Jerusalem – Four Jewish House Democrats known for their ties to AIPAC warned Israel not to annex West Bank territory days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election-eve pledge to do that. The statement by Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey, both D-N.Y., Ted Deutch, D-Fla. and Brad Schneider, D-Ill., did not name Netanyahu, but alluded [...]

President Donald Trump considered nominating his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, to be president of the World Bank in part because “she’s very good with numbers,” according to a new interview published Friday.
Speaking to the Atlantic, Trump lavished praised on his daughter, a 37-year-old White House adviser, and suggested she would be suitable for other administration positions, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
“She’s a natural diplomat,” Trump said. “She would’ve been great at the United Nations, as an example.”
Asked why he didn’t nominate her, Trump replied: “If I did, they’d say nepotism, when it would’ve had nothing to do with nepotism. But she would’ve been incredible.”

Albany, NY – New York’s governor says legislation that would end the ability of parents to object to vaccinations for their children on religious grounds is “legally questionable.” Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo during interviews this week called the recent surge in measles cases a serious public health concern but said eliminating the religious exemption to [...]

 Measles Victim Calls For Mass Vaccination Events In Frum Communities WorldwideA 55-year-old man named Tzali Friedman recently recovered from the measles in Detroit, and has now gone public with this urgent message.
Read more on Yeshiva World News

Technical problems started several miles above landing spot when spacecraft loses main engine and smashes into lunar surface at over 300 mph

South Korea – Just two hours after Lee Dong Kil’s daughter was born on New Year’s Eve, the clock struck midnight, 2019 was ushered in, and the infant became 2-years-old. She wasn’t alone, though it happened for her quicker than most: Every baby born in South Korea last year became 2 on Jan. 1. According [...]

The Chesed Fund Saves Organizations Over $2 Million in FeesThe numbers are in. With The Chesed Fund reaching a new milestone of $30 million dollars in just three years of running, the amount of money it has saved individuals and organizations who run crowdfunding campaigns on the site is staggering.
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The lead article Thursday on the opinion page of the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the 1940 Nazi antisemitic movie The Eternal Jew.
The article was titled in the paper “The Eternal Netanyahu” in a word play in connection with the antisemitic pseudo-documentary organized by Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels and widely-considered to be the most violent anti-Jewish film ever made.
The Rundschau wrote in its apology it is “especially difficult” to find words that are not associated with antisemitism.
Read more at JPOST.
{Matzav.com}

 Off-Duty NYPD Officer Killed In Crash; Jewish Community Joins To Help Wife & Five ChildrenAn off-duty police officer has been killed in a motorcycle crash in Queens.
It happened on the westbound Belt Parkway near the Queens-Nassau border at about 5:30 a.m.

President Reuven Rivlin will begin doing a round of consultations on Monday with all factions chosen for the Knesset, all of which will be broadcast live.
Rivlin will move from large to small factions that were elected for the Knesset in coordination with the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Hanan Melzer.
As is customary, Rivlin will hear the parties’ recommendations and at the end will announce the member of the Knesset to whom he has entrusted the task of forming a government. Once this has been done, that person has 28 days to form a new government.
Read more at JPOST.
{Matzav.com}
 

Letter is unusual, if not unprecedented, in mainstream Jewish organizations pleading with a US president to take steps to hold back an Israeli prime minister

Chicago – The number of young kids who went to U.S. emergency rooms because they swallowed toys, coins, batteries and other objects has more than doubled, a new study says. In 2015, there were nearly 43,000 such visits among kids under 6, compared with 22,000 in 1995, according to the study published Friday in the [...]

Mayanei Hayeshua opens Pediatric Psychiatric Department
Mayanei Hayeshua’s Mental Health Center now boats a new in-patient Department of Pediatric Psychiatry. The Department caters to children between the ages of 12 and 18 and includes two separate wards: one for girls and one for boys, and is headed by Dr Leonid Kikinzon, a senior psychiatrist who has worked in several major Israeli hospitals and is the author of several scientific papers.

While the Israeli spacecraft didn't land on the moon, it did remind us to look beyond the borders of our own small worlds and let our imaginations soar

Jerusalem – Benny Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White party who had challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called to congratulate him Friday after Israel’s final election results showed the prime minister poised to win a fifth term. Netanyahu appeared all but certain to form the next government, as the final tally showed his [...]

Water Authority Update On The KinneretThe level of the Kinneret on Thursday morning, April 11, 2019, stood at minus 211.59, an increase of 1.5cm (0.59 inches) from Wednesday. The Kinneret is still in need of 2.79 meters (9.15 feet) to its full mark.
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Benny Gantz formally conceded defeat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, calling the incumbent to congratulate him on being re-elected.
“With the end of the vote count and the announcement of final results, I congratulate you on the achievement in the elections, we will continue to serve the citizens of Israel and I wish you and all of Israel a happy holiday,” Gantz told Netanyahu in a phone call.
“Thank you, I wish you a happy holiday. We will restore Israel to calm, each in his own capacity. Have a good Sabbath,” Netanyahu told Gantz.
Netanyahu was declared the winner of the elections on Thursday after the final results revealed Likud had received 36 seats, giving it one more seat than Blue & White.

Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, Ted Deutch and Brad Schneider, known for strong AIPAC ties, allude to pre-election pledge by Netanyahu to extend Israeli law to settlements

Washington – The White House considered going after political opponents by pushing U.S. immigration authorities to release detained immigrants into “sanctuary cities,” three sources familiar with the idea confirmed Friday. They told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump considered the proposal amid his ongoing battling Democrats over border wall funding. So-called sanctuary cities are [...]

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