A Jerusalem family was left reeling this month after the passing of mother of nine Nilli Elmaliach. She had been suffering from cancer for three years. Nilli’s death came less than a week after the engagement of her daughter Oshrit. Just a few months ago, father Yaakov Elmaliach, who had supported the family through Nilli’s battle with illness, suffered a stroke and became paralyzed on one side of his body. As the siblings sat shiva in their home last week, Yaakov remained in the local hospital’s rehabilitation center to mourn alone. An urgent emergency fund has been started to help this family which is now without a functioning mother or father, and thoroughly unable to support itself financially.

YWN regrets to inform you of the sudden Petira of Rabbi Dr. Chaim Wakslak z’l, who was the Morah D’Asra, Young Israel of Long Beach and the clinical director of HASC Center. The Levaya will be today, Erev Shabbos Kodesh, at 12:00PM, Young Israel of Long Beach, 120 Long Beach Boulevard. Boruch Dayan HaEmmes…
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Intelligence officials have warned lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election campaign to help President Donald Trump get reelected, according to three officials familiar with the closed-door briefing. Trump pushed back Friday accusing Democrats of launching a disinformation campaign. “Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa. Hoax number 7!” Trump tweeted. The officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said Thursday that the briefing last week focused on Russia’s efforts to influence the 2020 election and sow discord in the American electorate.

By Sandy Eller The morning dawned crisp and cloudy and overflowing with mixed emotions. Like marathoners nearing the finish line, participants at the Agudah’s 20th annual Yarchei Kallah were filled with anticipation as they readied themselves to soak up every word of every shiur. And yet, amid the exhilaration and excitement was a silent prayer that, somehow, Yehoshuah would miraculously appear to once again utter the phrase “shemesh b’Givon dom, v’yareyach b’emek Ayalon,” holding back the hands of time and extending the Yarchei Kallah, for even just a few more hours. Armed with the determination to make the most out of their final day and buoyed by the sheer joy of their newly acquired limudim, participants started Thursday morning with a sense of confidence, ready to be inspired.

A Palestinian Arab student, Muhammad Abu Namus, who is currently in school for his doctorate in the Wuhan province in China, has contracted the COVID-19 Coronavirus. According to Namus who gave an interview to Ma’an news agency, the virus feels “similar to the flu but the symptoms are a lot worse.” In a different interview with Sky News that was held in Arabic Namus said: “The symptoms are harsh and painful, and the patient feels like his lungs are bursting out of his body.” Namus added that the local doctors have said that COVID-19 completely destroys the lungs. Abu Namus is currently being treated at a hospital in Wuhan. He is receiving antivirals, medications to strengthen his immune system, and vitamins.

Two more fatal road accidents took place in Israel on Thursday. The first accident took place on Highway 5 in the Shomron near the Barkan Industrial Zone. A man in his 30s was killed and two other young men were lightly injured when two cars collided. Volunteers from United Hatzalah and ambulance teams from Magen David Adom treated the injured at the scene. United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yossi Ben Khalifa relayed from the scene: “Together with medical teams from the IDF and the Red Crescent I treated numerous injured at the scene, among them a man in his 30s who was unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene.

Defense Minister and Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett told yeshivah bochurim at a hesder yeshiva on Wednesday that he doesn’t have many regrets in his life but one regret he does have is that he didn’t go to yeshivah before his army service, Arutz Sheva reported. “Our enemies weren’t satisfied with just harming us physically and always tried to break our spirit,” Bennett said to the bochurim at yeshivas Shiras Moshe in Yafo. “The ruach of Yahadus is dependent on limud Torah and we’re currently in a unprecendented period of limud HaTorah in depth and breadth.” “Recently I’ve been visiting many batei midrashim and it energizes me. I don’t regret many things in life but one of the only things I regret is that I didn’t go to yeshivah before army service.

It may end up being a bad flu season for kids, but early signs suggest the vaccine is working OK. The vaccine has been more than 50% effective in preventing flu illness severe enough to send a child to the doctor’s office, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Health experts consider that pretty good. The vaccines are made each year to protect against three or four different kinds of flu virus. The ingredients are based on predictions of what strains will make people sick the following winter. It doesn’t always work out. This flu season has featured two waves, each dominated by a different virus. Both of those flu bugs are considered dangerous to children, but tend not to be as dangerous to the elderly.

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has plunged over $400 million of his personal fortune into his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, an astronomical sum that has led many of his rivals to charge that he is trying to buy the crown. The figures, which his campaign released ahead of Thursday’s campaign finance reporting deadline, lay bare the massive operation the billionaire has built since his late entrance into the race at the end of November. Other leading contenders have yet to detail their finances, which weren’t due until midnight. But the sheer size and scope of Bloomberg’ spending left little doubt that he is vastly outspending even his best financed rivals like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen.

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