Israeli activist Rudy Rochman and two other Israelis were arrested last week in Nigeria for alleged contact with Biafran separatists while filming a documentary on African Jewish communities. Rochman, a dual citizen of Israel and France and a popular pro-Israel activist who frequently speaks internationally to organizations and on college campuses, traveled to Nigeria to visit Jewish communities for his documentary, accompanied by French-Israeli journalist Edouard David Benaym and filmmaker Noam (Andrew) Liebman. The three men visited the Igbo community, who consider themselves one of the lost tribes in Israel, in southeastern Nigeria.

A 29-year-old Union City, NJ, man has been arrested and charged with first-degree aggravated arson, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez. Oswaldo Domingo Xil-Argueta was charged with Aggravated Arson and Burglary in connection with a fire set at Mesivta Sanz Yeshiva on 34th Street in Union City. Because the arson occurred at a place of public worship, the aggravated arson charge has been elevated to a first-degree offense. At this point, there is no evidence that this was a bias incident, Suarez said. On July 3, just before 3 a.m., members of the Union City Police Department and the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue responded to 318 34th Street on reports of a working fire.

For decades, Jewish baseball fans have looked to Sandy Koufax as a role model for refusing to pitch in game one of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. While that stood out as an example for Jews everywhere, one Nevada teen is hoping to take it a step further and become the first Shomer Shabbos, kosher-food-eating professional baseball player. In the final round of the MLB draft, the Washington Nationals selected Elie Kligman, from Nevada, who has said he won’t play on Shabbos. On Monday, Jacob Steinmetz was drafted to the Arizona Diamondbacks. As YWN reported, Steinmetz recently told the New York Post he keeps Shabbos and eats only Kosher food, but plays during the Shabbos and on Jewish holidays – although he walks to games rather than taking transportation.

The Fixler family lost its appeal to the UK’s High Court to prevent the withdrawal of life support from 2-year-old Alta and bring her to Israel, UK media outlets reported. The High Court ruled on Friday that an earlier court decision to provide palliative care only must be upheld. “I know that Alta’s devoted parents will be profoundly distressed by the outcome of this appeal,” Lord Justice Baker wrote. “Every parent and grandparent – indeed every person – from every community will have the deepest sympathy for them, and for Alta’s loving sibling.” “The strong support they draw from their faith and their community will be a source of consolation, but the emotional pain they are suffering is very hard to endure.

Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog spoke Monday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The 40-minute conversation follows a years-long rift between Turkey and Israel, during which Erdogan has made numerous provocative comments about the Jewish state and has courted Hamas. During Operation Guardian of the Walls, Erdogan, who hosts Hamas’ headquarters in Turkey, claimed that Israel is a “terrorist state,” and said that Israelis “are murderers, to the point that they kill children who are five or six years old.

Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit made a decision to suspend the criminal investigations of the Meron disaster until the state commission of inquiry completes its investigation. The decision, which was reached following a meeting between Mandelbit and members of the state commission on Sunday, is intended to prioritize the work of the state inquiry. Following Mandelbit’s order, the criminal probes of the Israel Police and Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department were frozen. Although the state commission of inquiry has the power to subpoena witnesses, testimonies and reports are not legally permitted to be used as evidence in criminal cases. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Jonah Handler, 15, miraculously survived the collapse of the Champlain Towers when he and his mother were among the few people rescued alive from the rubble. His mother, Stacie Fang, z’l, 54, died of her injuries shortly after she arrived at the hospital and was the first victim identified in the disaster. Jonah’s family filed a lawsuit against the building’s condo association last week, the latest in over a dozen lawsuits filed since the collapse of the building on June 24, the Miami Herald reported. Jonah and his mother, who lived on the 10th floor, awoke that night to a loud rumbling. When the Towers collapsed, they were sitting “side by side in his room when their entire condo unit collapsed,” the lawsuit states. “They free-fell to what they thought was certain death.

As Israel grapples with a surge of coronavirus cases due to the spread of the Delta variant, preliminary data seems to indicate that those who recovered from COVID have a higher level of protection than those who were vaccinated, according to Health Ministry data. About 3,000 vaccinated Israelis contracted COVID since May 1, 40% of confirmed cases, versus a mere 72 Israelis who already recovered from COVID and were reinfected, only 1% of cases since May and a mere 0.0086% of the 835,792 Israelis known to have recovered from the virus. Recovered COVID patients apparently enjoy protection from reinfection over a long period of time versus those who are vaccinated, whose protection seems to lessen as time goes on.

In a speech unprecedented in its severity, the Chief Rabbi of Israel HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef slammed Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana for the changes in the religious status quo he is planning on implementing. Speaking at a Rabbinical conference last week, HaRav Yosef related how Kahana came to speak with him and told him: ‘I respect the Chief Rabbis but we have differences of opinion.'” “Did you hear?” Rav Yosef cried out. “He has differences of opinion with the Chief Rabbis who spend their days immersed in Torah, who author Sefarim, who spread Torah? What is this?” HaRav Yosef then addressed the issue of kashrus, noting how he ensures that the Rabbanut is not overly machmir but at the same time not everything can be muttar either.

An Israeli Bedouin businessman was charged with serious security offenses on Monday, including the transfer of state secrets to Iranian intelligence through a foreign agent, the Shin Bet stated. The suspect, Yaakub Abu Al-Qia’an, a past resident of the Bedouin town of Hura and more recently a resident of the upscale Jewish town of Meitar, was detained almost three weeks ago by Israeli security forces but a gag order was placed on the case. His arrest followed a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and Israel Police. Al-Qia’an, a multi-millionaire businessman who is considered one of the largest construction contractors in the Bedouin community as well as the wealthiest, has ties to the Islamist Ra’am Party and was active in the Ra’am campaign in the Negev prior to the last election.