A judge has blocked New York state from enforcing an executive order banning flavored vaping products. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Cholakis ruled that the state Public Health and Health Planning Council overstepped its authority last September when it issued a ban on e-cigarettes and e-liquids flavored with anything other than tobacco or menthol. In a ruling issued this week in Albany, Cholakis said regulating the vaping industry is a job for the state Legislature, not the executive branch, whose function is to implement policy set by lawmakers. The emergency ban was challenged by the Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, and two of its member businesses. The judge granted their request for an injunction against enforcing the ban.

The number of residents seeking to own handguns has risen sharply in a New York community shaken last month by a machete attack that injured five men during a Hanukkah celebration. The Journal News reports 73 pistol permit applications have been filed with the Rockland County Clerk’s Office since the Dec. 28 attack at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, a hamlet in the town of Ramapo northwest of New York City. That compares to 51 applications the office received during the eight weeks prior to the stabbing, County Clerk Paul Piperato told the newspaper. Sixty-eight of the new applications came from Ramapo residents, including 31 from Monsey. “It’s definitely because of this incident,” Piperato told the newspaper, referring to the attack.

New York City police are investigating anti-Semitic graffiti, including a swastika, found sprayed in a stairwell of a local high school. An employee of Brooklyn Tech High School found the message scribbled in black marker inside the third-floor stairwell, police said. No arrests have been made. Meanwhile, in Williamsburg, YWN was provided with a video of another disturbing incident. On the video (posted below), the viewr will see a group of young non-Jewish teens on bikes stopping in front of Hasidic-owned homes, and throwing rocks at them. This happened on Shabbos afternoon on Skillman between DeKalb & Lafayette. The discovery of the graffiti Thursday followed a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in and around New York City.

A few days ago, Chasidic singer Chananye Schnitzler visited Sloan Kettering Hospital in Manhattan to sing for a cancer patient. As he was singing, Schnitzler noticed a non-Jewish man stood at the door watching the performance. When Schnitzler was finished, the stranger went over to Schnitzler and told him he was moved by the music and asked is he could come into a nearby hospital room to sing and give a blessing to his relative – also a cancer patient. A relative of Schnitzler told YWN that “Hatzadik Chanaya, without hesitation immediately went into the next room and performed an incredible Kiddush Hashem!” Mi K’amcha Yisroel! (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

After a fast-moving blaze which destroyed the headquarters of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department on New Year’s Day, Chaverim of Rockland County came to the rescue. With the intervention of Rabbi Abe Friedman, Chaplain of the PIP Police Department, Chaverim of Rockland County generously agreed to provide their state-of-the-art Mobile Command center, to serve as the temporary location of the PIP Police Headquarters until a more permanent location will be arranged. The Chaverim Mobile command post is equipped with state of the art communications and IT equipment, and is perfectly suited to serve as a temporary Police Headquarters.

We are saddened to report the petira early this morning of Rebbetzin Leah Gertzulin, a”h. Rebbetzin Gertzulin was the wife of HaRav Nosson Eliyohu Gertzulin, zt”l, who served as Mashgiach Ruchani and Rosh Yeshiva of Mesifta Torah Vodaath for over half-a-century. She was 95 years old. Rebbetzin Gertzulin was born in Brooklyn in 1924, at a time when America was a spiritual wasteland. Her father, HaRav Moshe Dovid Zwerdling was a Rov in Crown Heights, and later in Brighton Beach, and a rebbe in Yeshiva HaRav Dovid Lebovits. Her mother, Rebbetzin Tziporah, was a direct descendant of HaRav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. Despite the great challenges of that time, they were determined to raise their daughter, and her two sisters al pi derecho haTorah.

Video footage of the area around Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell on a day he survived an apparent suicide attempt “no longer exists,” federal prosecutors told a judge Thursday. Officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York believed they had preserved footage of guards finding Jeffrey Epstein after he appeared to have attempted suicide, but actually saved a video from a different part of the jail, prosecutors said. The FBI also has determined that the footage does not exist on the jail’s backup video system “as a result of technical errors,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maurene Comey and Jason Swergold wrote in a court filing.

A federal judge sentenced a New York City woman to 15 years in federal prison for studying how to make bombs for a terrorist attack that prosecutors said would have targeted law enforcement in the United States. Asia Siddiqui, 35, of Queens, admitted in federal court in Brooklyn that she and another woman looked online for recipes for homemade explosives and shopped for components at Home Depot with the intent to bomb government targets. She was arrested in 2015 and pleaded guilty last year.

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.