• 3,000 units sold in 3 months • over 400,000 registered for Aliyah One of the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it has accelerated the decision-making process for many who had already been thinking of settling in Israel. But even those who never seriously considered Aliyah have now changed their mind due to the rising anti-Semitism across the globe.  As a result, the last few months have seen tens of thousands of families registering for Aliyah in local offices. One of the leading locations for the English-speaking community in Israel is Ramat Givat Zeev, a unique, warm community that attracts hundreds of families from places like Monsey and The Five Towns.

Protesters and police clashed in downtown Portland in a demonstration that lasted into the predawn hours of Thursday, with some in the crowd setting a fire and exploding commercial grade fireworks outside a federal courthouse that’s been a target in months of conflict for Oregon’s largest city. Officers used tear gas to break up the crowd of several hundred people who gathered near the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the neighboring Multnomah County Justice Center and a nearby police precinct station.

For the first time, Airbnb is taking legal action against a guest for violating its ban on unauthorized parties. The San Francisco-based home sharing company said Wednesday it is initiating legal proceedings against a guest who held an unauthorized party at a home in Sacramento County, California, last weekend. Three people were shot and wounded at the party. Airbnb wouldn’t release the guest’s name but said it has removed the guest from its platform. The company has been trying to clean up its image — promising to verify all of its listings, for example, and taking a harder line on parties — as it prepares for an initial public offering of its stock. The IPO, which was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, could still take place later this year.

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Slovenia on Thursday to make the case for high-speed wireless networks that bar Chinese companies like Huawei. On the second leg of a four-nation tour of central and eastern Europe, Pompeo met with Slovenian officials in the mountain lake town of Bled and signed a joint declaration on “5G Clean Network Security” that aims to keep untrusted telecommunications vendors out of Slovenia. “Free nations must work together to confront authoritarian threats,” he said. “It is absolutely critical that every nation makes a good sovereign decision about how the private information of its citizens is going to be handled.” Pompeo has led a U.S.

Visiting U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale says the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be joining Lebanese and other international investigators in the probe into the Beirut port blast that killed and wounded thousands. Hale said during a visit to one of the impacted neighborhood in Beirut on Thursday that the FBI will take part at the invitation of Lebanese authorities. He said the participation in the probe is one of the ways the US is helping Lebanon in dealing with the aftermath of the drastic explosion. Hale arrived in Lebanon Thursday and is due to meet with Lebanese officials for the next two days. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com Aish Kodesh is a remarkable shul in Woodmere, New York that is filled with mispallelim who genuinely grow in Torah, yirah, and Avodas Hashem, following the pathway of their brilliant Morah d’Asra, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger Shlita.  One can see the gadlus of this kehillah from a letter to the Kehillah that was penned by the shul’s now retiring custodian [shades of ma tovu ohalecha yaakov!] Dear Kehila, It is with a heavy heart that I inform the Shul that my family and I have decided to move upstate, where I’m originally from. I want to thank you all for always treating me as an equal, and always showing me how good the Jewish people truly are. Your people are the most kind hearted and devout people I have ever met.

There is a wonderful mother of three who is in desperate need of help. Two of her children attend a local Orthodox day school in Los Angeles and the oldest is a graduate of Valley Torah High School. PLEASE HELP HER! The mother has custody of the children and is bereft with no one to turn to. There is a plan in place to relocate the family where they can get a fresh start and the cost of living is much more manageable. There are a number of Rabbis, educators, and therapists who are very familiar with the situation and can vouch for the urgency of the matter and the magnitude of the mitzvah. If we can raise $50,000, we can set this family on a solid foundation for success and allow them to be self-sufficient moving forward. The time to act is now.

The Ezras Nashim, (aka Chasdei Devorah Inc.) Organization has been granted an ambulance permit by New York State EMS Council on Thursday. The vote at SEMSCO passed by 23 votes, with two members voting against it. A third person abstained. The organization will now be permitted to serve female clientele within a 2.7 square-mile area in the Boro Park neighborhood. [MAILBAG: Thoughts of a Longtime Hatzolah Member On The Ezras Nashim Fiasco] (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Light winds and scattered thundershowers early Thursday helped calm the flames of a huge wildfire that prompted evacuations north of Los Angeles, and firefighters hoped to rein in the blaze before temperatures spike later in the day. An enormous plume of smoke was visible across much of Southern California after the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon in dense forest land. The blaze exploded in size within hours on brushy ridges, including some areas that had not burned since 1968, fire officials said. By Thursday morning, the flames had consumed nearly 16.5 square miles (42 square kilometers) of timber and chaparral shrubland. There was no containment of the fire.