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Officials in Skokie, Illinois, have extended the automatic pedestrian crossing time at a major intersection on Shabbos, addressing a safety concern for Orthodox residents who do not press electronic crossing buttons on Shabbos.

Mayor Ann Tennes said she became aware of the problem after visiting a shul last fall and seeing firsthand the difficulty Orthodox pedestrians faced when trying to cross the busy intersection. Without activation of the pedestrian button, the signal eventually allowed people to cross, but provided considerably less time.

“Without someone pressing the button, it will eventually go to a walk signal, but it’s a shorter walk signal—not as long of a walk signal as when the button is activated,” she told JNS.

Tennes said the shorter interval was particularly difficult for families, elderly residents and others who could not move quickly through the intersection.

“There were people trying to cross pushing wheelchairs and with small children, and it was difficult,” she said. “They just didn’t have enough time.”

After becoming mayor in April 2025, Tennes made addressing the crossing time one of her priorities. The intersection is located along Dempster Street, which she described as a “major thoroughfare” and which is near several shuls.

The modification has now been implemented. Ordinarily, pedestrians who do not press the crossing button receive approximately 30 to 40 seconds to cross the large intersection. During the automatic Shabbos cycle, however, pedestrians will now receive between 60 and 65 seconds.

According to Tennes, the village manager informed her that Skokie officials had discussed the issue with the Illinois Department of Transportation on several occasions in previous years, but those efforts had failed to produce a solution.

“There was just never a change, modification to the system at that particular intersection that was acceptable to the Illinois Department of Transportation that was also acceptable to the leaders of the Jewish community in terms of what types of activity were allowed on the Sabbath,” she told JNS.

When Tennes took office, she said she decided to approach the longstanding issue with “fresh eyes” and search for a solution that could satisfy both safety requirements and the religious needs of the community.

The approach that appeared most practical, she said, was to have the full pedestrian crossing signal operate automatically from late Friday afternoon through early Saturday evening, eliminating the need for Shabbos-observant pedestrians to activate the button.

“We were able to get to the right people at the Illinois Department of Transportation, and they made the change in late April,” Tennes said. “It’s been well received by the community. It’s certainly safe.”

“I’m very, very pleased that we persisted and we were able to put this change in for the community,” she said.

For now, the automatic extended crossing time is scheduled specifically for Shabbos. Tennes said it would be “ideal” to eventually have the same system operate on other Yomim Tovim, when Orthodox residents similarly refrain from using the crossing buttons and families, children and elderly residents are walking to and from shul.

Tennes also hopes the accommodation can eventually be introduced at “several other intersections in the community that are proximate to different observant synagogues,” she told JNS.

The pedestrian-signal change comes as Skokie, home to a substantial Jewish population, has also been confronting a series of antisemitic incidents. In April, three incidents, including some involving Jewish children, left members of the community “on edge,” the Chicago Jewish Alliance told JNS at the time.

Tennes acknowledged that the incidents were part of a broader problem the village has been working to address.

“There indeed was a series of hate incidents that included antisemitism in our parks starting last fall that involved children.”

In response, Tennes established the Skokie Faith Leaders Council, which has been working alongside the village’s Human Relations Commission to address antisemitism and other incidents of hate.

“Our public safety has been working with our schools. We have been working with our park district,” she said. “I’ve used my office to convene countless community discussions about how we, as a village, need to come together and address this.”

According to Tennes, combating antisemitism has been the Human Relations Commission’s primary focus since October 2025.

During the summer, the commission organized antisemitism training for local community leaders, with training provided by representatives of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

The village also held a community unity basketball clinic in July for Skokie children between the ages of 10 and 14. The event was held with the Chicago Bulls in cooperation with the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“We’re working on many, many fronts with our community partners to bring the community together,” she told JNS. “Hate has no home in Skokie.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency effort to put new restrictions on mail-in voting into effect ahead of November’s midterm elections, leaving in place a lower-court injunction that prevents the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing the new requirements.

The decision means states can continue using their existing procedures for distributing mail ballots as voting for the 2026 midterms gets underway. The justices declined the administration’s request to lift the injunction, though the order does not amount to a final Supreme Court ruling on the underlying constitutional and legal questions surrounding the policy.

The dispute centers on a new Postal Service rule stemming from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March. Under the plan, states would have been required to provide information about voters receiving mail ballots through a new federal online portal and obtain approval for ballot-envelope designs. The Postal Service had said it would not deliver certain mail ballots from states that failed to comply with the requirements.

The administration argued that the measures were intended to safeguard elections and ensure that mail ballots were sent only to eligible voters. State election officials and voting-rights groups challenged the requirements, arguing that the President and Postal Service lacked the legal authority to impose them and warning that implementing an entirely new system shortly before the election could prevent legitimate ballots from being delivered or counted.

The Supreme Court’s action comes after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Postal Service from enforcing the rules. A federal appeals court subsequently refused the administration’s request to lift that injunction.

The appeals court said the administration had not made a sufficiently strong showing that Talwani was wrong in concluding that the Postal Service rule was likely unlawful.

“Appellants have not made a strong showing that the district court erred in determining that the Final Rule is likely unlawful,” the appeals court wrote.

The court also pointed to warnings from election officials that attempting to introduce the requirements so close to Election Day could create significant disruptions, particularly because some states have already begun distributing mail ballots.

The administration then turned to the Supreme Court, asking the justices on an emergency basis to allow the Postal Service regulations to take effect while litigation over their legality continued. The high court declined that request Monday, keeping the restrictions blocked for now.

The ruling followed another setback for the administration over the weekend. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., a Trump appointee, separately blocked implementation of the Postal Service rule in a different lawsuit.

Nichols concluded that the Postal Service had not been granted authority by Congress to perform key aspects of the proposed ballot-screening system, including creating a database through which states would provide information on voters eligible to receive mail ballots.

He also found that allowing the regulations to take effect posed a risk that legitimate mail ballots would not be counted.

“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, absent an injunction, there is an increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections,” Nichols wrote.

“The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn’t happen.”

The Supreme Court had previously intervened in an earlier phase of the dispute and lifted a block on Trump’s executive order, but that decision was procedural. At the time, the justices concluded that the states challenging the policy had gone to court prematurely because the Postal Service had not yet finalized its regulations. The Court did not decide whether the proposed mail-ballot restrictions themselves were lawful.

After the Postal Service formally issued its rule in August, challengers returned to court, resulting in the new injunctions now at issue.

Monday’s Supreme Court decision therefore does not necessarily end the broader legal fight over the administration’s authority to regulate the handling of mail ballots. For the immediate 2026 election, however, the ruling prevents the Trump administration from implementing the challenged Postal Service restrictions under the injunction currently before the Court.

The decision comes less than two months before the November midterms, which will determine control of Congress, and after mail voting has already begun in several states.

President Donald Trump on Monday renewed his pledge to provide a $5,000 “dividend” to adult Americans if Republicans retain control of Congress in November, using a new Truth Social post to insist that the promised payments will become a reality.

“$5,000 DIVIDEND TO ALL AMERICAN ADULT CITIZENS, IF REPUBLICANS WIN THE MIDTERMS. IT WILL HAPPEN!” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.

The post marked Trump’s latest effort to emphasize a proposal he first unveiled last week at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where he promised a $5,000 payment to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans maintain control of both the House and Senate.

“Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000” if Republicans win both chambers, Trump said at the convention.

Trump has repeatedly doubled down on the pledge in the days since, arguing that the federal government will have sufficient revenue to finance the payments. The President has pointed in particular to tariff revenue and broader economic gains as justification for the proposal, although a detailed funding plan has not yet been released.

The proposed payments would be significantly larger than the $1,776 “Warrior Dividend” provided to approximately 1.45 million members of the U.S. military in December 2025. Trump has cited those payments while promoting his new proposal for the broader American public.

The scale of a nationwide $5,000 payment would be enormous. Census figures indicate that there are roughly 245 million adult U.S. citizens, meaning payments of $5,000 apiece would carry a price tag of approximately $1.2 trillion.

Questions also remain about how the payments would be authorized. Under the Constitution, federal spending generally requires congressional authorization, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has said Congress would have to act on the proposal.

Trump, however, has expressed confidence that the money will be distributed if Republicans prevail in November. His emphatic Truth Social declaration Monday — “IT WILL HAPPEN!” — appeared intended to dispel doubts about whether the proposal was merely an idea floated during his convention speech.

The President has also said that recipients would be required to spend the money inside the United States, though the administration has not explained how such a requirement would operate or be enforced.

Trump has framed the dividend as one of the tangible benefits Americans would receive if Republicans retain their congressional majorities. The proposal has quickly become a prominent element of the political debate surrounding the midterm elections, with questions focusing on its cost, funding and the legislation that would be required to implement it.

For now, Congress has not authorized the payments and the administration has not released a complete legislative or financing plan. But Trump’s message Monday was unequivocal: if Republicans keep Congress, he says adult American citizens will receive $5,000.

Former hostage Sasha Trufanov has opened up about the profound spiritual transformation he experienced during his 498 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, describing how the ordeal led him, a previously secular Israeli, to recognize the presence of Hashem in his life.

Trufanov and his wife, Sapir Cohen, who herself spent 55 days in captivity, spoke about the role that emunah and tefillah came to play in their lives following the October 7 massacre and during their captivity. The couple shared their experiences on the first episode of “Thirsty Souls,” hosted by Eden Harel on Israel’s Channel 14.

Trufanov, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, said that he entered captivity without a religious background. When the life and future he had built for himself were suddenly ripped away, he discovered that he did not possess the tools he needed to cope with his terrifying new reality.

“When I got into the situation of October 7,” he recalled, “I didn’t have the tools to deal with this challenge.”

One of the most difficult moments came after he had already spent months as a hostage. Following what he described as “hell in Khan Yunis,” Trufanov said he was transferred to Rafah, where he was placed inside a small wooden cage surrounded by armed, masked terrorists.

It was precisely under those circumstances, he said, that something within him began to change. Trufanov tried to come to terms with the realization that he had no control over what would happen to him. The only thing he could control was how he responded to the situation in which he had been placed.

“If God gives you this life, then you’ve won,” he recalled telling himself. “If not, that’s your portion. You had 27 good years, a few bad months, overall it’s okay.”

Sapir revealed that even before October 7, their relationship had been going through a difficult period. She had asked Hashem for a sign as to whether Sasha was the man with whom she was meant to build her life.

Then Sasha returned from captivity.

According to Sapir, one of the first things he said after his release stunned her.

“Mom, I know there is a God,” Sasha said.

“It was really among the first sentences,” Sapir recalled. “I said, ‘Wow.’ I sat there and… like, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe this was happening.”

Sasha’s mother later told him that she herself had become religious. Sapir said that she was apprehensive about how Sasha would react to the news, but his response was very different from what she had feared.

“Mom, I’m happy. I’m happy to hear it, you’re on the right path,” he told her.

Sasha’s mother, Yelena, has previously related that while her son was being held captive in Gaza, she, her mother and Sapir accepted upon themselves the observance of Shabbos and additional mitzvos as a zechus for his release.

Following Sasha’s return, Yelena said that her son had come to understand during captivity that his life was not in his own hands, but “only in the hands of the Holy One, Blessed be He.”

Sapir, who was freed after 55 days as a hostage, also described the central place that tefillah assumed in her own life. She said that even before October 7, she had begun to daven as she struggled with difficult feelings. During captivity, she continued to daven every day and repeatedly recited a perek of Tehillim.

“I didn’t even ask to be released tomorrow,” she said. “I asked that I be released at the time that was right for me.”

Sasha’s connection to emunah continued after his release from Gaza. Just one day after returning to Israel, he was photographed putting on tefillin alongside Russia’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar.

He later traveled with Sapir to the Kosel, where the couple participated in a tefillas hoda’ah, giving thanks for his return.

During the visit, Sasha said that after the period he had spent in what he called “the dark tunnels of Gaza,” he could feel the holiness of the Kosel. He also learned of the countless tefillos that had been recited on his behalf during his captivity and appealed to Klal Yisroel to continue davening for the hostages.

Now, as he looks toward the future, Trufanov says that alongside his hopes of building a family and becoming a person who makes a meaningful contribution to the world, he wants to preserve the lessons he learned during the ordeal that transformed his life.

“I have many dreams,” he said. “Some of them are practical, like starting a family, like developing myself and being something meaningful in this world. And some of them are more private, like developing myself, my soul and preserving what I learned.”

“I also truly have a very strong faith that everything will be okay in the end,” he added. “Like, as long as I do my part, everything will work out.”

{Matzav.com}