As if Hatzolah Air has not been busy enough lately….. It all started just before Purim when Rabbi Zarchi, the famous Chabad Shalich from Boston was introduced to Eli Rowe of Hatzolah Air by Avromie Lieberman (a Chasdei Lev Founder and Director) at a fund-raising event for Chasdei Lev in Manhattan. Avromie could be heard telling Rabbi Zarchi “Hatzolah Air might be the purest most incredible tzedakah in Klal Yisroel’s history. They literally fly patients for free anywhere in the world. It’s mamish unbelievable”. A short 2 months later, as Hatzolah Air teams were working 24/7 flying patients in their specialized COVID-19 airplane capsule, building field hospitals and flying bodies for Kevura in Israel, a family from Israel frantically called Rabbi Zarchi crying, begging for his help.

Rosh HaYeshiva Hagaon Harav Gerson Edelstein delivered a sichas chizuk from his home in Bnei Brak on Tuesday night. “We have to understand something,” the Rosh Yeshiva said. “In Israel and throughout the world, Chareidim died from the coronavirus at a higher rate than everyone else. The Chazon Ish said that secular people are “tenikos she’nishbu” – when someone who’s not Chareidi sins, it’s b’shogeig but a Chareidi that sins is b’meizid. Therefore the Midas HaDin harms the Chareidim more than others.” “The situation of those ill in Israel improved due to the zechus of Eretz Yisrael,” Harav Edelstein continued. “There’s a Gemara on Rebbe Yochanan who said that a murder committed out of anger happened across the Yarden and [could not have happened] in Eretz Yisrael.

The Supreme Court was making history Wednesday afternoon, holding arguments over the phone because of Covid-19, when all of a sudden there was the distinct sound of a toilet flushing. Across the country, the public that has never before this week been able to listen in real time to oral arguments held remotely was treated not only to deep questions related to the First Amendment and robocalls but also to someone’s apparent bathroom break. Attorney Roman Martinez was making the argument over the phone, on behalf of the American Association of Political Consultants, that intrusive “robocalls” should not be used for debt collection for money owed to the government when the sound of a flushing toilet was heard.

When Yonatan Gruber’s mother called him and asked him to teach her to use Zoom, he never imagined the frustrating experience would go viral, Times of Israel reported. But after spending over an hour on the frustrating task, his wife complimented him on how patient he was. So Gruber, a comic by profession decided to record a humorous video about the experience (with his mother’s permission) and the video went viral, “more than anything I ever dreamed of.” Since then Gruber has been interviewed by Israeli media outlets and has received countless calls from old friends and acquaintances and even from people he doesn’t know but who want to figure out who he is.

An armed Frum homeowner took down a burglar on his property in Queens, and the dramatic incident was all captured on security cameras. Sources tell YWN that the homeowner was first alerted to trouble when his dog started barking at 1:00AM at his home at 73rd ave 147th street in the Kew Gardens Hills section of Queens. The man, who is a licensed gun-owner and well-trained in the use of firearms, ran out of his home and found three men on his property. As can be seen in the footage below, two men are seen running off the property and jumping a fence with the homeowner in hot pursuit. The man keeps searching the yard when suddenly a third man is seen. The homeowner immediately orders the suspect onto the floor at gunpoint, telling him not to move.

In this exclusive interview, NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger discusses the NYPD’s double standard in its treatment of frum Jews. He speaks about Mayor DeBlasio’s tweet singling out the Jews, Commissioner Dermot Shea’s claim that the police did not approve last week’s Levaya. “Lies, lies, lies”, Yeger said about Dermot. He also discussed when he believes shuls and camps should reopen, and much more. Listen and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app, including iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Podbean. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Former President George W. Bush called on Americans to abandon partisan divides in the face of the “sheer threat” of the coronavirus pandemic in a video released on Saturday. Bush’s comments come as Democratic governors clash with Republican President Donald Trump over the White House’s coronavirus response, and even drugs that could treat the virus are politicized. But President Trump on Sunday took aim at George W. Bush after the former Republican president issued his call to push partisanship aside amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In an early morning tweet on Sunday, Trump called out Bush for his failure to support him as he faced an impeachment trial earlier this year over his alleged dealings with Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that there was “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. “There is enormous evidence that this is where it began,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” But while highly critical of China’s handling of the matter, Pompeo declined to say whether he thought the virus had been intentionally released. President Donald Trump has been increasingly critical of China’s role in the pandemic, which has infected nearly 3.5 million people and killed more than 240,000 around the world.

On March 11, 2011, late Friday night, five members of the Fogel family, residents of Itamar, were brutally murdered in their beds, including three out of the family’s six children. It was a massacre that shocked and appalled the world, especially the murder of the baby Hadas, only 3 months old. The murderers later told interrogators that they would have killed the other children as well if they knew they were there. The oldest daughter, Tamar, then 12, returned to her home at midnight from a youth group activity and was the one to discover the grisly scene. Who was Rav Udi Fogel? For one, he was an alumnus of Eli Mechina.

Hakoras Hatov, gratitude, is one of the fundamentals of being Jewish, and there is no greater organization in our midst that needs our Hakoras Hatov, then the members of Hatzolah in every neighborhood. Hatzolah is there for your communities, with their incredible 2 minute response time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Unfortunately, there was no greater time since the founding of Hatzolah around 50 years ago, when their services were used, more than during the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point, Hatzolah across NYC was responding to more than 550 calls a day (actual ambulance responses) throughout all the various neighborhoods. During the peak of the crisis, the Hatzolah emergency hotline was fielding over 1,000 calls a day.