No one was hurt when the mortar landed in a kibbutz in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council.

“We open the new year with a reminder, which is not new, that these hits are almost a daily event here, and yet we continue our preparations for the new year,” said Yanina Barnea, the mother of a child who attends one of the schools.

Rosh Hashana, commonly referred to as the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown Wednesday.

Security crossings into Israel will be temporary closed through Saturday, the Israeli military said.

“Persons in need of medical attention will cross into Israel for medical care,” the military said in a statement. “The passage of humanitarian aid as well as doctors, medical personnel, NGO members, attorneys and additional professionals will be coordinated by the Civil Administration. Additionally, special accommodations were made in light of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Fitr for the purpose of family visitations.”

Israel says Palestinian militants have fired more than 115 rockets and mortars into Israeli territory since the beginning of the year.

“The company has a property in Jaffa, where they’re building a luxury hotel,” said Daniel Green, a member of the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada. “While excavating, they discovered an ancient cemetery.”

Green said the realty company has been digging up the remains of Jewish dead, who were buried there about 2,000 years ago and transferring them to another location.

“Many different Jewish groups have tried to present ideas to preserve the cemeteries,” Green said. But he said the realty company has not taken any of their suggestions.

Representatives from RFR declined to comment, but the firm released a written statement on Tuesday, which states that the company has worked with the Antiques Authority—a government agency that oversees development in areas of known archaeological significance—on the project.

“The human remains that were discovered during the Antiques Authority’s excavation were determined to be of Pagan origin, not Hebrew, and were turned over to the Ministry of Religious Services for reburial,” the statement reads.

The protesters arrived on three separate buses a little before 4 p.m., and proceeded to line up on the sidewalk in front of the realty company’s Stamford office, chanting “RFR, shame on you.” They carried signs, fliers and black boxes representing caskets. It’s just one stop along a trail of demonstrations, according to Green. Thousands of volunteers have spoken out in protests in New York, Washington, D.C., and Israel, he said.

The protesters also prayed and recited hymns and psalms as part of the demonstration.

“We pray they will stop desecrating the cemetery, which we view as a big disgrace,” Green said, as he stood in front of the line of protesters, clad in black and dark navy suits, sounding out a chorus of prayers.

The release from RFR Realty calls the protesters’ claims “offensive.”

“The principal owners of RFR, Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, are the sons of Holocaust survivors and they have always supported the Jewish community throughout the world,” the release states.

But Green and the other protesters don’t plan on calling it quits soon.

“We aren’t going to stop,” said protester Abraham Markowitz, who has participated in 20 similar events. “We are going to come again. Even if it doesn’t stop.”

Another 5,500 pilgrims from the Bratslav Hasidic sect will travel to Ukraine on Tuesday on 28 flights to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman. Overall, some 18,000 Hasidim will travel to the rabbi’s grave over three days.

On the eve of his death 200 years ago, Rabbi Nachman couldn’t have imagined that his request that his followers not abandon his grave would bring 18,000 of them one year to Uman.

“We smile all the way to Uman,” was written in a leaflet distributed in the town of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. It was meant to encourage believers to cover their eyes with scarves against “forbidden sights.”

“Support for flights without movies” is the name of a small group that several years ago encouraged Haredi travelers not to take regular flights unless they had cardboard that could cover the movie screens on the airplane seats in front of them.

This year the idea caught on that immodest sights may also be a threat outside the airplane – in the airport terminal, for example. So pilgrims are being encouraged to bring scarves along.

“In any cloth shop, ask for a thin lycra cloth 70 cm wide (blue, brown or black ) costing about 20 NIS,” reads one instruction. “It needs to be about 1.5 meters long … which is necessary so it will sit well and not flow in the wind.”

The leaflet notes that even if people laugh at someone wearing the scarf on his face, those covering their eyes “will be rewarded a thousand fold.”

In a telephone interview from Uman, one pilgrim named Avinoam added: “It may sound ridiculous to you, but it has been more successful than expected. I recommend that you try it.”

The vests will provide additional protection to the volunteer safety group while it conducts its daily patrols in the Boro Park area. In a seven day period, Boro Park has suffered two separate shooting incidents, one involving a bank robbery and the latest resulting in gunshot injuries to  four members of the Boro Park civilian patrol group.

NYS Senator Eric Adams said : “I visited one of the injured patrol members in the hospital; we must do everything we can to protect these brave men who put themselves in harm’s way to protect us from danger. A bullet proof vest cannot guarantee safety, but it may save a life.

“The Boro Park safety patrol is named Shomrim because that word is the Hebrew for guardians; the individuals who comprise the volunteer civilian safety patrols are true stewards of their community, serving as vigilant eyes and ears for the residents and working in conjunction with the NYPD to promote a secure neighborhood environment. The Shomrim risk their own security in their valiant effort to protect their fellow citizens, and I hold its members in the highest esteem.”

At the press conference, Senator Adams will display a sample vest that will be purchased for the group.

[NYBuff Org]

These are just some of the threats hurled at a Barzilai Hospital security officer by haredim protesting the relocation of graves on the site, according to an indictment issued Monday against 11 of the rioters.

The indictment was issued in Ashkelon Magistrates’ Court against 11 haredi residents of Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem. They were charged with trespassing, making threats, and disrupting a public servant.

The indictment says that the haredim arrived at the hospital on August 22 at 3 pm in an effort to halt construction at the site. Some of them lay down in front of two tractors. One of them climbed on a tractor while its engine was still running and thus succeeded in halting the construction at the site. The defendants did not abide by the security guards orders that they leave the site.

The indictment states that the defendants cursed at the security guards, saying things like, “Die, Nazi. Get brain cancer.”

When the police came to evacuate the haredim, they refused to cooperate. Later, the hospital’s security officer, Yaniv Yehezkel, also arrived at the site. One of the haredim allegedly identified him by his nametag and said he would later hunt him down and kill him.

One of the defendants, Menachem Mendel Taup, had already been arrested at the hospital on another occasion. That time, he had been indicted for disobeying a legal order. He had been banned by Judge Noga Shmueli-Meyer from entering Ashkelon until legal proceedings against him conclude, but he did not obey.

United Hatzolah were called to the accident scene and evacuated the wounded to the Hadassah Ein Kerem and Shaare Zedek Hospitals In Jerusalem .

According to reports , the min van crashed into a small car and the driver then tried to flee and hit a group of pedestrians injuring dozens.

[YiddishNayes]

Despite the fact that Chabad schools lost their lead during the last hours of voting Friday which coincided with Shabbos, when all voting activity came to a grinding halt, their strong voting numbers held up.

Hebrew Academy of Huntington Beach landed in fifth place with 148,234 votes; Cheder Menachem of LA in seventh place, with others from Worcestor, MA, Charlotte, NC,  Florida and the New York area following.

Each of the winning schools will take home a half million dollar prize from Kohl’s department stores.

Itzik’s request came as public debate intensified following a proposal by Nitzan Horowitz, an MK for the leftwing Meretz party, to extend daylight saving time until the last Sunday in October, which is when many other countries make the change.

Rabbis have objected to the move, claiming it would lengthen the Yom Kippur fast, observed each fall on from sunset to sunset the 10th day of the Hebrew calendar month of Tishrei, making life harder for religious Jews.

But the proposal has won support from non-observant Jews, pointing to what many see as a growing gulf between the religious and secular strands of Israeli society.

“You have the power to take action and prevent a rift in Israeli society,” Itzik,a Kadima MK and former Knesset speaker, told Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar. “You must find a solution that will bridge the gaps and help unite our society in time for the holidays.”

Earlier Sunday, Interior Minister Eli Yishai suggested a compromise that would move the clock to standard time during Yom Kippur, switching back to daylight saving time at the end of the 10-day holiday period.

“Religious people enjoy daylight saving time just as much as secular people,” said Yishai.

Under the current law, Israel switches back to Standard Time on the Sunday before Yom Kippur, about two months before the United States does so and well over a month before Europe does, on October 31 this year.

The businessmen who met with Pinto included entrepreneur Jay Schottenstein and one of the owners of the Victoria’s Secret women’s wear retailer.

“In such days of economic opportunities, we must remember that we, the sons of the Jewish people, must preserve the country, built it and ensure that its economic flourishes,” the rabbi told the businessmen.

“It’s unfortunate that there are so many wealthy Jews in the world who don’t even consider the Israeli economy as an option.”

One of the people the rabbi expected to see, but who failed to show up, was NBA star LeBron James, who met with Pinto about three weeks ago. The basketball players’ business manager, Maverick Carter, arrived instead.

The meeting was held in the Bulgarian city of Silistra, where renowned Jewish scholar Rabbi Eliezer Papo is buried. Rabbi Pinto visits the grave once a year in an event known as “the Uman of the Sephardim.”

The festive event was attended by more than 1,000 people from Israel, including dozens of senior businessmen.

The synagogue, located near the Kremlin in the Russian capital, was built in 1874.

According to the Israelis, the rabbi told them, “The Israeli tourists enter churches as well, and this is immoral. I might let you go up to the women’s section and look at the synagogue gallery, but you will not enter the big hall and will not approach the Holy Ark.”

Writing on the Israeli news website Ynet, a Russian Jew said: “In reality the group entered on Shabbat and the guide was using [an] electrical microphone.

“He was told that that it was not the right time and place to do this.”

The fate of the city’s Chabad house remains unclear, however.

Saturday’s tremor, registering 7.1 on the Richter scale, ripped through the city in the south island at around 4.30 a.m., causing an estimated $1.4 billion in property damage. There were no fatalities.

Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, the American-born director of Chabad of New Zealand, told JTA that the earthquake – the country’s worst since 1931 – razed part of the roof of his dining room while his wife and three children were sleeping.

The verbal and written attacks have included hints that the Jews are damaging the country’s economy and are following the notorious anti-Semitic fabrication “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” It is likely related to the rising tensions ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections, which are set for later this month.

“This anti-Semitism is troubling us all and it needs to cease immediately,” said David Bittan Obadia, deputy chairman of the Jewish community of Venezuela Friday. “We are not saying this is the government policy; however, [the government] is capable of putting a stop to the phenomenon. It has the tools. We will be very direct and adamant in the things we will tell President Chavez.”

Bittan Obadia said the attacks had come from the media, but the community’s real concern was that the phenomenon would spread.

He said the president’s staff had promised a meeting with Chavez in about 10 days.

A member of Caracas’ Jewish community told Haaretz yesterday, “Chavez and his supporters will not give up power, irrespective of the election result, and many members of our community are concerned that if there are disturbances, we will be targeted. When there is anarchy, there are always people who use it to attack Jews.”

She added, “When the mood intensifies, like during the current election campaign, there are politicians who immediately bring out the incitement against the Jews. Is this by order of the president? I don’t know, but the president sees and hears everything in the government-controlled area. Many Jewish families in my area have left or are leaving.”

Police say the two arrived at the deli after morning prayers Saturday and smeared vomit on the door and windows of the establishment.

Avi Ben-David, who runs ‘Iwos Deli’, said that after months of being persecuted he decided to stake out his own place in order to catch the perpetrators in the act.

“We waited for them from 9 am with police forces and caught them red-handed. They said that ‘according to the Torah we have a right to do this’,” Ben-David told Ynet.

Iwos is known for selling non-kosher meat, a fact which renders it a victim of all sorts of vandalism. Towards Passover and during the holiday itself the acts proliferate, as the establishment also dares to sell leavened food.

“Despite the fact that the deli is closed on Saturday, for a number of weeks we have been conspired against. They arrive systematically after prayers, spit on the store and smear vomit, and then leave. It’s appalling,” Ben-David said.

“I hope it doesn’t end with just an arrest, and that they receive a deterring punishment. I also plan to file a civil suit.”

“He deserves to stay in jail for the rest of his life,” seethed Simcha Bernath, coordinator of the Borough Park Shomrim.

Two of the patrol members were still hospitalized yesterday, while the other two were released.

David Flores, 33, was in stable condition at Lutheran Medical Center being treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the hand suffered in the Thursday night clash in Brooklyn.

Cops say the security patrol was tailing Flores after getting a report of a man exposing himself to children. They saw him get out of a car on 46th St. near 10th Ave. in Borough Park around 7:30 p.m. They chased him and then tried to disarm him when Flores whipped out a gun.

Mordechai Pearl, 28, and Abe Kaztow, 54, who were hit once in the hand, were released from the hospital yesterday. Abraham (Motty) Brunner, 28, who was hit in the neck, and Joel Klein, 27, who was hit in the stomach – remained hospitalized in stable condition.

“They’re very brave,” witness Mayer Schwartz, 20, said of the patrol. “They did it for the community.”

Flores has nine prior arrests and pleaded guilty in January to public lewdness. He was waiting to be arraigned on charges last night.

The Shomrim, a licensed unarmed group, has been patrolling Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn for more than two decades.

Daniel Anderson, 19; Travis Beaupierre, 16; Malik Keith, 18; and Daemion Cameron, 19; previously pleaded guilty to burglary and served their jail time. They were formally sentenced to six months in jail and 500 hours of community service. Keith and Beaupierre were sentenced as youthful offenders.

A fifth teen, Dishawn Terry, 16, will be sentenced later this month and will also have to read an essay.  Judge Frank LaBuda made them write essays as a condition of their plea agreements and he timed the sentence to fall around the date of Rosh Hashanah, which is commonly known as the Jewish New Year.

The teens broke into several bungalows at the Kaiman bungalow colony and were caught by Sullivan County sheriff’s deputies as they were leaving the property. All the teens were residents of Abbott House, a home for troubled youths in Swan Lake, which is within walking distance of the colony.

While the boys have all had previous run-ins with the law, none of the teens, who are all minorities, has ever been involved in a hate crime. The motive was burglary. The boys will also have to pay several thousand in restitution. They have also offered to help the owner clean up the property.