[COMMUNICATED]
Eden Gardens, FL – A new chapter of Torah growth and community development is unfolding in Eden Gardens with the official establishment of the Eden Gardens Kollel and a vibrant celebration marking this milestone.
The newly founded Kollel, led by Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shalom, has brought with it six dedicated families—five Kollel families and the Rosh Kollel’s own—who have settled in Eden Gardens to learn, teach, and strengthen the growing community. These families have arrived from Yerushalayim, Bayswater (Far Rockaway), Flatbush, Lakewood, and Detroit, each bringing their own warmth and commitment to Torah life.
They are: the Bondi, Braun, Levovitz, Tucker, and Winegard families.
Rabbi Shalom, formerly of the Kollel at Yeshivas Bais Yehudah in Detroit, is a gifted young talmid chacham whose leadership and scholarship are already leaving a deep impression. The Kollel learns daily in a brand-new, beautifully refurbished Beis Medrash adjacent to the Eden Gardens Shul, complete with a full seforim library and three daily sedarim. A community Night Seder program offers full- and part-time residents the chance to learn with the Kollel through chavrusa study, shiurim, and special programming.
In addition to his role as leader of the Kollel, Rabbi Shalom will be guiding the community in halachic matters and will oversee the Eden Gardens Mikvah and Eden Gardens Eruv.
The Kollel’s establishment was made possible through the vision and support of Joseph Saka, Eli Steinhardt and family, and Rabbi Gedaliah Zlotowitz alongside a group of passionate Eden Gardens homeowners eager to see the neighborhood flourish as a true Makom Torah.
With the arrival of the Kollel and additional new families, Eden Gardens now boasts close to 20 full-time year-round families and a steady daily minyan, transforming the area into one of Orlando’s most promising centers of Jewish life.
The celebration event drew the entire Eden Gardens community, along with guests from neighboring Orlando communities and beyond. Distinguished rabbanim in attendance included Rabbi Yom Tov Goldberger (Rosh Kollel of the Orlando Community Kollel), Rabbi Menachem Zev Kramer (Rav of the Orlando Torah Center), and Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shalom, who each shared inspiring words about the exponential growth of Torah in the region.
Guests enjoyed a lavish fleishig buffet catered by Eatin’ Gardens—the neighborhood’s own food truck, operated by Shimon Shushan and family—followed by a spirited kumzitz led by Avraham Shmuel Weinschneider and Eliezer Kanner. The Roshei Yeshiva of Orlando Torah Academy—Rabbis Chaim Kazan, Yehuda Schepansky, and Avraham Wachsman—along with Rabbi Naftali Kassorla, Executive Director of the Orlando Community Kollel, also joined in the festivities.
Speakers highlighted how Eden Gardens is “seeding the ground with ruchniyus,” creating a foundation for Torah, family life, and spiritual growth in the heart of Florida.
What began as a dream is now taking root, a real Torah community in the heart of Orlando. With a kosher grocery on premises, and with plans underway for a dedicated 5,000-square-foot shul, men’s and women’s gyms, and a water park currently out for permitting, Eden Gardens continues to evolve as a premier destination for frum family life.
The soon-to-open Eden Gardens Mikvah, which will serve Eden Gardens, Encore, Reunion, Solterra, and the surrounding vacation communities, marks another milestone in this growth. With a strong pipeline of new families preparing to move in, the momentum toward Torah, community, and shared vision continues to build, accelerating the establishment of the Kollel and solidifying Eden Gardens as a thriving Makom Torah in Central Florida.
To learn more about Eden Gardens visit EdenGardensOrlando.com
Thirty bodies of Palestinians were handed over to Gaza on Friday under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire arrangement brokered by the United States, according to officials at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. The hospital confirmed to AFP that “the bodies of 30 Palestinian prisoners were received from the Israeli side as part of the exchange deal.”
As in prior exchanges, the Red Cross served as the intermediary, transporting the bodies from Israeli authorities to the hospital in southern Gaza for identification and burial preparations.
The latest handover followed Hamas’s return of the remains of two Israeli hostages—84-year-old Amiram Cooper and 25-year-old Sahar Baruch—marking the first time in more than a week that the terror group had released the bodies of captives.
Under the terms of the truce, Israel agreed to transfer the remains of fifteen Palestinians for each deceased Israeli hostage returned by Hamas terrorists. With Friday’s delivery, the total number of Palestinian bodies repatriated to Gaza has now reached 225.
So far, Hamas has returned twenty living hostages who were abducted during its brutal October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel—a day when terrorists murdered roughly 1,200 people and dragged 251 others into Gaza.
In addition to living captives, Hamas has begun handing over the bodies of 28 hostages confirmed dead, though the process has been slow and erratic, prompting anger from Israeli officials.
Israel has accused Hamas of intentionally obstructing the deal, alleging that the group already “knows the location of the vast majority, or even all, of the remaining bodies of hostages, and is purposely stalling and staging fake discoveries of bodies.”
Earlier this week, tensions escalated when the IDF carried out a wave of strikes across Gaza after a soldier was killed in Rafah and Hamas publicized a video of what Israel described as a staged recovery of the remains of Ofir Tzarfati, whose body had actually been retrieved months earlier.
Health authorities in Gaza reported that more than 100 people were killed in the Israeli strikes. By Wednesday morning, Israel announced that the ceasefire had been reinstated.
According to Israeli assessments, ten of the October 7 hostages’ bodies are still believed to be held in Gaza, along with one individual missing since 2014. Of those, all but two—one Tanzanian and one Thai national—are Israeli citizens.
To date, Hamas has handed over fifteen bodies identified as Israeli hostages, as well as two foreign nationals, one from Thailand and one from Nepal, who were also seized during the October 7 rampage.
While Israeli officials continue to accuse Hamas of breaching the ceasefire terms, families of the remaining hostages have been pressing the government to take firmer action to compel compliance.
Hamas has publicly claimed it remains committed to the truce but says the extensive destruction from two years of Israeli bombardment has made locating the remaining bodies extremely difficult.
Meanwhile, Egyptian recovery teams equipped with heavy machinery have joined efforts to search for additional remains amid the devastation across Gaza.
{Matzav.com}
Israeli security forces have uncovered a chilling case involving a 14-year-old boy from Yaffo accused of cooperating with terrorist groups and plotting attacks within the country. The teenager, who was allegedly in contact with members of ISIS and Hamas, was arrested in Ramallah about two weeks ago during a coordinated operation conducted by the Shin Bet and Tel Aviv police.
According to the indictment, the minor allegedly served a foreign terror organization by performing a series of intelligence-gathering missions aimed at harming Israel’s national security. The youth is said to have filmed and transmitted images and videos of Israeli sites and buildings—including those tied to the nation’s security apparatus—to terrorist groups abroad.
Interrogators revealed that the boy openly stated his desire to become a “shahid” (martyr) and attack Israeli targets. He even described early efforts to assemble explosive devices, though authorities did not specify whether he had obtained materials.
Throughout the course of the investigation, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court imposed a strict gag order to protect operational details and extended the suspect’s detention multiple times. Once the order was lifted, officials confirmed that investigators had extracted numerous digital files from his phone that substantiated the suspicions against him.
The police issued a sharp warning to the public following the case, cautioning that “Hostile terror and intelligence groups continue to try to recruit Israeli citizens, including through social media, to carry out espionage and terror tasks inside Israel. We call on the public to avoid any contact with foreign operatives and to report any suspicious communications.”
{Matzav.com}
WATCH:
New York City mayoral hopeful Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani sought to clarify a controversial remark he made two years ago, explaining that his statement about the NYPD’s “boot being laced by the IDF” referred to past training programs between the two forces—not ongoing collaboration.
During an interview on CNN’s AC360 Thursday night, host Anderson Cooper played a clip of Mamdani’s 2023 comments, in which he said, “I think that, for anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them hyper-local. We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF. We have to make, not specifically that example all the time, but just to say that, for working-class people who have very little time, who have so many stresses, who are under so many pressures, there isn’t that much time for symbolism. We have to make it materially connected to their life.”
Cooper then pressed him to explain what he meant by the statement, asking, “What does that mean? That was just two years ago, what does that mean that the boots of the NYPD have been laced by the IDF?”
Mamdani replied, “It was a reference to training exercises that have taken place between the NYPD and the IDF. And I’ve spoken, again –.”
Cooper interrupted with a follow-up question: “So, do you still believe that the NYPD is basically working hand in glove with the IDF?”
Mamdani responded, “No, what I’ve made very clear is those are training exercises that were a concern to me. And what my focus is, is on working with the NYPD to actually deliver public safety for New Yorkers across the five boroughs. And I’ve made the decision to retain Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch because of her record in being able to deliver that safety, reducing crime across the five boroughs.”
{Matzav.com}
In a Thursday night appearance on CNN’s AC360, New York City mayoral contender Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani made it clear that, if elected, he would prevent the NYPD from collaborating with federal agencies on civil immigration enforcement. He argued that the department’s job is to focus on the city’s own issues rather than carry out federal directives.
Host Anderson Cooper pressed him on the subject, asking, “So, what do you do if he decides to — we already saw there was an ICE action on Canal Street. They said they were targeting undocumented immigrants who were selling counterfeit bags, which, on Canal Street, is kind of — there’s a long history of that, obviously. What do you do?”
Mamdani was quick to respond. “I think this is an example of what is unacceptable in this country. I think the first thing that you do is you close the door that Eric Adams opened to the NYPD doing civil immigration enforcement. He said that on national television. The second thing you do –.”
Before he could continue, Cooper interjected with a pointed question: “So, you would not allow the New York Police Department to engage or to cooperate with ICE or DHS?”
Mamdani replied decisively, “Not in civil immigration enforcement. We have sanctuary city laws where we’ve made very, very clear that, for a set of serious crimes, there is coordination with the federal administration. But anything beyond that, beyond that, I think, 172 crimes that are listed, that is something for the NYPD to focus on purely right here in New York City.”
Mamdani’s remarks drew a sharp line between federal immigration enforcement and local policing, underscoring his belief that New York’s sanctuary city policies should remain firm. By closing what he called the “door” opened by Mayor Eric Adams, Mamdani said he would return the NYPD’s priorities to serving New Yorkers exclusively — not acting as an arm of federal immigration authorities.
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