R’ Yisrael Tzvi Yosef (Benny) Weisz, z’l, an avreich from Lakewood, was found in the rubble of the Champlain Towers on erev Shabbos. His wife Malki, z’l, is still missing. The Weisz couple had traveled to Florida that fateful Thursday to spend Shabbos with Malki’s father, Chaim Rosenberg, z’l, who had purchased a condo in Champlain Towers only last month. His body was found on Thursday. Benny, 32, who grew up in Vienna, and his wife Malki, 27, from New York, settled in Arzei HaBirah in Yerushalayim after their marriage and moved to Lakewood at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Sadly, he and his wife did not children.

s it possible after all this time that there can still be a miracle in Surfside? “I’d say hang on,” 12-year-old Elisheva Cohen said Tuesday. “We are going to try everything.” That was before the heartbreaking news that the mission at the collapse site was changing Wednesday night from search and rescue to search and recovery. That doesn’t mean there can’t be a miracle, just that workers won’t be searching for signs of life. Her father Brad Cohen remains missing. Her uncle Gary Cohen Z”L was found in the rubble. Both are doctors. Elisheva captured the heart of the country and President Joe Biden when she was seen praying at the scene of the Champlain Towers South collapse.

In the wake of the anti-Chareidi decrees that Finance Minister Avigdor Leiberman has begun to implement, a Kol Koreih by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah was published in the Yated Neman on Friday morning. “Those who are far from Torah and mitzvos are acting brazenly and wish to uproot and abolish everything that is holy and dear to Yisrael and to chas v’chalilah harm the purity of Yisrael – to revoke limmud Torah, shemiras Shabbos, chinuch, and geyrus k’halacha,” the letter states.

Coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash spoke about the coronavirus situation in Israel in a press conference on Wednesday, saying that at this point the government is not considering a new lockdown. Ash explained that the number of seriously ill patients is low and most coronavirus patients that have been hospitalized are over 60. However, he said that the trajectory of the pandemic could change quickly, noting that the first cases of the highly infectious Delta variant have been found both in the Chareidi sector and Arab sector, where cases spread quickly due to crowded living conditions. Ash urged anyone who hasn’t yet been vaccinated to do so, saying that higher vaccination rates are needed in the light of the spread of the Delta variant.

Another budget cut aimed at the Chareidi population was announced on Thursday, only a day after Finance Minister Avigdor Leiberman announced the elimination of daycare subsidies for avreichim. MK Oded Forer, a member of Lieberman’s party Yisrael Beiteinu and Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galil, announced that the ministry’s funds for Bein HaZemanim trips for tens of thousands of Bnei Yeshivos will be eliminated. The Israeli business daily Calcalist published a report on Thursday on the trip program, an initiative of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, with the false claim that 86% of the funded trips were for yeshivah students.

A new coronavirus variant, the “Delta Plus” has been discovered in Israel, Channel 12 News reported on Wednesday. The Delta Plus variant is slightly different than the quickly spreading Delta variant, with the Delta Plus version containing an extra mutation in the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. There are at least two versions of the Delta Plus variant spreading worldwide. It has been found in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Nepal, Japan, Portugal, and now Israel. Four Israelis have been diagnosed with the new variant as of Wednesday. Coronavirus cases in Israel have been rising sharply in the past several weeks.

After a grueling two weeks, the body of R’ Chaim (Harry) Rosenberg Z”L of Flatbush was found and identified in the rubble of the Surfside condo collapse. He was 52. Chaim purchased the second-floor condo only last month, hoping that its views of the Atlantic Ocean would help him find solace after a turbulent year that saw the loss of his wife, Anna Rosenberg A”H, to cancer, and both of his parents to COVID-19. Chaim was a longtime Mispallel at Rabbi Weinfeld’s Shul in Flatbush. In recent months Chaim had dedicated himself towards launching Mercaz Shalom, a young adult center for mental healing, located on the campus of Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak, Israel, in memory of his late wife.

The United States on Thursday condemned the demolition of the home of Muntassar Shalabi, who murdered yeshivah student Yehuda Guetta, h’yd, 19, and injured two others in a drive-by terror shooting attack on May 2. The demolition was carried out despite attempts by the US to stop it due to the fact that Shalabi and his family members are US citizens. An appeal by the family against the demolition to Israel’s Supreme Court was unanimously rejected. “We are following reports that the home was demolished,” a US Embassy spokesperson stated. “We believe it is critical for all parties to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution.

After missing for two weeks in the Miami-area condo collapse, the body of Dr Gary Cohen Z”L (Yaakov Reuven Hakohen ben Devorah), an Alabama doctor was recovered from the rubble. Cohen, a doctor at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, was in Florida visiting his terminally ill father. He was staying at the condo owned by his brother, Dr. Brad Cohen, who is still missing in the condo collapse in Surfside. “We are working to bring him back to Birmingham,” said Rabbi Yossi Friedman of Chabad of Alabama, who was Gary Cohen’s rabbi. “The whole family’s in shock.” Elisheva Cohen, Brad Cohen’s 12-year-old daughter and Gary Cohen’s niece, last week met President Joe Biden as he visited Surfside, The Associated Press reported.

Anti-Semite Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour left Twitter “for a few days” in the wake of backlash on social media after she cynically took advantage of a devastating tragedy to slam Israel by reposting a vile tweet about the IDF rescue delegation in Miami. “I really don’t understand the IDF’s involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami,” the tweet said. “Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.” “As if we don’t have any expertise or technology here in the U.S. Using these tragic deaths for pro-Israel propaganda is just quite something.