They did not return from Auschwitz

Klein Gyula (60) was my grandfather. The Klein and Kertesz were all relatives deported in August 1944.  

Miracle in Samaria

 Exactly 20 years after it was uprooted and several months after the government approved its resettlement, the uprooted families of the Samaria village of Sa-Nur and young couples have formed a core resettlement group and are organizing to reestablish the community.

Jewish mtDNA

 

The Ashkenazi group shows a foundational effect, with very few (maybe four) Western European females founding the community. The Sepharadi communities also have foundational females. The small Belmonte and Caucasus communities all have one or two "mothers", but also the Iranian and Iraqi Jewries show four or five local women responsible for half of their population. Moroccan and other North African communities have no founder effects, and interestingly, they have no Sub-Saharan introgression that is common in the host populations. The Ethiopian group is 100% African, with no connection to other Jewish communities. 

How is it that after a few hundred years of foundation, most of the female mtDNA lines disappear, and only a few survive? Do the missing ones die off, assimilate, or never come into existence? Apparently, selection acts most strongly on the females. 

CLAUDE the AI says that the reduced number of female founders in isolated communities is because of genetic drift, by pure chance. After ten or so generations, the number of surviving lineages is reduced by half.

Nitazenes

 Nitazenes are synthetic opioids considered 10 times more potent than fentanyl, and some variants can be 800 times more potent than morphine and 40 times more potent than even fentanyl. It is starting to appear in the illegal drug market. It is terrible, causing accidental deaths. 

League Aleph

 Kfar Saba Po'el ascends to the Aleph League of Israeli football teams. We are making history.

Seizing assets from Argentina

 Judge Loretta Preska ordered a series of resolutions to uncover information from the trial regarding the nationalization of 51% of YPF and the method of seizing assets from Argentina and its public companies. 

Argentina owes Burford Capital, beneficiary of a ruling for US$16.1 billion plus interest accruing at a rate of US$2.5 million per day starting from September 2023.

Preska ordered Argentina to send information about the assets of the Central Bank (BCRA), Banco Nación, Aerolíneas Argentinas aircraft, Energía Argentina S.A. (Enarsa, owner of the Vaca Muerta gas pipeline, 26% of Transener, and major thermoelectric power plants), and YPF itself.

I am shocked by Argentina, a country with 45 million inhabitants, seemingly incapable of governing or defending itself.  

Israeli society under attack

The war had a complex impact on Israeli birth patterns:

Initial Decline: Birth data from June–July 2024—reflecting conceptions in October and November 2023—show that the war initially had a negative impact on fertility rates across the population.

Subsequent Surge: Starting in August, fertility rates began to rise again. This occurred across all population groups, but once again the largest increase — by a significant margin—was among Jewish women, whose fertility rate rose to 3.19 children per woman.

Israeli Jewish births in 2024 were 134,000 compared to 131,000 in 2023. Despite war and hardships, Israelis are choosing to expand their families, contrary to trends in the West

The data shows that despite the challenging circumstances of war, Israel experienced a significant increase in births during 2024, particularly in the latter part of the year, continuing its position as having one of the highest fertility rates in the developed world.

Migration patterns: 82,700 Israelis were registered as having left the country over the past year, up from around 55,000 a year before. 23,800 Israelis returned home in 2024, and 32,800 new immigrants arrived, down some 15,000 from a year earlier