The lower house of the Sejm, the Polish Parliament, voted in favor of an amendment of the Law on Animal Protection on Thursday night, banning the slaughter of animals without prior stunning. The move is a step to ending Poland’s $1.8 billion industry of kosher and halal meat for export. The bill, which must still be passed by the Senate to be ratified as a law, provides an exception for meat slaughtered for the local needs of religious minorities in Poland. Although Poland has less than 20,000 Jews and a similar number of Muslims, it is a major exporter of kosher and halal meat, one of Europe’s largest. Israel imports most of its fresh beef from Poland and the halal meat was imported by Turkey.

Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed 2,565 new coronavirus cases on Monday morning, a lower number in comparison to the average number of new cases in the past week due to the reduced amount of testing performed over Rosh Hashanah. There are currently 51,180 active virus cases, with 651 seriously ill patients, of whom 177 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 1,260.

U.S., Emirati and Sudanese officials held a “decisive” meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday regarding the normalization of ties between Israel and Sudan, Walla News reported. An announcement that Sudan will normalize ties with Israel could be made within days if the US and the United Arab Emirates agree to fulfill Sudan’s requests for financial aid, the report said. Sudanese officials have requested a $1.2 billion supply of wheat and fuel in the wake of recent catastrophic floods, a $2 billion grant to stabilize its economy, and a pledge of financial support from the US and the UAE over the next three years. Sudan also requested to be removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

A disturbing incident occurred in Manchester on Shabbos, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, when three sifrei Torah fell on the ground in the Chabad shul on Singelton Street. The shul was holding tefillos outdoors in the courtyard of the shul due to the coronavirus. The sifrei Torah were placed within an Aron Kodesh on a table but apparently the makeshift arrangement was not sufficiently secure as a strong wind blew the aron with the sifrei Torah onto the ground. The incident, which would have been disturbing at any time but was especially distressful due to it occurring on Yom HaDin, was a source of great shock and tzaar to the mispallelim.

A horrific crash on the NY State Thruway took the lives of two young men from Monsey early Monday morning. Two two men, identified as Moshe Herzog Z”L (28), and Dovid Tzvi Schnebalg Z”L (27), were returning from Pennsylvania where they had spent Rosh Hashanah when the accident happened. Police are investigating the crash which occurred at 1:45AM on Interstate 87 between Exit 15’s merge with Route 17 and Exit 14B at Airmont Road. The vehicle they were driving in collided with a tractor trailer, which then overturned on top of them causing a fire. Herzog, who was a longtime Rockland Chaveirim volunteer actually used his radio to call for help – stating that they were trapped in the wreckage.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87. Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said. Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known. Trump, who called Ginsburg “an amazing woman,” made his view clear on Saturday: He urged the Senate to consider “without delay” his upcoming pick for the high court.

On this Erev Rosh Hashanah morning of 5780/81, we would like to thank the Ribono Shel Olam for all the Chessed He has shown us since the founding of YWN and allowing us to grow into the website our vast readership have all come to trust and count on. We thank our hundreds of thousands of devoted readers across the globe for visiting YWN each day, patronizing our advertisers, and continuing to make our website grow into your #1 stop for breaking news. We started YWN more than fifteen years ago, and without your participation, we would not be entering our 16th year together. By gaining your trust over the past 15 years, YWN has been able to break every major story of interest to our readers, and has stayed far ahead of the curve.

R’ Mordechai Samet of Kiryas Joel was released from prison on Erev Rosh Hashanah, after serving 20 of his 27-year sentence. Samet was released under the new “First Step Act” law. R’ Moshe Margaretten of the Tzedek Association who was highly influential in the passing of the law – and in securing his release – was there to greet him. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The post BORUCH MATIR ASURIM: Mordechai Samet Released Under “First Step Act” appeared first on The Yeshiva World.

El Al announced on Thursday that it is resuming passenger flights from October 1 and cargo flights from September 21, Army Radio reported. Yeshivah student Eli Rozenberg, 27, acquired 42.89% of El Al with a $150 million offering at the company’s public offering on Wednesday through his newly formed Kanfei Nesharim company, replacing Tami Moses-Borovitz as the main shareholder through her family’s company Knafaim Holdings Ltd. The Israeli government bought $30 million worth of shares and will have a 12%-15% stake in the company. Rozenberg turned out to be the only bidder at the offering following Meir Gurvitz’s decision to drop out of the race due to the Finance Ministry’s refusal of a private placement followed by Russian-Israeli businessman David Sapir‘s decision to drop out as well.

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.