Rockland Chaverim volunteers once again went above and beyond the call of duty – literally getting themselves filthy as they did an incredible act of Chesed. Chaveirim received a call on their hotline that a pair of Tefillin had accidentally ended up in the garbage of a home, and were now inside the back of a garbage truck. Coordinator of Chaverim, Yossi Margareten sprung into action and immediately called the IWS Garbage Company, and explained them the situation. The company was very sympathetic, and had the truck stop its route and proceed to a trash-transferring facility. At that location, the entire truck of trash was dumped on the floor, and a team of 6 volunteers began their search. After two hours of working through mounds of smelly trash, the group located the pair of Tefillin.

Perhaprs it’s the new bail-reform law or not, but Flatbush Shomrim has been working overtime to keep the community safe. In under 12 hours, 6 criminals were arrested for various crimes. It began at around 2:30AM Thursday morning, when volunteers on patrol witnessed a well-known suspect breaking into multiple vehicles on East 28th Street near Avenue R. The man eventually tried stealing a car and had already started the motor. The NYPD’s 61 Precinct responded and took the man into custody. He was in possession of around 5 pairs of high-end sunglasses as well as other items that he had stolen from the vehicle. On Thursday at around 11:00AM, the Shomrim hotline received a call reporting a man who had broken into a vehicle on East 27th Street near Avenue J.

The crew of a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed in Iran, killing all 176 people on board, never made a radio call for help and was trying to turn back for the airport when the burning plane went down, an initial Iranian investigative report said Thursday. Ukraine, meanwhile, said it considered a missile strike as one of several possible theories for the crash, despite Iran’s denials. The Iranian report suggests that a sudden emergency struck the Boeing 737 operated by Ukrainian International Airlines early on Wednesday morning, when it crashed, just minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. Investigators from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization offered no immediate explanation for the disaster, however.

YWN regrets to inform you of the tragic Petira of one-year-old Rivka Koncepolski A”H, the child of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim in São Paulo, Brazil. She was Niftar on Tuesday morning after a drowning incident. Her parents are Rabbi Menachem Mendel and Dvora Lea Koncepolski, where the rabbi is the administrator of Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch Ohel Menachem, whose Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Shamai Ende, is Dvora Lea Koncepolski’s father. Rabbi Koncepolski is also a certified EMT and founding member of Hatzala of Brazil, a volunteer life-saving organization. Boruch Dayan HaEmmes… (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Two NYPD Officers were injured following a serious car crash in Queens, Thursday morning. It happened just before 12:00PM at the intersection of 150th Street and 72nd Avenue. Queens Hatzolah received multiple calls reporting the crash, with reports of two officers from the 107 Precinct pinned inside the vehicle. FDNY EMS transported two victims to the hospital, and Hatzolah transported one. At least one of the victim was reportedly in serious condition – unknown if that person is a police officer. The victims were transported to Jamaica Hospital.\ Sources told YWN that this may have been in a vehicle pursuit by the NYPD. This past Monday, Williamsburg Hatzolah treated two NYPD Officers involved in a crash at Lee Avenue and Lynch Street.

“Facts don’t care about feelings,” according to Ben Shapiro, host of one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S., but Ben certainly cares and has feelings for Daf Yomi. On his January 7th show, Shapiro related to his millions of listeners about the Daf Yomi program and the recent Siyum Hashas. After providing a brief overview about the significance of the 7.5-year study program and the ensuing Siyum, Shapiro mentioned that he recently began learning Daf Yomi as well, with the aid of a particular resource: the brand-new All Daf app, developed by the Orthodox Union.

An Indiana congressman who served in Afghanistan as a member of the Navy Reserve spoke out on behalf of America’s military veterans Wednesday after U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican, said Omar’s comments were a “disgrace,” calling the remarks “offensive to our nation’s veterans who really do have PTSD after putting their life on the line to keep America safe.” Omar had made her remarks during a news conference with other Democrats on Wednesday, at which she said she “felt ill” because of “everything that is taking place” in the Middle East — a reference to the recent U.S. tensions between the U.S. and Iran, including last week’s U.S.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a House vote for Thursday on limiting President Donald Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran as Democratic criticism of the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general intensified. Pelosi, D-Calif., announced the plan in a one-page statement that said last week’s drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani was “provocative and disproportionate.” The Democratic measure seems certain to pass over solid Republican opposition. A similar proposal by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., faces an uphill fight in the GOP-run Senate and, even if passed, would be vetoed by Trump. The House vote was scheduled shortly after a briefing on Iran by top administration officials that many Democrats criticized for lacking specific justification for the killing.

Motti Ben-Shabbat, 38, was identified as the Nahariya man who drowned on Wednesday afternoon. He died while performing his last act of mesirus nefesh and chessed when he left the safety of his home to rescue the occupants of a car that had flipped over in a stream of water from the Ga’aton river which had overflowed its banks. A Chareidi avreich jumped into the water together with Motti to save the family and was saved by a nes. The avreich, Raviv Cohen, told Kikar Shabbos: “I and Motti, z’l, saw people screaming for help, to be rescued from their car in the flood. We quickly jumped into the water and rescued them through the windows of the car.” “Suddenly I saw that Motti wasn’t there. I began to scream to the scuba divers to search for him in the depths.

Stormy weather conditions began in Israel again on Wednesday morning after a short break, leading to flooding in Israel’s north and powerful winds. In Bnei Brak, a concrete pillar collapsed onto the wall of a shul’s kitchen, causing the wall to collapse right next to the room where dozens of avreichim were learning, Kikar Hashabat reported. The shul’s gabbai was standing next to the wall at the time and managed to run away a second before it collapsed. Dovid Zar, a well-known Chareidi photographer who learns in the kollel in the shul, told Kikar Hashabat: “Apparently it was a weak pillar that fell due to the wind. It was an extremely powerful wind that hasn’t been felt in Bnei Brak for many years.