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HealthSharing began gaining popularity as a way to alleviate the strain of these exorbitant costs. Since the late 1900s, other religious factions have used HealthShares to combat healthcare expenses and to create a medical system in-line with their beliefs. 

The results were enticing:

      – significantly lower healthcare expenses        
      – choice of providers without “out-of-network” limitations
      – no fighting with insurance companies and their bureaucracy 

Slowly, members of our community started joining other religious HealthShares, reaping the benefits they had to offer. 

But there was one catch. 

By definition, HealthShare means a group of people coming together under shared religious beliefs to share in each other’s medical expenses. Shared beliefs are a necessary government regulation for legally recognized HealthShares – and something all members must sign in agreement on. 

The questions emerged. 

Are there halachic ramifications for frum individuals and families joining a Christian-based HealthShare? 

What if there are no alternatives for the frum community? 

United Refuah HealthShare, the first and only Jewish HealthShare, was founded in 2017 by Rabbi Boruch Chaim Manies and other prominent members of the Cleveland community.

There was one goal: to bring affordable healthcare to the frum community – without the questionable halachic and hashkafic participation in non-Jewish HealthShares. 

It has since exploded, saving members an estimated $180 million to date. 

Find out if United Refuah is the right fit for you and your family. 

Limited time offer! Switch from another HealthShare and get your 3rd month of membership free*! Promo Code: Shavuos-Matzav

*applied as a refund. Expires June 1st. New applications only.

[Video below.] Vice President JD Vance sharply rebuked a reporter during Tuesday’s White House press briefing after accusing him of delivering a politically charged monologue instead of asking a straightforward question.

The tense exchange began when Andrew Feinberg of The Independent spent roughly 90 seconds posing a lengthy question alleging that President Donald Trump “seems to be talking up stocks that he owns, selling them, and enriching himself.”

As Feinberg continued his extended setup, Vance interrupted at one point and remarked that it was a “hell of a question.”

When Feinberg finally concluded, Vance immediately criticized the framing of the question.

“Let me answer your question here. That was a doozy,” Vance said. “Before I answer your question, I want to just observe there are different ways to ask a question, okay.”

Vance then accused the reporter of embedding accusations and political commentary into the question itself.

“You can just ask a question, try to get your answer, or you could do like a speech where you say, ‘You know Mr. Vice President… you know you’re a terrible human being and so is the president and so is the entire cabinet,’ and then I’m like ‘What’s your question,’ and then your question is ‘How dare you.’ Come on, man, have a little bit of objectivity in the way that you ask these questions because there were a lot of things in that speech masquerading as a question that didn’t actually get asked,” Vance added.

After criticizing the question, Vance proceeded to respond directly to the substance of Feinberg’s claims.

“Number one, the president doesn’t sit at the Oval Office on his computer on his, like, Robin Hood account, buying and selling stocks, that’s absurd. He has independent wealth advisers who manage his money. He is a wealthy person. He has had success in business,” he said. “He’s not making these stock trades himself, and your question imputes that… It doesn’t say it exactly, but a reasonable person listening to that question would assume the president is sitting around and doing that; he’s not.”

Vance also addressed congressional stock trading and said both he and Trump support banning lawmakers from trading individual stocks while in office.

“Second of all, you’re right, I’m a big fan of banning members of Congress from trading stocks, so is the president of the United States,” he added. “All of us believe that nobody should be taking proprietary information gained from public service and buying and selling stocks… We want to ban that process. And I think the way to lead by example is banning that process, banning that approach, and making it illegal, which is exactly what the president has proposed doing.”

WATCH:

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception at Gracie Mansion, which leading Jewish leaders boycotted, that he planned to add $26 million in funding to prevent hate crimes to his proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year.
Few Jewish government officials or nonprofit leaders attended the reception, which came on the heels of a video that the mayor posted shortly before Shabbos began marking “Nakba” day, which Palestinians say marks the “catastrophe” of the founding of the modern Israeli state.

The mayor’s annual event is usually full of crowds of elected and organizational representatives shmoozing and networking. This year, every major Jewish organization in the city, from the Anti-Defamation League to the Jewish Community Relations Council-N.Y. to the UJA-Federation of New York, declined to attend the reception, which doubled as a dairy-filled gathering ahead of Shavuos.

The mayor, who has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in New York City and whose spokeswoman said that shuls violate international law if they host pro-Israel events, said at the reception that Jews, who comprise about 12% of city residents, are victims of more than 50% of the hate crimes in the Big Apple.

Hate crimes targeting Jews were up 182% in the city in Mamdani’s first month in office. Since then, the New York City Police Department has twice changed the way that it reports hate crimes and has said that such crimes are dropping. The NYPD and the mayor’s office have denied that Mamdani directed the police to change the way it reports such statistics.

Prior to the event, the UJA-Federation of New York said its leaders would not “be attending the Jewish Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage—the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.”

Among those noshing on blintzes and mini-cheesecakes with the mayor this year were representatives of the anti-Zionist groups Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, as well as the liberal group New York New Jewish Agenda, which says that it supports “a democratic vision of Israel.”

Satmar’s Rabbi Moshe Dovid Niederman and Rabbi Moishe Indig, also of Satmar in Williamsburg, were both among the 150 attendees.

The few Jewish elected officials in attendance were former city comptroller Brad Lander, who is now running for Congress and who features Mamdani in his campaign, and two New York City Council members: Lincoln Restler, who represents downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, and Harvey Epstein, who represents Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side.

Irwin Kula, president emeritus of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, gave the evening’s invocation.

“When the Torah was given at Sinai, the rabbis insist not just the generation of the desert, but every generation across all of time stood at that mountain,” Kula said. “Every age. Every class. Every persuasion. In other words, the tradition insists—even those who would one day deeply disagree with one another, who would one day be almost impossible to reach across the divide to, who would wound each other—all stood together at Sinai.”

“So we are all, even now, standing at Sinai. Together. Receiving the same revelation,” he said at the invocation. “Hearing it differently.”

Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council-N.Y., which hosts the Israel parade in Manhattan, in which Mamdani, breaking with decades of mayoral tradition, has said he will not march, did not attend the Gracie Mansion reception. He told the New York Post prior to the event that “it’s a really telling and concerning sign of where things stand in New York City right now.”

Kula told JNS after the reception that he found it to be “filled with hope.”

“One of the striking things was the very different cross-section of Jews who were in the room—liberal-progressive folks rather than mainstream, legacy institutional leadership,” he said.

Kula also told JNS that he found it “ironic, sad and illuminating” that most of New York City’s Jewish leaders boycotted the event. That, he said, “highlights the ongoing collapse of the mainstream, liberal Zionist consensus around which legacy leadership and institutions organized for the past 50 years.”

He closed his invocation with a blessing for the mayor.

“May you be given the continued strength, the emotional depth and the wisdom to hold the complexity of this city, to parse and nuance, with care and precision, the meanings of Zionism, of antisemitism and the inextricable connection of Jewish identity and Palestinian dignity, in ways that open new possibilities of solidarity among all New Yorkers who believe in the infinite value of every human being,” he said. JNS

{Matzav.com}

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin sharply criticized Israel on Tuesday following the interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla, calling the operation “absolutely unacceptable” and pledging to raise the matter before the European Union.

Martin condemned Israel’s actions after Israeli naval forces stopped a convoy of 57 vessels that had departed from Turkey carrying hundreds of anti-Israel activists attempting to challenge the naval blockade surrounding Gaza.

“In the first instance, what happened is absolutely unacceptable and is wrong,” Martin declared, as quoted by the BBC, adding that Ireland intends to elevate the dispute to the “European Union level.”

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris delivered even stronger criticism, accusing Israel of violating international maritime law during the operation.

“My heart goes out to President Connolly and her family, and indeed all of the families of those detained,” Harris stated. “What Israel has done is, in my view, illegal.”

Harris argued that the arrests violated international law and claimed Israel continues to ignore criticism from world leaders.

“unfortunately Israel seems to ignore the condemnation of the international world,” Harris said. “That’s why I think it’s important that we look at the actions that can be taken.”

Among those detained aboard the flotilla was the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. The president said Monday that she was “very proud” of her sister’s participation in the mission.

The flotilla had set sail from Marmaris, Turkey, and consisted of dozens of vessels carrying activists seeking to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday evening that the Israeli Navy had completed the interception operation and taken all activists aboard into custody.

“Another PR flotilla has come to an end. All 430 activists have been transferred to Israeli vessels and are making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Israeli officials dismissed the convoy as a propaganda effort designed to benefit Hamas.

“This flotilla has once again proved to be nothing more than a PR stunt at the service of Hamas,” the statement added.

Israel also reaffirmed that it intends to continue enforcing the maritime blockade around Gaza.

“Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” the statement stressed.

{Matzav.com}

Authorities investigating the deadly shooting attack at a San Diego mosque are examining a disturbing manifesto believed to have been written by the two teenage gunmen before the massacre, according to law enforcement sources.

Investigators are working to determine whether the 75-page document was authored by 17-year-old Cain Clark and 19-year-old Caleb Vasquez prior to the attack that left three people dead before the two suspects turned the guns on themselves.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, the document contains extremist ideology, racial hatred, and repeated calls for societal collapse and violence.

The manifesto reportedly includes Nazi imagery and symbols identical to those seen on Clark during a livestream of the attack, including references to the Black Sun symbol associated with Heinrich Himmler and Atomwaffen, a violent neo-Nazi organization.

Officials described the writings as a chaotic mixture of antisemitic, anti-liberal, anti-Trump, homophobic, and misogynistic rhetoric, driven largely by anger and resentment over the authors’ personal grievances and frustrations.

Law enforcement sources said investigators possess a copy of the manifesto and currently believe it is authentic.

Jennifer Du, who lives across the street from Clark’s Southern California home, said she encountered the teen one day before the shooting.

“It’s been unreal. I saw him literally the day before. He just stood there,” Du, 30, told The California Post.

“I didn’t know if he was watching me or something, but he just got food delivery and went back in.”

Another neighbor, identified only as Marne, said Clark’s family appeared ordinary and recalled frequently seeing the teenager practicing martial arts.

“As far as we knew he was very nice. They were a nice family,” said the neighbor, Marne, 85, who declined to provide her last name.

“We were just flabbergasted,” she added of finding out about the attack. “We thought, ‘Oh my god,’ we couldn’t believe it. Just flabbergasted.”

One section of the document, believed to have been written by Clark, reportedly rejected both left-wing and right-wing politics while expressing hatred toward both sides.

Investigators said Clark allegedly wrote that he identified ideologically with Adolf Hitler and cited notorious mass murderers including Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh, and Anders Breivik as inspirations.

The document also reportedly praised the gunman responsible for the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand, referring to him as “Saint Terrant” and describing that attack as a model for livestreaming mass violence intended to inspire copycat attacks.

Authorities said the writings contained racist and hateful attacks directed at numerous groups, including Muslims and Jews, while describing the authors as “accelerationists” seeking to ignite an “all-out race war” that would lead to societal collapse.

In another portion believed to have been written by Vasquez, he allegedly expressed anguish and humiliation over his height.

Investigators said Clark also wrote that he felt no remorse over the planned attack and indicated that, if he survived, attorneys would deal with the aftermath.

The manifesto further reportedly stated that the shooting was not motivated by a desire for fame, but rather by hatred toward the victims and other cultures, while also indicating that Clark never expected to survive the assault.

Online accounts linked to Clark allegedly featured Nazi slogans as well as images of Adolf Hitler and German military formations from World War II.

Police said Clark and Vasquez killed three people during Monday’s attack, including mosque security guard and father of eight Amin Abdullah, whom authorities credited with helping prevent an even larger loss of life. An online fundraiser established for Abdullah’s family raised nearly $2 million within its first day.

The other two victims were identified as mosque members Nader Awad and Mansoor Kazziha.

Investigators also said at least one of the suspects allegedly took a firearm from his parents’ residence and left behind a suicide note referencing racial pride.

According to authorities, the livestream footage appears to show Clark fatally shooting Vasquez before turning the weapon on himself.

The FBI and local law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the massacre and are expected to carry out additional search warrants in the coming days.

{Matzav.com}