RSS
This baseball-loving Jewish couple celebrated their wedding at Yankees Stadium
(New York Jewish Week) — A newlywed couple took the concept of extra innings to a whole new level on Sunday when they held their sheva brachot — a festive get-together held in the week after a Jewish wedding — at Yankee Stadium.
Maya Rosen and Erez Bleicher, who were married at a synagogue last Thursday in White Plains, New York, attended the Yankees vs. Red Sox game on Sunday before flying back to their home in Jerusalem on Monday. Some 40 friends and relatives joined them on the “Grandstand Level” (aka “nosebleed seats”) to sing blessings that began in the middle of the sixth inning.
“I grew up in a home where, I think, the two pillars were Judaism and the New York Yankees,” Rosen, 29, told the New York Jewish Week. “When we thought about where to do sheva brachot, there was just no other place.”
As members of a traditional egalitarian community, Rosen and Bleicher embraced the custom of having loved ones and community members say the traditional seven blessings, or brachot, over a newly betrothed couple. These blessings are first recited underneath the chuppah and again at the meal or reception following the wedding. In the week following the wedding, they are recited at various get-togethers with different parts of the couple’s community.
Rosen and Bleicher were married on August 17 in White Plains, New York. (Courtesy)
Dozens of Jewish baseball fans who didn’t know the couple also joined in the celebration after the couples’ families put an announcement on the stadium’s jumbo screen that read: “Mazal Tov Maya and Erez! Join us for sheva brachot, middle of the 6th, section 423.”
“It was just so moving and touching to see people streaming [into our section] during the middle of the sixth inning, seemingly from every corner of the stadium, and to see people sort of bashfully peeking around the corner from the steps to join us and wish us mazel tov,” Bleicher, 33, said. “People were yelling out and sending good wishes.”
“Logically we knew that we had invited people, but still, on the top of the sixth when all these Jews started streaming in, I was so surprised and it was really moving,” Rosen said of the experience. “My dad said he got the chills.”
Rosen said another family member jokingly likened the event to “an ingathering of the exiles.”
Even the non-Jewish fans in the section, which was at the very top of the stadium behind the third base line, helped the couple celebrate. “One of our friends leaned over and explained that it was a wedding custom and people got really into it and yelled congratulations,” Rosen said. “It was definitely an interesting middle of the sixth for them.”
As the short, song-filled service came to an end, the couple and their celebrants were gifted with a special wedding present from the Yankees themselves: Shortstop Gleyber Torres hit a solo home run, tying the game at 2-2.
“We were singing ‘asher bara sasson v’simcha,’ which translates to ‘oh God who created joy and happiness,’” Rosen said. “It’s sort of the last, heightened bracha, and as we were saying it, Gleyber Torres hit this homerun deep into the outfield. The crowd went wild. It was really amazing.”
Nonetheless, the Yankees ended up losing the game 6-5.
Though neither Rosen nor Bleicher grew up in New York, baseball has always been a huge part of their lives. “My dad is from New York,” said Rosen, who hails from Pittsburgh. “A big part of our Jewish education growing up was understanding what it means to be a diasporic people and being a minority where we live. It was a lesson both in Judaism and being a Yankees fan from afar.”
The couple met in 2018 when they were both living in Nachlaot, a central Jerusalem neighborhood that’s home to the Machane Yehuda market.
Much to Rosen’s luck, her new husband is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan — even though he grew up north of Boston. Bleicher joked that their relationship probably would not have lasted had he been a Red Sox fan. “I wouldn’t even be surprised to find that stipulated in an Aramaic clause of the ketubah [Jewish wedding contract] that I hadn’t known has been added,” he said.
Rosen attested to as much. “My parents have always made their position on intermarriage very clear,” she said. “No Red Sox fans.”
Bleicher repped his teams at Sunday’s game, wearing a Cubs jersey and Jerusalem Lions baseball hat. Loved ones and strangers posted about the sheva brachot on social media, much to the couple’s delight. Footage shows that at least one Red Sox fan was in the crowd.
Bleicher presented his new wife with a baseball bat engraved with the date of their wedding and a verse of “Lecha Dodi,” the Friday night hymn. (Courtesy)
In addition to the sheva brachot at the Yankees game, baseball played a special part of the wedding itself: During the ceremony, Bleicher gave Rosen a custom baseball bat inscribed with the couple’s names, wedding date and the seventh verse from the Shabbat song “Lecha Dodi” which states, “Let’s go, my beloved.”
“It was so fun to have that Jewish content at the ballpark and to have people with us to make it joyful and beautiful in the days after our wedding,” Bleicher said.
—
The post This baseball-loving Jewish couple celebrated their wedding at Yankees Stadium appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.