Thousands of people attended Birchas Kohanim at the Kosel on Wednesday, the first day of Chol Hamoed in Israel. The Israeli public is free to visit the Kosel on Sukkos without a Green Pass in accordance with the outline formulated by the coronavirus cabinet prior to Yom Tov. However, due to the large number of people who regularly attend Birkas Kohanim, the ceremony was divided over two days in order to prevent overcrowding. Additionally, the Kosel plaza is divided into capsules in order to limit the number of people crowded in one area. The first Birkas Kohanim was held on Wednesday, and the second will be held on Thursday, the second day of Chol Hamoed.

The legendary Simchas Beis HaShoeva at Toldos Aharon in Mea Sheaim, which normally draws thousands of visitors on Sukkos, is closed to the general public this year. The chassidus announced the day before Yom Tov that due to the overcrowding every year at the Simchas Beis HaShoeva and the Hakafos Sheniyos, entrance to these events will be permitted this year to community members only. The restriction applies to both men and women. The Beis Medrash was also closed last year since Israel was in lockdown over Sukkos due to a coronavirus wave. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Afghanistan’s last Jew, Zebulon Simentov, who was evacuated from Afghanistan earlier this month, signed a get for his wife in New York on Erev Yom Kippur. Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who runs a private security group that organized Simentov’s evacuation, convinced Simentov to grant his wife a get prior to evacuating him and Simentov fulfilled his commitment. He signed the get over Zoom in the presence of two rabbis and Kahana. “I did something good for the new year,” Kahana wrote on Twitter afterward. “I helped a woman receive a get. I’m not sure it’s kosher. There will definitely be arguments – we’re Jews!

The following are excerpts of a Wall Street Journal article, and re-posted from the YWN archives: FIVE FLOORS ABOVE, Shimmy Biegeleisen phoned his wife from his office at money-management firm Fiduciary Trust International Inc. “There’s been an explosion next door,” the 42-year-old vice president said. “Don’t worry. I’m OK.” After a few minutes, Mr. Biegeleisen grabbed his black canvas bag, walked past a cluster of cubicles and headed toward the stairwell. But when he reached the doorway — a step behind a project manager who worked for him — he stopped, leaned his big body against the open metal door and rummaged through his bag. “Whatever you’re looking for, it’s not important,” the manager told her boss. “Please come.” She started down the stairs.

When the terror attack occurred, Avremel was fifty-five; his friend Ed, a quadriplegic, was forty-two. Both worked at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield as program analysts on the 27th floor of One World Trade Center. By Chavie Zelmanowitz (sister-in-law), as told to Bayla Sheva Brenner On the morning of 9/11, Avremel davened in the same shul with my husband, Yankel, which was unusual. Usually, whenever they said goodbye, they would shake hands. That morning, however, Avremel came toward Yankel and hugged him tightly before he left for work. While driving home after taking me to work, Yankel heard that something had happened at the World Trade Center. He tried to call Avremel. I also tried. We couldn’t get through. Then Avremel called Yankel. He said, “I’m here with Ed.

Edmund Glazer even laughed quietly. He was a calming, logical man, a problem solver, an unassuming gentleman for whom swearing was anathema. Even though he was the youngest of four siblings who were raised in Zambia and South Africa, with his ability to untangle life knots so adroitly, he was the family’s go-to guy. “Tell me more,” he would say, gently touching the other person’s arm. “What can I do to help?” Whenever he visited his sister, Beatrice Sandler, and her daughters, he would immediately stock their refrigerator with groceries and throw out the stale goods from his previous visit. He and his wife, Candy, had recently moved into a house outside Boston.

It’s a heart-breaking bird’s eye view of New York’s darkest day. As we mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a powerful 17-minute video taken from an NYPD helicopter on that fateful day surfaced on the Web a few years ago. Obtained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the leaked footage from inside the chopper shows the twin towers engulfed in clouds of smoke – and captures the stunned reactions of the cops when they fell. Earlier in the footage, the officers take in a panoramic view of the unfolding pandemonium – and get perilously close to the black roiling smoke. When the chopper briefly touches down in a nearby park, stunned officers gaze up at one of the burning towers.

As Ida struck the Tri-State area last night, thousands of people instinctively reached out to major Chesed organizations Hatzolah, Shomrim and Chaverim for assistance in various types of emergencies. These organization have proven themselves once again to be the backbone of the Tri-State area Orthodox Jewish communities. Dozens upon dozens of elderly victims were rescued by volunteers from the above three organizations from flooded basements and taken to safety. Chaverim and Shomrim helped hundreds of residents pump water out of their basements. They responded to hundreds of calls for standard motorists, who were frightened and crying as they abandoned their vehicles in strange areas with no one to help them.

After many years of thousands of Jewish visitors flocking to Uman for Rosh Hashanah, the Uman municipality made a decision that every visitor will have to pay a ‘tourist tax’, Kikar H’Shabbat reported. The municipality set up a stand where the tax can be paid with a sign stating: “This is the service station for paying the tourist tax. Tourists (pilgrims) are obligated to pay a tourist tax in order to have legal status in Uman.” In recent days, municipality inspectors accompanied by local police have been knocking on doors on Pushkina Street, which leads to Rav Nachman’s kever, and requesting receipts for the tax, as well as stopping passerby on the street and requesting receipts.

Israel currently leads the world in the number of coronavirus cases per capita over the past week, an Oxford University study published on Tuesday shows. The Our World in Data study lists Israel as averaging 1,013 new daily COVID cases per million people over a week, surpassing Georgia and Montenegro. On Monday, Israel confirmed 10,900 new coronavirus cases, the highest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic. The last time Israel recorded over 10,000 daily cases was on January 18, during the deadly third wave. The infection rate is expected to at least temporarily increase even higher in the coming days following the opening of the school year on Wednesday, followed shortly later by Rosh Hashanah.