Tragedy struck Boro Park on Tuesday morning, when a woman was R”L struck and killed by a truck. It happened just before 12:00PM, when a 68-year-old woman was struck by a cement truck on New Utrecht Avenue near 49th Street. Boro Park Hatzolah rushed to the scene and found the woman in traumatic arrest. There was nothign they could do to save her life, and she was unfortunately Niftar on the scene. Misaskim is on the scene dealing with the Kavod Haniftar. The NYPD is on the scene and a prolonged investigation is underway. Expect heavy traffic in the area as the street will be closed for hours. Additional information will be published when it becomes available to us. Boruch Dayan HaEmmes… (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com Some of us have difficulty relating to the fast of Asara b’Teives, when the siege of Yerushalayim first began.  Sure, we know that Nevuchadnetzar, the evil king of Bavel began the siege against Yerushalayim during the time of the first Beis HaMikdash and that it continued for three years […]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was filmed Monday helping a man out of a van that crashed on a major New York City highway. Footage taken by his staff showed the Democratic governor helping a man out of the driver’s seat of a large catering van that had run up the median and turned on its side on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Cuomo and his staff were on their way back from a luncheon at the Association for a Better New York, en route to catch a flight when they came across the crash. The New York Police Department had not yet arrived on the scene when Cuomo’s vehicle pulled over and the governor cut the man out of his seat belt and helped him to safety. He received assistance from the state police troopers he was traveling with.

Democrats, amid mounting political pressure, are opening the door to changes on New York’s bail reform law as the legislative session begins this week. New York’s bail law, which went into effect at the beginning of the year, did away with money bail and pretrial detention for a wide majority of low-level cases and nonviolent felonies. Law enforcement officials, prosecutors and Republicans have spent months raising red flags on the changes, but their criticism caught more attention in the last week as courts across the state have released people who would have remain behind bars under the old rules. Bail changes, passed by a Democratic-controlled legislature last session, played a key role in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s criminal justice agenda.

We were lulled into complacency; Now, the question begs: who knew what and when. Monsey, NY – In the days following the November 20th vicious stabbing of a 29-year-old man on his way to shul in Monsey, NY, the community heard one message from the Ramapo Police Chief, Brad Weidel: there is no evidence that it was a hate crime. While not totally outruling that it was a hate crime, Chief Veidel took great pains to say that there is no evidence that that attacked was antisemitic by nature. It fueled speculations that law enforcement has some information directing them elsewhere, and some in the community took solace in this message, interpreting it that this was an isolated incident targeting an individual.

Chaverim Melbourne volunteers hit the road today (Asara Beteves) to take food packages that they prepared for those affected by the devastating bushfires that have destroyed the homes of thousands around Victoria. The meals were delivered to the shelters where those who lost their homes and belongings are housed temporarily, where they were well received by the volunteers and emergency services. At least 24 people have been killed and over 2,000 homes have been destroyed by the bushfires, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday. Over 12 million acres have burned in Australia since the start of the fire season. New South Wales, in the southeastern part of the country, has been particularly hard hit by fires this season.

The Guardian Angels, a private, unarmed crime-prevention group, said it would start patrolling Boro Park, to assist the Shomrim Patrol, following a series of anti-Semitic attacks. Curtis Sliwa, who founded the organization in 1979 in New York City was in Boro Park on Monday night and spoke for the cameras, There is only one language the thugs understand”, Sliwa said on camera. “Pain compliance”. “Shomrim, remember you’re roots. You gotta get rough and you gotta get tough…and most importantly, you gotta let them know you mean business. If they come into your Jewish community to attack your people, then you gotta get out there and send them a message they understand, an attitude readjustment.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Rav Yoseph Karo (Bais Yoseph 550) cites the view of the Avudraham that the fast of Asara b’Taives is different than all of the other fasts. How so? If Asarah b’Taives were to fall on Shabbos (which it doesn’t), it would not be pushed off to another day. It would have to be observed on […]

Hagaon Harav Yitzchak Grodzenski, z’tl, known as the “Tzaddik of Bnei Brak,” who passed away last week at the age of 91, was one of the last survivors of the Kovno Ghetto. A few hours after the Rav’s petirah last Tuesday at midnight, before he was even buried, he appeared in a dream to Harav Yitzchak Gibraltar (יבדלחט”א), his childhood friend and fellow survivor of the Kovno ghetto, and said to him: “I’m already in Gan Eden,” Kikar Hashabbat reported. Rav Gibraltar, who is known for the sefarim on emunah he authored following the Holocaust, went to be menachem avel the family on Thursday and told them what happened. He related that he went to sleep early on Tuesday evening and of course knew nothing about Harav Godzenski’s petirah (who passed away on Tuesday at midnight).

The US military informed its counterparts in Baghdad on Monday it was preparing for “movement out of Iraq,” a day after the Iraqi parliament urged the government to oust foreign troops. The head of the US military’s Task Force Iraq, Brigadier General William Seely, sent a letter to the head of Iraq’s joint operations command, a copy of which is attached. The letter said forces from the US-led coalition in Iraq would “be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement.” “In order to conduct this task, Coalition Forces are required to take certain measures to ensure that the movement out of Iraq is conducted in a safe and efficient manner,” said the letter, dated Monday.