By Gabriel Geller – Royal Wine
Shavuos is not an 8-day long yom tov like Succos or Pesach, yet it is no less important. Indeed, as we celebrate Matan Torah, we also have special yom tov meals which means special wines are in order, as well. While the minhag in many communities is to eat a milchig meal, whether it is followed by a fleishig one or not, let’s for once this coming Shavuos not exclusively focus on white or rosé wines.

Police are continuing their search for Moshe Ilovitz, a 37-year-old resident of Mevo Modi’im, after he disappeared in Meron nearly two weeks ago.
Moshe was last seen on Friday night the Shabbos before Lag BaOmer in Meron near the kever of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai and hasn’t been seen since.
According to the police report, he was about 5″11, with brown hair, brown eyes and a long beard. The last time he was seen, he wore a buttoned white shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes.
On Monday, dozens of volunteers, together with students from the pre-military academy of Keshet Yehuda from the Golan Heights, raided the forests, paths and riverbeds in the mountains of Meron and the surrounding area.

Michael Freilich, a member of the center-right party The New Flemish Alliance, the largest party of the Belgiun Parliament, became the first Orthodox Jew to sit in the Belgian government.
Long-time editor of Belgium’s largest Jewish newspaper, Antwerp-based and pro-Israeli, Freilich announced his resignation and candidacy for parliament last January, notably to try to change the recent shechita bans in the country.
Because of his position as fifth on the list, the 38-year-old was sure of winning. Freilich ended up with nearly 13,000 votes.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

A Nazi swastika and the words “No Jews” scrawled in blue paint were found by a Brooklyn woman walking in Prospect Park – a disturbing hate message that comes in a year the city has already notched a shocking increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes.
Shoshana Dornhelm, 32, of Park Slope, told the Daily News she came across the revolting graffiti around 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the heart of the sprawling park, spray-painted on a brick wall beneath a bridge overpass on Center Drive, in the center of the park.
The hate message was gone on Sunday. A spokesman for the NYPD said the incident is being investigated.

On Monday morning, a fire broke out at the Bais Malka giurl school on Malchei Yisrael in Yerushalayim.
At around 4:20 AM, five fire and rescue teams were dispatched for the fire that broke out in the girls’ school. With the help of a rescue and extinguishing crane, the fire fighters gained control of the flames within a short time, and there were no casualties.
In the wake of the fire, an investigation was launched into the circumstances of the outbreak of the fire.  Prelimianry investigations indicate that an electric failure in the air conditioner caused the fire to ignite ad nearly burn down the school building.
{Matzav.com Israel News}

An eruv was removed from a neighborhood on Staten Island after backlash from  some of the residents.
The eruv had been put up on utility poles around the neighborhood by a group of chassidm who had newly moved into the area. The eruv was removed after residents opposed to the influx of religious Jews in their neighborhood found out that the eruv was put up without permission from Con Ed, Verizon, or the Transportation Department.
The Orthodox residents have submitted paperwork to the local council to reattach the eruv.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

A shul in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was evacuated and searched for explosives following a bomb threat.
The threat came in an email to the Jewish community, informing the readers that the bomb would explode within 24 hours.
The Estonian-domain email address used to send the threat contained the number 1488, a neo-Nazi code for Adolf Hitler and the phrase: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The handle was for “Motorola terrorist.”
Read more at JPOST.
{Matzav.com}

5 Years ago, in mid-July, not long before the beginning of the new school year, over 100 wonderful girls found themselves without a school to attend in September due to no fault of their own. There simply was no room in the existing schools, which were all bursting at the seams. Something needed to be done, and quickly!
Rabbi Avrohom Landau recognized the need for something to be done, and he jumped in and did it. He left a very successful career at the Lakewood Cheder and undertook the tremendous responsibility of opening a brand new school and doing what was necessary to do for the benefit of the Klal.Fast forward five years.

A charedi man in his fifties was killed Monday morning in a fire that broke out in an apartment on Hashikma Street in Kfar Saba.
The firefighters were called this morning to Hashikma Street in Kfar Saba following a report of a fire in the apartment on the first floor of a six-story building. Neighbors told the firefighters they saw a man trapped in his home due to the fire and the bars on the windows.
The fire fighters entered the burning apartment and managed to rescue the man in critical condition. Paramedics worked to resuscitate the man, who suffered from burns and smoke inhalation, but the man unfortunately succumbed to his injuries.
{Matzav.com Israel News}

In the midst the efforts to form a government at the last minute, the charedi parties told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday morning that they are vehemently opposed to holding new elections in September.
The heads of the parties have informed the prime minister that they are opposed to holding the elections on the said date, which comes out to 3 Elul, because this would harm the opening of the Elul zman for the yeshivos.
In the wake of their opposition, it was agreed that if a government is not formed and will be forced to vote, an effort will be made a week earlier, on the 26th of Av – August 27, or only after the Yomim Tovim.
{Matzav.com Israel News}