Yeshiva World News

El Al officials have released a statement that to date, it has not received any alerts from Boeing regarding its 767 fleet. The airline is about to receive its eighth 767 model plane.

Concerns stem from the discovery of cracks on a plane at the section where the wing attaches to the plane’s body, the Wall Street Journal reports. Experts are studying the cracks along with FAA officials regarding the possibility of the engine separating from the craft during flight. The report points out that both Delta and Air Canada use the same model 767 on its flights to Israel.

FAA inspectors found cracks in three American Airline 767 planes, leading to the investigation.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)

2:15PM EST: A magnitude 5.5 quake moved the ground in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and several U.S. states according to initial reports.

UPDATE 2:17PM EST: Syracuse, NY – At least one magnitude-five earthquake with an epicenter near Ottawa, Canada sent tremors across Central New York and much of the Northeast this afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Preliminary information indicates the earthquake was based about 40 miles north to northeast of the Canadian capital, about 166 miles from Syracuse. But tremors could have registered as far away as Maryland, said USGS geophysicist Bruce Presgrave.

A second earthquake, also in the Ottawa River Valley, was reported about 10 minutes after the first one, he said.

UPDATE 2:25PM EST: The NYC Office Of Emergency Management reports that people are calling 911 and stating they feel buildings shaking in NYC. There are no reports of damage as of this time.

UPDATE 2:30PM EST: (ABC 5 reports) A 5.5 magnitude earthquake out of Ontario, Canada was apparently felt in Northeast Ohio and at least as far south as Cincinnati.

The U.S. Geological Survey just posted that the quake was centered at Ontario-Quebec border region in Cananda at  1:41 p.m. The depth of the quake was reported out of 11.9 miles.

The Cleveland Natural History Museum reports that there were three pulses from the earthquake and all were felt in Cleveland.

Dozens of people have contacted NewsChannel5 and are posting online about a trembling of some sort.

Reports of the earthquake are coming in everywhere from Cincinnati to Cleveland and up into New England.

UPDATE 2:33PM EST (NJ.com): Bergen County, NJ - A 5.5 magnitude earthquake centered north of Ottawa, Canada rattled buildings throughout New York state and stretched into Bergen County.

Police in Bergen County said they received reports of buildings being voluntarily evacuated shortly before 2 p.m. as a result of the tremors. The reports seemed to be focused in Hackensack, authorities said.

CNN is reporting the earthquake was a magnitude 5.5 quake.

People from Buffalo to Albany and north to Massena on the St. Lawrence River say pets were startled and plates rattled, according to the Associated Press.

DEVELOPING…

Gen. David Petraeus has been been tapped by President Obama to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, according to a top Obama national security source.

McChrystal has been relieved of his position as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, a top national security source says.

President Obama will make a statement at 1:30 p.m. ET, the White House said. That’s only a few hours after he met with McChrystal after politically explosive remarks the general and his aides made about key administration officials in Rolling Stone magazine.

The White House has asked the Pentagon to make a list of possible replacements for McChrystal, a senior administration official told CNN Wednesday. Obama will speak on camera about the issue, senior administration officials noted.

A Pentagon source who has ongoing contact with the general told CNN earlier that McChrystal was unlikely to survive the fallout from the Rolling Stone story,

Obama was “angry” after reading the general’s remarks, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

McChrystal met Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before going to the White House Wednesday morning, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

He arrived at the White House to meet Obama in the Oval Office just before 9:45 a.m. ET. The high-stakes meeting with Obama began six minutes later and lasted for roughly a half hour. McChrystal departed the White House around 10:30 a.m.

After the Oval Office meeting, Obama joined a larger group of senior administration aides in a meeting about Afghanistan and Pakistan. McChrystal was not invited to participate in that meeting, two sources told CNN’s John King.

The “magnitude and graveness” of McChrystal’s mistake in conducting the interview for the article were “profound,” Gibbs said. Gates said McChrystal had “made a significant mistake and exercised poor judgment.”

McChrystal apologized Tuesday for the profile, in which he and his staff appear to mock top civilian officials, including the vice president. Two defense officials said the general fired a press aide over the article, set to appear in Friday’s edition of Rolling Stone.

“I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened,” McChrystal said in a Pentagon statement. “Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard.”

McChrystal is prepared to resign if the president has lost confidence in him, a national security official told CNN. Most of the Pentagon brass hopes he will be upbraided by the commander-in-chief but sent back to continue the mission, the official said.

Several elected officials have strongly criticized McChrystal but deferred to the president on the politically sensitive question of whether the general should keep his position. A couple of key congressmen, however, have openly called for McChrystal’s removal.

In the profile, Michael Hastings writes that McChrystal and his staff had imagined ways of dismissing Vice President Joe Biden with a one-liner as they prepared for a question-and-answer session in Paris, France, in April. The general had grown tired of questions about Biden since earlier dismissing a counterterrorism strategy the vice president had offered.

“‘Are you asking about Vice President Biden?’ McChrystal says with a laugh. ‘Who’s that?’”

” Biden?’ suggests a top adviser. ‘Did you say: Bite Me?’”

McChrystal does not directly criticize Obama in the article, but Hastings writes that the general and Obama “failed to connect” from the outset. Sources familiar with the meeting said McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the room full of top military officials, according to the article.

Later, McChrystal’s first one-on-one meeting with Obama “was a 10-minute photo op,” Hastings writes, quoting an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his f—ing war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss (McChrystal) was disappointed.”

The article goes on to paint McChrystal as a man who “has managed to tick off almost everyone with a stake in the conflict,” including U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, special representative to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and national security adviser Jim Jones. Obama is not named as one of McChrystal’s “team of rivals.”

Of Eikenberry, who railed against McChrystal’s strategy in Afghanistan in a cable leaked to The New York Times in January, the general is quoted as saying, “‘Here’s one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, “I told you so.’”

Hastings writes in the profile that McChrystal has a “special skepticism” for Holbrooke, the official in charge of reintegrating Taliban members into Afghan society and the administration’s point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“At one point on his trip to Paris, McChrystal checks his BlackBerry, according to the article. ‘Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke,’ he groans. ‘I don’t even want to open it.’ He clicks on the message and reads the salutation out loud, then stuffs the BlackBerry back in his pocket, not bothering to conceal his annoyance.

“‘Make sure you don’t get any of that on your leg,’ an aide jokes, referring to the e-mail.”

Both Democrats and Republicans have been strongly critical of McChrystal in the wake of the story. House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, D-Wisconsin, called McChrystal the latest in a “long list of reckless, renegade generals who haven’t seemed to understand that their role is to implement policy, not design it.”

McChrystal is “contemptuous” of civilian authority and has demonstrated “a bull-headed refusal to take other people’s judgments into consideration.”

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, became the first member of the Senate Democratic leadership to call for McChrystal to step down, telling CNN that the remarks were “unbelievably inappropriate and just can’t be allowed to stand.”

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan, deferred to Obama on the question of a possible McChrystal resignation. He said the controversy was sending a message of “confusion” to troops in the field. I think it has “a negative effect” on the war effort, he said.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, urged a cooling off period before a final decision is rendered on the general. My “impression is that all of us would be best served by just backing off and staying cool and calm and not sort of succumbing to the normal Washington twitter about this for the next 24 hours.”

Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Jim Webb of Virginia — also key senators on defense and foreign policy issues — were each strongly critical of McChrystal’s remarks, but noted that the general’s future is a decision for Obama to make.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai weighed in from abroad, urging Obama to keep McChrystal as the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. The government in Kabul believes McChrystal is a man of strong integrity who has a strong understanding of the Afghan people and their culture, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said.

A U.S. military official said Tuesday that McChrystal has spoken to Biden, Gates, Mullen and other officials referenced in the story, including Holbrooke, Eikenberry and Jones.

An official at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Eikenberry and McChrystal “are both fully committed” to Obama’s Afghan strategy and are working together to implement the plan. “We have seen the article and General McChrystal has already spoken to it,” according to a statement from an embassy official, making reference to McChrystal’s apology.

“I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome,” McChrystal said in the closing to his apology.

Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates, however, struck a less optimistic tone during an interview with CNN on Tuesday.

The comments made by McChrystal and other top military aides during the interview were “not off-the-cuff remarks,” he said. They “knew what they were doing when they granted the access.” The story shows “a deep division” and “war within the administration” over strategy in Afghanistan, he contended.

McChrystal and his staff became aware that the Rolling Stone article would be controversial before it was published, Hastings told CNN Tuesday. He said he “got word from (McChrystal’s) staff … that there was some concern” about possible fallout from the story.

Obama tapped McChrystal to head the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan in the spring of 2009 shortly after dismissing Gen. David McKiernan.

(Source: CNN)

A large levaya is set for tomorrow, Thursday, June 24th in France for seven Sifrei Torah destroyed in last Thursday’s fire in the shul of HaRav Yosef Azran z”l, located in the Rova 16 area.

According to fire inspectors, the fire, which resulted in significant damage, was the result of an electrical short circuit.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)

Time is running out to get the Opportunity Scholarship Act, S-1872 & A-2810, passed before the summer recess.

This Bill, if passed by the Legislature and signed into Law by the Governor, will provide Corporate Tax Scholarships for qualifying families who reside in Districts with Failing Public Schools. The law was designed to split the scholarships into two categories, 75% will be earmarked for current Public School Students attending a Failing Public School, and 25% for students who live in a Failing School District but are currently enrolled in a Non-Public School. The reason why Non Public School students are eligible is because their parents should not be penalized for already making the financial sacrifice to send their child to a Non Public School.

Three communities with significant Orthodox Jewish populations will be eligible for these Scholarships – Lakewood, Passaic and Elizabeth. This Bill might not be the ultimate solution to our tuition issues but it is a great first step. In the words of Rev. Reginald Jackson of the Black Minister’s Council at a Press Conference yesterday – we can’t take the second step without taking the first one. This is a crucial first step for our community and all of us, regardless of where we live and if we would be eligible, should do our share to help pass this Bill.

Please call your State officials and ask them to Sponsor the Bill.

State-wide:  (And Clifton- She is your Assemblywoman) Call Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver at 973-395-1166 (AswOliver@njleg.org) and ask her to post the Bill in the Assembly Appropriations Committee today. We don’t want to wait until the Fall to have this issue raised. We need it now.

Call Senator Paul Sarlo at 201-804-8118 ( SenSarlo@njleg.org ) and ask him to post the Bill in the Senate Budget Committee of which he is the Chairman, for tomorrow’s Hearing.

In Lakewood: Call Assemblyman Joseph Malone at 609-298-6250 (AsmMalone@njleg.org)  and Assemblyman Ronald Dancer at 732-901-0702 (AsmDancer@njleg.org ) and ask them to Sponsor the Bill. Senator Lesniak said yesterday that any town that doesn’t have their Legislators on the Bill won’t be eligible. It is crucial that they sign up as Sponsors today or tomorrow.  Please call Senator Robert Singer at 732-901-0702 (SenSinger@njleg.org ) and thank him for sponsoring the Bill.

In Passaic: Call Senator Paul Sarlo and ask him (in addition to the request listed above for State-Wide callers) to become a Sponsor of the Bill. Please call Assemblyman Frederick Scalera at 973-667-4431 ( AsmScalera@njleg.org) and ask him to become a Sponsor of the Bill. Please call Assemblyman Gary Schaer at 973-249-3665 (AsmSchaer@njleg.org)  and thank him for sponsoring the Bill.

In Elizabeth: Call Assemblyman Joseph Cryan at 908-624-0880 (AsmCryan@njleg.org)  and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (AswQuijano@njleg.org) at 908-624-0880 and ask them to sponsor the Bill. Please call Senator Ray Lesniak at 908-624-0880 and thank him for all of his hard work in creating and Sponsoring this Bill.

The NJEA (the Teacher’s Union) is the major opponent to the Bill and they are mobilizing their members to flood the offices above with phone calls today. We must do the same.

Thank you.

Josh Pruzansky, Agudath Israel Of New Jersey.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

In a tremendous display of support, sympathy and unity nearly 1000 people gathered Monday evening at Moshe Ganz Hall in Los Angeles to Daaven on behalf of Reb Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin. The main ballroom was full with standing room only, with many attendees choosing to sit in the overflow room.

The tone of the evening was set by the MC, Los Angeles businessman and noted philanthropist Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz. He began by expressing his amazement at the remarkable diversity of the crowd and how inspiring this unity was. He then proceeded to outline the many injustices of the case and how disproportionate the proposed sentence is.

The entire crowd stood as Rabbi Berish Goldenberg, Principal at Yeshiva Rav Isaacson, led the crowd in reciting Tehillim verse by verse.

Rabbi Yaakov Krause, Mara D’asra of Young Israel of Hancock Park, spoke about the legendary kindness of Reb Sholom Mordechai and the entire Rubashkin family. He reminisced about meeting with the Rubashkin family in the Catskill Mountains and recalled how impressed he was with their support of a camp for special needs children and the extraordinary Mesirus Nefesh the family’s patriarch Rabbi Uziel Chazanow had as a Schochet in Russia.

Meir Simcha Rubashkin, son of Reb Sholom Mordechai, followed by describing the difficulty the Rubashkin children are having adjusting to life without their beloved father. He shared a letter that his father wrote during the verdict expressing his steadfast, unwavering faith in Hashem.

The evening concluded with Rabbi Ezra Binyomin Schochet, Rosh Yeshivah at Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad. He discussed the importance of not only being inspired by Reb Sholom Mordechai, but using the inspiration to make actual improvements in our personal Avodas Hashem.

The event was well attended by a cross-section of the entire Greater Los Angeles community area with a strong representation of prominent local Rabbonim, Roshei Kollel and Yeshivos. The evening ended at approximately 11pm.

YWN PHOTO LINK: Click HERE for photos of the event.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Windsor Locks, CT – Three hundred travelers started the summer with a travel nightmare they will not soon forget.

Hundreds of Newark-bound passengers sat for four hours on a tarmac in a stifling cabin after bad weather and union regulations grounded their flight from London in Connecticut. To make matters worse, passengers said,  the plane’s generators shut down for the second time, leaving them with no air conditioning and sweltering temperatures that reached 100 degrees.

Some people on the inauspicious Virgin Atlantic flight fainted from the heat, said Andrew Porwancher, of Princeton, N.J.. One passenger was taken to a hospital, but airline officials said there is no evidence to link this with the flight.

Even before the flight left Heathrow Airport, there were problems. The generators were not working, so neither was the air conditioning system, passengers said. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:33 p.m., London time. Two hours later, with the plane fixed, the flight took off for Newark.

But problems arose again because of storms in the New York area on Tuesday night. The airline needed to divert the plane. With no option to land at JFK, it landed at Connecticut’s Bradley Airport, the company said.

When the plane, carrying 300 passengers and 14 crew, landed on the tarmac, the generators broke for the second time, passengers said. With no fresh air coming in, temperatures reached a baking 100 degrees, they said.

For four hours, they sat on the plane, sweating, frustrated and tired. During the ordeal, pilots exceeded their maximum flight time and the plane had to stay grounded so after all that, the passengers still couldn’t reach their Newark destination.

Passengers were eventually brought into a terminal, where they waited at least two more hours for their luggage and instructions on how they would eventually get to Newark.

Virgin Atlantic officials said Bradley Airport is not equipped to deal with international arrivals, so Virgin Atlantic had to wait for U.S. Immigration and Customs to arrive to process the passengers.

The flight was scheduled to reach Newark at 9:10 p.m. on Tuesday. Nearly 12 hours later, at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, passengers finally began boarding buses en route to Newark Airport.

Peter Blok, of Philadelphia, called the trip “hell on wheels.”

The airline apologized for the frustration and inconvenience the delays caused for the passengers.

“The safety and welfare of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance,” Virgin Atlantic said in a written statement.

The delays frustrated not only the passengers desperately waiting to get off the Virgin Atlantic plane in Connecticut, but those waiting to get out of Newark on the airline as well.

Eva Shah may not even make her own wedding. Shah was supposed to fly Virgin Atlantic to Mumbai, but the Newark flight she  needed to take to connect in Heathrow to complete the trip to India has been delayed 23 hours, her future brother-in-law, Justin Holmes, told NBCNewYork.

Holmes said the airline will only offer Shah a refund and will not transfer her to a more expensive flight.

The airline couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on that matter.

(Source: NBC New York)

New York – Port Authority police are on high alert today following what the agency believes is a “credible threat” to its bridges and tunnels, The Post has learned.

A source said the information that led to the alert came from a prisoner in Afghanistan.

A secret briefing was held yesterday for PA emergency-service cops to detail the threats, which may involve trucks carrying gasoline.

Additional officers will be patrolling the crossings.

The last time the PA force was put on a similar alert was in September, when authorities tracked Afghanistan native Najibullah Zazi from New York to his Colorado home and arrested him there.

Zazi pleaded guilty in February to terrorism charges in a plot to detonate homemade bombs in the subways.

(Source: NY Post)

A five-year-old boy from a prominent Chabad family sustained serious burns over his entire body R”L as a result of a blaze in Kiryat Malachi. The fire occurred on Tuesday night on Ben-Gurion Street in the Nachlas Har Chabad neighborhood. It appears that a lit candle toppled over and started the fire while the child was asleep. The candle was lit to permit the child to learn COL reports, explaining the child did not wish to awaken his brother who was asleep.

The blaze took place in the home of Shmulik Gelfrin. His 5-year-old son was seriously injured. Paramedics reported he was burned over 50% of his body.

Eliezer was rushed to the nearby Magen David Adom station with second and third degree burns. He received preliminary advanced life-support care and was transported to the hospital.

Eliezer Lipman ben Devorah Leah remains in very serious condition in an intensive care unit in Tel Hashomer Hospital and the tzibur is urged to include him in tefilos. The family adds his perek tehillim is 6.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)

Remember the NYC Traffic Agent who was captured on camera by a NYC Councilman using his flashing lights to go get a cup of coffee last week? Well, WCBSTV asked Mayor Bloomberg a few questions about the incident. Below is their report:

The traffic agent accused of acting above the law — using flashing red lights to buy coffee and abusing those he tickets — is still on the job because Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it’s not in his pay grade to do something.

CBS 2 HD went one on one with hizzonor on Tuesday.

Bloomberg has a rule: one reporter one question. But CBS 2 HD had lots of questions Tuesday about Traffic Agent Daniel Chu, and why he’s still on duty.

CBS 2 HD: “Why is it acceptable to use your flashing lights to get a cup of coffee?”

Bloomberg: “It is not. It is clearly a violation of the rules. Next question.”

CBS 2 HD: “Number two: why is it acceptable for a traffic agent to be abusive to people?”

Bloomberg: “It is not, clearly a violation of the rules. Number three.”

CBS 2 HD: “Number three: why is he still on duty while this is being investigated?”

Bloomberg: “Because the police commissioner is responsible for the conduct of the people he supervises.”

CBS 2 HD: “He violated the rules by using his flashing red lights.”

Bloomberg: “Assuming you are correct, but we still have a system of justice in this country. We have to show somebody violated the rules.”

Okay, Mr. Mayor. But try this one: in a video obtained by CBS 2 HD it shows that in his rush to get a caffeine fix, Officer Chu never bothered to turn off his emergency lights when he went inside to get coffee.

And as for abusing people, how about giving Councilman Dan Halloran a ticket for taking incriminating pictures of him.

“He says ‘You’re going to take pictures of me? Well, I’m going to write you a summons,’” Halloran said back on Friday.

Or what about ticketing mourners at Gleason’s Funeral Home as the body was being moved.

“Traffic Agent Chu had a cigarette in his mouth, screaming at everybody,” said pallbearer and former NYPD officer Tim Dillon. “He took his cigarette and flicked it towards the area of the family and indiscriminately started scanning cars.”

CBS 2 HD: “It sends a bad message to people.”

Bloomberg: “It does, but you can’t have Ray Kelly stopping everything to go after one of 55,000 people on what is arguably something that is not life threatening.”

Councilman Halloran said Agent Chu is still on duty because he writes a lot of tickets.

“Unfortunately, it’s a dollar sign weighing the scales and that’s just not what’s supposed to happen,” Halloran said.

The mayor suggested CBS 2 HD go to the Police Department for answers. We did, but have not yet received a response.