Doctors Urge Pregnant Women to Get Vaccinated Amid Omicron Surge

 https://www.newsweek.com/doctors-urge-pregnant-women-vaccinated-omicron-surge-1668572

As the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to drive a surge in infections across the country, doctors are again sounding the alarm about the importance of pregnant women getting vaccinated.

Worryingly low vaccination rates in pregnancy prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue an urgent health advisory in September, calling on all pregnant women to get vaccinated.

The CDC also recommends that those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future, get a booster shot.

Canada says vaccine mandates work as Quebec's 'unvaxxed tax' leads to spike in first-dose appointments

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/12/americas/quebec-vaccine-mandate-intl/index.html

One day after the Canadian province of Quebec announced it would financially penalize residents who are unvaccinated, the province's health minister said Wednesday first-time appointments spiked in the hours following the announcement.

"It's encouraging!" Quebec's health minister, Christian Dube, tweeted, indicating that Tuesday's first-dose appointments were the highest in several days.

The fine for the unvaccinated would not apply to those with a medical exemption, and no details have been announced, although officials said the amount to be levied would be "significant."

The Quebec government says that while nearly 90% of eligible Quebecers have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the unvaccinated remain a burden on the province's public health system.

Rabbi Chaim Druckman joins rabbinate opposition to conversion reforms

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320370

Senior Religious Zionist rabbis affiliated with the 'Rabbanei Torat Haaretz Hatovah' organization signed a letter Wednesday opposing Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana's conversion reforms.

The letter was signed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi Chaim Steiner, Rabbi Eitan Izman, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi Zephaniah Drori, Rabbi David Chai HaCohen, Rabbi Uri Cohen, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, Rabbi Isser Klonsky, Rabbi Mordechai Sternberg, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Artziel.

"The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is the body that gives the State of Israel its unique weight and Jewish character. It is the only body authorized to manage religious affairs in the country. In light of this - any change in religious matters can be made only by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel," the rabbis wrote.

Rabbi Riskin: Hareidim Are the Biggest 'Reformers'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/187014

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of Efrat in Gush Etzion and founder of Ohr Torah Stone, strongly criticized hareidi Knesset members on Tuesday for their stance on the government's conversion reforms.

In an interview with Galei Yisrael radio, Rabbi Riskin defended the proposed government decision regarding conversion which would remove Chief Rabbinate supervision of the conversion process, and criticized its opponents.

"I do not understand the whole issue. Yes, I think there is a (Torah) commandment of 'you shall love the convert.' Yes, I think that the Chief Rabbinate until now did not know what it is to get someone who wants to convert treated properly, with love and care," he fired. "How dare they say that my conversions were not done according to Jewish Law?"

Blood pressure drugs may cause kidney damage over time- study

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-692239

Treatment for high blood pressure, a condition that affects one billion people globally, may actually be damaging the kidney, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests. Scientists are urging studies to better understand the drugs’ long-term effects.

Researchers noted that patients should continue taking life-saving medications to prevent heart failure, which includes the commonly used ACE inhibitors. Their work was recently published in the scientific journal JCI Insight.

Boro Park Girl Attacked on 60th Street

 https://hamodia.com/2022/01/12/boro-park-girl-attacked-on-60th-street/

A 17 year old girl walking on 60th Street between 18th and 19th Avenues at 10:30 p.m. was approached from behind and knocked to the ground, and the perpetrator then attempted to assault her. The youth put up a fight and started screaming, which caught the attention of someone in the area who stopped to help. The perpetrator then fled. The special victims unit is investigating the incident.

"מי שמסית נגד החיסונים - יישב בשמיים עם הרוצחים"

 https://www.kikar.co.il/409962.html

הגאון רבי בן ציון מוצפי במתקפה חריפה נגד מכחישי הקורונה המסיתים נגד החיסונים: "בשמיים הם יישבו עם הרוצחים הפושעים, דמם של מאות נפטרים בראש התועמלנים"

Suicide hesped?

 https://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Robin-Williams-Suicide.html

The only one for whom suicide is to be regarded as a grave sin is “someone with full knowledge of his actions.” That, rabbinic authorities have agreed, is a standard from which almost all suicides are to be judged as falling short. Rabbi Yechiel Epstein, in his classic work the Arukh HaShulchan (Yoreh De’ah 345:5) states, “This is the general principle in connection with suicide: we find any excuse we can and say he acted thus because he was in terror or great pain, or his mind was unbalanced, or he imagined it was right to do what he did because he feared that if he lived he would commit a crime…It is extremely unlikely that a person would commit such an act of folly unless his mind were disturbed.”

כללו של דבר: במאבד עצמו לדעת – תלינן בכל איזה תלייה כל שהוא; כגון לתלות ביראה, או בצער, או שיצא מדעתו, או שסבור היה שזה מצוה לבלי להכשל בעברות אחרות, וכיוצא באלו הדברים, מפני שזהו באמת דבר רחוק שאדם יעשה נבלה כזו בדעת צלולה. צא ולמד משאול הצדיק שנפל על חרבו לבלי יתעללו בו הפלשתים, וכיוצא בזה מקרי אנוס. וכל שכן קטן המאבד עצמו לדעת, דחשוב כשלא לדעת.

As Omicron sweeps through Israel, vaccination still effective, expert says

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-692335

“Unlike other variants, it does a very good job in escaping neutralizing antibodies in both vaccinated and recovered individuals. This means that while it still has a better chance to infect unvaccinated people, it can easily infect also inoculated ones, because it is highly contagious. The question is: is there still a benefit in getting vaccinated? The answer is definitely yes, because we have a great amount of data, not only from previous variants but also about Omicron, that if one is [vaccinated], their chances to develop a severe disease are significantly lower.”

In a report published on Wednesday, Hebrew University experts assessed that the vaccine efficacy in preventing infection might have dropped to as low as 10%-20%, but when it comes to serious symptoms, it is still higher than 90%.

Israel to begin classifying non-Arab gentile citizens as ‘extended Jewish’

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-begin-classifying-non-arab-gentile-citizens-as-extended-jewish/

Changes to Israel’s census bureau means that citizens will only be classified as Jews or Arabs, with all non-Jews who are not Arab being counted under a new “extended Jewish population” rubric.

The change will see the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) eliminate the separate category of “others” in official publications on demographics, after a request from a Yesh Atid minister who worried the word could put off those included in it.

The “extended Jewish” category will include any citizen who is not Arab and not Jewish according to Jewish religious law. The CBS said it would also classify groups that are neither culturally Jewish nor Arab in the “extended” category.

High Court blocks Liberman crackdown on haredi subsidies until next year

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-692291 

 The High Court of Justice on Wednesday blocked Finance Minister Avidgor Liberman’s crackdown on certain haredi (ulstra-Orthodox) subsidies until the next school year.

The justices did, however, uphold his authority to make the reform but required him to give the families more advance notice to plan for the rules and budget changes.

In November, an interim conditional order by Justices Uzi Vogelman, Ofer Grosskopf and Alex Stein told the state that it needed to explain within 14 days on what basis it had the authority to change the rules regarding subsidies for haredi child care after the school year had already started.

When And How Must A Person Respond To A Hazmana In Beis Din?

 https://matzav.com/when-and-how-must-a-person-respond-to-a-hazmana-in-beis-din/

It’s important to note that the litigant does not necessarily have to accept the Dayanim that sent the hazmana. If the Bais Din of gimmel hedyotos was not established by the entire city to adjudicate Dinei Torah, the litigant can say that he does not wish to accept their authority. If the Bais Din set themselves up to be three dayanim hedyotos, the litigant can request to go to a different place.

However, if the litigant refuses to accept the authority of any Bais Din, at this point he is considered to be a Mesarav Lavo Ladin, refusing to come to aDin Torah, and he can be sanctioned with Shamta. The person who is Mesarav Lavo Ladin is included in Shulchan Aruch in Siman 34, in the list of twenty four situations where a person deserves to be put B’Shamta.

US Jewish convert ends hunger strike after gov’t promises citizenship by 2023

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-692236

Under the Law of Return, Jews who ask for Israeli citizenship can be denied if they have a criminal record, as in Ben Moshe’s case. That is what happened in November 2020, when the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority rejected his request for citizenship.

החכם לפין היה "משכיל"? דעת הגר"י אדלשטיין

 https://www.kikar.co.il/409832.html

במסגרת הפולמוס על ספר "חשבון הנפש" שכתב החכם מנחם מֶנדֶל לֶפִין מסָטָנוב, האם היה "משכיל" רח"ל או יהודי כשר? אלו דבריו של הגאון רבי יעקב אדלשטיין זצוק"ל