A crowdfunding campaign raised more than $1.5 million primarily from Orthodox and Chassidic donors for the family of Leah Mindel Ferencz, 33, who was shot and killed on Dec. 10 in the Jersey City kosher grocery that she owned with her husband, The Forward reported on Thursday.
Chesky Deutsch, a local Chassidic resident of Jersey City unrelated to another victim of the shooting Moshe Deutsch, started the campaign for the Ferencz family on the crowdfunding site Charidy.com on the eve of the deadly attack.

A Saudi journalist claims that his support for normalized ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel is the reason why the Saudi government has revoked his and his family’s citizenship.
Abdul Hameed al-Ghabin told The Media Line that he was not officially told why their citizenship was revoked, and the Saudi government has not officially commented on the matter.
He added that his family will not question the decision, saying “we only listen and obey.”
Al-Ghabin, who has written for Israeli newspapers and uses social media to praise Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, supports “direct and unconditional” ties with Israel, calling it “a strategic choice.”

The Syrian army’s air defense system intercepted missiles coming from the direction of Israel that were aimed at targets on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, state media said on Sunday.
Four cruise missiles were believed to have been launched across the coast through Lebanese airspace toward Syria, a source in the regional alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Reuters.
Later the army said it had brought down one of the missiles in an area near the capital. It gave no further details and there was no immediate comment from Israel.

The ‘Boyan’ shul in Modi’in Illit was vandalized overnight, with two sifrei Torah scrolls destroyed after a fire was sparked in the Aron Kodesh.
Police found signs of fuel used in the fire, as well as bleach.
United Torah Judaism party chief and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman expressed shock at the vandalism.
“The heart refuses to believe such a serious, spiteful attack on the sanctity of the Boyan shul. This serious incident requires immediate investigation in order to capture the perpetrators who committed this crime.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

The bus driver involved in Sunday night’s deadly crash on Route 40 near Ben Gurion International Airport in central Israel has been arrested, after police questioned him in connection with the accident.
The driver, a 44-year-old resident of the northern coastal city of Haifa, is under investigation for negligent driving resulting in the deaths of four people killed in Sunday night’s accident.
Three women and one man were killed when the Egged line 947 bus, which was driving from Yerushalayim to Haifa, swerved off of Route 40 and crashed into a bus stop.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang joins Neil Cavuto on ‘CAVUTO Live.’
WATCH:

A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced five people to death for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year by a team of Saudi agents.
Saudi Arabia’s state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV channel reported that three others were sentenced to prison. All can appeal the verdicts.
The crown prince drew international condemnation for the killing because several Saudi agents involved worked directly for him. The kingdom denies that Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any involvement or knowledge of the operation.
Read more at THE NY POST.
{Matzav.com}

Much has been said about the complex defense and security challenges Israel faces as a Jewish state in the Middle East. Being the sole democracy in one of the toughest neighborhoods on the planet means that Israel must employ various means to achieve and sustain its national security goals, as well as create and maintain deterrence vis-à-vis its enemies, both near and far.

Fog and icy conditions on a bridge contributed to a pileup Sunday morning involving dozens of vehicles and shut down a major highway in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, state police said.
Authorities said more than 45 vehicles were involved in the chain-reaction crash, which occurred shortly before 8 a.m. on the westbound lanes of Interstate 64, near the Camp Peary exit.
State police and York County emergency personnel were working to remove the vehicles and clean up I-64.
Multiple injuries were reported, from minor to life-threatening, the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office said.

Iran called the U.S. sanctions on its country “reckless,” after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced them last week.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the action amounts to “#EconomicTerrorism.”
“The US’ approach to sanctions betrays a pathological and reckless addiction—a condition that renders no bounds or boundary to what the US may or may not do,” he posted. “And this addictive behavior affects friends and foes alike, unless collectively pushed back.”
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}