Groundbreaking ruling in rabbinical court frees 23-year 'chained woman' - the Kaminetsky heter

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/groundbreaking-ruling-in-private-rabbinical-court-frees-23-year-agunah-559190

 In a groundbreaking development for divorce rights in Israel, Tzviya Gorodetsky, who has sought a divorce from her husband for 23 years, has been freed from her marriage by a private, ad hoc Orthodox rabbinical court headed by respected Orthodox rabbi and talmudist Rabbi Daniel Sperber.

The ruling could pave the way for more such women to avail themselves of private rabbinical courts, if they believe that they have no chance of ever escaping their failed marriages. It follows other attempts to bypass established religious institutions in such realms as conversion, kashrut and marriage.A similar ruling by another such ad hoc court was issued in 2013.

 The Chief Rabbinate is certain to reject the validity of the divorce, but Gorodetsky could likely remarry in a private Orthodox ceremony if she so wished.

PA orders Palestinian businesses to remove Hebrew signs

 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/pa-orders-palestinian-businesses-to-remove-hebrew-signs-673265

 Abdullah Kmeil, the Palestinian Authority Governor of the Salfit district in the central West Bank, on Thursday issued a “strict decision” obligating all commercial installations and shops in the area to remove signs and billboards written in Hebrew.

Kmeil, who is also a senior official with the ruling Fatah faction headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, ordered the businesses to replace the signs and billboards with ones written in Arabic.

The decision came after many Palestinian businesses in the West Bank, especially those close to settlements, started hanging signs in Hebrew to attract Jewish clients.

Kmeil gave the businesses one week to comply with the decision, according to the Salfit Governorate Public Relations and Media Department.

Kmeil said that the measure “comes in light of a decision that was taken previously and confirming that the occupation is exploiting the scene of the signs in Hebrew for purposes that serve its racist and fascist policy.”

 

High Court rejects petition against Jewish nation-state law

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-july-08-2021/

Justices rule there are no grounds to throw out the 2018 legislation, say it anchors Israel’s identify as a Jewish state without undermining its democratic character

 

Child-abusing daycare provider sentenced to 9.5 years in prison

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309504

 The operator of a daycare center in central Israel who was convicted of abusing nearly a dozen infants and toddlers was sentenced Thursday to nine-and-a-half years in prison.

Carmel Mauda, 28, the operator of the ‘Baby Love’ daycare center in Rosh Ha’ayin, received the sentence at the Central District in Lod Thursday afternoon, after arriving accompanied by her father.

Bezalel Smotrich: 'Insane' that divorced fathers shouldn't have anything to eat

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309500

 MK Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Knesset's Religious Zionism party, has called on Welfare Minister Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) to eliminate the discrimination against divorced fathers.

"One of the worst crimes happening today in the State of Israel is the discrimination against divorced fathers," Smotrich said. "It's a complex and complicated issue. It has a lot of facets and small letters."

Smotrich recalled his pre-election promise to change how the issue is managed, prevent parental alienation, and prevent abuse of false allegations as a way of managing divorce.

MK Ahmad Tibi decries cuts to daycare subsidies for haredim

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309483

 Joining the mostly haredi voices condemning the recent decision of Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman to cancel daycare subsidies to families where the father is in full-time Torah learning, was, perhaps unexpectedly, Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi.

Tibi was interviewed on Radio 103FM, where he criticized Liberman’s decision, calling it “inappropriate.”

“This decision weakens the weak even further,” he said. “I am familiar with the conditions in which these families live, and this decision should be reconsidered.”

MK Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism party also decried Liberman’s decision.

Fact-checking claims bail reform is driving increase in violent crime

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/bail-reform-violent-crime-fact-check/index.html

 Violent crime in the United States shot up last year as the pandemic raged. Major cities across the country saw a more than 30% jump in homicides as well as increases in aggravated assaults, according to a January report from the National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice. 

 Bail reforms -- which generally focus on removing or limiting the use of cash bail against defendants who are accused of misdemeanors or nonviolent offenses -- aim at making sure most defendants are not held in jail while awaiting trial solely because they cannot afford cash bail.

During a congressional hearing in late June, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, suggested reforms eliminating cash bail could partially be to blame for the recent spike in crime. Graham asked FBI Director Christopher Wray if he believed "one of the reasons crime is on the rise is that certain jurisdictions have basically eliminated bail?"

"You catch them on Monday morning and they're out on the streets Monday afternoon," Graham said. 

 

Facts First: There's no clear evidence linking bail reforms -- which have been in place for years in some cities -- to the recent rise in violent crimes. In fact, the majority of cities that have seen increases in crime have not eliminated cash bail. Many variables have contributed to the increases Graham is referencing but CNN has seen no evidence to suggest that bail reform is a major factor.

Trump reportedly saw Netanyahu’s congratulations to Biden as ‘ultimate betrayal’

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-reportedly-saw-netanyahus-congratulations-to-biden-as-ultimate-betrayal/

New book by Michale Wolff says that even though Netanyahu waited 12 hours to acknowledge Biden’s election win, Trump felt that the Israeli leader ‘owed’ him and had now ‘sold out’

 

Liberman ends yeshiva students' childcare subsidies, haredim outraged

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/liberman-ends-yeshiva-students-childcare-subsidies-haredim-outraged-673124

The subsidies comprise a significant portion of an ultra-Orthodox family’s household income, and canceling them will cause immediate financial problems for such families.

Liberman hopes that the cancellation of these subsidies will push ultra-Orthodox men to find employment.

The changes go into effect at the beginning of the coming school year.

 

Liberman cancels daycare subsidies for kids of full-time yeshiva students

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-cancels-daycare-subsidies-for-kids-of-full-time-yeshiva-students/

 Families in which the father does not work at least 24 hours a week but is involved in academic or vocational studies will still be eligible for the subsidies, which will end for yeshiva students only.

4th Of July Shootings Across The Country Killed More Than 180 People

 https://www.npr.org/2021/07/06/1013251202/fourth-of-july-shootings-across-the-country-kill-more-than-180-this-year?sc=18&f=1001

 More than 180 people were killed in shootings across the country over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive and reviewed by NPR.

By 11:30 p.m. on Monday, the Gun Violence Archive reported 189 people killed and 516 injured in shootings over the course of a 72-hour period starting Friday. In total, there were more than 540 shootings over the holiday weekend, the organization reported.

Those numbers may increase as the organization continues to collect statistics from the weekend.

News of major shootings in Chicago, Texas, Virginia and Ohio comes as many of the nation's largest cities are struggling to contain a continued rise in violent crimes. Officials from across the country had spoken of serious fears of a bloody summer earlier this year.

Albany, N.Y., Mayor Kathy M. Sheehan told The Washington Post in May that her city was experiencing a rise in gun violence. At the time, she said she was "really worried" about the approaching summer months.

Some major cities faced concerns about violent crime last summer similar to what they do this year. In 2020, nearly 90 people were shot in Chicago over Independence Day weekend and 17 of them died.

Eric Adams declared winner of NYC Democratic mayoral race

 https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/nyc-elections-2021/ny-nyc-mayoral-race-primary-results-latest-20210706-c7rsd5elhvej7a53zefvsv6v7y-story.html

 Eric Adams declared victory in the city’s Democratic mayoral race Tuesday after holding on to a razor-thin lead in a pivotal new tally of votes, putting him on track to become just the second Black mayor in Big Apple history after running a centrist campaign heavily focused on crime-fighting.

Adams, Brooklyn’s current borough president and a retired NYPD captain, led former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia by just 8,426 ballots — or 1% of the total — after more than 120,000 absentee votes were added to the Board of Elections’ unofficial tally of ranked-choice results.

US, Guatemalan forces raid extremist haredi Lev Tahor cult compound

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/us-guatemalan-forces-raid-extremist-haredi-lev-tahor-cult-compound-673068

US and local Guatemalan police have begun raiding the compound of the extremist ultra-Orthodox (haredi) cult, Lev Tahor, arresting at least three top officials in the cult, Globes reported on Tuesday evening.

Another reporter for Globes reported that cult-members Yoel and Shmuel Weingarten have been arrested.

 

Forget about who catches COVID-19, the serious cases matter - analysis

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/forget-about-who-catches-covid-19-the-serious-cases-matter-analysis-673063

 What is understood is that as of now, the vaccine is at least 90%-95% effective against stopping hospitalization or serious disease – the metric that at least these health professionals believe should be used in determining policy.