that could potentially save their lives. Forward collision warning systems, for example, can reduce the risk of a crash by 27 percent, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Consumers have to do the math to decide whether it’s better to add aftermarket systems to an older car or save up for a new one. Balance the cost of new safety — which can be...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:05 pm
IDF tank fire late Thursday morning 1 Iyar targeted a Hamas position in southern Gaza. The attack was in retaliation for gunfire directed at IDF personnel along the border from that area earlier in the day. The Arab media reports a motorized two-wheeled vehicle was hit by the tank fire.
B’chasdei Hashem no one was injured or killed in the Hamas attack into southern Israel.
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April 27, 2017 at 6:03 pm
President Donald Trump’s team boasted Wednesday that its tax-cut plan would lighten Americans’ financial burdens, ignite economic growth and vastly simplify tax filing.
Yet the proposal so far remains short of vital details, including how it would be paid for. And based on the few specifics spelled out so far, most experts suggest that it would add little to growth while swelling the budget deficit and potentially handing large windfalls to wealthier taxpayers.
Trump’s plan would replace the current seven income tax brackets with three, and the top bracket would drop from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. It would also slash the corporate rate from 35 percent all the way to 15 percent, a boon to most companies even though many don’t pay the full tax now. With tax credit...
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April 27, 2017 at 5:43 pm
In an unusual move, the Samaria Regional Council decided to "adopt" a soldier who fell during the War of Independence in 1948 and has no family to celebrate each year with his memory.
Baruch Mizrahi,was a fighter of the Etzel, also known as the Irgun. who was born as a Muslim and converted to Judaism after he became acquainted with the Beitar movement and Israel and Judaism.
Next Sunday, April 30th, the Samaria Regional Council, together with the Samaria Tourism and Education Center and the Beitar Movement, will hold a memorial ceremony for Mizrahi in the Netanya military cemetery where he was buried.
Baruch Mizrahi was born Hamuda Abu al-Aynin, son of Mahmoud and Fatima, and hailed from a well-known Muslim nationalist family from Safed. After being exposed to Betar activities near his ...
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April 27, 2017 at 5:13 pm
There are few pleasures in the world that equate with the joy of having been blessed with the privilege of bringing a child into this world.
Yet the great Tanna, the author of the Holy Zohar, Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai, would seem to suggest that there is something that may eclipse that joy.
When a boy is born one must wait until the eighth day from his birth before one can fulfill and celebrate the injunction of Milah, circumcision. The students of Rebbi Shimon inquired of their saintly teacher for the reason why one must wait eight days before carrying out this special command. He responded, by first pointing out that a woman after giving birth to a son remains impure for seven complete days and must refrain from a normal intimate relationship with her husband during that time. Were one...
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April 27, 2017 at 5:07 pm
Jean-François Jalkh, Marine Le Pen's replacement as the head of the National Front party in France, has denied Nazis used gas chambers.
JTA - The man who has replaced Marine Le Pen at the helm of France’s far-right National Front claimed in 2000 that the poison used by Nazis to kill Jews in the Holocaust could not have been applied in reality.
Jean-François Jalkh, who took Le Pen’s place this week so that she can focus on her presidential campaign ahead of the run-off vote on May 7, made the remark about the Zyklon B poison in an interview, in which he advocated a distinction between “serious” Holocaust deniers and ones who deny the Holocaust or aspects of it as a provocation.
“Personally, I think that it is impossible from a technica...
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April 27, 2017 at 5:07 pm
Education Minister Naftali Bennett will lead the Jewish Home in next elections, after winning the primaries for the party leadership.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday evening won the primaries for the leadership of the Jewish Home party, and will continue to head the party over the next several years.
Bennett won 80.3% of the votes. 15,701 out of 30,734 (50.67%) of the members of the Jewish Home party exercised their right to vote in 68 polling stations around the country.
"I thank the voters of the Jewish Home for giving me the privilege to lead the party to the next elections, who chose to continue the revolution," said Bennett after the results were published.
"Today we laid the cornerstone for the path towards the leadership of the state. Anyone who beli...
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April 27, 2017 at 5:05 pm
US Holocaust issues envoy says Easter European nations must start fulfilling obligations to Jewish property owners and their families.
JTA - The United States’ special envoy for Holocaust issues urged East European nations to honor their largely-unimplemented promise from 2009 to offer restitution for property stolen from Jews.
Thomas K. Yazdgerdi appealed to these countries “to provide justice for survivors and their families for the expropriation of their property” during a high-level conference in Brussels Wednesday on restitution, where special attention was devoted to the 2009 Terezin Deceleration. In that statement, many European countries for the first time vowed to resolve Holocaust-related property claims. Many of them, however, have not followed through.
&l...
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April 27, 2017 at 5:05 pm
Lawmakers are giving themselves a one-week extension on spending legislation to keep the lights on in government, after the White House backed off a threat to withhold payments that help lower-income Americans pay their medical bills.
It was the latest concession by the White House, which had earlier dropped a demand for money for President Donald Trump’s border wall. Even with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, the Trump administration is learning that Democrats retain significant leverage when their votes are needed on must-pass legislation.
A temporary funding bill expires Friday at midnight, and GOP leaders late Wednesday came out with a short-term spending bill through May 5 to prevent a government shutdown this weekend.
“I am optim...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:58 pm
16 contestants reach final round of quiz: Four from Israel, three from the United States, two from Canada, and two from Mexico.
The International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth will again be held this year on Independence Day at the Jerusalem Theater starting at 11:00.
Each year, 16 contestants compete for the male and female titles of World Champion, in Hebrew called the Bible's "bride" and "groom".
The contestants are:
Naomi Cohen, Israel;
Nadav Sahar, Israel;
Shlomo Helfgot, USA;
Sagiv Lugasi, Israel;
Uriel Simpson, USA;
Maria Spielwitz, Belarus;
Calev Gitlitz, USA;
Natan Snobel, Canada;
Shaul Yosef, South Africa;
Yitzhak Narkis, Panama;
Shira Ring, Belgium;
Matan Harel, Israel;
Binyamin Shor, Canada;
Yehuda Shani, Brazil;
Denya Rener, Mexico;
and Sharon To...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:54 pm
700 science and technology students help Holocaust survivors in Israel look for lost relatives and research life in prewar Europe online.
JTA - Nearly 700 Israeli teens studying in science and technology schools in Israel are teaching Holocaust survivors to use computers and the internet.
The students meet weekly in pairs with survivors in 22 cities across Israel through a program called Mechubarim, which means connected.
Students have helped the survivors to search for family members lost during the Holocaust and to research other aspects of their lives in Europe. Many of the students and survivors have typed the survivors’ stories into the computer as part of their work. The stories have been uploaded to the program’s website.
The program, which will start with new pair...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:44 pm
Report claims US President's Jewish daughter and son-in-law will accompany him on visit to Israel.
JTA - Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are expected to accompany President Donald Trump on his first visit to Israel next month.
It is not clear whether first lady Melania Trump will join the delegation at the end of May, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported Thursday. Ivanka Trump, the president’s Jewish daughter, and Kushner, his son-in-law, are among the president’s closest advisers.
The visit reportedly will come as part of Trump’s first trip abroad as president at the end of May, when he is scheduled to be part of a summit of leaders of NATO nations in Brussels. The White House has told Israel the visit will be held on May 22, Yediot rep...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:44 pm
The Kremlin on Thursday called for restraint after Syria accused Israel of firing several missiles at a military position near Damascus airport.
"We continue to consider that all countries need to refrain from any kind of actions that lead to an increase in tension in this already restive region and call for respect of the sovereignty of Syria," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia, which has deployed its forces to back up the Syrian regime, has a hotline set up to avoid clashes with Israeli jets in the skies over the war-torn country.
Peskov did not confirm if Israel had warned Moscow of the strike, saying only that the two nations' "defense ministries are in constant dialogue".
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later went further than the Kre...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:44 pm
New York yeshiva students protest outside Queens home of Nazi concentration camp guard Jakiw Palij.
Yeshiva high school students held a protest this week outside of the home of a Nazi concentration camp guard now living in Queens, New York, demanding the man be returned back to Europe.
The Polish-born Jakiw Palij, now 92, was recruited in 1943 at age 18 to help operate the Treblinka concentration camp, working as a guard.
According to Justice Department special investigator Eli Rosenbaum, Palij played an important role in the operation of the Treblinka camp, describing him as “an essential component in the machinery of annihilation”.
Four years after the war ended, Palij immigrated to the US, posing as a farmer, before being naturalized in 1957.
When the truth of Palij&r...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:37 pm
Ahmad al-Shamri, in his 20's, loses two appeals after arrest for blasphemy; recorded denouncing Islam founder on social media.
“I wish there could be live streaming when you cut his head off,” read an Arabic-language celebratory Tweet written by a devout Muslim in reaction to a Saudi man's being sentenced to death on apostasy charges.
Ahmad al-Shamri, a Saudi Arabian man in his 20's, lost two appeals after his 2014 arrest on blasphemy charges, according to the Independent. He came under scrutiny after allegedly uploading videos to social media in which he renounced Islam and its founder, Mohammed.
Saudi law provides for heavy sentencing in blasphemy cases including extended imprisonment, hard labor, and lashings, but a 2014 royal decree equated atheism ...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:36 pm
With voting in the Jewish Home leadership primary underway, party chief and Education Minister Naftali Bennett called on party members to come out and vote, adding that a weak mandate for the Jewish Home's leader would only hurt the party.
In a statement issued by Bennett to party members, he referred to voices from the field calling for primary voters to "punish" Bennett by voting for the other candidates in the primaries.
As of 5:30 p.m., just 16 percent of the members of the Jewish Home Party have so far exercised the right to vote in the primaries for party leadership. The polling stations will close at 10:00 p.m..
"I have heard in recent hours that there are those who want to 'punish' me. They want me to continue to lead the Jewish Home, [but they also] teach me a le...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:32 pm
25,000 housing units planned for capital, including large construction projects in eastern Jerusalem.
Israel is planning a series of housing projects in the capital, amounting to one of the largest waves of construction in Jerusalem in recent years.
Ahead of President Trump’s expected visit to Israel in May, the Housing and Construction Ministry has proposed the construction some 25,000 new housing units in Jerusalem, including more than 15,000 in eastern Jerusalem, in neighborhoods liberated in the 1967 Six Day War.
According to the proposed plan, 10,000 new units would be built in the capital’s western neighborhoods, along with 15,000 in areas built after 1967, including Pisgat Zeev and Gilo.
The four billion shekel ($1.1 billion) building plan is being pushed by Hous...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:23 pm
The growing chareidi tzibur in Israel now represents 9% of the Jewish population in Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reports ahead of Independence Day 69. 11% of the Jewish population of the state identify themselves as religious; 12% religious/traditional; and 24% view themselves as traditional but not really religious.
According to the numbers, most of the world’s Jews do not live in Israel as only 43% of world Jewry live in Israel today. According to the pre-Independence Day report, 174,000 Israelis were born since last Independence Day and 30,000 new immigrants moved to Israel during the same time period.
Some other populations facts include:
Jews comprise 74.7% of the population (6,484,000)
Arabs comprise 20.8% of the population (1,808,000)
Others comprise...
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April 27, 2017 at 4:19 pm
Ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), a new campaign seeks to honor fallen soldiers who may not have any living relatives or friends to do so.
Project GalEd, an initiative started by Michal Serfaty to map out the graves of deceased relatives, has launched a campaign to ensure “a flower for every fallen soldier” by enabling purchases of flower arrangements to be placed on the soldiers’ graves. Israeli soldiers without living family members or friends are known as the “last descendants.”
“Every year, during the Memorial Day ceremonies, I join my family and thousands of other families in Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem,” Serfaty said. “Thinking about those who have no family to pay them a visit made me realize...
