Rav Yosef Irgas, Italian Kabbalist, author of Divrei Yosef, and Shomer Emunim, 1730.
Rav Yaakov Shimshon of Shpitivka (1801). He was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezhrech and a close friend of Rav Baruch of Mezhbez. He succeeded his father as rabbi in Shepetovka, but in 1799 he settled in Tiberias where he met Rav Nachman of Breslav. He died in Tiberias.
Rav Yisrael Tzvi of Koson, the Ohr Moleh (1944)
Rav Eliyahu Munk of Paris (1949). Author of The Call of the Torah, The World of Prayer, and Ascent to Harmony. One of his daughters, Amalie, married Rav Immanuel Jakobovits (the future Chief Rabbi in England) in 1949. Another married Rav Chaim Fasman, Rosh Kollel in Los Angeles.

In the last two-and-a-half years, fears about an increase in anti-Semitism have become a primary concern for American Jewry. Long before the horrific shooting attacks in Pittsburgh and Poway, the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations have been voicing concerns about what they felt was a surge of hatred against Jews.

German lawmakers are considering outlawing the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
According to a draft resolution sponsored by the AfD Party, the Bundestag will debate a non-binding resolution to “examine whether the conditions exist for a ban on Hezbollah as one organization, and, if necessary, to issue such a prohibition and implement it immediately.”
The resolution says the at the Iranian proxy group represents a “danger to [Germany’s] constitutional order.”
Germany, like the European Union, only considers Hezbollah’s so-called military wing as a terrorist organization. Nevertheless, E.U. members the Netherlands and United Kingdom consider all of Hezbollah a terrorist entity, as do the United States, Canada, Israel and even the Arab League.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a new way to detect a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease which could “significantly delay” the progression of the disease, for which there is currently no cure.
According to the researchers, they have developed a new method for tracking the early stages of the accumulation of the alpha-synuclein protein, which slowly toxifies cells in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra. The scientists said that by the time most patients are diagnosed with Parkinson’s, 50 percent to 80 percent of the cells in substantia nigra are already dead.

YouTube said Wednesday it will remove false videos alleging that major events like the Holocaust didn’t happen, as well as a broad array of content by white supremacists and others in a move to more aggressively crack down on hate speech.
The Google-owned video site, along with its Silicon Valley peers, is starting to take a broader view of hate speech in the face of criticism that it has failed to prevent the spread of harmful videos that distort world events, hurt children or promote discriminatory ideologies. On Tuesday, for instance, Vox Media called out YouTube for failing to remove homophobic and racist videos attacking one of its reporters.

Israeli business magnate Idan Ofer has contracted Israeli surveillance company Black Cube to spy on Israeli lawmakers and officials in the country’s judicial system, according to a report by Israeli investigative news show Uvda. The report was published Tuesday by Uvda on Israeli news site Mako and is slated for broadcast on Thursday.
Ofer is the son of Israeli shipping magnate Sammy Ofer and is worth approximately $4.55 billion, according to the Sunday Times‘ ranking of the UK’s richest people, which was published in May. Ofer operates mainly in the domains of shipping, drilling, and mining.

The Trump administration granted two authorizations to US companies to share sensitive nuclear power information with Saudi Arabia shortly after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October, a US senator who saw the approvals said on Tuesday.
The timing of the approvals is likely to heap pressure on the administration of President Donald Trump from lawmakers who have become increasingly critical of US support for Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
Khashoggi, a native of Saudi Arabia, left in 2017 to became a resident of the United States where he published columns in The Washington Post critical of the kingdom’s leadership.

Former Vice President and 2020 hopeful Joe Biden follows in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s green footsteps.
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Nechama Rivlin, who passed away on June 4 at the age of 73—just one day before her 74th birthday—led a quiet life by the side of her much more overt husband, Reuven Rivlin, the current president of Israel.
A full-fledged sabra, she was born on June 5, 1945 at moshav Herut; her parents, Mendi and Drora Kayla Shulman, helped establish the community. Rivlin earned a degree in botany and zoology, along with a teaching diploma, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
She became a researcher at Hebrew University in 1967. Her initial role was in the Department of Zoology; she later worked in the Department of Ecology, as well as in the Department of Genetics. She wed Reuven Rivlin in 1971.

Michael Cohen, the convicted former personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump, says he is making new friends in prison and enjoying time away from the spotlight, according to a person familiar with Cohen’s first few weeks there.
“He’s loving it there,” the person told Reuters. “Peace, quiet. He wants to stay there. He’s in the gym every day. He’s loving life.”
Cohen, 52, is housed in a minimum security camp for white collar criminals at Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of New York City.