ISIS turned this school, 50 km from their capital in Al-Raqah in to a prison. I was part of horrible fighting in the area, my friends and I fended ISIS off when they tried to recapture the prison from the next village. ISIS left women's clothes and underwear on the floors of the cells, a lot of it, evidenice of un-holy crimes. I wrote Rabbi Nachman's name here to bring some light in to this black sink hole of torture, rape, murder and savage war. Amen.

Peace to the whole world and a hand of reconciliation and new beginnings to all States.
All States have murdered people, in the past, the Islamic State have done it in the modern day but I would like to extend to them a hand of Peace and New Horizons. I would like to see the British and French 'Sykes- Picot Agreement' created States of Iraq and Syria dissolved and cut in to three new countries all spanning the old borders of Iraq and Syria. In the South of what was Iraq and Syria a new Shiite Muslim State, in the centre of what was Iraq and Syria a new Sunni Muslim State 'ISIS' and in the North of what was Iraq and Syria a new Kurdish State ' Kurdistan'.
For all sides to exist peacefully and for the Kurds to give up claims to territory in Turkey and Iran.
Everyone in the middle East should learn from Israel. Biblical Israel is a huge country but the modern State of Israel settles for a small strip of land and tries to live peacefully with neighbours.
If the Kurds, The Islamic State and the Shiites would, like Israel be willing to settle for less than their ancient dreams then at least everyone in the region could have their own beautiful little homeland instead of 'coveting his neighbours land' and each destroying the other. An end to war NOW.
God bless you all.

4 Elul 5775August 19, 2015 The Chicago Rabbinical Council2701 W. Howard St.Chicago, IL 60645(773) 465-3900 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  For more information please contact: Rabbi Yona Reiss, Av Beis Din, at reiss.crc@crcweb.org On Thursday, August 6, after months of concerted effort by the leadership of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc), Governor Bruce Rauner signed Senate Bill 1228 to amend the Grade A Pasteurized Milk and Milk Products Act, at the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.  Senator Ira Silverstein, Rabbi Levi Mostofsky, Executive Director of cRc, and Rabbi Dr. Jerold Isenberg, President of cRc, attended the signing. The Grade A Pasteurized Milk and Milk Products Act had allowed the sale of milk from any hooved animal, “including milk from pigs and camels,” said Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, Kashrus Administrator of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. This allowed for the possibility that milk from a non-kosher animal could be added to cow’s milk, and it still would have been labeled as milk. The new bill requires that even the smallest amounts of milk from any animal source other than a cow not be sold unless it is labeled accordingly. The efforts began when a consumer read about the act online and alerted Rabbi Fishbane, who contacted Senator Silverstein. The Senator agreed to sponsor the legislation, and asked the cRc to join him in crafting an amended bill. In March, Rabbi Yona Reiss, Av Beth Din of the cRc, traveled to Springfield, Illinois with Senator Silverstein to lobby the Illinois General Assembly. Rabbi Reiss, a graduate of Yale law school, presented before the legislature, met with keyfigures, and crafted language in negotiation with other special interest lobbies in order to make sure to protect the Jewish consumers who rely on such legislation to be able to consume milk and milk products. “It is now a clear violation of law if milk from a non-kosher animal is sold without proper labeling,” explained Rabbi Reiss. “Rabbi Reiss did an outstanding job explaining the whole issue to the committee,” said Senator Silverstein. “He [Rabbi Reiss, himself] rewrote the bill several times.” “The cRc is protecting the Jewish community to make sure …milk is kosher. They did the right thing going to the Illinois General Assembly to resolve this issue,” said Senator Silverstein. Rabbi Fishbane noted that it is significant that it was a consumer who initially informed the cRc about the act. We “can service people better when consumers work together with us,” he said.
For more information, please contact the cRc at 773-250-5482. The Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc) founded in 1932, is comprised of approximately 140 member rabbis from across the United States, Canada and Israel, and strives to convene a unified voice for the Orthodox Rabbinate of greater Chicago. The cRc provides a wide array of Jewish services including kosher certification, an internationally recognized Beth Din (Rabbinical court), along with community education, programming, and services.

Lion kills safari guide in Zimbabwe park where Cecil lived

History will be made next Sunday, when the Israeli national American football team takes part in its first official international game against Spain.
If Israel wins, it will qualify to compete in the International Federation of American Football’s B-Group International Tournament in 2016.
The best players of the Israeli Football League (IFL) are represented in the national team, with players hailing from all nine local teams. Among those taking part will be 3-time reigning league MVP Dani Eastman from Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion, who plays for the Judean Rebels, along with Johnathon Curran of the Ramat Hasharon Hammers on the coast, and Assaf Katz of the Tel Aviv Pioneers.
A new addition to the national team is former University of Michigan quarterback Alex Swieca, who played with the Israeli league's Jerusalem Lions while taking part in a Young Judea year course in 2011-12, and went on to be the league's MVP that year.
Despite being entitled to play at Michigan for another year because he was in Israel for his freshman year, he decided instead to come back to Israel.
"I am so excited to have an opportunity to represent the State of Israel in Europe with my fellow teammates” Swieca said. “But I am also hoping to spend time this year promoting American Football throughout Israel and getting even more Israelis excited about the sport.”
Swieca made a comic video earlier this month about his decision to play football in Israel rather than stay in the US.

This unique tractor belonged to the late Israeli prime minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon. The tractor has been in good hands throughout the years and has a very interesting history:
This tractor is really Mr. Sharon's first friend. It served Sharon as he worked with sheep in the Shikmim Farm, where he resided. After a while, Sharon realized the tractor was too big and fast for his work with sheep, so he decided to sell it.

A Cherkessian farmer named Korkus bought the tractor in 1974, and worked with it until 1990, while maintaining the machine's excellent condition. In 1990 the tractor was sold to Nir Sadan, the current owner. When Sadan came to pick up the tractor, Korkus said: "This tractor belonged to Israel's war hero, Mr. Ariel Sharon".
Years later, Sharon has become the prime minister of Israel and has arrived to a corner stone ceremony in the Gilboa. Sharon's tractor was the only one near the stage, and other tractors surrounded it. When Sharon went on the stage to start his speech, he immediately recognized the tractor, his first friend. Sharon could hardly contain his excitement and talked about the tractor. The crowd clapped with pride and joy for the reunion of the two friends, and in respect to the very special man that was Mr. Ariel Sharon.
This even is shown in the video below.

Nir Sadan, the current owner: "I'm honored to be part of the chain which serves to perpetuate the legacy of this amazing man, who contributed so much to Israel".
Mr. Ariel Sharon, also known as Arik Sharon, has been a prominent figure in Israel's military and political arenas throughout the years.
Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, and participated in most of Israel's big wars. After his military career, he was nominated Agriculture Minister and Defense Minister. He was nominated as Israel's 11th Prime Minister.

Hamas's media arm, "Al Aqsa," has released a feature-length drama to mark one years since last summer's war.
The 55-minute, slickly-produced film is entitled "Ambushes of Death," and intersperses testimonies from terrorists who took part in fighting against the IDF with dramatizations of their battles during Operation Protective Edge.
The film portrays the war as a "victory" for Hamas, despite it not having achieved its stated goals of ending Israel's blockade of Gaza, and despite the massive damage wrought to its military infrastructure and loses inflicted to its fighting force. The 50-day war ended with a ceasefire on August 26, which has largely held despite intermittent rocket fire from Gazan terrorist factions.
In the movie, actors playing Hamas terrorists can be seen reenacting various missions, including fighting at close quarters, burrowing through tunnels into Israel and laying ambushes for Israeli soldiers. At one point, the film depicts a terrorist crawling undetected to an Israel tank to lay an explosive charge.
The terrorists are portrayed as heroes, committed to their cause and willing to die. In illustrating their members' thirst for "martyrdom," the Hamas propaganda film also dramatized the death in combat of several terrorists, and the entire production is interspersed with recitals from the Quran.
In contrast, Israeli soldiers - played by Hebrew-speaking Arab actors - are portrayed as cowardly, incompetent and lazy, hiding behind a tank and at points randomly firing at civilian areas in Islamist-controlled Gaza. The film also shows edited footage from Israeli TV of IDF soldiers giving real-life testimonies about the tough conditions they faced against an enemy heavily embedded into the civilian infrastructure of Gaza.
That portrayal is far from the reality of last summer's conflict, which in fact saw IDF soldiers fighting house-to-house against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who regularly hid behind the civilian population of Gaza- often openly boasting of their effective use of human shields. Documents seized by the Israeli army during the fighting revealed how the use of human shields was an essential part of Hamas's strategic doctrine, both to hamper Israeli military operations and use subsequent civilian deaths to gain sympathy through the international media.
The movie ends with a familiar message often featured in other Hamas propaganda, calling on Jewish Israelis to leave the country voluntarily or be violently ethnically-cleansed, and promising to conquer Jerusalem.
The film's release comes amid ongoing, unconfirmed reports that Hamas and Israel are close to reaching a long-term ceasefire, one which could potentially stretch for as long as 5 or even 10 years.