Israel police raided the “Be’er Miriam seminary” – a sefardi Chareidi girls’ seminary – in the Bucharim neighborhood of Jerusalem on Monday morning and arrested a man and eight women on suspicion of holding victims in slave-like conditions, child abuse, and other forms of abuse, Israeli news outlets reported on Monday. Police say that the main suspect, Aharon Ramati, about 60, is suspected a running a closed community “cult” of dozens of women and children and abusing them physically, emotionally and financially. Ramati, his wife and seven other women were all arrested on criminal charges of exploitation and holding victims in slave-like conditions.

History was made when a bris milah took place late last week in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Harav Yehudah Teichtal, the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin, Germany arranged the bris for the baby’s parents, who used to live in Berlin and are still in close contact with Rav Teichtal. The mohel was Rav Shlomo Stein of Beitar Illit. “I was very moved to perform one of the most important and well-known mitzvos in Yahadus in an Arab country, an experience that not everyone is zocheh to,” Rav Stein told Kan News. “I’m very happy that the opportunity came my way.” Following the bris, Rav Teichtal met with the German ambassador in Abu Dhabi, Peter Fischer, on issues related to the Jewish community that is developing in Abu Dhabi.

Israeli intelligence helped the US to pinpoint the location of Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani before he was eliminated by a US airstrike in Iraq last Friday, NBC News reported on Saturday night. The report added that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who spoke to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the US drone attack, was probably the only world leader who knew about the strike before it happened. Israel intelligence confirmed the exact departure time of Soleimani’s flight from Damascus to Baghdad. Soleimani traveled on a commercial plane rather than a private plane due to security concerns but was not registered on the passenger list.

A 10-year-old boy was R”L struck and killd by a bus in Modi’in Illit on Chofetz Chaim Street on Sunday night. EMS  teams that arrived attempted to save the boy’s life but at the end of their efforts were forced to pronounce the boy’s death. According to a report that was given to the police, the boy was hit by a bus while crossing the street. Police traffic investigators were called to the scene to open an investigation. The child was identified as Avi Besser Z”L. He was a student at the Talmid Torah Nesivos Hatorah. He is a son of HaRav Yosef Besser, a Rebbe in Talmid Torah Pri Hatorah in Brachfeld. United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Moshe Miller who was one of the first responders at the scene relayed: “When I arrived at the scene I found a 10-year-old boy who was hit by a bus.

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.

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.

In the face of mounting evidence, Iran on Saturday acknowledged that it shot down the Ukrainian jetliner by accident, killing all 176 people aboard. The admission by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard undermined the credibility of information provided by senior officials, who for three days had adamantly dismissed allegations of a missile strike as Western propaganda. It also raised a host of new questions, such as why Iran did not shut down its international airport or airspace on Wednesday when it was bracing for the U.S. to retaliate for a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq. No one was hurt in that attack, carried out in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike in Baghdad.

A group of about 30 Ukrainian thugs went on a rampage close to midnight on Friday night in Uman and mercilessly beat Jews outside the tzion of Rav Nachman. Witnesses say that the Ukrainians were running wildly through the street looking for Jews with knives and clubs in their hands. One Jew who spent Shabbos in Uman told Kikar Shabbos: “I returned from the kloiz and I see that they’re beating every Jew who ‘dared’ to look at them or say a word to them. It started with an insignificant dispute between one of the local Ukrainians and a Jew. The Ukrainian involved in the dispute called his anti-Semitic friends to come and beat up Jews.” “The police did show up at the scene but didn’t lift a finger to help the Jews.

A federal grand jury handed up hate crime charges Thursday against the man accused of stabbing five people with a machete during a Hanukkah celebration north of New York City. The indictment charges Grafton Thomas with five counts each of attempting to kill victims based on their religion and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. Thomas, 37, also faces state charges in the Dec. 28 attack inside the home of a rabbi in Monsey, N.Y. He is being held without bail on the federal charges. “We now allege that he did this with the intention of targeting his victims because of their religion,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a news release.

El Al Airlines flight LY26 from Newark to Tel Aviv was forced to make an emergency landing in Halifax, Canada, late on Thursday night. The Boeing 777 was scheduled to depart Newark at 9:00PM Thursday night, and arrive in Israel just before 4:00AM, but the pilot declared a “Mayday” and a requested a diversion to Halifax Stanfield after reports of smoke in the cockpit. Spokesperson for the Halifax International Airport Authority, Tiffany Chase, said the pilot declared an emergency just after 11:00PM and landed safely. According to Channel 12 news, it was decided that the plane required a full technical inspection, leaving passengers stranded in Halifax as the airline does not fly on Shabbos.