Thank you readers.

Dear Readers,

I've decided to indefinitely end this blog. I regret that this will disappoint many and excite some.

As Yeshiva Orthodoxy has grown, with more and more people in Lakewood talking about it, my identity is sure to be revealed.

I do not at all wish to make enemies with: the Roshei Hayeshiva all of whom I hold in high regard; and especially the Mashgiach towards whom I have an enormous personal admiration.

Sans their o.k., my participation is just not practical at this time.

I would have very much liked to continue and explore the many issues I feel passionate about: Cedarbridge; the vaad; the future of kollel; politics (local, world wide, yeshivish), etc.

To discuss Lakewood matters, and to show how Lakewood matters.

I have chosen the Yeshiva over the blog; cool air over enormous heat.

I enjoy writing, and furthering useful discussion. If an opportunity came my way in another venue for serious writing I might consider it.

Lakewood- the Yeshiva and the town- is for all Lakewooders to share in and enjoy.

Every person must become informed to what's really going on. Full and active communal participation- demanding transparency and accountability, are the way to go.

For now- I go. Thank you very much.

Yudel Shain

Many emails about Yudel Shain's http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/.

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Portuguese synagogue discovered

Washington Times:

A chance discovery during renovations of a building in this Atlantic port city has revealed a secret from Portugal's past: a 16th-century synagogue.
Built at a time when Portugal's Jews had been forced to convert to Catholicism or risk being burned at the stake, the house of worship was hidden behind a false wall in a four-story house that Father Agostinho Jardim Moreira, a Roman Catholic priest, was converting into a home for old-age parishioners.
A scholar of Porto's Jewish history, he says that as soon as the workers told him of the wall, "I knew there had to be some kind of Jewish symbol behind it."
His hunch was confirmed when the wall came down to reveal a carved granite repository, about five feet tall, arched at the top and facing east toward Jerusalem. It was the ark where the medieval Jews kept their Torah scrolls. Pieces of decorative green tiles in the ark further confirmed the age of the ark when specialists dated their glazing to a method used in the 16th century...
The workers' sledgehammer solved an enigma that had baffled historians, said Elvira Mea, a lecturer at the University of Porto who specializes in Jewish history. Immanuel Aboab, a Jewish scholar born in Porto in the mid-16th century, had written that as a child he visited a synagogue in the third house along the street counting down from the 14th-century Our Lady of Victory Church.
But he didn't specify which side of the street, and archaeological digs turned up nothing.
"Everyone assumed Aboab had got his dates mixed up," said Miss Mea. "But it had been preying on my mind, and as soon as I saw the ark, all the pieces fell into place. I was so happy I could hardly believe it." ...