State Senator Simcha Felder, Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, and Councilman Kalman Yeger today jointly announced that the NYC Department of Education has agreed to provide Kosher meals for pickup at select public school locations across Brooklyn and Queens.

Please please klal yisroel – We are 7 children, five of us still young unmarried at home. Income was very difficult until now, but now we have real fear for our future! We fear for our mothers future! She has been our bedrock of strength all these years; she held so much together, but now its just too much for her shattered heart. How will she be able to hold strong?   With such little income, how will she live?? How will we live? How will we survive this?? Who will look after us, once the tragedy fades from peoples hearts? CLICK HERE TO DONATE Brothers and sisters, please, we beg you, be there for us. Its not comfortable writing these lines, but we turn you in pain. Please feel our pain. Our hearts have been shattered into a million pieces. The world is upside down.

Rabbanim the world over such as Rav Elya Brudny, Rav Moshe Tuvia Lieff, Rav Yisroel Reisman, Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, and Rav Chaim Kanievsky have put their stamp of approval on The Simcha Initiative, a project aimed at setting a new precedent for more affordable simchas in Jewish community. A call to action published by the Initiative this week made the following appeal: “Stress? Pressure? … Why? Our children’s and grandchildren’s weddings should be the greatest days in their lives – and ours. So why have we allowed these celebrations to become more and more expensive, racking up ridiculously large bills and creating such pressure for family after family? Let’s take control and do what’s good for our community. We can do it and we must.

Lev Rochel Bikur Cholim of Lakewood, NJ held a wildly successful plasma testing drive on Sunday, administering a whopping 1,000 plasma tests at a carefully arranged testing site outside Blue Claws Stadium. Lakewood Bikur Cholim has emerged as a trailblazer, becoming the first organization of its kind to arrange such testing after leading medical experts expressed that recovered COVID-19 patient blood plasma can save lives. Those who underwent the testing were required to have previously had genuine symptoms, be completely symptom-free for at least a week, and be willing to donate blood.

Klal Yisrael has lost a very special and holy individual with the sudden petirah of R’ Boruch Alexander Zisha Ritterman ז״ל. R’ Zisha was niftar on Friday morning, the second day of Yom Tov. R’ Zisha was one of the pillars of R’ Avraham Schorr Shlita’s shul and early morning kollel, and a member of the Chevra Kadisha for many years. The son of Rav Nechemia Chaim Ritterman זצ״ל, the famous first grade Rebbe in Yeshiva Toras Emes Kamenitz, R’ Zisha was well known for his integrity, soft-spoken nature and never wanting to charge people for his computer repair services. He was a resident of the Flatbush community, where he was beloved by all for his warmth and many quiet acts of chesed.

OHEL’s ‘tent’ has always remained open and available to the most vulnerable, providing an array of services for over 50 years. This ‘tent’ has expanded like never before. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the demands for OHEL supportive services persist. While there are so many impacted by the global health crisis, thousands of individuals rely on the care, comfort, and support that OHEL offers to nearly 15,000 unique individuals on a yearly basis. OHEL is caring 24/7 for 500 young adults and adults in our group homes and apartments,individuals with developmental and psychiatric disabilities, who call OHEL ‘home and family’.

Israel’s Health Ministry eased the lockdown on Jerusalem neighborhoods and the city of Bnei Brak as of Sunday night at midnight following encouraging signs that the infection rate in these areas has leveled off. The mayors of both cities also promised to continue to remove coronavirus patients to “coronavirus hotels” – with the goal of removing at least half of the remaining patients in the cities by the end of the week. The majority of restrictions in Bnei Brak were already lifted last week with only public transportation continuing to be banned. A total of 2,349 Bnei Brak residents and 2,672 residents of Jerusalem have been diagnosed with the coronavirus as of Monday morning. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A US judge has found Grafton Thomas, charged in the anti-Semitic stabbing of 5 people – one who later died – in a Monsey Shul suffers from mental defect rendering him unable to assist in his defense. Judge Cathy Siebel wrote in a decision made public Monday that Grafton Thomas be committed to a treatment facility for no more than four months to determine if “in the foreseeable future he will attain the capacity to permit criminal proceedings to go forward against him.” “The defendant is suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent he is unable to assist properly in his defense”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz have signed a deal to form a unity government in which they would share the premiership under a rotation agreement. This news comes after three elections and 17 months of election campaigns and coalition negotiations. The deal between Netanyahu’s Likud Party and former military chief Benny Gantz’s Blue and White ends months of political paralysis and averts what would have been a fourth consecutive election in just over a year. After March 2 elections ended in a stalemate, the two leaders agreed late last month to try to form an “emergency” unity Cabinet to cope with the burgeoning coronavirus crisis. Ending weeks of negotiations, the sides announced a deal on Monday.

For many years, Rebbetzin Toiba Jungreis was the main breadwinner in her house. She juggled the responsibilities of caring for her growing family and paying the bills in order to allow her husband, the Tchenger rebbe of Boro Park, pursue a life of spreading Torah and of avodas Hashem. The vicissitudes of the coronavirus, however, came down hard on the esteemed Jungreis family. The rebbetzin, the backbone of the family, was abruptly taken away on the second day of Chol Hamoed, during the worst of the pandemic. She had been suffering for awhile with the debilitating ALS disease, requiring the family to expend enormous sums for her support and medical expenses. Her husband, Rav Asher Anshil shlita, is a quiet but strong influence on his kehillah.