Firefighters managed to salvage Torah scrolls from a 120-year-old synagogue in Duluth, Minn., before an overnight fire on Monday that started in a storage room wound up destroying the building.
Leaders of Adas Israel Congregation, Duluth’s oldest-surviving Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue, guided firefighters as they removed artifacts from the basement of the synagogue, according to the Duluth News Tribute.
“This is a huge deal,” said assistant fire chief Dennis Edwards. “There are some things that are not replaceable.”
At a news conference late Monday afternoon, it was reported that no accelerants were found at the scene. An investigation is under way.

Amazon will officially launch its service in the Jewish state next week after the Sept. 17 national election, several sources in the retail industry told Calcalist, the Israel business daily.
Sources said the American company prefers not to start its services then to lessen expenses associated with the media campaign.
In an email sent to local Amazon retailers last week, the company advised to have enough stock well before Rosh Hashanah, which starts the night of Sept. 29 and lasts until sundown on Oct. 1, according to the report. The company also wants retailers in Israel to deliver products within five business days.
Last month, Amazon launched its Hebrew website for vendors.
(JNS)
{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt at ease Wednesday on the way to yet another election rally. In the run-up to Tuesday’s election, he has been making an effort to attend at least one of these rallies every day—sometimes more.
On this trip, to Or Akiva, Netanyahu was joined by Israel Hayom. “I feel the love from the public. People are really telling me—‘Stay, keep protecting us,’ ” he told the Israeli daily.

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The man accused of the El Paso shooting last month was indicted by a grand jury Thursday and could face the death penalty.
An El Paso grand jury indicted Patrick Crusius, 21, with a charge of capital murder for the shooting at Walmart on Aug. 3, The El Paso Times reported.
“Capital Murder is the highest charge in the State of Texas and is punishable by death or life imprisonment without parole if found guilty,” district attorney officials said in a news release obtained by The El Paso Times.
District Attorney Jaime Esparza has said she will seek the death penalty in Crusius’s case.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

Israel on Thursday denied a report by Washington-based news site Politico claiming that it had placed cellphone surveillance devices in sensitive locations around Washington, including near the White House.
According to the report, which cited three anonymous former senior U.S. officials “with knowledge of the matter,” the equipment – devices that mimic cell towers, fooling cellphones into giving them their locations and identity information – was discovered some time ago.
However, Israel has faced no reprimand or consequences for the alleged action, with the report suggesting the violation has been downplayed due to the exceptionally close ties between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the U.S. government, Israel was most likely responsible for the planting of surveillance devices found near the White House and other sensitive locations in Washington, D.C., Politico reported on Wednesday.
Three former senior U.S. government officials told Politico that the devices known as “StingRays” were planted during the tenure of U.S. President Donald Trump, and were likely used to spy on him and other senior U.S. officials. It was unclear, the officials said, whether the espionage effort had succeeded.
The Trump administration did not take action against the Israeli government following the discovery of the devices, said one of the former officials.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was considering five “very highly qualified” people to replace John Bolton as his national security adviser.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Bolton, who he abruptly fired on Tuesday, had made some mistakes, including offending North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un by demanding that he follow a “Libyan model” and hand over all his nuclear weapons.
Trump said many people were interested in Bolton’s position.
“There are five people that I consider very highly qualified,” he said, without naming them. “We’ll be announcing somebody next week, but we have some very highly qualified people.”

A 76-year-old woman was injured as she was running for shelter after the red alert sirens sounded in Kibbutz Zikim just moments ago.
She had heard the siren and rushed to take cover when she fell.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Silva Shatzky who was one of the first responders at the scene said: “We treated the woman for her injuries at the scene. She was then transported to the trauma center at Barzilay hospital in Ashkelon. She was suffering from contusions and abrasions to her head and upper body.”
{Matzav.com}

The leader of a Gaza-based jihadi group called on the Taliban to increase its attacks on America after U.S. President Donald Trump broke off talks with the Taliban, according to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), shared exclusively with JNS.
Abu Hafs Al-Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaysh Al-Ummah Al-Salafi, released a statement on Telegram on Tuesday commenting on Trump’s decision not to sit down with the Taliban.
Al-Maqdisi called on the Taliban to intensify its operations against America, adding that the country is on the brink of collapse.