Kikar Shabbat reports that Novik is “quite concerned” since Baranes appears most serious regarding his threat and he for one does not think his words should be taken lightly or discarded. Novik stresses that he for one does not think authorities should take this threat lightly just because Novik is under lock at key at the moment.

In the late 1990s Baranes attacked Tzfat Chief Rabbi Levy Bistrizky z”l, and then April 2000, he ran the rav over with his car, traveling at high speed. For reasons few understand, he has never been held accountable for his actions because of his diminished mental capacity. In 2005, police launched an investigation against Baranes after he threatened the life of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. It appears that his mental state prevents the system from regarding Baranes as a murderer, and he is now threatening once again. He has been known as a deranged individual for a long time, yet the system does not address him accordingly.

In his conversation with Novik, he points to Parshas Noach, when the dove was released from the ark, stating on 19 Kislev he will release the dove from the “evil Rabbi Yosef” and begin the process of the redemption for Am Yisrael.

Novik:

Please, tell me in plain words for someone like me, a secularist, what you plan to do to Rav Yosef in 45 days.

Baranes:

What do you want to here? Do I plan to murder him, yes, indeed.

Novik:

Why?

Baranes:

First of all, because he has spoken out many times against the Rebbi from Lubavitch on the internet and elsewhere. Therefore, as a talmid of the Rebbe, I am compelled to act towards preserving his honor.

Novik:

How will you do this since you are incarcerated?

Baranes:

Don’t worry, I have many friends from my paratrooper days who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the Rebbe, for his honor, and if I cannot do it personally, someone will – there are many there who would do this, and if not, Hashem has his ways. Not to worry.

NOTE: Rabbanei Chabad Shlita have disassociated themselves with Baranes over a decade ago, proclaiming him to be the deranged individual he appears to be.

Kikar Shabbat reports that aides to Maran Rav Ovadia Shlita are not commenting on the story.

(YeshivaWorldNews)

Robert Giuff, 38, tried to sell the religious hat, known as a shtreimel, to a hat maker for $350 on Sunday after he stole it out of owner Moishe Horowitz’s car in Bushwick, Brooklyn, police said.

The hat was worth about $2,200.

But the dealer, spotting the phone number inside, told the would-be seller that he needed to call an expert—and instead called the owner.

When Horowitz was reached, he said someone had broken into his car overnight, according to court documents. The accused topper-taker was arrested and charged with grand larceny.

“I got a call from the hat store,” said Horowitz, 36, who immediately called the cops. “So I ran over right away. I felt very relieved.”

“My client says he found it next to garbage on the street,” said defense lawyer Adrian Lesher.

Giuff, who has seven prior misdemeanors and is currently in a court-mandated drug program, was ordered held on $5,000 bail.

A shtreimel, mainly worn by married men, can cost more than $5,000 and is the most expensive piece of Hasidic clothing.

?According to a report last week, Egypt’s decision is connected to the deterioration in ties between the two countries. There was concern that the Egyptian decision, announced just four weeks before Sukkot, would create a shortage and drive up prices, because most lulavs bought in Israel in recent years were grown in the Sinai area. 

The Ministry is encouraging Israeli palm tree growers to “meaningfully increase” lulav production, by a variety of means that include instruction and assistance.

The Ministry expects local growers to be able to supply 650,000 lulavs – in which case there will not be a serious shortage of supply. In addition, the Ministry stated, about 200,000 high quality “mehudar” lulavs will be produced in Israel, as in every year.

Import licenses from Spain, Jordan and Gaza have also been granted, but it is not certain yet that imports will take place. 

Palm tree growers have assured the Agriculture Ministry that they will not take advantage of the situation to raise lulav prices unfairly, beyond the price rise that is needed to cover the higher cost of labor in Israel.

Sholom Rubashkin was convicted in 2009 of 86 fraud charges, which led to a 27-year prison sentence. Rubashkin ran the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant, site of a huge immigration raid in 2008 that contributed to the business’ collapse.

Rubashkin’s case and long sentence drew national attention, including from six former U.S. attorneys general who voiced concern about his treatment.

His lawyers said U.S. District Judge Linda Reade should have stepped aside from his trial because she cooperated closely with prosecutors before the immigration raid, showing bias against the plant’s owners.

UPDATE: “Attorneys tell me they’re planning an appeal to an extended appeals court panel or directly to the US Supreme Court” -Yochanan Donn

The Mizrachi quads made headlines even before they were born in 1998. Their mother, Yael Mizrachi, was told by doctors early on that the chances of any of the four surviving birth were “one in a million.” Mizrachi, who is a member of the hareidi-religious community in Har Nof, consulted with local rabbis – who adamantly advised her to allow the pregnancy to go to term. And in the end, Mizrachi, who says she did not undergo fertility treatments, gave birth to her four sons within just a few minutes of the start of her birth pangs.

Now, the four – Benzi, Yosef, Shlomo and Yishai (in order of their emergence into the world) are celebrating their bar mitzvah. In a festive ceremony they put their tefillin on at the Kotel, and at the celebration at a hall in Givat Shaul, they gave a “joint” bar mitzvah “drasha” (presentation on a Torah subject) – with each participating in the speech, with each son saying one sentence, followed by the next, until the presentation was completed.

Mrs. Mizrachi told friends at the event that she was happy and touched to have the privilege of living in Har Nof. “The entire neighborhood has helped me. There is no household in Har Nof that has not offered to help me when I needed it, and thank G-d things have turned out just fine.”

As is customary in Israel, the “bar mitzvah boys” invited their classmates – so with 120 odd kids, relatives and family friends (including the family of former Interior Minister Aryeh Deri), and the family’s seven other children, there were far more than 500 people in attendance for the “bar mitzvah of the year” in Har Nof. And, the boys got some great gifts, too – like a set of the “4 minim” – lulav, etrog, hadas and arava – provided by “Hadar 4 Minim,” a local distributor of the items used on the Sukkot holiday. In a statement, the company said that “it just seems that in such a rare event, with four bar mitzvah boys in the same family celebrating their simcha at the same time, that they receive a set of ‘4 minim.’” Mazal tov!

Marlene Samuels, the manager of Or Hachaim/Manny’s Bookstore, found the outer windows of the shop smashed for the fifth time since the store’s opening in March 2010, and the second time in less than a week.

Radicals from the fringe anti-Zionist Sikrikim group have also glued its locks shut, thrown tar and fish oil at it and dumped bags of human excrement inside the store.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said the police had received a complaint and opened an investigation.

He added that the police are using intelligence gathered from a wide range of sources to try to stop the violence against the store.

The harassment of the bookstore stems from the bookstore’s refusal to accept demands made by the Sikrikim, a group of 60-100 extremists in Mea She’arim which demands all businesses observe specific “modesty standards.”

At Or Hachaim, the Sikrikim’s demands include putting up a sign asking customers to dress modestly and removing all English-language and Zionist books. Two weeks ago, owners of the store met with Sikrikim representatives to try to stop the violence, but no solution was found.

“Their list is too long, they want every English book out, they want the store, that’s the bottom line,” said Samuels.

Some Uman residents have decided they would try to keep out the large Jewish groups who take up residence in their town  this time of year. And arge posters depict an “alien-like” Jewish figure behind the universal “unwanted” symbol, with the poster’s headline proclaiming “Uman With Chassidim.”

The poster invites the public to a series of protests demanding that the government refuse entry to the Chassidic groups.

Officials of the World Breslov Center, which organizes and coordinates the visits, have asked the Uman municipality to ensure the safety of visitors.

SOS Racisme argued that the “Jew or Not a Jew” app violated France’s laws banning the compilation of people’s personal details without consent.

Under French penal code, stocking personal details including race, sexuality, political leanings or religious affiliation is punishable by five-year prison sentences and fines of up to 300,000 euros ($411,870).

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the app was removed from the French App Store, since it violated local law. It is still available outside France, and currently sells for $1.99 through Apple’s U.S. App Store.

Young Chabad men told Channel 2 that they found an extreme case of a mezuzah not suitable for use this year. The scroll was found to contain the usual verse – but with Christian crosses drawn on various parts of the scroll, including on the name of G-d.

Overall, the Chabad volunteers have found that just 40 percent of the mezuzahs they check are “kosher,” suitable for use. In 11 percent of cases, mezuzah covers are found not to contain a scroll.

Ms. McCann chose to defend Levi Aron, a hardware clerk from Brooklyn who is accused of a crime that gripped the city this summer: the kidnapping, killing and dismembering of Leiby Kletzky, 8, who got lost walking to meet his parents in July in the Hasidic Jewish enclave of Borough Park.

“People assume I’m O.K. with a young boy being murdered because I represent the defendant,” Ms. McCann, 30, said recently in her office in Garden City, N.Y., which she opened in March after four years of practicing criminal defense law for a local firm. “To me, that’s pretty vicious. They have to understand, I’m not all right with people being murdered or with crime. I’m all right with defending constitutional rights.

“If he’s guilty, he will be convicted. And that’s it. But my God,” she added with gritted teeth, “it’s going to be legally.”

Mr. Aron’s trial is months away, but already Ms. McCann has been defending herself as much as her client – to the press, on Facebook and, most recently, to the judge. Justice Neil J. Firetog of State Supreme Court, a veteran of homicide cases in Brooklyn, questioned her experience, and that of her co-counsel, Pierre Bazile, a former New York police officer who has also practiced law for four years.

Still, as Justice Firetog pointed out, Ms. McCann’s trial experience is limited. She handled a resentencing appeal for Nathan Powell, a film producer who killed his colleague in Long Island City, Queens, in 2001, and dismembered the body. Ms. McCann had the original, lower 20-year sentence restored.

Ms. McCann considers it her Catholic, as well as constitutional, duty to care for society’s castoffs. “You protect their rights,” she said, “even when society wants to turn on them.”

In her trial preparations, she has learned about the Hasidic community in Borough Park and has also learned a new word. “Shiska,” Ms. McCann said, mispronouncing the Yiddish word, shiksa, for a non-Jewish woman.

Ms. McCann does not apologize for what she does not know. Or the profession she chose.

“This is what I do,” she said. “You kill people, you call me.”

Shortly after, Palestinians reported a mosque was torched in a West Bank village. The name of the outpost, Migron, was spray painted on the mosque, suggesting the act was settler retaliation for the demolitions.

Migron has become a symbol of settler defiance. A large contingent of soldiers and police was sent to the outpost, which is the largest in the West Bank and home to some 50 settler families.

Bulldozers knocked down three houses there, but only after settlers scuffled with security forces. Settlers also briefly got a court injunction stopping the demolition, but the injunction was soon overturned.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six settlers were arrested in connection with the unrest.

Other buildings and mobile homes were left standing on the site.

Yariv Oppenheimer of the anti-settlement group Peace Now said the three buildings were razed because they were built after settlement opponents sued the state to dismantle the entire outpost, which was built on land seized from private Palestinians, in violation of Israeli law.

Outposts are wildcat enclaves that settlers erected in a bid to claim more West Bank land where Palestinians want to build a state. The government did not authorize their erection but turned a blind eye while they were built.

Several thousand of the West Bank’s 300,000 Jewish settlers live in more than 100 outposts built since the 1990s. Israel has not honored its promise to the U.S. to dismantle two dozen of the enclaves.

The demolitions at Migron were carried out under a key Supreme Court ruling last month. The court gave the state until March 31 to tear down the entire outpost and faulted it for failing over the course of five years to come up with a program to evacuate it after it agreed to do so.

Shortly after security forces reached Migron, arsonists used burning tires to set a fire in the first floor study hall of a new mosque in the West Bank village of Qusra, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Fire damage was confined to the walls and ceilings, which were cracked and covered with soot, said Qusra Mayor Hani Ismail.

A Jewish settler family stands near the rubble of a house demolished by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank settlement of Migron near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, early Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

The name of two outposts, including Migron, were spray painted on the mosque’s outer wall, as was a Star of David. Graffiti calling the Muslim Prophet Muhammad “a pig” was also scrawled on the wall — a grave insult because pigs are considered unclean in Islam.

No one claimed responsibility.

The Israelis had their passports confiscated after landing on a Turkish Airlines flight from Tel Aviv on Monday morning. They were questioned for more than an hour and subsequently released.

The Foreign Ministry was investigating the incident and has been in contact with Turkey to find out if it came about as the result of a new directive or if it was a local initiative by airport authorities, a spokesman stated.

The spokesman added that an incident of this nature has never previously been known to occur to Israeli travelers in Turkey.

The Foreign Ministry was also in contact with the Israelis who were detained, in attempts to find out exactly what they were asked by Turkish authorities at the airport.

Israel planned to keep a close eye on additional flights from Israel to Turkey throughout the day to determine if anything out of the ordinary occurs.