The Small Business Administration reported a potential data breach last month in its website that handles disaster loan applications. The agency said Tuesday the personal information of nearly 8,000 business owners applying for economic injury disaster loans was potentially seen by other applicants on the SBA website on March 25. The SBA said only the disaster loan program was affected, not the Paycheck Protection Program, which did not begin until April 3 and which is handled by a separate system. Carol Wilkerson, an SBA spokeswoman, said in a statement the agency has notified the 7,913 owners whose information may have been exposed and offered them a year of free credit monitoring. The agency immediately disabled the affected part of its system, Wilkerson said.

A Boro Park man was appointed to a top position in the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. Mitchell (Moshe) Silk was appointed as Assistant Treasury Secretary by unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate. Mitchell Allen Silk is a lawyer, author and currently the Assistant Secretary at the United States Department of the Treasury for International Affairs. He is an expert in Chinese law and finance. Silk is the first and only Hasidic Jew to hold a US Administration senior slot. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Please open your heart and donate $107 so we can reach the goal of $53,500 with the help of 500 generous people like you! CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW We are the parents of two boys, and two twin girls 1.5 years old.These kids were born to us after 15 painful years of endless medical treatments, that cost us thousands of dollars which we are still in debt from.This year, 3 days before Rosh Hashana our life turned around and was changed dramatically! After a routine blood test, instead of going home we were headed to the hospital, our one year old Yarden Chaya was found sick with Leukemia and needs an urgent bone marrow transplant!

Congress and President Donald Trump reached agreement Tuesday on a nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief bill that would replenish a small business rescue program and provide new funds for hospitals and a virus testing program. The Senate is poised to quickly pass it in a late afternoon session. It next goes to the House. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, were among the few senators in the chamber amid stay-home orders that have shuttered Washington, and the nation. Two conservative Republicans, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., were prepared to voice opposition. But they are not expected to halt passage.

Hospitals in parts of upstate New York will be able to conduct outpatient elective surgeries again, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday as he pledged to consider regional differences when re-opening the state’s outbreak-stalled economy. Hospitals in selected counties can resume elective outpatient treatments April 28 if a capacity benchmark is met and there have been fewer than 10 new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county over the past 10 days. “We’re going to allow it in those hospitals and counties in the state that do not have a COVID issue or we wouldn’t need their beds in case of a surge,” Cuomo said at a briefing in Buffalo.

by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com Rav Yitzchak Berkowitz Shlita is one of the most prominent Poskim in Eretz Yisroel and is the go to Posaik for several thousand anglos living in Eretz Yisroel.  He is currently in shloshim for his father who had passed away due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  His observations he should inform how we should be proceeding. yairhoffman2@gmail.com Rabbosai!I have been davening on my rooftop (being mitztaref to a minyan down below) from where I get to see the goings-on in the area. The matzav is out of control.

A major light from theTorah learning community went out this week, with the passing of Rosh Yeshiva Rav Chaim Aharon Turchin. Turchin lived in Bnei Brak but ran a yeshiva in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem. He was hospitalized in Ichilov hospital last week after contracting COVID-19. News of Rav Turchin’s health declining spread quickly among talmidei chachamim. Rav Chaim Kanievsky requested that the Rav receive another name, in the hopes that the name’s merits would improve his health. Unfortunately these efforts in the spiritual realm, together with the best efforts of hospital staff, were not enough to save the Rav’s life. He left behind a widow and 14 children, 5 of whom are married.

Someone in the city of Beitar Illit had a creative solution for anyone stuck in the house due to coronavirus regulations and hadn’t yet had a chance to say Birchas Hailanot. A vehicle pulling a trailer with trees in it drove through the empty streets announcing: “Dear residents: You’re invited to come out to your porches and make the bracha of Birchas Hailanot b’hidur rav on the sprouting and mehudar trees.” “Ilan, ilan, ba’ma avarechacha…” There was even a sign on the trailer with the words of the once a year bracha written in large letters. According to a comment made by an unknown person at the end of the video, the unique idea was the brainchild of Beitar Mayor Meir Rubinstein. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

U.S. sales of existing homes cratered 8.5% in March with real estate activity stalled by the coronavirus outbreak. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that 5.27 million homes sold last month, down from 5.76 million in February. The decrease was the steepest since November 2015. The situation will likely get worse, said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com. “Going forward, we’ve seen both home buyers and sellers report being less confident and many are making adjustments to the process,” Hale said.

With the global coronavirus pandemic ravaging the elderly, Israel’s aging population of Holocaust survivors finds itself on the country’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day this year much like they were during World War II — alone and in fear of the unknown. Some survivors say the current isolation and sense of danger has triggered difficult memories linked with their wartime experiences. Others bristle at any comparison to their plight during World War II – when the Nazis systematically murdered 6 million Jews. “One has nothing to do with the other. This could never compare to the five years I went through in the Holocaust,” said Dov Landau, 92, who survived Auschwitz and several other death camps, but lost his entire family.