Petitions for George Santos to Leave Congress Garner Over 130K Signatures

 https://www.newsweek.com/petitions-george-santos-leave-congress-garner-over-130k-signatures-1773811

Petitions calling on Representative George Santos of New York to resign received more than 130,000 signatures by Saturday morning.

Santos, a first-term Republican Congressman representing parts of Long Island and Queens, has faced accusations of lying about his personal, professional and academic background while campaigning. His scandal has sparked the ire of Democrats and some Republicans, who have demanded he step down.

However, Santos has so far declined to resign. He said during an appearance on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast this week that he would only resign if 142,000 people asked him to do so—a reference to the more than 142,000 people who elected him in November.

Over 80,000 Israelis protest against Supreme Court reform

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64279349

More than 80,000 Israeli protesters have rallied in Tel Aviv against plans by the new right-wing coalition government to overhaul the judiciary.

The reforms would make it easier for parliament to overturn Supreme Court rulings, among other things.

Protesters described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposed changes as an attack on democratic rule.

Four unanswered questions about the Biden classified documents

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64267983

A few things make criminal charges unlikely, according to Mr Weinstein.

First, to bring charges a prosecutor would have to prove intent - that the files were knowingly removed and held by Mr Biden or his team. And second, he said, is the justice department's standing policy not to pursue charges against a sitting president.

"It's a bigger problem politically for Mr Biden than it is in terms of criminal charges," Mr Weinstein said.

Euthanasia is a cure for mental illness?!

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64004329

As Canada prepares to expand its euthanasia law to include those with mental illness, some Canadians - including many of the country's doctors - question whether the country's assisted death programme has already moved too far, too fast.

"Making death too ready a solution disadvantages the most vulnerable people, and actually lets society off the hook," Dr Li said. "I don't think death should be society's solution for its own failures."

Do Vice Presidents Not Have Authority To Declassify Documents?

 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-documents/

the claim that federal law does not give vice presidents the power to declassify government documents, and reserves that authority for presidents, is false. 

Under a 2009 Obama-era executive order titled "Classified National Security Information" the vice president does have the power to declassify documents while they're in office. The order states: "The authority to classify information originally may be exercised only by: (1) the President and the Vice President [...]," as well as "agency heads and officials designated by the President." 

Garland appoints special counsel to review Biden documents

 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/12/special-counsel-biden-classified-documents-00077734

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Thursday that he was appointing a special counsel, former U.S. attorney Robert Hur, to review the storage of sensitive documents discovered in spaces used by President Joe Biden during the years preceding his return to the White House.

“The extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland said during a news conference at the Justice Department. “This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”

The Legacy of Rabbi Feivel Cohen vis-à-vis the Agunah Problem – Part 2 bv Rabbi Shalom C. Spira

 The Legacy of Rabbi Feivel Cohen vis-à-vis the Agunah Problem – Part 2 

                                                Shalom C. Spira 

 

As I wrote in my previous article at <http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-legacy-of-rabbi-feivel-cohen-vis.html>, the legacy of R. Feivel Cohen vis-à-vis the agunah problem – as he sought to publicly express it – is that the Jewish faith considers Ms. Tamar Epstein to be the wife of Mr. Aharon Friedman. At the same time, it has also been argued [by R. Mordechai Willig] that there is an additional dimension to Rabbi Cohen’s legacy, viz. that he quietly supported Rabbi Willig’s prenup to resolve future agunah cases, based on an extrapolation from shtar chatzi zakhar to the laws of gittin. My article challenged the latter extrapolation, be-mechilat Kevod Toratam. 

 A recent audio recording (dated Oct. 26, 2018) demonstrates that my opinion is shared by R. J. David Bleich. Actually, Rabbi Bleich already contested Rabbi Willig’s prenup back in 1996 in his Be-Netivot ha-Halakhah Vol. 1 (which is elaborated in Section A of my prenup essay at <http://www.scribd.com/doc/176990434/Prenuptial-Agreements>). The novelty of the 2018 audio recording is that Rabbi Bleich responds to the specific claim that the shtar chatzi zakhar should serve as a precedent for Rabbi Willig’s prenup. Rabbi Bleich orally counters that this specific claim is “nonsense.” The shtar chatzi zakhar represents a kinyan me-chayim, viz. a mercantile acquisition orchestrated from the time that the client is alive, to bequeath property to his daughter [or some other beneficiary who would not normally inherit according to the algorithm of Numbers 27:8-11] in a manner that takes effect a moment before the client’s death. By contradistinction, Rabbi Willig’s prenup consists of a penalty on the husband for not getting along with his wife and additionally not granting her get. Since there is no gemirat da‘at [seriousness of intention] on the part of the husband, the husband is not obligated to pay the money by Torah law. [And since the secular court will nevertheless enforce the financial penalty, the resulting gittin are invalid.] My thanks are extended to R. Yisrael Zvi Harari, a disciple [of both Rabbi Bleich and Rabbi Willig] at the RIETS kollel le-hora’ah, who conducted the interview and provided me with the audio recording, available at <https://soundcloud.com/shalom-spira/interview-with-rav-bleichmp3>. 

I also received supportive e-mail feedback (on Jan. 2, 2023) from Yechezkel Hirshman (a marriage counsellor and to‘en-in-training who has published an in-depth critique of many different prenups – including my own – at <https://achaslmaala.blogspot.com/2023/01/prenups-xii-straight-dope-on-yashar.html>). Yechezkel wrote to me (inter alia) as follows: 

 

“As per the situation with HRHG Rav Feivel Cohen ZTL, I agree with you that expressing agreement to a specific Halachic construct is not to be construed as an agreement on a compound Halachic innovation. I also agree with your distinction between a shtar chatzi zachar and a get. I think it is pretentious for anybody to claim a deceased gadol as a "closet supporter" of a very contentious issue.” 

 

            Accordingly, let us honour the legacy of Rabbi Cohen by politely praying that Ms. Epstein soon return with her true halakhic husband [Aharon Friedman] to Beth Din, and let us likewise politely encourage all couples that have signed Rabbi Willig’s prenup to sign a release form from that prenup [even if the latter concept contradicts Rabbi Cohen’s closet support]. Ultimately, as underscored by R. Joseph Ber Soloveitchik’s 1975 lecture recorded at <https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/767722/rabbi-joseph-b-soloveitchik/gerus-mesorah-part-1/>, a key dividing line between Orthodox Judaism and heterodoxy is that the former respects the sanctity of marriage, pursuant to the Gemara, Kiddushin 2b that betrothal is called kiddushin because the wife becomes forbidden to the entire world like hekdesh (the Temple treasury). Thus, half-baked solutions to the agunah problem must be avoided by Orthodox Jews. 

 

Rabbi Spira works as the Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research [a Pavillion of the Jewish General Hospital] in Montreal, Canada. 

Pressure mounts on House GOP to punish Santos

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3809596-pressure-mounts-on-house-gop-to-punish-santos/

Tom Doherty, who served as an aide to former New York Gov. George Pataki (R), also said Santos shouldn’t be given any committee assignments. He did, however, acknowledge the difficult position McCarthy is in. 

“At the same point, you got to stand up to somebody and say, ‘Look, this is a man of very low character, he lied, and I really don’t want him around me,’ ” Doherty added. 

“But this was a whole litany of stuff. I mean, he made up an entire life, basically. You don’t get away with that. You certainly don’t, and you certainly don’t get away with that in a competitive district. He’s not getting away with this. No, not at all. This isn’t going away anytime soon.” 

Full List of Republicans Calling for George Santos to Resign

https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-republicans-calling-george-santos-resign-1773107

 On Wednesday, about a half-dozen members of the Nassau County Republican Party publicly called on Santos to resign weeks after revelations the 34-year-old Congressman embellished almost every facet of his biography, including his academic background, his professional resume, and even claims his grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust.

"He deceived the voters of the Third Congressional District, he deceived the members of the Nassau County Republican Committee, elected officials, his colleagues, candidates, his opponents, and even some of the media," Nassau County Republican chairman Joseph Cairo said in a Wednesday press conference urging Santos to step down.

The Biden papers and the Mar-a-Lago documents: Apples and oranges?

 https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3808819-the-biden-papers-and-the-mar-a-lago-documents-apples-and-oranges/

Biden and Trump’s classified documents involve two entirely different scenarios.

The documents discovered in Biden’s office had never been sought or requested by the National Archives or any other governmental entity; this was not true of the Mar-a-Lago documents. Trump attorney Christina Bobb signed an affidavit asserting, among other things, that “any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.”

Santos refuses to resign amid calls from local N.Y. GOP

 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/11/local-n-y-gop-leaders-to-call-on-george-santos-to-resign-00077450

Officials from across Santos’ Long Island district and beyond gathered at the headquarters of the Nassau County Republican Committee to offer biting critiques of the newly sworn-in Republican. Critically, they pledged to cut Santos’ local support system off at the knees after he fabricated much of his resume and backstory during a successful Congressional campaign last year.

'Disgraced' George Santos Faces 'Major Announcement' as Republicans Attack

 https://www.newsweek.com/disgraced-george-santos-faces-major-announcement-republicans-attack-1772842

Republican Representative George Santos of New York is facing a new setback after GOP officials announced that they would soon be making a "major announcement" regarding the "disgraced" congressman.

A Nassau County GOP media advisory issued on Tuesday brought more bad news for Santos by teasing a Wednesday press conference. It is set to feature a "major announcement" and "dozens" of Republicans, including elected officials and Nassau County GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo, and billed as their "strongest statement yet" about the "disgraced" congressman and their position on his status in Congress.

Transgender woman pushed out of YU-linked synagogue after uproar over day school job

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/transgender-woman-pushed-out-of-yu-linked-synagogue-after-uproar-over-day-school-job/

A transgender woman who was asked to leave her teaching position at a New York yeshiva after an uproar over her identity late last year said she has been ejected from a synagogue affiliated with Yeshiva University due to the ongoing controversy.

Talia Avrahami was asked to leave her job in September at the Magen David Yeshivah, a religious Jewish day school in Brooklyn, and agreed to step down after facing widespread harassment.

Avrahami told The Times of Israel last week that after she left her teaching position, she was also asked to leave Shenk Shul, an Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan that is linked to Yeshiva University, the flagship Modern Orthodox institution of higher learning in the US.

Why Joe Biden Was Not Raided by the FBI Over Classified Documents

 https://www.newsweek.com/why-joe-biden-was-not-raided-fbi-over-classified-documents-1772506

However, Boston Globe opinion writer Abdallah Fayyad tweeted: "The fundamental difference in this case versus Trump's (other than volume of classified docs) is that Biden's team appears to have volunteered this info upon discovery whereas Trump's team actively misled investigators."