Thanks to Williamsburg Shomrim volunteers, four suspects were taken into custody for stealing a truck. It happened just after 1:00PM at Classon Avenue and Park Avenue, in the heart of WIlliamsburg’s Jewish community. The Shomrim volunteers witnessed the 4 suspects steal a truck from in front of a truck mechanic. They immediately called the NYPD as they followed the truck from a safe distance. The four men were taken into custody by the NYPD after a short foot pursuit at Willoughby Avenue and Classon Avenue.

AKO (ASSOCIATION OF KASHRUS ORGANIZATIONS) CONFERENCE DECEMBER 31, 2019- JANUARY 2, 2020 By: Linda Levin   Among the 613 mitzvos in the Torah,  Shemiras Shabbos, Taharas Hamishpacha and Kashrus  stand out as defining what it means to be a Torah-observant Jew.   Almost 50 years ago, I remember being told  never to eat a candy bar without first checking the ingredient list. If the list did not include lard or animal fat but said “vegetable oil” that was enough to allow its consumption.  There were few if any reliable kashrus symbols on the package.   Back then, keeping kosher was simple….. or so we thought.

President Donald Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi squared off Sunday ahead of his impeachment trial, as she said senators will “pay a price” for blocking new witnesses and he quickly retorted that she and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff should both testify. The House plans to vote this week to transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate for the historic trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. It will be only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history and could start this week. Trump and Pelosi, the two most powerful party leaders in the nation, communicated as often happens in this presidency — with the president responding on Twitter to a television interview.

Federal authorities, including the head of the local FBI, gave stunning new details Monday about the hate-filled shooting in Jersey City last month that left three people at a kosher market and a police officer at a nearby cemetery dead. Authorities said the alleged domestic terrorists in the case, David Anderson and Francine Graham, had a bomb in their van powerful enough to kill or injure people five football fields away, according to NBC4. It was already known that investigators found a bomb in the couple’s van, but the new information sheds light on just how serious of a threat the device posed to the public. Authorities also said they could have made a second bomb with the amount of materials they had in the van.

After the brutal murders in a kosher grocery store in Jersey City; the horrific Hanukkah attacks in a Rabbi’s home in Monsey; several mass shootings in the nation’s schools; and on the heels of mass shootings in Pittsburgh and Poway synagogues, Assemblymembers Daniel Rosenthal (D- Kew Gardens Hills) and Stacey Pheffer Amato (D- Far Rockaway) have called upon the New York State Legislature to substantially increase security funding for nonpublic schools in the New York State budget. Historically, the New York State Legislature allocated $15 million annually for the Nonpublic School Safety Equipment (NPSE) Grant. This translates into approximately $37 per child. In response to recent events, New Jersey increased its allocation to $150 per child for security, doubling its previous rate.

It’s that time of year again. There are barely six weeks left to the Project Inspire 2020 convention, but already the buzz is strong, the phones are ringing off the hook, and most of the rooms have been sold. After all, there are many conventions and weekends of inspiration out there, but Project Inspire is in a class of its own. How shall we begin?  There’s the stellar program, which never fails to surprise and delight; the sheer number of attendees, all of them pumped and ready to make a difference. There’s the caliber of the world-renowned speakers, many of them flown in from Eretz Yisroel and across the globe.  They include Rav Shmuel Dishon, Rav Nissin Kaplan; Rav Moshe Weinberger; Rav Shmuel Silber; Rav Yitzchok Feldheim, and of course, the one and only Rav Gav!

An off-duty sheriff’s detective who was helping an elderly woman cross the street was struck and killed by a vehicle in Valley Village Sunday morning, officials say. The detective was identified as Amber Joy Leist, a 12-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. She was the 41-year-old mother of two sons, ages 17 and 20. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Leist was stopped in her car near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Whitsett Avenue around 11 a.m. when she saw a woman stumble as she tried to cross the street. Leist put her car in park and went to help the woman cross. While returning to her vehicle, she was struck by a car heading eastbound on Riverside after the light had turned green, Villanueva said.

Israel police raided the “Be’er Miriam seminary” – a sefardi Chareidi girls’ seminary – in the Bucharim neighborhood of Jerusalem on Monday morning and arrested a man and eight women on suspicion of holding victims in slave-like conditions, child abuse, and other forms of abuse, Israeli news outlets reported on Monday. Police say that the main suspect, Aharon Ramati, about 60, is suspected a running a closed community “cult” of dozens of women and children and abusing them physically, emotionally and financially. Ramati, his wife and seven other women were all arrested on criminal charges of exploitation and holding victims in slave-like conditions.

Democrat Cory Booker dropped out of the presidential race Monday, ending a campaign whose message of unity and love failed to resonate in a political era marked by chaos and anxiety. His departure now leaves a field that was once the most diverse in history with just one remaining African American candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Since launching his campaign last February, Booker, a U.S. senator from New Jersey, struggled to raise the type of money required to support a White House bid. He was at the back of the pack in most surveys and failed to meet the polling requirements needed to participate in Tuesday’s debate. Booker also missed last month’s debate and exits the race polling in low single digits in the early primary states and nationwide.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced new funding to harden security infrastructure and further protect communities in and around the community of Monsey, where a man attacked a home full of Jewish worshipers on the seventh night of Hanukkah on Dec. 28, 2019. The Governor is directing $340,000 for the village of New Square to install license plate reader technology, which was used to catch the Monsey attacker, as well as other security cameras. The Governor is directing up to $340,000 to the Town of Ramapo to install the same technology on roads in and around Monsey. The expanded New York State Hate Crimes Task Force, which the Governor announced during his 2020 State of the State address, will evaluate requests from other municipalities for license plate readers.