Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny. All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci” but also goodbye. The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last. Part of the purpose of fireworks shows, parachute jumps, solemn commemorations and ceremonies that world leaders will attend this week is to pass the baton of remembrance to the current generations now seeing war again in Europe, in Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and British royals are among the VIPs that France is expecting for the D-Day events. On Sunday, three C-47 transport planes, a workhorse of the war, dropped three long strings of jumpers, their round chutes mushrooming open in the blue skies with puffy white clouds, to whoops from the huge crowd that was regaled by tunes from Glenn Miller and Edith Piaf as they waited. The planes looped around and dropped another three sticks of jumpers. Some of the loudest applause from the crowd arose when a startled deer pounced from the undergrowth as the jumpers were landing and sprinted across the landing zone. After a final pass to drop two last jumpers, the planes then roared overhead in close formation and disappeared over the horizon. Dozens of World War II veterans are converging on France to revisit old memories, make new ones, and hammer home a message that survivors of D-Day and the ensuing Battle of Normandy, and of other World War II theaters, have repeated time and time again — that war is hell. “Seven thousand of my marine buddies were killed. Twenty thousand shot up, wounded, put on ships, buried at sea,” said Don Graves, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iwo Jima in the Pacific theater. “I want the younger people, the younger generation here to know what we did,” said Graves, part of a group of more than 60 World War II veterans who flew into Paris on Saturday. The youngest veteran in the group is 96 and the most senior 107, according to their carrier from Dallas, American Airlines. “We did our job and we came home and that’s it. We never talked about it I think. For 70 years I didn’t talk about it,” said another of the veterans, Ralph Goldsticker, a U.S. Air Force captain who served in the 452nd Bomb Group. Of the D-Day landings, he recalled seeing from his aircraft “a big, big chunk of the beach with thousands of vessels,” and spoke of bombing raids against German strongholds and routes that German forces might otherwise have used to rush in reinforcements to push the invasion back into the sea. “I dropped my first bomb at 06:58 a.m. in a heavy gun placement,” he said. “We went back […]
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sharply criticized the decision by congressional leaders to invite Prime Minister bIBI Netanyahu to speak before Congress and declared he would boycott the address.
In his statement – on Shabbos, of course – Sanders did not hold back, referring to Netanyahu as a “war criminal.”
“It is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited – by leaders from both parties – to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” said the self-hating Jew.
While acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself following the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th, Bumbling Bernie emphasized that “it did not, and does not, have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.”
“Israel does not have the right to kill more than 34,000 civilians and wound over 80,000 – 5% of the population of Gaza. It does not have the right to orphan 19,000 children. It does not have the right to displace 75% of the people of Gaza from their homes. It does not have the right to damage or destroy over 60% of the housing in Gaza. It does not have the right to destroy the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, to obliterate water and sewage systems, and deny electricity to the people of Gaza. It does not have the right to annihilate Gaza’s health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers. It does not have the right to bomb all 12 of Gaza’s universities and 56 of its schools, or deny 625,000 children in Gaza the opportunity for an education,” Sanders said.
“It most certainly does not have the right to block humanitarian aid – food and medical supplies – from coming in to the desperate people of Gaza, creating the conditions for starvation and famine. It does not have the right to condemn hundreds of thousands of children to death by starvation. This is a clear violation of American and international law,” Sanders continued.
“The International Criminal Court recently announced that it is seeking warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. The ICC is right. Both of these people are engaged in clear and outrageous violations of international law,” he declared.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend,” Sanders concluded.
Sanders has consistently been a vocal critic of Israel’s government, labeling it as “racist” and advocating for the US to make its aid to Israel conditional.
He has previously urged Congress to reject the $10.1 billion in unconditional military aid proposed for Israel, arguing that the funds would enable the Israeli government “to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people.”
Even though Sanders has intensified his criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, he has not supported a permanent ceasefire, arguing that it could lead to more attacks by Hamas.
{Matzav.com}
Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the bill to become law without his signature late Thursday, saying he is very concerned about the costs and outcome of the small state taking on “Big Oil” alone in what will likely be a grueling legal fight. But he acknowledged that he understands something has to be done to address the toll of climate change. “I understand the desire to seek funding to mitigate the effects of climate change that has hurt our state in so many ways,” Scott, a moderate Republican in the largely blue state of Vermont, wrote in a letter to lawmakers. Scott, a popular governor who recently announced that he’s running for reelection to a fifth two-year term, has been at odds with the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which he has called out of balance. He was expected by environmental advocates to veto the bill but then allowed it to be enacted. Scott wrote to lawmakers that he was comforted that the Agency of Natural Resources is required to report back to the Legislature on the feasibility of the effort. Last July’s flooding from torrential rains inundated Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier, the nearby city Barre, some southern Vermont communities and ripped through homes and washed away roads around the rural state. Some saw it as the state’s worst natural disaster since a 1927 flood that killed dozens of people and caused widespread destruction. It took months for businesses — from restaurants to shops — to rebuild, losing out on their summer and even fall seasons. Several have just recently reopened while scores of homeowners were left with flood-ravaged homes heading into the cold season. Under the legislation, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, would provide a report by Jan. 15, 2026, on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024. The assessment would look at the affects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas. The state would use federal data to determine the amount of covered greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a fossil fuel company. It’s a polluter-pays model affecting companies engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil attributable to more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during the time period. The funds could be used by the state for such things as upgrading stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings. It’s modeled after the federal Superfund pollution cleanup program. “For too long, giant fossil fuel companies have knowingly lit the match of climate disruption without being required to do a thing to put out the fire,” Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement. “Finally, maybe for the first time anywhere, Vermont is going to hold the companies most responsible for climate-driven floods, fires and heat waves financially accountable for a […]
Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba said that despite Trump’s 34 felony convictions, “nothing will change” in his campaign for president this November.
In an interview with BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the attorney spoke about “corruption” in the judicial system and characterized Trump as a “victim.”
“Donald Trump is the victim of political selective prosecution,” Habba said.
Kuenssberg then asked if Trump would continue to run for president from a jail cell should his appeal fail, to which Habba replied, “He is running for president. Nothing will change there.”
As Kuenssberg pressed again, Habba said, “I recommend you find the latest polls in this country from the people that live in this country,” an apparent jab at Kuenssberg’s British nationality.
Trump awaits sentencing set for July 11. Read more at BBC.
North Korea sent its second wave of balloons filled with human waste, trash, and other refuse across the border into South Korea, the South Korean military said.
The latest round of flying stink bombs came within a week of the first launch, which saw more than 260 balloons filled with waste and excrement floating toward South Korea. On Motzoei Shabbos, officials found about 90 balloons filled with paper and plastic trash and cigarette butts around Seoul and the Gyeonggi province, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to property, though the military advised people not to touch the objects and to beware of items falling from the sky.
Earlier in the week, Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong said the balloons were in retaliation for the anti-North Korean leaflets defectors in the south had sent across the border for years. She called the poop balloons “sincere presents” from the North. Read more.
The bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows is prompting development of new, next-generation mRNA vaccines — akin to COVID-19 shots — that are being tested in both animals and people. Next month, the U.S. Agriculture Department is to begin testing a vaccine developed by University of Pennsylvania researchers by giving it to calves. The idea: If vaccinating cows protects dairy workers, that could mean fewer chances for the virus to jump into people and mutate in ways that could spur human-to-human spread. Meanwhile. the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been talking to manufacturers about possible mRNA flu vaccines for people that, if needed, could supplement millions of bird flu vaccine doses already in government hands. “If there’s a pandemic, there’s going to be a huge demand for vaccine,” said Richard Webby, a flu researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. “The more different (vaccine manufacturing) platforms that can respond to that, the better.” The bird flu virus has been spreading among more animal species in scores of countries since 2020. It was detected in U.S. dairy herds in March, although investigators think it may have been in cows since December. This week, the USDA announced it had been found in alpacas for the first time. At least three people — all workers at farms with infected cows — have been diagnosed with bird flu, although the illnesses were considered mild. But earlier versions of the same H5N1 flu virus have been highly lethal to humans in other parts of the world. Officials are taking steps to be prepared if the virus mutates in a way to make it more deadly or enables it to spread more easily from person to person. Traditionally, most flu vaccines are made via an egg-based manufacturing process that’s been used for more than 70 years. It involves injecting a candidate virus into fertilized chicken eggs, which are incubated for several days to allow the viruses to grow. Fluid is harvested from the eggs and is used as the basis for vaccines, with killed or weakened virus priming the body’s immune system. Rather than eggs — also vulnerable to bird flu-caused supply constraints — some flu vaccine is made in giant vats of cells. Officials say they already have two candidate vaccines for people that appear to be well-matched to the bird flu virus in U.S. dairy herds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used the circulating bird flu virus as the seed strain for them. The government has hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses in pre-filled syringes and vials that likely could go out in a matter of weeks, if needed, federal health officials say. They also say they have bulk antigen that could generate nearly 10 million more doses that could be filled, finished and distributed in a matter of a few months. CSL Seqirus, which manufactures cell-based flu vaccine, this week announced that the government hired it to fill and finish about 4.8 million of those doses. The work could be done by late summer, U.S. health officials said this week. But the production lines for flu vaccines are already working on this fall’s seasonal shots — work that would have to be interrupted to produce millions more doses of bird flu vaccine. So the government […]
Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir made it clear that they would resign from the government if the hostage release plan proposed by President Joe Biden on Friday was implemented.
Finance Minister Smotrich stated, “I spoke with the Prime Minister and made it clear to him that I will not be part of a government that agrees to the proposed outline and ends the war without the destruction of Hamas and the return of all the hostages. We will not agree to an end to the war before the destruction of Hamas, nor to a serious harm to the achievements of the war so far through the withdrawal of the IDF and the return of Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip, and not for the wholesale release of terrorists who will return, God forbid, to murder Jews.”
He further expressed, “We demand the continuation of the fighting until the destruction of Hamas and the return of all the hostages, the creation of a completely different security reality in Gaza and Lebanon, the return of all residents to their homes in the north and south and a massive investment in the accelerated development of these parts of the country.”
Minister of National Security Ben Gvir commented that “the deal as was published today – means the end of the war and giving up on eliminating Hamas. This is a reckless deal, which constitutes a victory for terrorism and a security threat to the State of Israel. Agreeing to such a deal is not the absolute victory – but rather the absolute defeat. We will not allow for the war to end without the complete elimination of Hamas.”
He warned, “If the Prime Minister implements the reckless deal under the conditions published today, which mean the end of the war and the renouncing of Hamas, Otzma Yehudit will dissolve the government.”
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid responded, “The threats of Ben Gvir and Smotrich are a neglect of national security, of the hostages and of the residents of the north and south. This is the worst and most reckless government in the country’s history. As far as they are concerned, let there be war here forever, zero responsibility, zero management, a complete failure.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s political advisor, Ophir Falk, shared his thoughts on the ceasefire proposal put forward by President Joe Biden on Friday in an interview with the Sunday Times.
“It’s not a good deal, but we dearly want the hostages to be released, all of them. There are a lot of details to be worked out and that includes there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met,” Falk remarked.
Falk also characterized Biden’s speech from Friday as “a political speech for whatever reasons.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
Google said Friday it has made “more than a dozen technical improvements” to its artificial intelligence systems after its retooled search engine was found spitting out erroneous information. The tech company unleashed a makeover of its search engine in mid-May that frequently provides AI-generated summaries on top of search results. Soon after, social media users began sharing screenshots of its most outlandish answers. Google has largely defended its AI overviews feature, saying it is typically accurate and was tested extensively beforehand. But Liz Reid, the head of Google’s search business, acknowledged in a blog post Friday that “some odd, inaccurate or unhelpful AI Overviews certainly did show up.” While many of the examples were silly, others were dangerous or harmful falsehoods. Adding to the furor, some people also made faked screenshots purporting to show even more ridiculous answers that Google never generated. A few of those fakes were also widely shared on social media. The Associated Press last week asked Google about which wild mushrooms to eat, and it responded with a lengthy AI-generated summary that was mostly technically correct, but “a lot of information is missing that could have the potential to be sickening or even fatal,” said Mary Catherine Aime, a professor of mycology and botany at Purdue University who reviewed Google’s response to the AP’s query. For example, information about mushrooms known as puffballs was “more or less correct,” she said, but Google’s overview emphasized looking for those with solid white flesh — which many potentially deadly puffball mimics also have. In another widely shared example, an AI researcher asked Google how many Muslims have been president of the United States, and it responded confidently with a long-debunked conspiracy theory: “The United States has had one Muslim president, Barack Hussein Obama.” Google last week made an immediate fix to prevent a repeat of the Obama error because it violated the company’s content policies. In other cases, Reid said Friday that it has sought to make broader improvements such as better detection of “nonsensical queries” — for example, “How many rocks should I eat?” — that shouldn’t be answered with an AI summary. The AI systems were also updated to limit the use of user-generated content — such as social media posts on Reddit — that could offer misleading advice. In one widely shared example, Google’s AI overview last week pulled from a satirical Reddit comment to suggest using glue to get cheese to stick to pizza. Reid said the company has also added more “triggering restrictions” to improve the quality of answers to certain queries, such as about health. But it’s not clear how that works and in which circumstances. On Friday, the AP again asked Google about which wild mushrooms to eat. AI-generated answers are inherently random, and the newer response was different but still “problematic,” said Aime, the Purdue mushroom expert who is also president of the Mycological Society of America. For example, saying that “Chanterelles look like seashells or flowers is not true,” she said. Google’s summaries are designed to get people authoritative answers to the information they’re looking for as quickly as possible without having to click through a ranked list of website links. But some AI experts have long warned Google against ceding its search results to AI-generated answers that could perpetuate […]
It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Ahron Garfinkel zt”l, a longtime marbitz Torah. He was 78.
Rav Ahron had been in the hospital for an infection and his condition deteriorated.
A native of Monsey, NY, Rav Ahron was the head of Yeshiva Toras Chesed and a rebbi at Yeshiva Ohr Somayach in Monsey for many years.
He relocated to Jackson a few years ago to be closer to his children and grandchildren.
The levayah is being held at 2:30 p.m. today at the Congregation Sons of Israel Holocaust Memorial Chapel, located at 613 Ramsey Street, in Lakewood, NJ. The aron will then be flown to Eretz Yisroel for kevurah in Beit Shemesh.
The family will be sitting shivah at the home of Rav Aharon’s son, Rabbi Moshe Garfinkel, at 4 Katie Court in Lakewood, NJ.
The following is Zoom information for watching and listening to the levayah:
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Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}
The annual Israel parade is set to take place today along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, with tens of thousands of participants and attendees expected. This year’s event will have a more somber tone due to the recent October 7 attack and the ongoing war. Despite no specific threats to the parade, city officials are taking all necessary precautions to ensure a safe and successful event. Security will be tighter than usual along the parade route and surrounding areas. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has announced a high police presence, including drone surveillance, K-9 units, bike patrols, fencing and barriers, designated entry points for spectators, metal detectors for all spectators, and a ban on backpacks, large bags, and coolers. Hatzolah from across the city’s five boroughs has also deployed a massive amount of resources, including ambulances, EMTs, paramedics, and a mobile command center. Spectators will only be allowed to line the east side of Fifth Avenue, with the west side blocked off by police. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
President Joe Biden said Friday that Donald Trump being found guilty in his New York hush money case reaffirms “the American principle that no one is above the law,” and he said “it’s reckless” and “dangerous” for his predecessor to suggest the legal system was rigged against him. “Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself. It was a state case, not a federal case and it was heard by a jury of 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you,” Biden told reporters at the White House, a day after a jury in New York found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts in a case stemming from the 2016 election. He added that Trump’s “jury’s chosen the same way every jury in America’s chosen,” noted that jurors heard five weeks of evidence and reached “a unanimous verdict: They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts.” The president said Trump could appeal the case “just like everyone else has that opportunity” then pointedly said, “It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, It’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.” “Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years, and it literally is the cornerstone of America,” Biden said. “The justice system should be respected. And we should never let never allow anyone to tear it down.” As the president left the podium after his remarks, a reporter shouted if he had any reaction to Trump calling himself a political prisoner and blaming the president directly for what’s happening to him. Biden stopped and flashed a grin, but did not answer the question. He similarly didn’t answer when another reporter asked if he thought Trump should appear on November’s ballot. None of the developments changed Trump’s defiant tone as he looked to galvanize supporters ahead of November. Moments after Biden spoke, Trump sent a fundraising email declaring, “I WAS JUST CONVICTED IN A RIGGED TRIAL. I AM A POLITICAL PRISONER!” Biden was at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, marking the anniversary of the 2015 death of his grown son, Beau from brain cancer when the jury reached its verdicts on Thursday, and he offered no personal reaction to the trial at the time. But he returned to Washington on Friday for an event at the White House with the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, and spoke to reporters about the situation in the Middle East before delivering brief remarks on Trump’s case. In comments to reporters at his namesake tower in Manhattan earlier Friday, Trump tried to cast himself as a martyr, suggesting that if he could be convicted, “They can do this to anyone.” “I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and save our Constitution. I don’t mind,” Trump said. Biden for months had carefully avoided involvement in Trump’s legal drama, looking to keep from feeding into his Republican rival’s claims that his criminal woes were the result of politically motivated prosecutions. But as the New York trial concluded, Biden’s campaign became far more vocal about it. His campaign had released a series of innuendo-laced statements that alluded to the trial to attack Trump’s policy positions, and then Biden himself quipped that he heard Trump was “free on Wednesdays” — the trial’s […]
The Jewish state should task a committee with probing the state’s defense budget amid a war that appears poised to cost $67 billion between 2023 and 2025, Amir Yaron, the governor of the Bank of Israel, said.
Speaking at the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Letzion, Yaron said that “a prosperous economy requires security, and security requires a prosperous economy,” Reuters reported.
“The war should not bring with it a blank check for permanent defense expenditures, and proper balances have to be found,” he added.
The Israeli defense budget “is expected to grow on a permanent basis, with macroeconomic impact,” Yaron said.
The $67 billion estimate includes funding to cover expenses for evacuated civilians.
In January, Ynet reported that the war had already cost about $58.5 billion and that the costs of reservists, who make about $81 daily, had already cost about $2.4 billion. In the first three months of the war alone, Israel paid affected businesses about $3.7 billion, and property damage in communities near the border with Lebanon and near the Gaza Strip totaled up to two-and-a-half times that amount.
In the first three months of the year, the Israeli economy grew at a 14.1% annual rate. JNS
Scientists have found the genetic root of a disorder that causes intellectual disability, which they estimate affects as many as one in 20,000 young people. And they hope their discovery leads to a new diagnosis that can provide answers to families. Those with the condition have a constellation of issues, which also include short stature, small heads, seizures and low muscle mass, said the researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature Medicine on Friday. “We were struck by how common this disorder is” when compared with other rare diseases linked to a single gene, said Ernest Turro of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, senior author of the study. Syndromes like these can go unnoticed because the traits are sometimes so subtle doctors can’t recognize them by just looking at patients, said Dr. Charles Billington, a pediatric geneticist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study. “So certainly this wasn’t something that we necessarily had a name for,” he said. “We’re learning more about these syndromes that we recognize only once we are seeing the cause.” Researchers said the mutations occurred in a small “non-coding” gene, meaning it doesn’t provide instructions for making proteins. Until now, all but nine of the nearly 1,500 genes known to be linked to intellectual disability in general are protein-coding genes. Most large genetic studies so far have used a sequencing technology that typically leaves out genes that don’t code for proteins. This study used more comprehensive “whole-genome” sequencing data from 77,539 people enrolled in the British 100,000 Genomes Project, including 5,529 with an intellectual disability. The rare mutations researchers found in the gene, called RNU4-2, were strongly associated with the potential to develop intellectual disability. The finding “opens the door to diagnoses” for thousands of families, said study author Andrew Mumford, research director of the South West England NHS Genomic Medicine Service. More research is needed, Mumford said. How the mutation causes the disorder remains unclear and there is no treatment. But Billington said labs should be able to offer testing for this condition relatively quickly. And researchers said families should be able to find and support each other – and know they’re not alone. “That can be incredibly comforting,” Mumford said. (AP)
Following Biden’s ceasefire proposal and it’s subsequent support from European nations, The Tikva Forum for hostages’ families responded by demanding a list all living hostages before a ceasefire deal can be reached: “Prior to getting into any detail of a deal, and certainly prior to any of the stages, we must know that we are dealing with animalistic humans – both in how they acted during the massacre and in how they are acting during the negotiations,” said The Tikva Forum.
They continued: “Therefore, in order to ensure the welfare of our children, we demand that Hamas present Israel with a list, in a detailed fashion, of which hostages are alive, and a list of corpses which it is holding. It is unthinkable that we should approach a deal that has far-reaching effects without knowing what or who we are receiving.”
Furthermore, The Forum said: “In addition, we turn to the US and all of the mediators who are in the picture: Throughout the entire period of the deal, the hostages must be held by a third party, and treated by the Red Cross. Without these two conditions, it will be very hard to carry out a complex deal such as this. Therefore, we call on all of those involved: Show responsibility towards the hostages.”
{Matzav.com}
The New Hampshire state Senate passed a bill on Thursday that codifies the most widely used definition of Jew-hatred into state law.
“It is clear that Jews are increasingly targeted and victimized for antisemitic discrimination on the basis of their national origin connection to Israel, and that perpetrators hide behind the lie that they are motivated by ‘politics’ and not bigotry,” said James Spillane, a state representative, following the vote.
SB 508, which codifies the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism, passed the state House on May 9.
Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, is expected to sign it into law.
“There is a crisis in this country that needs to be addressed,” said Spillane, a Republican and co-chair of the New Hampshire state House’s USA-Israel Relations Caucus.
He called the vote “an important step to ensure fair and equal application of New Hampshire’s antidiscrimination laws, to ensure that Jews receive equal protection.”
Shawn Evenhaim, board chairman of the Israeli-American Council for Action, called the vote “a bold stand against antisemitic and national origin discrimination.”
“By acting today, New Hampshire is not only protecting their citizens against anti-Jewish bias and hatred, which has been at crisis levels since Oct. 7, but is also setting an example for other states around the country,” he said.
New Hampshire would be the 36th state to codify the IHRA definition.
“By passing SB 508, New Hampshire has sent an important message, not just within the state, but across the United States, that every form of antisemitism is unacceptable,” stated Joe Sabag, executive director of IAC for Action.
“Without the IHRA definition, our community has suffered a civil rights deficit, where perpetrators of antisemitic discrimination would target Jews and Jewish institutions and then hide behind the false pretense that they were motivated by anti-Israel politics and not anti-Jewish bigotry,” he stated. “New Hampshire’s passage of SB 508 is an important step forward in a national effort to deal with the current antisemitism crisis we are facing.”
{Matzav.com}
Following his unprecedented felony conviction, former president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has to wait to find out what his sentence will be. But even if it involves time behind bars, that doesn’t mean his campaign to return to the White House comes to an end. He wouldn’t even be the first candidate to run for that office while imprisoned. That piece of history belongs to Eugene V. Debs, who ran on the Socialist Party ticket in 1920 — and garnered almost a million votes, or about 3 percent. The circumstances are obviously different. Debs, despite his influence and fame, was effectively a fringe candidate that year; Trump has already held the office and is running as the near-certain nominee of one of the country’s two major political parties. But there are similarities, too. WHO WAS DEBS? Debs, born in 1855, became a strong voice advocating for labor causes from the time he was a young man. A staunch union member and leader, he was first sent to prison for six months following the 1894 Pullman rail strike, on grounds he violated a federal injunction against the strike. He became a committed socialist, and a founding member of the Socialist Party of America. He ran for president as a socialist in 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1912. In 1918, though, he was sent to prison for speaking out against American involvement in World War I, which was a violation of the recently passed Sedition Act. But being locked up in a federal prison in Atlanta didn’t lower Debs’ profile at all, and in 1920, he was once again nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. HOW DID HE HANDLE RUNNING WHILE IN PRISON? Being in prison didn’t make campaigning impossible, either. While Debs obviously could not travel around the country himself, his party turned his status into a rallying point, using his convict number on campaign buttons. Surrogates spoke for him, as well as a film clip of him being told of his nomination that played around the country, said Thomas Doherty, professor of American Studies at Brandeis University. “The fame of Debs and the novelty of him running for president from prison gave him a sort of purchase,” Doherty said. “It was a credible campaign, considering you’re running from prison.” (AP)
A German 23 year old named Edgar, whose grandparents were Nazis, has to come Israel and is trying to enlist in the IDF, according to a Mako report.
Edgar is not Jewish, but he was raised to be a supporter of Israel and has wanted to visit Israel for years.
Following Hamas’s October 7 attack, Edgar, like many others, felt the need to take action and help those in Israel. “I was sitting at home watching the Jews go through something resembling the Holocaust. I texted my friends to see if they were okay, but I felt like I had to do something,” Edgar said.
Edgar came to Israel in January. Upon his arrival, he started volunteering and assisting soldiers on various bases. During this time, he decided that he wanted to enlist in the IDF. However, as a non-Jewish foreign citizen, he was turned away.
Not to be deterred, Edgar continued to pursue drafting into the IDF, despite facing rejection. He has traveled to multiple government offices, including the Interior Ministry and the Population and Immigration Authority, where he continued to be told “No”.
Edgar said: “Even if I don’t succeed in enlisting, I have no doubt that I would do it all over again. It was an amazing experience [coming to Israel].”
Edgar says he will continue to try enlisting in the IDF until his tourist visa expires.
{Matzav.com}
Yesterday, the IDF released footage from a drone taken inside Rafah. In the footage, an IDF drone enters a civilian home in Rafah, only to find large barrels filled with explosives.
The IDF stated on X: “This is a home in Rafah that Hamas has booby-trapped. Just one out of many examples where Hamas embeds itself within civilian population and infrastructure.”
The post continued: “Hamas continues prioritizing their terrorism over the safety of Gazans. We will continue our operations to dismantle Hamas in accordance with international law.”
The IDF’s Nahal Brigade, under the command of the 162nd Division, is currently operating against terrorist operatives and infrastructure in the Rafah area.
Over the past few days, it’s soldiers located large numbers of weapons. These included a rocket launcher with six launchers aimed at Israeli territory, a weapons storage facility containing dozens of grenades, explosives, AK-47s, ammunition and vests.
{Matzav.com}
In a tense hearing at the High Court of Justice, judges challenged the government’s legal counsel, Attorney Doron Taubman, on the issue of conscripting Charedim into the army, pressing Taubman to explain why the government cannot commit to drafting even a small percentage of the approximately 63,000 eligible men. The hearing comes as part the court’s response to petitions filed by left-wing organizations demanding that all funding to yeshivos be permanently halted and that the IDF immediately begin drafting Chareidim. The petitions are being deliberated by an expanded panel of nine judges headed by acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman. After the Chareidi draft law expired, the Supreme Court issued an interim order halting funding to yeshivos for bochurim ages 18-26. Sunday’s hearing will determine whether to continue the ban on funding yeshivos and whether draft notices will sent to tens of thousands of bochurim and avreichim. Acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman referenced Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s statement that the IDF does not need to draft every single eligible Charedi man, but rather can do so gradually. Vogelman emphasized that the High Court’s 2017 ruling, which deemed mass military service exemptions illegal and discriminatory, must be taken into account. Taubman argued that the government cannot dictate to the IDF and Defense Ministry how to draft Charedi men, citing various considerations such as the army’s capacity to absorb soldiers with unique religious requirements and societal effects. However, Justice Noam Sohlberg pointed out that the IDF had previously declared it could accept 3,000 Charedi soldiers, questioning how it could not absorb that number, especially during a time of war. Justice Yael Wilner further pressed Taubman, demanding to know if the government supports or opposes the limited conscription of 3,000 Charedi men. Taubman responded, “We have not addressed the conscription of 3,000 men in principle.” Ahead of the hearing, Harav Dov Landau urged Charedim across the country and world to say Tehillim during it, beseeching Rachamei Shamayim to allow lomdei torah to continue their lifelong work. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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