JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In the wake of the Israeli government’s attempts to promote a new conversion arrangement which will allow every city rabbi to perform conversions, Chief Rabbi Lau sent a sharp letter to Prime Minister Bennett. Rabbi Lau said that if the head of the Rabbinate’s Conversion Directorate, Moshe Waller, would be fired as […]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Yitzchak and Yair are two good friends from the time when they were in Yeshiva together more than 15 years ago. This week their friendship came full circle as Yitzchak, who gave Yair a kidney 18 months ago, served as Sandek when Yair made a Bris for his son. Yitzchak (Itche) Altman […]

NEW YORK (VINnews) — As COVID surges through New York City, a large chunk of the NYPD has called out sick, many with flu-like symptoms. According to the New York Post, over 6,000 cops were home sick as of Tuesday. The numbers have been steadily rising in recent weeks. Last Tuesday, about 2,700 officers were […]

NEW YORK – U.S. government figures show that the omicron variant continues to account for a growing proportion of new coronavirus infections in the country. Omicron accounted for 59% of new cases in the U.S. for the week ending Dec. 25, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up […]

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Monday cut isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said the guidance is in keeping with growing evidence that people with the […]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) —While Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu took an uncompromising stand against Chaim Walder after his suicide and strengthened the resolve of those who had complained against him, a sharply different approach emerged from the words of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the rosh yeshiva of Ponovezh and one of the leaders of the Lithuanian yeshiva world. In […]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Hakohen Aviner, a leading Religious Zionist rabbi and rosh yeshiva and the author of more than 200 books on Jewish religious practice, has issued a statement regarding the matter of Chaim Walder’s books. Rabbi Aviner enumerates 10 relevant points: Whatever is written further about Chaim Walder is based on […]

The U.S. flu season has arrived on schedule after taking a year off, with flu hospitalizations rising and two child deaths reported. Last year’s flu season was the lowest on record, likely because COVID-19 measures — school closures, distancing, masks and canceled travel — prevented the spread of influenza, or because the coronavirus somehow pushed […]

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Let’s assume the worst case scenario. Chaim Walder was a predator who trapped numerous young victims and exploited them as well as a womanizer who preyed on married women in difficult straits. Let’s assume for the moment that Walder would have been indicted, charged and found guilty of these heinous crimes. […]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a moving letter written before he took his own life, Chaim Walder continues to insist that he is innocent. Walder wrote that “I have gone to summon Yehuda Silman and Shmuel Eliyahu to a Din Torah in heaven. I have come to the conclusion that in the world of lies I […]