After a LOT Airlines flight was forced to unexpectedly land in Iceland due to an unruly passenger on Sunday night, some frum passengers passed the time by holding a kumzits. But eventually, the passengers, including 60 frum ones, were put up in a hotel for the night around midnight. The frum passengers contacted the closest shilichei Chabad, Rabbi Avi and Mushky Feldman, who have been living in Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavík since February 2018. The Feldmans traveled for 45 minutes to bring food to the passengers and made the round trip again on Monday morning, bringing a Sefer Torah for Shacharis of Rosh Chodesh Shevat as well as breakfast and lunch, a Collive report said. The passengers were scheduled to leave Iceland on Monday at about 5 p.m.

Singer Shulem Lemer sang Ani Ma’amin and Kal Malei Rachamim at the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan on Monday. The ceremony marked 75 years to the day of the liberation by the Soviet forces of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The event included remarks by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and other political figures and Holocaust survivors Mr. Shraga Milstein and Ms. Irene Shashar told their stories. Rabbi Arthur Schneier recited the Kaddish and Mr. Itzhak Perlman was the musical contributor. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is working on an agreement to have Jonathan Pollard brought to Israel a week before the March 2 elections, a Times of Israel (TOI) report said, quoting a Likud source who spoke to Zman Yisrael, TOI’s Hebrew sister site. Former Israeli spy Pollard told Channel 12 News in an interview in August that he asked Netanyahu to use his influence to convince US President Donald Trump to allow him more freedom in order to care for his ailing wife Esther. Esther Pollard is seriously ill with aggressive breast cancer and Pollard explained that he doesn’t have the freedom to properly take care of her since all his restrictions are like a “virtual prison.” “I can’t take care of my wife properly now because I have no freedom of movement,” Pollard said in August.

Following Israel’s announcement on Sunday that Israelis can now travel to Saudi Arabia for specific purposes such as business or religious pilgrimages for Muslims, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister stated on Monday that Israeli citizens are not welcome in the country. “Our policy is constant. We don’t have relations with Israel and holders of Israeli passports cannot visit the kingdom for now,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said, as quoted on CNN’s Arabic language website. “We strongly encourage the reaching of a solution” to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, said Bin Farhan.

French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized by senior French judicial officials on Monday for implying that the murderer of Sarah Halimi should face a new trial in a speech he delivered in Israel last week. “Even if, in the end, the judge had to decide that criminal responsibility is not there, the need for a trial is there,” Macron said in a speech to French Jews in Jerusalem last Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators privately Tuesday he does not yet have the votes to block new witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. McConnell convened a closed-door meeting of GOP senators shortly after Trump’s legal team made its closing arguments in the trial, the third and final day of defense proceedings punctuated by revelations from John Bolton, the former national security adviser. A Republican familiar with the meeting was not authorized to describe it by name and requested anonymity. The GOP leader faced a handful of potential defections, but several days remained before any potential witness vote would be taken. A decision to call more witnesses would need 51 votes to pass.

After spending a month-and-a-half in military prison following his arrest at Ben Gurion Airport, Charedi Avreich Yehuda Elimelech Tumback was released from prison on Tuesday with a complete exemption from military service. Kikar Shabbos broke the news in Israel regarding Tumback’s release. Tumback was initially arrested at the airport when he tried to leave the country heading to kivrei tzaddikim in Europe. At the time he had been considered absent without leave from appearing at the IDF registration office for more than six years. He had been expected to receive six months in prison but after the evidence presented by his attorney, Menachem Stauber, the presiding officer of the military court went lenient on Tomback and only gave him the month-and-a-half sentence.

Hamas operatives inside the Gaza Strip continue to launch balloon bombs at Israel in the hopes of igniting large fires and injuring civilians. Police sappers were called to various locations in the Gaza periphery to dismantle explosive devices attached to bombs that were launched at Israel. The bombs landed in Sderot, Kiryat Gat, and in other locations throughout the regional council district of Sha’ar HaNegev. The areas where the balloons landed was cordoned off by police until the bombs could be defused. In numerous instances, United Hatzalah provided medical security for the police officers often using ATVs, especially when the bombs landed in fields or deserted areas that were difficult to access by car.

Michael Shemesh, the Israeli political correspondent for Kan News Agency, made a Kiddush Hashem on a live broadcast after his Yarmulka blew off in front of the White House while he was giving a report. The incident took place while Shemesh was delivering a live broadcast about the Deal of the Century. Shemesh was surprised when, in the middle of the live interview, a strong gust of wind picked his Yarmulka up off of his head and flung it a few dozen feet away. Shemesh immediately put his hand on his head until he finished his report and then ran to pick up his Yarmulka and place it back on his head where it came from. [DEAL OF THE CENTURY RELEASED: Trump Plan Calls For Palestinian State, Settlement Freeze] (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

In a moving scene by Auschwitz, an English-speaking Holocaust survivor told his story, surrounded by a group of American yeshiva boys. Rabbi Shmuel Beller, 92, grew up in the Polish town of Oświęcim which later became the most notorious concentration camp associated with the Holocaust – Auschwitz. Emotional, with his voice choked as tears streamed down his face, R’ Biller screamed “Unbelievable what the murderers, these Germans Yemach Shemam did! Where was Roosevelt, President Roosevelt Yemach Sememo?! He could of saved alot of Jews! “He didn’t!” “The Rasha (Roosevelt) Yemach Shemo!” R’ Biller was 12 when World War II began and spent five years being transported to ghettos and labor camps until he was sent to a concentration camp at the end of the war.