Rosh Hashanah tefillos took place in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi for the first time in history, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. There has been an organized Jewish community in Dubai for years, but to date, Abu Dhabi has not had any organized Jewish activities outside private homes. “I’ve been active in Abu Dhabi as well almost from the moment I arrived in Dubai but mainly through activities in the homes of Jews living there,” Rabbi Levi Duchman, the only resident Rav in the UAE, said. “We held shiurei Torah or chavrusah learning but we never held tefillos in a minyan in Abu Dhabi or other religious ceremonies.” The new shul is in a central area called Saadiyat Island.

Democrats raised more than $50 million in the hours after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, demonstrating how the liberal icon’s passing and the contentious nomination fight that lies ahead have already galvanized the party’s base. The jaw-dropping sum was raised by 4 p.m. Saturday after news of her death broke late Friday, according to a donation ticker on the website of ActBlue, the party’s online fundraising platform. The 2020 campaign, which will decide control of the White House and the Senate, had already delivered record-shattering fundraising totals for the Democrats, a sign of the motivation within the party to rebuke President Donald Trump on Election Day.

Joe Biden on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump and leading Senate Republicans for trying to jam through a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and urged more senators to stand with a pair of GOP colleagues who oppose the election-season rush. The extraordinary televised plea from the Democratic presidential candidate to Republican senators reflected the ferocious maneuvering that has followed Ginsburg’s death at 87 on Friday. Her passing upended a campaign that had, until then, focused on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s economic collapse and racial unrest that has stoked protests in U.S. cities.

The frum community in Melbourne is facing an unprecedented situation not seen since World War II, a Rosh Hashanah without minyanim, a shuttered shul, and brand-new shul furniture which will remain unused. As YWN reported earlier this week, the frum community in Melbourne, which is located in the state of Victoria – currently under strict health regulations due to a coronavirus outbreak – wrote a letter to the local authorities requesting a permit to daven in minyanim for Rosh Hashanah in accordance with social distancing regulations. Their request was not approved. The restrictions preclude gatherings of even ten people and anyone who violates the regulations are subject to huge fines of thousands of dollars.

Ebrahim Nonoo, a businessman, former member of the Shura council, and head of the Jewish community in Bahrain, was interviewed by 124News ahead of the signing of the historic peace accords between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. Nonooo said that Bahraini Jews are the only indigenous Jews in the Gulf. “Their history began at the end of the 19th century when Iraqi Jews found that there were jobs available in Bahrain since it was a trading post between India and Europe.” “They quickly managed to develop very good businesses here and then the community grew to about 800 Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.

Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed a record-breaking 4,973 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday morning. The number of active cases is 40,689, with 533 seriously ill patients, of whom 140 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 1,141. Transportation regulations for the lockdown were established on Monday. Buses will operate at 50% capacity, running from Sunday through Thursday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Intercity buses will halt operations on weekends and Erev Yom Tov but intracity buses will continue to operate on Friday, Erev Yom Tov and Motzei Shabbos. Israel Railways will also run Sunday through Thursday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. but tickets must be purchased in advance. “The decision to close was not an easy one, but it is a necessity,” Transportation Minister Miri Regev stated.

In the early days of the pandemic, doctors noticed something about the people severely ill from COVID-19: Many were obese. The link became more apparent as coronavirus swept across the globe and data mounted, and researchers are still trying to figure out why. Excess weight increases the chances of developing a number of health problems, including heart disease and diabetes. And those are among the conditions that can make COVID-19 patients more likely to get very sick. But there’s some evidence that obesity itself can increase the likelihood of serious complications from a coronavirus infection.

White smoke rose from the smoldering wreckage of Beirut’s port on Friday hours after firefighters extinguished a huge fire that terrified the city’s residents five weeks after a massive blast killed nearly 200 people and destroyed parts of Lebanon’s capital. It wasn’t clear what caused the raging fire that broke out Thursday afternoon and covered the city with dark smoke and toxic fumes for hours, as firefighters and army helicopters struggled to bring it under control. No one was hurt by the fire, the second at the port this week. Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transpiration Michel Najjar, whose ministry is in charge of the port, told a local TV station the fire appears to have been caused by sparks from a power tool during work at the port.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday scrapped plans to fly to Washington with his family on a private plane and said he would instead travel with the official delegation. The reversal came after Israeli media reports that Netanyahu, his wife and two sons would be taking a separate flight to Washington for the White House ceremony marking the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates evoked public criticism due to the extra cost involved. His Likud party initially defended the decision to take a private plane, saying it was aimed at protecting the prime minister and his family from potential exposure to the coronavirus. The official delegation, which departs Sunday, includes dozens of officials as well as media.

The frum community in Melbourne, Australia is growing more and more worried as Rosh Hashanah approaches, One of the members of the Chareidi community spoke to B’Chadrei Chareidim about the situation in the city earlier this week. “Our state, Victoria, where Melbourne is located, announced today that the restrictions will continue for another two to four weeks and this is after we’ve already been in lockdown for six consecutive weeks.” “This essentially means that there’s no way to hold a minyan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.