Yeshiva University’s medical school, Montefiore agree to form new joint entity
(JNS.org) The Montefiore Health System and Yeshiva University (YU) on Tuesday, May 27,, announced an agreement to form a new joint entity in which Montefiore will assume “greater responsibility for the day-to-day operations and financial management” of YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Montefiore is already the university hospital for Einstein in the Bronx borough of New York City. YU will remain the degree-granting institution for the medical students, according to a press release.
“We are undertaking this historic process of transforming our relationship with Montefiore and Einstein to match the extraordinary opportunities and challenges in the healthcare environment of the 21st century,” YU president Richard M. Joel said in a statement.
Through the agreement, “we are taking a powerful and important step towards building a financially sustainable Yeshiva University,” Joel added.
Montefiore President and CEO Steven M. Safyer stated, “We look forward to further strengthening Einstein as a major research institution that spans the scope from bench science to healthcare delivery transformation.”
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For Jerusalem Day, Netanyahu vows Israel will never divide its capital
(JNS.org) On the eve of Jerusalem Day, which was celebrated Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli capital would never be divided again.
“We are protecting the heart of the nation—we will never divide our heart,” Netanyahu said Tuesday at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel Hayom reported.
Jerusalem Day is the day that celebrates the anniversary of the city’s reunification in 1967.
“Because we believe that our capital is the heart of our nation, it has to be united. … We want to make sure that Jerusalem is built and that it flourishes. We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister added, “Jerusalem is the Western Wall, Mount Zion, Mount Moriah. It is the eternity of Israel. There is a lot of anti-Semitism among the gentiles, but there is also a great deal of admiration, because we have a spark, we have soul, a special spirit. We are a people who have returned to their land and built a home.”
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‘Zionist’ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked to appear in Iranian court
(JNS.org) An Iranian court handling the privacy case against social media apps WhatsApp and Instagram has called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was labeled as a “Zionist” due to his Jewish heritage, to appear before the court.
“According to the court’s ruling, the Zionist director of the company of Facebook, or his official attorney must appear in court to defend himself and pay for possible losses,” said Ruhollah Momen-Nasab, an Iranian Internet official, the state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.
Zuckerberg’s Facebook, which owns WhatsApp and Instagram, has been accused of violating Iranian citizens’ privacy.
Last week, an Iranian court announced that Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app, would be blocked over privacy concerns.
Instagram joins a number of popular social media apps blocked in Iran, including Facebook and Twitter. Despite the ban, a number of Iranian leaders such as President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei operate their own social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram.
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Sen. Ted Cruz blasts Palestinians for failed peace talks
(JNS.org) U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who may be considering a 2016 presidential run, on a visit to Israel blasted the Palestinians for derailing the U.S.-brokered peace talks.
Cruz, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials on Sunday, said the Palestinians are to blame for the talks’ collapse for refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and renouncing terrorism.
“The principal impediment to peace is that, to date, the Palestinians have refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and have refused to renounce terror,” Cruz told The Jerusalem Post.
Cruz also criticized U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for using the term “apartheid” when discussing Israel’s possible future if peace talks fail.
“Those words will be repeated by enemies of Israel, by Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran, and all of them will say, ‘This is not our characterization, these are the words of the U.S. secretary of state,’” Cruz said.
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Israel’s Shavuot cheese supply threatened by Tnuva labor dispute
(JNS.org) The Israeli dairy firm Tnuva, which just sold a majority share of its company to the Chinese government-owned Bright Food Group, is dealing with a labor dispute that could impact the supply of cheese in Israel for the Shavuot holiday.
Tnuva workers committee chairman Ahiav Simhi cited a dispute over employee compensation in the wake of the sale to Bright as the reason for a delay in the delivery of white cheeses to Tnuva’s warehouses and the distribution of Tnuva’s other products to supermarkets.
The private equity firm Apax Partners will make a tax-free 3.8 billion shekels on the sale, and workers are demanding at least the same compensation they received when Apax had acquired control. Workers had received an average bonus of five monthly salaries—about 100 million shekels overall.
“We’ll slightly disrupt work. We’ll load trucks by the book, rather than by usual practice,” Simhi told Globes.
“Grocery stores have enough white cheese, but I assume that shortages will emerge in a day or two. We’re talking about all types and all sizes of containers that are produced for the Shavu’ot holiday,” he said.
Shavuot begins the night of June 3.
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IDF soldier appeals for help for jailed Ukrainian mother
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Michael Rojkov, a Ukraine native and lone soldier (without parents living in Israel) of the Israel Defense Forces who just completed his service in the IDF’s Golani Brigade, is trying to free his mother from a Ukrainian jail.
According to Rojkov, his mother, Yana Popsko, was imprisoned for helping injured protestors. “On a Thursday about two weeks ago, the government’s military forces came into her home, turned the place upside down and arrested her,” Rojkov said. “Since then, she has been in jail.”
He added that his mother is “a doctor by training and she helped people who were injured in the protests and people who needed to be taken to the hospital. Politics does not interest her, and she does not belong to any side.”
Rojkov said his mother was brought before a judge on Monday, but “they did not let her speak and they found her guilty of assisting terrorists. There were many violent incidents, and anyone who dared to help people was taken to jail.”
Rojkov immigrated to Israel in 2006, returned to Ukraine shortly thereafter, and then came to Israel again about two years ago to serve in the IDF. “My mother and sister are still in Odessa,” he said. Upon turning to the Ukrainian Consulate in Israel, Rojkov said he was not helped. His friends are now trying to secure help for his mother from Chabad-Lubavitch.
“I am approaching everyone who can help, the [Israeli] Foreign Ministry, the prime minister,” he said. “Nobody wants their mother to be in jail. She is wrongly imprisoned.”
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