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Sen. John Fetterman is escalating his criticism of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, warning that the party has a “socialism problem” and accusing far-left candidates of damaging Democrats politically.

The Pennsylvania Democrat singled out Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, making clear that sharing a party affiliation would not prevent him from publicly condemning candidates he believes have moved too far to the left.

“These garbage kinds of people like El-Sayed in Michigan,” Fetterman told The Hill in an interview. “I don’t care if he’s a fellow Democrat.”

Fetterman also pointed to Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson in Maine, who has received the endorsement of the state’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter. He additionally cited Graham Platner, a far-left candidate who withdrew from the Maine Senate contest after a former girlfriend accused him of rape, an allegation Platner denied.

“Look at these other terrible communists and socialists,” Fetterman said. “Our party has a socialism problem.”

“I’ll be the one Democrat that calls it for what it is and not use the euphemism that it’s a big-tent situation,” he added.

Fetterman reserved particularly sharp criticism for El-Sayed’s decision to campaign alongside left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who previously drew widespread condemnation for declaring that “America deserved 9/11.”

“Democrats like El-Sayed are proud to campaign with garbage like Hasan Piker,” Fetterman said.

The comments are the latest example of Fetterman’s growing public break with the progressive flank of his party, with Israel emerging as one of the most significant areas of disagreement.

Fetterman has established himself as one of the Senate Democratic caucus’s strongest supporters of Israel and has repeatedly pushed back against members of his own party over their positions toward the Jewish state. Last month, he went so far as to say that he would leave the Democratic Party if it officially adopted an anti-Israel posture.

“If our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave because that’s been a moral clarity for me,” Fetterman said at The Hill Nation Summit.

Fetterman’s willingness to challenge Democrats from the right has also earned him unusually strong approval among Republican voters in his home state.

A recent New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University poll found that 73% of registered Republicans in Pennsylvania hold a favorable view of Fetterman.

{Matzav.com}

Tenant complaints across New York City have jumped dramatically this year, with landlords and housing analysts accusing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration of encouraging renters to flood the city’s 311 system with grievances as part of a broader campaign to increase pressure on property owners, the NY Post reports.

A Post analysis of 311 service requests found that renters have submitted 573,656 complaints so far this year across the five boroughs, a 25% increase from the 459,519 complaints recorded during the comparable period in 2025.

The increase comes as Mamdani officials have repeatedly urged tenants who believe they are being mistreated by landlords to report problems to the city. Property owners say some renters are now filing complaints with 311 without first contacting their landlords and giving them an opportunity to address the issue.

“The city put us in a situation where they’re just slowly beating us to death and blaming us,” said Lincoln Eccles, who owns a 15-unit building in Crown Heights. “The apparatus of the government is geared to squeeze us.”

The surge is showing up across a wide range of complaints handled by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which receives tenant grievances submitted through 311. During the past week alone, HPD received 67 complaints involving clogged toilets, a 500% increase from the same period last year.

Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, said he views the growing tenant-organizing effort as part of a much broader ideological agenda.

“All of this tenant organizing is part of a long term project to take wealth away from people and redistribute it,” Smith said. “They’re figuring out what pressure points they can act on to get their way.”

Brooklyn, where Mamdani enjoys particularly strong support in neighborhoods including Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, has experienced the sharpest increase in complaints.

Residents of the borough have filed 169,675 complaints so far this year, compared with 128,337 over the same period in 2025, representing an increase of approximately 32%.

Queens has also outpaced the citywide increase. Complaints there have risen 29% from the same period last year.

The increases come amid a concerted effort by City Hall to encourage renters to report housing problems and organize collectively. Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s tenant advocate, explicitly urged residents earlier this year to make use of the city’s complaint system.

“Call 311,” Weaver told New Yorkers in February. “City Hall’s door is open,” she added, while saying in an interview with In These Times that the administration intended to become “bold and creative” in its housing policies.

Weaver, who previously described property ownership as a “weapon of white supremacy,” has also said, “if you don’t believe in the government’s sacred right to seize private property, it’s over.”

At a July briefing about the administration’s “rental ripoffs” hearings, Weaver said the city was increasing its ability to investigate landlords and enforce housing regulations.

“We’re expanding headcount to be able to do more housing code inspections and more targeted enforcement,” she said.

Mamdani himself promoted the administration’s enforcement efforts in April when he accompanied an HPD inspector through a Harlem apartment building for a social media video. The mayor highlighted six violations discovered during the visit, including relatively minor infractions involving information that was supposed to be displayed at the building entrance, and declared that “no issue is too small.”

The number of complaints soared during that same week. Citywide, 17,768 complaints were submitted, compared with 10,877 during the corresponding week in 2025, an increase of 63%.

The jump was even greater in Brooklyn, where complaints rose from 3,223 during that week last year to 5,499 this year, an increase of roughly 70%.

Some landlords say the campaign has fundamentally changed their relationships with tenants.

“They’re calling HPD non-stop day and night,” said property owner Yossi Azour, who is battling the Weaver-founded Crown Heights Tenants Union over his Hawthorne Street building.

“They’re playing the innocent victim and causing people to lose their property and suffer.”

“It’s a disaster,” Azour added, saying he had never encountered anything comparable during his three decades as a property owner. “That Mamdani is saying landlords are bad and housing should be free, it gives them headwind.”

Landlords told The Post that some of the complaints they have encountered appear frivolous, including tenants reporting a lack of heat during the summer and one renter objecting to the color of paint on a wall.

The administration’s expanded enforcement efforts are tied to Mamdani’s “block by block” housing plan, unveiled in May, which increased HPD’s budget by $2 billion.

The NYS Tenant Bloc, the nonprofit organization Weaver headed before joining the Mamdani administration this year, has openly described legal action over building repairs as one component of a broader effort that could ultimately shift properties away from private landlords.

“If landlords can’t maintain their buildings, tenants will,” the NYS Tenant Bloc said in June. “The Mayor’s Housing Plan directs $2.2 billion to taking housing off their hands.”

Under the existing enforcement process, a tenant complaint submitted through 311 is forwarded to HPD, which contacts the property owner. If the matter remains unresolved, an inspector can be dispatched to the apartment and issue a violation if a problem is found.

Violations that remain unresolved can lead to further city action. In the most serious cases involving numerous persistent and severe building-wide problems, HPD can pursue legal proceedings that can eventually result in management or ownership of a property being transferred.

Mamdani announced this week that his administration is moving to accelerate the court process for housing cases.

“People wait weeks, if not months, for a case to be heard,” he told reporters. “Today we take a critical step towards ending that.”

Property owners contend that some tenants have learned to exploit the enforcement process, filing complaints to establish a record against landlords while withholding rent.

“The tactic is to make these complaints. Make it seem like there is no interest in fixing the issue,” Eccles said.

The administration’s Office of Mass Engagement has also participated in door-to-door tenant outreach. Members of the office canvassed alongside the Democratic Socialists of America in Flatbush last week, encouraging renters to “band together” in their dealings with landlords.

Luis Altamiranda, president of Esther Consulting Group and a Washington Heights property owner, said misuse of the complaint system existed before the current administration but has increased substantially since Mamdani became mayor.

“I’ve totally seen what I would describe as a weaponization of 311 complaints,” Altamiranda said. “It existed before Mamdani, but it’s gotten by far exponentialized since he’s taken office.”

“What I see a lot of is you have tenants that have massive amount of arrears, and then they use the 311 complaints to create this sort of narrative that the landlord’s not doing his job.”

Christine Renzi, an East Village landlord whose family owns 11 apartment buildings, said she has also noticed a significant change in attitudes toward property owners.

“The landlords are being targeted,” Renzi said. “My father was never targeted like this. We used to get a lot of respect for being a landlord.”

“I actually have a tenant that feels that he does not have to pay his rent because of Mamdani. They feel like they are absolutely entitled to have a free ride,” she said.

Natalie Bonnano, 47, who owns 300 properties in Brooklyn and Staten Island with her sister, said confusion over Mamdani’s rent policies has even led some tenants to question whether they are required to pay rent at all.

“We even had one tenant who called me and asked why she was being charged rent. She thought that’s what the rent freeze meant,” Bonnano said.

Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, warned that repeated or baseless complaints can also undermine renters who are dealing with legitimate and serious housing problems.

“A fair and effective housing enforcement system should ensure that property owners are given reasonable opportunity to correct legitimate violations and weed out bogus tenant complaints. There also must be consequences for tenants who create the violations in the apartments, or report false complaints.”

{Matzav.com}

New York City childcare providers are scrambling to keep classrooms staffed and ready for the new school year as long-awaited city payments remain tied up, threatening the rollout of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s ambitious expansion of free childcare, including his new 2-K initiative, the New York Post reports.

With the school year set to begin Sept. 10, operators contracted to run 2-K, 3-K and pre-K programs say they have yet to receive advance payments normally distributed in August. Some providers are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and say they have been forced to use personal savings, retirement funds and credit to cover payroll, supplies and other expenses needed to open their doors.

Adrienne Bond, director of Quick Start Daycare Center in Queens, said her center is still waiting for approximately $400,000 from the city and warned that the delay could leave her without enough employees when children arrive.

“If we do open up on the first day of school, I won’t have staff,” Bond said.

“Mamdani promised positive change in early childhood education, and many trusted him by electing him to office, so when is that coming? We are anxiously waiting.”

Bond said she has already put $400 of her own money into the center and exhausted $35,000 from a private after-school program to keep expenses covered.

Despite those measures, she was forced to postpone two staff paychecks and still faces unpaid bills from food suppliers. She has also sought an interest-free bridge loan, but that money has been delayed amid a backlog at the city Department of Education.

“I’m pleading with them for the bridge loan,” she told The Post.

The mounting financial problems are affecting providers involved in Mamdani’s new 2-K pilot as well as operators of the city’s established free 3-K and pre-K programs, raising concerns about whether some centers will be financially prepared to open when the academic year begins.

Universal free childcare was a centerpiece of Mamdani’s successful 2025 mayoral campaign. With support from Gov. Kathy Hochul, his administration subsequently announced the “2-Care” pilot for 2-year-olds, with plans to make the program available citywide over the next four years while expanding the existing 3-K and pre-K systems.

Mamdani and Hochul promoted the childcare initiative at a joint appearance earlier this month, highlighting $1.2 billion in state funding committed to the effort.

But much of the expansion depends upon private childcare operators that contract with the city. Many of those providers have worked with the city for years and depend heavily on advance payments to hire employees, purchase supplies and prepare their facilities before children return in September.

Reports of the growing financial crisis surfaced earlier this week, with City & State and The New York Times describing providers contemplating extraordinary measures to remain afloat. Some were considering putting up $90,000 of their own money, taking reverse mortgages on their homes or telling employees to file for unemployment benefits while they waited for city funding.

Five childcare providers who spoke with The Post described similar financial pressures and delays.

A Queens childcare operator who requested anonymity said she was awarded a new 2-K class but was told she would not receive the money needed to operate it until November. She also applied for a loan but received less than half of the five-figure amount she had requested.

“I’m done — somebody needs to shine a light on what’s going on in this place because it’s an absolute disaster,” she said. “I have gone into my personal bank accounts, went into my 401(k), and I’m not doing it again.”

On Staten Island, The Play Group Experience is waiting for a $160,000 advance payment, according to director Lori Cangiolose. She said she personally spent $800 preparing the center for its September opening.

“We received zero funding that we usually receive in August to get us through to open,” Cangiolose said.

“One of my colleagues, she just had to foot $1,800 out of her own pocket to do some repairs and fix the toilet just to prepare for September, and this money should’ve been coming from the DOE.”

The situation is similarly difficult at Let’s Play & Learn Park, where director Olena Olson said the center has not received a $300,000 advance for its 3-K and pre-K programs.

Olson, whose center is in Park Slope, said she is using a $60,000 credit line and revenue from privately paid 2-K tuition while also giving up her own salary in order to meet payroll and building expenses.

“I will be OK for September if it takes that long,” Olson said. “But come October, if I don’t have either the loan or the advanced payment, then I don’t even want to think about it.”

Providers say another potential lifeline — interest-free bridge loans offered through the DOE — has itself become bogged down by delays.

“It’s such a Catch-22,” Bond said.

“Whatever the amount is on the bridge loan, when you get your advancement, they’re going to take it back from you. It’s always as if you’re penny-pinching because they’re always taking back what they appear to give you.”

As providers struggle to keep their programs financially viable, city agencies have also been pointing fingers over responsibility for the holdup.

DOE officials have blamed the city comptroller’s office, contending that contracts had not yet been registered, a required step before payments can be processed.

Officials in Comptroller Mark Levine’s office disputed that explanation, saying the DOE had not yet provided the contracts that needed to be registered. As of Friday, the comptroller’s office had not received any of the 2-K contracts, according to officials.

“The start of the school year is not an unexpected event,” Levine said in a statement.

“The city knew these contracts needed to be approved by now, and failing to get them done on time risks setting back our affordability agenda,” Levine said.

“These are small providers with little financial cushion. Forcing them to begin caring for children without contracts or payment puts enormous strain on these organizations.”

The breakdown has fueled broader questions about whether the Mamdani administration has the administrative infrastructure necessary to carry out the enormous childcare expansion it has promised.

One DOE insider said universal childcare was “too important to fail” and argued that the city cannot expect providers to personally finance a government initiative.

“New York City cannot build universal childcare on the backs and bank accounts of the people already holding the system together,” the source said.

“The administration continues to make ambitious promises about expanding 2-K, 3-K and pre-K. But universal child care cannot be built through press conferences and promises alone,” the insider added.

“It requires a government with the capacity, staffing and resources to deliver and right now, City Hall is demonstrating that it is in over its head.”

Mamdani was questioned earlier this week about the mounting difficulties facing childcare providers, including concerns from some operators that they may be unable to open next month. The mayor responded by reiterating the importance his administration has placed on resolving the situation, saying, “we have made this very clear that this is a top priority internally.”

Mamdani spokeswoman Jenna Lyle acknowledged that the payment delays were “unacceptable,” while placing part of the blame on the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, saying it had eliminated 600 employees involved in building and administering the city’s childcare system.

Questions remain, however, over why those staffing shortcomings were not resolved before the Mamdani administration moved ahead with its large-scale universal childcare expansion.

City Hall says it is now taking emergency measures to get money to providers before classes begin. Officials said overtime has been approved to accelerate loan processing and that providers should receive approvals within five business days.

“We are expediting the processing and disbursement of loans for providers,” Lyle said. “And we are pulling additional staff from across city government, including every available contracting staffer at New York City Public Schools, to finalize outstanding contracts and quickly get them to the comptroller for payment.”

{Matzav.com}

With the month of Elul underway and the Yomim Noraim approaching, Rav Yitzchok Ezrachi, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir in Yerushalayim, delivered an impassioned shmuess at Yeshivas Zichron Meir in Yerushalayim, led by Rav Isser Yehuda Malin.

In his remarks, Rav Ezrachi focused on the indispensable role of yiras Shomayim alongside Torah learning, stressing that even intense and diligent learning cannot accomplish its purpose without tefillah and deliberate work on a person’s inner world. He also warned against treating mitzvos casually and urged the bochurim to develop genuine sensitivity to the difficulties and suffering of others.

Rav Ezrachi began by discussing the unique closeness that Hakadosh Boruch Hu grants Klal Yisroel.

He noted that when the malachim sanctify Hashem’s name, their declaration begins with three words before Hashem’s name: “Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, Hashem Tzevakos.” Klal Yisroel, however, is permitted to invoke Hashem’s name after only two words, as in “Shema Yisroel, Hashem.”

“The malachim need an introduction of three words; without that they cannot sanctify His name,” Rav Ezrachi said. “And Klal Yisroel — us — Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings us closer than the malachim.”

That special closeness, he explained, is tied directly to the way a Jew conducts himself, particularly in the area of yiras Shomayim.

“Because you fear Me. And yiras Shomayim is everything,” he said.

Rav Ezrachi stressed that yiras Shomayim does not simply emerge automatically from Torah learning. It must itself become the focus of sustained effort.

He cited the Gemara’s account of the mother of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok, who was told by astrologers that her son was destined to become a thief. She therefore instructed him to keep his head covered at all times so that he would possess yiras Shomayim, and she urged him constantly to daven for Divine mercy.

One day, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok was sitting and learning when his head covering fell off without his noticing. Sitting beneath a palm tree that did not belong to him, he suddenly experienced an overpowering urge for its fruit and bit off a cluster with his teeth.

Rav Ezrachi pointed to the Gemara’s description that Rav Nachman was sitting and learning at that very moment.

“Torah alone, without yiras Shomayim, is nothing,” Rav Ezrachi declared. “He was sitting and learning — and this was Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok.”

He then cited the Gemara’s discussion of what a person must do to acquire wisdom. While increasing one’s time in the bais medrash is essential, the Gemara teaches that a person must also daven to the One to Whom wisdom belongs.

Rav Ezrachi said bochurim sometimes approach him seeking a bracha and describe their plans to learn with tremendous hasmadah and greater depth.

“You can remain an am ha’aretz,” he warned. “You can delve deeply and remain an am ha’aretz all the days of your life.”

The Gemara’s message, he explained, is that neither component can be discarded.

“A person can daven all day and not learn, and he will remain an am ha’aretz. A person can learn all day and not daven, and he will remain an am ha’aretz. One without the other is impossible.”

Rav Ezrachi returned to Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok, noting that after recognizing his vulnerability, he devoted himself so intensely to developing yiras Shomayim that he eventually became one of the generation’s outstanding examples of it.

“When a person hears that he is lacking something, and he understands what he is lacking, then he devotes his entire self to it,” Rav Ezrachi said.

The lesson, he said, is that recognizing a spiritual weakness must lead to serious work rather than resignation.

“Torah alone does not guarantee yiras Shomayim. For yiras Shomayim, you have to work,” he said. “Without work, there is no yiras Shomayim at all.”

Rav Ezrachi then turned to a teaching of Rav Shimon bar Yochai regarding the proper attitude toward mitzvos.

“Honor the mitzvos, because the mitzvos are My emissaries. If you honor them, you have honored Me; if you do not honor them, you have disgraced Me,” he quoted.

There is no neutral territory, Rav Ezrachi said. The way a person approaches a mitzvah reflects the way he relates to Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

He offered the everyday example of a bochur who is supposed to wake up at a certain time but opens his eyes, rolls over and goes back to sleep.

“There are probably bochurim like that everywhere who have difficulty getting up,” he remarked. A person may tell himself that he is tired or hungry, but, Rav Ezrachi said, he must understand the spiritual significance of treating an obligation casually.

“If he would know that by doing so he is disgracing the Creator of the world!”

The same principle, he said, applies to bein adam lachaveiro. If someone believes another person slighted him and retaliates, he must ask himself how his behavior accords with the commandment to love another Jew. Likewise, if a rebbi asks a talmid to do something and the talmid agrees but only gets around to it three hours later, that too reflects how seriously he regards the obligation.

“There is nothing in between,” Rav Ezrachi said.

Before acting, he urged, a person should stop and consider: “What am I about to do? Am I going to honor the Creator of the world, or, chalilah, the opposite?”

Even something as ordinary as responding to a mother’s request can carry that significance.

“A mother asked him to go do something. ‘Of course, I’ll do it’ — and he does it three hours later. Is he honoring or disgracing? I’m not talking about his mother — I’m talking about Hakadosh Boruch Hu!”

Rav Ezrachi said that Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok ultimately came to understand why his mother had insisted so strongly on his covering his head and davening.

“The moment he understood, he dedicated his entire life to yiras Shomayim.”

Understanding something intellectually, Rav Ezrachi continued, is only the beginning. A person must internalize it until it changes the way he sees and experiences the world.

“To feel it means acquiring an outlook of yiras Shomayim,” he said. “Without this, it is worth nothing.”

Rav Ezrachi then cited the Torah’s command regarding tzedakah, “You shall surely give him, and your heart shall not feel bad when you give him.”

Drawing on Rabbeinu Yonah, he explained that the act of giving alone does not complete the person’s obligation. The giver must actively work on his heart until he genuinely wants to give.

“As long as he does not work on his heart so that his heart wants it, nothing will help,” Rav Ezrachi said.

He then illustrated the importance of developing genuine sensitivity to another person’s pain with a teaching of Targum Yonasan concerning the enslavement in Mitzrayim.

Rav Ezrachi recounted the description of a delicate young pregnant woman who was forced to labor with mortar and bricks. She miscarried, and the fetus became mixed into the mortar. Hakadosh Boruch Hu instructed the malach Gavriel to descend, form a brick from it and bring it before Him.

The message, Rav Ezrachi explained, is directed at every person. It teaches how seriously one must take the suffering of another human being.

Sometimes, he said, people hear that someone is struggling, hurting, ill or crying, yet the information barely penetrates their consciousness.

“It sounds to us like music,” he said, describing the danger of becoming accustomed to hearing about other people’s pain without truly feeling it.

Rav Ezrachi cited the Chazon Ish, who writes that when a person hears that someone is lacking something, he should immediately try to help.

“If you cannot help him, daven for him, even if he is an unlearned, ordinary and simple person,” Rav Ezrachi said, quoting the Chazon Ish’s teaching.

Failing to respond, he explained, reveals that a person has not adequately developed the capacity to participate emotionally in another’s suffering.

Rav Ezrachi concluded the shmuess with a bracha to the bochurim and the yeshiva’s staff that they merit Divine assistance and success during the coming year.

“You should know that even to receive siyata diShmaya, one needs siyata diShmaya,” he said. “It is not simple. When you understand, know and feel, then you will feel that you are succeeding. Every person should rejoice in the success of his friend.”

{Matzav.com}

Rebbetzin Yehudit Yosef, daughter-in-law of Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l, has spoken out against the controversial decision to cancel memorial events honoring him, saying the move disregards the legacy of a towering religious figure whose influence reached across Israeli society.

The memorial events were canceled following a directive from legal officials, who argued that Rav Ovadia’s close identification with the Shas party could cause the gatherings, taking place near the election period, to be regarded as political campaigning.

“I am in tremendous pain today, and there are moments when I feel that this is it — I can no longer remain silent,” Rebbetzin Yosef began.

“When I heard that they want to cancel the memorial for my father-in-law, Maran Rav Ovadia Yosef, of righteous and holy memory, it hurt me, and it continues to hurt me deeply,” she said. “And not because of the event or the ceremony, but because of its significance and what it says.”

Rebbetzin Yosef emphasized that Rav Ovadia belonged far beyond the confines of any political party or particular community.

“Maran belonged to everyone: Sephardim, Ashkenazim, Chareidim, secular Jews, traditional Jews, Chassidim, yeshiva students and soldiers. Everyone entered his home, and he felt the pain of every one of them,” she said.

She also recalled witnessing Rav Ovadia’s concern for Israelis during times of war and tragedy.

“I saw him during wartime. I saw nights when he did not close his eyes. I saw him cry when he heard about soldiers who had fallen and about another family whose world had been destroyed. I saw him pray from the depths of his heart for the wounded,” she said.

Officials working under the attorney general ordered the cancellation of the memorial ceremony for Rav Ovadia, maintaining that his identification with Shas could cause the gathering to be considered political propaganda during the election period.

Rebbetzin Yosef said she found the decision particularly painful given Rav Ovadia’s decades of devotion to the Jewish people.

“That is why it is so difficult for me to understand: How can you take such a figure, who dedicated an entire lifetime to this nation, and decide that he is not worthy of stopping, remembering and honoring him?”

She concluded by drawing a distinction between the government’s ability to cancel a particular event and its inability to erase Rav Ovadia’s enduring influence.

“Perhaps you can cancel a ceremony, but you cannot cancel a legacy, and you cannot decide for millions of people whom they will remember and whom they will honor.”

The cancellation has sparked an uproar in the Chareidi community, with prominent rabbinic figures sharply criticizing the decision.

Rav Yitzchok Yosef, the former Sephardic chief rabbi and son of Rav Ovadia, delivered an especially fierce denunciation of the attorney general.

“The religion-hating attorney general who decided to cancel the memorial gatherings for Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef, of blessed memory. This wicked woman is messing with Maran? The Almighty will destroy her; she will receive her blow,” Rav Yosef said.

Rav Elyakim Friedman zt”l, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Be’er Hachaim in Modiin Illit and a distinguished talmid of Rav Avrohom Yehoshua Soloveitchik of Brisk, was niftar early Sunday morning at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim following a serious illness. He was 64.

Rav Elyakim was an outstanding talmid chochom whose life was marked by extraordinary hasmadah, meticulous adherence to halacha, devotion to his talmidim, and remarkable personal strength through years of profound difficulty.

Even during his final illness, his commitment to Torah remained undiminished. At the beginning of the current Elul zeman, despite being hospitalized and severely weakened, he left the hospital specifically to return to his yeshiva and deliver the opening shiur of the zeman.

Rav Elyakim was born on 6 Tammuz 5722 to Rav Berel Friedman, who for more than 50 years has served as a rov overseeing shochtim at slaughterhouses operating under several kashrus organizations, including Shearis Yisroel. Rav Berel was also close to Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l. His mother, Rebbetzin Ita Henna, is the daughter of the noted Yerushalmi talmid chochom Rav Yeshaya Dvorkes zt”l.

As a young bochur, Rav Elyakim left home to pursue his Torah studies at the Ponovezh yeshiva ketanah in Bnei Brak. He subsequently continued in Yeshivas Ponovezh before going on to Yeshivas Brisk.

It was in Brisk that he became a close talmid of Rav Avrohom Yehoshua Soloveitchik, forming a rebbi-talmid relationship that remained a defining influence upon him for the rest of his life. He was counted among Rav Avrohom Yehoshua’s outstanding talmidim and carried the Brisker approach to learning into his own decades of harbotzas haTorah.

Upon reaching marriageable age, Rav Elyakim married a daughter of Rav Alexander Dinkel zt”l, one of the roshei yeshiva of Yeshivas Kol Torah’s yeshiva ketanah, who was niftar in 5744.

Following his marriage, Rav Elyakim settled on Rechov Panim Meiros in Yerushalayim, becoming one of the prominent talmidei chachomim of the Mattersdorf neighborhood. Those who knew him recall his exceptional hasmadah, pure yiras Shomayim, and uncompromising attention to every detail of halacha. His radiant personality and example had a powerful influence on those around him, both within the neighborhood and beyond.

Approximately 20 years ago, Rav Elyakim endured a devastating personal tragedy when his wife passed away, leaving him to raise their 12 orphaned children.

It was during that painful period that his emunah and extraordinary dedication to Torah and his family became particularly evident. His children later recalled that after returning from their mother’s kever at the conclusion of the shivah, it was already late at night. Rav Elyakim nevertheless instructed his sons to pack their belongings and return immediately to yeshiva rather than wait until the following morning. Torah, he impressed upon them, was their life and the length of their days, and it was the surest path forward even amid such overwhelming pain.

Rav Elyakim subsequently married Rebbetzin Chaya Dinner, a daughter of Rav Eliezer Dinenr, gaavad of Adas Yisroel. They were blessed with two daughters.

For many years, Rav Elyakim served as a R”M in Yeshivas Maayan HaTalmud, known as the Kreshinsky Yeshiva. He was later appointed rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Be’er Hachaim, a yeshiva ketanah in Modiin Illit under the leadership of Rav Boruch Soloveitchik.

There, Rav Elyakim became renowned for his exceptional devotion to his talmidim. With great insight, he understood how to approach each bochur according to his individual personality and abilities, guiding his talmidim toward clarity in sevara and imparting to them the foundations and methodology of proper learning.

The bond he forged with his talmidim extended well beyond their years in the yeshiva. Former talmidim remained deeply attached to him years after leaving, viewing him as a rebbi whose guidance and influence continued to accompany them throughout their lives.

In recent years, Rav Elyakim became seriously ill. He initially succeeded in overcoming the disease, but it later returned, leaving him increasingly weak. During the recent period, his condition required hospitalization.

Yet as Elul zman arrived, Rav Elyakim was determined to return once more to his talmidim.

Despite his weakened condition, he left the hospital and traveled to the yeshiva specifically to deliver the opening shiur on the masechta being learned. He also joined the bnei yeshiva for the Yom Kippur Katan tefillos, first delivering an emotional shmuess of chizuk that deeply moved those present.

Afterward, he returned to the hospital, where his condition continued to deteriorate.

Early Sunday morning, surrounded by members of his family, Rav Elyakim was niftar.

He leaves behind a large family, including two young daughters at home, as well as generations of talmidim who were shaped by his Torah and personal example. Among his mechutanim are Rav Shimon Galei, Rav Boruch Soloveitchik, Rav Chaim Peretz Berman and Rav Boruch Dov Diskin.

The levayah was held today at Rav Elyakim’s home at 1 Rechov Panim Meiros in Yerushalayim, proceeding to Har Hamenuchos for kevurah.

Yehi zichro baruch.

{Matzav.com}

President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario is now making its way onto digital maps, with Google announcing that U.S. users of Google Maps will see the body of water labeled “Lake America,” even as longtime mapping service MapQuest has publicly refused to recognize the change.

Google confirmed on Shabbos that it is beginning to roll out the new designation after the U.S. Geographic Names Information System formally changed the federal name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

Under Google’s approach, however, the name displayed will depend on where a user is located.

People accessing Google Maps from the United States will see “Lake America.” Users in Canada will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” while people elsewhere in the world will see both names displayed.

Google said the decision follows its established policy of relying on official government geographic databases and using different labels when countries recognize different names for the same geographic feature.

“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, like GNIS, people using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in announcing the change.

The company used a similar approach after Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed the Gulf of America in 2025. U.S. Google Maps users subsequently saw Gulf of America, while Mexican users continued seeing Golfo de México and users elsewhere were shown both names.

MapQuest, however, is taking an entirely different approach.

The veteran American mapping service declared shortly after Trump signed his executive order Thursday that it had no intention of changing its Lake Ontario label.

“We’re not changing it,” MapQuest wrote on X alongside a screenshot of its map continuing to identify the Great Lake as Lake Ontario.

The terse response went viral, attracting millions of views and giving the mapping service — once a dominant name in online directions before the rise of Google Maps and smartphone navigation — an unusual burst of attention.

MapQuest then went further, creating an online name generator allowing users to substitute virtually any name they wanted for Lake Ontario on a mock map.

“We’re not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure,” MapQuest wrote.

The company demonstrated the feature by producing its own tongue-in-cheek alternative: “Lake Are We Doing This Again?”

MapQuest’s refusal is consistent with its handling of Trump’s earlier Gulf of America order. The service also declined to replace Gulf of Mexico with Gulf of America and instead offered users a similar tool for inventing their own names.

Trump formally signed the Lake America executive order on Thursday, escalating a bitter dispute with Canada following the collapse of trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” Trump said before signing the order.

The executive order directs the Interior Department and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to replace Lake Ontario with Lake America throughout the federal government. It calls for the Geographic Names Information System to be updated and for federal agencies to use the new designation on maps, contracts, documents and official communications.

In explaining the decision, the White House pointed to the lake’s importance to American commerce, defense and history, as well as the United States’ financial and logistical contributions to maintaining the Great Lakes.

Trump has argued that the United States bears a disproportionate share of the responsibility for the Great Lakes system, noting that the U.S. Coast Guard operates nine of the 11 icebreaking vessels serving the Great Lakes and that Washington has invested billions of dollars in protecting the freshwater ecosystem.

The order applies to the U.S. federal government and cannot require Canada to change its designation for the shared body of water. Canada has made clear that it will continue calling it Lake Ontario.

The dispute has quickly spread well beyond maps.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a massive sign near Grimsby on Saturday reading “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected Trump’s change and emphasized that the Ontario name has Indigenous origins dating back centuries.

The Seneca Nation has also called on Trump to rescind the executive order, arguing that the move disregards Indigenous history and the longstanding relationship between Native nations and the United States.

The naming battle comes as relations between the United States and Canada have deteriorated sharply amid an escalating trade war. Trump and Canadian leaders have exchanged increasingly pointed criticism following failed negotiations and the imposition of steep tariffs.

Trump has shown no sign of backing away from his latest geographic rebranding effort. During Thursday’s signing ceremony, after previously changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, the president even floated the possibility of turning his attention to a much larger body of water.

“Now all we need is an ocean,” Trump said.

For millions of Americans opening Google Maps, meanwhile, Trump’s latest name change is becoming more than an executive order on paper: Lake America is beginning to appear on their screens. MapQuest users will continue seeing Lake Ontario.

{Matzav.com}

Walmart has agreed to a $50 million settlement with the Justice Department over allegations that its pharmacies improperly filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances, conduct that federal authorities say contributed to the nation’s opioid epidemic.

The agreement brings an end to a federal lawsuit dating back to 2020, in which the government alleged that Walmart pharmacies failed to alert the Drug Enforcement Administration to suspicious prescription activity.

Federal prosecutors accused Walmart’s compliance operation of allowing pharmacies to continue filling invalid prescriptions from medical providers allegedly operating as “pill mills,” despite warnings and concerns raised by the company’s own pharmacists.

“Over an approximately four-year period, a time during which Walmart shipped an estimated 37.5 million controlled-substance orders to its pharmacies, it reported only 204 suspicious orders to D.E.A. — in other words, almost none,” according to court documents.

Beyond the $50 million payment, the settlement requires Walmart to implement additional measures aimed at identifying potentially unlawful distribution of controlled substances. The retailer will establish a hotline allowing employees and patients to report suspected improper dispensing, increase monitoring of dispensing patterns at its pharmacies, and create a process for reviewing doctors suspected of improperly prescribing controlled substances.

“This $50 million settlement makes clear that pharmacies have a responsibility to identify and prevent the unlawful dispensing of controlled substances,” DEA assistant administrator Cheri Oz said in a statement. “Filling illegitimate opioid prescriptions puts patients and communities at risk and undermines the safeguards designed to prevent the diversion and misuse of potentially addictive medications.”

Oz said the agreement is intended both to resolve allegations involving Walmart’s previous practices and to impose safeguards aimed at preventing similar problems in the future.

Oz added, “This settlement addresses past conduct while establishing clear compliance obligations designed to strengthen safeguards and help prevent these failures from happening again.”

The agreement marks the latest major opioid-related legal settlement involving Walmart, the world’s largest retail chain.

In 2022, Walmart agreed to pay $1.3 billion to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed by states accusing the company’s pharmacies of helping fuel the opioid epidemic through their handling of prescriptions.

Walmart is one of several major pharmacy chains and retailers to reach large settlements over opioid prescriptions. Kroger, for example, agreed in 2023 to pay $1.2 billion to state and local governments to settle claims concerning its prescription practices.

The opioid epidemic has taken a massive toll in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 806,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription drugs between 1999 and 2023.

{Matzav.com}

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said Friday that President Trump should be immediately removed from office if he is actively considering the first use of nuclear weapons, arguing that merely contemplating such a move should render any president unfit to serve.

“The second any president actively considers the first use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately, because that’s got to be the red line, destroying all of humanity with a nuclear strike,” Carlson said.

Carlson delivered the sharp criticism during a discussion with Joe Kent, who previously served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center before resigning earlier this year over his opposition to the war with Iran.

Pointing to his own opposition to both attempts to impeach Trump during the president’s first term, Carlson questioned why an effort to remove a president would not be justified if that president were actually considering launching a nuclear weapon first.

“Why isn’t there an attempt to remove him from office, like, immediately?” Carlson said. “Anyone who would even tolerate that kind of talk from any of his subordinates or employees is by definition unfit.”

Trump has not publicly stated that he is considering a first-use nuclear strike.

Carlson’s remarks come amid his increasingly vocal criticism of the Trump administration’s policies toward Iran, as well as concerns he has raised about the nuclear strategy currently being developed at the Pentagon.

Earlier in August, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said during a conference that officials are working to provide the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with “credible, rational nuclear options.”

Kent said during his conversation with Carlson that he fears the administration could consider increasingly drastic measures if conventional military action fails to achieve Trump’s objectives in Iran.

“I think we would be fools to think that this couldn’t happen here in this current scenario, especially as the administration scrambles for a way out,” he said.

The comments are the latest sign of the widening divide between Carlson and Trump over American foreign policy. Carlson, who was previously a prominent ally of Trump and the MAGA movement, has become an outspoken critic of the war with Iran.

Trump, in turn, has increasingly attacked Carlson publicly.

Last week, Trump blasted Carlson on Truth Social, calling him a “loser” after Carlson met with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

{Matzav.com}

Ontario Premier Doug Ford escalated Canada’s pushback against President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario on Saturday, unveiling a huge shoreline sign proclaiming, “Lake Ontario. Now and Always,” as Canadian political leaders increasingly turned to ridicule in responding to the president’s decree.

Ford, wearing a Team Canada soccer jersey, presented the enormous sign near Grimsby, Ontario, and posed alongside it for photographs. The billboard measures 24 feet across and 12 feet high and is mounted on 6-foot supports, placing its top approximately 18 feet above ground level. The declaration is displayed in French as well.

The sign was erected following Trump’s executive order directing U.S. federal agencies to use the name “Lake America” for Lake Ontario. The dispute is the latest source of friction between Washington and Ottawa following months of tariffs, Trump’s calls for Canada to become the 51st state and increasingly heated personal attacks between officials in the two countries.

Ford suggested that Trump had targeted the lake’s name because Ontario and the Canadian government had been willing to challenge Washington. He predicted that the Lake Ontario name would remain long after the current dispute had ended.

“Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said in a video posted on social media.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew joined the chorus of Canadian officials mocking the president, likening Trump’s latest renaming effort to an aging rock group trying to recreate the success of an old song.

“You know when a rock band is really over the hill and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago. I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now, Like he thought they had a real hit, a real golden oldie, with the Gulf of Mexico,” Kinew said, referring to Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “And he’s trying to bring back that, and he’s trying to play the hits for his base. But I think everybody here thinks it’s a little sad and it’s not his best work.”

Some of the most biting criticism came from outside Canada’s political establishment, including historian Robert Bothwell.

“The greatest country on earth takes this moron seriously?” Bothwell said.

Despite his mockery, Bothwell maintained that Trump’s actions toward Canada carry more serious implications than the fight over the lake’s name might suggest. He argued that the president ultimately wants “to subordinate Canada and at best make it a colony, at worst absorb it into the United States.”

University of Toronto professor emeritus Nelson Wiseman similarly characterized the dispute as part of a larger struggle over Canada’s relationship with the United States.

Wiseman said Trump “would like Canada to act like a vassal state, but it refuses to do so. That irritates him.”

The fight comes against the backdrop of a rapidly worsening trade relationship between the neighboring countries. U.S.-Canada negotiations collapsed last week, with officials from both governments accusing the other side of introducing new demands late in the talks. Ottawa has since announced retaliatory tariffs that are expected to take effect next month.

The Lake America order has also become part of an increasingly bitter personal exchange between Trump and Ford. During an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Ford invoked President Ronald Reagan while criticizing Trump’s approach to tariffs.

Ford said Reagan would be “throwing up” over the tariffs and would be “disgusted with President Trump.”

Trump responded with attacks of his own, characterizing Ford’s criticism as “bluster” and calling the Ontario premier a “flunky” of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The president also mocked Ford as the “less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother” of the late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

Trump showed no indication Saturday that he was backing away from the Lake America designation. He reposted a meme depicting Canada geese with Trump-like blond hairstyles carrying rifles as they “protected” Lake America.

The president has repeatedly used geographic names and maps to make political statements. A map labeled “Gulf of America” was displayed for a time near the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, while Trump has posted other images depicting Canada as part of the United States or as its 51st state.

The name Lake Ontario, meanwhile, dates back centuries and has Indigenous origins. It comes from the Huron word “oniatarí:io,” meaning “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario, established in 1867, was itself named for the lake.

Wendat Nation Grand Chief Pierre Picard, whose people historically lived across territory stretching from the St. Lawrence Valley to the Great Lakes and whose language is the source of the lake’s name, accused Trump of seeking to wipe away Indigenous history.

“I want to tell him that it is unacceptable for us, as a nation, to have a president who can eradicate our history, our culture and our identity,” Picard said.

Carney has likewise refused to recognize Trump’s new designation, emphasizing the Indigenous history of the Lake Ontario name and pointing out that it predates both the establishment of Canada as a confederation and the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

While Trump’s executive order can determine the terminology used by U.S. federal agencies, the president has no authority to require Canada to abandon the Lake Ontario name or adopt “Lake America.”

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reversed controversial guidance Friday that had instructed its journalists not to directly describe the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as terrorism, backing away from the policy after it drew sharp condemnation from political and U.S. officials.

The controversy erupted after an internal CBC memo, first reported by the Toronto Sun, revealed that Basem Boshra, the broadcaster’s senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, had directed employees to “not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

FBI Director Kash Patel criticized the CBC directive on Wednesday and called on other officials to speak out against it as well.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra also denounced the guidance in a social media post Friday morning, just hours before CBC announced that it was changing the policy.

“Just this year, @FBI has been instrumental in or directly responsible for multiple disruptions of significant terrorist and violent criminal organizations operating within Canada,” Hoekstra said. “Failure to recognize and confront radical and terrorist ideologies significantly endangers our efforts to establish and harmonize a shared national and economic security partnership.”

Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, joined the criticism, publicly calling on CBC to “immediately apologize and retract this directive.”

“To call 9/11 anything other than a terrorist attack is an appalling distortion of history,” Poilievre wrote. “It dishonours the victims and their families, the survivors, and the first responders who suffered from the horrors of that day.”

The criticism was particularly intense because the guidance emerged shortly before the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, in which Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes and killed nearly 3,000 people in attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard United Airlines Flight 93.

Amid the mounting backlash, Boshra announced Friday that CBC was revising its policy and would no longer require journalists to attribute the characterization of the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorism to another source.

Boshra explained that CBC’s general journalistic practice has been to attribute terms such as “terrorist” and “terrorism” to sources rather than independently applying those labels to people or events.

“After reviewing our current language guidance, we have decided to adjust it to clarify that direct attribution is not required for describing the historic events of 9/11 as terrorism,” Boshra wrote. “We are doing so to remove what has unfortunately (and unintentionally) become an impediment to clarity and public understanding.”

The dispute over CBC’s terminology comes during an already contentious period in relations between Canada and the United States, with the neighboring countries locked in an escalating trade battle involving sweeping tariffs.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently announced that Canada would retaliate against President Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian goods “dollar for dollar.”

Trump responded by threatening further import tariffs against Canada as tensions between Washington and Ottawa continued to rise.

The president also escalated his confrontation with Canada this week by signing an executive order changing the U.S. designation of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” adding another flashpoint to the increasingly strained relationship between the two countries.

{Matzav.com}

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed apologized for his response to an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this year, acknowledging that he should have unequivocally condemned the incident rather than attempting to place the violence in a broader context.

“I made a mistake,” El-Sayed said during an appearance before the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus at the state party’s convention in Lansing on Shabbos. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.”

El-Sayed was addressing the controversy surrounding comments he made following the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Authorities said a man deliberately drove a truck into the synagogue and injured a security guard in an attack intended to target Jews.

In his original reaction to the incident, El-Sayed said there was “never a justification for attacking innocent people,” while also declaring that “violence is a cycle,” and using the phrase “hurt people hurt people.”

Authorities have said that the alleged attacker, a naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon, had lost relatives in an Israeli attack in Lebanon earlier that month.

Speaking to the group of Jewish Democrats today, El-Sayed said his earlier comments were intended to provide a wider context for what had occurred, but he conceded that the immediate aftermath of the synagogue attack was the wrong time to do so.

“If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was not what I intended.”

The controversy comes as El-Sayed faces continuing questions over his positions on Israel and Gaza and his associations with political commentators who have been sharply critical of Israel.

During the Democratic primary, El-Sayed appeared on the campaign trail with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. El-Sayed subsequently distanced himself from Piker after the commentator’s remarks about American Jews and support for Israel triggered condemnation from several Democratic lawmakers.

Piker had suggested that if American Jews continued advancing the idea that they are “singularly invested in Israel,” someone might eventually “take action” against American Jews.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) denounced Piker’s comments as “dangerous and antisemitic.”

El-Sayed, meanwhile, has said he has “no plans” to campaign with Piker during the general election as he seeks to reassure Jewish voters ahead of November.

{Matzav.com}

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Nearly three decades after the passing of the Divrei Emunah of Toldos Aharon, a collection of approximately 100 rare and valuable seforim from his personal library has resurfaced and was transferred this week to the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe, marking a dramatic development in an inheritance matter that has remained unresolved since the Rebbe’s passing.

The collection, which had apparently never been distributed among the Divrei Emunah’s sons, was brought to the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe on Thursday so that he could personally examine the seforim.

The discovery has generated considerable interest within the Toldos chassidic communities, which divided following the passing of the Divrei Emunah approximately 29 years ago.

According to attorney Reb Aharon Feigel, who has been appointed by the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe to handle the matter, the collection contains valuable seforim whose existence was previously unknown and which did not appear on the lists prepared when the inheritance was originally divided.

Behadrei Chareidim reported that the items are part of the Divrei Emunah’s estate and, under the terms of his will, may not be used by anyone else. They have now been brought to the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe for his review.

The discovery is particularly significant because the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe had maintained for years that additional seforim belonging to his father existed but were missing from the inheritance records.

Feigel said that of the approximately 100 seforim in the newly surfaced collection, only three had previously been known to the heirs and included on the original lists.

Those three seforim had remained undivided because of their substantial value. Their worth made a straightforward physical division among the heirs impossible, while the heirs had refrained from selling them and dividing the proceeds.

The much larger collection has now been examined, and a determination will be made regarding how the inheritance should be divided among the Divrei Emunah’s sons: the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe, the Toldos Aharon Rebbe, the Mevakshei Emunah Rebbe, the Nachlas Aharon Rebbe, and Rav Moshe Kahn, rosh yeshiva of Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok.

Feigel described an emotional scene as the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe encountered the seforim again after so many years.

According to Feigel, the Rebbe spent hours going through the collection, and his tremendous emotion and joy were readily apparent. He recognized the seforim individually from his youth, when he spent days and nights immersed in Torah and avodah in the room of his father, the Divrei Emunah.

The approximately 100 seforim may not be the final items from the Divrei Emunah’s estate to resurface.

Feigel said he recently learned of the existence of several additional valuable manuscripts connected to the estate. He is now working to have those manuscripts brought to the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe as well, so they can be examined and ultimately included in the division among the heirs.

The remarkable development comes nearly 30 years after the Divrei Emunah’s passing and the subsequent division within Toldos Aharon, bringing back into the hands of his children seforim that had been part of their father’s world and, for decades, had effectively disappeared from the inheritance record.

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Sources say that some admorim and roshei yeshiva in the United States have been invited to a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House this week, with the future of Orthodox Jewish education and other communal concerns expected to be raised.

Several details now circulating — including the full list of participants — have not been independently confirmed. There has also been no public announcement from the White House confirming the meeting as of today.

The original report said that information had been received in the United States shortly before Shabbos regarding a planned White House meeting between Trump and leading American Torah and Chassidic figures.

Another source subsequently said that information it had received indicated that the meeting was expected to take place this week.

Both sources identify the same core group of invitees: the Satmar Rebbe, the Skverer Rebbe, the Bobover Rebbe, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Monsey, and Rav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler. The meeting is reportedly being planned for Thursday.

Sources say that the delegation will use the alleged meeting to express hakaras hatov to Trump for his administration’s support of the Orthodox Jewish community and its institutions.

That stated agenda is consistent with issues that the Trump administration has publicly made a priority. The White House says its religious-liberty agenda specifically includes parental rights in religious education, school choice and institutional autonomy, and Trump established both a White House Faith Office and a Religious Liberty Commission after returning to office.

There is also substantial precedent for contacts between Trump and many of the Chareidi communities whose leaders are reportedly involved.

In April, Trump personally hosted a group of frum communal representatives at the White House for a Pesach gathering. Those present included representatives of Satmar and Skver, Agudath Israel representative Reb Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Yehuda Kaploun, and Tzedek Association founder Reb Moshe Margaretten. New Square Mayor Yisroel Meir Spitzer attended and conveyed greetings to Trump from the Skverer Rebbe.

Trump also sent a personal letter to the Skverer Rebbe in August 2025 on the occasion of the wedding of the Rebbe’s great-grandchild. The letter was presented to the Rebbe by New Square Mayor Spitzer and other Chareidi activists with ties to the administration.

The relationship between the rabbinic leaders named in the current report and Trump goes back considerably further. In 2020, a letter thanking Trump for his defense of religious liberty was signed by an array of leading American admorim and roshei yeshiva, including both Satmar Rebbes, the Skverer Rebbe, the Bobover Rebbe, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Monsey and others.

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rav Yehoshua Safrin zt”l, the Komarna Rebbe of Manhattan, a scion of the illustrious Komarna dynasty and the son of the Komarna Rebbe, Rav Chaim Yaakov Safrin zt”l.

The Rebbe was niftar over Shabbos, leaving behind a family and a legacy deeply rooted in the extraordinary Torah and chassidic heritage of Komarna.

Rav Chaim Yaakov Safrin served as the Komarna Rebbe in New York and later in Yerushalayim and was considered one of the outstanding mekubalim and talmidei chachomim of his generation. Rav Chaim Yaakov was renowned for his mastery of both nigleh and nistar. The Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum zt”l, is reported to have described him as unique in his generation in the realm of remez.

Rav Chaim Yaakov, born in 1891, was a descendant of the great Komarna dynasty and became one of its principal surviving leaders in the aftermath of the Holocaust, when much of the dynasty and its leadership had been destroyed. Survivors of Komarna looked to him to continue the mesorah of the famed chassidus.

The Safrin family had reached America before the Holocaust. Rav Chaim Yaakov recognized the danger developing in Europe and urged others to escape as well. He and his family arrived in the United States in 1938, and his chassidim established Bnei Yaakov Anshei Komarno for him on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

It was within that distinguished family that Rav Yehoshua grew up, surrounded by the distinctive Komarna tradition of intense Torah learning, avodah and the study of Toras hanistar.

The Komarna dynasty traces its roots to Rav Alexander Sender Safrin and, most famously, to his son Rav Yitzchok Eizik Yehuda Yechiel Safrin of Komarna, known as the Heichal Habracha, one of the leading chassidic and kabbalistic figures of the 19th century. The dynasty became particularly renowned for its emphasis on the teachings of Kabbalah and the Zohar alongside nigleh and chassidic avodah.

Rav Yehoshua was one of several sons of Rav Chaim Yaakov who continued the family’s Torah and chassidic legacy. His brothers included Rav Shalom Safrin of Yerushalayim; Rav Nesanel Safrin; Rav Menachem Monish Safrin, who served as the Komarna Rebbe in Bnei Brak; Rav Alter Yitzchok Elimelech Safrin in the United States; and Rav Yissachar Dov Safrin of Bnei Brak.

Rav Yehoshua was the son-in-law of Reb Moshe Menachem Razler zt”l.

In addition to carrying on the Komarna mesorah, Rav Yehoshua played an important role in preserving and publishing the Torah writings of his father.

Rav Yehoshua Safrin was the publisher of works left in manuscript by Rav Chaim Yaakov. Among them was Pri Chaim, containing derushim and chiddushim arranged according to the Alef Bais and based on the four levels of Pardes. Another volume of Pri Chaim contains his father’s writings on Tehillim.

Rav Yehoshua was also involved in bringing his father’s Poras Yosef to print, a collection of 267 teachings organized around Yosef Hatzaddik and the parshiyos of Vayeitzei, Vayishlach, Vayeishev, Mikeitz, Vayigash and Vayechi. The work was preserved in Rav Chaim Yaakov’s own manuscript before being prepared for publication by his son.

These efforts formed part of a larger preservation of Rav Chaim Yaakov’s Torah legacy, which includes works such as Bais Avos, Shabbos Shalom Umevorach, Pri Chaim and Poras Yosef.

Rav Chaim Yaakov eventually left New York for Eretz Yisroel in 1962 and settled in Yerushalayim, where he established his bais medrash in the Geulah neighborhood near Kikar Shabbos. The bais medrash remains active today. He was later buried on Har Hazeisim.

Rav Yehoshua, meanwhile, remained associated with the Komarna presence in New York, carrying the title of Komarna Rebbe in Manhattan and representing another living link to the family’s prewar chassidic heritage.

His passing closes another chapter in an American Komarna story stretching back nearly nine decades, to the arrival of his father and family in New York on the eve of the destruction of European Jewry.

The levayah will take place Sunday, August 30, at 11 a.m. at Shomrei Hadas Chapels, 3803 14th Avenue in Brooklyn.

The family will be sitting shivah in Manhattan.

Yehi zichro baruch.

{Matzav.com}

Senior Sefardi rabbonim are calling on the public to gather outside Israel’s Prison 10 on Sunday night for a major atzeres tefillah and protest following the arrest and imprisonment of Bnei Brak yeshiva bochur Yisroel Guchafi over his military draft status.

Rav Moshe Maya, the senior member of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, and Rav Shlomo Machpud, a member of the Moetzet, issued a joint call urging widespread participation in the gathering outside the Neve Tzedek military prison.

“It is incumbent upon everyone to participate and protest the arrest of talmidei chachomim at the gathering for the honor of Torah,” the rabbonim declared.

The rally is scheduled for Sunday, 17 Elul, at precisely 9 p.m. outside the gates of Prison 10 at the Neve Tzedek military base.

The latest mobilization comes following the arrest of Guchafi, a Bnei Brak yeshiva bochur who was taken into custody and sent to military prison amid the ongoing enforcement campaign against yeshiva students classified by the authorities as draft evaders.

In a letter issued by Rav Machpud and joined by Rav Maya, the rabbonim placed the call under the heading “Lech kenos es kol haYehudim — Go, gather together all the Jews.”

“In light of the degradation of the honor of Torah and the persecution of those who study it, with the arrest of the yeshiva student, the distinguished bochur R’ Yisroel Guchafi of the city of Bnei Brak, who was arrested and sent to prison for the ‘crime’ of toiling in Torah,” the letter states.

The rabbonim said Guchafi’s arrest has now triggered a commitment previously undertaken by Bnei Brak rabbonim during a major gathering held on 14 Tammuz.

At that gathering, the city’s rabbonim declared that if a Bnei Brak yeshiva bochur or kollel yungerman were arrested, they would unite in defense of kavod haTorah and travel to Prison 10.

The new letter quotes that earlier resolution: “If, G-d forbid, one of the yeshiva students or kollel yungeleit from our city is apprehended, we, the rabbis of Bnei Brak, are hereby joined and united to elevate the honor of Torah, to go out to Prison 10 to cry out and daven before Hashem for the annulment of the decree.”

With Guchafi now imprisoned, the rabbonim are calling on the broader public, and Bnei Brak residents in particular, to fulfill that commitment and join Sunday night’s gathering.

The event is being characterized as an atzeres tefillah, public outcry and demonstration of support for Guchafi and his family, amid the broader confrontation over the arrest of yeshiva bochurim and avreichim who have not reported for military service.

Organizers stressed that the gathering is intended to proceed peacefully and in accordance with the instructions of the rabbonim.

“The gathering will take place with Kiddush Hashem, while observing the instructions of the law and with absolute adherence to the guidance of our rabbonim, the Gedolei Hador, and the ushers at the site,” the announcement states.

The letter concludes with a forceful declaration that the community will continue protesting arrests of those engaged in Torah learning.

“The Torah is our life and the length of our days. We will neither rest nor remain silent over the honor of Torah and those who study it.”

{Matzav.com}

A New York appeals court has rejected the latest attempt by the Gabboim of 770 Eastern Parkway to obtain further review in the years-long legal battle involving the iconic Lubavitch headquarters, denying their request to appeal a January 2024 ruling involving Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and Agudas Chasidei Chabad.

The one-page order, entered Thursday, August 28, 2026, by the Appellate Division, Second Department, denied a motion filed by Zalman Lipskier, Avrohom Holtzberg and Shalom Ber Kievman. The three had asked the court for permission to challenge the January 2024 decision issued by the Appellate Term.

The court rejected the request.

Although the latest order is exceedingly brief, it represents another consequential development in litigation that has continued for years over the properties and shul facilities at 770 Eastern Parkway and 784-788 Eastern Parkway.

The scope of the new ruling is important. The Appellate Division was not being asked at this stage to conduct a new review of the underlying ownership dispute or issue a fresh determination regarding who owns the properties.

Instead, the Gabboim were seeking the court’s permission to pursue an additional appeal of the Appellate Term’s January 19, 2024 decision.

In Thursday’s order, the Appellate Division described the application by Lipskier, Holtzberg and Kievman as a motion “for leave to appeal” from the January 19, 2024 decision and order.

Having reviewed the submissions from both sides, the four-justice panel issued a succinct determination: “the motion is denied.”

The ruling therefore means that the Appellate Division will not hear the requested appeal.

Justice Francesca E. Connolly signed the decision, with Justices Linda Christopher, Helen Voutsinas and Laurence L. Love concurring.

The latest ruling is the newest chapter in a complicated legal fight that stretches back nearly two decades.

At the center of the litigation are Agudas Chasidei Chabad, which courts have recognized as the owner of 770 Eastern Parkway; Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the owner of 784-788 Eastern Parkway; and Congregation Lubavitch, Inc., the corporate entity associated with the Gabboim.

The buildings encompass the central Lubavitch shul as well as offices and other facilities. For years, the Gabboim have been involved in the everyday administration of the shul.

The dispute has traveled through several levels of New York’s judicial system, including Supreme Court, the Appellate Division and Civil Court.

In an earlier Supreme Court case, Agudas and Merkos secured an ejectment judgment against Congregation Lubavitch, Inc. involving 770 and 784-788 Eastern Parkway. The court determined that Agudas and Merkos were the respective property owners and were entitled to possession. The Appellate Division later upheld the portion of that judgment ejecting CLI from the properties.

A subsequent phase of the litigation began when Agudas and Merkos initiated summary proceedings seeking possession of their respective premises.

Agudas brought proceedings involving 770 Eastern Parkway, while Merkos pursued proceedings relating to 784-788 Eastern Parkway. Merkos additionally commenced a separate proceeding over office space at 302-304 Kingston Avenue, identified during the litigation as the “Gaboyim-CLI Office.”

After conducting a non-jury trial, the Civil Court issued judgments on January 6, 2022, granting possession to the respective petitioners.

The Gabboim and Congregation Lubavitch appealed those judgments.

That appeal resulted in a January 19, 2024 ruling by the Appellate Term that was considerably more complicated than some accounts of the decision indicated.

The Appellate Term dismissed the cases against several entities that had improperly been named as unincorporated associations and vacated the judgments entered against those entities.

Regarding Congregation Lubavitch, Inc., the court modified the judgments covering 770 and 784-788 Eastern Parkway. It vacated the portions entered against CLI and dismissed those portions of the petitions. The court nevertheless upheld the judgment concerning the office at 302-304 Kingston Avenue.

The reason the proceedings involving CLI and the Eastern Parkway properties were dismissed was largely the doctrine of res judicata, which generally bars parties from relitigating claims that have already received a final judicial determination.

The Appellate Term cited the earlier Supreme Court ejectment litigation, observing that CLI had already been ejected from 770 and 784-788 Eastern Parkway and that the relevant judgment had subsequently been affirmed by the Appellate Division.

Because the question of possession from CLI at those properties had already been adjudicated, the Appellate Term concluded that the later proceedings seeking possession of those same premises from CLI were barred by the previous judgment.

The Kingston Avenue office presented a different situation.

Because the 302-304 Kingston Avenue property had not been included in the earlier ejectment litigation, the Appellate Term found that the proceeding concerning that space was not barred by res judicata. It therefore allowed the judgment regarding that office to stand.

The Appellate Term also turned aside claims that secular courts lacked jurisdiction to resolve the dispute because of its religious dimensions.

The court concluded that questions involving property ownership and possession could be decided through “neutral principles of law,” such as examining deeds, corporate records and bylaws, without requiring judges to rule on matters of religious doctrine.

The Gabboim and CLI subsequently sought another opportunity to challenge the January 2024 decision.

In June 2024, the Appellate Term rejected motions asking it to reconsider its January ruling or, alternatively, to permit an appeal to the Appellate Division.

That denial left another procedural avenue available: asking the Appellate Division directly for permission to hear an appeal.

It was that effort that culminated in Thursday’s decision.

Lipskier, Holtzberg and Kievman asked the Appellate Division for leave to appeal the Appellate Term’s January 19, 2024 ruling.

After reviewing papers submitted in support of and in opposition to their application, the Appellate Division refused to grant permission.

Unlike the extensive January 2024 ruling, Thursday’s order does not reconsider the evidence or analyze the competing arguments regarding ownership, possession, religious questions or the other issues that have surfaced during the litigation.

Its determination is procedural and narrow: the court declined to permit the requested additional appeal.

The practical importance of the decision therefore centers on what remains in place.

The January 2024 Appellate Term ruling continues to govern this particular round of litigation, with the latest effort to secure review by the Appellate Division now unsuccessful.

That decision also exists alongside the earlier Supreme Court and Appellate Division rulings concerning CLI’s ejectment from 770 and 784-788 Eastern Parkway. Indeed, those earlier decisions were the basis for the Appellate Term’s conclusion in 2024 that the subsequent possession claims against CLI were barred by res judicata.

Thursday’s order does not newly rule that the Gabboim must physically leave the shul, nor does it issue a separate determination governing the everyday operation or administration of 770. Its immediate effect is to shut down another attempted route for appellate review of the January 2024 ruling.

Throughout the long-running fight, New York courts have addressed distinct questions involving legal ownership of the properties, the right to possession and the practical administration of the shul — issues that should not be treated as interchangeable.

After years of litigation across multiple courts, the August 28 order marks another significant procedural setback for the Gabboim and further narrows the remaining avenues for challenging the rulings that have shaped the legal battle over 770.