Tuesday, December 14, 2021
‘He’s got to condemn this …’: Panel releases urgent Jan. 6 texts from Donald Trump Jr., lawmakers and Fox hosts
Among the messages from the Fox stars:
— “Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home … this is hurting all of us … he is destroying his legacy,” Laura Ingraham wrote.
— “Please get him on tv. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” Brian Kilmeade wrote.
Sudden death of 6-year-old a month after coronavirus recovery puzzles doctors
https://www.timesofisrael.com/boy-6-dies-four-of-his-sisters-hospitalized-with-shortness-of-breath/
A six-year-old boy from the southern town of Netivot died Monday morning in his sleep, whiles his four sisters were rushed to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon while suffering from shortness of breath and vomiting.
The circumstances of Yosef Naim’s death and his sisters’
hospitalizations were being probed. Reports indicated all the family’s
kids hadn’t been vaccinated and had recently recovered from COVID-19.
Why I Love Rav Shmuel – And Will Advocate Vaccination Nonetheless
Rav Shmuel might be disappointed by my strong belief in the
scientific case for vaccination, but I doubt if he will hold it against
me. After all, it was his father, Rav Moshe, and others of that
generation who lived and taught a different model.
Vaccinations and Shidduchim | Stuart H. Ditchek, MD,FAAP
It is for this reason that I am suggesting what is obvious at this
point. When looking into shidduchim for your grown children, it is truly
incumbent upon us all to ask whether the prospective family has any
issues with not properly immunizing. While this sounds drastic, it will
save many families from the pain and suffering of a shalom bayis issue
between couples in the near future. I believe that we as a community are
now in almost unanimous agreement that families who choose not to
immunize should not be allowed into our schools and certainly should not
be welcomed into families who choose to correctly protect their
children from terrible preventable diseases. This simple common-sense
approach will certainly be met by further hostility from the
anti-vaccine movement in our communities. Please take this into account
when looking into shidduchim for your children. My experience in
advising families is that if the question is met with suspicion and
hostility, walk away from that shidduch. Families who continue to not
follow conventional medical and halachic advice on vaccinations should
simply find others who agree with that position to marry. As in all
critical matters, one should consult with a Rav when working through
these sensitive issues.
Shidduchim and Vaccination
Now let’s get back to our question: Are shadchanim who tell people not to get the vaccine in violation of the Torah prohibition of lifnei iver? The answer is not all that simple. There is a difference between the first form of lifnei iver, in regard to halachah, and the second form of lifnei iver, in regard to bad advice. The difference is discussed in the footnotes to the Mossad HaRav Kook Ritva on Yevamos 342 (column 1) written by Rabbi Refoel Aharon Yoffen, zt’l.
Anti-vaxxers threaten elderly rabbi and his family
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/318614
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a leader of the Lithuanian haredi community, is now being threatened by anti-vaxxers who oppose the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a Tuesday morning report, Yediot Aharonot said that following Rabbi Kanievsky's call to vaccinate children against coronavirus, the senior haredi leader has become a target of attacks, threats, and fake news spready by extremists.
Yanky Kanievsky, a grandson of Rabbi Kanievsky who is said to have his ear, has suffered calls of, "You're murderers," and, "You have the blood of children on your hands," as well as threats such as, "We'll get to you," "We're wishing," and "They're going to rape your children."
A text message sent to other family members, some of whom received it late at night, read, "May your name be erased," "villain," and "Amalek."
Herzog receives report on sexual abuse against minors
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/herzog-receives-report-on-sexual-abuse-against-minors-688643
Until relatively recently, Israeli society and state did not make a major issue out of sexual abuse of children.
Antisemitic canard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitic_canard
"The blood libel accusation, another famous anti-Semitic canard, is also a twelfth-century creation."[70] The first recorded ritual murder accusation against Jews was that of William of Norwich, reported by a monk Thomas of Monmouth.[71]
The descriptions of torture and human sacrifice in the antisemitic blood libels run contrary to many of the teachings of Judaism. The Ten Commandments forbid murder. The use of blood (human or otherwise) in cooking is prohibited by Kashrut and blood and other discharges from the human body are considered ritually unclean. (Lev 15) The Bible (Old Testament) and Jewish teachings portray human sacrifice as one of the evils that separated the pagans of Canaan from the Hebrews. (Deut 12:31, 2 Kings 16:3) Jews were prohibited from engaging in these rituals and were punished for doing so (Ex 34:15, Lev 20:2, Deut 18:12, Jer 7:31). Ritual cleanliness for priests prohibited even being in the same room with a human corpse (Lev 21:11).
When "Church and secular leaders sharply denounced these defamations ... people refused to abandon this myth ... Popes, kings and emperors declared that Jews, if for no other reason than their strict dietary laws banning even the smallest drop of blood in meat or poultry, were incapable of the crime. The Christian populace was not impressed. In 1385, Geoffrey Chaucer published his Canterbury Tales which included an account of Jews murdering a deeply pious and innocent Christian boy. This blood libel became a part of English literary tradition."[72]
Among those who refuted the blood libel against Jews were Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1236: "we pronounce the Jews of the aforementioned place [Fulda] and the rest of the Jews in Germany completely absolved of this imputed crime";[73] Pope Gregory IX in Papal Bull dated 7 October 1272: "We decree ... that Christians need not be obeyed against Jews in a case or situation of this type, and we order that Jews seized upon such a silly pretext be freed from imprisonment, and that they shall not be arrested henceforth on such a miserable pretext, unless – which we do not believe – they be caught in the commission of the crime";[74] Pope Clement VI on 26 September 1348: "Jews are not responsible for the Plague."[75]
Blood libel stories have appeared in modern times on many occasions in the state-sponsored media of a number of Arab and Muslim nations, their television shows and websites, and books alleging instances of the Jewish blood libels are not uncommon there.[76]
Monday, December 13, 2021
COVID has killed 1 of every 100 older Americans as U.S. nears grim milestone
As the coronavirus pandemic approaches the end of a second year, the United States stands on the cusp of surpassing 800,000 deaths from the virus, and no group has suffered more than older Americans. All along, older people have been known to be more vulnerable to having severe cases, but the scale of loss is only now coming into full view.
Seventy-five
percent of people who have died of the virus in the United States — or
about 600,000 of the nearly 800,000 who have perished so far — have been
65 or older. One in 100 older Americans has died from the virus. For
people younger than 65, that ratio is closer to 1 in 1,400.
BBC demonised our children, parents of Oxford street victims say
The Board of Deputies called on the BBC to apologise, saying: “The BBC thought that they heard a slur in English. What they were actually hearing was a distressed Jewish man speaking in Hebrew appealing for help.”
When approached for comment about the original BBC article featuring
the claim that several anti-Muslim slurs were audible from the Jewish
boys on the bus, a BBC spokesperson said: “The article is about the
police’s appeal for information. The main focus is the actions of the
individuals the police want to identify. The audio appears to show that a
slur can be heard coming from the bus. We have changed our story to
clarify only one such slur can be heard clearly.”