Many of the same pre-Pesach questions come up year after year. The most frequently asked questions are whether the following items are permitted without special Pesach supervision: frozen salmon (permitted if OU-certified and contains only fish, water and salt); raw meat and poultry (permitted if OU-certified with no additives); coffee (regular [not decaffeinated] unflavored, ground coffee is permitted if OU-certified); medications/vitamins (depends); extra virgin olive oil (permitted if OU-certified); spring water (permitted even without OU-certification); paper plates (permitted even without OU-certification); quinoa (matter of debate); baby formula (depends); and milk (permitted without OU-certification if purchased before Pesach). “I’ve answered some of these Pesach- related questions maybe a thousand times,” he says.

Even after the Seders have passed, the Pesach calls keep coming. “People want to know if they can purchase certain OU products in Jewish-owned establishments that didn’t sell their chametz products.”

Rabbi Polsky admits that his natural affinity for people, penchant for halachah, and surplus of patience come in handy at the OU Kosher Consumer Hotline all year round, but especially in the spring. But, no matter what the day or season, he definitely means it when he says: “OU Kosher; how can I help you?” So, if you’ve got a kashrut-related question, give the experts a call at 212.613.8241.

The words recall a massacre on this beach in January 1945, described on the memorial as the last act of the Holocaust.

Some may debate whether it was really the last act, but what happened here did come several days after Auschwitz was liberated. The Nazis still had Jewish prisoners on the move. One death march, which began with 7,000 people, ended here in the town, then known as Palmnicken.

Frail women and children were ordered into the icy water and shot dead.

It's been more than six decades since the end of World War II, but this village in the westernmost part of Russia is still coming to terms with its role in the Holocaust.

A Peculiar Past

Even 65 years later, some in Yantarny are still unaware of what happened — like Vladimir Nikolaevich, who was leaving a fishing hole near the memorial.

"What Holocaust?" he said in Russian, when asked about the beach's past. "It's unlikely there were victims here."

A German who witnessed some of the killings has written a book about the massacre. But the memorial, dedicated in 2000, became the first tangible recognition of the Holocaust anywhere in a Russian province of 1 million people.

One reason is the area's peculiar history: This Baltic coastline was East Prussia. After the war, the victorious Soviets seized the province, renamed it Kaliningrad and repopulated it with Russians. As the Germans died or left, so did their memories.

But Viktor Shapiro, a prominent voice in the Kaliningrad region's small Jewish community, points to something else.

One of the hallmarks of Soviet rule, he says, was to downplay any ethnic or religious differences among Soviet citizens. And so, to single out Jewish people as special victims of fascism, he says, would have contradicted Communist policy.

As for the memorial on the beach, Shapiro visits it often. He says he hopes it begins to teach people that the Holocaust left its mark here.

'Everyone Kept Silent'

The director of a history museum in Yantarny, Lyudmila Kirpinyova, was born in the town in 1958. She remembers her parents telling her to stay away from a beach close to her house. Looking back, she says her parents — and some others in the village — may have known about what happened in 1945.

"In those days, everyone kept silent; they did not reveal anything," she says. "Even now, my husband tells me if I had a shorter tongue, I'd be of greater value. But since I couldn't speak much in the past, now is my time to speak — a lot — at last."

But only to a point. The history of East Prussia is represented in the museum, along with portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Soviet memorabilia. But it's hard to find anything about the Holocaust.

The museum director says she will never force people to confront what happened here.

"There are people who would like to speak about those events and people who don't want to speak or even think about it," Kirpinyova says. "It's not for us to judge." NPR

 Jpost

Dubai police, who say the murder was carried out by an Israeli hit team, said most of the prepaid credit cards used to purchase air tickets and book hotels for the attack were issued by an Iowa bank, Metabank.

Metabank, in turn, got the cards from privately held Payoneer, which has a Park Avenue office and a research-and-development center in Tel Aviv, Israel, authorities said.

Payoneer's CEO is Yuval Tal, a former member of the Israeli special forces, according to Fox News, which used him as a commentator during Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah.

"It's a war that they cannot lose," Tal said on Fox at the time.

Payoneer has other Israeli ties.

Among its investors is Greylock Partners, which hired a former Israeli army intelligence officer, Moshe Mor, to head its expansion into Israel in 2003.

Other financial backers of Payoneer are Israeli-based Carmel Ventures and Crossbar Capital, whose co-founder previously headed an Israeli venture-capital firm.

After the Dubai hit, Payoneer said it was cooperating in the investigation. Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the firm said Tal was unavailable and that the company "is providing no further comment on the matter."

The latest disclosures came as Interpol issued 16 international arrest warrants in the Jan. 19 murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of Hamas' armed wing.

Information coming from Dubai supported claims that the 16 suspects were members of a support team that "aided and abetted" a smaller group that allegedly drugged and suffocated Mabhouh in his hotel room, Interpol said.

In all, 27 people used a variety of bogus names and faked passports in the assassination plot, which began a year ago, Dubai investigators said.

Dubai's police chief, Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said last week that all the suspects are back in Israel. He said he was "99 percent if not 100" percent certain the assassination was carried out by Israel's Mossad spy agency. Israeli officials said they don't know who killed Mabhouh, but welcomed his death. AP/NYPost

Speaking to Israel National News, Hotovely said that obviously the two-state solution is a non-starter, and has been for over a decade. But she blasted the right-wing nationalist camp for failing to produce an alternative, and instead simply trying to maintain the status quo and make no real decisions in either direction.

"The decision of the nationalist camp 'not to decide' brings us to the current standoff," said Hotovely. "We have to exercise sovereignty over all of the areas of Judea and Samaria, but we have never said that we are talking about our own land. This is our weakness."

Hotovely noted that the left-wing's solution is to build a wall and surrender Judea and Samaria so they don't have to look at or deal with the Arabs. The Likud and its right-wing allies can prove that they are actually more progressive and humane by treating the Arabs differently.

The rookie MK's proposal is for Israel to annex Judea and Samaria and be very blunt with the international community that these are and always have been Jewish lands. Then, Israel should extend upgraded residency status to all the Arabs living there, with the opportunity to become full citizens based on national service and other considerations.

At the same time, a concerted effort to attract greater Jewish immigration from Europe and America must be made.

 "Your knowledge of local issues is unparalleled and I am confident that you will serve your constituents in the 44th Council District with fresh and new ideas," said Edward Mullins, President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association "Additionally, your commitment to the law enforcement profession to the law enforcement and the people of Brooklyn is commendable." 
 
"I am honored to receive the endorsement of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, an organization that fights for the men and women who protect us everyday," said Greenfield. "As Councilman, I pledge to support our hard-working law enforcement officers."

In addition to the support of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Greenfield has also received the endorsements of leading labor unions DC9 and UFCW Local 1500 number of other prominent elected officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Ed Koch, US Senator Joseph Lieberman, US Congressman Mike McMahon, New York State Senators Carl Kruger and Martin Golden, and Councilmen Vincent Gentile, Michael Nelson, Domenic Recchia, and Lewis Fidler. Greenfield has also received widespread support from prominent members of every ethnic community in the diverse 44th Council District, including the Catholic, Ashkenaz, Sephardic, and Hasidic communities.  YiddishNayes-NYC

Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told Reuters he will announce at an energy conference in Paris on Tuesday that Israel is officially looking into the possibility of building a nuclear power plant to diversify its energy sector.

Landau said Israel, which has a population of 7.5 million and generates electricity mostly using imported coal and local and imported natural gas, is capable of building a nuclear reactor. But it would prefer to work with other countries.

Israel already has two reactors -- the secretive Dimona facility in the Negev desert, where it is widely assumed to have produced nuclear weapons, and a research reactor, open to international inspection, at Nahal Soreq near Tel Aviv.

Landau had discussed with French Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo the possibility of cooperating on building a nuclear plant, together with neighboring Jordan, his ministry said. The project would be overseen by France and use French technology.

Borloo voiced "great interest" and promised to discuss the idea with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the ministry said.

"Israel is interested in being part of the circle of countries producing electricity from nuclear energy," Landau said in a statement. "In a region like the Middle East, we can only depend on ourselves. Building a nuclear reactor to produce electricity will allow Israel to develop energy independence."

"Nuclear technology has many positive uses that are able to serve peaceful purposes and purposes of cooperation," he said.

At the same time, Barak is under fire from the other direction for insisting on applying the construction freeze even to the expellees of Gush Katif; see below.

Barak signed the approval last week, marking the first time in over three months that new housing has been allowed to begin in the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria. In late November ’09, under heavy American pressure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a near-total freeze on Jewish construction in Yesha. The goal was to entice the Palestinian Authority back into direct negotiations with Israel – a goal which even now has not been achieved. Only this week has the PA agreed to four months of indirect “proximity talks,” defined as “diplomatic discussions between intermediaries, with the involved parties close by.”

The construction in Beitar Illit received a permit long ago, under the Olmert government, but foundations have not been laid, due to “infrastructure problems and safety issues.” For this reason, Barak granted the project an exemption from the freeze.

Beitar Illit, located just north of Gush Etzion and west of Bethlehem, is Judea and Samaria's 2nd-largest Jewish city, with over 37,000 residents.

Peace Now chairman Yariv Oppenheimer responded to the news immediately, saying, “Every construction permit in the territories makes it even harder to separate from the Palestinians; we are already in the last minute, and soon this [two-state] solution will no longer be relevant.”

Environment Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) castigated those who object to the construction: “Our own political opponents within Israel are trying to heat up tensions between us and the United States, which does not see a problem here… via tattling and all sorts of maligning.”

Barak: Gush Katif Expellees Cannot Build in Ariel
At the same time, Barak is under fire from Likud MK Danny Danon for insisting on applying the construction freeze even to the expellees of Gush Katif.

A large group of families from the destroyed town of Netzarim were to begin building their permanent homes in the Shomron (Samaria) city of Ariel. The Civil Administration, the Tnufah (Sela) Administration, Cabinet ministers and the Cabinet Secretary were all in favor of exempting the project from the construction freeze - but Barak decided on Sunday to ignore them all and extend the expellees' transience at least until the end of the current ten-month ban. The residents have been living in caravans since moving to Ariel over four years ago.

MK Danon has received permission to raise the matter in the Knesset on Tuesday, which could lead to a Knesset Committee debate on the issue - at which occasion Barak or his representatives will have to explain their decision. INN

The decision to appoint someone with an extensive intelligence background reflects the fallout from the attempted Christmas airliner attack, when the government's intelligence programs came under scrutiny. Harding served in the Army for 33 years and retired in 2001, at one point serving as the Defense Department's top human intelligence officer. He went on to serve as a g government consultant on human intelligence and counterintelligence issues, until selling that business last year.  AP

Lieberman, the resident of a Jewish settlement in Judea, has been maligned abroad as a radical and a detriment to peace, though many Israelis see his views as far more realistic than those of other politicians more willing to continue making concessions for an elusive peace.

Jerusalem tried to explain that no meeting was scheduled between Biden and Lieberman because the foreign minister plans to travel to Washington next month anyway.

Biden will also visit Ramallah to meet with the Palestinian leadership. A day later, the Palestinian Authority will officially rename one of the town's main squares after Dalal Mughrabi, a female Palestinian terrorist who in 1978 managed to massacre 37 Israelis, the most ever in a single terrorist attack.

There was no public statement of concern from Washington that the PA planned this event to coincide with Lieberman's visit. Nor was there any criticism at all from the international community along the lines that honoring terrorists like Mughrabi violates the Palestinians' peace obligation to stop encouraging violence against Israel.

Israeli commentators contrasted that to the international outrage, including from Washington, that was elicited by Israel's decision to officially recognize the Jewish connection to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem - burial sites of Israel's patriarchs and matriarchs.

Smoked salmon should no longer be considered kosher, they say, because the fish often contain parasitic worms.

But some Jewish New Yorkers aren't taking the lox-down lightly.

"What is a bagel and cream cheese without the lox? It's nothing," kvetched Josh Loberfeld, 29, of Riverdale, a regular at the Mr. Bagel eatery near his Bronx home.

The ban was announced last month when a small group of rabbis decided that a tiny parasitic worm, called anisakis, rendered its host fish nonkosher.

Chevra Mehadrin, a group of hard- line Orthodox rabbis in Monsey, NY, released a list of newly forbid den fish.

But many Orthodox rabbis are blasting the group for hysterics.

"This issue has been resolved in Jewish law for hundreds of years already," said Rabbi Moshe Elefant of the Orthodox Union. Reuvan Fenton/NY Post

The evidence is overwhelming that he has done no such thing -- and that the congregations that have bought such scrolls from him have wasted their money. Consider:

* Youlus swears that he discovered two Torah scrolls in a mass grave in Western Ukraine, in a

"Gestapo body bag." I guarantee you, the Gestapo did not use bags for its Jewish victims, let alone for Torahs. And he has no evidence for his claim.

Moreover, he actually peddled the two "mass grave" Torah scrolls to five separate congregations.
* He says he found another under the floorboards of a barrack in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Impossible: British troops burned all of the Belsen barracks to the ground in May 1945 to contain a typhus epidemic.

* He professes to have dug up another in what had been the cemetery of Oswiecim, the Polish town adjacent to the Auschwitz death camp, and which he miraculously reunited with four missing parchment panels that Jews from Oswiecim had taken into the camp and had entrusted for safekeeping to a Jewish-born priest who remained in Oswiecim after the war and eventually sold them to Youlus. Yet there is no record of anyone even remotely fitting the description of such a priest ever having lived in or near Oswiecim.

The Washington Post magazine earlier this year published a meticulously detailed exposé questioning Youlus' veracity. Since then, he has not come forward with a single document or witness to substantiate any of his claims.

And there is no historical evidence whatsoever of the Nazis, who regularly burned and desecrated Torah scrolls, ever burying any sacred Jewish religious artifacts in mass graves alongside murdered Jews.
Any exploitation of the Holocaust for crass commercial purposes is appalling. Creating false Holocaust histories for Torah scrolls is despicable.

Far from having been made a pariah, however, Youlus apparently continues to function as a scribe with impunity. Save a Torah, his tax-exempt group, shamelessly continues to solicit funds on its Web site.
Some prominent Jews still defend him publicly.

Carol Pristoop, executive director of the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center, told the Baltimore Jewish Times that even though Youlus' actions "could be possibly fraud . . . This man, in many ways, is doing a mitzvah."

Dr. Moshe Shualy, the Ritual Director of Baltimore's Chizuk Amuno Congregation, says he believes that Youlus is "being crucified." He asks: "Should we judge him because he says things that don't sound quite right?" 

And Robert Kushner, who purchased one of the mass-grave Torah scrolls for the Beth El Congregation in South Hills, Pa, wants to let Youlus off the hook after receiving a sworn document in which Youlus simply reiterates his original account of the scroll's provenance. "Whatever he may be," Kushner told the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, "I cannot bring myself to believe that an Orthodox rabbi would swear and confirm to a lie."

Maddening.

Youlus has raised thousands of dollars under false pretenses from people who trusted him, including idealistic teens who gave portions of their bar and bat mitzvah gifts to Save a Torah.

Instead of being given a free pass, Youlus should be thoroughly investigated. Where did he get his scrolls, and from whom? Were they stolen, and if so, to whom do they belong?

If nothing else, Menachem Youlus violated the trust of well-meaning individuals who thought they were supporting the rescue of Torah scrolls and instead have discovered that they unwittingly helped facilitate a truly contemptible scam. He and his Save a Torah foundation must now be held accountable, both legally and morally. NYPOST

In its “Audit of Antisemitic Incidents,” an annual study on patterns of prejudice in Canada, the Jewish human rights organization says in tota, 1,264 incidents were reported, representing an 11.4% increase over the 1,135 cases in 2008, and a more than five-fold increase in incidents over the past decade.

There were 884 cases of harassment, 348 of vandalism and a doubling from last year in the incidents of violence to 32.

Most of the increase is explained by the effects of Israel's operation against Hamas in Gaza in January 2009.

Ten synagogues were attacked during the high holidays in 2009.