Dear Matzav Inbox,
I watched the Let’s Talk Kashrus episode about party planners, and honestly, I walked away boiling.
My name is Sarah. I’m a party planner. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I’m not here to argue. I’m not here to defend myself or dodge questions. There is always room to improve. Fine. But if we’re finally talking about kashrus, then let’s actually talk about it — not dance around the elephant in the room.
Because here’s the reality everyone seems very comfortable ignoring.
There is a non-Jewish party planner operating openly in Lakewood, and Lakewood is giving it a blind eye. This isn’t a rumor. This isn’t new. This has been going on for years. I personally have raised this issue with people again and again. And again. And again. Nothing.
Let’s be clear about what this means.
She comes on Shabbos.
We don’t know who is putting the food into the warmers.
We don’t know where the knives come from.
We don’t know where the food is ordered from.
We don’t know what standards — if any — are being followed.
And everyone is just… eating.
People like to whisper, “Oh, she’s cheaper.” She’s not. Anyone who actually knows the industry knows that. Put that aside anyway. Even if she were cheaper, is that now the new bar for kashrus?
Why do we always wait for the explosion?
Why do we wait until there’s a massive scandal, headlines screaming, people discovering they’ve been eating non-kosher, and suddenly everyone clutching their pearls saying, “How could this have happened?”
How could it have happened?
Because it was happening in plain sight, and nobody wanted to deal with it.
Before we start lecturing Jewish party planners about certifications and requirements — a conversation I’m not running from — maybe someone should explain why half of Lakewood is perfectly comfortable trusting a non-Jew with kashrus with no transparency, no accountability, and no oversight.
Before you point fingers at us, answer that.
The rest of the party planners know about this. We’re not quiet about it. We’re raising the roof. And still — silence.
Personally? Before I go to a party, I ask who the planner is. I ask about the kashrus. I don’t just walk in and eat. Do other people do that? Or do they assume that if it looks nice and smells good, it must be fine?
That’s not kashrus.
If we’re serious about standards, then let’s be serious across the board — not selectively, not conveniently, and not only when it’s uncomfortable for the people actually trying to do things right.
We don’t need another scandal to wake up.
We need honesty.
And we need courage.
A Very Frustrated Party Planner
Lakewood, NJ
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[COMMUNICATED]
Thirty hours old.
That’s how old Chaya’s baby was when they wheeled him into open-heart surgery for the first time.
Thirty hours. Most babies that age are still figuring out how to latch. Her baby was fighting for every breath.
She remembers the weight of him—all six pounds—as they took him from her arms. She remembers the tubes invading his tiny body, machines breathing for him because his own heart couldn’t do the job it was created to do. She remembers medical words she couldn’t pronounce: Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia.
She remembers thinking: This cannot be how his story ends.
Not one, but four surgeries. Four times they opened his chest. Four times they stopped his heart to fix it. Four times she sat in a waiting room, bargaining with Hashem, making promises she didn’t know if she could keep.
That’s the chapter families never plan to write. Kapitel Lev.
The chapter where your entire world shrinks to the size of a heartbeat. Where you learn to read monitors before you learn your baby’s smile. Where “making it through the night” isn’t a figure of speech—it’s a prayer you whisper every single hour.
And in those moments—when you’re more alone than you’ve ever been, surrounded by machines and strangers in a hospital 100 miles from home—Yameitz Libecha walks in and says: You’re not doing this alone.
They’re there in the NICU at 2 AM. They’re fighting with insurance companies for treatments that cost more than most people’s homes. They’re finding the one surgeon in Boston who can do the impossible surgery everyone else said couldn’t be done. They’re delivering hot meals. Arranging Shabbos. Holding your hand. Holding your family together.
They’re the promise Chaya made twenty-two years ago, come to life.
That baby who was thirty hours old when his heart was first opened? He’s 22 now. Thriving. Living. Beating the odds.
Because someone refused to let his story end.
Every tiny heart deserves a fighting chance.
Will you help write the next chapter?
Yameitz Libecha needs your donation to continue helping those families
A central segment of the long-awaited upgrade to Route 60, the main artery linking Gush Etzion with Yerushalayim, has opened to traffic eight months earlier than planned, a move expected to significantly ease chronic congestion along the heavily traveled corridor.
The project, led by Israel’s Ministry of Transport and carried out by the state infrastructure company Moriah, is advancing at an accelerated pace. Additional sections of the road are scheduled to open over the coming weeks, further improving traffic flow and driving safety in the area.
Route 60, which serves as a sensitive and vital gateway into and out of Yerushalayim, is undergoing a comprehensive overhaul as part of the project. The road is being expanded from a single lane in each direction into a divided highway with two lanes each way. The upgrade is designed to accommodate growing traffic volumes, enhance safety standards, and substantially reduce travel times for commuters and residents.
At this stage, the stretch between Husan and the Shayarot Junction has been completed and opened to traffic, featuring two lanes in each direction. Officials say the opening of this segment has already led to noticeable improvements, including smoother traffic flow, reduced bottlenecks, and a higher level of road safety. Remaining segments of the project are expected to be opened gradually over the next two weeks.
Later this year, an interchange at the Shayarot Junction area is slated to open, including new underground passages. This phase is expected to complete the transportation upgrade along the route and allow for continuous, safer, and more convenient travel.
Once the project is fully completed, residents of Gush Etzion and surrounding communities—including Efrat, Kiryat Arba, and nearby localities—are expected to benefit from a modernized and safer roadway, offering a faster and more reliable connection to Yerushalayim and better suited to the region’s growing transportation needs.
{Matzav.com}
Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political worldview and alleged sympathy for Islamic extremism explain the decision to roll back a long-standing policy aimed at protecting homeless individuals during dangerously cold weather.
Appearing on Newsmax’s “Ed Henry The Big Take,” Giuliani sharply criticized Mamdani’s beliefs, arguing they reflect an indifference to human life. “Communists have no regard for human life,” Giuliani said.
“Neither do Islamic extremist supporters. He’s both — he’s like a double vector,” he continued.
Giuliani went on to draw a broader historical comparison. “There’s no group of people that have less regard for human life over the last 150 years than the followers of Karl Marx,” he said. “The only group that might equal that is the last 1,400 years of the strict followers of Muhammad.”
According to Giuliani, the overturned rule was an emergency safeguard that had been in place for decades, allowing city officials to suspend normal restrictions and require homeless individuals to enter shelters when temperatures dropped to dangerous levels.
“He reversed a policy of New York City that started before me, continued with me, and continued to him,” Giuliani said.
“It’s a policy that says if you get near freezing, then all these rules about you can’t force the homeless to go into a shelter are over. You can force them to go into a shelter.”
Giuliani’s comments came as the city was still dealing with the deadly impact of Winter Storm Fern, which he noted resulted in the deaths of 16 homeless individuals amid brutal cold conditions.
Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, has openly advocated for a larger government role in areas such as housing, healthcare, and economic policy.
He won election in November after campaigning on a platform centered on expanded public spending, broader city-managed services, and increased government involvement in the economy.
Giuliani also accused Mamdani of aligning himself with extremist organizations and hostile foreign actors, saying the evidence was clear. “He’s very favorable to Hamas,” Giuliani said, referencing the Gaza-based terrorist group. “They’ve only killed hundreds of thousands of people.
“Very favorable to Iran,” he added. “His father was a big supporter of all of them.
“He can’t fool anybody that he isn’t a supporter.”
{Matzav.com}
