JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.
12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
UN chief ‘ashamed’ over stalled Mideast peace process-Decrying lack of progess, Ban Ki-moon says Jerusalem, Ramallah ultimately responsible for ending conflict-By AFP and Times of Israel staff February 5, 2016, 7:21 pm
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday he was “ashamed” at a lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.“I feel guilty, ashamed of the lack of progress,” he told an event organized by foreign affairs think-tank Chatham House in London.“Basically it’s up to the leadership of Israel and the Palestinians to put an end to the conflict,” he said.“I am not working for a particular country or a particular policy but for the people in the region.”The peace process has been deadlocked since a US peace mission collapsed in April 2014.UN diplomats say Ban is hoping to get peace talks moving again before he steps down as secretary-general at the end of the year.But last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused him of “stoking terrorism” after the UN chief told the UN Security Council that Palestinian attacks, that have killed more than 26 Israelis of the past four months, were the result of “human nature to reacting to occupation.”Days after the Security Council address, Ban said his remarks were misinterpreted, but doubled down on his criticisms of Israel in a Monday Op-Ed in The New York Times titled “Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Israel.”The UN chief also last week expressed “alarm” at Hamas’s pledge to keep building attack tunnels from the Gaza Strip into Israel and to advance the development of rockets to fire at the Jewish state.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
God Rains Down Divine Retribution Upon Detractors of Israel-By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz February 5, 2016 , 8:00 am-BREAKINGISRAELNEWS
“And if in spite of these things ye will not be corrected unto Me, but will walk contrary unto Me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.” (Leviticus 26:23-24)-Margot Wallström, Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, has earned a reputation for Israel-bashing. The first blatant anti-Israel offense came in 2014, when she became the first European Union foreign minister to recognize the state of Palestine.After the horrifying terror attacks in Paris last November, she came out with a statement linking Islamic anger to the lack of a two-state solution. Even worse, after months of terror in which Palestinians were attacking Israelis in the streets on an almost daily basis, she accused Israel in January of carrying out “extrajudicial executions”.Israel reacted through diplomatic channels, but a more powerful force stepped in. Three days after Wallström accused Israel of executing Palestinians, it was revealed that she had jumped to the head of an eight-year waiting list for apartments owned by a labor union. Stockholm is suffering from a serious shortage of housing and this was viewed by the Swedish public as an egregious misuse of her position. Anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating the case now to determine if it constitutes bribery, which carries a potential two-year prison term.This type of instant karma is the rule and not the exception when it comes to politicians that treat Israel badly. One of the clearest examples of divine slap-down came on January 21, 1998, when US President Bill Clinton gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a decidedly cold reception at the White House, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refused to have lunch with Netanyahu. Things looked grim for Israel, but later that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke out, ultimately resulting in Clinton’s impeachment.President George H.W. Bush signed the Oslo Accords on October 30, 1991, setting the stage for the disastrous “Land for Peace” process. The very next day, a hurricane dubbed “The Perfect Storm” hit the east coast of the United States, destroying Bush’s house in Kennebunkport, Maine.Occasionally, divine intervention can take an ironic turn. As president, Jimmy Carter was not nearly as involved with Israel as he has been since leaving office. In his book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, he blames Israel’s “colonization of Palestinian land” as being “the primary obstacle to a comprehensive peace agreement”.Carter was a proponent of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) since it seemed to produce results and bear pressure on Israel to negotiate. He has also met with many leaders of Hamas and during the 2014 war in Gaza, called for Israel to negotiate with Hamas.-Wear the Jerusalem sky-One year later, he was diagnosed with cancer and melanomas were found in his brain and liver. After only a few months of treatment, the doctors pronounced him cancer-free. Pembrolizumab, a drug developed in Israel, was a key element in his treatment. His adherence to boycotting Israeli products and innovations obviously had its limits.Carter’s miracle cure may not have been solely attributed to Israeli science. His sins against the Jewish people may have been forgiven in December 2009, when Carter published an open letter apologizing for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community. In the letter, he said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer of repentance, said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.Divine retribution is not restricted to non-Jews. Ariel Sharon had achieved almost legendary status in Israel. After a spectacular army career, he entered politics and, at the head of the Likud party, was elected prime minister in 2001. He endorsed the Roadmap for Peace and began plans to remove the Jewish population of Gush Katif from the Gaza Strip. The dismantling of the Jewish settlements was scheduled for August 15th, 2005, the day after Tisha b’Av, the anniversary of both Jewish Temples being destroyed.In July, one month before the IDF dismantled Gush Katif and evicted almost 9,000 Jews from their homes, Rabbi Yosef Dayan, a member of the nascent Sanhedrin who can trace his lineage back to King David, led a group of ten rabbis in performing an obscure, ancient Kabbalistic ceremony, the Pulsa diNura, on Sharon. The Pulsa diNura invokes the angels of destruction to block heavenly forgiveness of the subject’s sins, causing all the curses named in the Bible to befall him and resulting in his death.Sharon’s health deteriorated, and by January, he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, entering a vegetative state from which he never recovered. Rabbi Dayan also led rabbis in the Pulsa diNura against Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin a few months before he was assassinated. Rabin was shot and killed in 1995 by Yigal Amir, an extremist who opposed Rabin’s peace initiative and particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.Rabbi Dayan told Breaking Israel News that none of these events were simple coincidence, but divine justice. “Today, there isn’t prophecy. God presents circumstances for us to try to understand him, to express our belief in him,” he explained. “These aren’t things that happen by chance or coincidence. This is not just true for politics, but it is also true for politics. Politicians are, after all, simple servants of God, no less or more than the rest of us.”
GIVING AWAY THE KOTEL (TEMPLE MOUNT)-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL- February 5, 2016, 2:27 am BY Alden Solovy
When did “separate but equal” become the goal of any civil rights movement? When were civil rights leaders ever proud of trading one group’s rights for another? When did Robinson’s Arch magically become “the Kotel”? Sunday. That’s the day. On Sunday, the State of Israel, via the Prime Minister’s cabinet, blessed the creation of an enhanced egalitarian prayer plaza at Robinson’s Arch.An enhanced prayer plaza at Robinson’s Arch is an important advancement. Control of that plaza by Progressive Judaism is a victory. Funding from the State of Israel — if it comes from the State — would be another.-At what cost?-The deal plays into the hands of the Haredi extreme by moving women’s prayer away from the Kotel. With the consent of the Reform and Conservative Movements, it legitimizes Haredi governance there. The cost is simply too high. Some observations: Proponents say that the deal represents critical political acceptance of non-Orthodox Judaism in Israel. Here’s the rub: it comes with accepting ultra-Orthodox rule over a national historic site. The Kotel shouldn’t be run by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which the deal concedes. We’ll rue the day Progressive Judaism agreed to let a public treasure be controlled by the Haredi establishment.There’s already an egalitarian prayer plaza near the Kotel. The enhanced space will be in the same spot, Robinson’s Arch, an archaeological park once declared unacceptable by those touting this deal. The enhanced plaza will share an entrance with the main Kotel plaza, but it’s behind the Mughrabi Bridge, separate and segregated. When did segregation — when did ‘separate but equal’ — become the goal of any civil rights movement? Progressive Orthodox women are the losers. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, past president of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote: “Many of those who originally joined Women of the Wall (WOW) were never interested in participating in mixed prayer, or in praying in any space other than the women’s section of the Kotel… These women are the losers of the process.” When was any respected civil rights leader proud of trading one group’s rights for another? Calling Robinson’s Arch ‘the Kotel’ is an obfuscation, pure spin. Yes, this is the same external wall of the Temple Mount. When you say you’re spending the day Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, it’s understood that you’re downtown, not on the South Side. Same street name; different meaning. Robinson’s Arch has not been the focal point of our prayers for 2,000 years.Robinson’s Arch has its own special beauty. I’ve heard Eicha read there on Tisha B’Av for the past two years. A newly-stated goal of WOW, making Robinson’s Arch into the new Kotel for a new age, is also beautiful. To be clear, I support the concept of a prayer plaza at Robinson’s Arch. In this deal, however, the cost is too high.When it’s done, women’s voices in prayer and Torah at the Kotel will never be heard there again. Silencing women has been the goal of Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, administrator of the site, who declared that women will not be allowed to wear tallit and tefillin at the Kotel. We’ve become a willing partner in his tyranny.-Timing is everything-This has been a hard fight. Feminist proponents and opponents of this deal — women and men who’ve championed women’s rights at the Kotel — have been harassed, threatened and arrested. We’ve earned a right to our opinions the hard way.I know these struggles first hand. I’ve been shoved, egged, kicked and called a Nazi in my years as a WOW supporter here. When I helped pass a Sefer Torah to WOW in April 2015, I was physically brutalized while defending the women’s Torah reading.It’s been a stalemate at the Kotel for the past few years, a stalemate that favored Rabinovitch. Why should he budge? Why now? It turns out that January 29 — the day pre-publicity for the deal appeared in the press — was the deadline for the State to respond to a private civil case asking the Supreme Court to enforce previous rulings giving women the right to pray with tallit, tefillin and Torah at the Kotel. As the deal was announced, the State was granted a one-month delay in responding. After three years of negotiations, what are the odds that undermining this case was part of the government’s incentive to concluded a deal now? What’s at stake is American Reform and Conservative Jewish leadership gaining a voice in the religious politic of Israel. Sidelined as irrelevant throughout the history of the State, the real victory was being invited to the table. That’s huge. Proponents see this deal as a watershed moment in both Israeli consciousness and governmental policy toward Progressive Judaism.It’s hard to fathom that giving up our claim to the Kotel is anything but reckless and optimistic.-Bye-bye, non-Jewish Jews-From a Haredi point of view, we went to the back of the bus. Women have been silenced. The non-Jewish Jews willingly left the Kotel plaza. They’ll continue to believe that they can harass us out of the public sphere. We just agreed to let them do it.Sunday may well go down in history as the day the split between Haredi and Progressive Judaism was officially sanctioned and enshrined in Israeli policy. A “Church of England” moment. Perhaps more fittingly: the division of Judaism into Northern and Southern Kingdoms.It may be remembered as the day that Progressive Judaism sanctioned Haredi Judaism as the official religion of the Jewish state, yielding control of a national historic site to ultra-Orthodoxy.The spin, however, is about forgetting.When the hype ends, when women are silenced at the Kotel, after we’ve given away a national treasure, what we’re supposed to forget is clear: this isn’t what we were fighting for in the first place.We were fighting for the Kotel.
Top Iranian General Threatens Israel With “Defensive” ICBM’s-By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz February 5, 2016 , 3:36 pm-BREAKINGISRAELNEWS
“If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.” (Proverbs 29:12)-The Iranian Army’s Chief of Staff announced plans to upgrade their missile program, despite threats of renewed sanctions, and accompanied his statement with an implied threat to Israel.Major General Ataollah Salehi was quoted by the Tasneem news agency as saying, “Iran’s future missile program will become more precise and stronger, and these are deterrent weapons that pose no threat to our neighbors and friends, but are against enemies.”“They are rather a threat to the enemies of this establishment. Israel should fully realize the meaning of this concept,” he added.Iran was prohibited from conducting ballistic missile tests under UN Security Council resolution 1929, passed five years ago. This was valid until the recent nuclear deal went into effect January 16, when another UN Security Council resolution, passed immediately after the nuclear deal, went into effect, The revised resolution calls upon Iran to refrain for up to eight years from any work on ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons.When asked by Tasneem reporters about the UN resolution and the possibility of sanctions, he explained that Iran will not be bound to comply with those possible resolutions and the Armed Forces will not care about them.-Iranium: Iran's Quest to Go Nuclear-In October, Iran tested an Emad medium range ballistic missile, which UN sanctions monitors confirmed is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. This was followed one month later by yet another ballistic missile test, both of which were in direct violation of the UN resolution. Iran also publicized 14 underground “missile cities”.In response to the missile tests, in December, US President Barack Obama threatened to implement new sanctions on Iran’s missile program. A day later Rouhani threatened that Tehran would accelerate the development of its arsenal. One day after Rouhani’s threat, President Obama announced he would delay the new sanctions.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded by ordering the Defense Ministry to continue production of missiles needed by the country’s Armed Forces “more quickly and seriously”.The US has since implemented sanctions on 11 entities and individuals connected to the Iranian missile program, while, at the same time, lifting sanctions connected with Iran’s nuclear program.This is not the first time a high-ranking Iranian official has taunted the US over missile restrictions. In response to the threats of US sanctions last month, General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, said to Fars new agency:“We tell the Americans that we will further expedite enhancement of our missile capabilities as long as they massacre the Palestinian children, as long as they bury Yemen’s oppressed children in their houses, as long as they displace the Muslim nation of Syria, as long as they attack the houses of the Pakistanis, as long as they occupy the Islamic lands and as long as they support the Zionist regime to bomb Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
Who are the 10,000 Jews of New Hampshire?-With all eyes on the tiny state, a few fun facts and Jewish quirks of the Granite State-By Uriel Heilman February 4, 2016, 1:39 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (JTA) – Campaigning is reaching fever pitch in New Hampshire, days before the February 9 presidential primary here. On Wednesday, longtime Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton stressed her commitment to campaigning in the state, while acknowledging that rival Bernie Sanders, who lost to her by a tiny margin in Iowa, is leading the polls here. On the Republican side, Ted Cruz’s campaign staff popped champagne on the flight to New Hampshire early Tuesday, following Cruz’s unexpected Iowa victory. Donald Trump, the clear New Hampshire frontrunner, accused Cruz of stealing the Iowa win. And in a blitz of New Hampshire campaigning, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was casting himself as the sole “unifier” in a deeply fractured party and the man best positioned to beat a Democrat in November.Though home to just one-third of one percent of all Americans, New Hampshire long has played an outsized role in the US presidential nominating process.Just who are the Jews of the Granite State? Here a few highlights.About 10,000 Jews live among white, mostly old New Hampshirites.A few characteristics distinguish the 1.3 million residents of New Hampshire. They’re old, with a median age of 41.9 (third-oldest in the country), and 94 percent white (fourth-whitest state in America). Fewer than 20,000 of the state’s residents are black.There aren’t too many Jews, either. Jewish federation officials say they know of 3,000 households with at least one Jewish person, leading them to an estimate of 10,000 Jews in all of the state.“It’s not easy being Jewish in New Hampshire compared to New York,” said Joel Funk, who grew up in New Jersey and moved to the Granite State in 1975. “You have to make it happen.”Adam Sandler and Sarah Silverman are from New Hampshire.Among the better-known Jews from New Hampshire are comedians Adam Sandler, who moved to Manchester from Brooklyn at age 6, and Sarah Silverman, who was born and raised in the Manchester area. Among the lesser-known: the late Warren Rudman, who served as a US senator from New Hampshire from 1980 to 1993.The first Jew to make New Hampshire his home arrived in 1693 from the Holy Land, settling in New Castle, according to the Strawbery Banke museum of living history in Portsmouth.‘Live free or die’ = no income tax or sales tax.Though New Hampshire is a geographic mirror image of neighboring Vermont, the two states have very different cultures and reputations. Vermont is known as more hippie-dippy, tourist friendly and progressive. The state, home to Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders — an avowed democratic socialist — has voted Democrat in every presidential election since 1992.‘There’s a rugged individualism that permeates New Hampshire’-Granite Staters tend to be more libertarian and gruff, and they are twice as numerous as Vermonters. With no state income tax or sales tax, New Hampshire draws the kind of people who want government to leave them alone.“There’s a rugged individualism that permeates New Hampshire,” said Rabbi Robin Nafshi, who moved to New Hampshire nearly six years ago to lead Temple Beth Jacob, a Reform synagogue in Concord. “The state motto, ‘Live free or die,’ is taken very seriously here. People don’t like to be told how or what to do.”In summer, Hasidim flock to Bethlehem (it’s supposedly pollen-free!).Nobody moves to New Hampshire for its Jewish life, and some have left because of its dearth. But the state still has pockets of Jewish vibrancy.New Hampshire boasts about a dozen synagogues representing all the non-Orthodox Jewish movements, from Reform and Conservative to Reconstructionist and unaffiliated. The only year-round Orthodox presence in the state is a pair of Chabad centers, in Manchester and at Dartmouth College in Hanover.In the summer, however, the northern town of Bethlehem fills with Satmar Hasidim who have been coming to the White Mountains for a century to escape the heat and foul air in New York. Hasidim stricken with allergies began coming to New Hampshire as early as 1916 to escape the pollen in their hometowns. Bethlehem, home to the National Hay Fever Relief Association, is reputed to be pollen-free.The town’s longtime kosher hotel, a rundown B&B called the Arlington, shut down a few years ago. A new kosher hotel is being built in its place.A historic mikvah was discovered in Portsmouth.A century-old mikvah in Portsmouth was unearthed in 2014 by archaeologists working in a neighborhood that used to be home to Russian Jewish immigrant families. The ritual bath there is one of only four historic mikvahs unearthed in the Northeast, according to the Strawbery Banke Museum, which manages the historic site where the mikvah was found.Among the two dozen or so historic buildings at Strawbery Banke is Shapiro House, a living-history museum where visitors can learn about what life was like for early 20th-century Jewish immigrants in Portsmouth through re-enactments performed by actors dressed in period costume.Descendants of the Shapiros, who owned the house, still live in the area and are members of nearby Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue established in 1905.Jewish highlights: Havurot, a klezmer band, film and food-Among the major events on the Jewish communal calendar are an annual Jewish film festival each spring, the National Havurah Institute’s weeklong summer program in Rindge and the annual Jewish food festival hosted by Temple B’nai Israel in Laconia. Nashua’s Raymond Street Klezmer Band, led by a retired doctor who is also a mohel, Alan Green, is a point of pride for local Jews. ‘It’s pretty much an assimilated community here’-Aside from the synagogues and a single Jewish federation that serves the entire state, New Hampshire has no other Jewish institutions. There is a small federation-run preschool but no Jewish day school, no JCC, no Jewish senior center and no Jewish family services — signs both of the dearth of Jewish New Hampshirites and the high degree to which local Jews are assimilated, longtime Jewish locals say.“It’s pretty much an assimilated community here,” said Steve Clayman of Manchester. “We moved here from New York over 30 years ago because of the lifestyle, to live in an area closer to the outdoors-related things we love to do. It’s a challenge to connect with Jewish life.”New Hampshire also has several Jewish summer camps, but they primarily serve kids from elsewhere.Dartmouth has New Hampshire’s only kosher eatery and Hillel chapter.Dartmouth College is home to the state’s only kosher eatery: a dining hall called The Pavilion that serves kosher and halal meals and was conceived jointly by Jewish and Muslim students. If you want kosher food elsewhere, you’ll have to go to Trader Joe’s, which carries Empire kosher chicken, challah and some kosher cheeses.Dartmouth is also home to one of the only full-fledged Hillel college chapter in the state. One other New Hampshire school, New England College in Henniker, is served by the Hillel Council of New England.Jews once were barred from holding elected office in New Hampshire.New Hampshire’s first state constitution, ratified in 1784, did not allow Jews (or any non-Protestants) to hold elected office. Restricted Jew-free hotels persisted in New Hampshire’s White Mountains until the mid-20th century. Until four years ago, the tiny town of Mont Vernon had a recreational water hole with the offensive-sounding name Jew Pond — residents voted to change it in 2012.“In New Hampshire, unless you were born here or your grandparents or great-grandparents were born here, you’re left to feel like you’re an outsider,” Temple Beth Jacob’s Rabbi Nafshi said. “If you’re not a white Christian, you’re welcomed here to an extent, but you’re never really fully integrated into the society.”New Hampshirites tend to be clueless about Jews.Jews who live in New Hampshire today say they don’t encounter much anti-Semitism, just lack of awareness. Schools routinely schedule tests or picture days on Jewish holy days. Nafshi recalls a child in her congregation being benched from his school’s basketball games because he missed two practices due to religious conflicts — the first night of Hanukkah and the Friday evening his religious school class led Shabbat services.‘It’s a complete lack of knowledge or sensitivity to the Jewish community’-“It’s a complete lack of knowledge or sensitivity to the Jewish community,” Nafshi said. “It often makes our kids make feel lesser or outside the norm.”The rabbi recalled the story of a second-grader from her congregation whose best friend came to school one day and told him they couldn’t be friends anymore because “you killed Jesus.” The Jewish family soon decided to leave New Hampshire, according to Nafshi.Nevertheless, the state has unusually strong Holocaust education programming in the public schools, thanks to the efforts of the Cohen Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Keene State College, which provides educational materials and runs public workshops. The center is run by non-Jewish leadership.The Jewish federation recently sold its building and is retooling.When the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire sold its building last year in the heart of Manchester and moved into rented space, there were rumors around town that the state’s largest Jewish charity was teetering. In addition to the sale, the federation has been downsizing, and last summer replaced a full-time executive director with a shared director, Lauren Tishler Mindlin, who splits her time between New Hampshire and the other small federation she runs in Massachusetts’ Merrimack Valley.But lay leaders at the federation, which netted about $1 million from the real estate deal, said the sale was more of a strategic decision to unload an underutilized building with rising costs, use the proceeds to strengthen the federation’s endowment and focus more on programming. Serving such a widespread area, the federation wants to become a convener of Jewish institutions in New Hampshire.“We’re trying to define ourselves really meaningfully as a statewide organization,” Jeff Crocker, the federation co-chair, told JTA. “We’re talking about what that means. We want to enhance collaboration between Jewish institutions in the state, to fill the voids where necessary. We try to provide some leadership. We help them think about ways to be innovative and try new things.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Japan weighs change to swastika-like temple symbol-With 2020 Olympics approaching, officials worry foreigners may confuse traditional Buddhist icon on maps with Nazi emblem-By Mari Yamaguchi February 5, 2016, 7:15 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
TOKYO (AP) — As Japan gears up to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and caters to a surging influx of foreign visitors, the country faces a cultural dilemma: Should it stop identifying Buddhist temples on maps with the traditional “manji” symbol that is often confused with a Nazi swastika? The symbol, from ancient Sanskrit, means happiness and prosperity. It has been used for centuries by Hindus and Buddhists, and has turned up in archaeological digs in Europe. But many Western tourists associate it with anti-Semitism and the Holocaust because the emblem was adopted by Nazi Germany to try to enhance a sense of ancient lineage.The swastika in Japan — which usually points counter-clockwise, the reverse of the Nazi symbol — has been used for centuries in Buddhist decorations and to denote Buddhist temples on maps.At Sensoji Temple, a top tourist destination in Tokyo, a big gold “manji” emblem appears on a pair of lotus-shaped bronze ornaments, while smaller, more subtle ones decorate roof tiles. It’s even an official emblem for Hirosaki, a city in northern Japan.In a report released last month, a government panel at the Geospatial Information Authority proposed a three-tiered pagoda symbol to replace the swastika. It is one of 18 suggested icons for landmarks like hospitals and convenience stores for foreign-language maps, part of a broader push to create user-friendly maps for the growing number of foreign tourists, which jumped more than 40 percent last year to a record 19.7 million.A final decision is expected in late March following a period of seeking public comment.Japan’s main Buddhist group is nonchalant because the change doesn’t affect domestic maps and therefore likely won’t alter perceptions at home.“We are aware that some people say the ‘manji’ symbol could remind them of the ‘hakenkreuz’ symbol, which was created much later in history,” said Ryoka Nishino, a spokesman for Japan Buddhist Federation, referring to the “hooked cross” term often used to denote the Nazi emblem.“Even though we have more foreign visitors, our symbol that decorates each temple will stay,” he said.Public opinion seems divided on Twitter and other social networks.Supporters for the change say it would help avoid confusion among tourists, while opponents say there is no need to change the ancient sign just to cater to foreigners. Instead, they say, the symbol should be kept as a way to teach people about the ancient history behind it. Others point out that the “manji” symbol turns the opposite way from the Nazi symbol, so it is different.The objective is to make symbols easier to understand, said geospatial authority mapping officer Takayuki Nakamura.“A good symbol on the map should be able to tell a visitor what it is at the first glance,” he said. “The question is whether one can easily tell it’s a temple by looking at the current symbol.”The recommendation was based on survey results collected from more than 1,000 foreigners, including embassy officials, exchange students as well as tourists.Other symbols that would be altered for foreign maps include the one for a hotel, which currently looks like the symbol for helipads, and a saluting policeman would replace the current giant X sign supposedly representing a pair of clubs for police station.The maps would add a new symbol for convenience stores, which are ubiquitous in Japan — a sandwich and water bottle.
Palestinian youth said killed in Hebron clashes with IDF-Army says troops fired at assailant preparing to hurl firebomb; village of Qabatiya closed for second day after 3 residents killed young policewoman-By Times of Israel staff February 5, 2016, 4:10 pm
A Palestinian teenager was killed Friday by IDF fire during clashes near the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian media reported.According to the Ma’an news agency, the incident occurred in the town of Halhul, some five kilometers from Hebron.An army spokesperson told Army Radio that troops had fired at one person in a group of rioters preparing to attack them with Molotov cocktails.Ma’an also reported that the West Bank village of Qabatiya, near Jenin, was closed off by the IDF for the second consecutive day, following an attack in Jerusalem by three of its residents on Wednesday that killed 19-year-old Border Police officer Hadar Cohen and wounded several members of the security forces.Irael on Friday returned the bodies of three terrorists to their families. Military officials told Channel 2 news that the bodies were returned after the families promised the funerals of the three would not be transformed into rallies of incitement to further violence.Qabatiya is one of a handful of Palestinian population centers from which terrorists have emerged in the current round of violence, a list that includes the village of Samua near Hebron, and the Shuafat and Qalandiya refugee camps around Jerusalem.Channel 10 television said that a pipe bomb was hurled at IDF troops manning a roadblock on the outskirts of Qabatiya on Friday. There were no injuries reported.Overnight IDF troops and Border Police forces arrested eight wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, the army said Friday morning. The IDF also issued advance notice of house demolition for the homes of seven Palestinians who carried out deadly terror attacks on Israelis.
Israel, Hamas ‘exchange calming messages’ on Gaza-Both sides seek to clarify they are uninterested in tensions over terror tunnels escalating into open conflict-By Times of Israel staff February 5, 2016, 6:29 pm
Israel and Hamas have exchanged calming messages in recent days, assuring one another that they are not interested in open conflict, Hebrew media reported Friday.The messages were conveyed through Turkey and Qatar, among other countries.Security officials told Ynet news that Israeli security officials were concerned that rising tensions, on both sides of the border, over Hamas’s renewed efforts to tunnel under the Gaza border would cause the terror group to assume an Israeli assault was forthcoming. This could possibly lead it to attack Israel preemptively.A senior Hamas official told The Times of Israel Thursday that Hamas does not want war and is committed to maintaining the fragile ceasefire with Israel.Despite Hamas’s recent pronouncements that its tunnels reach into Israeli territory and it is working to launch “high-quality” terror attacks against Israelis from the West Bank, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity: “Our stance is clear: we don’t want an escalation [of violence] and we don’t want war.”“We have no intention at this time or in the future to begin a war, and from our perspective that option is not on the table,” the official said, urging Israel to respond with restraint to the recent Hamas rhetoric.On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to hit Gaza harder than during the 2014 war with Gaza-based fighters, amid mounting public pressure over reports of increased tunnel building out of Gaza.“In the event we are attacked from tunnels in the Gaza Strip, we will act very forcefully against Hamas, and with much more force than Operation Protective Edge,” Netanyahu told a conference of Israeli diplomats, referring to the 50-day war in the Gaza Strip in 2014.IDF officials and southern residents have expressed concern in recent days that Hamas is rebuilding the subterranean passages, used for attacking Israel, which were destroyed during the 2014 war. Some residents have reported hearing digging sounds, but IDF checks have turned up no actual tunnels.The last week has seen at least three separate tunnel collapses in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian reports, killing several diggers.Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report.
Rescuers are seen entering an office building that collapsed on its side
from an early morning earthquake in Tainan, southern Taiwan, Saturday,
Feb. 6, 2016. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake has struck southern Taiwan,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey.-pic-AP 
The network will extend invitations to the following candidates: