New York, NY – The big Passover questions are the same every year, and easy enough to answer, starting with “Why is this night different from all others?”

At the Pomegranate market, in a heavily Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, shoppers ask about quinoa.

Little questions, though, sometimes arise that can stump even the experts. Like, what to do about the quinoa situation?

Quinoa (pronounced ki-NO-uh or KEEN-wah) is a grainlike South American crop newly popular among health-conscious North Americans. In the last decade, observant Jews have welcomed it with something like the thrill of seeing a new face at the Passover table after several thousand years of conversation with matzo and potatoes.

Tasty, gluten-free, protein-rich — and, by many accounts, kosher for Seders lacking in carbohydrate variety — it has become a staple of Passover cookbooks. Gourmet magazine hailed it in 2008 as the new “belle of the Passover ball.”

If only life were so simple.

As with most matters under the purview of Jewish law — from how to turn on the lights during the Sabbath, to what kind of cough syrup is certified kosher — a debate has emerged among rabbinical experts about quinoa’s bona fides as a kosher alternative to leavened-grain products like bread. And this has led to confusion and concern in many Passover kitchens around the country on the eve of the holiday, which begins on Monday evening.

“I went to hear two rabbis discussing the quinoa situation at my synagogue last week,” said Arlene J. Mathes-Scharf, a food scientist in Sharon, Mass., who specializes in kosher food and operates a popular consumer Web site, Kashrut.com. (Kashrut is the Hebrew word for kosher dietary law.)

“They had basically the same information, but they came to opposite conclusions,” Ms. Mathes-Scharf said. “Typical.”

Her hot line has received hundreds of “anxious inquiries” on the topic, Ms. Mathes-Scharf said.

At Pomegranate, a large kosher grocery in the heavily Orthodox Midwood section of Brooklyn, customers had more questions than guidance.

“They’re asking me 20 times a day, ‘What is the ruling?’ ” Gabe Boxer, the store’s general manager, said last week.

Continue to read at The NY Times

New York, NY – The Washington Haggadah, an illuminated medieval manuscript and, since 1916, a principal treasure in the Library of Congress, is spending Passover in New York City on a snug reading stand in a display case at the Metropolitan Mu­seum of Art. The Haggadah, the collection of prayers and songs that tells the story of exodus that is the Passover Seder, lies open to the Dayenu (“If He had given us Shabbat and not led us to Mount Sinai, it would have been enough . . .”), a thousand-year-old song that’s unusually sprightly for its age, perhaps because it can function as a cue to cooks and celebrants that it’s nearly time to serve the meal.

The scribe reinforces that cue with a drawing at the bottom of the page: A man, apparently a beggar invited to help with the feast, turns a rack of lamb while two women, well dressed in the Italian style, stir soup and offer him a cup.

You could easily miss “The Washington Haggadah: Medieval Jewish Art in Context,” an exhibition that consists of just three vitrines and a wall display in a hallway in the Met’s department of medieval art. But the modest display fits the artifact — the mix of homey scenes and exquisite items was a trademark of the scribe and illustrator, Joel ben Simeon (approximately 1420-95), and suited the taste of his wealthy Ashkenazi clientele in Germany and Italy.

Although this exhibition does not display the manuscript’s individual ­pages — as the Met did successfully last summer with the utterly bloodthirsty and not-safe-for-work exhibition of the Book of Hours of Jean de Berry — the museum’s medievalists have vividly conjured the world of medieval European Jewry, surrounding the small manuscript with luxurious objects similar to those in the drawings. A pale yellow glass with a decorative band is a close match for the one the woman offers the man turning the lamb. A brass ewer from Germany is practically identical to the one in the hands of the red-hatted man filling cups, who is beside instructions to pour the service’s second glass of wine.

“The Washington Haggadah,” on view through June 26, is the first installment in a three-year series devoted to Hebrew manuscripts and their contemporary context, a clever strategy that pairs valuables from the Met’s stronger collections with loan items in one of its weakest areas (illuminated Hebrew manuscripts).

“Our colleagues in the textile department are thrilled,” said curator Barbara Boehm, standing beside a silk-velvet swatch that looked like it could have been cut from the skirt of a fashionable woman who shows up later in the Haggadah. “I don’t think these have ever been shown. They’re not great big pieces, but they’re exquisite and such a nice match.”

After 500 years, the Haggadah had found its permanent home — except, of course, for the occasional Passover visit to New York.

Read full article at Washington Post

Givatayim – A fire broke out in an apartment in the city of Givatayim on Sunday as its tenant was conducting biur chametz (burning of chametz before Passover).

The tenant and other residents in the building were evacuated and firefighters were able to put out the flames. No one was hurt but the apartment sustained heavy damage.

London – An expensive wine may well have a full body, a delicate nose and good legs, but the odds are your brain will never know.

A survey of hundreds of drinkers found that on average people could tell good wine from plonk no more often than if they had simply guessed.

In the blind taste test, 578 people commented on a variety of red and white wines ranging from a £3.49 bottle of Claret to a £29.99 bottle of champagne. The researchers categorised inexpensive wines as costing £5 and less, while expensive bottles were £10 and more.

The study found that people correctly distinguished between cheap and expensive white wines only 53% of the time, and only 47% of the time for red wines. The overall result suggests a 50:50 chance of identifying a wine as expensive or cheap based on taste alone – the same odds as flipping a coin.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at Hertfordshire University, conducted the survey at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

“People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine,” he said. “When you know the answer, you fool yourself into thinking you would be able to tell the difference, but most people simply can’t.”

All of the drinkers who took part in the survey were attending the science festival, but Wiseman claims the group was unlikely to be any worse at wine tasting than a cross-section of the general public.

“The real surprise is that the more expensive wines were double or three times the price of the cheaper ones. Normally when a product is that much more expensive, you would expect to be able to tell the difference,” Wiseman said.

People scored best when deciding between two bottles of Pinot Grigio, with 59% correctly deciding which was which. The Claret, which cost either £3.49 or £15.99, fooled most people with only 39% correctly identifying which they had tasted.

In 2008, a study led by Adrian North, a psychologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, claimed that music helped boost the flavour of certain wines. North, who was commissioned by a Chilean winemaker, reported that Cabernet Sauvignon was most affected by “powerful and heavy” music, while Chardonnay benefited from “zingy and refreshing” sounds.

Israel – The majority of secular and traditional Israelis celebrate the Passover Seder, figures released last week by the Central Bureau of Statistics show.

According to a social survey, 82% of seculars conduct the Seder, as do 93% of those who define themselves as “traditional but not so religious” and 98% of those who define themselves as “religious traditional.”

It appears, however, that eating kosher for Passover food is not as popular as celebrating the Seder. Ninety percent of the “religious traditional” are strict about not eating chametz (leavened food) during the holiday, while only 68% of the “traditional but not so religious” and 22% of the secular public do the same.

Full article at Ynet News

Washington – The government said Sunday it is giving air traffic controllers an extra hour off between shifts so they don’t doze off at work, a problem that stretches back decades. But officials rejected the remedy that sleep experts say would make a real difference: on-the-job napping.

“On my watch, controllers will not be paid to take naps. We’re not going to allow that,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

That’s exactly the opposite of what scientists and the Federal Aviation Administration’s own fatigue working group say is needed after five cases disclosed since late March of sleeping controllers. The latest one occurred just before 5 a.m. Saturday at a busy regional radar facility that handles high altitude air traffic for much of Florida, portions of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Several other countries, including Germany and Japan, permit controllers to take sleeping breaks and they provide quiet rooms with cots for that purpose.

“Given the body of scientific evidence, that decision clearly demonstrates that politics remain more important than public safety,” said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation of Alexandria, Va. “People are concerned about a political backlash if they allow controllers to have rest periods in their work shifts the same way firefighters and trauma physicians do.”

It has been an open secret in the FAA dating to at least the early 1990s that controllers sometimes sleep on the job. Toughest are the midnight shifts, which usually begin about 10 p.m. and end about 6 a.m.

Scientists say it would be surprising if controllers didn’t doze sometimes because they are trying to stay awake during the time of day when the body naturally craves sleep.

Studies show that 30 percent to 50 percent of night-shift workers report falling asleep at least once a week while on the job, according to Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Six of eight present and former controllers interviewed by The Associated Press acknowledged they briefly fell asleep while working alone at night at least once in their careers. Most of the controllers asked not to be identified because they didn’t want to jeopardize their jobs or the jobs of colleagues.

Much more common is taking a nap on purpose, they said. On midnight shifts, one controller will work two positions while the other one sleeps and then they switch off, controllers said. The unsanctioned arrangements sometimes allow controllers to sleep as much as three hours or four hours out of an eight-hour shift, they said.

The FAA does not allow controllers to sleep at work, even during breaks. Controllers who are caught can be suspended or fired. But at many air traffic facilities the sleeping swaps are tolerated as long as they don’t affect safety, controllers said.

“It has always been a problem,” said former controller Rick Perl, who retired last year.

In 1991, a Denver television station caught controllers leaving a regional radar center during midnight shifts to sleep in their cars, sometimes for as long as five hours. A former internal watchdog at the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, recalled her office investigating a similar incident in Texas during the early 1990s.

The problem of tired controllers was raised by the National Transportation Safety Board after a 2006 crash of a regional airliner in Lexington, Ky., that killed 49 of the 50 people aboard.

The lone controller in the airport tower was wrapping up a schedule that compressed five eight-hour shifts into four days. He cleared a regional jet for takeoff and failed to notice the plane make a wrong turn onto a runway that was too short.

The board cited pilot error as the cause of the accident, but noted the controller had slept only two of the previous 24 hours. The board also cited other incidences of mistakes by tired controllers. They include a controller who ordered a passenger jet to take off directly into the path of another jet at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2006, and a controller who cleared a cargo jet for takeoff on a closed runway in Denver in 2001.

An FAA and National Air Traffic Controllers Association working group, relying on sleep research by NASA, the Air Force, the Mitre Corp. and others, recommended in January letting controllers take naps for as long as 2 ½ hours on midnight shifts. They also recommended that controllers be allowed to sleep during the 20- to 30-minute breaks they receive every few hours during day shifts.

Instead, the FAA’s new rules will give controllers at least nine hours off between shifts, compared with eight now. That also was recommended by the working group, but a summary of their report notes the extra hour will likely result in only a “slight improvement” on midnight shifts.

Controllers won’t be able to swap shifts to get a long weekend unless there’s at least nine hours off from the end of one shift to the start of the other, the FAA said. More managers will be on duty during the early morning hours and at night to remind controllers that nodding off is unacceptable.

“We’re going to make sure that controllers are well-rested. We’re going to increase the rest time by an hour,” LaHood said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Manhattan, NY – First, Joey and Dana Small cordon off their apartment, room by room. Then they begin their search. Every cupboard, closet, doorknob, coat pocket, remote control, couch cushion and crevice is thoroughly inspected.

Their target: any speck or crumb containing the leavened flour of wheat, oats, barley, rye — otherwise known as chametz, and forbidden observant Jews during Passover, which begins Monday evening. As each room in their one-bedroom apartment on West 100th Street is cleared, the Smalls’ “no chametz fly zone” expands.

One thousand one hundred square feet never loomed so large.

Finally, after almost 4 weeks and perhaps 25 hours of cleaning and preparation, armed with an arsenal of extra sponges, sink strainers and mops, the young couple are ready to tackle the kitchen. Out comes the big gun: Easy-Off.

Last Sunday afternoon, as Mr. Small methodically went through each item in his overstuffed freezer, he exulted in his liberation. “I feel really good right now,” he said to his wife. “We should have done this months ago.” The celebration lasted only a moment.

“Now we have to get the refrigerator to look like this.”

For some Jews, the annual purging of leavened items, in deference to their ancestors who fled Egypt in such a hurry they did not have time to let their bread rise, is a labor of love. For most, it’s a chore.

But to watch the Smalls — she is 27 and a consultant at an employee-retention firm; he is 28 and a teacher recruiter at Yeshiva University — in their pas de deux of intricate cleaning maneuvers is to see them revisit the very foundation of their union. During the Passover of 2006, they met during a mission to Bobruisk, Belarus, to create a kosher Passover experience for Jews there.

“I never really put together how much I owe to Passover cleaning,” Mr. Small said, “but it’s because I was scrubbing the ovens, refrigerators and counters of a kitchen in a café that we were making kosher that I met my wife.” On the mission the next year, working with relocated Soviet Jews in Germany, Mr. Small proposed.

For the Smalls, on a holiday that celebrates the delivering of the Jews to freedom, cleaning takes on a decidedly spiritual aspect.

“Passover is all about redemption, and for those Soviet Jews, redemption is so real,” Ms. Small said as she wiped down the toys of her 7-month-old son, Noam, whose baby food containing kinyiot — rice and legumes that are not technically chametz but are avoided by many Ahskenazic Jews during Passover — has been cleared with the rabbi.

In the name of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, the Smalls strive not to waste the food they must get rid of, donating it to synagogues’ food drives and pantries.

Many people pay cleaning crews hundreds of dollars or more for their annual Passover cleaning. But for the Smalls, the satisfaction they get from cleaning their home themselves is an essential part of the experience.

“Having a successful Passover means putting in the necessary physical and spiritual work beforehand,” Mr. Small said.

The payoff for Mr. Small comes when he takes his first bite of matzo pizza, his special Passover delicacy, and doesn’t have to worry about crumbs — at least for the next week.

Long Branch, NJ – A developer with strong ties to the Orthodox Jewish Community is reportedly ready to invest millions of dollars into Ocean Place Resort and Conference Center. The developer, Jeffrey Fernbach, president of Fernmoor Homes of Jackson, plans on playing a major role in redeveloping the hotel and property it’s on.

If the bankruptcy court approves the hotel’s restructuring plan, Fernmoor Homes reportedly plans to spend millions on renovating the outside of the structure and remodeling the inside starting the end of this year.

Fernbach will be providing millions over the first three years and ultimately concluding with the resort’s redevelopment, if restructuring plans receive approval by U.S. District Bankruptcy Judge Michael B. Kaplan.

“We don’t intend to exclude one over the other,” said Williams of the company’s target customer bases. “The goal is to fill the hotel.”

New York – Three legislators want the state to register domestic violence offenders just as sex crime offenders are publicly listed.

State Sen. Eric Adams, Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries announced the proposed law today. It would require anyone convicted of domestic violence to be listed in a Domestic Violence Offender Database.

Police say 23-year-old Sarah Coit was fatally stabbed and nearly decapitated last week during a domestic dispute with her boyfriend in their Lower East Side apartment. Authorities say the suspect in Coit’s death, Raul Barrera, has been linked to several violent incidents in the past. He pleaded guilty to smashing a man in the face with a bottle last year.

Barrera is charged with second-degree murder in his girlfriend’s death after turning himself in to police

New Square, NY – For the second time in two days, a pedestrian was struck by a motorist in the Village of New Square.

Ramapo Town Police said a 20-year-old female resident of the village was struck as she walked on Ostereh Boulevard in the roadway. The driver of the car, a 61-year-old New Square man, was making a left turn onto the road when the front passenger side corner of his car struck the woman, police said.

She was taken to Westchester Medical Center by Hatzolah Ambulance for treatment of lower torso injuries that were not believed to be life threatening, police said.

On Friday, a two-year-old girl was struck and killed by a vehicle as she walked with her mother in a parking lot in the village, (as was first reported here on Vos Iz Neias).

Jerusalem – A hospital official says an Israeli teen critically wounded when an anti-tank rocket fired from Gaza hit a school bus 10 days ago has died.

16-year-old Daniel Viflic did not regain consciousness. Inbal Guter, a spokeswoman for Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, says he died Sunday.

The attack on the bus provoked outrage in Israel and unleashed a harsh response in the form of airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. The exchanges of rocket fire and airstrikes threatened to spiral into an all-out conflict before an informal cease-fire restored relative calm.

The bus dropped off all its passengers except for the teenager minutes before it was hit by the anti-tank rocket from nearby Gaza.

Warsaw, Poland – A delegation from the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) was welcomed this past Friday, by the the Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski at the Belweder Palace. The RCE delegation presented the president with matza, the unleavened bread that is eaten by Jews on the Passover festival.

The president said he was honoured by the gift and ate some of the matza. He also explained that he remembered during the communist era when matza was not allowed to be legally sold in Poland so was named ‘dietetic bread’, and the president explained that out of principle for this injustice, his family refused to buy it.

“According to Jewish tradition, Matza symbolizes humility as it does not rise, so it is a very appropriate gift to a president known as a good and dependable friend of the Jewish People, not for popular purposes, but from a humble moral standpoint,” Rabbi Shalom Stambler, Head of Chabad in Poland, said.
During the meeting the RCE representatives praised and thanked the president for his recent comments on Jewish restitution.

The RCE representatives felt that the Polish President’s voice was vital on the issue. “President Komorowski’s voice of support on the restitution issue has a strong moral standing and is a huge boost for the former Jews of Poland who seek compensation for their lost property,” Asher Gold, Director of Public affairs at the RCE, said.

The RCE delegation included Rabbi Gershon M Garelik, founder and presidency member of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, Rabbi Shalom B Stambler, Head of Chabad Lubavitch in Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, and Rabbi Gold.

The meeting was also attended by the Honorary Consul of Poland in Israel, and close friend of the president, Mr Zeev Baran. Baran and his family were rescued by President Komorowski’s during the Holocaust.

The RCE is an organization representing over 700 European religious leaders dedicated to meeting the needs of Jewish communities in Europe.

Brooklyn, NY – The Passover spirit of freedom has a whole new meaning for crime victims putting together a special Seder where they will share stories about abuse, during the holy dinner.

Survivors of domestic violence, sex assaults and child abuse will pack into the B’nai Israel of Linden Heights synagogue on Ninth Ave. in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn Monday and Tuesday night.

Passover honors the Israelite slaves’ escape from Egypt with a 15-step meal called a Seder where stories of bondage are mixed in with the matzo.

Organizer Annie Kay, 33, spent the past month preparing to feed 500 victims and their families, explaining that the horror of living through a crime is no different than the nightmare of being a slave. “They need a family. The rabbis want to keep it so it looks like crimes in our community don’t happen,” said Kay, a Hasidic Jew who changed her name after launching the Coalition Against Legal Abuse in New York back in February.

The Jewish law of mesira prohibits a Jew from snitching to cops on another Jew but some rabbis give a pass depending on the crime. Still, if a victim comes forward in one of the city’s insular Orthodox Jewish communities, families are usually shunned at schools, synagogues and work.

A Borough Park woman named Chaya, 22, said her dad used to beat her with metal coat hangers when she was a kid. “I have a feeling for people hurt by abuse,” said Chaya, who spent the week peeling potatoes in preparation for the two big meals. “I want to help others have a comfortable life.”

So far, 386 cooked chickens are sitting in fridges along with 14 pounds of coleslaw and 50 pounds of gefilte fish. “It doesn’t matter how many people will come. We will feed everybody,” said Kay. “We want more people to feel empowered to speak out.”

Raleigh, NC – A furious storm system that kicked up tornadoes, flash floods and hail as big as softballs has left at least 37 people dead on a rampage that has stretched for days as it barreled from Oklahoma to North Carolina and Virginia.

Emergency crews searched for victims in hard-hit swaths of North Carolina, where 62 tornadoes were reported from the worst spring storm in two decades to hit the state. Ten people were confirmed dead in Bertie County, county manager Zee Lamb said.

In the capital city of Raleigh, three family members died in a mobile home park, said Wake County spokeswoman Sarah Willamson-Baker. At that trailer park, residents lined up outside Sunday and asked police guarding the area when they might get back in.

Peggy Mosley, 54, who has lived in the park for 25 years, said she was prepared when the storm bore down on the trailer park. She gathered small pillows and other material and hunkered down in her small bathroom.

“I went and got into my small bathroom and just sat in there and cried and prayed until it was over,” Mosley said.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said Sunday that state emergency management officials told her more than 20 were killed by the storms in North Carolina. However, the far-flung damage made it difficult to confirm the total number of deaths. The emergency management agency said it had reports of 22 fatalities, and media outlets and government agency tallies did not all match. The National Weather Service said 23 died in the state, including one in Johnston County, but an emergency management chief there told The Associated Press nobody died in that area.

The governor planned to travel by helicopter to hard-hit areas of the state Sunday to survey damage.

The night before, Perdue announced there was an unspecified number of confirmed deaths in Bladen, Cumberland, Lee and Wake counties.

Meanwhile, at least four deaths were reported in Virginia. Authorities warned the toll was likely to rise further Sunday as searchers probed shattered homes and businesses.

The storm claimed its first lives Thursday night in Oklahoma, then roared through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Authorities have said seven died in Arkansas; seven in Alabama; two in Oklahoma; and one in Mississippi.

In North Carolina, the governor declared a state of emergency and said the 62 tornadoes reported were the most since March 1984, when a storm system spawned 22 twisters in the Carolinas that killed 57 people — 42 in North Carolina — and injured hundreds.

Daybreak brought news of a horrific death toll in Bertie County, a place of about 21,000 people about 130 miles east of Raleigh. The tornado moved through about 7 p.m. Saturday, sweeping homes from their foundations, demolishing others and flipping cars on tiny rural roads between Askewville and Colerian, Lamb said.

One of the volunteers who scoured the rubble was an Iraq war veteran who told Lamb he was stunned by what he saw.

“He did two tours of duty in Iraq and the scene was worse than he ever saw in Iraq — that’s pretty devastating,” Lamb said.

As dawn broke, dozens of firefighters, volunteers and other officials were meeting in a makeshift command center to form search teams to fan out to the hardest-hit areas.

“There were several cases of houses being totally demolished except for one room, and that’s where the people were,” he said. “They survived. Pretty devastating.”

In Virginia, Department of Emergency Management spokesman Bob Spieldenner said one apparent tornado ripped across more than 12 miles through Gloucester County, uprooting trees and pounding homes to rubble while claiming three lives. Spieldenner said another person was killed when a vehicle ran into flash flooding near Waynesboro. Another person was missing and a third was rescued.

He reported homes and mobile homes damaged and destroyed in a series of other Virginia counties and flash flooding west of Charlottesville that prompted water rescues — including four people rescued unhurt from a car that had plunged into deep water flowing over a street.

Scenes of destruction across the South looked eerily similar in many areas.

At one point, more than 250,000 people went without power in North Carolina before emergency utility crews began repairing downed lines. But scattered outages were expected to linger at least until Monday.

Among areas hit by power outages was Raleigh, a bustling city of more than 400,000 people where some of the bigger downtown thoroughfares were blocked by fallen trees early Sunday.

Police and rescue crews began conducting house-to-house searches later Saturday at a mobile home park in north Raleigh, where the storm snapped some trees in half, ripped others out of the ground and tossed some trailers from one side of a street to the other.

In Sanford, about 40 miles southwest of Raleigh, a busy shopping district was pummeled by the storms, with some businesses losing rooftops in what observers described as a ferocious tornado. The Lowe’s Home Improvement Center in Sanford looked flattened, with jagged beams and wobbly siding sticking up from the pancaked entrance. Cars in the parking lot were flipped by the winds.

“It’s very, very bad here,” said Monica Elliott, who works at the nearby Brick City Grill. “We saw a tornado that just rode up over the restaurant.”

Remarkably, no one was seriously injured at the Lowe’s, thanks to a quick-thinking manager who herded more than 100 people into a back area with no windows to shatter.

“It was really just a bad scene,” said Jeff Blocker, Lowe’s regional vice president for eastern North Carolina. “You’re just amazed that no one was injured.”

Washington – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington may not be the bed of roses he was expecting. In addition to his speech in front of the US congress and the vote of support he is set to receive from the Jewish lobby AIPAC, he will also likely to face a thornier welcome.

A number of US groups are organizing “Move Over AIPAC” – a meeting they say will expose “the extraordinary influence AIPAC has on US policy”. Among those behind the initiative – journalist Helen Thomas.

The “Move Over AIPAC” website is quite proud of 90 year-old Thomas’ connection to the initiative. Thomas, has become notorious after stating in an interview that Jews should get out of Palestine and go back to Poland and Germany.

Thomas will speak at the anti-AIPAC meet as an honored guest. The meeting will be taking place May 21-24 in Washington DC, parallel to the AIPAC lobby’s meeting.

Read more at Ynet News

Washington – Taxpayers got an extra three days to file their federal tax returns this year. They can thank the nation’s capital for the extra time.

The filing deadline was delayed until midnight Monday because the District of Columbia observed Emancipation Day last Friday. By law, local holidays in the nation’s capital impact tax deadlines the same way federal holidays would. States generally follow the federal deadline.

Emancipation Day marks the occasion when President Abraham Lincoln signed a law ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Lincoln signed it April 16, 1862, more than eight months before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which eventually led to all slaves being freed.

April 16 fell on Saturday this year, so the holiday was observed April 15, the traditional tax filing deadline.

Brooklyn, NY – Exclusive to VIN News noted Brooklyn photographer Hershi Rubinstein captures the spirit of preparing for ‘Pesach’ in Borough Park, From matzo baking , koshering, buying new clothing, food, food distribution to the needy, Yad Ephraim preparing meals, and the famous ‘Pesach’ funding speech by Reb Hillel at the Shomrei Shabbos Shul.

Watch below. Video Credit ShiaHD

Brooklyn, NY – The time approaching Pesach is usually filled with apprehension. There are pressing financial needs for most families. Food and clothing are needed. Then there is the added anxiety caused by the desire to follow not just halachah but also family stringencies and traditions.

These days before the Yom Tov of Pesach is the busy season for Jewish book stores. Shelves are stacked with the newest editions of Haggados, and halachic guides of various levels of depth and practicality. The multi-volume set of sefarim entitled Nitei Gavriel by Rav Gavriel Zinner ranks among the most sought-after halachah-minhag guides. They are best-sellers throughout the year.

Rav Zinner has authored over 30 volumes of the sefer, on the entire spectrum of topics discussed in halachah.

Copies of his various sefarim are found at multitudes of Seder tables, sukkahs, simchos, or, lo aleinu, by those who sit shivah. Nitei Gavriel covers them all. For me, it was a privilege to enter into the Rav’s study on behalf of Hamodia and speak with the world-renowned author who kindly gave of his precious time to answer my questions. We talked at length about his approach to halachah, and about the appropriate time and place for chumros or kulos. Here are just a few of the Rav’s comments during his extensive interview with Hamodia.

In your sefarim, you cite shitos, psakim and minhagim from all Gedolim and many communities. Whom do you personally consider your rebbeim from whom you were mekabel your derech in halachah?

All my life, I have tried to adhere to the saying mikol melamdai hiskalti. Although I received hora’ah from my Rebbe [Rav Yosef Grunwald of Pupa] whom I was meshamesh [interned with] for over 20 years, I have established connections with many Gedolim, foremost among them Rav Yaakov Yitchok Neiman, who was the Rav in the Belz kehillah in Montreal. Rav Neiman himself had shimush chachamim from previous Gedolim.

I was close to the Debreciner Rav; I am very close to Harav Shmuel Wosner and Harav Fishele Hershkowitz, shlita. In the many visits I have made to Eretz Yisrael, I have learned from Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l. He quotes from my sefer, and liked to talk with me in learning. I was also close to Rav Yisroel Yaakov Fischer.

I have tried to maintain a kesher with Gedolim wherever they may be, even by correspondence if that is the only possibility, from all kreizen and chugim. I play no favorites; I honor everyone.

Although there are 70 faces to the Torah and everyone has his own way, for me, in psak, my Rebbe was mekabel to go according to the Shulchan Aruch Harav [written by] the Baal HaTanya, and I follow that whenever it is appropriate. This was passed on to my Rebbe from his father, and to him in turn from his father, the Arugas Habosem.

In our time, especially in Eretz Yisrael, it is common to follow the Mishnah Berurah.

It’s not a contradiction. Gedolim say the reason the Chofetz Chaim was zocheh that the velt accepted his psak is that he was careful in the mitzvah of lashon hara. Still, the Mishnah Berurah is sort of a compendium and it is possible to conclude differently.

To what would the Rav attribute the popularity of his sefarim?

One should be praised by others, not by oneself. I try to follow the people’s needs.

You say that personally you have a clear way, but the sefarim themselves encompass all shitos and all opinions. So how should the olam learn your sefarim?

I try to cite opinions that are mainstream psak, what most poskim agree on — the Kitzur, Derech Hachaim from the Chavas Daas — with those shitos you never go wrong. Even if I cite another opinion, I don’t decide; how we pasken must be sound.

Sometimes there is no specific tradition on how to rule; [in such cases] it is acceptable to follow the Kitzur or the Chayei Adam.

Although one might have an opinion about various issues, in the end, we must follow the accepted psak of the Kitzur and the Chayei Adam. I stick to the accepted psak and do not deviate from the mesorah that has been handed down over the generations, both in stringency and in leniency.

The great Reb Shlomo Kluger was asked, regarding tosfos Shabbos, if one should daven Minchah first, and he responded: “Why do you ask about my minhagim? My goal is to follow the customs of the plain pashute Yidden. Halevai I should be as worthy as them.” Reb Shlomo Kluger, the world-famous scholar who authored 375 sefarim, writes those words in his sefer Ha’elef Lecha Shlomo.

Can a person choose a kula [leniency] from among the basic poskim – such as the Kitzur, Chayei Adam, Mishnah Brurah, Derech Chaim and Shulchan Aruch Harav — as the Rav mentioned. Can one alternate and choose for himself?

Yes. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch writes in a letter that for his sefer, he chose to follow the derech of the Shulchan Aruch Harav, Chayei Adam and Derech Chaim. Thus we see that Gedolim had a similar approach to their sefarim.

Many Rabbanim, including my Rebbe, the Pupa Rav, used to check the Ba’er Heitev — a tradition from the alte heim. Later, they, too, switched over to reference the Mishnah Berurah.

I could tell you about five stringencies of the Chasam Sofer in the halachos of taharah, but those are not generally accepted, despite the fact that the Chasam Sofer is considered the Gadol of his generation. Being the greatest does not always mean that all his psakim are accepted.

There is a famous teshuvah from the Gaon of Plotsk on the prohibition of chadash. How could he be lenient when the Vilna Gaon, who is considered the greatest, is so stringent? He responded thus: I know that the Vilna Gaon was great, but have you ever heard of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai? He was the greatest; but the Gemara says, “Ein halachah k’Reb Shimon,” the halachah is not always according to Reb Shimon.

Yidden travel to Meron more than to any kever, but the halachah does not follow him. [Giving] psak and being a Gadol are two separate things.

A case in point: the Gra says that Pesach at night you need only two matzos for the Seder [following the Rif] and the Mishnah Berurah — who always cites the Gra — doesn’t even mention the Gra’s shitah. He just cites the widely accepted minhag to [use] three matzos for the Seder.

Take the minhag of Tashlich, which is opposed by the Gra; who doesn’t go to Tashlich? All Yidden go. The Gra also says we should not do kapparos. Still, he remains the Gra.

But if one has an easy option to be machmir, should one choose to be stringent, particularly in the case of yashan?

This is a separate question; it very difficult to say. Those who have a mesorah to be meikil do so because they hold that this is the halachah. Take the shitah of Rabbeinu Tam (72 minutes for Motzoei Shabbos). Those who hold the earlier zman hold that this is the halachah and there is no need to be machmir.

If one has a mesorah to be lenient, is that a higher value than following a chumra?

Yes, [and] it is not a contradiction; you could be machmir, but if you follow your mesorah, you can hold that there is no need to be machmir.

The Chasam Sofer writes in one of his teshuvos: If we were to accept all chumros, we wouldn’t be able to eat bread or drink water. You can’t follow all stringencies, and you need siyatta diShmaya. For this reason, one needs a Rav to guide one on when one can change a tradition and when not.

The Rav spoke about Pesach. What is the basis of the minhag not to ‘mish,’ that is, to avoid any prepared food unless it was prepared in one’s own kitchen?

It is a minhag of chassidim for many generations. It is derived from the principle that on Pesach we are more stringent. It is ironic that, in our time, we have so many people going to hotels for Pesach, where many of these places use all kinds of products and flavors in order to serve ‘non-gebrokts.’

These same people might not partake of a neighbor’s food — who might be a good, G-d-fearing, stringent Yid — because they don’t want to ‘mish.’ Pesach is a time that was always known for not having a wide variety of food. We say in the Mishnah every day that haPesach eino ne’echal… during Pesach we try to avoid eating extra varieties of products. It is preferable to give minor children homemade gebrokts rather than to feed them processed nosh made outside the home. This is a very important point.

During the Seder, a few of the mitzvos depend on ‘shiurim’ [specific amounts], for example, matzah, or the size of a cup of wine. There are many shitos [opinions] on how much a weak or sick person should exert himself in order to fulfill these mitzvos.

First, we need a base on what is a d’Oraisa and what is d’Rabbanan. In the case of a d’Oraisa, one must follow stringencies. According to all shitos, the k’zayis matzah is a d’Oraisa. The Chasam Sofer notes that this is the only mitzvah of ‘eating’ that is left for us, after achilas kodashim, that we can’t perform without the Beis Hamikdash.

Generally, a healthy person should take a portion of matzah consisting of two zeisim [one for motzi and one for matzah], and it should be according to the largest opinion (Tzelach).

That is approximately three-quarters of a regular hand shmurah matzah. There are many levels of leniency for sick or weak people. For the absolute minimum, it is widely accepted that a quarter of a [regular hand shmurah] matzah is sufficient.

The Four Cups, however, are only a d’Rabbanan. It used to be widely accepted in Europe to require 75 grams. The Shinover Rav, who was a stringent Posek, also requires only 75 grams. Rav Avrohom Chaim Noeh held that it should be 86 grams. The accepted shiur for Hungarian Poskim was between 75-100 grams. For an average person to comply with all shitos, he should use a five-ounce cup and drink approximately three ounces. If one wishes to drink more, he may do so, as there is no upward limit. The Bnei Yissaschar had a much larger shiur.

If someone has a problem with sugar, it is enough to take a cup that holds three ounces and drink a little more than one and a half ounces — that is the minimum. One can also add some water to the wine. Although there are rumors that winemakers add water, today winemakers do not add water to wine. Some add juice or grape concentrate. Since it is from grapes, water can be added to dilute the wine for a sick person.

For those who have a hard time with any alcohol, is it preferable to drink a larger shiur of grape juice, or is it better for them to drink l’chatchila a smaller shiur of wine?
According to the Tzelemer Rav, grape juice is acceptable even l’chatchilah [as a first option].

Some people never get to learn halachos that pertain to the end of the Seder. What does it mean that it is a mitzvah to have a mezuman for the Seder?

It is not about bentching. It refers to the verse “Hodu laShem ki tov” in Hallel. There should be at least two responding, as is the case in shul during Hallel. It is sufficient to have one’s wife and children responding, but you need to have at least two responders. That is the meaning of the need for ‘mezuman.’ There are at least three opinions on how this is done.

It is important to be vigilant about eating the afikoman before chatzos. There are those who mistakenly cite the Chasam Sofer, who didn’t eat the afikoman before chatzos, but it must be realized that he started the Seder right after Maariv. It is not acceptable to waste precious time finding seating for sons-in-law, eineklach and so on and start the Seder late, relying on the Chasam Sofer’s minhag.

It is important to prepare everything in advance so that the Seder will commence right after davening. Baruch Hashem, in following this practice, I have no problem eating afikoman on time.

There is a tendency by many in the community to seek out non-Jewish storekeepers to buy chametz after Pesach. The sale of chametz [heter mechirah] used to be a matter of controversy among the Poskim, but in our time, the sale of chametz document is done in a way that satisfies all objections. Does this hiddur of buying from a non-Jew override the mitzvah of v’chai achicha imach?

First, this stringency [of not relying on the heter mechirah] was held only by a few very special individuals.

This minhag of not buying chametz is commonly held only until Shavuos. But chametz that was held by a Jew during Pesach is forbidden for the entire year. There is a letter from the Stretiner Rebbe that says that since the days of sefirah are elevated days with the kedushah of Chol Hamoed, one should be machmir. Obviously this chumra applies to a person such as the Stretiner Rebbe, who was stringent in all matters.

A grocery dealer once told me that those who buy only from a non-Jew will never know who had the chametz during Pesach, as there are so many Jewish wholesalers and manufacturers, and many of them are not shomer Shabbos. Thus it is really of no use to anyone to follow this stringency up to Shavuos.

It is much better to purchase chametz after Pesach from a frum person who sold his chametz in a valid way al pi Torah. We can’t cast doubt on that mechirah. There were many Gedolim who deliberately sold chametz — the Baal HaTanya, the Minchas Elazar, the Ropschitzer Rav, who sold his beer in order to have it on Motzoei Yom Tov immediately after the zman.

We often see labels on baked goods that state “Baked after Pesach.” What do they do before Pesach? They sell the chametz ingredients and use them to bake after Pesach. So what is the advantage?

One should be careful in these matters not to have a chumra that results in a kula. Forty years ago, only a few very special people were machmir on themselves. Ordinary ehrlicher Yidden who learn and daven every day were never stringent about this chumra. This chumra is a recent phenomenon that is a result of tumul and propaganda. There is a saying: Vamech kulam tzaddikim. Everyone imitates the Rebbes/ tzaddikim. [But] some things are appropriate only for a person on a higher plane.

In the Mishnah in Maseches Sukkah [2:2], Rabi Elazar the son of Rabi Tzadok ate fruits outside the sukkah and the Tosafos Yom Tov brings down the Ran to show that a talmid chacham is allowed not to be a machmir and does not become “one who is not stringent in mitzvos.” In our time, when we see a person drinking outside the sukkah, some might call that person a kal sheb’kalim. This is not so, for the so-called machmir might not open a sefer the entire Chol Hamoed while traveling all over. That’s why a person needs a Rav — Asei lecha Rav.

The first Belzer Rebbe, Rav Sar Shalom, ate soup from one [bowl] with his mother. While she broke matzah into the [bowl] and ate gebrokts, he just moved the matzah in the [bowl] to her side and continued eating with her, in her honor. This story is brought down by the Klausenburger Rebbe and also by the Pis’chei Zuta, as a matter of halachah on the precedence of kibbud eim.

The Arugas Habosem writes about a parent who forbade his son to go to the mikveh every day. He ruled that even though we must disregard a parent’s wish if it is a clear mitzvah, mikveh is an act of chassidus and the parent’s wishes must be respected.

Is there an issue of derech eretz in children bringing chumros into the home when parents might be offended?

Hatzn’a leches [modesty] was once the hallmark of a truly frum person. It is not proper for a son to come home and embarrass his parents. Don’t they have their own mesorah? In Hungary, there were many Ashkenaz Rabbanim who traveled to Chassidic Rebbes but did not change their traditions. They went to learn a derech in avodas Hashem, not minhagim. They still ate in the sukkah on Shemini Atzeres and davened the same nusach. Today, we have a bilbul hamochos [confusion]; why would someone embarrass his own father?

We often hear of men who contend that their wives do unnecessary cleaning for Pesach. What is the preferred path?
In many sefarim, we find Gedolim commenting on not having access to their libraries because of the nashim tzidkaniyos who have exiled them from their rooms for Pesach cleaning. Although it might seem that they do more than is required, they are experts at finding chametz. We should not chas v’shalom denigrate their efforts.

On the other hand, if a woman is weak because of childbirth, anxiety or other pressures, one should ask a Rav about where it is possible to be lenient.

The ways of the Torah are sweet. Even if one has a tradition of being very stringent, one could say that this year we will be lenient.

New York, NY – As many as 400 cops could face disciplinary charges for fixing tickets in a widening corruption scandal, The Post has learned.

Two NYPD lawyers were recently transferred from the department’s legal bureau to its advocate’s office, which handles departmental trials against officers, and told to expect hundreds of cases, according to a source in the unit.

“This is huge,” said the source. “That’s a lot of cops all in one shot. I’ve never heard of something like that before, this many police officers charged in one period.”

“It was a systemic thing,” said another source familiar with the probe.

The department will charge cops internally in all 12 Bronx precincts — and possibly other boroughs — for allegedly helping out friends and family by “losing” paperwork and missing court dates. In turn, parking tickets, moving violations and quality-of-life summonses would be dismissed in court or vanish before ever getting near a judge.

Officers found guilty in department trials could get fired, lose benefits, or be reprimanded or warned.

Those who tampered with documents might face criminal charges of obstruction or filing a false instrument, while cops who took money could be hit with felonies such as bribery.

The NYPD lawyers plan to go after union delegates and fixers most aggressively, some of whom some could face criminal charges as well, the source said. Officers who simply sought favors from the fixers would likely get lighter punishment.

Continue to read at The NY Post

Yemen – Yemeni security forces have captured 19 inmates who escaped from prison in Amran, 50 kilometres (35 miles) north of Sanaa, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

In total, 29 prisoners escaped on Friday from the detention facility after killing a guard, defence ministry news website 26sep.net quoted Amran police chief Abdullah Dabwan as saying.

Nine were still at large after the security forces killed one and captured the remaining 19, Dabwan said.

The police chief denied the escapees included Abdel Aziz Yahia Al Abdi, who was condemned to death in 2010 for the murder of a member of Yemen’s small Jewish community, after a security official said he had done so.

The security source had also put the number of escapees at 10, and said three guards were killed.

Dabwan said that an investigation was being conducted into the circumstances of the escape.