Eight months after the horrific Meron disaster and following many delays, the government is advancing a compensation plan for the families of the Meron victims • Full Story

Atlantic Beach officials held a public hearing last week to air plans to seize property that Chabad of the Beaches purchased last November for $950,000. The plan to take the site under eminent domain unearthed bubbling local controversies ranging from charges of anti-Semitism to whether public money could be better spent elsewhere • Full Story

For the uninitiated, NFTs – or non-fungible tokens – are blockchain-based certificates tied to digital or physical collectibles. “Non-fungible,” more or less, means that something is unique and can’t be replaced with something else, like a one-of-a-kind baseball card. NFTs can be anything digital, such as drawings, music… and a Torah. “I asked some people who are very into NFTs to work together on a project. We would sell digital Torahs to fund the creation of actual Torah scrolls,” Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone said • Full Story, Photos

Uzbekistan. For most of us, the mere mention of the place would most likely generate a mental image of a Jewish community long gone. If one were asked about it, one might have ventured to say that there has not been a significant Jewish presence there for at least seventy years! Uzbekistan however, is far from desolate of burgeoning Jewish life. On Pesach 5781, two American bochurim traveled to the Central Asian country to spend the holiday with the local Jewish community and have since played an instrumental role in the community’s growth • Full Story, Photos

A winter weather advisory has been issued as New York City prepares to be hit by the latest round of snow. The advisory will go into effect at 5 a.m. Thursday as up to 3 inches of snow is set to start falling. It will remain in place until 1 p.m., the National Weather Service said • Full Story

Sixty-six female Jewish students from 29 cities across the FSU decided to take advantage of their winter break to become deeply acquainted with their Jewish heritage, by joining the annual Yeshivacation seminar for young Jewish adults that took place in Moscow. The intriguing week-long seminar, packed with fascinating content, experiences, and opportunities to explore a wide range of relevant topics, was led by three of FSU’s most popular and stimulating lecturers: Rabbi Moshe Rochlin, Rabbi Dovber Baitman, and Rabbi Eli Kogan • Full Story, Photos

This week at the Chabad House in Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, under the auspices of Rabbi Dovid and Chani Atar, two Jews, one in his thirties, and the other 67 years old, celebrated their bar mitzvah. Their excitement was palpable as the two Jews met the Shliach for the first time. The two were previously not aware of the Chabad House before • Full Story, Photos, Video

Israel’s daily COVID cases continue to mount and the number of seriously ill patients skyrockets to over 500 (from just 100 a few weeks ago), Health Ministry to continue administering 4th vaccine dose, despite new evidence that it is not very effective against Omicron • Full Story

The United States issued a travel warning advising citizens not to visit Israel due to the steadily rising number of coronavirus cases in the Jewish State. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Israel is one of over 20 countries which are considered to be at the fourth level of coronavirus risk • Full Story

Malik Faisal Akram, the 44-year-old British national who took four people hostage in a Texas synagogue on Shabbos, specifically decided to take Jewish hostages because he believed that Jews would have enough power to arrange the release of Pakistani prisoner Aafia Siddiqui, one of the four Jews who was held hostage said on Monday. Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence in a prison near Colleyville after being convicted in 2010 of attempting to murder US soldiers and officials in Afghanistan. Also known as “Lady al Qaeda,” she became a cause célèbre in the terrorist world, with her release demanded by al Qaeda • Full Story

These newly received pages come from the only existing copy of a ca. 1492 edition of “Arba’ah Turim”, one of history’s most important works of Jewish law • Full Story, Photos