Five Towns Jewish Home 07.24.25

Dear Readers,

On the one hand, it is the peak of summer, when we try to unwind and relax; on the other hand, the Nine Days is starting, a period when we attempt to feel the pain of not just the galus that we live in, but of all the suffering that our nation has endured over the past two thousand years.

I think that this apparent contrast shows just how unique we are as a nation.

Someone recently told me that many years ago he had the privilege of sitting at the table of one of the gedolim of yesteryear. He watched as people went over to the gadol and spoke to him quietly in his ear. He observed that during some conversations, the gadol would be crying –obviously feeling the pain of the person talking to him – and then when the gadol spoke to the very next person, he would be smiling, sharing in the good tidings of that person. This wasn’t a false façade of caring. The gadol was so thoroughly in control of his emotions that he was able to compartmentalize his different feelings and truly connect with the person speaking with him.

This is obviously a very high level. But perhaps, in a certain way, we all do that as well. We daven every day for Moshiach and we feel the pain of the galus, yet we live our lives and try to be upbeat and joyful. I see that especially in my role as a mother. Sometimes we are in pain or just heard some tragic news, but when dealing with our children, we manage to put on a happy face and carry on as if nothing has changed. Over the past two years, when our hearts have been filled with the hurt of our brothers and sisters in Israel and those being held in Gaza, we have managed to remain upbeat and present as

we serve suppers, help with homework, and put our children to bed.

That, I feel, is the dichotomy of a Jew living in galus.

And that, perhaps, is what makes us so special – that we can balance two opposing emotions and sing, “Im eshkacheich Yerushalayim” at the same time that a chosson and kallah have joyously connected in an eternal bond. We can feel pain and be uplifted; we can be hurt and smile through our tears. We are not meant to sit on the floor without shoes and cry every day for our loss. Throughout our days, we remind ourselves of what we’re missing, but we are meant to be a happy people.

Six million people were slaughtered a mere few decades ago. Out of those ashes emerged a tiny remnant of the Jewish nation. But those who survived, despite the horrors that saturated their nightmares with starvation, burning flesh, and the scent of death, began to rebuild. Although we may have been weak and broken individually, as a nation, together, we were strong.

We were strong because as galus Jews that is what we have to be. We have to be able to see the tragedies, mourn for our profound losses, and cry for our brothers and sisters who are no more. But we also have to rebuild and keep going, encouraged by our belief that there is a Plan and there is a Master Who will ultimately rescue us from this galus of thousands of years.

May we be zoche this year to see Tisha B’Av as a day of celebration and simcha.

Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern, PUBLISHER publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Yosef Feinerman, MANAGING EDITOR ads@fivetownsjewishhome.com

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Dear Editor,

I want to comment on last week’s Navidaters column. As a 24-year-old girl currently in shidduchim, I can relate to many of the experiences shared. I went on my first date at 23, and my advice to a girl in a similar situation would be: make a life for yourself. This is exactly where I am meant to be at this exact time, and while the process can feel daunting, there are so many opportunities within our community to explore, grow, and develop. It’s time to step out of your comfort zone and create new experiences.

Whether it’s attending a Link Up Nook chabura, going to a weekly Lechu Vnelcha shiur, or engaging with the programming offered by The Manchester, there is much to offer. I would also encourage volunteering—our community is world-renowned for its chessed, and through giving to others, you often find a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment. If you haven’t spoken to an old friend in a while, reach out and join a post-sem summer tour to Europe or another adventure. There’s something magical about connecting with people from your past and sharing experiences that broaden your horizons. If you’re currently working in an environment that feels isolated, consider switching to a busier office or school setting. The social life there can be a great way to build new friendships and gain perspective. But beyond that, single life is the time to explore yourself—to understand your values, passions, and goals.

The key is to make the most of this time. When you look back, you’ll want to proudly say, “I used this time wisely,

I grew, I learned, and I enjoyed the journey.”

A Reader

Dear Editor,

Thank you for printing the letter from Sergey! Since he moved here to West Hempstead, it has always been a great source of comedy at our Friday night get-togethers reading his propaganda as he spreads his Communist ideas (after he failed to do so back in Kew Gardens Hills).

I was confused by one point he made: the support for illegal migrants. Does that include the one who shot an officer in the Bronx last night? “A DHS spokesperson said one of the suspects has prior arrests and an order for deportation.” (From article: off-duty CBP officer shot during attempted robbery in NYC)

R.E.

West Hempstead, NY

Dear Editor,

This past week, I listened to two past episodes of the “Meaningful People” podcast that centered on the essential theme of how a person knows what they should do in life. Each guest, both of whom were rabbis, expressed a simple yet profound message: what you’re able to do with some skill is your path.

One of them noted that when he enters a big room to speak, he has no feelings of prestige about it, for he’s just doing what he’s able to do. Knowing this truth strips away any possible feelings of arrogance, because you’re merely doing what you can do, just as another person is

Continued on page 12

ISHAY RIBO

ZUSHA SHMUEL AVRAHAM FRIED

BETHEL WOODS

CENTER FOR THE ARTS CATSKILLS, UPSTATE NY

doing what they can do.

The profession one is engaged in, whether it be the rabbinate, medicine, law, accounting, business or any other field, is merely a manifestation of doing what you are capable of doing relatively well.

It can also be added that exerting extra effort and refining one’s skills can expand one’s capacities—but the bottom line remains the same.

Steven Genack

Dear Editor,

The most prominent assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler occurred on July 20,1944, at his headquarters known as the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia (present-day Poland). This attempt involved German army officers who planted a bomb in a briefcase under a table during a meeting. The survival of Hitler during the 1944 bombing of his headquarters is full of coincidences. Other men, in the same room, died or were severely injured. Hashem is in charge of coincidences.

Hitler’s basic biography is strange. During the first half of his life he was a loner and a failure. He could not get into art school. He barely made a living for himself, until World War I. Then he became a soldier, who was wounded twice but survived. This led to a chain of coincidences. During the chaos following the war, he got involved in an attempt to overthrow the government. While marching arm-in-arm with someone, his partner was shot. Similar to the 1944 bombing event, Hitler survived with a sore arm, caused by his partner’s fall. At this point in his life, Hitler considered suicide, but a friend talked him out of this plan.

In 1924, Hitler spent a few months in jail. There he wrote his “Haman de-

cree” called “Mein Kampf” – My Battle (against G-d). Suddenly Hitler becomes this charismatic, magnetic, hypnotic orator. Suddenly people claw at each other to get close and become a part of his circle of evil. He also became rich from the sale of the book.

A line from Psalm 95 says, “The mysteries of the world are in His hands.”

There are always “what if” questions about central events. The only answer is Ein Od Milvado. The world is a Purimspiel – scripted, produced and directed by Hashem. It is Hashem Who determines the leaders who go on and off the stage. Why did Hitler survive nine more months after the 1944 attempt to kill him? Countless number of people lost their lives and suffered during this time.

The Hashgacha pratis, Hashem’s connection to each individual, we don’t understand. The Hashgacha klalit, Hashem’s connection to B’nai Yisrael, has been demonstrated throughout history. Hashem wins over Amalek. Not only did B’nai Yisrael survive World War II, but Yiddishkeit became stronger. This has only been made evident years later.

May we soon see the whole picture from Adam to Dovid to Moshiach.

Elli Epstein Ocean, NJ

Dear Editor,

Six months ago, the roads of Washington, D.C. buzzed with anticipation and excitement for a new era in American history. Lined up from the residential streets to the lane-laden main avenues, red/blue-striped, white-starred flags waved in the incoming administration. The motorcades revved up as the transition of power approached its climax. President-elect Donald Trump met with

the outgoing, dawdling, visibly aged president, Joe Biden. The lame duck despaired at his orange, wavy-haired successor as his five-decade legacy was to be unraveled. The red-blue sirens whisked in the air, as the crowd of four hundred under the “Dome of the Capitol” awaited the inaugural. Millions of hopeful Americans turned on their TVs, relieved that the void in their wallets would soon be no longer. Local Washingtonian bureaucrats sat down at their desks, but once the clock struck noon, they and their careers were escorted out of the white, columned, Romanesque office building they called work. The sacred words of “So Help Me G-d” echoed around the Capitol’s tall, arched walls, marking the beginning of the Golden Age, started by the man who descended the Golden Escalator, with a wave of heightened expectation to “Make America Great Again”……

Six months ago, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, respectively, took their oaths of office on large, coffee-stained Bibles, flanked by their proud, smiling families. The country has since been fast-tracked on a pathway of transformational change. On issues from the border, taxes, deportations, tariffs, inflation, foreign policy, health, political power, governmental waste, etc., the trajectory of the United States is gliding up a positive route. The question going forward is, what should our country look like in another six months? What mistakes can be learned from to do even better? And finally, how can the MAGA political revolution stay permanently relevant?

When a politician normally wins the presidency, his impact is forgotten within ten minutes out of office. However, there are political figures who have a permanent effect on the future of the country, irrespective of outside factors. Donald Trump is such a figure not only because of his unique personality, but also because of the movement of people he has amassed since 2015. MAGA doesn’t have an ideology like other political movements because Trump believes in practical politics; he’s not someone who sticks to one particular viewpoint or the other, he looks at them all, and chooses accordingly. He has the unique ability of attracting voters who previously would have never uttered the word “Republican,” all the more so to vote for one. While President Trump should be proud for an outstanding first six months in office, he must also recognize the legitimate concerns from hard-core supporters on mistakes made around not doing enough to

lower the national deficit, to not sufficient transparency around the Epstein lists, to getting the American military more involved with Ukraine and to expressing an interest in softening the deportation efforts to only those that commit violent crimes.

For a movement to persevere, its leader must listen to the concerns of his core supporters. Cheering and celebrating the successes of our leaders is necessary and gratifying, but that’s only the easy part of changing history; what’s more vital is to make sure those successes can grow beyond their original design by holding our leaders accountable.

As a Trump supporter myself since 2015, I am confident we are far on the road to a successful transformation for the United States of America. Keep it up, Mr. President; we’re rooting for you!

Sincerely,

Donny Simcha Guttman

Dear Editor, Last week, in the Navidaters, the Zeidy did not disappoint! What a great idea to tell a single to go to events with slightly different hashgafos.

My husband and I make singles’ events, and we’ve had thousands of singles come through. We call our group Next Level Frum Singles.

We definitely, 1,000% percent, would have a lot less lonely people if people would do just that. The minute the flyer for an event goes out, the phones blow up with people asking what type it’s for. I say, “Your type. You’re obviously frum and single if you’re calling and asking.” First of all, they don’t even know what “type” they are. They can say Torahdig, Modern Orthodox, Chabad, modern, etc. all they want, but they’re all soooo different. No two people are the same “type.” Everyone’s different. My greatest joy from our events (besides people telling me they didn’t feel like they were at a singles’ event) is when I see two people clicking that are not the same “type” and exchanging numbers.

If only people would actually be openminded instead of just overusing the word openminded (which is a cover-up for being close minded), we can make so many more shidduchim.

We can’t wait to see all types of frum singles at our next event b’ezras Hashem.

Sincerely, Chavie & Joe Benarroch Nextlevelfrumsingles@gmail.com

Tourist Ferry Sinks in Vietnam

On Saturday, a popular tourist attraction in Vietnam was the site of disaster. A tourist boat ferrying families around Ha Long Bay was pummeled by a sudden storm. The boat capsized and at least 35 people were killed.

The vessel “Wonder Sea” was carrying 46 passengers and three crew when it capsized because of sudden heavy rain.

One resident recalled that “the sky turned dark.” There were “hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorms and lightning.”

Most of those on board were families visiting from the capital, Hanoi, with more than 20 children among the passengers. Thirty-five bodies had been recovered and 10 people had been rescued by Sunday, police said, with four people still missing.

One of the rescued, a 10-year-old boy, told state media outlet VietnamNet: “I took a deep breath, swam through a gap, dived then swam up. I even shouted for help, then I was pulled up by a boat with soldiers on.”

Torrential rain also lashed northern Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh provinces on Saturday. Several trees were knocked down in the capital by strong winds.

The storm followed three days of intense heat, with the mercury hitting almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas.

Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.

Chevron to Acquire Hess

A neutral third-party panel sided with Chevron in the energy company’s recent legal dispute with Exxon Mobil. The International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, in its Friday ruling, allowed Chevron to move forward with its $53 billion acquisition of Hess. While it disagrees with the decision, Exxon has said it accepts the verdict.

In October 2023, Chevron’s deal with Hess was reached. However, the acquisition process was stopped in its tracks after Exxon maintained that it has a right to bid for Hess’s 30% in the Starbroek offshore block in Guyana, a project that Exxon — which pumps around 650,000 barrels of oil daily in the South American country — has a 45% stake in. Exxon’s attempt to stop Chevron’s total acquisition of Hess was supported by Chinese oil and gas producer Cnooc, which owns a 25% stake in the Guyana project. Exxon and Cnooc, planning to produce 1.2 million barrels a day by 2027, hope to transform Guyana, a small country, into an oil giant.

Exxon claimed it has a right to join the bid based on the language of a 2014 contract. In late May, Exxon, Cnooc, and Hess appeared before the arbitration panel.

A few hours after it won the dispute, Chevron announced that it finalized its acquisition deal and said it intends to nominate Hess’s CEO, John Hess, as a board member. Previously, the Federal Trade Commission banned Hess from serving on the board. However, the FTC reversed that ban on Thursday.

Chevron’s victory was essential, given its difficult year, which has included cost-cutting measures such as business restructuring and layoffs for around 8,000 employees. In recent years, Chevron has underperformed in the stock market compared to Exxon. Without the Hess deal, Chevron would have had to pursue another major acquisition in order for the company to have enough production growth after 2030, according to experts.

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth hailed the

transaction, noting that it increases his company’s daily oil output to nearly 4 million barrels, and opens up growth and expansion opportunities in other places of the world.

“It makes our strong portfolio even stronger,” said Wirth. “We’ve got the highest cash margin in the industry. We’ve got low carbon intensity. We’re diversified across a variety of asset classes.”

Exxon’s loss, on the other hand, isn’t likely to significantly hurt the Houston-based oil company, given the company’s sky-high profits since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and the pandemic began to ease. Exxon expects to continue operating in Guyana just the same.

UK to Lower Voting Age

The United Kingdom will lower the voting age to 16, the British government announced Thursday. The decision has been hailed by some, while others have criticized the move as politically motivated.

In order for the government to lower the legal voting age from 18 to 16, both houses of Parliament will need to pass a

bill. Though it may take some time, the bill is expected to pass, since the ruling Labour Party controls most of the seats in the House of Commons. The House of Lords, which is composed of appointed members, is unlikely to block the legislation, since it was a key Labour campaign promise. Britain’s next general election is supposed to take place in 2029.

If the proposal becomes law, Britain would have over 1.6 million new eligible voters aged 16 to 17. Britain hasn’t expanded voting rights since 1969, when the United Kingdom lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

Opposition members claim that the move would benefit the Labour Party in future elections, since younger people in Britain tend to support left-leaning parties. In Britain, you have to be 18 or older to run in elections, serve in an armed combat role in the military, get married,

and purchase alcohol and lottery tickets. Supporters of the proposal note, however, that 16-year-olds can work, pay taxes, serve in the military, and leave school.

Lowering the voting age could boost voter turnout, which was at 59.7% in the 2024 general election, Britain’s lowest since 2001.

Additionally, the government announced its intention to automate much of the voter-registration system, requiring less information and allowing voters to use bank payment cards as proof of identity.

In Scotland and Wales, the voting age is already 16.

In another proposal announced Thursday, the government said it sought to restrict foreign donations to British political parties.

Elections in Japan

On Sunday, Japanese voters went to the polls for a key election for the parliament’s Upper House. A day later, news outlets projected that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and the Komeito party, its coalition partner, would lose their majority in the upper chamber.

According to NHK, LDP and Komeito together secured 47 seats, just three away from keeping the coalition’s Upper House majority. LDP won 39 seats and Komeito won eight.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), a top opposition party, won 21 seats. The Democratic Party For the People (DPP), another opposition party, won 17 seats, with four of its lawmakers up for reelection. Surprisingly, Sanseito, a small right-wing party with just one lawmaker up for reelection, secured 14 seats in the election. With three seats in the lower chamber, Sanseito has said it hopes to join a coalition following the next Lower House election.

“Parties like Sanseito and the DPP have functioned as vessels for that anti-LDP sentiment,” Kyoto University professor Hanako Ohmura, who specializes in public opinion and voting behavior, said. “That vague anti-LDP sentiment is, I think, what’s fueling the recent surge of

support for Sanseito and the DPP.”

Nippon Ishin no Kai was expected to secure seven seats; the Japanese Community Party was supposed to win three, and Reiwa Shinsengumi was also projected to secure three seats.

Kazuya Shimba, the Secretary-General of the DPP, has said his party would not join Ishiba’s coalition. Shimba claimed that the LDP’s most urgent issue was likely internal politics as opposed to coalition building.

“It seems the public believed that the government and ruling parties failed to respond effectively to various issues, including rising prices,” said Yu Uchiyama, a University of Tokyo political science professor, adding that the ruling party “received a harsh verdict.”

“The opposition’s call for a consumption tax cut appears to have appealed to voters more than the ruling party’s proposed cash handouts,” Uchiyama added.

The LDP hasn’t lost a majority in the upper chamber since 2007, during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s first term in office. Following the loss, Abe resigned, before becoming prime minister again in 2012. Ishiba, however, has said he wouldn’t resign, despite his coalition’s failure. Since Ishiba has been heavily involved in Japan’s ongoing tariff talks with the U.S., he is unlikely to step down now. However, after the negotiations are over, he is likely to face calls for his resignation. If negotiations fail, the United States says it will levy a 25% “reciprocal” tariff on Japanese goods by August 1.

In October 2024, Ishiba’s party lost its majority in a Lower House election.

“An LDP presidential race is inevitable. While it depends on when the next Lower House election will be held, the key question will be how much support Sanseito can retain in that next general election,” said Ohmura. “In other words, the question will be: Is the path of populism viable or not? That next general election — an election to choose the next administration — will reveal the answer.”

In the Upper House election, the two biggest issues were inflation and foreign communities. Ishiba’s coalition vowed to give money to all — foreign residents included — and extra support to low-income families and households with children. Opposition parties promised tax cuts to fight rising prices.

China Covered Up Lead Poisoning

18 in a case of lead poisoning that sickened more than 250 kindergartners in western China, Chinese authorities said, in a rare acknowledgment of a high-level hush-up of a public scandal.

Authorities in Gansu province also accused education officials in the city of Tianshui of turning a blind eye to the fact that the kindergarten in question was unlicensed and accepted unauthorized gifts from an investor in the school. Food safety inspections at the school were perfunctory, according to an official report released Sunday by a special investigative team convened by the Gansu provincial Communist Party committee and government.

The poisoning stemmed from powdered pigments that the school staff had used as food coloring, the report said. Some of the pigments, which were marked as inedible on its packaging, consisted of more than 20% lead; lead levels in the food the children were given exceeded the national food safety standard by 2,000 times.

But the investigation results further fueled public outrage at the official misconduct on multiple levels. Some parents at the preschool had already said they suspected a cover-up, even taking their children to other provinces for testing.

Parents who took their children for testing in neighboring Shaanxi province said the results of tests administered there showed significantly higher lead levels than those taken in Gansu.

Six people have been arrested, including the preschool’s principal, the school cooks and the investor who had given unauthorized gifts. Another 17 people are under criminal investigation, including leaders of the hospital, the provincial health commission and the city’s education bureau.

The principal and the investor had bought the pigment to make the school’s food look more appealing in photos, in an effort to attract more students, according to the report. The school cooks colored buns to look like bright yellow corn on the cob, and adorned cakes with layers of teal and pink.

School staff, including the principal, ate the contaminated food, too. Out of 251 children and 34 teaching staff currently at the school, 247 children and 28 staff

members had elevated blood lead levels in recent testing. So did five students who graduated from the kindergarten last year.

As of Sunday, 234 children had been hospitalized and discharged, and one was still in the hospital, the report said.

(© The New York Times)

Druze, Army Clash in Syria

On Sunday, after a week of clashes in Syria, Druze militias and Bedouin fighters stopped fighting. According to Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba, Sweida was “evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city’s neighborhoods were halted.”

On July 13, fighting broke out in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province after a group of armed Bedouins assaulted and mugged a Druze man. The incident sparked a series of sectarian clashes and kidnappings, with local Druze militias facing off against armed Bedouin forces.

Soon thereafter, the government of Syria sent troops to the area. While Syrian officials say the military forces were there to stop the fighting, the Druze militias believed that the military came to help the Bedouins. The Druze thus fought with the Syrian military, who were reportedly hostile to the Druze, in an effort to force them out of the area.

At that point, Israel joined the conflict, launching strikes at Syria in an effort to protect the Druze, a religious minority known for its loyalty to the Jewish state, and prevent Syrian forces from moving closer to Syria’s border with Israel. Fifteen government personnel reportedly died as a result of Israel’s strikes. The strikes hit the Syrian defense ministry’s central Damascus headquarters and other government targets.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 1,100 people — including 326 Druze fighters, 262 Druze civilians, 312 government personnel, and 21 Sunni Bedouin — died in the sectarian clashes, which lasted a week. Three Bedouin civilians were executed by Druze militias, while 165 Druze civilians were killed.

On Saturday, Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced a ceasefire between the warring groups. However, the two sides quickly broke the truce. Al-Sharaa is more aligned with the Bedouin side than with the Druze.

A day later, the fighting stopped. Bedouin fighters withdrew from the area, and government security forces blocked roads to stop fighters from entering Sweida, according to the observatory.

The clashes caused power cuts, as well as food and water shortages. On Sunday, the Syrian Red Crescent said it would bring 32 trucks full of food, medication, water, fuel, and more to the area. More aid is being sent by the Syrian Health Ministry and Israel.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, criticized Israel for striking Syria during the conflict, saying that the intervention was poorly timed, unnecessary, and done without the U.S.’s knowledge. Barrack also hailed U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to remove sanctions on Syria.

“President Trump’s decision to lift sanctions was a principled step, offering the Syrian people a chance to move beyond years of unimaginable suffering and atrocities,” Barrack posted on social media. “Yet, this fragile ambition is now overshadowed by profound shock, as brutal acts by warring factions on the ground undermine the government’s authority and disrupt any semblance of order. All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities, and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance.”

Measles in Canada

Canada has seen over 3,800 cases of measles this year — almost three times more than the United States. The majority of infected people in Canada are children and infants.

Canada, the only western country among the top ten countries with measles outbreaks, ranked at number eight globally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No place in North America is seeing measles spread faster, per capita, than the province of Alberta, the outbreak’s current epicenter.

Ontario was also hit the hardest.

The last time Canada saw this many cases was in 1998, the year measles was eradicated. Since then, Canada’s last peak was in 2011, which saw 750 infections.

Other countries in North America and Europe are also seeing a rise in measles cases. U.S. measles cases reached a 33year record in 2025. In 2024, England saw almost 3,000 cases, a 12-year record. It’s unclear why Canada is seeing more measles cases than the United States. Experts believe that the actual number of cases in the U.S. and Canada is much higher than those reported.

Outbreaks have been attributed to low vaccination rates among children. Some immunizations were delayed because of the pandemic, while some infected babies were too young for the MMR vaccine, which has a 97% chance of preventing measles, mumps, and rubella.

The outbreak in Ontario, which started in late 2024, began when a person was infected with measles at a Mennonite gathering in New Brunswick. That individual then returned to Ontario, where they infected others. Mennonites, a Christian group with some anti-vaccine members, were hit the hardest by the outbreak. According to Public Health Ontario, nearly all infected individuals weren’t vaccinated.

Jet Crashes into Bangladeshi School

A Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft, operated by Bangladeshi Air Force pilot Flight Lt. Mohammed Toukir Islam, crashed on Monday at 1:06 p.m. local time minutes after takeoff due to a “technical malfunction,” hitting Milestone School and College, a school in Dhaka, the capital. The crash killed the pilot and 24 others, mostly students, according to officials.

Additionally, 171 people were hurt in the crash, after which the aircraft burst into flames. Around two dozen people were critically injured. The victims were transported to hospitals, and many were left with burns after being rescued from

the burning school building, which was two stories high. Over 60 students, a number of whom are ages 12 to 16, were treated at a hospital that specializes in treating burn victims.

At first, 20 people were reported dead. That night, another five succumbed to their injuries.

The pilot made “every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,” according to the military.

Tragically, the plane instead crashed in a densely populated area. The school is in the Uttara neighborhood, which is just seven miles away from the A.K. Khandaker air force base.

At the crash scene, people frantically searched for their children and loved ones in the debris.

On Tuesday, the government declared a national day of mourning. Across Bangladesh, flags flew at half-staff. The military and Muhammad Yunus, the coun-

with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance.”

“Sleeping Prince” Dies

A royal in the Saudi ruling family who had spent two decades in a coma died last week.

Prince Alwaleed bin Khalid bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was injured in a car accident in London in 2005. He had been in the city attending military college. Since the incident, he has been in a coma and is known in the Saudi world as the “Sleeping Prince.”

The prince’s funeral was held on Sunday in Riyadh, with services lasting three days.

The prince was the son of Prince Khaled bin Talal Al Saud and a nephew of Saudi billionaire, Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud and Princess Rima bin Talal. Prince Khaled said in a post on social media on Saturday that his son had “passed away to Allah’s mercy today.”

The prince was studying in the U.K. when he was involved in a road collision at age 15, leading to a brain hemorrhage. He then spent roughly 20 years under “close medical supervision” without regaining consciousness, according to English-language Saudi newspaper, the Saudi Gazette.

The prince had “brief episodes of limited movement” over the years, the newspaper reported.

Afghanistan’s Water Crisis

try’s interim leader, said the crash would be investigated. Yunus said the “heartbreaking accident” was a “moment of deep national grief.”

The school hosts around 2,000 students, including elementary, middle, and high schoolers, according to Rafiqa Taha, a student who wasn’t in the building during the crash.

“Our hearts go out to the bereaved families,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India stands in solidarity

According to a recent report by Mercy Corps, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, may become the first modern capital in the world to run out of water.

Population growth, extreme temperatures, and relentless over-extraction have depleted groundwater levels, experts say, and nearly half the city’s boreholes have already gone dry.

It’s an emergency that “is not just a water issue,” warned Marianna Von Zahn, Mercy Corps’ Afghanistan director of programs. “It’s a health crisis, an eco-

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nomic crisis, and a humanitarian emergency all in one.”

Less than three decades ago, Kabul was home to less than 2 million people. But when the Taliban was brought down in 2001, migrants poured into the city. As its population grew, so did the demand for water.

Kabul relies almost entirely on groundwater, replenished by snow and glacier melt from the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. But years of mismanagement and over-extraction have caused those levels to drop by up to 30 meters over the last decade, according to Mercy Corps.

Kabul now extracts 44 million cubic meters more groundwater each year than nature can replenish, Mercy Corps said, a staggering imbalance that’s steadily draining the city’s reserves and its residents’ finances.

Some lucky families pool together their resources to dig deep wells on their property. But when they hit water, most of what they can extract is contaminated.

Up to 80% of Kabul’s groundwater is contaminated, according to Mercy Corps, a consequence of widespread pit latrine use and industrial waste pollution. Many people get sick from inadvertently drinking polluted water.

“We are getting more and more rain, but less and less snow,” noted Najibullah Sadid, a water resource management researcher and member of the Afghan Water and Environment Professionals Network. “That’s impacting a city which has less infrastructure to regulate the flash floods… Snow was helping us, but now we have less, and that’s harming us in terms of groundwater recharge.”

If current trends continue, UNICEF predicts Kabul could run out of groundwater by 2030.

For those who can’t dig deep wells, they need to buy water from licensed tanker sellers. Others walk long distances to mosques, which provide water.

Women shoulder much of this crisis — forced to walk for hours across Kabul just to fetch what little water they can, risking their safety under the Taliban’s oppressive rule which prohibits them from going outside without a mahram, or male guardian.

Sentences for Antisemitic Riot in Russia

Last week, Russian courts sentenced 135 people to lengthy prison sentences in connection with a mass antisemitic riot in October 2023 at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region.

Hundreds of rioters had stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala, where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived. Israel’s war against Hamas had begun just a few weeks earlier.

Investigators said they completed probes into the participation of 139 rioters in the events.

Three additional people, whom they say had organized the riots via posts on a Telegram channel, were put on Russia’s wanted list.

The 135 convicted people were given prison terms ranging from six and a half to 15 years in prison for participating in mass riots and other crimes.

In January, four members of the mob were sentenced to a decade in a penal colony. In August, five rioters were sentenced to jail terms ranging from six to nine years.

Video footage at the time showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors, and running through the airport shouting “Allahu Akbar” (G-d is great).

More than 20 people were injured before security forces could contain the unrest. No passengers on the plane were hurt.

The Republic of Dagestan has seen notable amounts of antisemitism since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. Last July, Jewish graves in the area were destroyed, though authorities said they were damaged in a traffic accident. Last June, 22 people were killed by Islamic State-linked terrorists in an attack that targeted two synagogues and two churches.

Deadly Fire in Iraqi Mall

with more than a dozen people still to be identified.

The blaze occurred in the Corniche Hypermarket mall in the town of Kut in Wasit province. The five-story building housed restaurants, shops and a supermarket. It had opened just days before the fire, which broke out on Wednesday on the second floor in an area selling perfume and cosmetics.

At least 45 people were rescued from the fire. Most of those who perished were on the upper floors

While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, officials blamed lack of safety standards in the building for the scale of the tragedy. Provincial Gov. Mohammed al-Miyahi has said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits.

Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.

In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.

Indonesian Ferry Catches Fire

Three people were killed on Sunday when a ferry in Indonesia caught fire. At least 575 people were rescued from the burning vessel. Two people are still missing.

The KM Barcelona V-A caught fire in

the sea off North Sulawesi province as it was making its regular half-day journey between the ports of Melonguane and Manado.

A coast guard ship, six rescue vessels and several inflatable boats were deployed in the rescue operation. The crews pulled many people from the sea and took them to nearby islands, and local fishermen also saved some survivors wearing life jackets as they were drifting in the choppy waters.

The ferry’s manifest initially registered only 280 passengers and 15 crew members. It is common for there to be discrepancies between what is written on the manifest and the actual number of passengers on a vessel.

The ferry had a capacity of 600 people.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

More Pain

On Monday, an IDF reservist soldier was killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the second death in one day as the army presses ahead with a new offensive in the area.

The hero who lost his life was Sgt. Maj. (res.) Vladimir Loza, 36, of the 5th Brigade’s 7020th Battalion, from Ashkelon.

Two other soldiers were injured in the incident.

According to a preliminary IDF probe, Loza was killed when a blast caused a building to collapse during operations in the Rafah area. The military suspects the blast was caused by an explosive device planted by Gazan fighters.

Earlier on Monday, Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen, 19, died fighting in Gaza. He had been in the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion. He died in an operational accident at

a fortified position in Khan Younis, north of Rafah.

The explosion that killed him is believed to have been caused by improper handling of an explosive device. A fellow combat officer from the same battalion was seriously wounded in the blast.

Cohen hailed from Holon and left behind his parents and two younger siblings.

Loza’s death raised to 456 the toll of Israeli forces killed fighting inside Gaza since the war started with the devastating October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel.

On Sunday, the IDF had issued an evacuation warning for several zones in Deir al-Balah, ahead of a new ground offensive in the area.

The military said that before operations began, it warned the civilian population to evacuate “and was in contact with the international organizations working in the area.”

“We emphasize that the IDF maintains continuous and consistent contact with the international organizations, and throughout the war, the IDF has facilitated the safe evacuations of their personnel from evacuated areas, in coordination with the troops and in accordance with operational requirements,” the statement continued.

The coordination efforts are to “facilitate the relocation of critical facilities to alternate locations based on the needs of the organizations,” the IDF said.

Israel’s Top Ace Dies

On Saturday, Brig. Gen. (res.) Giora Even Epstein, the Israeli Air Force’s most decorated fighter pilot and the world’s top supersonic jet ace, died at the age of 87.

Even Epstein was nicknamed the “Hawkeye,” and was credited with 17 aerial shoot downs – 16 Egyptian fighter jets and one Egyptian helicopter – making him a global aviation legend.

With an unmatched combat record, he served in the Israeli Air Force from 1961 until 1997 and later flew for El Al.

Even Epstein was born in 1938 in Kibbutz Negba in what was then called Pal-

estine and developed a love for aviation from a young age as he watched Air Force planes fly above the southern community. When he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1956, he was initially rejected from the Air Force’s flight school for medical reasons and enlisted as a paratrooper.

After his mandatory service, he reapplied for flight school and was accepted, graduating with honors in 1963.

Four years later, during the Six Day War, Even Epstein scored his first kill while flying a French-made Dassault Mirage III, shooting down an Egyptian Sukhoi-7 fighter jet over the Sinai.

During the subsequent “War of Attrition” between Israel and Egypt, Even Epstein shot down another four Egyptian jets, earning him the honor of “flying ace,” a title given to pilots who have five or more confirmed aerial kills.

When Israel’s neighbors attacked again in 1973, beginning the Yom Kippur War, Even Epstein downed another 12 Egyptian aircraft — one helicopter and 11 fighter jets — making him the “ace of aces,” the most successful fighter pilot of the supersonic jet era.

For his role in Israel’s victory, he was given the Medal of Distinguished Service, one of the country’s highest military honors.

After the war, he became commander of the IAF’s 117 Squadron and retired from regular service in 1977. Over the next several decades, Even Epstein served in the reserves, flying thousands of hours, including in the F-16, finally retiring in full in 1997, over 40 years after he was initially drafted. He then became a commercial pilot for El Al.

Iranian Spies

Two Israeli citizens have been charged with spying for Iran.

According to law enforcement, 33-year-old Tahani Abu Samhan, a teacher from the Bedouin village of Abu Queider in the Negev, had been in contact with an Iranian agent for a year. She allegedly filmed fighter jets taking off from the southern Nevatim airbase during the war with Iran at the behest of her handler,

then passed the videos along to the agent.

Abu Samhan was paid in cash for being a spy.

Police said she was charged in the Beersheba District Court with the offenses of maintaining contact with a foreign agent and passing intelligence to the enemy.

In a separate statement, the Shin Bet and police announced that an IDF soldier was also charged with spying on behalf of Iran in return for financial compensation.

After being detained recently and following an investigation led by the Shin Bet, the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit and the Military Police, military prosecutors filed an indictment against the soldier on Thursday.

The joint statement said the soldier “knowingly maintained contact with Iranian elements and carried out tasks for them, including transferring footage of interceptions and filming rocket impact sites in Israel.”

The Shin Bet noted that the information the soldier provided to Iran was not classified and did not come to the soldier as part of his role in the IDF.

The agency added that the incident was “especially grave” because the Israeli soldier “maintained contact with the enemy.” Military prosecutors charged the

soldier with contacting a foreign agent and transmitting information to the enemy.

Over the past two years, Iran has ramped up its efforts to recruit Israelis as spies in exchange for money. In most cases, Israelis are recruited by Iranian handlers online and begin by carrying out small, innocuous tasks that gradually grow into more serious offenses, like intelligence gathering and even assassination plots.

According to the Israel Police, at least 47 suspects involved in 27 separate cases have been arrested since October 7, 2023. Charges have been filed against 40 of them, according to a security official.

Panel Recommends AG’s Dismissal

On Sunday, all five members of a recently established ministerial committee voted to endorse the firing of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. On July 27, the cabinet will hold an official vote on the issue.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben

Gvir, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, and Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli are part of the committee, which is headed by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli. The committee, which was established in June after the government failed to oust Baharav-Miara using a 2000 cabinet resolution, has alleged that the attorney general has consistently blocked the government’s policies and appointments; enforced the law in criminal proceedings when it was in her best interest to do so; repeatedly abstained from representing the government in legal proceedings; regularly labeled government legislation unconstitutional; and sometimes denied the government the right to independent legal representation when she disagreed with it.

Baharav-Miara refused to appear before the committee’s two hearings regarding her firing, even though the panel requested her presence. She has maintained that her actions were lawful and necessary to prevent the government from breaking the law.

On Friday, the High Court of Justice ruled that the government’s potential decision to dismiss Baharav-Miara cannot be put into effect until the court rules on the move’s legality. However, on Sunday morning, the attorney general requested that the court also pause the firing process.

“The situation in which, for five weeks, the government has been advancing, step by step, a manifestly unlawful process for firing the attorney general is leading to ever-growing institutional damage to the Attorney General’s Office and the entire civil service,” she said. “Even if at the end the process and its results will be invalidated, the very fact of the advancement of an unlawful process — going as far as a debate in cabinet on the basis of a tainted decision — gives weight to arguments for the legitimacy of the process.”

However, Judge Noam Sohlberg, a week ago, said that the court would only get involved if the cabinet decides to fire the attorney general. Thus, it isn’t likely that Sohlberg will fulfill Baharav-Miara’s request to stop the government until then.

Likud to Fire Defense Committee Head

The ruling Likud party will hold an election on Wednesday to replace MK Yuli Edelstein, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s head.

Edelstein recently came under fire after he refused to push forward legislation to make charedi military exemptions law.

Following Edelstein’s efforts to promote an alternate bill that would implement major draft quotas and punishments for draft dodgers, two charedi parties left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government last week in protest of Edelstein.

First, the United Torah Judaism party left the coalition last Monday because of Edelstein’s proposed enlistment bill. Two days later, Shas exited the government, though the party stayed in the coalition.

On Monday afternoon, Ofir Katz, a Likud faction chairman, informed party MKs that elections to replace Edelstein would soon be held, and that nominations for a new committee head would be accepted until Tuesday at 8 p.m., after which the winner will be decided during a meeting on Wednesday. After the results are announced, the winner will have to be confirmed by the House Committee and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

After Katz’s announcement, several lawmakers and ministers from Likud urged the prime minister to hold an “urgent” meeting in an effort to work on an outline for a law that would “ensure continued partnership with the ultra-Orthodox public and its representatives in the Knesset.” However, it is nearly impossible for a charedi enlistment law to be passed by the end of this week, which is when the current Knesset’s legislative session ends. On October 19, the Knesset will meet again.

Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky said he would run for the position. On Sunday, Milwidsky called for the dismissal of Edelstein, whom he said acted in an “oppositional” way toward Netanyahu and the coalition. Last Thursday, Milwidsky said that, “as a Jew,” despite being secular, he is adamantly against “harming the

“We need soldiers, yes, but no soldier will help if we break the thing that truly holds us up. And that thing is not some Western value that was born 200 years ago — it’s the Torah, it’s Judaism,” Milwidsky said.

Shortly before Edelstein’s dismissal was announced, Milwidsky and Amit Halevi, another Knesset member from Likud, forced a filibuster, blocking Edelstein from making progress on a military pension bill that was unrelated to the issue of drafting Charedim.

MK Eli Dalal said he too would compete for the position. MK Nissim Vaturi also announced his intention to run. Likud MK Tally Gotliv, on the other hand, endorsed MK Boaz Bismuth for the role.

Opposition leaders have slammed the move, which Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid called “illegitimate.”

“Let every mother of Israel know that Benjamin Netanyahu is selling her children, the security of all of us, the very idea of equality before the law, to the charedim,” Lapid said. “I hereby inform the prime minister, if Yuli Edelstein is removed from the position of chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the opposition members serving on the committee will resign.”

Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz told reporters at a party meeting, “Israel’s security is being sacrificed on the altar of preserving the coalition — every Likud MK who votes in favor of ousting Edelstein should have the courage to look our fighters in the eyes first.”

Edelstein has insisted that a conscription law must include punishments for those who evade the draft. Charedi parties have said that any bill needs to include full amnesty for yeshiva students who have dodged the draft, despite being ordered to enlist. However, Edelstein’s proposed bill did not include amnesty. According to reports, the bill would obligate exempt students to use a fingerprint scanner every time they enter and exit their yeshivas.

Department’s bomb squad were killed in an explosion on Friday at a training facility.

For now, investigators are unsure what caused the blast.

On Thursday, a day before the blast, residents of a condo in Santa Monica were notified that “an unidentified potential explosive device has been found in the garage” and that everyone needed to evacuate. The bomb squad had found what appeared to be explosive devices, which they brought back to their headquarters. The next day, members of the bomb squad were killed in an explosion at the same place where these devices were brought. Still, officials are not confirming that those devices ignited the blast.

Rep. Mark Green Resigns

Sunday was Rep. Mark Green’s last day in office, leaving only 219 Republicans and 212 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

There are four vacancies in the House now, including those from late Democratic Reps. Sylvester Turner of Texas, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and Gerry Connolly of Virginia.

3 Deputies Killed in Explosion

Three sheriff deputies who were members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s

The explosion happened early Friday morning at a sprawling sheriff’s department facility in East Los Angeles that is home to training programs and elite units such as the Special Enforcement Bureau, which conducts counterterrorism and rescue operations throughout the county and handles explosives.

Bomb squads handle potentially explosive materials almost daily in Los Angeles. Sheriff Robert Luna said the unit responds to roughly 1,100 calls per year, “dealing with some very dangerous situations or items.”

“So these aren’t people who don’t do this very often,” Sheriff Luna said. “They are fantastic experts.”

Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn are the deputies who lost their lives in the blast.

Detectives Kelley-Eklund, Lemus and Osborn had a combined 74 years of service in the department, and in the last few years, they had been assigned to the elite Special Enforcement Bureau’s arson and explosives arm.

Late Friday afternoon, hundreds of law enforcement officers in black-andblue cruisers and on motorcycles solemnly escorted three vans containing the bodies of the fallen deputies from the training facility to the medical examiner’s office. As residents gathered on the street waving American flags, other officers lining the route saluted the passing vans, standing as one in the stillness of the moment.

The Republican congressman from Tennessee said last month that he would leave Congress for the private sector once the House voted again on President Donald Trump’s ”big, beautiful bill.”

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from Congress. Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up. As a result, today I notified the Speaker and the House of Representatives that I will resign from Congress as soon as the House votes once again on the reconciliation package,” Green said. Green said that serving Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District was “the honor of a lifetime.”

“They asked me to deliver on the conservative values and principles we all hold dear, and I did my level best to do so. Along the way, we passed historic tax cuts, worked with President Trump to secure the border, and defended innocent life. I am extremely proud of my work as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and want to thank my staff, both in my 7th District office, as well as the professional staff on that committee,” Green said.

He had said he would retire at another point but ended up staying on.

“Though I planned to retire at the end of the previous Congress, I stayed to ensure that President Trump’s border security measures and priorities make it through Congress,” he said. “By overseeing the border security portion of the reconciliation package, I have done that. After that, I will retire, and there will be a special election to replace me.”

Green had been in Congress since 2019. He is a veteran of the Army.

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Green has endorsed Matt Van Epps to replace him in the U.S. House of Representatives, calling him a “true warrior.”

Green and Van Epps both served in the same Army special operations unit, which Green described as “a brotherhood that cannot be replicated anywhere else.”

U.S.-Venezuela Prisoner Swap

On Friday, the Trump administration and Venezuela carried out a major prisoner swap. Venezuela freed 10 American prisoners. In exchange, 252 Venezuelan deportees whom the United States imprisoned in El Salvador were returned home.

As part of the agreement, 48 Venezuelan political prisoners were also freed. “Until today, more Americans were

wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced. “Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.”

A U.S. official named the freed Americans as Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, Ronald Oribio Quintana, Erick Oribio Quintana, Fabian Buglione Reyes, Renzo Humanchumo Castillo, Juan Jose Faria Bricen, and Danud Hanid Ortiz.

The Venezuelan nationals arrived in their home country on Friday night. They were transported from El Salvador by air, according to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Relying on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration deported over 200 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador. There, they were imprisoned in an infamous prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The U.S. government has said that those deportees were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Whether the Venezuelan government will now imprison those nationals is currently unknown.

A senior U.S. administration official said the exchange was “down to the wire.”

“We’re dealing with a regime in which, you know, there’s always a degree of uncertainty on their side, a degree of uncertainty from our side, and things that you would normally expect to move in a in a normal way tend to not move in a normal way,” the official said, noting that Venezuela took “one last stand in terms of delaying things” as a “power flex mechanism for them.”

“But at the end of the day, everything worked out, everything is fine, and everyone is safely on the way back to be reunited with their loved ones,” added the official.

On Friday afternoon, Venezuelan officials said a flight arrived from Texas carrying a number of Venezuelan nationals, including children whose parents were previously deported.

According to Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, “all the Venezuelan nationals” held in his country have been freed. He published footage on social media of handcuffed individuals entering an airplane.

During talks, Rubio worked closely with Bukele. The State Department’s Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) also played a role in planning the transfer, according to a U.S. official.

On Friday, Adam Boehler, a hostage envoy for the U.S., held a meeting in El Salvador with Bukele and the freed U.S. nationals, whose health was confirmed. From there, the Americans were brought home.

Following the swap, President Donald Trump hailed Rubio as “a natural.”

“There’s never going to be anybody better than – the job you’re doing right now,” Trump said.

U.S. to Withdraw from UNESCO

On Tuesday, the United States announced that it will once again pull out of the U.N.’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because it believes that its involvement is not in the country’s national interest. It also cited the agency’s anti-Israel stance. This decision comes

only two years after the United States rejoined UNESCO after leaving in 2018, during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first administration.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the withdrawal was linked to UNESCO’s perceived agenda to “advance divisive social and cultural causes.”

She added in a statement that UNESCO’s decision “to admit the ‘State of Palestine’ as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”

The decision will take effect at the end of December 2026.

This will be the third time that the United States has left UNESCO, which is based in Paris, and the second time during a Trump administration. It last rejoined the agency in 2023, under the Biden administration.

UNESCO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay said she “deeply” regrets the U.S. decision but said that it was expected and added that the agency “has prepared for it.” She also denied accusations of anti-Israel bias.

“These claims ... contradict the reality of UNESCO’s efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism,” she said.

The Trump administration in 2017 announced that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The U.S. and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011.

“The reasons put forward by the United States of America are the same as seven years ago, even though the situation has changed profoundly, political tensions have receded, and UNESCO today constitutes a rare forum for consensus on concrete and action-oriented multilateralism,” Azoulay added.

The U.S. withdrawal is likely to affect UNESCO because the U.S. provides a notable share of the agency’s budget. Even so, UNESCO has diversified its funding sources in recent years, and the U.S. contribution has decreased, representing only 8% of the agency’s total budget.

Azoulay pledged that UNESCO will carry out its missions despite “inevitably reduced resources.” The agency is not considering any staff layoffs at this stage.

The United States previously pulled out of UNESCO under the Reagan administration in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance the interests of the Soviet Union. It rejoined in 2003 during George W. Bush’s presidency.

San Fran to Tackle Homeless in RVs

Hundreds of people have been living on the streets of San Francisco in RVs, as they can’t afford proper housing. But the city is set to tackle these vehicles and clean up the streets. Now, it will adopt strict new parking limits the mayor says are necessary to keep sidewalks clear and prevent trash buildup.

The policy, up for final approval by San Francisco supervisors this week, targets at least 400 recreational vehicles in the city of 800,000 people.

Mayor Daniel Lurie and other supporters of the policy say motor homes are not suitable for long-term living and the city has a duty to both provide shelter to those in need and clean up the streets.

“We absolutely want to serve those families, those who are in crisis across San Francisco,” said Kunal Modi, who advises the mayor on health, homelessness and family services. “We feel the responsibility to help them get to a stable solution. And at the same time, we want to make sure that that stability is somewhere indoors and not exposed in the public roadway.”

Critics of the plan, however, say that it’s cruel to force people to give up their only home in exchange for a shot at traditional housing when there is not nearly enough units for all the people who need help; the mayor is only offering additional money to help 65 households.

San Francisco, like other U.S. cities, has seen an explosion in recent years of people living out of vehicles and RVs as the cost of living has risen.

The mayor’s proposal sets a two-hour parking limit citywide for all RVs and oversized vehicles longer than 22 feet or higher than 7 feet, regardless of whether they are being used as housing.

Under the accompanying permit program, RV residents registered with the city as of May are exempt from the parking limits. In exchange, they must accept the city’s offer of temporary or longer-term housing and get rid of their RV when it’s time to move. The city has budgeted more than half a million dollars to

buy RVs from residents at $175 per foot.

The permits will last for six months. People in RVs who arrive after May will not be eligible for the permit program and must abide by the two-hour rule.

MLK Files Released

On Monday, the Trump administration released a trove of records from the 1968 assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Over 240,000 pages of records were made available on the website of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The Washington, D.C.-based agency says the release is in response to an executive order from Trump’s White House dating back to January.

King’s family was not happy with the release, saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance of the Black leader was tainted by the agency’s political bent at the time.

“We recognize that the release of documents concerning the assassination of our father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has long been a subject of interest, captivating public curiosity for decades,” the family said in a statement. But “the release of these files must be viewed within their full historical context. During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Hoover’s goal, the family says, was to find dirt on MLK in order to discredit him and the civil rights movement.

In January, Trump’s Executive Order 14176 ordered the release of materials in connection with the assassinations of King, President John F. Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Files related to the JFK assassination were released in March.

Trump’s move to declassify the materials related to MLK also comes amid a political firestorm in Washington over the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who died while awaiting trial in 2019.

Trump on the campaign trail promised to release records related to Epstein, and Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier in the year that she had a supposed Epstein client list “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

“We need to be crystal clear on the fact that Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “It’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base.”

Bernice King, the CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, posted a picture on social media of her father with a nonplussed expression and a caption reading, “Now, do the Epstein files.”

MLK was killed on the balcony outside his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, later confessed to the crime and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term. But Ray later tried to withdraw his confession and said he was set up by a man named Raoul. He maintained until his death in 1998 that he did not kill King.

Coca-Cola with Cane Sugar

Bye-bye corn syrup. Coca-Cola has announced that it will release a new version of Coke made with cane sugar, following a social media post from President Donald Trump last week in which he claimed he persuaded the company to replace high-fructose corn syrup.

The company said on Tuesday it will launch an “offering made with U.S. cane sugar” in the fall as part of its product range. Some versions of Coke already use cane sugar, including Coca-Cola sold in Mexico.

“This addition is designed to complement the company’s strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences,” Coca-Cola said in a statement.

CEO James Quincey said on a call with analysts that he thinks the drink “will be an enduring option for consumers” and noted that Coca-Cola uses cane sugar in

several other of its beverages sold in the U.S., including lemonade and coffee.

Cane sugar is “blended into some of our other products, and so we are definitely looking to use the whole toolkit of available sweetening options where there are consumer preferences,” he said.

American-made Coca-Cola is made with high-fructose corn syrup, an ingredient that Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has aggressively advocated against.

Kennedy, who has led the charge to remove many artificial and highly processed ingredients from American foods, has called high-fructose corn syrup a “formula for making you obese and diabetic” in a September episode of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s podcast. Corn syrup is a common and cheap sweetener, which is why Coca-Cola made the switch many years ago. Still, whether it’s made with sugar or corn syrup, sugar-filled soda isn’t heathy.

Conviction in Etan Patz Killing Overturned

His face was everywhere.

Etan Patz, who disappeared in 1979 at the age of 6, gazed at American households across their breakfast tables every morning, his grinning photo prominently featured on milk cartons as police in Manhattan pursued thousands of tips in their futile efforts to find him.

It would take more than three decades before a man, Pedro Hernandez, was arrested and eventually convicted in Etan’s killing.

But on Monday, Hernandez’s conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court, reopening a case that had finally appeared resolved. A three-judge panel found that the trial judge had improperly instructed the jurors, who had asked about the several confessions that Hernandez had made, including one that he offered without being read his Miranda rights.

The judges ordered that Hernandez be released or a new trial be held within a “reasonable period,” a timeline to be determined by a federal judge.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin

Bragg will decide whether to pursue such a trial in a case originally brought by his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr. A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Emily Tuttle, said the office is “reviewing the decision.”

Etan’s abrupt disappearance decades ago — and the killing of 6-year-old Adam Walsh two years later — ushered in an era in which children who formerly had been left to their own devices were more closely watched for fear of abduction.

Hernandez’s arrest and conviction for killing Etan might have seemed to end the case. But in its Monday ruling, the appeals court noted that the jurors had asked how they should consider the fact that Hernandez had confessed before being read his Miranda rights, then repeated the confession afterward. According to the appeals court, the trial judge, Maxwell Wiley of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, minimized the significance of that sequence of events.

The judges, who serve on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, noted that the Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional for law enforcement officials to first extract confessions without Miranda warnings, only to ask defendants to repeat them after being made aware of their rights.

One of Hernandez’s trial lawyers, Harvey Fishbein, said that his team has always maintained that the confession was false. The 51-page ruling issued Monday shows “that an innocent man was convicted,” he said. (© The New York Times)

Drug Lord Extradited to U.S.

José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, the infamous leader of the Los Choneros gang, arrived in the United States on Sunday following his extradition from Ecuador. A day later, Macías appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, where he pleaded not guilty to seven counts of cocaine distribution and conspiracy and the illegal use and smuggling of firearms.

“Macías Villamar poses an extraordinary danger to the community,” wrote U.S. prosecutors. “The Court should en-

ter a permanent order of detention, as no condition or combination of conditions can assure the safety of the community or assure Macías Villamar’s appearance at trial.”

The judge agreed to prosecutors’ request that Macías be held pending trial, given that he is a flight risk. Macías’s next court date has been set for September 19. U.S. prosecutors allege that Macías, 45, in 2020, became the leader of the violent Los Choneros gang, which uses bribes, military-grade weapons such as machine guns and grenades, and hitmen who kill, torture, and abduct individuals in Ecuador. Additionally, the gang collaborates with Mexican drug cartels to ship cocaine and firearms to the U.S., according to prosecutors.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Los Choneros is “Ecuador’s most violent and powerful transnational criminal organization.”

He could be jailed for 20 years to life if he is found guilty. His attorney, Alexei Schacht, who has maintained that Macías is innocent, said he looks forward to seeing proof from the government of his client’s guilt. During Macías’s detainment, his health issues, including high blood pressure, gastritis, and bullet fragments in his body caused by a shooting years ago, must be managed properly, as per an order from Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon.

While serving a 34-year drug trafficking, organized crime, and murder sentence in Ecuador, Macías escaped from a jail in Guayaquil in January 2024, only two days before authorities planned to relocate him to a maximum-security prison. According to intelligence officials, Macías, informed beforehand of the relocation plans, escaped by walking out of the prison’s front door. He was recaptured 18 months later, on June 25, after Ecuadorian officials, with the U.S.’s assistance, found Macías in a custom-built hidden bunker beneath the villa of his friend, Verónica Narcisa Briones Zambrano. The indictment against him, which replaced a previous one unveiled in April, was filed on June 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Previously, Macías escaped from prison in February 2013, though he was caught a few weeks later.

Macías remained in control of Los Choneros while in prison, “coordinating the trafficking of dangerous drugs and weapons,” according to U.S. prosecutors. He also had phones and internet access and maintained a presence on social media. In September 2023, Macías posted a music video recorded in his prison, taunting the Ecuadorian government.

Mars Meteorite for $5M

Cat-astrophe

Natasha Lavoie has a cat named Mauser. The cat loves being at home in the air conditioning.

But Natasha has been getting calls from people saying that they have found her cat, Torbo…only Natasha’s cat is Mauser and is not missing.

The mix-up comes from a website that has been selling t-shirts featuring a “missing cat” poster. The number on the fake ad on the shirt is Natasha’s.

“The use of a real number within the art created was not intentional,” a representative for the company said.

Still, “sometimes, like six times a day, I’m getting these really random phone calls and people leaving me voicemails saying that they found my cat and they want money for my cat,” Natasha said. “I’m like, ‘My cat’s at home in the air conditioning.’”

For now, the company has pulled the shirt from the website.

Despite the deluge of phone calls, Natasha doesn’t want to change her phone number.

“I’ve had my number for 20 years,” she said. “I don’t want to change it. I’ll just keep not answering.”

She added that she would like a “real apology” from the company.

“I feel like I deserve a t-shirt after this.”

That would be purr-fect.

Did you know?

Hold onto your planets. The largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth was sold for just over $5 million at an auction of rare geological and archaeological objects in New York on Wednesday.

The 54-pound rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023. Scientists believe that the rock had been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveled 140 million miles to Earth.

The identity of the buyer of the meteorite was not immediately disclosed. The final bid was $4.3 million. Adding various fees and costs, the official sale price was about $5.3 million, making it the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction, Sotheby’s said.

At the same auction, a skeleton of a dinosaur, known as a Ceratosaurus nasicornis, came in at a whopping $26 million after six minutes of bidding.

The official sale price was $30.5 million with fees and costs. It was the third-highest amount paid for a dinosaur at auction. A Stegosaurus skeleton called “Apex” holds the record after it was sold for $44.6 million last year at Sotheby’s. The skeleton that was auctioned off last week is more than six feet tall and almost 11 feet long.

The red, brown and gray Mars meteorite that was sold last week is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby’s says. It measures

“Brain freeze” is the result of the nerve endings in the roof of your mouth sending a message to your brain about the loss of heat.

nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches.

There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, the auction house said.

Out of this world.

Consulate Con

Indian police have arrested a man who was running a bogus embassy near the capital, New Dehli.

Harshvardhan Jain had rented space in a residential building and used cars with fake diplomatic plates to support his ruse.

The 47-year-old had impersonated an ambassador and allegedly duped people for money by promising overseas employment, according to senior police officer Sushil Ghule of Uttar Pradesh state’s special task force in northern India.

According to police, Jain claimed to have acted as an adviser or ambassador to entities such as “Seborga” or “Westarctica.”

Police recovered multiple doctored photographs showing Jain with world leaders and fake seals of India’s foreign ministry and nearly three dozen countries.

Jain was also suspected of illegal money laundering through shell companies abroad. He is also facing charges of forgery, impersonation and possessing fake documents.

Police recovered four cars bearing fake diplomatic plates and nearly 4.5 million Indian rupees ($52,095) and other foreign currencies in cash from Jain’s rented premises, which were adorned with international flags of several nations.

Welcome to the Republic of Make Believe.

Trolling…

One man’s trash is another man’s … troll?

Thomas Dambo and his team have been working for more than a decade turning wooden pallets, old furniture and wine barrels into statues that make a statement.

The Danish recycle artist and his team have created an army of 170 sculptures of trolls meant to show humans how to live better without trashing the planet.

The edifices in his “Trail of a Thousand Trolls” project can be found in more than 20 countries and 21 U.S. states. Each year, Dambo and his team make about 25 new trolls, which stand up to 40 feet tall.

“I believe that we can make anything out of anything,” said Dambo. “We are drowning in trash. But we also know that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

An installation of six sculptures called “Trolls Save the Humans” is on display at Filoli, a historic estate with 650 acres of forests and gardens in Woodside, California, about 30 miles south of San Francisco.

Dambo’s trolls each have their own personality and story. At Filoli, the troll Ibbi Pip builds birdhouses, Rosa Sunfinger plants flowers, and Kamma Can makes jewelry from people’s garbage.

“Each of them has a story to tell,” said Filoli CEO Kara Newport. “It inspires people to think of their own stories, what kind of creatures might live in their woods, and make that connection to living beings in nature.”

The trolls are supposedly there to teach humans how to live responsibly.

“They want to save the humans. So they do this by teaching them how to be better humans — be humans that don’t destroy nature,” said Dambo, 45, a poet and former hip-hop artist. “They hope to save them from being eaten by the older trolls.”

Dambo’s trolls are hidden in forests, mountains, jungles and grasslands throughout Europe and North America as well as countries such as Australia, Chile and South Korea.

“My exhibition now has four and a half million visitors a year globally, and it’s all made out of trash together with volunteers,” said Dambo. “That is such a huge proof of concept of why we should not throw things out, but why we should recycle it.”

From trash to troll… I feel like they’re just trolling us all.

Around the Community

Summer Fun at Simcha Day Camp

Yiddishkeit = Priceless

The

Shaar’s 2025 $1 Million Neshama Campaign Launches

There are campaigns that raise money.

And then there are campaigns that raise souls.

The Shaar’s Neshama Campaign is not just another fundraiser. It’s a statement — a bold, heartfelt declaration that Torah, mitzvos, and Jewish identity are not just valuable; they’re priceless.

With a goal of raising $1 million, the campaign invites the broader Jewish community to take part in something transformative: supporting a program that helps young men reconnect with their Jewish heritage in a real, lasting, and deeply personal way.

The Shaar isn’t your typical yeshiva. It’s a full-time, full-hearted program designed for baalei teshuva and young men who are just beginning to explore Torah and mitzvos. Some learn full days, while others work and return nightly for 3-4 hours of immersive, structured learning. But whether they’re in the beis medrash or at a community Shabbos table, they’re not just learning about Judaism — they’re living it.

What begins with curiosity quickly becomes something deeper. Shaar participants go on life-changing trips, engage in rich conversations, and build strong

friendships. They find 5T’s community mentors who become like family. The warmth, the sincerity, the growth — it’s not theoretical. It’s real. And it’s working.

Over the past few years, The Shaar has celebrated upwards of 40 weddings — young men who arrived with questions and are now building families grounded in Torah, mitzvos, and meaning. Many of them have chosen to stay and settle in the Far Rockaway and Five Towns community, adding even more light and energy to our neighborhoods.

This summer, The Shaar is hosting over 90 participants: a vibrant mix of full-time learners, working young professionals, summer interns, married alumni couples, and local community members. Morning sedarim are filled with chavrusas deep in Gemara, halacha and hashkafa. Evenings buzz with shiurim, farbrengens, and spirited kumzitzes. On Shabbos, Shaar guys are welcomed like family into homes throughout the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, slowly becoming part of the fabric of the community.

But this kind of impact doesn’t happen on its own.

Behind it all are three remarkable leaders whose shared vision, passion, and achrayus have built The Shaar into what it is today:

● Rabbi Mayer Hurwitz, Founder and Rosh Chaburah, oversees every detail of the Shaar’s spiritual and physical infrastructure. He founded the program in 2019, after years leading the Dallas Kollel, and now teaches advanced Gemara and delivers powerful Middos shiurim that shape the minds and hearts of the talmidim.

● Rabbi Ephraim Kamin, Mashgiach Ruchani, brings years of campus kiruv experience from UC Berkeley and Stanford. With deep warmth, clarity, and contagious energy, he guides students on their journey from secular life to spiritually vibrant Torah observance. He also brings new waves of students through immersive Shaar Shabbos experiences and Olami trips.

● Reb Shlomo Reich, Co-Founder, Co-Director and Senior Mashpia, infuses every part of The Shaar with vision, ruach, and relentless drive. What began as him hosting a few guests has grown into co-directing the program, building new initiatives like Olami House @ The Shaar, and bringing music, joy, and bold creativity into everything the Shaar touches. Together, they form a powerhouse team—building not just a yeshiva, but a future for hundreds of young Jews.

Why “Neshama”?

This year’s campaign theme is drawn from the word Neshama, which equals 395 in gematria. That number has become the campaign’s suggested donation — a meaningful, symbolic contribution to support the literal revival of Jewish souls. Of course, the more neshamos you can take on, the better!

Every dollar raised goes directly toward housing, meals, staff, programming, and the infrastructure needed to keep The Shaar thriving. The campaign message says it best:

“Because priceless things still need to be paid for.”

Join Us

The Shaar is extending a heartfelt invitation to the Five Towns community and beyond: Be a part of something priceless. Help us reach our goal. Help us give the gift of Yiddishkeit to someone who may never have had the chance.

Your support isn’t just appreciated. It’s eternal.

To donate, visit: www.Rayze.it/ Shaar2025

Let’s make it happen — together.

Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva, delivering a vaad to the avreichim of Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s Kollel Tirtza Devorah

YOSS rebbeim visited their talmidim in sleepaway camp

Time Flies When You’re Having CMY Fun

Chazaq’s Largest Community-Wide Carnival

The energy was electric on Sunday, June 22, as Chazaq proudly hosted its largest-ever Community-Wide Children’s Carnival at Lander College for Men in Queens — and it was nothing short of the best day ever.

With over 3,000 attendees, families from all over the city came together for an unforgettable afternoon packed with fun, laughter, and nonstop excitement. From thrilling rides and colorful inflatable bounce houses, to interactive games,

an epic raffle with exciting prizes, and a visit from the Rita’s Icees truck, there was truly something for everyone to enjoy.

Entertainment soared thanks to the one and only DJ Avraham, who kept the crowd dancing and smiling all day long with his vibrant energy and upbeat playlist.

Thanks to generous community support, admission was completely free, allowing every family to participate —

reinforcing Chazaq’s mission to create meaningful, inclusive programs that uplift and unite the community.

This incredible event was made possible in part by a valued partnership with JCCGCI and Council Member James Gennaro, whose ongoing support helped bring this day to life.

“It was such a beautiful sight — kids running around laughing, parents connecting, and a true sense of joy in the air,” said Anaelle Shalom, Chazaq’s event

Summer Fun in Full Swing at Hillel Day Camp

This week at Hillel Day Camp has been packed with energy, laughter, and sunshine as campers dove into a variety of exciting activities designed to spark creativity, build friendships, and keep everyone moving. From swimming in the beautiful pools to sports, enjoying specialty activities both returning and new, campers of all ages enjoyed a full schedule that balanced fun with learning. The week kicked off with tourist day, where campers received

Passports to Adventure and received stamps from all around the world.

Campers have been creating tie-dye shirts, resin trays, string art, and edible chocolate sculptures, proudly bringing home their colorful masterpieces. The STEM and Tevah Torah specialties are a hit, with hands-on experiments that have kids bubbling with curiosity—literally, baking soda volcano eruptions.

The jam-packed trips calendar continued with lots of jumping, golfing,

coordinator. “We’re so proud to host this event every year, and this year’s carnival truly exceeded all expectations.”

The annual Chazaq Carnival continues to be a celebration of unity, culture, and family — a powerful reminder of what can be accomplished when a community comes together.

For more information about Chazaq programs and upcoming events, visit www.chazaq.org or call 646-401-1874.

bouncing, and make believe. In camp, our younger division was beside themselves with excitement as they were treated to an appearance by real live YouTube sensation Rabbi B, who led singing, dancing, and all around joy!

The big hit at the end of the week was the annual Color Run, covering campers and counselors alike in all the fun and colorful experiences at Hillel Day Camp! Counselors and staff at Hillel Day Camp were full of praise for the camp -

ers, noting how friendships are growing stronger and confidence is blooming in every group. “You can see how much fun they’re having just by the smiles on their faces,” said one counselor.

With more themed days and surprises planned for the rest of the summer, it’s clear that Hillel Day Camp is delivering unforgettable memories—and a whole lot of joy—week after week.

Rebuilding the Final Home

Last Wednesday, July 16, Aish Kodesh was filled with more than 400 women who came out to hear Rabbi Daniel Kalish speak as we entered the Three Weeks leading to Tisha B’Av. The shul had only standing room available. The event was organized by the Sparks of Inspiration committee, led by Mrs. Nataly Magendzo, Mrs. Sarah Weis and Mrs. Allyson Perkal. Mrs. Nina Meyer was also instrumental in the organization of the event.

The evening started with opening remarks by Rabbi Shalom Yonah Weis and was followed by an inspirational and heartwarming shiur in which Rabbi Kalish addressed the crowd and reminded each of us to be “present to our stories” and be aware that a “true smile comes out of a real cry.”

To view the full shiur, please contact Mrs. Magendzo (nlvovsky@hotmail. com) for the link.

Every Child is Exceptional HAFTR

MS’s

Associate Principal Dr.

Yali Werzberger

on HAFTR’s Mission to Inspire Challenge & Believe

When Dr. Yali Werzberger reflects on her path to Jewish education, she credits her parents—both lifelong educators—for planting the seeds.

“Looking back, it’s no surprise that this is the journey I have followed,” she says. “My father left a successful corporate career to become a rabbi and educator. My mother shifted from social work to become a Judaic Studies principal. Their lives were a daily reminder of what it means to serve the Jewish people with purpose.” Her background in psychology gave her a unique lens through which to approach education, and it was during a graduate internship at HAFTR High School that something clicked. “I had the opportunity to witness the warmth, professionalism, and deep sense of community that HAFTR stands for,” she says. “I felt encouraged and welcomed—and I knew HAFTR was where I wanted to grow and contribute.”

port one another. “More than 60% of our eighth graders applied,” she says. “That speaks volumes about the culture our students are helping create.”

Today, Dr. Werzberger is helping shape the lives of HAFTR students not just academically, but spiritually and emotionally. “HAFTR is a place where excellence meets heart,” she shares. “There’s an unwavering commitment to high standards-in Torah, academically, socially, emotionally-and that commitment is matched by a deep sense of warmth and care. Students are seen, known, and valued.”

That commitment comes to life in moments both big and small. “Over the summer, I ran into several alumni and their parents,” she recalls. “These young adults came up to me, smiling, sharing their professional accomplishments and how HAFTR gave them clarity and confidence. That kind of long-term impact—that’s what makes this work so meaningful.”

Dr. Werzberger is especially proud of the way students are empowered to lead with purpose. “[For example], after October 7th, our students didn’t just participate in chessed—they initiated it,” she says. “They created programs to support communities in Israel and here at home. That level of student agency is something we actively cultivate.” New initiatives like HAFTR’s peer mentoring and shadowing programs give students a chance to sup-

At the heart of everything is HAFTR’s unwavering commitment to Torah values. “We don’t just teach Torah, we live it.” She discussed the new Middot Initiative in HAFTR Middle School, being developed by Mrs. Nechama Landau and Rabbi Asher Klein. “Our new Middot Initiative will give students real opportunities to act on the values they learn and internalize what it means to live with intention.”

Dr. Werzberger says she wants them [her students] to remember that “I noticed and that I believed in them.”

When asked to sum up HAFTR in one word, her answer is clear: “Exceptional,” she says. “Because HAFTR believes that every child has something exceptional within them, and we build a community that helps them find it, nurture it, and share it with the world.”

Dr. Yali Werzberger has been a dedicated member of the HAFTR Middle School leadership team for the past 14 years, serving as Associate Principal. Trained as both a psychologist and educator, Dr. Werzberger brings a deep commitment to Jewish education, student growth, and academic excellence. Her leadership is marked by warmth, integrity, and a passion for helping each student thrive both in and out of the classroom.

The BACH Jewish Center’s Youth Department hosted a special Sunday Fun Day lanyard making workshop this week. The program was part of the BACH’s weekly series of youth events during the summer

Summer Fun at Machane Hakayitz

Summer Fun at Camp Matov

Not Broken. Just Underbuilt. What if That’s Why Shidduchim Feel So Hard?

It began quietly, during COVID. When simchas were postponed, dating felt impossible, and singles across the world found themselves more alone than ever, the cracks in the shidduch process became harder to ignore. So many heartfelt tefillos, so much effort, yet so little movement. Families were left to navigate a system with no clear structure, and singles often felt like they were walking this path alone.

That’s when Adopt A Shadchan stepped in.

What began as a grassroots effort to organize and support a network of shadchanim has grown into one of the most impactful movements in the world

of shidduchim today. In just a few short years, Adopt A Shadchan has helped facilitate over 1,000 verified shidduchim. But that number is only part of the story. What truly sets this organization apart is the way it has reimagined what shidduch support looks like, not just at the chuppah, but at every step along the way.

Singles in the parshah face long stretches of uncertainty. Ideas that go nowhere. Follow-ups that never come. Moments that feel painfully quiet. Adopt A Shadchan was built to fill that gap, offering warmth, structure, and heart. Their shadchanim are trained to guide with seichel and care. Their events create meaningful moments of connection when nothing else seems to be moving. Their

secure, shadchan-only platform connects thousands of singles across the globe with targeted suggestions.

And their programs continue to grow.

Prayer Pact, now numbering in the tens of thousands, pairs up singles and their families to daven for each other with sincerity and hope. Simchas HaChaim offers focused support and shopping sprees for singles who have lost a parent. Wedding Redting transforms simchas into shidduch opportunities. More than a dozen creative initiatives like these have formed a complete ecosystem that no other organization in the shidduch space comes close to replicating.

With every shidduch they help make, Adopt A Shadchan is shifting the culture.

From isolation to community. From silence to strategy. From stuck to seen. But there is so much more to do. New programs are ready to launch and the singles of Klal Yisroel are just waiting for you to help make them possible.

To support Adopt A Shadchan’s upcoming crowdfunding campaign and help bring more shidduchim to life, visit CauseMatch.com/AAS on July 29 and 30. Every donation helps power the people and programs behind the next thousand yeses.

Avnet Has It All: Personalized Fun for Every Camper

Did you know that on any day at Avnet some campers might ride a pony, while others compete in sports leagues or even see stars at a Broadway show? That’s because Avnet’s schedule is not only packed with fun but also carefully tailored to fit the diverse interests of the tiniest Tipot to the oldest teens. With over 40 bunks and nine activity periods per day, Avnet’s dynamic programming provides a full range of sports, specialties and trips to keep everyone engaged.

“We want every camper to have an unforgettable summer, so we offer options to please every age and stage,” said Megan Herskowitz, Program Director. ”While our older campers were conquering a Ninja Warrior obstacle course, our younger campers were busy putting their superpowers to the test for Superhero Day. Everyone had their own adventure – not just that day, but every day at

Avnet.”

This past week alone offered a snapshot of just how vibrant and varied life is at Avnet. The Tipot enjoyed a week of discovery and delight. Beading projects were turned into masterpieces, and culinary adventures had future chefs tasting their delicious creations. Superhero Day brought out proud capes and even prouder smiles. Campers also went on thrilling trips to Once Upon a Tree Top and Planet Play.

For the Ma’ayanot Girls, it was elevated fun at Laser Bounce. Their teamwork was prominent in Net Leagues and sports clinics. With sportsmanship and camaraderie on full display, the girls closed the week on a high note, eager for what’s next. Meanwhile, Ma’ayanot Boys delighted in the arcade games of Dave & Buster’s. In the pool, they continued to improve their aquatic skills. With softball leagues in full swing, campers em-

braced healthy competition, personal growth, and a whole lot of fun.

Agamim girls experienced a handson and exciting week. In STEM, they made their own putty and experimented like true scientists. In “Ductagami,” they created wallets with fashion flair and practical function. Older Agamim campers cheered each other on at Empire Adventure Park, while younger girls embarked on their very first overnight at Club Getaway, creating memories by the campfire that they will treasure forever.

The G’vaot and Harim boys brought next-level energy to Empire Adventure Park and the Club Getaway overnight, where s’mores, songs, and outdoor challenges helped them build confidence and lifelong friendships. Back on campus, their competitive streaks emerged in the much-anticipated Avnet Ninja Warriors competition. Sports leagues were in full force and the week closed out with a ru-

ach-filled pre-Shabbos oneg.

“There’s so much going on at Avnet each week, and it means the world to us when parents tell us how much their children love coming to camp,” said Camp Director Daniel Stroock. “During the school year, kids spend so much time in a classroom – but here, they get to enjoy their friends and explore their creative and adventurous sides. Every camper has the chance to thrive at Avnet, and we love watching them grow.”

AI Teaching Initiative Launched Across Touro University Campuses

Touro University has launched a Faculty Innovation Grant Program to support the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into teaching and learning across its campuses, Touro President Dr. Alan Kadish announced this week. Supported by a generous gift from the Wertheimer Family Fund, the initiative is already engaging 100 faculty members from a wide range of disciplines who are developing AI-enhanced curricula for Fall 2025.

This program is part of Touro’s broader AI @Touro initiative, which aims to transform the university into a fully AI-enabled institution by training faculty, staff and students in the use of AI. By embedding AI into education, research and operations, Touro is preparing its community to lead with integrity and impact. The initiative emphasizes ethical implementation, continuous learning,

and cross-disciplinary collaboration—ensuring that students, faculty, and staff are equipped to thrive in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

The Faculty Innovation Grant Program is designed to help faculty identify and implement AI tools that enhance student learning. Projects are being developed over the summer and will be piloted in classrooms this fall, with a focus on real-world applications, ethical use of AI, and student engagement.

“This initiative reflects Touro’s commitment to preparing students for a future where AI will be central to nearly every profession,” said Dr. Kadish.

“By empowering our faculty to thoughtfully integrate AI into the classroom, we’re ensuring our students are not just learning about AI—they’re having the opportunity to try it out and see how it will work in the real world,” said Dr. Patricia Salkin, Touro Senior Vice

President, Academic Affairs and Provost, Graduate and Professional Divisions.

Dr. Shlomo Argamon, Associate Provost for AI, added, “This is about more than just using new tools. It’s about helping students think critically about how AI is shaping their fields and how they can use it responsibly and effectively.”

Faculty projects span a wide range of disciplines, including:

● AI-powered exercises in contracts and criminal law to enhance legal reasoning

● AI-generated patient simulations and health literacy tools for health science training

● Lesson planning and classroom simulations using AI to prepare future educators

● Simulated therapy sessions and clinical mental health training using AI

● Learning to use AI to create advertising campaigns

Dr. Shlomo Argamon, Associate Provost for AI at Touro University

Creating AI-powered study g ● uides, chatbots, and assessments to support infectious disease education

● Simulating patient interactions to enhance medical training

For more information, contact Dr. Shlomo Argamon, Touro’s Associate Provost for AI at Shlomo.argamon@touro. edu.

400+ Boys Thrive at Camp Oraysa

Over four hundred Mesivta and Beis Medrash bachurim have concluded four invigorating weeks at Camp Oraysa, the summer home of Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Sullivan County, New York.

The boys learned and grew under the

tutelage of their menahalim and rabbeim who lived on campus—led by Rav Shlomo Avigdor Altusky, rosh yeshiva, and Rav Moshe Bender, s’gan rosh hayeshiva—and availed themselves of the many swimming, sports, and recreation opportunities on Camp Oraysa’s 92 acres of

pastoral beauty.

From the air conditioned, 7,200-square foot beis medrash, to serious daily sedarim and shiurim on every grade level, to derhoibene tefillos and Shabbosos, the Camp Oraysa experience has enabled the bachurim to re-

charge and refresh their physical and spiritual batteries as they begin the bein hazmanim intersession and prepare for the Elul Zman ahead.

Photos by Shaul Atias and Dovid Mittel

Sam Waller Joins LiveWell Capital, Bringing Expanded Financial Services to Long Island

In a strategic move to further elevate wealth management services in the Five Towns, Sam Waller and Jack Djmal are proud to announce their official partnership with LiveWell Capital, a rapidly growing national firm and distinguished member of the Northwestern Mutual Private Client Group. The partnership began June 30 and brings LiveWell’s signature brand of personalized financial planning to clients in the Five Towns and beyond.

“This partnership reflects our shared dedication to delivering exceptional, personalized financial guidance to clients,” Waller said. “By aligning with LiveWell Capital, our clients will benefit from deeper resources, greater expertise, and the backing of a firm that’s redefining what it means to live well—financially, and beyond.”

LiveWell Capital is known for helping young families, professionals, and those entering or currently in retirement plan for the future with confidence. With offices now in Cincinnati, Detroit, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Chicago, Tampa and Cedarhurst, the firm manages more than $2.5 billion in assets* and continues to grow.

“We are thrilled to welcome Sam and Jack to LiveWell as we expand our presence in the Northeast,” said Ben Beshear, CEO and Private Wealth Advisor at LiveWell Capital. “Sam and Jack exemplify the values we care most about – putting clients first, leading with integrity and recognizing that true wealth is about more than just money.”

The Long Island team will stay the same, but clients can expect an enhanced experience through LiveWell’s robust national platform, including a new digital hub at livewellcapital.com.

“This is about more than growth—it’s about aligning with a firm that shares our values,” Waller said. “We’re excited to bring this expanded opportunity to every client we serve, and to be part of a firm that’s helping people live intentionally and abundantly.”

About Northwestern Mutual

Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 165 years. Through a comprehensive planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what’s most important. With nearly $700 billion of total assets1 being managed across the company›s institutional portfolio as well as retail investment client portfolios, more than $38 billion in revenues, and $2.4 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than five million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. Northwestern Mutual ranked 109 on the 2025 FORTUNE 500 and was recognized by FORTUNE® as one of the “World’s Most Admired” life insurance companies in 2025.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with longterm care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with “Advisor” in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of NMWMC are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide investment advisory services.

* As of July 2025. Figure refers to assets under management as advisors of Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company.

Ben Beshear and certain other individuals use LiveWell Capital as a marketing name for doing business as representatives of Northwestern Mutual. LiveWell Capital is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, insurance agency or federal savings bank. For additional information, visit livewellcapital.com.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Mil-

waukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC and the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank. Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with “Advisor” in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of NMWMC are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide investment advisory services.

Rabbi Yechezkel Freundlich and Rebbetzin Rivky Freundlich were recently honored at the Beth Sholom of Lawrence annual dinner. In recognition of their leadership and contributions to the community, Trustee Dan Plaut presented them with a citation from the Village of Cedarhurst.

Siyumim on Amud HaYomi Masechta Eruvin to Be Held in Homes of Senior Gedolei Yisrael

By Chaim Gold

If one wants to get an inkling of how much the Gedolei Hador value the new Amud HaYomi program that is completing Masechta Eruvin this week, and beginning Masechta Pesachim, one only should look at which Gedolei Yisrael have agreed to open their homes to host siyumim on Masechta Eruvin this coming week.

Siyumim will be held at the homes of senior Gedolei Yisrael, roshei yeshiva, poskim, Admorim and rabbanim spanning the entire cross-section of Jewry.

There will be siyumim (in chronological order) at the homes of the senior posek of the generation, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita, the senior Roshei Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, shlita, and HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, shlita, the senior Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, the senior Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Me’or HaTorah HaGaon Rav Avraham Salim, shlita, and the Boyaner Rebbe. The Nasi of Dirshu, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, will participate in all of the siyumim

Each siyum will be addressed by the Gadol as well as a prominent talmid of the Gadol who serves as a Dirshu maggid shiur. Many other maggidei shiur will be in attendance.

What a Zechus!

The first siyum on Masechta Eruvin will be held at the home of and in the presence of the senior Posek Hador, Rav Moshe Sternbuch. The siyum will be made by Rav Moshe’s close talmid, HaGaon HaRav Mattisyahu Deutsch, shlita, a prominent rav in Ramot and a Dayan in the Eidah Hacharedis. At a previous siyum at the home of Rav Moshe, Rav Deutsch described to the assemblage how Rav Moshe merited to talk in learning and learn with the Chazon Ish. He then exclaimed that it is such a tremendous zechus to make a siyum in the home of a Gadol who once learned by the Chazon Ish. Tens of maggidei shiurim from all over the country participated in the siyum.

“Why Now?”

The next week on Sunday, 2 Av, two more siyumim on Amud HaYomi Eruvin will be held. The first at the home of Rav

Dov Landau and the second at the home of Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch.

At the home of Rav Landau, maggidei shiur from Bnei Brak, many of whom are Rav Dov’s talmidim, will gather. The main address will be given by Rav Dov’s confidant, HaGaon HaTzaddik Rav Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkovsky, shlita, Mashgiach of Yeshiva Orchos Torah. Rav Mishkovsky is no stranger to the Amud HaYomi. He attended and addressed the inaugural Amud HaYomi siyum on Masechta Brachos in Vienna. His words said there are still so relevant today.

In Vienna, he asked, “Why are we making celebrations in such difficult times, times of unrest and war?” He answered, “When the Ponovezher Rav established the Ponovezh Yeshiva here in Bnei Brak, Nazi General Erwin Romell was already in Alexandria, Egypt, and was poised to conquer Eretz Yisrael. The Ponovezher Rav himself was very ill and could barely talk. It was precisely then that he decided, ‘We are going to establish the Ponovezh Yeshiva here in Bnei Brak.’ He too was asked, ‘Now?! Is NOW a time to establish a yeshiva?!’

“The Ponovezher Rav answered with an emphatic, ‘YES!’ He then explained, ‘I learned this from the haftara of that week’s parsha. Yirmiyahu Hanavi teaches us that when the Kasdim conquered Eretz Yisrael, and came with the sword, famine and pestilence, Hashem told Yirmiyahu, “NOW is the time to build.”’

“When there is destruction,” Rav Mishkovsky exclaimed, “our task is to show our bitachon in Hashem and begin to build. This bitachon has the power to bring the yeshua. It is clear,” Rav Mishkovsky passionately announced, “that everything done by Dirshu, by increasing the learning of Torah and the observance of halacha, are the greatest shields for Klal Yisrael during these precarious times.”

Mesiras Nefesh that is Beloved By Hashem

The second siyum on the same day will be held at the home of Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, who has enthusiastically praised Dirshu’s programs, especially the Amud HaYomi and has encouraged the Nasi, Rav Hofstedter to create more programs to facilitate Torah learning. Indeed, at a previous Dirshu siyum in his home, Rav

Hirsch cited the words of the Tanna Devei Eliyahu wherein Eliyahu Hanavi says, “I was once talking to an elderly man when a bachur came over and said, ‘I try to learn, I really try and try and try but it doesn’t go. Nothing stays in my head.’ I replied to him, ‘My son, there is no one in the world who succeeds in learning Torah unless he his moser nefesh for it.’”

“I think,” Rav Hirsch said, “that it is fair to say that each and every one of us has times when it is very difficult to learn and keep up with the relentless pace of Dirshu that never stops even for a day’s rest. Yet, when they do overcome the difficulties and push themselves to learn even when it is difficult, that is a level of mesiras nefesh that is very beloved by Hashem.”

A Clear Goal And Framework For Learning

Rav Avraham Salim, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Me’or HaTorah and a senior Sephardic Gadol who is a member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, has been one of Dirshu’s stalwart supporters. As Rosh Yeshiva of one of the prime Sephardic yeshivos who has brought Dirshu programs to his yeshiva, he is very well aware of Dirshu’s impact. In fact, he came to Vienna to celebrate the first Amud HaYomi siyum on Masechta Brachos. The siyum at the home of Rav Salim will be held on Monday, 3 Av. At the Amud HaYomi siyum in Vienna, Rav Salim explained that one of the most important components of the Amud HaYomi is that it provides a clear goal and framework for which to learn Torah. “The Daf HaYomi, the Amud HaYomi, the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha all provide a frame-

work to accomplish. Not only for those learning all day, but for baalei battim as well. This is huge! There is no way to quantify the pivotal importance of these frameworks! How fortunate is Dirshu to merit creating these programs and facilitating so much Torah learning.”

The Miracle of Our Existence

On that same day, there will be a siyum on Eruvin in the home of Rav Dovid Cohen. That siyum will be held by Rav Cohen’s talmid, Rav Binyomin Birenzweig, a general editor of the Dirshu Mishnah Berurah. On numerous recent occasions, Rav Cohen has highlighted the power that Torah has to protect us during these precarious times. He quoted the Yaavetz who says that the greatest miracle is the miracle of Klal Yisrael’s very existence despite all the travails and suffering of galus. That miracle is because of their adherence to limud haTorah. It is Torah that has and will save us from the ravages of galus. “That is why,” Rav Cohen concluded,” we have to strengthen ourselves in Torah at a time like this! Amud HaYomi is an antidote!”

The siyum at the home of the Boyaner Rebbe will conclude the series of siyumim in the homes of Gedolei Yisroel. Rabbi Avigdor Berenstein, a senior member of Dirshu’s hanhala, put it succinctly when he said, “Clearly the Gedolim are urging Yidden, each at his level, to join the Amud HaYomi. There are those who learn it with iyun kal, others with Rashi and Tosafos and others just with Rashi. The main thing is that now, as we embark on Pesachim, now is the time to join Amud HaYomi!”

Dirshu Siyum at the home of HaRav Moshe Shternbuch, 2024

TJH Centerfold

Signs That You Are Too Into Biking

Your bike costs more than your car.

You spend at least an hour a day watching GoPro footage.

You know where every single pothole is within a 5-mile radius of your home.

Your bike is cleaner than your house.

Your bike has a nickname, and you’re not at all embarrassed.

When driving, you yell, “On your right!” when you pass another car.

After every weekend, your phone is filled with photos of mountains, trails, descents, signposts, fields, sunsets…

You hear someone had a crash and your first question is “How’s the bike?”

You start yelling at cars to “hold your line.”

You have more money invested in your biking clothes than in the rest of your combined wardrobe.

You have more bike jerseys than dress shirts.

A Power Bar tastes better than a Snickers.

You can’t seem to get to work by 8:30 AM, even for important meetings, but you don’t have any problems at all meeting your buddies at 5:00 AM for a ride.

You can tell your spouse, with a straight face, that it’s too hot to mow the lawn and then bike off for a century.

You tailgate a semi-trailer to get the drafting effect.

You schedule family simchos around your biking schedule (which is why your kid’s bris was at 11 AM).

Riddle Me This!

Two bikes are traveling toward each other at a constant speed of 10 mph. When the bikes are 20 miles apart, a fly flies from the front wheel of one of the bikes toward the other bike at a constant speed of 25 mph. As soon as it reaches the front wheel of the other bike, it immediately turns around and flies at 25 mph toward the first bike. It continues this pattern until the two bikes smush the fly between the two front tires.

How far did the fly travel?

Therefore, the fly is flying back and forth at 25 mph for 1 hour.

to touch, given that they start 20 miles apart and are each traveling toward each other at 10 mph.

Answer: 25 miles. The simplest approach is to consider the time involved. The bikes will take 1 hour

Tour de France Trivia

1. How many miles is the 2025 Tour de France?

a. 1,575

b. 2,074

c. 3,267

d. 5,344

2. Maurice Garin won the very first Tour de France in 1903. The next year, he won the Tour’s second running but was eventually stripped of his victory for cheating. How did he cheat?

a. He took a train to the finish line

b. He used performance enhancing drugs

c. He knocked his main opponent off of his bike, resulting in a calf injury which prevented him from completing the race

d. He had his team members throw out all water at pit stops after he drank, so that his opponents would go thirsty

3. Over the course of the Tour de

France, approximately how many calories does the average biker burn?

a. 33,000

b. 73,000

c. 111,000

d. 127,000

4. What was Lance Armstrong’s average speed in the 1999 Tour de France?

a. 19 MPH

b. 25 MPH

c. 32 MPH

d. 37 MPH

e. 45 MPH

5. Who is awarded the yellow jacket?

a. The winner of the day

b. The best climber

c. The overall leader of the race

d. The last place driver of the day

6. The green jersey is awarded to the racer who is best at doing what?

a. Climbing

b. Sprinting

c. Assisting his teammates

d. Knocking out an opponent

Answers:

1-B

2-A

3-D (That is the equivalent of eating a total of 672 jelly doughnuts… which is exactly what I would do if I burned that many calories)

4-B

5-C

6-B

Scorecard

5-6 correct: You get the Yellow Jacket!

3-4 correct: You may not be in Tour de France yet, but good luck on Bike 4 Chai.

0-2 correct: You need to start cheating a little bit my friend…Live Strong!

You Gotta Be Kidding Me

A pedestrian stepped off the curb and into the road without looking one day and promptly got knocked flat by a passing cyclist.

“You were really lucky there,” said the cyclist. “What on earth are you talking about?! That really

hurt!” said the pedestrian, still on the pavement, rubbing his head.

“Well, usually I drive a bus!” the cyclist replied.

Torah Thought

Parshas Matos-Maasei

By Rabbi Berel Wein

The reading of the book of Bamidbar concludes this week with the parshiyos of Matos and Maasei. Jews are inveterate travelers. The long exile that we have suffered has of necessity forced us to travel a great deal. There is almost no place in the world that we have not visited, settled and eventually moved from to a different location. Thus the recording of all of the travels and waystations that the Jews experienced in their years in the Sinai desert is a small prophecy as to the future historical experiences of Jews over millennia of wandering.

The world of our enemies has always accused Jews of being “rootless.” But that is untrue since we have always been rooted in the Land of Israel, consciously or subconsciously, during our entire history as a people. It is in the Exile that we are rootless, never certain of the shifting ground that lies under our weary feet.

collapses. A mighty and unforeseen wind uproots them after centuries of living there, and they move on to new shores.

There are no more Jews in numbers sufficient to speak of in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, etc. This was the Jewish heartland for centuries. But now we have moved on again to other shores.

All of the travels and waystations described in this week’s parsha had only one ultimate goal and destination in mind: entry into the Land of Israel and settlement there. The Israel deniers in our midst, religious and secular, leftists and rightists, academics and almost illiterate (certainly in Jewish history), all share a common delusion – that the home of Jews is somehow not necessarily, and certainly not now in the present, in the Land of Israel.

We are taught that the Jews stayed at the oasis of Kadesh in the desert for thir-

We have always been rooted in the Land of Israel, consciously or subconsciously, during our entire history as a people.

Thus we are always a restless people filled with curiosity over locations that we have not as yet seen and wonders that we have as not as yet experienced.

The history of the Exile is that Jews arrive at a new destination, settle there, help develop that country or part of the world, begin to feel at home there and attempt to assimilate into the majority culture and society. Suddenly, all of this

and honey.

Every waystation and desert oasis is recorded for us in this week’s parsha in order to remind us that these places exist only in our past, but that our present and

ty eight of their forty-year sojourn in the Sinai desert. They became accustomed to living there and felt comfortable there. The Land of Israel was a far-off dream and goal of theirs but not an immediate imperative. But the L-rd pushed them out of the desert to fight wars that they probably would have wished to avoid and to settle a land, harsh in character but with the potential of being one of milk

future lie only in the Land of Israel. The lessons of this parsha are as valid to us today in our Jewish world as they were to our ancestors long ago at Kadesh. Shabbat shalom.

From the Fire

Parshas Matos-Maasei Jewish Warrior, King of Opposites

By Rav Moshe Weinberger

Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

The Degel Machaneh Ephraim, zy”a, teaches, in the name of his grandfather the Baal Shem Tov, zy”a, that the forty-two journeys of the Jewish people in the desert correspond to the journeys each individual takes in his life. When a person leaves the womb, this corresponds to when the Jewish people left Egypt. And when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel, this corresponds to a person’s journey into the land of eternal life after 120 years in this world.

How do we retain a sense of equanimity and centeredness when we must transition from one journey to another throughout our lives? Reb Leibele Eiger, zy”a, points out that the word “of them, bam” in the pasuk, “And you shall speak of them,” has the numerical value of forty-two. And the pasuk continues, “And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” We must speak of them, words of Torah and emunah, wherever we go and wherever we travel. We can thrive

through every test and trial we face if we hold onto truth and faith. If we remain certain in our purpose, then we will succeed despite all of the contradictions and challenges of a world in which many people seem to have taken leave of basic human decency and morality.

But the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching about the 42 travels of the Jewish people does not only apply to people on an individual level. It also speaks to the travails of our nation as a whole as we journey on toward the times of Moshiach.

The

Encampments –A Paradox of Opposites

We know that the names of our stops during our journey in the desert (Bamidbar 33:5-49) have profound meaning. And as I read through the names of our encampments in the parsha, I was struck by the contradictions implicit in those names and how they speak to the contradictions of life today, particularly in Eretz Yisroel.

On one hand, it says we camped in Miska, from the Hebrew word meaning

sweetness. Many aspects of our lives are sweet and we have much to be thankful for. But we also camped in Mara, meaning bitterness. Dozens of our brothers have been killed sanctifying G-d’s name and millions of our brothers, sisters, and friends in Eretz Yisroel are running for bomb shelters multiple times every day. Their lives are in a state of upheaval and they experience bitterness day after day.

The Jewish people camped in Har Shafer, meaning “beautiful mountain.” Sometimes, we are on top of the world. The view is stunning. But at other times, we camp in Tachas, meaning “low.” When we watch the parents, brothers, sisters, and wives of all of the soldiers killed protecting our people, we feel like we are living at the opening of Gehenom, at the lowest place.

We camped at Refidim, which means weakness. Our Torah, mitzvos, and emunah suffer, and we often do not do what Hashem expects of us. But we also camped in Midbar Sinai, where we received the Torah, attaining the highest

level of prophecy and connection to G-d’s will. Today, too, we have seen how even people with little outward connection to Torah and mitzvos have begun saying Tehillim, lighting Shabbos candles, putting on tefillin, and doing many other mitzvos and acts of kindness in order to merit the salvation of the Jewish people.

At one point, the pasuk tells us we camped in Makheilos, meaning “community” or “congregation.” We were united. And we see how our people have been united more than any other time in the recent past. We are united in prayer and resolve, knowing that our cause is righteous. But at other times, we stop off in a place called Chatzeiros, meaning “courtyards.” Especially when we are not besieged from the outside, every Jewish group separates itself into its own courtyard and unfortunately barely views other Jews as part of the same people.

We camped in Sukkos, a place named after temporary, rickety structures. With rockets falling all over Eretz Yisroel, with tunnels dug under our communities and

neighborhoods, we feel vulnerable and frightened. We feel as if our entire existence is dependent on the protection of some flimsy walls and roof which the wind could blow away at any moment, leaving us completely exposed. But at other times, we feel we are camped in Eisam, meaning strong. We feel grateful for how Hashem has blessed our people with the resolve, ingenuity, resources, and intelligence to build up one of the most powerful militaries in the world in just a short time.

We sometimes feel we are encamped by the Red Sea, encircled on all sides by enemies and pushed up against the sea. We feel we have no escape. But at other times, we sense that we are camped in Eilim, where the pesukim tell us there were wellsprings and date palms, and where we were able to rest from the weariness of our travels. We enjoy the prosperity and economic success with which Hashem has blessed our people.

But at other times, we feel we are camped in Dafka, meaning “stricken” or “beaten.” We feel pressed, hit, and beaten by attacks from all directions, physically, emotionally, and diplomatically. We feel we are under siege wherever we live in the world, whether it is in the U.S., Britain, Paris, Morocco, or anywhere else in the world.

We sometimes feel camped in Rimon Paretz, meaning “breakthrough.” We break through every attempt by our enemies to attack us and put us on the run. But, sadly, too often, we are camped in Charada, meaning “trembling.” Our brothers and sisters tremble in fear in their bomb shelters and safe rooms.

We sometimes feel we are camped in Chashmonah, where we feel as mighty as the Chashmonayim, or in Etzyon Gaver, meaning “effective strategy” and “strength.” At those times, we take pride and comfort in how our military neutralizes our enemies while protecting our soldiers and minimizing the battle’s impact on civilians.

But at other times, we feel like we are in Kivros Hata’avah, buried in the desires of this world, completely helpless to use all of our might to rein in our own animalistic desires. And at other times, we camp at Kadesh, meaning “holiness.” Our connection to holiness and our desire to do Hashem’s will is often strong, and we use those times to increase our connection to Hashem and improve ourselves.

Dovid Hamelech, King of Opposites

As the events in Eretz Yisroel swirl through my mind all day, every day, my

thoughts continually return to the ultimate hero of the Jewish people: Dovid Hamelech.

The tzaddikim teach that our job at the end of days is to reveal the great soul of Dovid Hamelech, as the pasuk (Hoshea 3:5) says, “And they sought Hashem their G-d and Dovid their king.” In all of his journeys, he seemed to be full of contradictions. The Gemara (Moed Katan 16b) says that “When [Dovid Hamelech] would sit and study Torah, he would be as refined as silk, and when he went out to war, he hardened himself like wood.”

Chazal are not teaching us that Dovid suffered from multiple personality disorder. Rather, his personality was so great and all-encompassing that it contained everything within it. He was simultaneously

was whole) to appear. The battle for existence, for existence of the nation, the War of G-d, was with an inner consciousness. Mighty in spirit, they knew in the depth of darkness to choose good and eschew evil. Though I go in the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil. When we meditate on them, we, with all the spirituality that we so desire, long for their strength, for the solid life force that dwelled in their midst, and out of this longing our spiritual strength is hardened and our physical strength is softened, and those strong souls return to live in us as ever.

Rav Kook is teaching us that we cannot view the strength and might of warriors as somehow alien to our religious, Torah-based life. During our two thousand year exile, we have become accus -

We must be prepared to cling to the Torah and the certainty of our faith in the midst of the full range of disparate experiences during our travels through this world.

composed of the might of war and the highest and most refined level of ethics and morality. These two extremes complement one another. The more perfection one has attained, the more he includes apparent opposites within himself.

That is why Reb Leibele Eiger teaches that the 42 journeys of the Jewish people in the desert, which seem to contain so many opposites within them, are hinted at in the mitzvah of “And you shall speak of them when you sit in your home and when you go on your way…” We must be prepared to cling to the Torah and the certainty of our faith in the midst of the full range of disparate experiences during our travels through this world.

The Illumination Within War

Who else but Rav Kook, zy”a, could have written a section in Oros called “Oros Hamilchama, The Illumination of War”? Rav Kook writes, as translated by Rabbi Betzalel Noar, as follows:

We regard the early generations, recounted in Torah, Prophets, and Writings, those generations that were engaged in war – they are great people we cherish and glorify. We understand that the spark of soul is the determining factor: that state of the world that necessitated war caused these souls (whose inner feeling

tack tunnels. We are the only ones standing up to the evil of Hamas, which prides itself on its love of death and bloodshed.

We are like Dovid Hamelech, “redhaired with beautiful eyes” (Shmuel I 16:12); red like Eisav the warrior with the refinement and elevated spirit reflected in his beautiful eyes. Chazal say (Bereishis Raba 63:8) about Dovid Hamelech, “He killed with the consent of the Sanhedrin.” Even when Dovid Hamelech expressed the warrior aspect of his personality, he did not do so with cruel abandon. He conducted himself in war according to halacha and morality. We also see this in our brave brothers in the IDF. While the enemies of our people stoop to lower and lower depths of cruelty both to our people and their own, the Jewish warriors in Eretz Yisroel never stoop to the level of their degraded enemies. They go above and beyond what any nation has done when defending themselves against the imminent threats we face today.

tomed to thinking of a Jew purely as the refined, pale student in the beis medrash. We began thinking that we should only be encamped in Maska, a place of sweetness. We forgot that we must sometimes set up camp in Etzyon Gaver and Rimon Paretz, places of strategy, might, and breaking through all obstacles.

Dovid Hamelech and Rav Kook teach us that while there is a time for gentleness and refinement, there is also a time to kiss our Gemaras, place them down, pick up our weapons, and go to battle against the enemies of the Jewish people who seek to destroy us. That is no less a part of Torah and Yiddishkeit than the study of Torah. Indeed, even a simple reading of Tanach reveals that most of it is comprised of how the Jewish people conducted themselves in war.

Now is the time in history when we must enclothe ourselves for battle and clean the world of the cockroaches of Hamas and their ilk. The whole world is trembling in fear as radical Islamists populate their countries. They look on helplessly. Right now, our people are the only ones making way for Hashem’s kingship in the world. We are the only ones who have taken it upon ourselves to finally clean house, ridding the terrorists of their missiles, guns, grenade launchers, and at-

When I see how our nation is rising to the challenge against it with greater moral clarity, more davening, more mitzvos, and more resolve to use the truth to fight against the attacks, lies, and propaganda of our enemies, I feel a surge of pride in our nation. In this current conflict, I am filled with love and nachas when I think about the Israeli soldiers, commanders, political leaders, and people. I am proud to be a Jew.

The parsha is named after our “journeys,” not our encampments. Why? Because the main thing is that in life, we do not stop. We must keep moving forward, looking for how G-d’s will expresses itself in all of the various permutations of life’s challenges.

May each of us and all of our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel merit to reach a level on which we can contain all of the disparate aspects of life in this world within us. May we recognize that we must serve G-d in all of the different ways the Torah demands for the vast array of differing life circumstances we encounter in our journeys. And may Hashem take vengeance upon every terrorist snake who has harmed even a single hair on the head of any Jew. May Hashem soon send Moshiach to remove every evil regime from the earth to make way for the great-grandson of the greatest king, Dovid Hamelech, soon in our days.

Rav Moshe Weinberger, shlita, is the founding Morah d’Asrah of Congreagation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY, and serves as leader of the new mechina Emek HaMelech.

Torah Thought Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude

By Prof. Adina Broder

One of the kinnos that we say on Tisha B’Av, Kinnah #19, expresses how we didn’t appreciate the many ways that Hashem helped us. Every verse lists an instance where Hashem provided for us or protected us. The stanza then continues with how we didn’t appreciate the good that Hashem had done. One example is how we witnessed Hashem’s holiness at Har Sinai, something no other nation will ever experience. Our response to this special event was shameful when just 40 days later, we betrayed Hashem by making the Golden Calf. Another example is how Hashem nourished us with maan during our time in the desert. Our reaction was not only to take these provisions for granted but to complain about this heavenly food.

Unfortunately, the lack of gratitude described in this kinnah isn’t unique to the people of that generation. There is a human tendency to emphasize the negative things in our life rather than focusing on the positive. To paraphrase a famous saying, we are annoyed that rose bushes

have thorns, instead of appreciating that thorns have roses.

Being ungrateful is not simply a bad characteristic; it is antithetical to Judaism. The Jewish people are called Yehudim, whose shoresh means “thanks.”

This name expresses the directive of every to Jew to acknowledge and show gratitude to Hashem for His involvement in every aspect of our life. According to Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, a prominent figure in the Mussar movement, appreciating Hashem is the basis of our observance of all the mitzvos of the Torah. This might explain why the first word we say in the morning is “modeh,” thankful. Before doing anything else, we thank Hashem for the gift of life and for a new day on earth.

Cultivating appreciation and countering our negative bias requires conscious effort. One way that psychologists recommend bringing gratitude into our day is by taking a moment to think about three things that we are blessed to have in our life before getting out of bed each morning. This helps us start our day with a positive

mindset. We should do this again before we close our eyes at night, finding three things in our day that we are grateful to have experienced – even something small. This might seem like an insignificant exercise, but it will help train our minds to find the good in our lives.

There was a tzaddik who was known for thanking Hashem for every small bit of goodness that he experienced. If he dropped a glass bottle but it didn’t break, he would thank Hashem. If he walked through a dangerous area and was unharmed, he thanked Hashem. He realized that everything that happens is from Hashem, and therefore he showed appreciation for all good things, big or small.

There are many ways that we can apply this to our daily lives. If we’re running late in the morning but still manage to make it to work on time, we could thank Hashem. If we find a parking spot on a very crowded street, we can thank Hashem. Of course, there are so many more examples.

When we notice the good in our lives, we feel better, happier, more content.

There is truth in the quote that says that “happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather by recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” This is supported by positive psychology research, which shows that gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. This is because once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you lose sight of the things that you’re lacking.

You start to count your blessings, instead of your problems.

For more inspiration during the Nine Days, please listen to my audio series, Mourning with Meaning, from the OU Women’s Initiative.

Professor Adina Broder, MS, JD, is the author of Meaningful Kinnos, Meaningful Viduy and Viduy Booklet for Kids. She teaches at Touro Graduate School of Education and is a frequent presenter for the OU Women’s Initiative.

Delving into the Daf

A Moment of Reflection

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

An astute observer might notice that many Chassidishe wedding halls do not have mirrors in the men’s restrooms. The source for this practice can be traced to Masechta Avoda Zara. The Mishnah there states that it is prohibited to utilize the services of a non-Jewish barber. Tosfos (29a) explains that this was because it was very easy for a barber holding a razor to kill his patron. Unfortunately, in medieval times, the death of a Jew at the hands of a local peasant carried little consequence. However, if the patron was connected to the government, the barber would refrain from harming him out of fear of retribution.

The Gemara therefore advises that a Jewish person who uses a non-Jewish barber should look into a mirror. In truth, looking into a mirror would not provide enough time for the patron to react and defend himself against the barber’s nefarious plans. However, the barber would think that if the patron was so meticulous about his appearance as to watch the haircut in a mirror, then he must be connected to the government.

Tosfos infers from this Gemara that only in this specific situation may a Jewish man look in a mirror. Otherwise, it is forbidden for a man to do so. Tosfos brings further proof from the fact that the Gemara mentions a special leniency granted to the men of Rabban Gamliel’s household to use a mirror. They interacted regularly with the Roman government, and for the sake of Klal Yisrael’s welfare, they needed to maintain a perfect appearance. Otherwise, looking in a mirror is prohibited, as it violates lo yilbash gever simlas isha –a man may not wear women’s clothing or engage in activities primarily performed by women. Since women typically look in a mirror to beautify themselves, it is deemed a feminine act.

Nevertheless, Tosfos permits a man to look into a mirror while shaving, to ensure he does not injure himself, and also permits using a mirror if he has an issue with his eyes. However, Tosfos rules that a man may not look into a mirror simply to beautify himself. Ultimately, an onlooker

cannot know the true reason why the man is using the mirror. Therefore, Tosfos concludes that Bochen Libos – the One Who examines hearts, Hashem – knows the real intention behind the man’s actions. (The phrase Bochen Libos is based on a pasuk in Yirmiyahu.)

The Shulchan Aruch (YD 156:2) rules like Tosfos and states unequivocally that

mitted for men to use a mirror if it is the local custom, the men of Rabban Gamliel’s household still required a special permit. This, says the Ran, is because Torah scholars would refrain from using a mirror even when permitted.

The Rema quotes the opinion of the Ran and rules that men may look into a mirror if the custom in their place is that men do

The barber would think that if the patron was so meticulous about his appearance as to watch the haircut in a mirror, then he must be connected to the government.

a man may not look into a mirror unless it is for medicinal purposes or to assist with a haircut.

The Ran on this Gemara says that where it is customary for men to look in a mirror, they may do so. Therefore, according to the Ran, the Gemara is not granting a general permit to look in a mirror while taking a haircut; rather, it is stating that if one uses a non-Jewish barber, he must look in the mirror for safety. Interestingly, the Ran notes that even though it is per-

so. It seems that the majority of American Jewry follow the Rema in this regard.

Chassidic men, however, may be stringent and follow the opinion of the Shulchan Aruch. Perhaps their motivation is to emulate the conduct of Torah scholars as mentioned by the Ran. Additionally, Rav Yonason Eibshitz, based on the Zohar, advises men against using a mirror for kabbalistic reasons.

The son of the Tiferes Yisrael comments that if one needs a mirror to ensure

his clothing is clean before appearing in public, he should certainly use it. This is especially true of Torah scholars, who are specifically prohibited from wearing stained clothing in public.

The Divrei Chaim of Sanz ruled that one should not use a mirror to adjust the position of his head tefillin. There is enough space on the head that even if the tefillin are not perfectly centered, the wearer still fulfills his obligation. The Divrei Chaim commented that someone who uses a mirror to adjust his tefillin is an am ha’aretz.

In 1934, while Rav Velvel Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav, was staying in the resort town of Krenitz near Sanz, the locals informed him of the Divrei Chaim’s ruling that checking tefillin placement with a mirror was unnecessary. Upon hearing this, Rav Velvel responded, “I would rather be called an am ha’aretz and know that my tefillin are in the correct place.” (Uvdot VeHanhagot LeBeit Brisk, vol. 3 [5760], pp. 179-180)

Indeed, the Shu”t Beit She’arim (OC:28) recounts that the Brisker Rav and his descendants would use a mirror each day to ensure that their head tefillin were precisely positioned.

HaGaon HaRav Henoch Leibowitz, zt”l, used to put on his tefillin in his office. When he would come downstairs to daven in the beis medrash, he would walk down a hallway that had a small mirror attached to a towel dispenser. The Rosh Yeshiva would stand on his tiptoes to check his tefillin in the mirror. A bochur in the yeshiva noticed this and installed a small mirror lower down to enable the Rosh Yeshiva to check his tefillin comfortably.

The Emek Halacha (Vol 3,1) recounts that many gedolim checked their tefillin with a mirror and approved of the practice.

Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow is a rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. In addition, Rabbi Sebrow leads a daf yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, NY. He can be contacted at ASebrow@gmail.com.

Headlines Halacha

Archaeological Discoveries and the Amah

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Hopefully, Moshiach is around the corner, and we need to learn the halachos that are necessary for when that time comes. The Chofetz Chaim wrote that we may not rely on Eliyahu HaNavi making determinations for us. We need to study these issues, and we need to study them now.

For generations, a profound mystery challenged talmidei chachomim and historians alike regarding the precise measurements of the Torah and of halacha. This question has profound halachic implications for numerous mitzvos including sukkah dimensions, tefillin sizes, tallis size, maakah sizes and many other areas of halacha. In other words, should parents and grandparents stop buying their 13-year-old 18-inch talis kattans and start buying 21-inch ones?

The Great Debate

Among the Poskim

There are generally three positions among the leading halachic authorities of the last century who established dif-

ferent measurements based on their analysis of the various Talmudic sources. Rav Chaim Na’eh, zt”l, determined the amah to be 18 inches with a corresponding tefach of 3.15 inches. The Chazon Ish, zt”l, held the amah was 23.4 inches with a tefach of 3.78 inches. Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, concluded the amah measured 21 inches with a tefach of 3.54 inches.

This author has observed that Torah observant Jews living in Eretz Yisroel generally observe one of three approaches:

1) following Rav Chaim Na’eh’s measurements,

2) following the Chazon Ish’s measurements, or

3) employing a combination using whichever is more stringent for each halachic topic.

Very few Torah observant Jews living there give significant weight to the view of Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, unless they were his talmidim.

Conversely, many Torah observant

Jews living in America considered Rav Moshe Feinstein as the posek of America and gave more weight to his measurements, often employing combinations that included his view.

First Archaeological Discovery: The Temple Mount Square

A few years ago, a possible breakthrough developed that would seem to vindicate both the precision of the Mishna in Maseches Middos and possibly strengthen Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l’s position on the amah.

The Mishna clearly states that the square upon which the Mikdash stood measures 500 amos by 500 amos, forming a perfect square. Yet when researchers attempted to explore the actual terrain of the Temple Mount, they encountered seemingly insurmountable difficulties as the dimensions simply did not align with what could be observed and measured.

This discrepancy led to various the -

ories among scholars and rabbis alike. Some suggested that the Mishna’s language was merely an approximation rather than a precise measurement. However, the meticulous archaeological work of Leen Ritmeyer, who served as an assistant to the renowned archaeologist Benjamin Mazar (even though now his granddaughter Eilat, a”h, is a bit more famous then he), may have provided a solution.

Ritmeyer’s methodological innovation proved crucial. Previous researchers had approached the problem from the wrong direction, beginning with their assumptions about where the Beis HaMikdash itself had stood and then attempting to construct the platform boundaries around that presumed location. Ritmeyer reversed this methodology entirely. Instead of starting with theories about the Beis HaMikdash’s location, he first gathered archaeological evidence to identify the original square platform described in the Mishna. Only after establishing these boundaries did

he proceed to determine where the Beis HaMikdash itself had been situated.

This approach allowed the archaeological evidence to speak for itself, free from preconceived notions about the Temple’s location. Ritmeyer’s methodology led him to identify three critical pieces of evidence that would possibly confirm both the Mishna’s precise accuracy and vindicate Rav Feinstein’s position.

The Two Differences

At the northwest corner of the current Muslim platform, Ritmeyer observed two crucial and strange differences in the bottom step of an ancient staircase on Har HaBayis. These blocks were constructed from pre-Herodian materials, indicating they predated the later expansions that Hurdus or Herod had made to the Temple Mount. More significantly, this step ran parallel not to the current Muslim platform but to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount itself.

Ritmeyer hypothesized that this step was actually a remnant of an original wall from the Temple Mount described in the Mishna. When he drew a line eastward from the northern edge of these ancient blocks, it passed along a rock ledge before meeting the eastern wall. The total length of this line measured exactly 861 feet.

At what Ritmeyer proposed as the northeast corner of the original Temple Mount, he discovered another telling piece of evidence. The lowest visible course of stones in this area stuck out beyond the very different masonry that stood above it. This protruding course stopped at a specific point, which Ritmeyer marked as an offset north of his proposed northeastern corner.

The third indication came from the southern end of the eastern wall, where a slight bend had been recorded by the famous 19th-century Jerusalem explorer Charles Warren. When Ritmeyer measured this bend, he made another discovery: it began exactly 861 feet south of where his proposed northern wall intersected the eastern wall. By drawing a perpendicular line westward from the beginning of this bend and a line directly south from the ancient step, Ritmeyer created two sides of a square, each measuring exactly 861 feet in length.

The crucial revelation came when Ritmeyer calculated the measurement of the cubit used in these ancient constructions. The 861-foot measurement from the northwestern corner to the eastern wall, when divided by 500 (the number of cubits specified in the Mishna),

yielded a cubit length of 20.67 inches. This archaeological evidence provides possibly quite stunning confirmation of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l’s position of an amah being approximately 21 inches –which he says is slightly machmir. While not identical to the precise measurement, the archaeological evidence fell remarkably close to Rav Feinstein’s calculation and was notably distant from both Rabbi Chaim Na’eh’s 18-inch measurement and the Chazon Ish’s 23.4-inch determination.

Second Archaeological Discovery: First Temple Period Storage Vessels

Another remarkable archaeological discovery possibly supports Rav Feinstein zt”l’s measurements from an entirely different angle. This evidence comes from ceramic containers dating to the time of Dovid HaMelech and carries significant halachic implications regarding the laws of tumah and taharah.

We may reasonably assume that the general population of Jews living in the time of the first Bais HaMikdash observed halacha and certainly in terms of tumah and taharah. We may also assume that they, like people in all generations, liked to save money and protect their investments. Just as we put away the milk container back into the refrigerator after making coffee to avoid bacterial contamination, ancient Jews would have been concerned about protecting their stored goods from spiritual contamination.

The halachic principle involved is well-established. Although there are debates between the Rambam and the Rash (Rash not Rosh) regarding the nature of tumah when dealing with an opening less than a tefach, the vast majority of commentaries, in this author’s view, understand that when the opening of a storage vessel is less than a tefach in width and length, the impurity is either prevented or limited in some way. Conversely, if the opening of the containers were larger than that of a tefach, it would subject the contents of the containers to the dangers of becoming tameh.

A number of years ago, archaeologists measured the circumference of various ceramic containers during the time of Dovid HaMelech. They discovered that all of them, without exception, had openings between 3.48 and 3.53496 inches. This discovery is uncanny, as the top figure is exactly that which Rav Moshe Feinstein determined for the tefach measurement.

The implications of this discovery are profound. If we accept these archaeological findings, it seems clear that the most precise measurement for the tefach is that of Rav Moshe Feinstein. This would mean, for example, that if someone wanted to sleep in a sukkah under a table, the table height should be under 35 inches. The Rav Chaim Na’eh measurement would be too stringent, and the Chazon Ish measurement would be halachically invalid for this purpose.

Conclusion

These two independent archaeological discoveries, each dealing with entirely different aspects of Jewish life, possibly provide remarkable confirmation of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l’s position on halachic measurements. The first discovery, involving the precise dimensions of the Temple Mount square, suggests his amah measurement of approximately 21 inches. The second discovery, involving storage vessels from the First Temple period, suggests his tefach measurement of approximately 3.54 inches – which is one sixth of the amah.

While some may argue that archaeology has no place in the determination of halacha, others, including some ma-

jor poskim of the last generation, have disagreed with this position. The convergence of these archaeological findings with Rav Feinstein’s calculations raises important questions about how we should approach these fundamental measurements in halacha.

When this author spoke to a number of American poskim to ask whether we should emphasize Rav Moshe’s shiur tefach in America, since he was considered by so many as America’s foremost posek, most responded affirmatively. Perhaps, in light of these archaeological discoveries, we should consider giving greater weight to his measurements more broadly.

These findings do not definitively resolve the debate among the great poskim, but they do provide compelling archaeological evidence that possibly supports the precision and accuracy of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l’s approach to halachic measurements.

This article should be viewed as a halachic discussion and not practical advice. The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@ gmail.com.

We were in Kiryat Shemona on our first vacation, from our vacation, in a beautiful, family-friendly hotel called HaGoshrim. In the elevator going down to breakfast, we met a young Dati Leumi couple who were eager to learn about us.

In Hebrew they asked us, “Where are you from?” (How could they tell?)

“Yerushalayim.”

“Where in Yerushalayim?”

“Nachlaot.”

“Nice, when did you get here?”

“A year ago.”

“In the middle of the war?”

Big smile.

There are those who, once they land in Israel, never want to leave; there is even a subset of people living in Jerusalem who won’t leave the city.

This concept was not one that I grasped until we made our own aliyah. I find myself loath to leave my beloved home; I truly believe that everything I want or need is located within Jerusalem’s confines. Nevertheless, we are lured by the history and beauty of our magical land and do sometimes venture out of Jerusalem.

The war with Iran shut everything down; some places and sights had just begun to emerge from the October 7th

School of Thought

On the Road

By Barbara Deutsch

catastrophe when they once again had to retreat with the hope that they would be able to begin all over again and again. In the cracks of time between too many wars, we did manage a trip to the Americas to visit with our families and see various doctors.

We learned that being away for three weeks in the dead of winter was not the best idea and to be avoided in the future. When we are hopefully blessed with simchas in America , we will be there!

During this first year retired in Israel, venturing out of Jerusalem has been sporadic and disparate. We enjoy historical day trips with excellent tour guides, like Shulie Mishkin, who guide us as we learn about the story behind each stone and building. We are also members of a group of people who are open to lowkey adventure and led by the charismatic Hagit Hoffman. On our last trip we visited Ein Kerem and learned a lot of Christian history; it was informative, eye-opening and fun.

We plan to return to Tel Aviv next week, a trip postponed by war, to visit the Agam Museum with the curator and art expert, Gavi Engel. Somehow, the war makes you even more determined to explore; too many places have been forced to close with many never to reopen.

We are blessed with friends and family who made aliyah many years ago and are eager to show us the land through their experienced lenses. Within this group is a childhood friend whom I have known since I was twelve years old, Norman. He and his twin brother Jerome and I grew up in south Brooklyn enjoying the fun times of youth: Brighton Beach, motorcycle rides (no helmets in those days), kosher pizza (new and exciting), and eating in Shmulka Bernstein’s, to this day, the best hot dogs and Chinese food to be found.

Too soon, life’s responsibilities took over. One by one, we all got married very young, got jobs or embarked on careers, and started our own families. The ties that connected us grew longer. Norman went on to experience a sometimes rocky journey, while his twin brother, Jerome, and his wife Sharyn, my Esther Schoenfeld classmate, journeyed together and remained friends who are like family.

From the very start of our aliyah process, Norman and his life partner Kathy tightened the connecting strands of our friendship. That is also true for a number of now-regenerated relationships with lifelong friends. It’s surprising (maybe not really) to share long-lost

memories of good times from our youth. Laughing and eating together helps us forget the aches of our wrecked knees and the lost hearing of our present. Kathy made aliyah to Shilo with her late husband Jim and their family over 23 years ago. Why Shilo? You need to visit as we did to understand. The beautiful, in-the-middle-of-nowhere location is set among ancient ruins and is the former home of the Mishkan. Our tour guide Moriah, the daughter of one of the original founding settlers, Era Rappaport, whose heroic story she shared, gave us an informative and comprehensive tour of her beloved city. We climbed to the top of a mountain to follow the trail of the Mishkan to learn the remarkable story of its journey and significance to our heritage.

There is a new gorgeous winery at the entrance of Shilo; the wine is delicious and the panoramic views are breathtaking.

When Norman and Kathy suggested we go away for a few days to a kibbutz in Kiryat Shemona, we were game. Over the delicious breakfast and dinner buffets and the many – too many – hours in the car, Norman filled us in on his life since moving to Israel 25 years ago.

Norman’s story is one of brutal pain, heartache and hope. When he and his late wife Sara made aliyah to Efrat, they hoped to provide a more meaningful life for their young daughter, Atara. Both of them had been previously married, had children of their own, and were grateful to have been afforded the opportunity of a second chance.

Sara was a warm, caring and beloved figure active in Ateret Cohanim and supportive of the soldiers who guarded Kever Rochel by providing them with treats. She was a mother of four wonderful children, two of whom I taught at the Yeshivah of Flatbush.

Norman continued to work at his consulting business in America and would travel back monthly; it was his custom to daven at the Kotel before embarking on any trip. Before they left for Jerusalem, they called a sofer to fulfill a long desired mitzvah to write a Sefer Torah.

One day, Norman and Sara left Atara with family, got into their white car, picked up some hitchhikers at a corner, and all seven of them began the short trip to Jerusalem. As he was driving, Norman noticed a white car that seemed to be tailing him so he swerved around a big truck in front of him. As he sus -

pected, this car was indeed targeting him and followed from behind and then right next to his passenger-filled car.

Norman felt a swoosh, his glasses shattered, and his nose exploded with blood. He looked sideways and saw Sara smiling brightly; she had been shot through the neck. As he looked in front of him, he experienced a white cloud surrounding his head.

our beautiful hotel with tears streaming down our faces, we wondered how someone can go on after so much heartache. When you live a Torah life, shouldn’t you be able to avoid this kind of horror?

Norman did not scream and yell and bemoan his loss. Because of the ongoing Intifada, the week before Sara was killed, she and Norman had a conversa-

Laughing and eating together helps us forget the aches of our wrecked knees and the lost hearing of our present.

The terrorists’ bullets had shot through his window, went around and over Norman’s head and into Sara’s neck, killing her. More bullets killed or wounded the other poor passengers trapped in the car.

This tragedy happened nine months after Norman and Sara’s aliyah in 2001.

Sitting in the gorgeous sunshine of

tion about what they would do if one of them suddenly died. They both agreed that they would support chayalim and help children at risk. .

Norman actively supports the numerous organizations that help Israeli soldiers and works with children at risk through Kav L’Noar.

Israel is a country in which the peo -

ple are resolved to live life to the fullest despite tragedy and loss. Families run into shelters and go to school or work the next day, close and re-open businesses, eat in open air restaurants, encourage Jewish campers to tour, and go on trips the day after war is declared over.

The morning we checked out, we met our inquisitive young couple again. Feeling rude that I did not ask anything about them, I opened the conversation with questions about who they are and where they come from.

In Hebrew (thank you, Ulpan) the young man explained, “We live in Chevron, and I learn in the Yeshiva. Come and visit.”

Of course, we exchanged numbers. Maybe the next time we venture out of Jerusalem we will meet them for coffee in Chevron.

Barbara Deutsch is the former associate principal at HANC, middle school principal at Kushner, and Dean of Students at Yeshiva of Flatbush. A not-retired educator, she is trying to figure out life in Israel through reflections on navigating the dream of aliyah as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend.

Israel Today Natan Sharansky’s Message

NBy Rafi Sackville

atan Sharansky embodies the very soul of a Jewish hero. He stood tall and unyielding against the oppressive Soviet regime, risking everything for his beliefs, his identity, and his people. His name stands proudly alongside other Jewish icons who faced overwhelming adversity: Joseph Trumpeldor, who fell defending Tel Hai in 1920; Chana Senesh, who parachuted behind enemy lines and was executed in 1944; and the valiant fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, who rose up against the Nazi monster with a bravery that still echoes through history. Sharansky channels that same indomitable spirit – one that carried him through years of brutal Soviet imprisonment until his release in 1986.

I recently attended a talk he gave to a large group of teenage students. I took a seat just a few feet to his right, positioning myself to watch both him and the young audience. I wanted to witness not only the man but also the impact his presence would have on the room.

Even in his mid-seventies, Sharansky remains strikingly unchanged. His face can still shift in an instant – from a mischievous, boyish grin to a sharp, uncompromising stare. Here is a man who has endured what would break most of us yet he radiates warmth, humor, and clarity. He still dresses the same: sneakers, slacks, a button-down shirt, and his trademark khaki hat perched on his head.

His talk was more than just a speech – it was a living history. He spoke candidly about the cruelty of his years in solitary confinement, the psychological toll, and the fierce battle to keep his mind intact. He recounted playing endless men-

tal games of chess to preserve his sanity. He described how he tapped Morse code into the inside of his toilet bowl to communicate with fellow prisoners. It was raw, human, and hard to fathom.

More than once he stressed how important it was that we have a country to call our own. The rising tide of antisemitism across the Western world only deepens the conviction for many Israelis that Israel is not just a homeland but a lifeline for Jews of every denomination and stripe. Where else in the Western World can one feel this sense of belonging?

Jewish history isn’t a relic. It breathes. The aforementioned heroes aren’t abstract figures – they ’re living threads in the fabric of our identity. How can any of us look at the generation of Holocaust survivors without reverence and awe? Upon their backs and upon those who perished we have been blessed with a country. Listening to Natan Sharansky that day filled so many of us with deep pride. We were in the presence of history made flesh.

More than anything, what struck me most was the number of inattentive students. Shouldn ’t they have shown more respect – more reverence – for a man of his stature? The short answer is yes, they should have. The long answer, however, is more complicated.

Later, speaking with teachers and administrators, my concerns were confirmed. There’s a growing sense that we’re falling short in instilling in our students the fire of Jewish history. And yet, there’s the other side of the coin; we are doing our best to educate them. At some point, they must take that leap themselves –

taking ownership of that history and making it their own. And they do!

At the end of his talk, I asked Natan Sharansky what message he hoped the students would take away. For the first time, he hesitated. Twice he began to speak, only to stop himself. Then he said:

“We don’t know how much power we have within us to fight. The voice of strength is the connection you have to your nation, to your history. There are young Jews in places like America. They yearn for Tikkun Olam – to make the world better – but they don’t realize how much strength that truly requires.

“Young people need a stronger connection to their Jewish roots. When we become detached from our roots, we live in fear – fear of standing out, fear of harming our careers. Overcoming that fear can only come from a deep connection to who we are.

“There ’s also immense strength in unity – not just among those who agree with us, but across the diverse streams of Jewish life.

“If we strengthen our Jewish identity, our sense of history, and our unity, we become a force.”

I often look at my students and see them as they will be once they leave school. Over 90% of them will enter the army.

It ’s not enough to live in Israel and assume that our presence here is sufficient. Aliyah cannot happen in a vacuum. Jewish life demands more than geography – it requires engagement, curiosity, and meaningful connection. If we want to honor our past, we must teach it not

merely as history, but as legacy. And kindling the flame of those who will carry that legacy forward is, more often than not, a goal our students must strive toward – and achieve – for themselves.

That remarkable generation of Holocaust survivors – the giants at whose feet I once sat – is fading. And with them goes the living memory that once anchored us. Like many others, I clung to the hope that 80 years of Shoah education would be enough to inoculate the world against hatred. I was wrong. October 7th pierced that illusion like a knife.

Many of our young, former students and colleagues paid the price of this current war with their lives. They, along with the students who sat listening to Sharansky, are creating their own history. And on that day, as Sharansky spoke, I sat before hundreds of young people who will continue to build the legacy of Jewish history. As I looked across their faces, his words rang true: the key to Jewish continuity doesn’t lie in the hands of others—it lies squarely with us.

Once again, as has so often been the case in our history, we must rely on ourselves. Not only to survive the rising animosity directed toward us, but to strengthen our connection to who we are, where we’ve come from, and the legacy we are duty-bound to carry forward.

Knowing my students as I do, I am confident our future is in good hands.

Rafi Sackville, formerly from Cedarhurst, teaches in a prominent yeshiva in Yerushalayim.

Cognitive Dissonance The Left’s View of Israel

By Uri KaUfman

here is an old saying in Vaudeville: you don’t know your act until everything goes wrong. On October 7, 2023, the Israelis showed it is the same with a military plan.

Israel spent over $1 billion building a high-tech fence around Gaza.

Upon its completion in December 2021, Defense Minister Benny Gantz hailed it at a ceremony, saying, “Our mission is to always stay one step ahead of the enemy.”

So Hamas terrorists blew holes in it, drove right through, and committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

An estimated 1,163 people were killed, thousands were wounded, and 251 were taken hostage. At least 347 of the dead were young people murdered at a nearby music festival. Some bodies were so charred that they could only be identified as human with a CT scan. Others were found with ash in their lungs, indicating that the victims had been burned alive.

One black mass was found to contain two human spines that had fused together, suggesting that the victims were hugging when fuel was poured on them and they were set on fire. An Israeli pathologist later said that “in normal times, murder is carried out very quickly, with a shooting or a stabbing…these were slow, cruel killings, burning people alive, shooting them in a row and then driving cars over them.”

The news of the butchery staggered Israel and, for a brief moment, even its critics. But things soon returned to normal. Or at least what passes for normal when it comes to the Jewish state.

No less than thirty-four different student organizations in Harvard signed a statement on October 10—before Israeli troops had even entered Gaza—saying that they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

On October 23, Barack Obama wrote of Palestinians and Israelis that “nobody’s

hands are clean.” What terrible thing had the Israelis done to justify the moral equivalence? Obama said that the “occupation” had made the plight of the Palestinians “unbearable.” The trouble, of course, was that there was no occupation. Israel had withdrawn from Gaza almost twenty years before.

And then there was Amnesty International In its press release on October 26, before Israel’s ground campaign in Gaza began, it called for “an immediate ceasefire by all parties in the occupied Gaza Strip.” Gaza was “occupied,” in Amnesty’s view, even though the only Israelis in it were the hostages.

It raises an obvious question, and that question is why. Why do so many otherwise serious people say so many things about Israel that are patently false?

In seeking an answer, one has only to spend a short time watching the chattering classes on television to see a pattern: the

more liberal a person’s political outlook, the more likely they are to attack Israel. It is an odd paradox. A visitor from another planet who studied political science and thumbed through an atlas would likely pause at the page dedicated to Israel. “This,” our alien friend would jot down, “must be a place admired by the humans known as ‘liberals.’”

So why the paradox? The best way to understand it is to engage in a thought experiment. Suppose that every fact related to the Hamas attack on October 7 occurred exactly as described: murders, beheadings, people burned alive, etc. But let’s change one fact. Let’s assume that the people who carried out the attack were not Palestinians. Let’s assume that they were Germans of another era, or Ukrainians of another era.

In other words, let’s assume that they were white people. Not people of color. In this scenario, you wouldn’t expect the Biden Administration to give a multi-billion-dollar aid package to the white supremacist “innocent civilians.” But Biden approved billions in aid for Gaza, even as Hamas declared that it would rebuild and attack Israel again. The aid wasn’t even conditioned on the release of eight Americans being held hostage. Vice President Kamala Harris insisted that “we cannot conflate Hamas with the Palestinian people.”

And now let’s take this thought experiment all the way through by changing the identities of all the parties. In this parallel universe, white supremacists attack an African country on October 7, declaring that blacks are “apes and pigs.” Try to imagine a Republican president sending billions in aid to the white supremacist “innocent civilians,” or imagine the vice president arguing that we cannot conflate the white terrorists with the civilians who support them. It would never happen, and people would riot if it did. But those same people are eager to send billions to Palestinians in Gaza.

Here’s another thought experiment: imagine that Iran was run by white supremacists who cried that blacks were “apes and pigs” and that they were building a bomb to kill them all. Do you really think that

President Obama would sign an Iran deal with that country? Do you really think he would agree that it could continue its nuclear research, make missiles in eight years, enrich uranium in ten and come out of the pact completely in fifteen? Do you really think he would release over $100 billion to a white supremacist country, funding terrorism against black people?

In short, what we have is a classic example of cognitive dissonance. First identified by psychologist Leon Festinger in the 1950s, cognitive dissonance describes a well-known human phenomenon: when

international law, Israel is considered an occupying power in Gaza, even though it has removed its troops and settlers from the territory.”

International law? Which international law is that? The Times doesn’t say. But it repeated this bizarre legal conclusion on a regular basis. On June 1, 2016, for example—over ten years after the pullout was completed—readers were told that Gaza is “a society long under the shadow of a military occupation.” An August 19, 2022, story accused Israel of “restricting and silencing criticism of its 55-year military

Why do so many otherwise serious people say so many things about Israel that are patently false?

people are confronted with facts that contradict their beliefs, they usually change the facts, not the beliefs.

In the worldview of progressives, racism is endemic, and white people oppress people of color. It is through this lens that they see human history; it is this ancient wrong they wish to right. They, therefore, spring into action and fight for “social justice” the moment they see white people in conflict with people of color.

This argument admittedly had appeal decades ago in the days of Jim Crow or apartheid. But it has nothing to do with Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians. The differences are as obvious as they are numerous. But taking in these facts requires progressives to hold two conflicting thoughts in their heads at the same time: supporting Israel, despite a worldview that sees white people as oppressors. Better to change the facts than to confront the paradox—better, that is, to come down in support of people of color (i.e., the Palestinians). Overcoming cognitive dissonance is hard work.

There are very few people willing to make the effort, even among those that should know better. After Ariel Sharon pulled out of Gaza in 2005, The New York Times and others went right on saying that Gaza was under Israeli military occupation, as if nothing had happened. Here is what the paper of record reported on September 20, 2007: “Under

own eyes?” The editors of The New York Times ask a similar question with each story. Perhaps the Geneva Convention has its international law, but the editors have their own. And that only tells half the story. The New York Times doesn’t just misstate the law. It also misstates the facts.

Long before the October 7 attack, the Times referred to Israel’s “blockade” of Gaza. In at least two articles by different reporters, it referred to it as a “draconian blockade.” In the words of the Times, the blockade “undermined the living conditions of more than two million Palestinians and led to a nearly 50 percent unemployment rate that is among the highest in the world.” Note that the “blockade” was the source of the suffering, not the refusal of Gazans to sign a peace treaty. The blame rested with Israel.

But why quibble over a minor detail like that? The whole story was false. Because the truth was, there was no blockade at all.

occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” I took these quotes from the news section. The op-eds and editorials in the Times are a whole other level of dysfunction and distortion. But at least they are opinions. This is the news deemed fit to print. And these were not silly oversights that slipped through while the managing editor was on vacation. They reflected all the reporting of Gaza. For the unspoken assumption of every story was that Israel owed a duty of care to Palestinians because Gaza was still under occupation.

A 2015 article described the plight of a Palestinian woman in Gaza who could not reach her betrothed in the West Bank because the heartless Israelis would not permit her to travel across their country. It is like criticizing the United States for not permitting people who lived in Nazi Germany or the Taliban Afghanistan to travel across America. In the midst of the Covid crisis, the Times ran a story criticizing Israel for not sharing vaccines with Gaza and thus “not protecting Palestinians under its occupation.” Yet another article decried the “struggle” that Gazan athletes faced in reaching competitions because of “travel restrictions” placed by the Israelis. Those words appeared right on the front page.

This is what I call Groucho Marx Journalism. Picture Groucho with the nose, the glasses, and the wiggling cigar saying, “Who are ya gonna believe: me or your

Yes, Israel placed restrictions on military materials such as steel and concrete, and even that got through, as evidenced by the hundreds of miles of tunnels that Hamas dug throughout Gaza. But for everything else—food, clothing, diapers, etc.—obtaining supply was, in the words of Israeli general Yom-Tov Samia, “as difficult as making a telephone call.”

The most recent full year for which there is data was 2022. In that year, Israel supplied Gaza with 5.7 billion gallons of water. Without it, Gaza would have died of thirst. Israel sent over 67,000 supply trucks filled with supplies. Without it, Gaza would have starved. Gazans needed a means to pay for all this. So the IDF gave licenses to 17,000 of them to work inside Israel. These steps were unprecedented in world history. How many North Koreans were earning a living in the U.S. during that conflict (or, for that matter, today)? How many trucks of supplies were sent into Islamic State?

In truth, Israel was, and is, the only country in the history of world supplying its enemies in time of war, purely on humanitarian grounds. But The New York Times flipped the script. In its telling, Gaza was still under occupation, even though the Israelis withdrew. In its telling, Israel enforced a “draconian blockade,” despite the unprecedented humanitarian supply. And who are ya gonna believe: me or your own eyes?

The Wandering Jew

Return to Russia, 2016

Part I

Writing this article was very difficult for me. The essence of this article was to point out the immense changes that transformed the Soviet Union into modern day Russia. Democracy and freedom were the motto of a new Russia. Repression and fear were part of a dark past which had been replaced by “Liberty, Equality and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Vladimir Putin’s vision of Russia’s return toward a more repressive and authoritarian regime began in 2020. His policy of no tolerance to opposition and his belligerence to other nations was constantly growing. His continuing war with Ukraine has strained relationships with most of the Western powers. Present-day Russia is not the Russia we experienced in 2016.

journeys, and the other two I went solo. These trips focused on reaching out to Jews who were oppressed by the communist regime by bringing them support and consolation during their struggle to keep the flame of Judaism alive. From 1993 and onwards, after the fall of communism, I traveled many times in the

These unforeseen changes made the reflections that Pesi and I shared in 2016 somewhat outdated. Yet, I decided to write about this trip because at that time this is what we experienced and how we felt then.

Our first trip to the Soviet Union was in May of 1979, and this was followed by three more journeys between then and December 1982. Pesi accompanied me on two of those

capacity of my volunteer work on behalf of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel, mostly alone but on occasion with Pesi. These trips basically ended in 2006. Our next trip was in 2013 when we were approached by Sheila Schwebel of Tourrific Tours to accompany her group of women travelers on a heritage tour of Russia, where I would lecture about Russian Jewish themes and share our personal experiences. The trip was a resounding success.

Our most recent escapade to Mother Russia came in July of 2016. We were asked to join Miriam Schreiber’s Legacy Tours as “special guests.” We would be joining Rabbi Mordechai Becher of Gateways fame and Rabbi Yakov Lehrfield of the Young Israel of Staten Island and about sixty other travelers. Our lectures would focus on the kiruv work that we were involved with from 1979 onwards with Jews in Russia and Poland. We would relate the unique stories that we experienced and the unusual individuals that we encountered. I was also instrumental in preparing a historical brochure with timelines and short biographies of famous personalities that related to Jewish life in Russia from the past few centuries.

We left on Tuesday, July 12, and arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow the next day at 1 PM. I had the opportunity to meet and have a small conversation with Chabad Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar who was with us on the plane. We were greeted by Sergei, our guide, who coordinated all our activities in Moscow. Our group stayed at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel adjacent to Red Square and the Kremlin. We received boxed lunches to eat in our rooms and met for Mincha and listened to an Opening Program which was given by Rabbis Becher, Lehrfeld and myself.

Following that program, the evening was dedicated to an exclusive entertainment spectacle, the “Bolshoi Moscow Circus.” Different than the three-ring circus-

Viewing the collection of seforim from the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch

Rabbi Pinchas Goldshmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow

With Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar disembarking at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow

Rabbi Mordechai Becher addressing the group

Advertisement of the Legacy Tour of Russia

es in the States, the Moscow Circus has only one ring, and the audience is not torn between watching one act over another. The theater is not that large so that one feels closer to the action and can enjoy the different performances with ease. After the show ended at 10:30 PM, we were taken to the Alef Restaurant at the Marina Roscha Synagogue where our starving group were treated to a lavish dinner.

On Thursday morning, we davened at the Choral Synagogue on Archipova Street, a shul that always brings back bittersweet memories to me. This was one of two synagogues that were allowed to exist in Moscow during the years of the Soviet regime. It was where I davened in

for Russian furs, amber jewelry, brightly colored shawls, matryoshka dolls and enameled wooden tchotchkes galore.

Mincha was davened at another Chabad shul called the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue. After dinner, we concluded the evening with a stroll in Red Square. The major attractions like the Kremlin, Lenin’s Tomb, GUM Department Store and St. Basil’s Cathedral were illuminated, and we were impressed by the display of majesty.

Friday, we took a tour of the fortified Kremlin complex and the Palace Museum with its crown jewels. We learned a lot and were awed just being in the citadel of the former Russian Empire and the

It was where I davened in the late seventies and eighties and met the desperate Yidden who were clinging to their faith with mesiras nefesh.

the late seventies and eighties and met the desperate Yidden who were clinging to their faith with mesiras nefesh. Now we all entered this beautiful “Beis Elokim” with a feeling of gratitude that being Jewish and religious was not only tolerated but was being publicly endorsed throughout the country. We met Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Moscow’s chief rabbi, who heartily greeted our group. From there, we went to the Marina Roscha Restaurant for a buffet breakfast where Pesi entertained the group with the story of our first encounter with Jews in Leningrad in 1979.

Our next stop on our itinerary was to tour the city by boat. The Moskva River passes through Moscow’s many important sites, and our English-speaking guide pointed out the city’s most famous icons. After the two-four cruise, we went to the souvenir market on Arbat Street where our group delighted in shopping

epicenter of the Soviet Union. We then made our way back to our hotel to get ready for Shabbos. Davening took place in the Choral Synagogue, and the Shabbos seudah in a nearby hall was jointly attended by our group and visitors who converged in Moscow for the opening of a branch of the Lakewood Kollel. Rav Yerucham Olshin spoke at Kabbolas Shabbos, and we joined Rabbis Pinchas Goldschmidt, Shlomo Noach Mandel, and Reuven Dessler at the meal. Rabbi Mandel spoke about the new Moscow Kollel, and I shared the story about my arrest by the KGB in Kiev in 1979. People sat riveted to their seats as my story unfolded. Shabbos day, we returned to the Choral Synagogue, although some members of our group went to the Kollel. We ate together and davened Mincha and returned to our hotel for the traditional “Shabbos shluff.” Motzei Shabbos, we had a very special Melave Malka where

Pesi and I had a chance to reach out personally to all our fellow travelers and bond with them even if only for a short time. We only knew about twenty people out of the sixty or so voyagers, but they were all a very amiable group and we were easily able to befriend them. As the night progressed, there were speeches, zemiros and laughter, and the camaraderie was contagious.

Sunday was our final day in Moscow. After breakfast and checkout, we went to see the War Memorial where Rav Mordechai Becher gave a very moving and inspiring speech. Everyone was spellbound. We then toured the famed Moscow Metro which is truly an extraordinary experience. Even under the communist regime, the Metro was a showcase of elegance and efficiency that was renowned to all. Our last stop was the Jewish Museum, which is under the direction of Chabad and is comparable to other famous Jewish museums that Pesi and I visited in many places – very modern and innovative with user-friendly presentations. They even had a small

collection on loan of some noted seforim from the Russian State Library which belonged to the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe Rayatz.

After a buffet supper at the museum, we left for the train station. Our next destination was the Czarist capital of Russia, St. Petersburg.

Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis.

Pesi in front of St. Basil’s

Standing in front of the official entrance to the Kremlin

Interior of Moscow’s elegant Metro

Outer walls of Kremlin with Lenin’s Tomb in the foreground

Russian souvenirs

Nation

ARav Nissan Kaplan Balancing Seriousness With Warmth

By Eliyahu RosEnBERg

few years ago, one erev Rosh Hashana, Rav Nissan Kaplan stepped into his yeshiva’s beis medresh, his eyes scanning the room. His talmidim had just finished a three-hour-long Shacharis. They

In His Words…

skipped breakfast (because of the minhag to fast until chatzos on erev Rosh Hashana). And yet, the room was alive — the excitement palpable, the learning intense.

But then, suddenly, Rav Kaplan said

Even when you decide to be the rebbi, the talmid still has to decide to be a talmid. i think it’s very important for every guy to have a rebbi. When you have a rebbi, like when you have a parent, they stay your parent. you can’t switch your rebbi.

if we would understand the chashivus of learning, we would never stop. a person has to know the chashivus of learning. Talmud Torah k’neged kulam. a person can do a lot of mitzvos, but learning Torah is more than anything.

Try to be nice to people for no reason. if you’re in camp, before you leave, go to the cook and say the food was amazing. you hear a shiur from someone, tell him, ‘Wow, it was amazing...’ Tell your in-laws, ‘Wow, it was a beautiful shabbos.’ Call the rebbi of your son at the end of the year and say, ‘ you changed my son’s life.’ Ma ichpat lecha, make him feel good.

something that no student wants to hear.

“I want to see every single bochur in my office, one by one,” Rav Kaplan demanded.

Heads turned throughout the beis medresh, all eyes on the Rosh Yeshiva. Rav Kaplan’s stern expression showed he meant business.

Soon thereafter, the boys visited Rav Kaplan. Each bochur walked into the office, his worry evident in his nervous frown. Was this a performance review? Did the Rav have some bad news? Did something upset Rav Kaplan? No one knew.

But the moment each student entered Rav Kaplan’s office, all fear dissipated. The Rav rose from his seat and handed each bochur a bag with honey cake, two bottles of soda, a large Bamba, a Bissli, and candies. At that moment, Rav Kaplan’s serious expression turned into a warm smile.

“This is a Rosh Hashana gift from the Rebbetzin,” he told all 250 boys, one by one. “And by the way, I wanted to let you know that you’re doing very well in your learning!”

Each student’s face lit up. Within fifteen minutes, the Rav and Rebbetzin’s phones were ringing nonstop with calls from parents.

“My son has been in yeshiva for a month. He never had time to call home. But he just called. And he was so excited to say that the Rebbetzin gave him a Bamba!” the parents reported.

It’s hard to find balance in chinuch. It seems many yeshivas either emphasize seriousness or warmth. Some believe that you can’t have one without

surrendering the other. But Rav Nissan Kaplan’s yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, Da’as Aharon, has a different philosophy — an ideology encapsulated in three words: “Everyone needs love.”

As Rav Kaplan explains, our generation makes a mistake: We shower students who go off the derech with love (and rightfully so), but we sometimes fail to pay attention to everyone else. The good learners, the average students — they often don’t receive as much care as they deserve. That phenomenon stems from the fallacy that warmth is needed by some, but not by others. The fact is that all students need love — regardless of their academic or spiritual success; regardless of whether they act out or always behave.

Yeshivas are doing a fine job raising talmidei chachamim. And yes, the next generation of Torah leaders obviously must succeed in learning. But besides that, to connect to others, they also need to excel in warmth. And that’s what Rav Kaplan’s yeshiva is all about.

* * *

The rebbi-student relationship is at the heart of every yeshiva. But it’s hard for rebbeim to cultivate that connection with so many students. Rav Nissan Kaplan taught thousands of students during his years as Maggid Shiur in the Mir. And since then, he has built relationships with hundreds of bochurim in his yeshiva. How does he do it?

“You have to believe in it. You can’t fake it. You have to be nice to every student — it doesn’t make a difference what he has, how he is, who he is. You have to

be there for the people,” Rav Nissan Kaplan shares. “I really like to give. I really want them to grow. I have a place in my heart for everyone. And I try to reach out and answer everyone.”

But the responsibility of cultivating the rebbi-student relationship doesn’t rest only on the rebbi’s shoulders. It’s also the student’s responsibility.

“Even when you decide to be the rebbi, the talmid still has to decide to be a talmid. You have a guy who calls you for a shidduch, for help, for business advice, when he has a life crisis, but the day he makes it, he forgets about you. He thinks he has a rebbi, but he doesn’t,” explains Rav Kaplan. “When you have a rebbi, like when you have a parent, they stay your parent. And it’s very important for a guy, if he wants to be a good Yid, to not ‘hop’ rebbis. You can’t switch your rebbi.”

Rav Kaplan learned the importance of having a rebbi when he was a teenager. As a bochur in Yeshiva Kol Torah, Rav Kaplan became very close to his Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.

When Rav Kaplan was 16, he was desperate to learn with Rav Auerbach. So, one day, the bochur approached his Rosh Yeshiva.

“I worked it out with my father, and every day he’ll pay for a taxi for me to go from yeshiva to your house back and forth, so that I could learn with you for an hour,” the boy told Rav Auerbach. “I want to come and learn with you. I have a lot of questions. Can we learn for an hour a day?”

“I’m sorry,” the rav replied. “I’m not able to. I’m not that type of Rosh Yeshiva. It just won’t work.”

But young Rav Kaplan didn’t take no for an answer.

“Rebbi, if you feel that you cannot be a Rosh Yeshiva, then give the Rosh Yeshiva position to someone else. But I came to

Yeshiva to learn by a Rosh Yeshiva,” the boy innocently said. “Rebbi, I’m serious.”

It was a gutsy thing to say, but the boy was driven by the earnest desire to learn with his Rosh Yeshiva. And Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach realized that.

“OK,” Rav Auerbach conceded. “I will come every day to yeshiva 15 minutes earlier, and I will learn with you.”

“From that day on, he came to yeshiva, he took his chair, and he turned it towards me. And we learned. And he felt he had a real talmid. And that is the way we really developed a shaychus. And it became deeper and deeper,” Rav Kaplan recalls. “He knew Kol haTorah kulah. He was the nicest person, and he gave his talmidim his heart, his soul, everything.”

Rav Auerbach was like a father to Rav Kaplan. Moreover, Rav Auerbach taught Rav Kaplan how to be a rebbi — how to teach while balancing seriousness and warmth.

Rav Kaplan has followed in his rebbi’s footsteps. He too sits and learns with his talmidim. And even in the face of hardship and personal tragedy — including the loss of his wife, who helped run the yeshiva alongside him — Rav Nissan Kaplan has never turned away from his students.

Rav Nissan Kaplan shares the following mashal: A man wants to learn. His wife, however, wants him home. So, they compromise. He agrees to learn only until 1 a.m.

One night, the man walks in at 2 a.m. to find his wife, slightly frustrated, waiting for him.

“What happened? I thought we had a deal,” his wife blurts out.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I was walking home and suddenly, a bus flipped over. And I was doing CPR on everyone until the ambulance came,” he tells his wife.

This article is based on a podcast, “Inspiration For the Nation,” hosted by Yaakov Langer. To catch more of this conversation, you can watch it on LivingLchaim.com or YouTube.com/LivingLchaim or listen wherever you listen to podcasts (just search for “Inspiration For The Nation”) or call our free hotline: 605-477-2100.

“Wow. I’m so proud of you!” his wife replies.

He gives her a smile.

“Now, I’ll tell you a secret. I was actually doing something a little bit better than that,” he says. “I learned for an extra hour. How proud are you now?”

As Rav Kaplan explains, we don’t understand how powerful learning Torah is. As he puts it, “If we would understand the chashivus of learning, we would never stop.”

“The Taz says that Mordechai HaTzaddik’s seat in the Sanhedrin was number three. After the Megillah, he became number five,” says Rav Kaplan.

It’s difficult to understand. Because Mordechai chose to save the Jewish people instead of focusing solely on Torah, his rank in the Sanhedrin fell. Why?

“A person has to know the chashivus of learning. Talmud Torah k’neged kulam. A person can do a lot of mitzvos, but learning Torah is more than anything,”

Rav Kaplan shares.

But what also matters is what we do with our learning. Learning Torah builds our character. It helps us reach our potential. And most of all, Torah teaches us how to treat others. Through learning, we can grow.

“Try to be nice to people for no reason. If you’re in camp, before you leave, go to the cook and say the food was amazing. You hear a shiur from someone, tell him, ‘Wow, it was amazing.’ It doesn’t make a difference if it was or not. You’ll make him feel like a million dollars. Why not? Tell your in-laws, ‘Wow, it was a beautiful Shabbos.’ Call the rebbi of your son at the end of the year and say, ‘You changed my son’s life.’ Ma ichpat lecha, make him feel good,” Rav Nissan Kaplan suggests. “You could do this 24 hours a day. And you’ll get used to it.

“Train yourself to be nice just for being nice.”

Dating Dialogue What Would You Do If…

Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

My parents and I have different opinions on something, and we wanted to write into your column to hear the panel’s option it.

I’m a 23-year-old girl who’s been dating for three years. Thank G-d I have a lot of dates, just haven’t found the right one yet (hopefully soon!!). My parents often send shadchanim presents or something to show appreciation. Personally, I think that’s unnecessary. I try and encourage them not to do it... What if they think we are just kissing up to them? It seems disingenuous. My friends’ parents don’t do this.

What’s the right way to do it – is giving gifts appropriate or not?

Thanks, Rivka*

The Panel

Dear Readers,

We want to offer YOU an opportunity to be part of the discussion! Please email us at MichelleMondShadchan@gmail.com, subject line “reader’s response,” if you would like to participate in the new “A Reader’s Response” columnist spot. We will send you a question and publish your answer in an upcoming Navidaters edition.

If you have a question you would like the Navidaters to answer, please reach out to this email as well.

Looking forward!

Michelle, the “Shadchan”

The Rebbetzin

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S.

Years ago, acknowledgment of the efforts of shadchanim was shown by parents largely only if a suggestion re -

sulted in a match. Today, there is much more understanding of the work involved in suggesting shidduchim; the time and energy are substantial. That’s why fewer people got involved until a lot of newer creative initiatives and data driven apps and databases were crafted to address the “shidduch crisis.” Also, with a larger Jewish community, the few shadchanim

around are bombarded with names of singles. Another complication is that these days, both parents and young adults tend to have a longer list of requirements and want people in their social circle, in their geographic communities, and in their specific Jewish culture. It makes it much harder to suggest shidduchim and people often find it way too time-consuming and hard. Fewer people are willing to invest the time to make suggestions.

Your parents are showing that they know this takes time, effort, and persistence. They are being menschlech This is not like tipping a waitress who served you three meals over a Shabbos at a hotel. They are not being disingenuous. Why is it so difficult for you to understand this? No one owes you shidduch suggestions. It’s very kind when people do think of you. These people care about other Jews. Do you?

People who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to go out of their way to reciprocate.

The Shadchan

Michelle Mond

This does not happen often, but your question baffles me. Perhaps it’s be -

cause my love language is gifts. Showing appreciation for someone’s time and effort is one of the nicest things you can do! Throughout the Torah we read about the importance of giving gifts and showing appreciation.

My question for you is, what’s the source of your hesitancy? Are you generally more of a self-centered person? These are things I would like you to ask yourself. There is no logical reason to feel self-conscious about your parents giving gifts. It keeps you on their radar and makes them want to help you even more. When someone feels appreciated for their efforts, especially when it’s time-consuming, they have the fuel to

keep trying. Perhaps that is why you have gotten so many dates so far!

Think about it: being a shadchan is truly a thankless job. Shadchanim can spend countless hours networking, helping, and coaching, while setting you (and the young man) up. There is no such thing as showing too much appreciation. The fact that you feel gift-giving may be disingenuous leads me to believe that you may need to work on your middos and sense of bein adam l’chaveiro.

You are lucky to have your parents as parents; they are helping you in immeasurable ways.

Pulling It All Together

The Navidaters

Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

The Zaidy

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

Has it occurred to you that the reason you are getting a lot of dates is because your parents are smart enough, and considerate enough, to show their appreciation to your shadchanim?

When you are generous to the shadchanim who are trying to help you, it helps keep you on their radar. It makes them more motivated to try and help you.

An appropriate token of appreciation is not simply a crass attempt at bribery; it is recognition of the fact that people who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to go out of their way to reciprocate.

I am sure that you have many outstanding attributes. May I respectfully suggest that you add the following to your existing list of wonderful qualities: Rivka is a very generous, thoughtful, considerate, and appreciative individual.

Dear Rivka,

This is such a thoughtful question, and I can already tell how much you’re trying to walk through dating with sincerity and self-awareness, which, by the way, is no small thing.

So first, I’m not a shadchan. That’s really not my lane. What I can do is help you explore what’s coming up for you around this.

There are so many reasons people give gifts. Sometimes it’s simply a heartfelt thank you, a way of acknowledging that someone took the time to think of you, make a call, or send your name in. Some people really appreciate that. Others feel awkward receiving anything. We don’t know how each individual shadchan feels. And I don’t think that when we act with kindness and a moral compass that we are responsible for other peoples’ feelings. The trouble starts when gifts are used

to control, ma- nipulate, or obligate. That’s when things get murky. You know… “We gave you all these gifts and you barely think of our daughter.” Or, “Maybe if we give gifts, she’ll talk about what a generous family we are.” Or, “I spent so much time and effort picking out this gift for you, and you have the nerve to….” But when a gift is given from purity and good intention and pure hakaras hatov, I personally think it is a beautiful gesture.

It also sounds like part of what’s bothering you isn’t just the gift itself, but the fear of how it might be perceived, as disingenuous or strategic. I get that. It might help to ask yourself:

• Is this gift about gratitude, or is it trying to create an outcome?

• Is the discomfort coming from the gesture itself—or from worrying that someone will misread your family’s intentions?

Reader’s Response

Esti Ackerman Avid Navidaters’ Reader

As someone who has tried to set up shidduchim, sometimes b”H successfully, but more often than not, unsuccessfully, it can get very draining and frustrating. A little thank you gift from an appreciative parent not only gives me the chizuk to keep going, but it also helps me keep that single in mind. It’s also helpful for me to note if a parent is especially grateful vs. the opposite.

I don’t think there’s harm in sending gifts after a shadchan or friend tried setting you up. If your parents send gifts to shadchanim that never set you up, then that would be something I’d question. But if it’s after the fact, it’s probably the most appreciated concept for shadchanim who quite often suffer from burnout. There should be more parents like yours who show appreciation for the hardworking shadchanim!

• Is there another way you (or your parents) could say thank you that feels more aligned with your values?

How do you feel about receiving gifts when you show up for someone, whether personally or professionally?

If a gift is given with genuine appreciation, and it’s measured and appropriate, how it’s received really isn’t the giver’s responsibility. Not everyone will interpret it the same way, and that doesn’t make it wrong.

If I may share a personal little story… I will never forget the first time a client bought me a thank you gift. I was a younger therapist then, and I immediately brought this to the attention of several mentors. “You can’t keep that, Jennifer. It’s unethical to receive gifts from clients. It changes the dynamics of the relationship. You have to return it.” And others were of the camp of “that is so beautiful.

That person is touched by the work and the relationship and wants to show her gratitude through a symbol. Not accepting it would be a rejection of that gesture and change the safety of the relationship and… want to explore your ability to receive and connect?” Today, I have all sorts of doodads and knick-knacks around my office that were given as gifts, and I comfortably fall into the second camp. Some people say thank you with words, a look, a gift, and some people want to say thank you and don’t feel safe doing so.

At the end of the day, you know your heart. And it’s okay to want to express appreciation your way. You’re navigating this with so much grace and thoughtfulness, and I encourage you to keep exploring what gift giving is bringing up for you.

Warmly, Jennifer Mann, LCSW

and

in private practice at 123 Maple Avenue in Cedarhurst, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please

Visit

for more information. If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email JenniferMannLCSW@gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.

Parenting Pearls Modeling Effective Communication

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

Parents possess a major role in creating stability for their child. One area we can focus on is ensuring parents communicate with each other and create a united front for their child. Sadly, too often, adults are unable to work together in ways that build and unite.

More than just creating stability, parental communication is a child’s first model for speech. They learn to speak from what they hear us say. Parents that frequently fight, chas v’shalom , raise children in a very different home from one in which adults respectfully discuss issues. Children repeat what they hear and experience in the world around them.

Communication is intended to bridge barriers and build relationships. Positive communication brings people closer, while negative speech drives others away. We want our children to have strong friendships, beautiful marriages and lasting connections. To be successful and happy in life, our children will need

to learn appropriate communication.

Healthy communication demonstrates respect both for ourselves and each other. We respect ourselves when we express our needs, and we respect others when we listen and prioritize their feelings. Recognizing how speaking up for ourselves can bring us closer to others, as well as understanding the give-and-take in conversation, are a crucial, but often misunderstood, aspect of communication.

Like anything else in life, communication is a learned skill. The more we exercise effective communication, the better we become at it. We can give our children the best communication beginnings by modeling it ourselves whenever we speak.

The Need

There are many ways children will require communication skills. This is one of those lessons that will be useful today and everyday throughout their lives.

Being able to advocate for themselves and state their physical needs is important.

It was a busy morning getting ready for the class play, and the teacher couldn’t focus when her young student said she wasn’t feeling well. The unwell child got caught up in the excitement and pushed aside her personal concerns. It would be hours later before someone heard the child’s need, but by then, he required hospitalization.

It’s clear that children need the ability to speak up about their needs. Children may be thirsty, hungry or simply not know where the bathroom is. Perhaps they are lost, chas v’shalom , and need help. There are any number of physical needs that a child will require verbal skills to meet.

Being heard is also an emotional need. Children, like adults, need to share what concerns them. Perhaps someone is bullying them or they’re experiencing emotional challenges. We

need to not only make ourselves available to them; they also have to be capable of expressing their feelings when given the chance.

Children have to understand the difference between the beautiful middah of being mevater, and the negative passivity of denying their own necessities. We don’t want children to be unable to speak up because they’re afraid or don’t value themselves.

Communication is the foundation of relationships. Building and maintaining any relationship requires a strong foundation in effective communication. This applies in friendship, business and all interactions. Most importantly, they will use these skills in their own marriages. Growing up in an environment that models effective communication is the simplest way to pass these skills on to the next generation.

Learning to Disagree

Fighting is different from disagree -

ing. In this article, I am defining “disagreement” as “the respectful exchange of differing opinions.” If it’s not respectful, then it’s fighting. For example, one couple can calmly discuss an upcoming vacation period, weighing the options and each giving over their feelings and concerns. Another couple without effective communication could argue over each point, with neither feeling heard but plenty of hurt feelings being shared.

Disagreeing with another person is normal and healthy. We each have our own needs and perspectives – it’s only natural they will differ from another person. Best friends may have a lot in common, but they will always have some differences. Even identical twins who share DNA will not share all the same opinions.

A surprising number of children and adults are afraid or hesitant to disagree with another person. This can be for a number of reasons, including not feeling their own needs are valid or a fear of confrontation. It’s crucial that children learn how to properly express their own needs.

While ideally parents never fight, it’s important to certainly never do it

where children can hear or see it. Minor disagreeing can be an exception to this rule if parents are certain it will remain respectful and productive. As children learn from the environment around them, it’s educational to see how adults can disagree but maintain respect for each other. Children don’t intuitively

education and natural development to help our sweet youngsters begin to see beyond themselves and respect the differing views of those around them. This, too, we can model in our communications when we show understanding and sensitivity to the opinions of others, especially when we disagree.

We can give our children the best communication beginnings by modeling it ourselves whenever we speak.

understand how to have a healthy giveand-take in a conversation. This is an area we certainly need to model for our children.

Maintaining Respect

Children are adorable and innocent, and their undeveloped minds are often incapable of seeing things from another’s perspective. In their young brains, their way is the only correct way. It takes

Validation is accepting another person’s needs, opinions and feelings as valid – even if we don’t personally agree with them. For example, I may not find something hurtful, but I can understand that someone else may feel hurt by those same words. By understanding their feelings – from their perspective – I can validate their painful emotions. We can train ourselves to validate the feelings of our children and others when

we communicate. This skill is even more crucial when we disagree with someone.

Always Learning

Part of the beauty of parenthood is having the opportunity to acquire the skills we never mastered when we were young. As parents, we may need to brush up on the parts of communication that we are weak in. It’s never too late to learn, and the benefits will be exponentially better as we can pass on our newfound techniques to our children. There are many books available, as well as mental health professionals that are skilled in training others in these techniques.

We have the privilege and responsibility to teach our children the skills they will use throughout their life. Modeling healthy communication will not only start our children on the best path, it will improve our own, too.

Sara Rayvych, MSEd, has her master’s in general and special education. She has been homeschooling for over 10 years in Far Rockaway. She can be contacted at RayvychHomeschool@gmail.com.

WThe Relationship Reroute

Emotionally Healthy ≠ Happy

By Bassy Schwartz, LMFT

e’re all chasing happiness. We want it for ourselves, our kids, our marriages, our homes. We want a life that feels good: peaceful, joyful, settled. We try to create that feeling with a full Shabbos table, coordinated family pictures, bedtime routines, couple’s getaways, and wholesome Yomim Tovim. But here’s the thing: a lot of us don’t actually know what we’re chasing anymore.

Somewhere along the way, “happy” got tangled up with “no one’s crying,” “no one’s slamming doors,” or “we all get along enough of the time.” We’ve confused emotional health with emotional ease. But they’re not the same.

Being emotionally healthy doesn’t mean your home is always calm. It doesn’t mean your kids never melt down or that you never lose your cool. It doesn’t mean you’re happy all the time .In fact, being emotionally healthy often means you’re sitting with uncomfortable feelings – your own and everyone else’s. It means you’re learning to stay present through the hard stuff, not just the highlight reel.

According to the actual science, happiness (the real, sustainable kind) comes down to two main things:

1. The ability to self-regulate across many different situations.

2. The ability to repair after rupture. In other words, it’s not about how often you feel good. It’s about how you handle it when you don’t. Can you stay steady(ish) when your kid is unraveling? Can you come back and make things right after you snapped at your spouse or brushed off your child?

Happiness isn’t about avoiding stress. It’s about how we relate to ourselves and each other in the stress. That’s the gold. So in that spirit, here’s what I wish you knew about emotional healthy families:

1. I wish you knew that emotional health isn’t always visible from the outside.

The family that looks flawless at the simcha you’re at, the one with the polished kids, matching bows, and cooperative Shabbos zemiros, might be quietly unrav-

eling inside. And the family that’s a little noisy, a little late, with wrinkled shirts and kids who refuse to wear tights? They might be the emotionally richest house on the block – connected, forgiving, and full of life. Don’t let the presentation fool you. Emotional health doesn’t always match the aesthetics.

who you think it is.

Sometimes it’s the loud kid who gets all the attention – the tantrums, the drama, the talking-back. But often, that kid is just expressing what the rest of the family is holding in. They’re the messenger. The truth-teller. The one whose behavior reflects the stress, tension, or

It means you’re learning to stay present through the hard stuff, not just the highlight reel.

2. I wish you knew that it’s not about getting it right. It’s about coming back when it goes wrong.

Every parent loses it sometimes. Every kid says something wild in the heat of the moment. Every marriage has its mess. That’s not the problem. The question is: can you repair? Can you come back and say, “That didn’t go the way I wanted. Let’s try again”? Can you let your child, or your spouse, or yourself be human AND take responsibility for a misstep, in the same instance? That’s emotional health.

3. I wish you knew that the “problem” in the family isn’t always

disconnection that no one else knows how to say out loud. Sometimes the child who “needs help” is actually carrying the emotional weight for the whole system. Be curious before you label.

4. I wish you knew that connection is the medicine.

Not lectures. Not punishments. Not sticker charts, consequences, or perfectly color-coded routines. Those things have their place, sure – but they’re just tools. The real change happens when your child feels seen, known, and safe, even when they mess up. That’s what creates emotional resilience. That’s what calms the storm – not

because the storm is bad, but because they know they’re not alone in it.

5. I wish you knew that adversity teaches us more about ourselves than it does about the other person.

The fights, the conflict, the drama – it’s not just about what’s wrong with them. It’s often a flashlight on the parts of us we’ve neglected. Our boundaries, our voice, our needs, our wounds. Sometimes the thing you’re reacting to in someone else is actually the thing you’ve been avoiding attending to in yourself.

6. I wish you knew that treating symptoms is a hamster wheel.

A child won’t stop yelling? A spouse goes cold when things get hard? A teen keeps shutting down? Physical, financial, practical obstacles on a consistent basis? Yes, it’s tempting to try and fix the behavior. But symptoms are just signals. Notifications. Messages that something underneath needs attention. If we stay focused only on the surface: “better behavior,” “less discomfort” or “minimal fighting,” we miss the chance to understand the deeper story. And that story is where real healing lives. Emotional health isn’t always happy. That the goal isn’t perfection – it’s presence. That your worth as a parent, a partner, a person doesn’t come from how smooth things look on the outside. It comes from your willingness to stay in the process, to keep showing up, and to repair when things fall apart. Healing is possible. Change is slow, but powerful. And there’s no such thing as a perfect family – just families who are willing to grow.

Bassy Schwartz, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, is trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy. She brings a compassionate and unique approach to her practice, focusing on couples and individuals dealing with conflict and disconnect due to childhood emotional neglect and complex family dynamics. Bassy empowers clients to overcome relationship challenges, rediscover their strengths, and build deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Health & F tness

Wired for Connection Part I: Overreaction

By Michal Goldman, LCSW

As a general rule, most of us like to think of ourselves as rational adults. We pay bills, make school lunches, and answer emails. Somehow, however, when we feel dismissed or rejected by someone close to us, it can be easy to unravel and not feel like that same rational adult that we were a few minutes before.

Why does this happen?

To understand why relationships can hit such deep nerves, let’s start at the very beginning (drawing on work from John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, and Sue Johnson). When we’re born, we are completely helpless. We can’t move or feed ourselves, let alone protect ourselves from harm. Our survival depends on one thing: our ability to form a bond with a caregiver who will respond to us and give us the care we need.

This is where attachment begins.

From infancy, our bodies and brains are wired to send the message: “I need you. Are you there?” When that call is consistently answered with warmth and care, a baby learns that the world is safe, relationships can be trusted, and more about their value. But when that call is missed, delayed, or responded to unpredictably, it creates anxiety. (Consistency is defined as the majority of the time. No one is able to answer warmly 100% of the time.)

As adults, we are not dependent on others to stay alive. However, our nervous systems haven’t gotten the memo. They’re programmed to see disconnection as dangerous, because that is what kept us alive as babies. This is why being ignored by your spouse can feel unbearable. Or why an off-the-cuff comment can make us feel a strong urge to react in ways that can seem more extreme to an outsider, such as defensiveness, a slew of criticism, or shutting down. Your brain is treating a threat to emotional closeness like a threat to your very survival, and

when we are trying to survive, we aren’t focused on being “rational adults.”

This may sound dramatic, but it’s our biological wiring to help ensure our survival.

Human beings are created to be deeply relational. The need to be loved, understood, seen, and wanted is a core part

Will you be there for me?

Understanding this is the first step toward healing. When we stop shaming ourselves or our partners for “overreacting,” we can begin to see the emotional logic underneath and the brilliance of our nervous systems just trying to protect us. When we see that clearly, we can

Your brain is treating a threat to emotional closeness like a threat to your very survival.

of how we’re built. And that need doesn’t go away just because we’ve passed our 21st birthday.

So when couples get caught in recurring arguments or shut down emotionally, especially if their reactions seem larger than the situation itself, it’s often about much more than just the surface issue. It’s really about a much older question: Am I emotionally safe with you?

begin to respond to ourselves and each other with more compassion and clarity instead of reacting.

To be clear, giving ourselves compassion doesn’t mean giving ourselves a free pass to behave however we want. In fact, the opposite is true. When we can understand the emotional logic behind our reactions, we are empowered to make more respectful, thoughtful choices. Naming

what’s going on internally helps us slow down , so we can show up as our best selves — not just for others, but for ourselves. Emotional maturity doesn’t mean never reacting — it means recognizing our reactions, caring for the hurt beneath them, and choosing how to respond next.

Takeaways:

Practical Steps You Can Try

• Pause and notice what’s really going on. When you feel yourself reacting strongly in a relationship, try asking yourself: What am I really needing right now? Often, behind the anger or withdrawal is a deeper need to feel close, appreciated, or understood.

• Be gentle with yourself. Instead of judging your (and your partner’s) emotional reactions, remind yourself that your nervous system is responding this way to protect your connection. That understanding alone can help you feel more grounded.

• Name the need underneath the reaction. The next time you feel disconnected from someone close to you, try saying something simple like, “I got upset because I was feeling alone in that moment,” instead of blaming or shutting down. Small moments of honesty and vulnerable risk (if it feels safe enough) can create big shifts.

Michal Goldman is a licensed clinical social worker in Queens specializing in helping individuals and couples navigate relationship challenges. She can be reached through her website at www.michalgoldmanlcsw. org, via email at michalgoldmanlcsw@ gmail.com, or by phone at 917-590-0258. If you have questions that you would like answered here, you can submit them to the email provided. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a replacement for therapy.

In The K tchen

Japanese Vegetable Pancakes, aka Okonomiyaki

By Naomi Nachman

I am visiting my parents in Australia, and my mum and I love cooking together. I had asked her for a parve recipe for the Nine Days, and she suggested we make this new recipe she had recently tried that she had seen in a local magazine. I absolutely loved this recipe, and I knew had to share it with our readers.

Ingredients

◦ 8 Cremini mushrooms, sliced

◦ 2 baby bok choy, sliced

◦ 1 onion, diced

◦ 1 cup Chinese cabbage (or your favorite preferred cabbage)

◦ 2 large scallions, chopped

◦ 3-4 cloves crushed garlic

◦ 1 tsp toasted or roasted sesame oil

◦ 1 tbsp soy sauce

◦ 2 eggs

◦ ½ cup self-rising flour

◦ 1 tsp kosher salt

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together. Adjust and taste seasonings to your liking. (You should have about 3 cups of vegetables before adding in everything else.)

Working in batches, slightly wet your hands and form 2-inch patties. Fry patties on medium-high heat till brown on each side.

Serve with spicy mayonnaise.

Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/ Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities, with a specialty in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also produces and hosts her own weekly radio show on the Nachum Segal Network stream called “A Table for Two with Naomi Nachman.” Naomi gives cooking presentations for organizations and private groups throughout the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area. In addition, Naomi has been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, magazines as well as other media covering topics related to cuisine preparation and personal chefs. To obtain additional recipes, join The Aussie Gourmet on Facebook or visit Naomi’s blog. Naomi can be reached through her website, www.theaussiegourmet.com or at (516) 295-9669.

Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

How do you think your hotel gets cleaned? How do you think you get food on your [expletive] table? Who do you think washes your dishes?

– Hunter Biden in a recent podcast

Because I’ll tell you what, if I became president… I would pick up the phone and call the [expletive] president of El Salvador and say, “You either [expletive] send illegal immigrants imprisoned in CECOT penitentiary back or I’m going to [expletive] invade.” -ibid.

I don’t really care what the former First Drug Addict thinks.

– Border Czar Tom Homan

I just thank G-d every morning when I wake up that we have President Trump in the Oval Office. And, because of President Trump, in seven weeks we have the most secure border in our nation’s history. -ibid.

If the comedians are being attacked, then that means our Constitution is being dismantled. What are we going to do as a country? We must protect our Constitution and we must protect our democracy. This is bigger than just the cancellation of a television show.

- The View’s Sunny Hostin, after it was announced that Stephen Colbert’s late night show will end in

I decided to keep wearing a kippah. A few days after I started wearing it, I was the speaker pro tem, and when I was up in the speaker’s chair, sitting up there in the gallery were the public watches, an Orthodox family came. And I knew they were Orthodox. The kids were wearing the tzitzit; they were like eight, nine, ten. They like exploded with excitement to the point that security went to talk to them. They were talking to their parents and everything else, all excited… I thought at that moment, you know, the Big Man Upstairs is probably sending me a sign that I ought to keep it on.

- Congressman Randy Fine (R-FL) at the Agudath’s Federal Affairs Congressional Reception explaining why he started wearing a yarmulka full-time

The cool thing, though, is that now people send them to me.

- ibid.

Every Shabbos, we put our phones away. We have a family meal, talk about the Torah and no politics.

- Prime Minister Netanyahu in a recent interview

At this point, no.

- Billy Joel when asked by Bill Maher if he cares what woke people think of him

The first six months of Donald Trump’s second presidency have been the most “successful” of any American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to an analysis conducted by Newsweek using AI.

- Newsweek

I’ve met James Comey. I’ve met John Brennan. And I’ll be honest with you – I don’t think either of them could follow more than six of the Ten Commandments on a good day.

– Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)

These fellas are about as popular as male pattern baldness—and about as useful, too. - ibid.

Disgusting! 25 nations put pressure on Israel instead of savages of Hamas! Gaza suffers for one reason: Hamas rejects EVERY proposal. Blaming Israel is irrational.

– U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responding to a statement by 25 nations calling on Israel to end the war in Gaza

The Genius Act, they named it after me!

- Pres. Trump’s quip while signing the first major cryptocurrency legislation, called the Genius Act

We are arresting public security and national security threats all over this country.

– Ibid.

How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?

- Stephen Colbert addressing Pres. Trump, before proceeding to make the same stupid, unfunny jokes about Trump that caused him to lose his show in the first place

We are on the precipice of entering a censorship state in which Donald Trump is using the powers of the federal government in order to erase criticism from the airwaves. Stephen Colbert didn’t get fired because he wasn’t doing well.

– Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn)

So apparently, firing Stephen Colbert who made $20 million dollars a year while his show lost $50 million…was fascism. It’s not fascism; it’s math.

– Greg Gutfeld, Fox News

To the fact that CBS was losing millions yet kept him on the air is the very definition of propaganda.

– ibid.

To the left, everything is fascism, except actual fascism—like Cuba, Venezuela, China—all the places that Tim Walz and Bernie Sanders consider great honeymoon spots.

- ibid.

The Late Show lost $40 million last year, continuing a trend that has shown the program has not been profitable for some time.

Here are the numbers:

More than 100: The number of staffers working on Colbert’s program, including a band and an army of writers, producers, directors, and bookers.

$2.5 million: The amount each episode costs to produce the show nightly.

$130 million: The amount it costs annually to produce the show.

$20 million: Colbert’s reported annual salary.

2.4 million: The number of viewers watching Colbert’s show on average.

3.3 million: The number of viewers watching Gutfeld! hosted by Greg Gutfeld on Fox News, which has a fraction of the staff and resources Colbert has.

$40 million: The amount Colbert’s program has been losing annually.

- Washington Examiner

President Trump has made his position clear; this is personal for him. He considers Netanyahu a friend. I would say it’s extraordinary that the prime minister is on trial during wartime and during negotiations over hostages.

- U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee while appearing in court to support Prime Minister Netanyahu during his trial

As a Jew, I will not lend a hand to the destruction of the Olam HaTorah. Our adherence to the mesorah, to the Torah, is what protected Am Yisrael throughout the years. That’s the basis of Am Yisrael. I’m saying this as a secular person, not as a Chareidi, not as someone who has a vested interest in the Chareidim.

- Likud MK Chanoch Milwidsky speaking in the Knesset

I don’t understand the members of Yesh Atid, National Unity, and Yisrael Beiteinu—how are you going along with this? How are your knees not trembling? How are you not frightened to fight against the very thing that protected Am Yisrael all these years?

- ibid.

And it’s not that we don’t need soldiers, but no soldier will help us if we break what unites and sustains us. And what unites and sustains us is Judaism. No Western value that people invented in the last 200 years will sustain us—only Toras Yisrael and Mesoras Yisrael that were conveyed to us from the Borei Olam.

- ibid.

A New York Times editorial claims that defunding NPR and PBS is like defunding the police. It’s true, think about all the times that you were assaulted and said, “If only the cast of Downtown Abbey was here.”

- Greg Gutfeld, Fox News

The Steven Miller Band has cancelled all of its tour dates because of “global warming.” Yep, organizers admit that it’s a waste of fuel to go all the way from Phoenix, Arizona, all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A.

- ibid.

Political Crossfire

Trump Has Been On an Amazing Run. Let’s Review.

When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I was determined to treat him fairly by calling balls and strikes as I saw them – criticizing him constructively when I thought he was wrong and supporting him when he was right.

Well, I have never seen a president throw more strikes in so short a time as Trump has over the past few weeks.

Consider: Three weeks ago, Trump launched unprecedented military strikes that wrecked the Iranian nuclear program. Four presidents promised to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but only Trump actively halted it. And then he brought the war between Israel and Iran to an end after just 12 days of fighting.

He then had a triumphant NATO summit in the Netherlands, getting allies to agree to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense. When Trump took office in 2016, only three allies were meeting their commitment to spend a modest 2 percent of GDP on defense. Today, all allies except Canada are on track to reach 2 percent by the end of 2025, and thanks to Trump, they are now preparing to more than double that commitment. Nine years ago, critics feared he would destroy the Atlantic Alliance. Instead, as President Alexander Stubb of Finland put it, Trump has ushered in “the birth of a new NATO.”

While all this was going on, Trump won three major Supreme Court battles: a decision that curtailed the power of district court judges to issue nationwide injunctions blocking him from implementing his policies; a second restoring the rights of parents to opt out of LGBTQ+ indoctrination in public schools; and a third upholding his right to fire tens of thousands of workers across the federal government. This brings his record to 11 Supreme Court victories so far in his second term.

He sent the National Guard in June to help quell immigration riots in Los Angeles and drove illegal border crossings

By Marc A. Thiessen

to a virtual halt, with apprehensions and encounters at the U.S. southern border last month reaching lowest levels ever recorded.

He struck new trade deals with Indonesia and Vietnam (a major blow to China) and ramped up the pressure on other countries to come to the negotiating table.

The job market exceeded expectations, adding 147,000 jobs in June.

He forced the University of Pennsylvania to ban biological males in women’s sports, restore women’s records, post the

manent and delivering on his promise to working-class voters to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. It also increases defense spending and funds his “Golden Dome” defense shield to protect America from ballistic missile attack. And the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force met their 2025 recruiting goals months ahead of schedule.

He brokered a peace deal in late June in the decades-long conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo – the third conflict (India-Paki-

Indeed, what Trump achieved in just the past month arguably exceeds what Biden accomplished in his entire four-year term.

definition of a woman on its website and apologize to female athletes it harmed.

In the past week, the news broke that Columbia University is nearing a $200 million settlement with the Trump administration over antisemitic civil rights violations on campus.

He passed his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” making his 2017 pro-growth tax cuts per-

stan and Iran-Israel are the others) he has helped end since taking office.

And on Monday, Trump announced that the United States was sending new weapons worth billions of dollars to Ukraine – paid for by European allies, not American taxpayers – including vital Patriot air defense batteries to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian bombard-

ment. And he gave Russian President Vladimir Putin 50 days to end the war or face crippling secondary tariffs that could drive Russian oil and natural gas from the global market, crushing the Russian economy. Putin should look at what happened when Iran ignored Trump’s deadline and think hard about his next move.

All that in one month! Love him or hate him, that is objectively a stunning string of accomplishments.

Not all the news was perfect. Inflation ticked up slightly in June to 2.7 percent, up from 2.4 percent in May. That’s still far below the average of 4.95 percent under President Joe Biden and less than the 2.9 percent inflation rate in December 2024, Biden’s last full month in office. But the ding to consumer pocketbooks was offset by the $113 billion in tariff revenue the administration has brought in since taking office (including $27 billion last month alone), producing an unexpected government surplus.

And, of course, there was a self-inflicted wound of the Justice Department last week refusing to release files in the case involving the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, after Attorney General Pam Bondi had raised expectations by boasting that she possessed Epstein’s “client list.” The resulting brouhaha distracted from Trump’s litany of achievements.

There are probably more victories to come – momentum is contagious, and success begets success. But I can’t think of a president in my lifetime who has accomplished this much in such a short period of time. Indeed, what Trump achieved in just the past month arguably exceeds what Biden accomplished in his entire four-year term.

When Trump ran eight years ago, he promised we would win so much we’d get tired of winning. Instead, the wins keep coming – and America isn’t tired at all.

© 2025, Washington Post Writers Group

Political Crossfire

Yitzhak Rabin’s Syrian Catastrophe That Never Happened

Some scholars of history disdain counter-factual scenarios or, as they are popularly known, “what if” questions about the past, as a fanciful waste of time. They are wrong. As some of our most distinguished contemporary historians like Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts often point out, they are extremely helpful in understanding the past as well as our current dilemmas.

While some people who write about history are determinists and act as if everything that wound up happening was predestined to occur, the truth is that no one ever knows what the future will bring. Whether because of a matter of chance or factors not fully appreciated at the time, any single action can change what follows. As Eugene Rice, the eminent scholar who once chaired Columbia University’s history department, taught me a long time ago, everything in history is “evitable.” Unless you examine those “what if” scenarios, which might have led to very different historical outcomes—whether losing wars that were won or the absence of leaders who made a profound difference—you can’t fully appreciate how history turned out.

Or, for that matter, the world we must live in today.

Rabin’s Golan Gambit

Recent events in Syria, with the regime that succeeded the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Assad engaging in the attempted slaughter of that country’s Druze population, which was stopped by Israeli intervention, reminded me of the importance of considering counter-factual historical questions.

One of the most intriguing and scary “what if” scenarios about recent Middle East history concerns the foreign-policy project that was the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s top priority when he took office in 1992: an attempt to trade

By Jonathan S. Tobin

the Golan Heights to Hafez Assad, Bashar’s even more brutal father and the dictator of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2001.

Curiously, the architect of that attempt—Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador to the United States—was back in the news last week, lambasting the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for its decision to use force to try to save the Druze. The 82-year-old Rabinovich’s comments about recent events merely reflected the reflexive contempt from the Israeli left and The New York Times for anything that the current Israeli government and its leader do. The idea that it is “discordant” or that the rescue mission “runs against the effort to negotiate”—as if the theoretical chance that the current Syrian government run by former members of Al-Qaeda and ISIS are realistic candidates for inclusion in the Abraham Accords is more important than saving the lives of the Druze—is both risible and offensive.

But it did show that as far as the editors of the Times and foreign-policy establish-

ment are concerned, the long-discredited views of Rabinovich still make him a credible source of analysis about Syria or U.S.-Israel relations. And that ought to matter to those who hope that the Trump administration will not be led down the garden path toward another attempt to pressure Israel to make dangerous concessions to Syria.

Rabinovich served as Rabin’s ambassador to Washington from 1993 to 1996. A professor at Tel Aviv University who would eventually become its president, he came to Rabin’s attention because of his scholarly work in which he sought to argue that David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, missed an opportunity to make peace with Syria in 1949, in the immediate aftermath of the War of Independence. The book he wrote on that subject, The Road Not Taken: Early Arab-Israeli Negotiations, won the National Jewish Book Award in 1992. His deep dive into this subject was an effort to promote a different counter-factual in which readers were asked to imagine

whether a negotiated peace with Syria was possible and what that might have meant for the Jewish state’s future and the region.

The conceit of the book was utterly implausible. The reign of the one Syrian leader who flirted with the concept of talks with Israel, military dictator Husni Al-Zaim, was brief. He was overthrown and executed only a few months after he took power from his predecessors. These coup d’états were the first in a series of such seizures of power that would follow over the next two decades until the Assad clan seized control in Damascus and ruled for more than half a century. Syria was no more ready for peace with Israel than most of those who still seek Israel’s destruction are today.

The ludicrous notion that peace with Syria was possible and thrown away by a belligerent Israeli leader in 1949 was typical of the thought of a generation of Israeli “new historians” that came into prominence in the 1980s and 1990s. They sought to debunk traditional narratives about Israel being an embattled small country beset by bloodthirsty enemies.

And, as Rabin’s choice of Rabinovich to both represent the Jewish state in Washington and lead a new attempt to negotiate peace with Syria showed, this intellectual fashion had a real impact on policy with disastrous consequences.

For a brief period, Rabinovich was the face of an all-out diplomatic offensive aimed at convincing the Israeli people that they should give up the strategic Golan in the hope of peace with the Assad regime. Rabin had opposed any idea of giving up the Golan or negotiating with the terrorists of the Palestine Liberation Organization during his campaign in the 1992 election, when he sought to defeat then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud Party. But he went back on his word when he won and began a diplomatic offensive with Syria while then-Foreign

Minister Shimon Peres authorized secret talks with representatives of the PLO’s Yasser Arafat in Oslo, Norway.

A Quest for a “New Middle East”

The Syrian gambit failed as a matter of diplomacy and domestic politics.

Assad was perfectly willing to accept the gift of the Golan from which Syrian artillery had shelled Israeli farmers in the Galilee from 1949 to 1967, though he showed little interest in actual peace, much to the frustration of the Bill Clinton administration and Rabin.

Even in those heady days of optimism about the possibility of peace, the Israeli public was outraged about the idea of giving up a beautiful region that provided their country with strategic depth (as the opening days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War had proved when Syrian invaders breached its defenses but were stopped before reaching the rest of the country) and where many Israelis had settled. In the early 1990s, the country was plastered with signs, banners and bumper stickers proclaiming in Hebrew, Ha’am im haGolan (“The people are with the Golan”), which proclaimed fervent opposition to Rabin’s scheme for surrendering it.

In August 1993, when Assad was still stringing along Rabinovich and U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Rabin decided to prioritize the Palestinian track that led to the signing of the Oslo Accords. Seen in retrospect, the project to give up the Golan in a vain attempt to trade land for peace with Syria was a close escape from disaster. The notion that the Assad regime was ready to end Syria’s war to destroy the Jewish state was a delusion. It was fervently embraced by a generation of Israeli and American diplomats, politicians and journalists who cheered for them. They were desperate to create—in the words of Peres—a “new Middle East” in which the conflict would end. Then, Israel and its neighbors, including Palestinian Arabs and Syrians, might resemble Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, rather than combatants in a bitter century-long struggle rooted in an implacable belief that the Jewish state must be eradicated.

Given the dismal results of their efforts in which Israeli attempts to trade land for peace via the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians led to the bloodshed of the Second Intifada, the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the creation of a Hamas-run terror state, and ultimately, the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, it’s difficult to think of the high hopes of the peace processors with anything but sorrow and

anger. But many people were infatuated with the idea that anything was possible in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the inauguration of a unipolar world in which democracy and peace would flourish everywhere.

That dream was predicated on the notion that deep-seated hatreds and the eliminationist ideology that was at the heart of both Palestinian nationalism and the mindset of an Arab world that viewed a Jewish state in their midst as an intolerable affront to their honor and faith could simply be wished away.

Rabinovich has never conceded that his efforts were futile. He has continued to write about the 1993 Syrian diplomatic track as being as much of a missed opportunity as his cherished myth about 1949. Like many other Israelis and Americans who devoted years to trying to push for more concessions to the Jewish state’s foes in the belief that doing so would magically make peace, there has been no accountability for his mistakes, except with respect to the Israeli public’s repeated rejections of those ideas at the ballot box. He has spent the rest of his life accepting honors from the academic and foreign-policy establishments while those who have opposed these foolish and destructive ideas are still described by most academics, diplomats and newspapers like the Times as “extremists” and “hardliners” who don’t want peace.

What if Israel Had Given Up the Golan?

Let’s play the counter-factual game and try to imagine what would have been the consequences if Assad had, like Arafat, played the Rabin and Clinton administrations more cleverly.

Assad could have gotten an Oslo Accords-like deal in which he would have been given an enormously valuable tangible asset in exchange for airy promises about peace that he would have had—like Arafat’s talk of peace while fomenting, subsidizing and planning a renewed terrorist offensive against Israel in which he hoped to diminish it further on the way to its destruction—no intention of fulfilling.

In the years after Oslo, Israel paid dearly in blood for surrendering much of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, to Arafat’s newly proclaimed PLO-run Palestinian Authority. The whole thing exploded—literally, as well as figuratively—after Clinton and then Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat an independent state with control of part of Jerusalem in 2000. Arafat was convinced that the Israelis and their American allies were weak and could be bludgeoned into even greater surren-

ders, and followed up his refusal with a terrorist war of attrition in the form of the Second Intifada (2000-05) that cost more than 1,000 Israeli lives and many more Palestinian ones.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal in the summer of 2005 of every Israeli soldier, settler and settlement from Gaza was another experiment in land for peace. It led to the creation of an independent Palestinian terror state led by Hamas. It was used as a launching pad for rockets and missile attacks on Israelis for 16 years before Hamas used it to fulfill their plans for the genocide of Israelis on Oct. 7.

The same could have been true of the Golan, making life in Israel’s north intolerable. And once Israel would have given up the region under the auspices of Washington, undoing the damage by taking it back from an internationally recognized nation, rather than just a terrorist group, might have been even more difficult than the war to ensure that Hamas and Palestinian terrorists could not repeat their horrific crimes of Oct. 7.

One might argue that possession of the Golan and the prestige that the pain this would have meant for Israel would have bolstered the Assad family’s barbarous minority regime, whose hold on a country made up of a mosaic of faiths and ethnic groups was predicated on a willingness to butcher its citizens. Maybe that would have allowed it to avoid the tumult of the 2010 Arab Spring, which ignited a bloody civil war that led to hundreds of thousands of dead Syrians and forced millions out of their homes. But that’s highly unlikely when you consider Bashar Assad’s weakness when compared to his even more terrible father.

In the following years, chaos spread throughout Syria. President Barack Obama’s punting on his “red line” threat to Assad not to use chemical weapons on his own people led to interventions by Iran, its Hezbollah terrorist auxiliaries and Russia. Israelis were grateful that they had never given up the Golan, the fearsome geographic barrier to invasion from the East. If they had, a diminished Israel, shorn of its main line of defense, would have been inevitably drawn into the Syrian civil war with unimaginable consequences for its security and existence.

Trump’s Syria Delusions

That’s something to keep in mind as the Trump administration, besotted with the mad idea of including a government made up of ex-jihadis into an expanded Abraham Accords, leans on Israel to fa-

cilitate this project.

The cost of doing so would mean not just an Israeli promise to stay out of Syria’s internal conflicts, leaving the Druze to their fate at the hands of their Sunni Islamist enemies. It would also mean the withdrawal of Israel from the buffer zones it seized after Assad’s fall. And anyone who thinks that a Syrian government, whether run by ex-jihadis or a non-existent liberal faction, would agree to normalization with Israel without forcing it to give up the Golan Heights, which President Donald Trump recognized in his first term as Israeli sovereign territory, is dreaming.

Trump has lifted sanctions on Damascus and took the country’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, off the terrorist watch list (with a $10 million bounty for the capture of this foreigner Al-Qaeda operative) and even shook his hand in Riyadh at the behest of the Syrian’s Saudi allies.

Reportedly, Washington is upset with Netanyahu for his skepticism about the project and his use of force to save the Druze because it interferes with his scheme for including Syria in his plans for the Middle East. According to some in the administration, that vision, if not quite the Benelux of Peres’s dreams, will be a place where the Iranian-led war against Israel will be replaced by trade and mutual recognition.

Even if al-Julani proves—as his murders of the Druze and other minorities illustrate—to be the same Islamist terrorist he always was, these gestures cost America nothing. However, if the administration thinks that the debt Israel owes Trump for joining the attack on Iran’s nuclear program and his steadfast support for the Jewish state means it must gamble its security on the delusion that al-Julani and friends are potential peace partners, Netanyahu—who played along with Clinton’s and Obama’s efforts to convince him to repeat Rabin’s folly but never promised to give up the Golan—must refuse.

The counter-factual scenario advocated by Rabin and Rabinovich to surrender the Golan is a warning from the not-so-distant past. Israelis and Americans should not give in to magical thinking about the Middle East, and the Muslim and Arab worlds, where the hatred for Jews, Israel, and just as importantly, America and the West, is still mainstream.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate).

Political Crossfire They Vanished in Syria’s Long Occupation of Lebanon. Now Their Families Want Answers.

By Euan Ward

TACHAA, Lebanon — Hoda al-Ali searched for her son for 34 years, until the day she drew her final breath.

In 1986, when he was 18, he was arrested at a checkpoint by Syrian troops occupying Lebanon. A single mother of 10, al-Ali would scrape together what little she earned as a seamstress and travel every few months into neighboring Syria to scour its prisons. When her legs grew frail, her children took over, chasing the same breadcrumbs, never finding answers.

Then, in December, a video emerged.

President Bashar Assad of Syria had just been toppled by a lightning rebel offensive. In the chaos, a news crew filming outside a Syrian prison captured the image of an older man, disheveled and dazed, emerging from its gates. The family froze. They were sure it was the missing son, Ali, and their story quickly made headlines.

But days passed. Then weeks. Ali never returned. Hope faded. Lebanese officials offered no answers. Journalists stopped calling.

Months later, the search grinds on.

“We need to continue my mother’s mission,” said Ali’s brother Moammar, clutching an old photograph of him in the family’s home in northern Lebanon. “We still have hope he is alive.”

After the collapse of the Assad government, prison doors across the country flew open, and Syrians flooded in to search for traces of their friends and loved ones who had disappeared in untold numbers under the brutal regime. In Lebanon, however, many could only watch and wait.

Thousands of Lebanese had gone missing during Syria’s decades-long occupation of their country, which lasted from 1976 to 2005, and many were believed to

be imprisoned in Syria. For years, the tentacles of Assad’s security state extended well beyond Syria’s borders, ensnaring not only political opponents, but also ordinary civilians caught up in its machinery of suspicion. Dissidents, laborers, businesspeople — anyone could vanish.

The disappearances became a hallmark of Syria’s rule, sometimes aided by pro-Syrian Lebanese factions, with men and women taken from their homes or snatched off streets. Behind the checkpoints, Damascus’ secret police, known as the mukhabarat, ran detention sites across Lebanon — Beirut’s luxury Beau Rivage Hotel became shorthand for torture — and routinely transported suspects across the border to prisons like Sednaya.

When Assad was toppled, Lebanese officials estimated that more than 700 of their citizens were still imprisoned

in Syria, but some advocacy groups say there are far more unaccounted for. So far, only nine have returned, many after languishing in prison for decades.

Among them was Suheil Hamawi, who was taken from his home more than three decades ago.

Standing on his balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, Hamawi, 61, took a drag from his cigarette and gazed at the crystal clear waters below. It was a lot to take in: He had not seen the sea in 33 years.

“These scenes — you can only repeat them in your mind, and in your dreams,” Hamawi said. “I feel like I can breathe again.”

A member of a Lebanese Christian political party opposed to the Syrian occupation, Hamawi was abducted from his family home in 1992 by Syrian intelligence officers and taken across the border.

His capture was so abrupt that for the

first 17 years, his wife believed he had simply vanished. His son, Georges, was only 10 months old at the time. When Hamawi returned home, Georges was 33 and had a son of his own.

Hamawi spent the days and weeks after his release sipping cups of cardamom-infused coffee and video-calling relatives, many of their faces now unrecognizable to him.

“Do you remember my children?” said a cousin over the phone, sitting alongside her adult daughter.

“When I left her, she was so small,” Hamawi said in disbelief.

Former Lebanese prisoners interviewed by The New York Times described brutal treatment and torture, which they said was often more severe on account of their nationality.

Families of those missing said they had received no help from Lebanese authorities while Assad was in power, and had often been forced to spend thousands of dollars on bribes to Syrian security forces to get a sign of life from their relatives or win their release.

Bounced around the Assad regime’s network of prisons, Hamawi was first detained in Palestine Branch in Damascus and later in the notorious Sednaya. He spent the first five years in solitary confinement in a cell about 30 inches wide and 6 1/2 feet high. He described it as “a tomb with a door.”

“There was no light at all,” he said. “We used to recognize day from night by the sound of birds, or from the type of food they used to give us.”

In Sednaya, Hamawi grew close with his cellmates. They had been stripped of their names and given numbers — his was 55 — but that did not stop them from forging quiet bonds.

Most did not live to see the fall of the

People searching for references to missing relatives in documents strewn about Sednaya prison in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 16, 2024

Assad regime, he said.

One Syrian friend, a journalist, disappeared after being told by guards that he had a visitor, only for Hamawi to find out 10 years later that he had been executed.

Another close friend, Fahed, a fellow Lebanese, refused treatment after becoming seriously ill, preferring to die than endure another day.

“He was stronger than me,” Hamawi said. “He accepted death, and I couldn’t.”

In recent months, Syria’s new rulers established a commission to investigate the fates of those who disappeared as part of a broader push for transitional justice.

In Lebanon, where Syria’s shadow still looms, families of the missing have been fighting a parallel battle for decades, pressing for accountability and answers.

But the Assad regime wielded outsize influence over Lebanon, refusing to shed light on the fate of the vanished, and Lebanese officials were often unable — or unwilling — to press the issue.

For Abir Abou Zeki, whose father was among the disappeared, it has been a lifelong fight.

It was June 12, 1987, when her father, Khalil, walked into her bedroom in a home just south of Beirut and planted a soft kiss

on her cheek for the last time.

The family of five was set to begin new lives in Germany. Their passports were ready. So were their plane tickets. But Khalil had to make one last business trip into Syria to collect spare truck parts for the company he worked for.

ily fell apart. Abou Zeki’s mother, Dalal, walked out, unable to cope with the stress of raising three children alone.

Their dreams of a new life had been shattered almost overnight.

For years, members of Lebanon’s Druze community, a close-knit religious

For years, the tentacles of Assad’s security state extended well beyond Syria’s borders, ensnaring not only political opponents, but also ordinary civilians caught up in its machinery of suspicion.

When days went by and he did not return in time for their flight, panic set in. They eventually learned he had been arrested because he had a coffee tin containing American dollars, a criminal offense under the Assad regime.

Then he disappeared.

In the months that followed, their fam-

minority to which the family belongs, rallied around the family. Relatives and local officials made repeated appeals to Syrian authorities.

“The only answer was: ‘Yes, he is in our prisons. Consider him ours and don’t ask about him anymore,’” Abou Zeki said.

Years later, the message hardened: “Consider him dead,” she recalled.

When Assad was toppled in December, Abou Zeki, like so many others, allowed herself a flicker of hope — though it came tangled with guilt and fear.

“I think it’s selfish of me to say that I want him to be alive after all that torture,” she said. “But we suffered a lot. We used to feel guilty if we were eating or drinking — because he wasn’t able to. We felt warm while he was cold.”

“I think it’s easier to know that he died,” she said quietly.

Others are hoping wholeheartedly.

In the Ali family’s crumbling home in northern Lebanon, Moammar clutched the portrait of his brother Ali, taken when he was still a young man. As their mother once did, he was saving up for a trip across the border, hoping to find answers.

From the window, Syria was visible in the distance. Somewhere out there, they still believed, Ali is alive, waiting to be found.

“A mother’s feeling is never wrong,” Moammar said.

© The New York Times

Political Crossfire

As Iran Deports a Million Afghans, “Where Do We Even Go?”

By Elian Peltier, Farnaz Fassihi and Yaqoob Akbary

ISLAM QALA, Afghanistan — At the sand-swept border between Iran and Afghanistan, nearly 20,000 are crossing every day — shocked and fearful Afghans who have been expelled from Iran with few belongings in a wave of targeted crackdowns and xenophobia.

More than 1.4 million Afghans have fled or have been deported from Iran since January during a government clampdown on refugees in the country without authorization, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. More than half a million have been forced into Afghanistan just since the war between Israel and Iran last month, returned to a homeland already grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis and draconian restrictions on women and girls, in one of the worst displacement crises of the past decade.

They are being dumped at an overcrowded border facility in western Afghanistan, where many expressed anger and confusion to New York Times journalists over how they could go on with few prospects in a country where some have never lived, or barely know anymore.

“I worked in Iran for 42 years, so hard that my knees are broken, and for what?”

Mohammad Akhundzada, a construction worker, said at a processing center for returnees in Islam Qala, a border town in northwestern Afghanistan, near Herat.

The mass expulsions threaten to push Afghanistan further toward the brink of economic collapse with the sudden cutoff of vital remittance money to Afghan families from relatives in Iran.

The sudden influx of returnees also piles on Afghanistan’s already grim unemployment, housing and health care crises. More than half of Afghanistan’s estimated population of 41 million already relies on humanitarian assistance.

With a cane by his side, Akhundzada was waiting with his wife and four chil-

dren, all born in Iran, for a bus to take them to Kabul, the crowded Afghan capital. He was hoping that some relatives could host them, despite the lack of spare rooms.

“We don’t have anything,” said Akhundzada, 61, “and we have nowhere to go.”

Driven Out by Abuse and Suspicion

Iran hosts the world’s largest refugee population, and about 95% — estimated to be around 4 million — are Afghans, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Iran says the real number is closer to 6 million, after decades of war and upheaval in Afghanistan.

Iran limits where Afghans can live and work — only in 10 of the country’s 31 provinces — and they are usually allowed only arduous, low-skill work.

Iran’s government has said it can no longer absorb Afghan refugees given its own economic crisis and shortage of nat-

ural resources, including water and gas.

In March, the government said Afghans in the country without authorization would be deported and set a July 6 deadline for voluntary departures. But after last month’s 12-day conflict with Israel, the crackdown intensified.

Security forces have raided work places and neighborhoods, stopped cars at checkpoints set up throughout big cities, and detained scores of Afghans before sending them to overcrowded deportation centers in sweltering heat.

Officials and state media, without providing evidence, have claimed that Afghans were recruited by Israel and the United States to stage terrorist attacks, seize military sites and build drones.

Kadijah Rahimi, 26, a cattle herder, echoing many Afghans at the border crossing, said that when she was arrested in Iran last month, the security agent told her, “We know you’re working for Israel.”

Abolfazl Hajizadegan, a sociologist in

Tehran, the Iranian capital, said Iran’s government was using Afghans as scapegoats to deflect blame for intelligence failures that enabled Israel to infiltrate widely within Iran.

“Mixing Afghan deportations with the Iran-Israel conflict underscores the regime’s reluctance to acknowledge its security and intelligence shortcomings,” Hajizadegan said in an interview.

Surge in Hate Crimes

The spying accusations have fueled racist attacks on Afghans in Iran in recent weeks, according to interviews with more two dozen Afghans living in Iran or those who have recently returned to Afghanistan, reports by aid and rights groups, and videos on social media and news media.

Afghans have been beaten or attacked with knives; faced harassment from landlords and employers who are also withholding their deposits or wages; and have been turned away from banks, bakeries, pharmacies, schools and hospitals.

Ebrahim Qaderi was riding his bicycle to work to a cardboard factory in Tehran one morning last month when two men stopped him. They shouted “Dirty Afghan” and demanded his smartphone. When Qaderi refused, they kicked him in the leg and slashed his hand with a knife, he recounted at a relocation center in Herat. His mother, Gull Dasta Fazili, said doctors at four hospitals turned him away because he was Afghan and that they left Iran because of the attack.

In Iran, many Afghans said they lived in constant fear and were staying home. Farah, 35, a computer engineer in Tehran, said in a telephone interview that neighborhood youth attacked her and her 4-year-old son as they were walking home one day last week and repeatedly kicked the child.

Last week, Farah, who like others in-

Zahir Mosavi, center, with his family, Afghan refugees returning from Iran, after being dropped off on the Afghan side of the border

terviewed by the Times asked that her last name not be published out of fear of retribution, saw an Afghan woman being beaten while riding the metro. “I sat there paralyzed and shaking because I knew if I said a word I would be also beaten,” she said.

Even Afghans who are legal residents say security guards have ripped their documents and deported them anyway. Ali, 36, who said he had been born and raised in Iran and had legal status, was stopped at a checkpoint along with an Iranian friend recently.

“He told me, ‘I’m going to tear up your residency card, what are you going to do? You are going to a deportation camp,’” Ali said. “I was shaking with fear. I begged and argued with them, saying all my life I have lived in Iran, please don’t do this to me.”

Struggling to Meet the Need

Jawad Mosavi and nine of his family members stepped off the bus from Iran last week, scrambling under the sweltering heat of Islam Qala to gather his thoughts and the family’s dozen suitcases, rugs and rucksacks.

“Where do we even go?” he called out. His son Ali Akbar, 13, led the way to the building where they could get their certificates of return. His half-open backpack carried his most precious belongings — a deflated soccer ball, a speaker and some headphones to listen to his favorite Iranian hits, in Persian. “The only kind of music I understand,” he said.

Like the Mosavi family, between 20,000 and 25,000 people were left to navigate a maze of luggage, tents and fellow returnees every day last week, trying to find their way through crowded buildings and warehouses run by Afghan authorities and U.N. agencies.

Mothers changed their babies’ diapers on filthy blankets amid relentless gusts of wind. Fathers queued for hours to get their fingerprints taken and collect some emergency cash under temperatures hovering over 95 degrees. Outnumbered humanitarian workers treated dehydrated returnees at a field clinic while others hastily distributed food rations or dropped off large cubes of ice in water containers.

Afghanistan was already grappling cuts in foreign aid from the United States and other donors before Iran began expelling Afghans en masse. Even before then, nearly a million Afghans had been ejected or pressed to leave from Pakistan. Organizations have been able to fund only a fifth of humanitarian needs in the coun-

try this year, and more than 400 health care centers have been shut down in recent months.

Uncertain Futures,

Especially for Girls

Afghan officials have pledged to build 35 townships across the country to cope with the influx of returnees, many of whom have been deported without being allowed to collect belongings or cash from the bank.

Afghanistan’s prime minister, Muhammad Hassan Akhund, has urged Iran to show restraint in the deportations, “so as to prevent the emergence of resentment or hostility between the two brotherly nations.”

“We have to recognize that Iran has accommodated lots of Afghans and has the right to decide who can stay and who cannot,” said Miah Park, the country director for the U.N. Migration agency in Afghanistan. “But we demand that they be treated in a humane and dignified manner.”

In Islam Qala, many Afghans said they were coming back to a country they hardly recognized since the Taliban took control and imposed strict rule in 2021.

Zahir Mosavi, the patriarch of the family, said he dreaded having to halt education for his four daughters because the Taliban have banned girls’ education above sixth grade.

“I want to keep them busy, I want them to learn something,” he said.

One daughter, Nargis, was in eighth grade in Iran. Now, she said she would try to focus on the tailoring skills she had learned. “I’m not good at it, but at least there’s that,” she said.

That evening, after a day at the processing facility in Islam Qala, the family boarded a van bound for Herat, the largest city in western Afghanistan, 70 miles from the border.

Ali Akbar cried throughout the trip when he realized he had lost his phone and with it the only way to listen to his favorite Iranian music.

The family dropped off their suitcases at 1 a.m. in a public park that had been transformed into a tent city hosting 5,000 people. Single men slept outside, using tree trunks as pillows. The family’s women and children received two tents.

A journey of hundreds of miles still lay ahead, to their home province of Helmand, in the rural south. Few opportunities were there, but they decided it was all they could afford.

Political Crossfire

The Druze: An Insular Faith, Facing a Fractured Middle East

By Euan Ward

BEIRUT — Recent violence in Syria’s southern province of Sweida has killed hundreds of people, shaken the country’s fragile new leadership and drawn in neighboring Israel.

At the center of the crisis are the Druze — a secretive religious minority that has long carved out a precarious identity across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, preserving strict traditions while adapting to regional powers.

That balancing act, once key to their survival, is now under strain as upheaval in Syria and Israel’s increasingly assertive regional posture leave the community newly exposed.

Closed to outsiders and often misunderstood, the Druze faith emerged in the 11th century as an offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Though Druze share historical roots with Islam, they do not identify as Muslim. Their monotheistic religion blends elements of Greek philosophy, Hinduism and Neoplatonism, with sacred texts accessible only to a select few. That mysticism has long drawn both fascination and suspicion, and led some Muslim scholars over the centuries to brand them as heretics.

More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria, making up about 3% of the country’s population. Most of the rest are spread across Lebanon and Israel, as well as the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1960s.

The Druze traditionally pledge loyalty to the state they reside in — a principle rooted in their religious doctrine, which prioritizes pragmatism and self-preservation over political confrontation. Although that stance has led Druze in Syria, Lebanon and Israel onto divergent political paths, a strong transnational bond endures: one of kinship, shared memory and mutual protection.

“The strange thing is that this community has survived until today in one of the most violent places in the world, but we

have a philosophy, and I do believe that philosophy is what saved us,” said Fadi Azzam, a Syrian Druze novelist and poet from Sweida who fled during the civil war.

Under Syria’s former ruler, Bashar Assad, the Druze largely avoided open rebellion while also resisting deeper integration with the regime. Many served in the Syrian army, but local militias maintained a degree of independence, often policing their own areas, including Sweida, the heartland of the Druze community.

That uneasy equilibrium has been tested in recent months as Syria’s new government, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, has moved to rein in the complex web of armed groups left over from the civil war. But it reached a boiling point last week when deadly clashes erupted in Sweida between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribespeople. That soon pulled in government forces, who were dispatched to quell the violence but began clashing with Druze gunmen distrustful of Syria’s new rulers.

More than 500 people have been killed amid the unrest, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain.

The crisis has also drawn in Israel, which has pledged to protect the group despite the wishes of many Syrian Druze.

In Israel, the violence prompted domestic unrest among members of the country’s own small but influential Druze community, who held protests, blocked roads and in some cases forced their way into Syria. The Israeli military responded by striking the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital, but for many Syrian Druze, those attacks have only deepened their isolation from the country’s fledgling government.

“The Druze right now are between a rock and a hard place,” said Reda Mansour, an Israeli Druze historian and professor at Reichman University in Tel Aviv, Israel.

For now, a fragile ceasefire appears to be holding. But the conflict has reopened deeper wounds and recalled persecution that stretches back centuries to the Ottoman Empire and the Arab nationalist regimes of the 20th century. In the 1950s, a brutal campaign by President Adib Shishakli of Syria left hundreds of Druze dead and their towns shelled. That trauma shaped a doctrine of self-reliance that still

informs Druze militancy in Syria.

“If we were to classify Middle Eastern societies, there are farmers and the shepherds, and there are those who trade, and those who fight — the Druze are fighters,” Azzam said. “This is part of the mystery about them.”

Beyond Syria, the Druze have carved out roles in other countries: asserting influence in some places and pledging loyalty in others.

In Lebanon, where they make up about 5% of the population, powerful Druze families have long acted as power brokers, balancing alliances with Christian, Sunni and Shiite factions through wars and crises.

In Israel and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, where the Druze number around 145,000 in total, the community occupies a unique space.

Unlike other Arab minorities, Druze men are conscripted into the Israeli military, and many serve in high-ranking military or political positions. Despite that, Druze citizens have expressed frustration over unequal treatment and a 2018 law that undermined their standing as full citizens.

“The Druze formula has been that whatever country you are in, you have to be the most patriotic community to survive,” Mansour said.

That approach has served the Druze for centuries — but in Sweida, its limits have been laid bare.

On Thursday, many residents emerged after hunkering down in their homes for days. They found a scene of carnage, with gutted shop fronts, rubble-strewed streets and still-smoldering tanks. Hundreds of miles away, Azzam was absorbing the loss of his aunt to the bloodshed and reckoning with what the future holds.

“I am not optimistic, but I am also not pessimistic,” he said. “Today is a raw day, and my feelings are also raw.”

Forgotten Her es Israeli Military Developments and Inventions

By Avi Heiligman

Israeli forces have been using a wide array of weapons and defensive systems during recent conflicts. These range from new aircraft and avionics to bombs that seal up tunnels to the Iron Beam. Since the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, innovators and engineers inside Israel have been looking for unique technology to enhance weapon systems. The list of inventions is quite impressive and has given Israel an advantage when fighting terrorists and hostile armies on the battlefield.

Even during the British Mandate, Jews were busy developing tactics and building weapons with whatever material was available. Barrel bombs made from oil drums were invented by the Irgun’s chief operating officer. Soon after Israel was established, IDF Major Uziel Gal designed one of the most famous submachine guns in history. Named after its inventor, the Uzi was lightweight (less than eight pounds) and had a folding open-bolt stock self-loading system. It became so popular that it was used by over 90 countries and over 10 million were produced.

The Israeli Air Force was hit hard following the French arms embargo on Israel right before the Six Day War in 1967. Dozens of aircraft needed to be replaced, and the 50 Mirage 5 jet fighters

that had been paid for by Israel were not going to be delivered by France. Alternative aircraft were needed by the IAF so Israeli engineers designed and built both the Nesher and Kfir fighter jets. The Kfir was introduced in 1975. Captain Shai Eshel was the only Israeli Kfir pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft. On June 27, 1979, he shot down a Syrian MiG-21 with an air-to-air missile. The Nesher

on that was versatile and more accurate than previous anti-tank weapons systems. At least ten countries have used the B-300 at one time, and it has seen action in some of the Israeli wars against terrorist groups.

While anti-tank weapons were getting better, the IDF needed to protect their own tanks from sustaining devastating damage. The Trophy System was

Named after its inventor, the Uzi was lightweight (less than eight pounds) and had a folding open-bolt stock self-loading system.

was introduced in 1971 and saw success during the Yom Kippur War. The Israeli Air Force has claimed over a hundred kills of enemy aircraft in the Nesher.

Anti-tank weapons are often cumbersome to carry and weren’t always known for their accuracy. The Israeli-built B-300 was developed in the late 1970s as a reusable anti-tank weap -

developed by Rafael and first delivered to the IDF in 2010. It is an APS (Active Protection System) that to date is the only proven APS that has been battle tested. The Trophy System detects incoming threats by radar, tracks the angle and speed of the incoming threat, decides if the threat is high risk, and uses countermeasures to neutralize the

threat without damaging the vehicle. Not all threats are engaged by the system as it depends on a variety of factors and threat level. The Trophy System first saw action on the Gaza border in 2011 and is mounted on a variety of tanks and armored vehicles such as the Israeli Merkava tank and the American Abrams, Stryker and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the Trophy system was used dozens of times and not a single tank equipped with the system was lost. In the recent war in Gaza, the system was upgraded to detect and neutralize missile and drones. Thousands of incoming threats were stopped at an 85% interception rate.

Hamas spent many years digging tunnels underneath Gaza, and Israel has spent a lot of time, effort and money to destroy these tunnels once it has been verified that no hostages are inside. Blasting the tunnel with explosives and flooding them with seawater are just two of the methods used to prevent the tunnel from being used by Hamas and other terrorists in the future. Sponge bombs are another method developed by Israel to seal off the entrance of a tunnel. Instead of explosives, sponge bombs use chemicals that quickly expand and harden. The method reduces the risk of

The Nesher plane

The Uzi submachine gun

collateral damage by not using explosives and effectively prevents the entrance from future use. The IDF has yet to confirm the usage of sponge bombs in Gaza, and they are possibly waiting for researchers to implement chemicals in the bombs that would not be dangerous for the soldiers if mishandled.

In addition to the battle tested Iron Dome all weather air defense system, Rafael also developed the Iron Beam – a direct energy air defense system. The Iron Beam uses a fiber laser to destroy incom-

ing projectiles. While it’s more cost effective to operate than the Iron Dome, the Iron Beam is not currently an all-weather system. The two systems are meant to operate in tandem and can shoot down threats that are too close for missiles to engage. While it is set to start operational deployment later in 2025, the IDF tested the Iron Beam system near the Gaza border under operational conditions. It was revealed by the IDF in May 2025 that a laser defense system, possibly the Iron Beam or a new system called the Lite

Beam, shot down 35 drones operated by Hezbollah. This is in addition to another report that the IDF used a laser defense system in the fall of 2024. It is very possible that laser defense systems have been used more extensively than is being revealed to the public.

Israel has always spent a lot of time and resources into ensuring that the IDF has the best equipment and systems available. The weapons and technology produced in Israel has been sold to countries across the globe, and partnerships

are constantly being formed as it is an economic benefit to Israel. Despite the costs of developing new weapons, these inventions have saved countless lives and will continue to do so in the future.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

The Trophy APS system on a tank

The Iron Dome defense system

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Accessing the Miraculous

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

The Nine Days! We know seven days is what it took for G-d to create the world. To us, that’s the norm. It was a huge, miraculous event, and yet we all say much of the time that, of course, that happened that way – that’s “nature,” as if there’s nothing miraculous about it.

Then there are “eighth day” things, which are called “above nature.” The miraculous. Things that are out of the ordinary. So “eighth day” things are the occurrences in our lives when we say, “Wow, now that had to be G-d.”

Really – as if all the “seven day” things are something else?!

But, whether you think that way or not, let’s take a detour and look at what the Nine Days are about. They are not considered to occur within the natural. They just show up once a year. And they’re certainly not among the miraculous.

In fact, they’re their own thing. They don’t show up weekly. And they don’t show up as an amazing thing by any stretch.

Rather, they show up at the very worst time of the year. Or maybe that’s better expressed as coming at the best time of the year, which makes it the worst. They show up when it’s summery and hot. They show up when you want to be having fun, swimming, laughing, and barbecuing.

Tisha B’Av, when we fast because the holy Temple was destroyed.

They’re here as a segue into the sadness, to get our minds wrapped around the weight of what we are missing, to help us to register the grandeur of our loss.

They’re nine long summer days to avoid a celebrative state so we can truly

They’re here as a segue into the sadness, to get our minds wrapped around the weight of what we are missing.

And they show up for a while. And they shlep. And what’s their message? Wake up and smell the coffee preparing for the day you do not want to wake up and smell any coffee, or any other food for that matter.

The Nine Days precede and include

register and appreciate all we lost when we lost the physical representation that allowed us connection to the One Above.

So what would be a great way to enter this year’s Nine Days?

Let’s think of a plan for next year. Let’s decide we will try all we can during

this coming year, during all our seven days, week to week, to recognize that all we have is not natural but a blessing. Each morsel we eat – a treat. Each leg we can lift – a gift. Each thought we are lucky to think – a wink. Each dollar we bring to the roost – a boost. Each challenge we survive – yay, we are alive! If we can put that kind of thinking into our seven days, then maybe the Nine Days won’t be necessary to bring us to connection.

It isn’t easy to pay that kind of “8-tention.” But if we could, wouldn’t that be living in the miraculous?!

Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist working with both couples and individuals and is a certified relationship counselor. Rivki is a co-founder and creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or at rivkirosenwald@gmail.com.