It was cleared for publication on Monday that a huge drug lab was discovered in the heart of a residential neighborhood in Bnei Brak last week. Israel police raided a huge three-level marijuana lab on Rabban Gamliel Street in Bnei Brak last Tuesday. The lab contained hundreds of cannabis plants weighing over 400 kilograms as well as a large amount of equipment for growing the drug, a commercial scale and thousands of shekels. The marijuana plants were of a particularly potent type which can be especially dangerous to users. Israel Police received tips leading them to suspect the existence of the drug operation and conducted an extensive undercover operation.

By C.B. Weinfeld Ira was taking his family on a mini-summer trip to a fair in Lancaster County, PA, home of the Amish. There was a bearded man, dressed as an elf, with a bright red t-shirt and adorable elf ears, Santa’s perfect helper. That rugged elf was Shlomo, an Israeli who had traveled around the world to find meaning in his life, working at a Christian museum in the middle of nowhere. On Friday night at the Project Inspire Convention keynote address, Ira introduced his dear friend Shlomo, now happily married and the proud father of two young children, to the audience. Today Shlomo has smicha, he and his family live in a thriving Jewish community and Shabbos is the highlight of their week.

By the fall of 2018, when Democrats were promoting a slate of centrist candidates to topple Republicans in Congress, Bernie Sanders was seeing a very different picture. The Vermont senator and avowed democratic socialist was convinced his most fervent supporters were as energized as ever, ready to rally around the political insurgency flag he planted in 2016. He could keep stoking the deep frustration and mistrust of the political system and attract backers who had felt too disillusioned to bother voting in the past — much like President Donald Trump had on the right.

It baffles the mind. Israel is actually holding another election. If the prospects for the upcoming campaigns would vary, even slightly, from the first two, perhaps there’d be some motivation to get involved. But for the third time in a year, “thrice the price”, with an added deficit of millions of desperately needed shekalim, we are back to square one. Nothing has changed. It’s the same politicians at each other’s throats, making incessant campaign promises that are either outright lies, total hypocrisy or simply delusional. It’s become a kid’s game. Little children bicker over who gets to be king, and adults, apparently mature enough to lead a country, squabble and banter about their rights to the throne.

Bernie Sanders has praised Fidel Castro’s ‘massive literacy program’, standing by comments he made praising the dictator’s rule of Cuba in the 1980s. The Democratic frontrunner and socialist, 78, defended the Communist regime as ‘not all bad’ during a wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview which aired Sunday. During the interview, he told Anderson Cooper: ‘We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know? ‘When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?

For the first time ever – live in Brooklyn – Regal Productions is proud to present “The Silver Skates” a unique musical theater performance on ice! Enjoyed by 6,000 women and girls in Eretz Yisroel and 4,000 women and girls across Europe, Regal Productions is excited to bring their biggest hit ever to Brooklyn for an American audience to enjoy this groundbreaking show, alive on the ice! Regal Productions is a musical theater group, based in Ramat Bet Shemesh, Eretz Yisroel. Begun by Chayelle Regal and Rikki Reichman back in 2003, Regal has produced 17 hit shows including Annie, Pollyanna, Prince or Pauper, and Little Lord Fauntleroy, that have been enjoyed by women and girls across the world.

A man intentionally drove a car into a crowd at a Carnival parade in a small town in central Germany, injuring around 30 people including children, officials said Monday. The driver, a 29-year-old German citizen who lived locally, was arrested at the scene in Volkmarsen near Kassel, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Berlin, prosecutors said. He is being investigated on suspicion of attempted homicide. A spokesman for Frankfurt prosecutors, Alexander Badle, said in a statement that “about 30 people” were injured, among them children. They were taken to surrounding hospitals, some with life-threatening injuries. The suspect was also injured, said Badle. “The investigation, especially into the circumstances of the crime, continues,” he said.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com THE QUESTION: [posed by a visitor to the White Shul from Eretz Yisroel] The White Shul in Far Rockaway has an early mincha and maariv minyan for older folks and for those who feel like older folks – where mincha is held before Plag haMincha and they daven maariv right after the plag and before shkiya.  The question is, what happens on the day before Rosh Chodesh?  Do they say yaaleh v’yavo in the early maariv?  Perhaps this is only permitted on erev Shabbos before Shabbos because of the notion of tosefes Shabbos (according to most rishonim) – but Rosh chodesh does not have tosefes Shabbos – so what should be done?

In a special operation by the Israel Airport Authority (IAA) and the Health Ministry to send all South Korean tourists in Israel back home due to fear of the coronavirus, 622 South Koreans left Israel on Sunday night. There were still between 800 and 900 South Koreans in Israel as of Monday morning, according to a statement by the IAA. Many of them had no choice but to spend the night in the airport as hotels were reluctant to allow them to stay due to the fear of other guests. Ben-Gurion Airport staff assisted the tourists, offering them food, water and mattresses and arranging special flights to fly the South Koreans home after Korean Air suspended flights to Israel.

The White House is readying an urgent budget request to address the deadly coronavirus outbreak whose rapid spread is spooking financial markets and restricting international travel. The request is still being developed but is likely to come this week, a senior administration official confirmed Monday. The Department of Health and Human Services has already tapped into an emergency infectious disease rapid response fund and is seeking to transfer more than $130 million from other HHS accounts to combat the virus but is pressing for more. Among the needs is funding to reimburse the Pentagon, which is housing evacuees from China — who are required to undergo 14-day quarantines — at several military bases in California.