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Parshas Bamidbar – Discover Your Flag

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In this week’s parsha, we begin the 4th of the Five Books of Moses. This Book is also known as Sefer HaPekudim – the Book of Numbers, for G-d commanded that a census be taken of the Jewish people. You might ask what the purpose of that census might be, especially since census had already been taken in the Book of Exodus, and surely, G-d knows our numbers.

The Hebrew word for Census – counting, is so oh, which literally means lift up the heads for through counting, G-d demonstrates His love for us – how precious we are to Him that we are all a part of His master plan endowed with a special purpose that only we can fulfill. That awareness, that G-d loves us, that we count and that we have a tachlis – a purpose in life, should fortify us in our commitment, in our Torah study, in our observance and in our life struggles.

In the beginning of the parsha, the Torah mentions that starting from the second year after the Jewish people left Egypt, whenever they traveled, they had to go in a specific formation with the twelve tribes divided into four group of three with each tribe stationed in its location either north, south, east or west…each carrying its own flag which identified their group.

One might ask – Why did the tribes not travel in this formation when they left Egypt?

A flag is symbolic of one’s nationality, and if each tribe had its own flag, it could have destroyed the unity of the nation. Indeed, history is replete with examples of this….people going to battle in the name of their flags. Therefore, our tribal flags were given to us only after we constructed the Tabernacle which stood in the center of the camp, unifying and coalescing us into one in our worship of HaShem. This teaches us that every one of the 12 tribes had a unique mission in service of G-d. There were rabbis, Torah scholars and financial supporters of Torah, etc., but they were all united around the Tabernacle, and that neutralized all differences and made them one.

Even as each tribe was endowed with a unique mission – its own flag, similarly, each and every individual is special, created by HaShem for a specific purpose that only he or she can fulfill…. and the flags are symbolic of that. G-d created all people with eyes, noses, ears, etc., yet no two people look exactly alike. Similarly, no two souls are exactly alike. Every individual is custom made by G-d and has a purpose that only he or she can fulfill. Therefore, he must carry his own flag, know his own identity, and thus fulfill his task. But even if he carries his flag he must at all times remember that at the core of his being, is the Tabernacle, the Torah, and that knowledge unites him with his people.

Have you ever considered what your mission might be? What your flag might be? Why G-d gave you life? Your answers can be found in the Torah ヨ study it, probe it, pray for Divine Guidance….know the meaning of your Jewish name, the passage that corresponds to it, and discover your own flag fulfill your tachlis your purpose in life. Join us at Hineni and discover the energy in Torah study.

SHAVUOS

What is Shavuot? Shavuot is called “The Festival of Weeks.”

We count the Omer from Pesach until Shavuot just as a bride counts the days to her wedding. Our wedding was sealed in eternity at Sinai as we, the Jewish People proclaimed those immortal words, Na`aseh V`nishma – We shall do it and we shall study it. Thousands of years have passed since that awesome moment at Sinai, but the Torah is as new and as holy to us as it was to our ancestors in days of yore. Torah is our very life, an elixir that renders us unique among the nations and has enabled us to survive the centuries. This Shavuos, embrace the Torah with love, commitment, and engrave it upon your mind and heart. 

(Hineni.org)

An Anti-Israel Hillel Grows in North Carolina

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In November of last year, members of the University of North Carolina’s Hillel, J Street U and Heels for Israel voted on an “official” pro-Israel position document. The document, though it was meant to set out a “united declaration of principles”, is almost impossible to find online.

And with good reason. It was as pro-Israel as Kentucky Fried Chicken is pro-chicken.

Hillel, J Street U and Heels for Israel don’t represent any kind of pro-Israel position.

J Street is an anti-Israel hate group. Brooke Davies, the president of J-Street UNC-CH, has a social media feed brimming with support for other anti-Israel groups, including T’ruah and B’Tselem, and hatred for the Jewish State and her supporters. Davies even spitefully accused comedian Elon Gold of being a “hasbara mouthpiece”.

Hillel’s “Senior Jewish Educator”, Jenny Solomon is active in T’ruah. Her husband, Eric Solomon, is on T’ruah’s board. The North Carolina Hillel hired Jenny Solomon in June of last year. Next month, the anti-Israel couple led a T’ruah trip linked to BDS.  

And Heels for Israel? It describes itself as “Working to collaborate with organizations like UNC Hillel and JStreetU”. J Street U defines itself as fighting against the “Occupation” by Jews of their own homeland.

If you collaborate with a group fighting Israel and Jews, what does that make you?

The unified policy insisted on confining Israel behind the ’48 Auschwitz borders, it demanded a PLO capital in East Jerusalem and condemned Jews living in “Settlements” in ’67 Israel. Its glossary described BDS in terms both negative and positive. And linked to a site supportive of BDS. It blasted Jews living in areas claimed by the PLO and Hamas as “a threat to the viability of the two-state solution.”

The signatories included the J Street leadership, the two Heels for Israel Campus co-liaisons, and Hillel’s leadership, Noa Havivi, Hillel co-president, Shira Chandler, the other co-president and Daniel Barondes, the Hillel Israel Chair.

The policy was pure J Street U. Its argument that the best way to fight BDS was to create distance from Israel by being critical of her policies embodied the divide and conquer attack that the anti-Israel hate group had launched to further eat away at support for the Jewish State.

Hillel’s Executive Director Ari Gauss disavowed the policy. But its existence was the symptom of a deeper rot.

That’s usually the way it goes at Hillel.

Hillel had co-sponsored an appearance by Yavilah McCoy with the Black Student Movement. At UNC, as at so many other colleges, the list of Black Nationalist demands had included BDS against the Jewish State. McCoy, a diversity consultant, had been unsympathetic when the racist hate group Black Lives Matter had added an attack on the Jewish State to their platform.

Yavilah McCoy is associated with the radical left-wing group Bend the Arc. Bend the Arc’s CEO Stosh Cotler, a former sex club dancer turned anti-Israel activist, had called for prosecuting Israeli soldiers for war crimes. Despite that Hillel International provided Cotler with a platform. When Black Lives Matter took its hateful position, Cotler’s statement appeared to curiously echo McCoy’s language.

Cotler blamed the Black Lives Matter attack in part on, “the invisibilization of Jews of Color within the Jewish community and progressive movement”. McCoy in the past had said, “When Jews accepted a white identity in America, they participated in sustaining white supremacy.”

Hillel had brought Yavillah McCoy to college campuses to preach her gospel of intersectionality. But UNC’s Black Student Movement had attempted to co-sponsor an appearance by Rania Khalek with Students for Justice in Palestine. Khalek has a long history of hating Jews and attacking Israel.

While students come and go, UNC Hillel has maintained a policy of collaborating with hate groups such as the Muslim Students’ Association and J Street.

Under Ari Gauss, Hillel brought in Ari Shavit. Gauss hosted Shavit’s appearance. Shavit, a leftist critic of Israel, was not being sponsored by J Street by then because of allegations of sexual harassment. But what wasn’t even good enough for J Street was still acceptable at Hillel.

UNC Hillel “proudly” hosted the Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF). Despite its misleading name and branding, PCCF is an anti-Israel group. Parents of Israeli terror victims have accused PCCF of stigmatizing them and using grief to push anti-Israel propaganda. The group has even been linked to BDS movements.

When Muslim terrorism broke out in Israel, J Street used Hillel to host Lara Friedman of Peace Now, an anti-Israel group, which blamed the violence on the “settlements”. Friedman violently hates Israel. A typical article is headlined, “Israeli Occupation Is Poisoning America’s Democracy”. She and Peace Now have been fighting against legislation that would prevent BDS.

Lara Friedman has attacked Israel everywhere from the UN to UNC. We don’t expect much from the UN. Jewish parents of Hillel students expect more from UNC Hillel. UNC Hillel promoted Tea With Tagouri which was hosted by the UNC Muslim Students Association. Hillel did not seem concerned by Noor Tagouri’s hostility to Israel. And that is sadly typical.

Like Sherlock Holmes’ dog that did not bark, what is just as apparent at Hillel as the anti-Israel speakers is the lack of pro-Israel speakers. It’s not hard to see where the policy position came from.

And it’s not just Hillel in North Carolina.

When the Hillel International General Assembly invites Stosh Cotler, T’ruah’s Jill Jacobs and Eboo Patel, the situation at the local Hillel becomes all too inevitable. Hillel is more concerned with social justice than Jewish civil rights, with intersectionality rather than anti-Semitism and with progressive politics not Israel. That is why it is eager to collaborate with the Black Student Movement and the Muslim Students Association.

It is becoming increasingly impossible for Jews to reconcile their religion and their peoplehood with the politics of the left. That tension can be seen throughout the secular Jewish world. Intersectionality is inherently anti-Semitic. Its inevitable conclusion is that Jews have no right to exist.

In Israel, Jews are occupying colonists. In America they, in Yavillah McCoy’s words, “accepted a white identity” and so can be accused of being white supremacists. Everywhere Jews are the oppressors.

This is the old genocidal anti-Semitism of the left rearing its ugly head again. And Jewish leftists are eager to host it and sponsor it. They act as human shields against accusations of anti-Semitism. They put on a minstrel show Jewishness that is heavy on mock stereotypical expressions of “Oy” by leftists whose knowledge of Yiddish and Jewish identity begins and ends with an uncomfortable noise.

Hillel, like so much of the Jewish organizational infrastructure, has its head devoutly inclined not toward Jerusalem, but to the mecca of the left. Its tainted agenda taints the students it comes into contact with. That is true in North Carolina. But it’s also tragically true across the United States of America. 

(Front Page Mag.com)

Great Tips for How to Stay Fit When Traveling

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Just because you are away doesnu2019t mean you have to throw in the towel and eat everything in sight. This goes especially for all inclusive resorts or a buffet

Trying to stay fit and healthy can be challenging when traveling.  I always tell my clients that the goal should be to maintain, not gain while away.  And while I am an advocate for living life and enjoying all that is has to offer, going on vacation shouldn’t become a free for all to throw in the towel when it comes to health and fitness.

A common question I receive from many prospective clients is “I am going on vacation soon.  Should I wait to start the plan or start right away?”  My answer is always this: There is never a “good” or “easy” time to start.  You have to learn to live a healthy lifestyle which is what my plans aim to do.  In other words, start the plan today.  That way, when it does come time for vacation, you have the tools you need to maintain, not gain.

While you won’t track every food that goes into your mouth on vacation, subconsciously you are much more aware of how your meals should look and be balanced if you are following a plan prior to vacation.  I can’t tell you how many clients come back to have not gained an ounce.  THAT is WINNING!

Here are some tips to help you stay fit and healthy when traveling:

Drink a lot of water –  Lots of walking, hours spent outside in the sun… traveling can be exhausting. The airplane ride alone will dehydrate you from the altitude.  I love to take a reusable water bottle and fill it up after I pass through security to take on the plane with me.  This ensures that I am drinking throughout the flight and don’t have to wait for the flight attendants to serve me. And when they do come to serve, take it! Drink all the water you can.  You will feel so much better getting off the plane hydrated instead of tired, queasy, tight, and drained.

If you normally workout daily then try to go to the gym half the amount of days you are on vacation.  Vacation is just that…a break, so don’t feel like you have to hit the gym at 7am each morning to feel good about yourself.When you get to your destination, continue to drink water.  Incorporate foods that also contain a lot of water such as lettuce, watermelon and cucumbers.

Stick to your normal routine as much as possible: Just because you are away doesn’t mean you have to throw in the towel and eat everything in sight.  This goes especially for all inclusive resorts or a buffet.  Just because you pay for something doesn’t mean you have to overdo it.  Breakfast included in the hotel?  Stick to an omelette, a piece of toast or oatmeal, some fresh fruit and one “treat.” You don’t need muffins, bacon, hash browns, pancakes AND french toast if you normally don’t eat that at home.  That’s just being a glutton.  Pick one savory food and enjoy it. Tomorrow is a new day and a few hours later you will be eating your next meal again.

Keep things in moderation: You don’t have to have everything in one day.  Bread, alcohol, dessert all add up at one meal.  All 3 along with your meal could mean your total daily allowance of calories or more.  So pick one, and choose another the following day.  It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

If you tend to eat more at night, then keep your breakfast and lunch on the lighter side.  If you know you are going to have a few cocktails for happy hour then moderate your intake during the day. It is all about balance.

Try to keep active:  If you normally workout daily then try to go to the gym half the amount of days you are on vacation.  Vacation is just that…a break, so don’t feel like you have to hit the gym at 7am each morning to feel good about yourself.  Let go of some of the stress.  Go for a walk, enjoy the outdoors and do something entirely different then you are used to.

If there is no gym and you do want to workout, pack resistance bands.  They are super light and there are so many exercises that you can do with them . You could also incorporate some body weight exercises or plyometrics in your hotel room. Just 20 minutes a day will make you feel a whole lot better and most likely help you make better decisions throughout the day.

Go for a walk, enjoy the outdoors and do something entirely different then you are used to.Have the willpower to stay on track: I know sometimes this is easier said then done, but I can guarantee that you will feel so much better coming home from a vacation knowing you enjoyed it yet didn’t gain a pound rather than coming home 5 pounds heavier only to have to work it back off.  We all know how easy it is to put weight on and how difficult it is to take it off.  Just a few minor tweaks each day while away can mean the world of difference.

You are stronger than you think.  Choose your battles while you are away.  Don’t cave into defeat.  You can do it!  Vacation is so much more than eating everything in sight.  Take the time to enjoy those you spend it with, the scenery, and the culture it has to offer. The food is just a bonus, not the entire package.

Sloane Davis is a Certified Nutritionist and Personal Trainer who has helped thousands of people, both men and women, around the world get in to top shape both mentally and physically. Sloane has her undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University and became accredited through ISSA with her degree in Sports Nutrition and Personal Training. She works personally and online with thousands of clients around the US and globally.

She has been featured in People, Fitness Magazine, New Beauty Magazine, Apple News, The Daily Mail, Yahoo News, Westchester Magazine and Fox 5 Good Day New York.

By:  Sloane Davis

4 Tips To Sleep Better During Allergy Season

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The return of hay fever season along with symptoms such as sneezing and sniffling can give you sleepless nights

Spring is the season of renewal. Plants and trees start to rebound from the harsh winter that claimed most of their leaves and vegetation. Birds return from their Southern vacations, serenade us with their morning songs and rebuild their nests in preparation for new arrivals. 

Unfortunately, there is another renewal that many people don’t look forward to in the spring: the return of hay fever season along with symptoms such as sneezing and sniffling that can give you sleepless nights.

In an allergy survey conducted by HayMax (www.haymax.us), 92 percent of respondents said their hay fever symptoms affect their work, school or daily routine, which includes sleep patterns.

“The trick to sleeping well when you suffer from hay fever is to reduce the amount of pollen getting into your body at night,” says Max Wiseberg, creator of HayMax Allergen Barrier Balm. 

People can tolerate a certain amount of pollen without reaction, he says, but once this amount is exceeded – called the trigger level – hay fever symptoms start to occur. Stay below this level at night, you won’t get the symptoms and your sleep won’t be affected. Go above it and that’s when the trouble starts.

Wiseberg offers a few tips on how to avoid reaching that trigger level, allowing you to rest easy at night.

Keep bedding and fabrics clean. Vacuum the house regularly, especially beds and fabrics, such as bed covers and curtains, to remove pollen, dust and pet allergen particles. Wash bedding regularly to remove allergens and dry them indoors rather than on a clothes line to prevent pollen particles being blown onto them by the wind.

Keep the house closed from the outside world. Close windows and use an air conditioner, preferably with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particle Arresting) filter to capture pollen and dust particles, as well as cool and circulate the air.

Have a nightly routine before bed. Shower at night before sleeping to remove pollen particles and pet hair from your hair and body. Clear the nasal passages with water, or use a saline nasal spray, to clear pollen from the nose. Finally, apply an allergen barrier balm to the nostrils and around the bones of the eyes to trap pollen, dust and pet allergens before they enter the body.

Ensure that pets are well groomed. If you own a pet, shampoo it as much as possible to remove pet allergens and pollen particles, or ban it from the bedroom completely.

“Loss of sleep because of hay fever is very significant, as it can impact how a person functions the next day at school or at work,” Wiseberg says. “The effect of sleep deprivation on productivity and health loses costs companies billions of dollars each year.”

Obamacare a Win-Win  for Poorer Adults: Study

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Access to medical care and improved health noted in states that expanded coverage

Low-income Americans have gained access to medical care and improved their health under the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions, a new study says.

“With Congress debating major changes to the Affordable Care Act, especially for people on Medicaid and with pre-existing conditions, it’s critical for policymakers to understand what’s at risk. Our study shows that the ACA continues to improve medical care and health among low-income patients and those with chronic illnesses,” said study author Benjamin Sommers. He’s an associate professor of health policy and economics at Harvard University’s School of Public Health.

The researchers found that people who obtained health coverage under Medicaid or through the federal insurance marketplace had reduced out-of-pocket spending, better access to primary care and preventive services, and improved self-reported health.

For people with chronic conditions, such as asthma and diabetes, Obamacare resulted in more affordable care, more regular care, better adherence to their medications, and better self-reported health, the study found.

Sommers and his colleagues analyzed data from low-income adults in three states: Arkansas, which expanded private insurance to low-income adults using the federal marketplace; Kentucky, which expanded Medicaid under Obamacare; and Texas, which did not expand coverage.

Before the health law took effect, the three states had similar uninsured rates among low-income adults, around 40 percent. By the end of 2016, the uninsured rates were just over 7 percent in Kentucky, less than 12 percent in Arkansas, and about 28 percent in Texas.

Among low-income adults who gained coverage, there was a 41 percent increase in having a usual source of care and a $337 drop in annual out-of-pocket medical spending. The researchers also reported a marked rise in preventive health visits and blood sugar testing, and a 23 percent increase in “excellent” self-reported health.

These improvements increased over the three years of the ACA’s coverage expansions, and occurred in states that either expanded Medicaid or private insurance. This shows that both approaches are effective in helping lower-income Americans, the study authors said in a university news release.

The study was published online May 17 in the journal Health Affairs. 

(Health Day News)

Can Cannabis Turn Back the Aging Process?

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Israeli researchers restore the memory performance of lab mice to a juvenile stage. Clinical trials on humans are next

As our brain ages, our cognitive abilities naturally decrease and it becomes more difficult to learn new things or devote attention to several things at the same time.

Researchers have long been looking for ways to slow down or even reverse this process.

Scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem report in Nature Medicine that they have now achieved this goal in mice by administering a small quantity of THC, the active ingredient in the hemp plant (cannabis).

Mice have a short lifespan and begin displaying pronounced cognitive deficits even at one year old. So the researchers gave doses of THC to lab mice at the ages of 12 and 18 months over a period of four weeks.

A low dose was chosen to avoid any intoxicating effect in the mice.

After the regimen of treatment, the scientists tested learning capacity and memory performance in the animals – including, for instance, orientation skills and their ability to recognize other mice.

Mice that were given only a placebo displayed natural age-dependent learning and memory losses. In contrast, the cognitive functions of the animals treated with cannabis were just as good as the functions of two-month-old mice used as a control group.

“The treatment completely reversed the loss of performance in the old animals,” reported Prof. Andreas Zimmer from the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn and a member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation.

Cannabanoid receptors in the brain

This groundbreaking study was carried out following years of meticulous research, according to the scientists involved.

First, the researchers discovered that the brain ages much faster when mice do not possess any functional receptors for THC. These cannabinoid 1 (CB1) receptors are proteins that act as docking stations for cannabinoids like THC from substances such as hashish or marijuana.

THC imitates the effect of cannabinoids that are produced naturally in the body and fulfill important functions in the brain.

“With increasing age, the quantity of the cannabinoids naturally formed in the brain reduces,” said Zimmer. “When the activity of the cannabinoid system declines, we find rapid aging in the brain.”

The study suggests that “restoration of CB1 signaling in old individuals could be an effective strategy to treat age-related cognitive impairments.”

To discover the precise effect of THC treatment in older mice, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, led by Dr. Mona Dvir-Ginzberg and the late Prof. Itai Bab, examined the epigenetic changes in the mice’s brains after sustained low dosages of THC.

“The THC treatment induced molecular and epigenetic changes, which no longer corresponded to that of untreated old animals, but rather were similar to what we see in young animals,” said Dvir-Ginzberg, who works at the university’s Institute of Dental Sciences.

Amazingly, the THC treatment caused the number of links between nerve cells in the mice’s brains to increase to younger levels. Such links are essential to the brain’s ability to learn.

“It looked as though the THC treatment turned back the molecular clock,” says Zimmer.

Cannabis products are already used widely for medical indications including pain relief. As a next step, the researchers involved in the mice study hope to conduct a clinical trial to investigate whether THC also reverses aging processes in the brain in humans and can increase cognitive ability.

 (Israel 21c)

Israeli Scientists Contribute to Progress in Neurodegenerative Disease Research

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Israeli scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have made significant progress in determining the causes of neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Aging is the main factor in the development of a neurodegenerative disease. The common consensus is that aging is the result of the accumulation of damage to DNA, essentially a result of the body’s failure to implement processes to completely repair its DNA over the years. Sporadic Alzheimer’s disease affects about 50% of people over 90, suggesting that the causes are mainly age related.

A study titled Neuroprotective Functions for the Histone Deacetylase SIRT6 led by Dr. Deborah Toiber of the Department of Life Sciences at BGU using mice showed that levels of the stress responsive protein Sirtuin-6 (SIRT6) are correlated with DNA repair functions. A decrease in SIRT6 protein levels resulted in increased DNA damage and preceded other indications of neurodegenerative diseases, such as the Tau and GSK-3 proteins, which are related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. SIRT6 was nearly completely absent in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Overall, we found that SIRT6 depletion in the brain, which occurs during aging and in Alzheimer’s, results in increased GSK-3 activity, Tau-p, DNA-damage-induced neurodegeneration, and behavioral defects, all of which might be linked to a brain-specific SIRT6-GSK3 axis,” states the study published in the Cell Reports journal.

Essentially, high levels of SIRT6 contribute to DNA repair while low levels permit DNA damage accumulation.

According to Dr. Toiber, “if a decrease in SIRT6 (and lack of DNA repair) is the beginning of the chain that ends in neurodegenerative diseases in seniors, then we should be focusing our research on how to maintain production of SIRT6 and avoid the DNA damage that leads to these diseases.”

Dr. Toiber’s lab is one of just a handful around the world that looks at the effects of SIRT6 in the brain.

By: Ilana Messika
(TPS)

More Fruits and Veggies  Can Slash Obesity Odds

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Researchers encourage a mostly plant-based diet

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables doesn’t only boost your health, it can cut your risk of packing on extra pounds by almost half, researchers report.

“Our study suggests that plant-based diets are associated with substantially lower risk of developing obesity. This supports current recommendations to shift to diets rich in plant foods, with lower intake of animal foods,” wrote the authors from the University of Navarra and the Carlos III Institute of Health, both in Spain.

Their study included more than 16,000 healthy, non-obese Spanish adults who were followed for an average of 10 years after university graduation. During that time, almost 600 of the participants became obese.

The study participants provided information on their diet at the start of the study. Points were given for eating plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, olive oil, legumes (such as peas, beans and lentils) and potatoes.

Points were taken away for eating animal-based foods such as animal fats, dairy, eggs, meats, fish and other seafood.

Based on these scores, study participants were placed into one of five groups. The higher the score, the more likely someone was to eat a pro-vegetarian diet, according to the researchers led by Julen Sanz, a student at the University of Navarra.

Compared to those who ate the fewest fruits and vegetables, those who ate the most fruits and vegetables had a 43 percent lower risk of obesity.

For the group that ate the next highest amount of fruits and vegetables, the risk of obesity was reduced by 17 percent compared to the lowest fruit and vegetable consumers.

People who consumed the second and third-highest amounts of fruits and vegetables also had a lower risk of obesity, the study showed.

The findings were independent of other factors such as sex, age, alcohol consumption, family history of obesity, snacking, smoking, sleep duration and physical activity.

The authors noted that only an association was seen between consuming plant-based foods and developing obesity, rather than cause and effect.

The study was to be presented Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity, in Porto, Portugal. Findings presented at meetings are typically viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

(HealthDay News)

ERs May Need to Rethink Opioid Prescription Practices

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States should limit the number of days these drugs can be given, study suggests

People in U.S. emergency rooms may receive unnecessary opioid painkiller prescriptions for minor injuries such as a sprained ankle, a new study finds.

This practice — which varies widely depending on what area of the country you’re treated in — potentially boosts the risk that patients will become dependent on the drugs.

“The substantial variation in prescribing patterns of such extremely addictive medications for minor injuries results in many thousands of pills entering the community and places patients at an increased risk of continued use and potentially addiction,” said lead author Dr. M. Kit Delgado. He’s an assistant professor of emergency medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

“It’s vital that we identify and understand the root causes of this growing issue,” Delgado said in a school news release.

The United States is currently in the middle of an opioid addiction epidemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each day, 91 people die in America due to opioid or heroin use. While there’s been no significant change in levels of pain reported in the United States, the number of opioid prescriptions has almost quadrupled, the CDC says.

The current study included insurance claims for more than 53,000 patients treated at emergency departments for sprained ankles in 2011 and 2012. None had filled prescriptions for opioid painkillers in the previous six months.

Only 7 percent of patients got a prescription for an opioid painkiller like hydrocodone (Vicoprofen) or oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet). However, the odds of getting a prescription varied across the country.

For example, less than 2 percent of people in Delaware who had a minor injury were given an opioid prescription. But in Mississippi, 16 percent of patients got a painkiller prescription.

When people were prescribed the drugs, the median number of prescribed pills was 20. One in 20 of these patients got 60 or more pills, the study showed.

“Looking only at the cases analyzed in this study, if all prescriptions written for more than 20 pills were instead written for only 20, there would have been 37,721 fewer opioid pills entering the community,” Delgado said.

If these study findings are true in other minor-injury situations, “this likely translates to millions of highly addictive and unnecessary prescribed pain medications filtering into the community,” he said.

“The study illustrates the potential benefit of laws to limiting new opioid prescriptions for acute pain to no more than five-day supply, as was recently passed in New Jersey,” Delgado said.

Another recent study from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted that the risk of addiction begins with just a three-day prescription, and it goes up significantly after five or more days.

Study co-author Dr. Jeanmarie Perrone is a professor of emergency medicine and director of medical toxicology at UPenn.

She said, “an even more critical aspect of this study is that many would argue that opioids should not be prescribed for ankle sprain at all.”

The study was scheduled to be presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual meeting, in Orlando. Findings presented at meeting are generally viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

(HealthDayNews.com)

World Shocked as Evidence Points to Syria’s Use of Crematorium to Dispose of Prisoners

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The Trump administration on Monday revealed some shocking news concerning the Syrian government carrying out mass killings of thousands of prisoners and burning their bodies in a crematorium to conceal the grisly evidence.

In efforts to provide formidable evidence pointing to Syrian culpability, the State Department released newly declassified photographs showing what it alleges is a building at a large military prison outside the capital Damascus that has been modified to support a crematorium where thousands of bodies have been burnt.

Stuart Jones, acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, said US officials believe the crematorium could be used to dispose of bodies at a prison where they believe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Government authorized the mass hangings of thousands of inmates during Syria’s six-year-old civil war, according to report on the New Daily Australia web site.

During the briefing, he showed aerial images of what he said was a crematorium.

“We now believe that the Syrian regime has installed a crematorium in the Sednaya prison complex which could dispose of detainees’ remains with little evidence,” Mr Jones said.

Map showing the location of the Sadynaya prison in SyriaThe revelations echoed a February report by Amnesty International that said an average of 20 to 50 people were hanged each week at the Sednaya military prison, north of Damascus, the New Daily reported indicated.

Between 5,000 and 13,000 people were executed at Sednaya in the four years since a popular uprising descended into war, it said. Syria has not responded to the latest allegations from the United States, but it has in the past strongly denied any abuse at the jail, saying that all executions followed “due process”.

Mr. Jones also said he was not optimistic about a Russia-brokered deal to set up “de-escalation zones” inside Syria. The deal was reached with support from Iran and Turkey during ceasefire talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana earlier this month. Mr Jones attended the talks.

“In light of the failures of the past ceasefire agreements, we have reason to be skeptical,” Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones said Assad’s government had carried out air strikes, chemical attacks, extrajudicial killings, starvation, and other measures to target civilians and its opponents. He criticized Russia and Iran for maintaining their support for Assad despite those tactics.

“These atrocities have been carried out seemingly with the unconditional support from Russia and Iran,” Mr Jones said. “The Assad regime must stop all attacks on civilian and opposition forces. And Russia must bear responsibility to ensure regime compliance.”

He did not say what measures the United States might take if Russia does not change its stance.

Israeli Interior Minister and Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri called for the Assad crematorium to be bombed, but urged the US to carry out the strike. “Call him Hitler, call him whatever you like, he is doing the same things,” Deri told Army Radio. “He’s a murderer, a child killer.”Syria’s Foreign Ministry is denying the allegations that the Assad government carries out mass killings of prisoners. The state-run SANA news agency quoted the ministry calling the U.S. accusation a “Hollywood story detached from reality.”

“The idea of a crematorium of course has dreadful connotations for those with a memory,” Anthony Billingsley, a Mideast lecturer at the University of New South Wales, told VOA. “The idea of massacres in prisons – there was one in Iran, there was one in Libya – it doesn’t surprise, and I suspect that the U.S. and Amnesty, who previously reported on this, have reasonably good intelligence about this facility.”

According to an INN report, the head of the Anti-Defamation League drew parallels between Syria’s alleged use of a crematorium to dispose of bodies to actions committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s national director, also called on the international community, including Russia, to take action to stop the violence perpetuated by the Syrian government under the leadership of President Bashar Assad.

“As Jews, we are particularly shocked by the extreme brutality of the Syrian regime, which invokes the worst nightmares of Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people,” Greenblatt said Tuesday in a statement. “The world learned from the twentieth century that it did not do enough to stop the crimes of the Nazis which led to the genocide of six million Jews.

“The nations of the world — including first and foremost Russia, which continues to aid and abet Assad’s brutality — must act to put an end to the inhumane actions of the Syrian government.”

The Times of Israel has reported that on Monday, opposition lawmakers called on Israel to use air strikes to destroy the Damascus-area crematorium.

Stuart Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones briefs the press on the situation in Syria.  He said that the Assad government had carried out air strikes, chemical attacks, extrajudicial killings, starvation, and other measures to target civilians and its opponents. He criticized Russia and Iran for maintaining their support for Assad despite those tactics.Other members of the Israeli Knesset have said that since the United States made the allegation against Syria, it would be incumbent on the US to take any military actions they deem appropriate against the brutal Assad regime.  

Times of Israel reported that Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party had weighed in with his opinion on Facebook when he wrote that Israel has a “moral responsibility to act when within striking distance of the IDF people are being burnt. We have to wipe that crematorium off the face of the earth.”

Lapid and others across the political spectrum drew cogent analogies between the abject failure of the entire world to protect Jews during the nightmarish years of the Holocaust and the international community’s failure to stop the widespread genocide in Syria.

“Why did the world know [what was happening], but not do anything? Well now we know, and we’re not doing anything,” he said.

“Chemical weapons & incinerators – both the crematorium and Assad must go. Echoing past horrors, he cannot be a part of the region’s future,” Zionist Union lawmaker Tzipi Livni tweeted Monday.

Interior Minister and Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri also called for the Assad crematorium to be bombed, but urged the US to carry out the strike.

“Call him Hitler, call him whatever you like, he is doing the same things,” Deri told Army Radio. “He’s a murderer, a child killer.”

Deri said urging US President Donald Trump to take military action against the Assad regime during his trip to Israel next week should top Israel’s list of priorities for the visit.

By: Fern Sidman

$400K Antique Sacred Texts Return to Brooklyn Synagogue 1 Month After Their Theft

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New York Rep. Dov Hikind outside the Congregation Maase Rokeach synagogue in Borough Park.

Just over a month after $400,000 worth of religious texts were stolen, the Seforim were returned on Friday, May 12, to a Brooklyn synagogue.

The antique sacred texts were taken on April 2 from the Borough Park synagogue. On Friday, Assemblyman Dov Hikind and Rabbi Meir Rokeach were there for the return of the 96 Seforim to their home at the Congregation Maase Rokeach on 12th Avenue and 54th Street.

Regarding the theft, Hikind said, “I can’t describe to you the pain that it caused the Rabbi Rokeach. These books are so precious, and so holy, and so significant. They’re irreplaceable.”

Important players in the book’s recovery was the community safety patrol Borough Park Shmira.

According to Hikind’s office, surveillance video was reviewed by members of the patrol, which assisted in identifying one of the thieves. They also help arrange the return of the books. 

The Daily News reports, “Word of the theft went out to the Jewish community worldwide and those who deal in rare religious texts, and soon calls were coming in to the synagogue about the books, as well as an extortion attempt from the very people who stole them.”

Hikind said, “At one point we received a phone call from somebody who said he was somewhere in the world … saying he had information about these and all he needed was $70,000 to convince those that took the books to get them back. It turns out the person who made that phone call was the person who actually was responsible for taking those books.”

For several generations, the sacred texts have been passed down from fathers to sons. It took 40 days to get all the books back to New York, because they were scattered across the globe with book dealers in Russia, Canada and Los Angeles. All the texts were finally retrieved and returned in the same condition they were in when they left. 

According to The Daily News, “Cops arrested Aron Gross, 34, in connection with the theft. The books were presented to the sons of Rabbi Rokeach and were to be placed back in the library. There is now a security system in place to prevent another theft.”

“This is really a very joyous occasion, and a great way to go into the Sabbath,” Hikind said. “There’s a lesson in this for everyone. Everyone who can afford to should put up surveillance cameras — and everyone should be eager to share video footage with the police and local security patrols when necessary.”

By Fern Sidman

Arson Blamed for Fire that Destroyed Historic Lower East Side Synagogue

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A three-alarm fire broke out on Sunday night at a 19th Century synagogue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. About 33 units, nearly 140 firefighters, responded to the fire.

The fire broke out around 7:00 p.m. at the historic Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol at 60 Norfolk St., according to NBC New York.

Videos uploaded to social media showed heavy flames raging from the top of the building, which appeared to be severely damaged.

Firefighters were forced to battle the fire from the outside because of the intensity of the flames. The roof of the synagogue collapsed because of the flames.

There were no reports of injuries, nor was it immediately clear what sparked the fire. The cause of the fire is being investigated, and a search of the grounds around the synagogue is being conducted, according to NBC New York.

The abandoned building, which was built in 1850, once housed the city’s oldest Jewish Orthodox congregation, reported The New York Times.

The building was originally built as a Baptist church and purchased in 1885 by Beth Hamedrash Hagadol.  The building was closed in 2007 after another fire destroyed the roof and caused structural damage, according to advocates for the synagogue.

AMNY reported that the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy fundraised to save the synagogue at the time, but the congregation decided instead that the building should be demolished. It submitted a demolition and hardship application to the Landmark Preservation Commission in 2013, advocates who hoped to save the building from being demolished said.

On Monday morning, CBS News reported that investigators are trying to determine what caused a fire at the historic synagogue.

The light of day brought new images of the damage and debris from Sunday’s fire. CBS reported that along with ATF agents, fire inspectors on ladders were peering into the structure trying to figure out what caused the synagogue to burn, sending smoke billowing into the air that could be seen for miles across the skyline.

FDNY inspectors said they believe the fire started from inside the building. They say they’ve been able to search the basement, which was not burned, but that’s as far as they’ve been able to get, according to the CBS report.

“No way we can search the first floor, with what collapsed on top of it,” said Manhattan Borough Commander Roger Sakowich.

City Councilwoman Margaret Chin says this was the first synagogue in the city to serve Eastern European Jews.

The rabbi of the synagogue told CBS he was in the middle of plans to renovate and restore the congregation, but now he says that is in doubt.

By: Fern Sidman

GOP Businessman Considering NY Gubernatorial Race in 2018

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Harry Wilson has specifically cited what he sees as a failure of Governor Cuomou2019s attempts at economic-development investing upstate to create jobs and the ongoing corruption scandal that has been created as a result.

Harry Wilson is a private investor and specialist in company turnarounds.  He once ran for New York state comptroller in 2010 and even had a position on the auto-industry-crisis task force established by former President Barack Obama.  At a Queens Republican Party annual dinner last Wednesday, where he was a prominent guest, a media alert was put out naming him a “gubernatorial candidate”. This was later amended to call him, “a “possible gubernatorial candidate.”

Harry Wilson would only say, “I’m definitely exploring it,” as far as confirming whether or not he would run for governor of New York, while he has been seen at Republican party meetings across New York state. If he does choose to run for governor, he’d be opposing current New York Governor Cuomo, who is running for a third term in 2018.

Wilson apparently believes that Governor Cuomo is vulnerable on economic issues, and that he could use that to his advantage in a gubernatorial run. He does concede that Democratic Party has superior numbers of enrolled voters in New York State, however, and that running for governor as a Republican here would be a challenge.

Harry Wilson has specifically cited what he sees as a failure of Governor Cuomo’s attempts at economic-development investing upstate to create jobs and the ongoing corruption scandal that has been created as a result.  He’s not a fan of raising the minimum wage either, stating that it, “sound(s) good but cost(s) jobs.”

Basil Smikle, a New York State Democratic Party Executive Director, has dismissed Harry Wilson as “another millionaire who wants to cut taxes on the rich, stick it to the working class and has no experience at anything he’s talking about.”

Governor Cuomo, meanwhile, has been experiencing problems of his own with the aforementioned upstate economic development plans. The multibillion-dollar project is apparently bleeding investors who are being turned off by ongoing corruption probes.  IBM, for example, while being a major investor in New York State’s efforts in high-tech development projects for over 10 years, has made the decision to, “cease all new investments and additional hiring’’ involving the Governor’s plans until any corruption probes are finished, according to an IBM company source.  Another investor scared off by the corruption probe was a “major” Japanese clean-energy company that was planning to invest $1.5 billion in a project located in Binghamton, N.Y.

By: Anat Ghelber

Cuomo, Christie Want Private Operator at Penn to Replace Amtrak 

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New York Governor Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are looking for Amtrak to cede control of the major train station hub Penn Station

New York Governor Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are looking for Amtrak to cede control of the major train station hub Penn Station.  Penn Station in New York City contains Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit train lines and its trains.  It is the nation’s busiest train station but has been experiencing long travel delays and two train derailments in the last six weeks that have made commuting on those train lines a nightmare for travelers. The two Governors are asking Amtrak to allow them to pick whatever private management company they wish to control Penn Station since Amtrak has, in their words, allowed travel situations in Penn Station to fall from, “bad to worse to intolerable.”

A letter was sent from the two governors to Amtrak’s CEO Charles Moorman insisting he hand the reigns over to someone else as soon as possible.  The letter stated, “Every commuter in the New York/New Jersey area agrees with us that drastic action must be taken to immediately remedy the situation.  The time, energy, and suffering of our commuters in both states require nothing less.” Charles Moorman apparently agrees with the two governors as he has openly stated during a hearing into Penn Stations woes that he believes Amtrak shouldn’t be in control of its daily operations.  As he put it, “I’ve instructed my team to have Amtrak set up a new entity which will seek private sector partners to handle concourse operations, maintenance and deliver improvements.”

Meanwhile, travelers will apparently still have to endure hardships going through Penn Station while its fate is being decided.  Amtrak CEO Charles Moorman has stated that more track shutdowns and difficult commutes will be coming as repairs to tracks and Penn Station will be extending into next year.  He stated at a hearing before the New York State Assembly, “We might have another outage next year.  We just don’t know yet. Our plan is to get as much work as we can get done this year.”

A New York Assemblyman named Jeffrey Dinowitz wasn’t having it, however. He not only criticized Amtrak for planning repairs on regular workdays (when ridership on Amtrak is heaviest) he also wished to know why Amtrak is in charge of Penn Station to begin with.  He stated, “It seems like a strange way to do things – that the landlord is the smallest user.  Why do we need Amtrak if it’s the Long Island Railroad that uses the majority of the infrastructure in the first place?”

By: Anat Ghelber

Board of Elections Annuls 78K Votes of NYers in 2016 Presidential Race

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In the 2017 Presidential Election in New York State, more than 168,000 people cast their votes for President of the United States on paper ballots, as those are still currently being used.  However, those particular voters were not listed on the voter rolls….and more than 78,000 of them were discounted by the City of New York Board of Elections. However, despite there being a law requiring that these voters be notified in time during the election to dispute the Boards actions, it’s recently come to light that none of the voters whose votes were disqualified received any notification in time at all

One such voter was Lauren Wolfe from Brooklyn Heights. She voted at Joralemon Street on Election Day, as that was where her poll site address was listed online.  However, at the Joralemon Street poll site, workers there directed her to a voting site a few blocks away. Neither site ended up having her name on the voter rolls and, after making the trip back between the two voting sites several times, she eventually cast a vote on a paper affidavit ballot.  She stated, “I said [to the poll workers], ‘Well, I don’t want to do that unless you can promise me my vote is going to count.’ And the woman said to me, ‘I promise it will, 100 percent.’ ”

But, four months after the election, Lauren Wolfe received a letter from the New York Board of Elections stating that her affidavit ballot vote was discounted because she cast it at the incorrect poll site. Understandably upset, she contacted Common Cause, who work to combat government corruption, for aid.  “For the first time, I understood what it could mean to be disenfranchised — whether this was unintentional or not, it still made me feel very distant from the democratic process,” she’s stated.

New York law states that the Board of Elections are definitely supposed to alert voters within the state by first class mail “immediately” if they intend to discount someone’s vote. That voter then has 20 days to question the Election Board’s decision in court. Not one voter in New York was notified in time to appeal the Board’s decisions in the 2017 Presidential Election.  According to the head of Common Cause, Susan Lerner, “What we see here in New York City is that the voters are denied any chance of defending their own ballot.  They have no recourse. They’ve simply been disenfranchised. And that is scandalous and completely unacceptable.”

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, along with Common Cause and the Justice Department, are engaged with levying a lawsuit against the New York City Board of Elections for how they mismanaged the voter rolls in federal court.

By: Anat Ghelber

3 NY Senators Collect Thousands in Stipends; False Payroll Info Revealed

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Diane J. Savino of Staten Island
Jose R. Peralta of Queens
David J Valesky of Syracuse

New York State Senate’s staff members have frequently sent false payroll information to the state comptroller’s office, which allowed three state senators to collect thousands in stipends, according to the New York Times.

The three senators—Diane J. Savino of Staten Island, Jose R. Peralta of Queens, and David J Valesky of Syracuse—were listed in emails sent over three years as committee leaders, even though Republicans held these seats, reports the Times. These emails were obtained through a freedom of information law request filed on Thursday, says the Times.

Although the three senators are Democrats, they are all also members of the Independent Democratic Conference—which consists of eight Democrats— which has partnered with Republicans to control that chamber for the last six years, according to the Times.

Because of this arrangement, the conference has gotten perks such as larger staffs and stipends for committee chairmanships, all which are orthodox under the state Legislative Law 5-a. However the law does not mention stipends going toward Senate committee vice chairmen and vice chairwomen, like the three senators in question, reports the Times.

According to the Times, there were at least three instances of Senate payroll officials sending certified lists which identify the three senators as leaders of their respective committees. Mr. Valesky in 2015 and 2016, requested and received two payments totaling $7,500, after two documents identified him as chairman of the Health Committee, even though he was and remains the committee’s vice chairman, says the Times.

Mr. Savino—who was made vice chairwoman of the Codes Committee this year— and Mr. Peraltra—who was made vice chairman of the Energy and Telecommunications Committee in March—both received a total of $30,500 this year for positions they did not hold, states the Times.

According to New York State law, knowingly presenting false documents to any public official or agency is strictly prohibited and can be considered a felony if there is intent to defraud; otherwise it is a misdemeanor, according to the Times.

“We maintain that everything was done is what is allowed under the law,” said Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Republican majority, who said the records were submitted by Senate payroll, says the Times.

The partnership between of the Independent Democratic Conference and the Republicans has been a source of disappointment in mainline Democrats for some time, reports the Times.

“The more we learn about this,” said Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Senate Democratic Conference, whose party is eager to know more. “The more disturbing it gets.”

The state comptroller’s office declined to comment and emails sent to the payroll official, David Natoli—who sent the information to the comptroller’s office—were not returned, reports the Times.

By: Gene Wilkinson