The Denver Police have arrested four individuals and a fifth is being sought for an August 17 crime spree and murder of a yeshiva student.

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Shmuel Silverberg, 19, of Cleveland, was outside of a dormitory for Yeshiva Toras Chaim in Denver when he was shot and killed. Several bullets also hit the building.

"At this time in the investigation, it appears that the victims were targeted at random. Therefore, the homicide near the Yeshiva Toras Chaim does not appear to be bias-motivated," the police said in a release on Thursday. "However, if the evidence is discovered that it was, the Denver Police Department will work with the Denver District Attorney's Office on adding appropriate charges"

"We continue to send our condolences to those who were impacted by these terrible crimes," said Police Chief Paul M. Pazen in the release. The arrested individuals are Isaiah Freeman, 18; Seth Larhode, 21; Aden Sides, 18; and Noah Loepp-Hall, 19. They are facing charges including burglary, first-degree burglary, felony menacing, first-degree auto theft, first-degree assault and first-degree murder.

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Chana Sutofsky, who has a son studying at the yeshivah, said in a Facebook post: "It's truly a sad day when people whose highest values are peace, performing acts of loving-kindness, self-improvement, study and prayer are targeted by such hate."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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During a special weeklong celebration, scientists, experts, and two astronauts spoke at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum in Denver, Colorado this past week. The museum is home to numerous airplanes and fighter jets, which have been decommissioned or retired from the US Air Force as well as a new space shuttle, Dream Chaser slated for launch in spring 2020.

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Astronauts Joe Engle and former Senator Harrison Schmitt spoke with Israel Hayom and shared their experiences in deep space.

Schmitt, a Republican who represented New Mexico in the US Senate from 1977 to 1983, was the last of 12 astronauts to have set foot on the moon.

"I was the last astronaut to have stepped foot on the moon," he said. "It was the end of an era."

His most memorable moment during his service at NASA was flying on the Apollo 17 mission that landed in 1972 on the lunar surface. While there, Schmitt and his team collected various geological data – over 240 pounds of lunar rocks – to study and from which to gather further research.

"It's the gift that keeps on giving," Schmitt said, adding that while back in the 1960s, technology was not as sophisticated as it is today, current computer advancements lead scientists to glean even more data from the rocks gathered nearly five decades ago.

Schmitt was part of a unique program in NASA that trained scientists to become astronauts. Originally trained as a geologist, having worked in Norway, Schmitt partnered with scientists at Flagstaff, Arizona to map the surface of the moon in preparation for the first human landing.

After earning his pilot's wings from the US Air Force and passing numerous tests, he was deployed in space in 1972 and conducted various geological experiments on the lunar surface.

Schmitt later served as a US senator and followed his political career with one as a geology professor. When asked what he thought of Israel's first spacecraft to the moon, Beresheet, he said, "I think it was a great success! It got to the moon. And I think Israel is fantastic for embarking on such a mission."

He then detailed the long trial and error period that NASA underwent to achieve its first successful launch and landing, noting not only the numerous scientists and engineers who poured their hearts and souls to the task at hand but also the administrators, project managers, and seamstresses who sew the astronauts' space suits. The latter crew comprised mainly of women, who were often unmentioned as being a major force behind the lunar mission.

Many do not realize the intense efforts that go into such a project on all fronts, Schmitt said, adding that he commends the Jewish state on this great project. "One must remember – it is the young people who help these missions become a reality" – their endless labor and toil put astronauts or even spacecraft into the far reaches of the universe.

Astronaut Joe Engle took part in flight test missions that were conducted even before an actual space shuttle was built.

Engle grew up in Kansas and pursued a degree in engineering, later serving in the US Air Force as well.

Prior to the first space shuttle, numerous fighter planes were developed and tested by fearless pilots, who risked their lives for the singular mission of putting Americans in space. Several of these planes were able to reach startling velocities and flew above the Earth's atmosphere without the protection that space shuttles have today.

Engle was most famous for flying the X-15 plane, which flew up to 4,520 miles per hour.

Although the technology was not as advanced in the 1950s as it is today, Engle explained that the engineers used giant automated computers and algorithm-generating machines to test and try to improve the plane's speed.

That in itself was quite remarkable, he said.

Lastly, Engle told Israel Hayom that "being up there in the X-15 – it was a crazy plane – was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It was hard, dangerous, and risky but it was the most fun I've had in my life."

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As part of the Jewish National Fund-USA's "Be Inscribed" campaign, a scribe is currently writing new Torah scrolls in the very same synagogue that once housed the Torahs of Masada. In 2004, the synagogue was rebuilt and a Torah was placed there. Four years later, in 2008, a room was reconditioned to comfortably house a scribe behind a glass wall, affording visitors the opportunity to watch him at work.

The act of creating a new Torah is strenuous, requiring 304,805 letters be written in Hebrew with a quill on calfskin or parchment by a trained scribe.

Upon each scroll's completion, JNF-USA donates the Torah to a community in either in the southern Negev Desert or the Upper Galilee.

"We're building a safe and vibrant land of Israel by scribing Torah scrolls on top of Masada that once symbolized our destruction but now symbolizes our life," said Ron Werner of Denver, JNF-USA's national assistant secretary and president of the board of directors at Alexander Muss High School in Israel, whose campus, just outside of Tel Aviv, received the first such Torah last July.

"Torah is the soul of the Jewish people and our moral compass," affirmed Werner. "By connecting people to Torah, we elevate the whole equation and will build better bonds between Jewry and Israel."

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