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A growing rift between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Donald Trump burst into public view Friday after Meloni flatly rejected Trump’s claim that she had pleaded for a photograph with him during this week’s G7 summit, calling the story entirely false and expressing shock at his remarks.

The unusually sharp exchange signals a dramatic downturn in relations between the two conservative leaders, whose alliance appeared to be recovering in recent days after earlier disagreements surrounding the conflict with Iran.

Speaking after Trump’s comments were broadcast by an Italian television outlet, Meloni said she was stunned by what she described as an invented account and suggested the president often treats America’s adversaries with greater courtesy than longstanding allies.

The dispute stems from comments Trump made during a brief interview with Italy’s La7 television network following the summit in France. Footage from the gathering showed the two leaders engaged in an extended conversation, but Trump downplayed the interaction and suggested it was of greater importance to Meloni than to him.

“She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” Trump was quoted as saying by La7 TV channel in a brief interview, after he himself asked the journalist about Italy’s prime minister.

Trump went even further, claiming the Italian leader had been eager to be photographed with him.

“She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump said, according to La7’s translation.

The network did not release the original recording of the interview and instead aired a dubbed version.

Meloni responded forcefully, dismissing the account outright and questioning why the American president would make such remarks about an ally.

“Donald Trump’s statements are completely made ⁠up. I am frankly astonished. I don’t know why the president of ⁠the United States behaves like this towards his allies: it is not the first time, moreover.”

She then contrasted Trump’s treatment of allies with what she characterized as a softer approach toward hostile foreign leaders.

“I can ⁠only ⁠say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence,” she said, adding: “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”

The clash is particularly notable given Meloni’s previous support for Trump. She was the lone European head of government to attend his inauguration in 2025 and was widely viewed as one of his closest partners on the continent.

Relations later cooled, however, after Meloni publicly criticized Trump for his attacks on Pope Leo following the pontiff’s condemnation of the Iran war. Her decision to distance herself from the administration’s position triggered a blunt response from Trump, who accused the Italian leader of lacking courage.

Although recent interactions at the G7 summit had suggested a possible thaw in tensions, Friday’s exchange exposed deepening strains and raised new questions about the future of one of the West’s most closely watched political relationships.

{Matzav.com}

After more than three decades transporting American presidents around the globe, the Boeing 747 that has long served as Air Force One returned to Joint Base Andrews before sunrise Thursday, fueling speculation that its reign may soon be coming to an end as a newly modified Qatari-donated aircraft prepares to enter service.

The arrival of the aircraft sparked a wave of tributes from senior Trump administration officials, many of whom appeared to suggest that the venerable jet’s final chapter is near. Nevertheless, the U.S. Air Force stressed that the aircraft is not being retired at this time.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung shared a photograph on X of VC-25A tail number 92-9000 after it carried President Donald Trump home from the G7 summit in France. Accompanying the image was the message: “Well done, good and faithful servant. The Last Ride.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino also marked the occasion, posting video footage of the aircraft and reflecting on his years aboard it.

“I have been fortunate to fly around the world on this iconic plane for 5 1/2 years, of the 35 years it has been serving U.S. Presidents.”

U.S. Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley echoed the sentiment, writing that she had been “honored to be aboard Air Force One last night on its final flight.”

Despite those public tributes, Air Force officials moved quickly to clarify that the aircraft remains in active service.

A spokesperson told The War Zone that the incoming VC-25B Bridge aircraft—the designation assigned to the modified Qatari Boeing 747-8i—will enter the executive airlift fleet “alongside the VC-25A,” adding that both existing VC-25A aircraft will continue operating for the foreseeable future.

The new aircraft recently completed an intensive modification and testing program conducted by L3Harris in Texas. The work, which took roughly a year, wrapped up in early May. The plane is now receiving the distinctive red, white, gold, and blue paint scheme selected by President Trump.

Air Force leaders praised the accelerated effort, highlighting it as an example of streamlined project management.

The service said the project “epitomizes what is possible when clear accountability is placed on one individual,” in a statement from Gen. Dale White, the Air Force official overseeing critical major weapons programs.

Even so, the Bridge aircraft is intended only as an interim solution.

The permanent replacement fleet consists of two specially outfitted VC-25B aircraft being converted by Boeing under a contract awarded in 2018. Those aircraft are now projected to arrive in mid-2028, years later than the original target date of 2024.

Costs associated with the program have continued to rise. The Government Accountability Office estimates the total price tag for the VC-25B program has climbed to approximately $5.6 billion, significantly above the original estimate of $3.9 billion. By comparison, Air Force officials estimate the conversion of the Qatari aircraft will cost less than $400 million.

The arrangement has drawn criticism from lawmakers and analysts across the political spectrum, with opponents raising concerns about both constitutional questions and national-security implications.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accepted the aircraft as an unconditional gift to the Defense Department, which will oversee its operation and upkeep. Current plans call for the aircraft to be transferred to President Trump’s presidential library once his term in office concludes.

Democrats have sharply criticized the arrangement, characterizing the gift as a bribe and questioning the wisdom of spending public funds to modify an aircraft that may only serve as the presidential transport for the remainder of Trump’s administration.

No official date has been set for the president’s first trip aboard the new aircraft. However, reports indicate that Trump is weighing the possibility of using it for a July 3 visit to Mount Rushmore as part of celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary.

Reuters previously reported that the aircraft could make its public debut during a Fourth of July flyover, potentially ushering in a new era for presidential travel.

{Matzav.com}

Vice President JD Vance is defending President Donald Trump’s agreement with Iran against criticism from fellow Republicans, arguing that the arrangement bears little resemblance to the 2015 nuclear accord negotiated by the Obama administration and instead reflects a dramatically different strategic reality.

Speaking about the agreement, Vance contended that the circumstances surrounding the two deals could not be compared because Iran’s nuclear infrastructure has already been dismantled and the new framework bars Tehran from enriching uranium.

“You have to remember, in 2015 Iran had built a sophisticated nuclear weapons program with a nuclear weapon stockpile. So the perspective that we came at as the United States was, ‘You already have a really nice nuclear program; we’re going to bribe you with American money in order to stop it,'” Vance said.

He contrasted that approach with the Trump administration’s current position, arguing that Washington is negotiating from a position of leverage rather than trying to halt an active nuclear buildup.

“Our perspective — and where we’re coming at it — is, ‘We already destroyed your nuclear program; and so if you promise and show verifiable pathways to not rebuild it, then we are willing to give you some sanctions relief, and things like that.'”

Vance went on to outline what he described as several key distinctions between the two agreements, maintaining that the new deal imposes stricter limitations on Tehran’s nuclear capabilities while avoiding financial concessions made under the earlier accord.

“Now, there are all these substantive differences as well. The Obama nuclear deal allowed enrichment; ours will not,” Vance said.

He further argued that the Trump agreement takes a tougher stance on Iran’s nuclear materials.

“The Obama deal allowed the accumulation of stockpiled weapons-grade material. Ours is actually leading to the destruction of that stockpile of enriched material,” he continued.

Vance also highlighted what he said was a major financial difference between the two arrangements.

“The Obama deal gave them over a billion dollars of American money. The deal gives them $0 of American money,” Vance said.

Summing up his defense of the agreement, the vice president maintained that the most significant distinction is the position from which the United States negotiated and the support the deal has received from regional allies.

“A lot of substantive differences, but I think the most important differences are where we’re coming at it from: a position of strength, and the fact that our [Persian] Gulf Coast partners love this deal.”

{Matzav.com}

Hunter Biden launched a blistering attack on the UFC Freedom 250 event held on the White House South Lawn, blasting the spectacle as inappropriate for the historic grounds and ending his lengthy social media post with an unexpected challenge to Donald Trump Jr.: a cage fight.

Framing his comments as an open letter to podcast host Joe Rogan—who had dismissed critics of the event and told those offended by it to “shut … up”—Biden argued that turning the White House into the setting for a combat-sports event undermined the significance of the presidential residence.

“The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any president. It belongs to the people,” he wrote in the lengthy diatribe.

Drawing repeated comparisons to ancient Rome, Biden contended that the event transformed a national symbol into a stage for political spectacle.

“To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.

“This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants,” he said, cloaking his critique in a Roman Empire motif.

Continuing the analogy, Biden accused President Trump of using the White House grounds to project personal power.

“By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is: ‘This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze.’”

Despite criticizing the White House event, Biden offered praise for Rogan and UFC president Dana White, crediting them with helping transform mixed martial arts into a major American success.

Still, he argued that staging the fights at the White House crossed a line, describing the event as “an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.”

Biden concluded his remarks with a warning against elevating the presidency above its constitutional role.

“The president is our servant. Not our Caesar,” he wrote before turning his attention to Trump’s eldest son.

“P.S. Cage match between me and Don. Jr? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.”

Notably absent from Biden’s comments was any reference to controversies involving his father’s administration and the White House grounds. Critics have pointed to incidents such as the placement of a Pride flag in a 2023 display on the Truman Balcony, a move that generated debate over compliance with the U.S. Flag Code.

{Matzav.com}

The fatal horse-carriage accident that claimed the life of an 18-year-old tourist visiting from India has reignited efforts at City Hall to ban horse-drawn carriage rides in New York City, with several lawmakers suggesting the tragedy could mark a turning point for the long-debated industry.

A number of City Council members said the incident — believed to be the first passenger fatality involving a horse carriage in recent memory — has intensified calls for sweeping changes and may finally generate enough momentum to outlaw the practice altogether.

“Is it the straw that broke the camel’s back? I think so,” said Councilman Frank Morano, a Staten Island Republican and co-sponsor of “Ryder’s Law,” which would outlaw horse carriages in New York City.

“We have an 18-year-old boy who came here to celebrate his graduation who is leaving in a coffin. It’s totally unacceptable,” Morano told The NY Post on Thursday.

Arguing that the industry has exhausted any benefit of the doubt, Morano added, “The time for treating these accidents as isolated incidents is over. It is an industry that no longer makes sense.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also voiced support for eliminating horse-drawn carriage rides from Central Park, a position he adopted during his campaign.

“I support removing horse carriages from Central Park,” Mamdani said in January.

The mayor joins predecessors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio, both of whom backed similar proposals during their administrations, though neither succeeded in pushing a ban through.

Supporters of the carriage industry, including representatives of the drivers’ union, contend that calls for a ban routinely surface after accidents involving horses but fade over time. They argue that investigations have consistently shown the animals receive proper care and that past efforts to outlaw the industry have repeatedly stalled.

Still, advocates for stricter animal-welfare protections believe the current City Council may be more receptive than previous ones. Earlier this year, lawmakers established an animal welfare caucus comprising 20 of the council’s 51 members, including Morano.

Council Speaker Julie Menin has scheduled a hearing next month on Ryder’s Law. The measure is named after Ryder, a carriage horse that collapsed while working in Central Park during a hot day in August 2022. Although the legislation failed to advance last year, supporters hope the latest tragedy will change that.

“In the past two weeks alone, we have seen the tragic deaths of both a horse and now a teenage carriage passenger, Romanch Mahajan,” Menin said, referring to the June 9 death of a carriage horse named Deniz, which authorities believe may have ingested a poisonous plant in Central Park.

“These incidents demonstrate that it’s time to chart a better path forward that addresses animal welfare and public safety, and also ensures the livelihood and economic prosperity of the workers,” Menin said.

Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks, a Democrat from Staten Island, said the latest accident demands action from city leaders.

“Something has to change. This tragedy is a call for the City Council to respond. We have to take an honest and sobering look at the horse carriage industry.”

Not all council members agree that a ban is the appropriate response. Queens Councilman James Gennaro argued that the “unthinkable tragedy” stemmed from “human error” rather than concerns about animal treatment.

Instead of prohibiting carriage rides outright, Gennaro is promoting legislation aimed at strengthening safety measures. His proposal would require designated hitching posts in Central Park so horses can be secured while passengers board, exit, or take photographs, and would also mandate enhanced training requirements for carriage operators.

Meanwhile, industry representatives acknowledged they are facing intense scrutiny in the wake of the fatal accident.

“We’re absolutely gutted and stunned by this tragedy. We’ve never had a fatal accident like this before,” said Alexander Kemp, administrative vice president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents carriage drivers.

Kemp said the industry has temporarily halted operations while conducting an extensive review of safety procedures.

“We have shuttered the stables and ceased operations today while we have extensive internal discussions of safety protocols and how they can be improved,” said Kemp, who supports Gennaro’s bill, not an outright ban on the carriage industry.

Christina Hansen, a carriage driver and TWU shop steward, accused animal-rights groups of using the incident to advance a long-standing political agenda.

“Let’s take a step back and not to rush judgment,” she said.

{Matzav.com}

In a significant Second Amendment ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with a Texas man who challenged a federal law prohibiting unlawful drug users from possessing firearms, concluding that the statute was unconstitutional as applied in his case.

The decision in United States v. Hemani was authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch and garnered agreement from all nine justices on the central outcome, although several members of the Court filed separate opinions debating the broader constitutional implications.

The case stemmed from the experience of Ali Danial Hemani, a dual U.S.-Pakistani citizen who grew up in Texas and lived with his parents in the Dallas area. In 2022, FBI agents searched the family’s residence while investigating possible terrorism-related concerns. According to the Court’s opinion, Hemani cooperated fully with investigators, voluntarily surrendering a firearm, directing agents to marijuana in the home, and acknowledging that he “used marijuana about every other day.”

During the search, agents recovered approximately 60 grams of marijuana, 4.7 grams of cocaine, and a Glock 19 handgun.

Despite the terrorism investigation that prompted the search, neither Hemani nor any member of his family was ever charged with terrorism-related offenses.

More than six months later, however, federal prosecutors charged Hemani under 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(3), a law that makes it a felony for anyone who is an “unlawful user of” or “addicted to” a controlled substance to purchase, own, or possess a firearm. A conviction under the statute carries a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The same federal law attracted national attention during the prosecution of Hunter Biden, who initially signaled that he intended to challenge its constitutionality before ultimately pleading guilty and later receiving a pardon from his father, President Joe Biden.

Hemani sought dismissal of the charges, arguing that the statute violated his Second Amendment rights. A federal district court agreed and threw out the indictment. The government appealed, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals likewise ruled in Hemani’s favor. Federal officials then brought the case to the Supreme Court.

“The government’s prosecution of Mr. Hemani under §922(g)(3)’s unlawful user provision is inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” wrote Gorsuch.

In reaching that conclusion, Gorsuch relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which instructed courts to evaluate firearm restrictions by examining historical traditions from the nation’s founding era. Under Bruen, governments need not identify an identical historical law, but must demonstrate that “the challenged regulation is consistent with the principles that underpin our regulatory tradition.”

Federal attorneys argued that early American laws regulating so-called “habitual drunkards” provided a historical analogue. Those laws sometimes authorized imprisonment, commitment to institutions, or the posting of bonds to ensure future good behavior.

Gorsuch rejected that comparison, noting that the government’s reading of the statute would permit prosecution even in cases where there was no evidence that an individual was impaired or dangerous. He pointed out that the law could be applied to “and a college student who routinely uses a friend’s Adderall to cram for exams” or “a husband who regularly takes his wife’s prescription Ambien to sleep,” examples discussed during oral arguments.

The justice also observed that historical laws concerning habitual drunkards generally included procedural safeguards.

Those laws, he wrote, “usually provided some form of process,” including judicial proceedings or bond hearings “before an individual lost any of his liberties, even temporarily.”

By contrast, he said, §922(g)(3) purported to “automatically divest[] an individual of his constitutional right to bear arms the moment he becomes an unlawful user and until he ends his drug use.”

Gorsuch further noted that historical restrictions on habitual drunkards were justified on the grounds that such individuals posed unusual dangers to the public and were more likely to misuse firearms or commit acts of violence.

Yet under the modern statute, he wrote, “[i]t doesn’t matter what controlled substance an individual uses, in what amounts he does so, or whether his drug use has ever made him a danger to himself or others. It doesn’t even matter why he keeps a gun or how safely he does so. And for violating this automatic ban, the government insists, an individual like Mr. Hemani may be sent to prison for up to 15 years and disarmed for life.”

The Court emphasized that its ruling was limited in scope and should not be interpreted as holding that unlawful drug users can never be dangerous.

Instead, Gorsuch said, the Constitution does not permit the government “to conclude that anyone who regularly uses marijuana is categorically violent and dangerous without any further showing,” particularly given recent federal changes acknowledging marijuana’s “currently accepted medical use.”

The opinion also stressed that the ruling does not affect longstanding prohibitions on firearm possession by convicted felons, nor does it prevent prosecutors from pursuing gun charges against individuals whose drug use can be shown to create a genuine danger.

Although the Court agreed on the outcome, several justices offered differing views in separate concurring opinions.

Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the law is unconstitutional for an additional reason, writing that Congress lacks authority “to regulate the possession of firearms solely on the ground that they crossed state lines at some point in the past.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, used her concurrence to criticize the Bruen framework itself, arguing that it “is unworkable” and “vulnerable to inconsistent and arbitrary application, as judges draw different conclusions from the same historical evidence.”

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, agreed with the result but not all of the majority’s reasoning. He concluded that the government had “failed to show that a marijuana user like” Hemani “is incapacitated in a way analogous to the habitual drunkards that the Government’s analogues regulated.”

Gun-rights advocates celebrated the ruling.

“The Supreme Court made the right call,” the National Rifle Association wrote on social media after the decision was released.

The organization’s executive director described the ruling as “a major victory for the Second Amendment and peaceable gun owners across America,” adding that “no one should be deprived of their God-given right to keep and bear arms for engaging in nonviolent conduct, and there is no historical justification for doing so.”

The Second Amendment Foundation, which also supported Hemani before the Court, hailed the decision as another major victory for gun owners.

The organization said the ruling had “secured a victory for Second Amendment advocates and firearms owners nationwide.”

“The Court’s decision today affirms what SAF has argued for some time – there is no historical tradition of permanently disarming law-abiding citizens who use marijuana,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Founding-era laws addressed the dangers of intoxication through temporary restrictions, but not the complete ban on firearms possession for the remainder of the person’s life. We’re thrilled the Supreme Court agrees with us and struck down Mr. Hemani’s unconstitutional conviction.”

SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb similarly praised the ruling.

“The Court rightly held today that the proper understanding of the Second Amendment only provides for disarming those who are actually dangerous,” said Gottlieb. “Simply being an unlawful user of any drug fails to meet that standard, and today the court concluded that marijuana use, absent any other evidence, was insufficient to show Mr. Hemani was dangerous such that his rights could be constitutionally extinguished.”

The organization subsequently published a series of detailed analyses of the opinion on social media, examining its implications for future gun-rights litigation and other ongoing constitutional challenges.

Supporters of the ruling extended beyond traditional gun-rights groups. Rob Romano of the Firearms Policy Coalition highlighted comments from the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Hemani in the case.

According to the ACLU, the decision “makes it clear that the government cannot make it a crime for people to own a gun – which the Supreme Court has held is a fundamental constitutional right – simply because they use marijuana.”

The organization also argued that the statute “let the government arbitrarily discriminate against marijuana users and deprive them of their rights,” but now, “[t]he court has sent a strong message that the government cannot criminalize the conduct of large numbers of people by making categorical and unfounded assumptions about whether they are dangerous.”

Summing up the significance of the decision, firearms journalist Stephen Gutowski offered a headline that quickly gained attention online: “The High Court Says Yes to Buds and Bullets.”

{Matzav.com}

Rabbi Menachem Genack, 78, had been speaking to JNS for about 45 minutes when, with a smile, he recalled a story about the Ponevezher Rav, who often received backlash for his dream of rebuilding the famed Ponevezh yeshiva after the Holocaust.

“People would tell him, ‘You’re dreaming,’” Genack told JNS. “‘Yes,’ he would reply. ‘But I’m not sleeping.’”

The longtime chief executive officer at OU Kosher, the Orthodox Union’s kashrus division, spoke to JNS two weeks before his planned retirement on July 1 after 45 years at the kosher certifier.

As his time at the OU winds down, Rabbi Genack has been thinking about Rav Kahaneman’s remark about being awake, he told JNS at OU headquarters in lower Manhattan.

“His vision, his determination, what he built,” Rabbi Genack said. “It’s very inspiring.”

The story has stayed with him as he transformed the OU kashrus division from a one-man operation into a global enterprise that today supervises and certifies more than 1.3 million products developed in 105 countries worldwide.

The division also now funds much of the organization’s broader work, including its youth outreach programs and publishing arm, OU Press.

But when Rabbi Genack arrived at the OU in 1980, the organization employed just a handful of people in kashrut. At the time, he was the department’s sole full-time rabbi.

“I wouldn’t say something had to be fixed” at the OU, he told JNS. “It needed to be built.”

Rabbi Genack determined that what the OU needed more than anything was “a clearer articulation of standards.” He assembled a small team to develop an ingredient-review department, establish consistent standards and expand the OU’s reach among major food manufacturers.

“We met regularly to discuss issues, write things down, formulate positions and define what the OU’s standards were,” he said. “At that point, I was the only one. Today, we have more than 50 rabbinic coordinators.”

Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the kosher division at the Orthodox Union. Credit: Courtesy.

Growing up, Rabbi Genack didn’t have a dream job, but in high school, and later as a student of Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik, he discovered a love of Torah learning that would help shape the course of his life.

“There was no one like the Rav,” Rabbi Genack said. “He was an extraordinary pedagogue. He was so generous.”

He recalled spending summers learning with Rav Soloveitchik in Onset, Mass., on Cape Cod after the death of the rabbi’s wife.

“There were just a handful of us there—maybe six or seven,” he said. “I used to stay with one of his daughters, and the Rav would come for the weekend. He’d usually give a shiur and then go back to Boston or Brooklyn.”

Rav Soloveitchik “was just in a class by himself,” Rabbi Genack said, and was someone who could “hold a crowd of well over 1,000 people in the palm of his hand for three or four hours.”

He was not involved personally at the OU but mentored Rabbi Genack as the latter built the organization into what it is today.

“The Rav gave me direction and guided me toward this path,” he said. “One of the things he told me was that he didn’t want to see the OU become an absolute monopoly. He wanted to see the ‘little brothers’ succeed as well.”

“There was a communal responsibility, and we did that,” he told JNS. “If other agencies met high halachic standards, we accepted them.”

At the OU Kashrus Conference, from left: OU Kosher COO Rabbi Moshe Elefant; OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack; OU president Mitchel Aeder; and OU Kosher commission vice chairman Rabbi Yossi Heber. Credit: Courtesy.

Politics, too, was part of Rabbi Genack’s inheritance.

Raised in Forest Hills, Queens, by Holocaust survivors and fervent Zionists, Rabbi Genack grew up in a home where Israel and public affairs were constant subjects of conversation.

When he was 4, his family moved to Israel, but his parents decided that the hardships of the state’s early years made life too difficult.

“There simply wasn’t enough food to go around,” Rabbi Genack said. “It was a difficult time.”

Though his family returned to the United States, his father’s “dominant interests” remained “Israel, Zionism and politics,” Rabbi Genack said.

“Politics was something that was discussed in our house a lot,” he told JNS.

“Especially for Jews,” he came to realize, “we have to have a voice.”

In 1994, he founded NORPAC, a bipartisan political action committee that strengthens support for Israel on Capitol Hill. He also developed a close relationship with former President Bill Clinton, the subject of his 2000 book, “Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership.”

About halfway through the conversation, Rabbi Genack recalled seeing President John F. Kennedy as a child. In September 1963, just two months before Kennedy was assassinated, he said that he saw the president drive near Flushing Meadows Park, where Rabbi Genack was playing.

“They stopped all the traffic on Main Street,” he told JNS. “I was standing on the side of the highway when the president’s car passed by. We waved to him.”

Left to right: OU Kosher ‘s chief operating officer Rabbi Moshe Elefant; managing director of community relations Rabbi Eli Eleff; and chief executive officer Rabbi Menachem Genack, with a group of seminar participants at the ASK OU 2025 Summer Women’s Kashrus Experience. Credit: Courtesy.

As the OU expanded over the decades, Rabbi Genack said that the organization faced countless challenges, from losing access to its offices after 9/11 to adapting to remote work during the Covid pandemic.

One of the ways he kept the organization together, he said, was through a careful and deliberate hiring process.

“The OU was viewed as Orthodox, but limited to a particular constituency,” he said. “I wanted it to speak to the entire Orthodox community, so when I hired people, I looked across different communities—many different yeshivot and backgrounds.”

“I wanted the OU to look like the Orthodox world, so that it could speak to and communicate with the broader American Jewish community and beyond,” he told JNS.

He also focused heavily on establishing trust and credibility.

“Through the quality of the people we worked with, through integrity, through implementing standards consistently,” Jews around the world began to trust the organization’s certifications and decisions, he said.

“Mistakes were undoubtedly made, but you build trust on that basis,” he told JNS.

Although he had a consistent vision for the OU from his first day on the job, Rabbi Genack said that he had no idea it would grow so much.

At the OU Kosher Kashrus Conference, Yeshiva of Paterson rosh yeshiva Rav Elya Chaim Swerdloff (left) joins Rabbi Menachem Genack and Rabbi Moshe Elefant. 

“I couldn’t imagine from where it was when I arrived,” he said. “What I thought about initially was creating a staff that would have credibility beyond a single community. That was the goal.”

Since then, Orthodox Jewry has grown, in his view, “both in strength and in numbers.” But alongside that growth have come challenges for American Jewry that he never expected to confront.

“Especially when you look at places like Lakewood and the yeshiva world, the Orthodox community has become much stronger,” he said. “But the challenges facing American Jewry are also very profound. The risk of rapid assimilation. The level of antisemitism that we’re seeing. The security challenges facing the State of Israel.”

“These are things I never imagined seeing in my lifetime,” he said.

Rabbi Genack told JNS that it wasn’t hard to reach a decision to retire.

“Why not?” he told JNS, when asked for a reason. “It’s been a pretty long run. It’s time.”

Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer and executive rabbinic coordinator of OU Kosher, is slated to succeed Rabbi Genack. He told JNS that the transition has been in the works for five years.

“The OU administration has done it in a most sensitive manner,” Rabbi Elefant said. “This whole year, as we lead up to July 1, has really been a year of transition.”

Attending the OU Kosher Kashrus Conference are (from left) OU Kosher chairman Dr. Joshua Penn; OU Kosher vice chairman Rabbi Yosi Heber; OU Kosher COO Rabbi Moshe Elefant; OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack; and OU president Mitchel Aeder. 

The two first met 39 years ago, when Rabbi Genack interviewed Rabbi Elefant for a position at the organization.

“I thought Rabbi Genack would ask a lot of questions about kashrus, about my knowledge of kashrus, which wasn’t very extensive other than that I ate kosher my whole life,” Rabbi Elefant told JNS.

“But he really wasn’t focused on testing me in kashrus. He was trying to figure out who I am, what kind of personality I had, whether I’d fit in with the organization,” he said. “I guess he decided I did.”

Rabbi Genack said identifying a successor was one of the most important responsibilities of his career.

“From the beginning, I always used to say, ‘There’s no success without succession,’” he told JNS. “Early on, I identified someone I thought had real talent—someone accomplished, someone with vision.”

Rabbi Elefant is “absolutely the right person” to lead the organization forward, Rabbi Genack said.

Though the two have drastically different personalities—Rabbi Elefant noted that Rabbi Genack is much more reserved and “scholarly” than he, while he is more “out there”—their relationship has been strong from the beginning.

“I would say, in most of those years, certainly the last 20-plus years, there isn’t a day that we don’t speak multiple times,” Rabbi Elefant told JNS. “Sometimes we may speak to each other more than we speak to our wives.”

Rabbi Elefant said that Genack’s vision from the start was that if “anybody, for whatever reason, wants to keep kosher, wherever they are in the world, because of the OU they’ll be able to do so.”

“That was his vision,” Rabbi Elefant said. “He built it, literally, brick by brick.”

For Rabbi Genack, the work was never only about food certification. It was about making Jewish life easier to sustain in an era of assimilation.

“The OU should be an eloquent spokesman for the principles we represent,” he told JNS. “I hope it continues to grow.”

“Part of the OU’s mission is contained in the word itself—union, unity,” he said. “To promote unity within Orthodox Jewry. That’s something that unfortunately is often lacking.”

“The money we make from kashrut should be used to help people, promote Torah and strengthen Jewish life,” he told JNS. “If kosher products are available in every store with an OU, at the same price, that makes it possible to live as a Jew in the United States.” JNS

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Interior Ministry has formally instructed the city of Ramat HaSharon to enforce its municipal bylaw prohibiting businesses from operating on Shabbos, escalating an ongoing dispute over the continued weekend activity at the Big Glilot commercial complex.

The ministry’s intervention comes amid growing controversy surrounding the shopping and entertainment center, which has remained open on Shabbos despite local regulations that prohibit such activity.

The current dispute stems from a petition filed approximately a year ago against the municipality. Petitioners argued that the city had failed to enforce its own bylaws and pointed to statements by Mayor Yitzchak Rochberger suggesting that he intended to allow businesses at the complex to continue operating on Shabbos without imposing penalties or taking enforcement action.

At the same time, the Interior Ministry is reviewing a request submitted by the municipality to amend the existing bylaw. As part of that process, ministry officials have demanded extensive clarification regarding the scope of the proposed changes, including which businesses would be exempted, what services would be permitted, the data used to formulate the proposal, and the preparatory work conducted before advancing the amendment.

In a strongly worded letter, Interior Ministry Director-General Yisrael Ozen sharply criticized the argument that the law should simply be adjusted to reflect the reality that has developed on the ground.

“If the purpose of the amendment is to align the legal situation with the reality currently being practiced, it follows that the actual situation—created through violations of the law—has dictated and shaped the content of the proposed arrangement,” Ozen wrote.

He added that, “There is no place to agree to or accept an improper situation in which a sinner profits from his wrongdoing.”

According to Ozen, the materials submitted thus far by the municipality fail to adequately address a number of key concerns raised by the ministry. He instructed city officials to provide updated data, broader professional analysis, and detailed responses to each of the issues under review.

The letter concludes with a clear warning that any proposed amendment remains legally ineffective unless and until it receives formal approval from the Interior Minister.

“Furthermore, as long as the bylaw has not been approved by the Minister of the Interior, it is not in force and action may not be taken pursuant to it,” Ozen wrote.

The directive means that the battle over Shabbos operations at Big Glilot remains far from resolved. While municipal officials are seeking to create a new legal framework that would permit the current reality to continue, the Interior Ministry is insisting that the existing law remains binding and must be fully enforced. For now, the dispute appears headed for further legal and political confrontation.

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Iran abruptly reimposed its closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Friday rather than proceeding with planned nuclear negotiations in Switzerland, blaming Israel’s continued military presence in southern Lebanon and the ongoing deployment of American forces throughout the region.

In a message broadcast over maritime communications channels, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that Washington had failed to uphold commitments outlined in the memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday by President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“Since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the complete lifting of the naval blockade, and the withdrawal of American terrorist forces from the Persian Gulf and the region are among the main conditions of the agreement between Iran and the United States, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until these conditions are met,” it said. “All ships are requested, for the sake of their security and safety, not to approach the Strait of Hormuz. Any vessel that defies this directive will be targeted.”

The announcement came despite U.S. Central Command’s declaration on Thursday that the two-month blockade of Iranian ports had officially been lifted. Iranian officials did not immediately clarify why they believe the removal of the restrictions remains incomplete.

Moments after Tehran’s announcement, an American official asserted that Israel and Hezbollah had reached a ceasefire arrangement. The claim appeared to conflict with remarks made a day earlier by Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu, who indicated that military operations would continue.

“We will restore security and prosperity to northern towns,” Netanyahu said. “That requires maintaining the security zone in southern Lebanon.”

The Israel Defense Forces also released an updated operational map showing a widened area under Israeli control inside Lebanon. According to the map, Israeli troops are now positioned more than six miles beyond the border, including locations north of the Litani River.

The memorandum signed earlier this week stated that the United States and Iran, “along with their allies,” would respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity while bringing military hostilities there to an end.

Simcha Brodsky, president of the intelligence research group OSINT613, told The Post that Tehran appears to be exploiting both the language of the agreement and the phased timetable for implementing its provisions.

“What we’re seeing is a direct result of the wording in the US-Iran MoU. The deal lifts the US blockade in phases (‘fully within 30 days’), so the US is mid-process by design,” he said. “Iran is using that gap: it says the Strait stays closed until the blockade is ‘completely lifted,’ so it can claim the lift isn’t done and call this a re-closure.”

“Iran has now bolted the Israel-Lebanon fighting onto that pretext to hard-stop the whole deal., roping Israel into an agreement it never approved or negotiated.”

The renewed tensions emerged only hours after the first round of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran, which had been arranged under the new memorandum and scheduled for Friday, was canceled.

American officials have not publicly explained the reason for the postponement.

A regional source said Wednesday that hardline factions within the Iranian government had opposed participation in a now-canceled signing ceremony planned for Friday, insisting that Israel first remove its forces from southern Lebanon.

At the same time, Iran’s newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority, known as the PGSA, issued a fresh set of regulations governing maritime traffic through the strategic waterway. The authority was recently created by Tehran to oversee operations in the strait and, according to critics, potentially generate revenue through future transit charges.

Although the memorandum bars Iran from collecting fees from shipping companies during the next 60 days, the agreement also specifically notes that Tehran “reserves the right to introduce” such charges at a later date.

The new regulations further require all vessels seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz to obtain authorization from the PGSA beforehand—a requirement that did not exist before the conflict began on February 28, as the strait has traditionally been regarded as international waters.

{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu was visibly moved after being shown rare archival footage documenting a visit he made decades ago to the home of the Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a moment he said he had never previously seen captured on video.

The footage was presented to Netanyahu by Rabbi Or Ziv, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary serving in the Katamon neighborhood of Yerushalayim, ahead of Gimmel Tammuz, the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe.

The video captures Netanyahu participating in Maariv at the Rebbe’s residence, offering a glimpse into a little-known moment from his earlier years.

Recorded 38 years ago on President Street in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, the footage dates to the year of mourning following the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the Rebbe’s wife.

When Rabbi Ziv showed him the video, Netanyahu appeared surprised and emotional. Looking at the footage, he exclaimed, “Wow, where did you get this from? This can’t be.”

He then turned to Rabbi Ziv and requested a copy, saying, “Send it to me, I’ve never seen this before.”

WATCH:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/whatsapp_video_20260618_at_20.46.10.mp4

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Israel’s Chief Rabbis delivered a strong message about the central role of Torah values in law enforcement and public security during a high-level working session this week with the Police Rabbinate and Border Police religious leadership.

The meeting, first reported by the Police Rabbinate, focused on the launch of a new volume in the Hifkadeti Shomrim series, a unique collection of halachic writings addressing the complex religious questions that arise in police work and public security operations.

The newly released volume contains articles authored by police rabbis dealing with the unique challenges faced by officers in the field. It also includes halachic responsa on wartime issues from leading poskim, including Harav Asher Weiss and Harav Yitzchok Zilberstein, addressing difficult questions that have emerged during operational activities.

Particular attention is given to dilemmas that arose during the Swords of Iron War, reflecting the extraordinary circumstances under which police officers and security personnel have operated while safeguarding the public. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Yaakov Gross, zt”l, the former Chief Rabbi of the Israel Police, who devoted more than fifty years to harbotzas Torah. The book was edited by his son, Rabbi Shimon Gross.

During the meeting, Rishon Letzion Harav Dovid Yosef emphasized the importance of combining halachic scholarship with professional expertise when rendering rulings on operational matters.

“Halachic rulings on professional matters require a deep understanding of reality,” Rav Yosef said. “Just as a rav relies on the expertise of a physician in medical matters, so too must he rely on the expertise of police officers regarding operational issues. Only a thorough understanding of the facts allows one to reach correct halachic conclusions.”

Participants noted that his remarks reflected a longstanding principle of halachic decision-making: that accurate rulings require a clear and detailed understanding of the practical circumstances involved. In the fast-paced world of law enforcement, where officers are often required to make split-second decisions under pressure, such understanding is especially critical.

Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Harav Kalman Meir Bar, said the new publication demonstrates that Torah guidance extends to every aspect of life.

“It accompanies a person in every decision and operational activity,” Rav Bar said. He also praised Israel Police Chief Rabbi Rav Rami Berachyahu, describing him as “a living example of a scholar whose character and conduct reflect his Torah values.”

Rav Berachyahu concluded the gathering by highlighting the role of the Police Rabbinate in bringing Torah guidance into the daily work of law enforcement personnel.

“Our role is to bring the world of Torah and spirituality into the sacred work of the police,” he said. “Even during challenging times, we draw strength from our connection to the gedolei Torah, with the goal of strengthening the bond between the values of our nation and the security of the public.”

Observers noted that the meeting reflects a broader trend of increasing cooperation between Israel’s spiritual leadership and its security and law-enforcement institutions. The Hifkadeti Shomrim series has become a practical resource for religious police officers seeking to navigate the intersection of professional responsibilities and halachic obligations, offering guidance on the many questions that arise in the course of their duties.

{Matzav.com}

A one-year-old infant who had not received routine childhood vaccinations was hospitalized in critical condition at Shaare Zedek Medical Center after developing a rare and potentially fatal illness that doctors say has become exceedingly uncommon in the modern era due to widespread immunization.

The child arrived at the Yerushalayim hospital struggling to breathe and in immediate danger. Medical staff initially suspected that he may have swallowed a foreign object, but rapid testing and evaluation revealed a far more serious diagnosis.

Doctors determined that the infant was suffering from epiglottitis, a severe inflammation of the epiglottis, the flap of tissue that covers the airway during swallowing. The condition, which can obstruct breathing within a matter of hours, is most commonly caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), a bacterium largely controlled in developed countries through routine vaccination programs.

Medical teams in Shaare Zedek’s pediatric department quickly recognized the severity of the situation and initiated emergency treatment. Thanks to the prompt diagnosis and intensive care, physicians were able to stabilize the child and save his life.

The infant was admitted to the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, where he received advanced treatment for several days. After showing significant improvement, he was later transferred to the general pediatric ward for continued care.

Doctors said the child is expected to remain hospitalized for several more days but that the immediate danger has passed.

The case has drawn attention because epiglottitis was once considered one of the most dangerous childhood illnesses, frequently causing life-threatening airway obstruction. Since the introduction of the Hib vaccine into Israel’s national immunization program decades ago, the disease has become exceptionally rare.

Medical experts noted that the dramatic decline in cases is directly attributable to widespread vaccination. While epiglottitis has nearly disappeared in countries with high vaccination rates, isolated cases continue to occur among unvaccinated individuals.

Hospital officials said the incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of routine childhood immunizations. Physicians emphasized that the Health Ministry’s vaccination schedule is based on extensive scientific research and is designed to protect children from potentially deadly diseases.

According to Shaare Zedek, the infant continues to improve and remains under close medical supervision. Doctors are optimistic that he will be able to return home within the coming days.

{Matzav.com}

Four IDF soldiers were killed during combat operations in southern Lebanon early Friday morning when a strike hit a tank operating near the village of Kfar Tebnit. The military cleared for publication the name of one of the fallen: LTC Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, 32, of Beit HaShita, commander of the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Brigade.

The names of the three additional soldiers killed in the incident have not yet been released. Their families have been informed, and their identities will be published once military authorization is granted.

According to a preliminary IDF investigation, the deadly incident occurred at approximately 12:20 a.m. while a tank from the 52nd Battalion was operating under the Givati Brigade Combat Team in Kfar Tebnit. Military officials believe the vehicle was struck by either an explosive drone or an anti-tank missile, killing all four soldiers inside.

Several hours later, at around 4:00 a.m., a separate attack took place in the Beaufort region near Tebnit. An explosive-laden drone struck troops from the Commando Brigade, wounding five soldiers. One of the injured troops was listed in serious condition.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed sorrow over the losses, stating: “This is a very difficult and painful morning. With profound grief, we learned of the terrible news that four of our nation’s sons fell in battle in Lebanon, including LTC Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, the Commander of the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade.”

He continued, “About two months ago, after the Battalion Commander, LTC Y., was severely wounded in combat, Dor took command upon himself, and from that point led his soldiers at the front with determination and responsibility.

“LTC Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon and the additional three fallen soldiers, whose names have not yet been cleared for publication, join a long and unbearably painful list of the daughters and sons who have fallen in defense of our homeland and people. Each one was an entire world, with dreams, hopes, and aspirations cut down in their prime.

“Together with the whole of the people of Israel, we embrace their beloved and precious families and send them our heartfelt condolences at this difficult moment. We pray for the recovery of the wounded and for the well-being of all IDF soldiers and security forces. May the memory of our heroes be blessed,” Herzog concluded.

Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu also conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and offered prayers for the recovery of those wounded in the fighting.

Addressing Israel’s military response, Netanyahu said that “following the heinous attack by Hezbollah, which is a flagrant violation of the ceasefire, I instructed the IDF last night to strike Hezbollah with force. The IDF struck over 80 terror targets and eliminated dozens of terrorists. Subsequently, the IDF struck Hezbollah command posts in the Beqaa Valley this morning.”

He further stated: “This morning, I held a situation assessment with the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff. My directive is clear: Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks. The IDF will act to thwart any threat to our forces and our territory.”

LTC Ben Simhon assumed command of Battalion 52 on April 20, 2026, shortly after the unit’s previous commander was seriously wounded in battle. Taking over during an intense period of operations, he led the battalion through two months of combat activity on the northern front.

A career officer in the Armored Corps, Ben Simhon spent much of his military service in the 401st Brigade, advancing through a variety of command positions. Widely regarded for his leadership and operational abilities, he later served as chief of staff to the commander of the Northern Command during Operation “Northern Arrows,” remaining in that role until residents of the north were able to return home. After completing the position in August, he attended the Command and Staff Course before returning to frontline service this spring as commander of Battalion 52.

Ben Simhon is survived by his wife and two daughters. He came from a family deeply rooted in military service: he and four of his brothers served in the 401st Brigade, while another brother enlisted in the Golani Brigade. His wife serves as a combat officer in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps and Border Defense Corps.

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Mojtaba Khamenei issued a rare public statement portraying the newly signed memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States as a victory for Tehran, while ridiculing President Donald Trump and claiming Washington was the driving force behind the deal.

Addressing what he called the “enthusiastic and faithful nation of Iran,” Khamenei confirmed that an agreement had been reached between Tehran and Washington and asserted that, despite extensive efforts by senior Iranian officials, it was Trump who pushed hardest to bring the deal to fruition.

“It was this American president who, out of desperation, employed various levers to achieve this matter,” Khamenei wrote, in remarks widely interpreted as a direct jab at the U.S. president.

Khamenei acknowledged that he had initially held reservations about the agreement but ultimately approved it after receiving assurances from the Iranian president, who chairs the Supreme National Security Council, that Iran’s national interests and the so-called “Axis of Resistance” would be protected.

According to Khamenei, the Iranian president explicitly pledged that Tehran would reject any excessive demands from Washington if such demands were raised during the implementation of the agreement.

“From this moment onward,” Khamenei wrote, “we—the proud nation and this humble servant—will await the fulfillment of the declared conditions.”

The Iranian leader also sought to reassure hardliners within the regime that direct negotiations with the United States do not represent a shift in Iran’s ideological stance toward America.

“Face-to-face negotiations that may take place in the future do not mean acceptance of the enemy’s worldview,” he wrote.

Khamenei concluded by framing the agreement within the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary and religious ideology, expressing hope that “good prayers” would help bring additional victories to the Iranian nation in the future.

The statement comes amid ongoing debate within Iran and abroad over the significance of the memorandum and whether it represents a genuine diplomatic breakthrough or merely the beginning of a longer and more difficult negotiating process.

{Matzav.com}

A unique and educational Torah event will take place this Sunday morning, June 21, when the Agudath Israel of America Torah Projects Commission presents a special shiur featuring Rav Amitai Ben-David, acclaimed author of Sichas Chulin and a renowned expert in the practical and halachic aspects of shechitah.

The program will begin at 10:00 a.m. at Khal Zichron Yechezkel, located at 1871 Old Freehold Road in Toms River, New Jersey, and is expected to attract Daf Yomi participants, bnei Torah, rabbanim, and members of the broader community seeking a deeper understanding of one of the most fascinating and practical areas of halachah.

What makes this event especially noteworthy is that the shiur will feature a live shechitah and treifos demonstration, offering attendees a rare opportunity to witness firsthand many of the concepts discussed in Maseches Chulin and related areas of Torah study. Through practical examples and real-life illustrations, participants will gain a clearer appreciation of the intricate halachos governing kosher slaughter and the examination of animals.

Organizers explain that the program is designed not only for Daf Yomi learners studying or reviewing the sugyos of Chulin, but also for anyone interested in understanding the halachic foundations behind the kosher food that appears on Jewish tables every day.

Rav Amitai Ben-David has earned widespread recognition for his ability to present complex halachic subjects in a clear, engaging, and accessible manner. His sefer, Sichas Chulin, has become a highly regarded resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of shechitah and treifos.

The shiur, as mentioned, will take place this Sunday, June 21, at Khal Zichron Yechezkel, 1871 Old Freehold Road in Toms River, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

{Matzav.com}

The legal battle surrounding two veteran mohelim in Antwerp took another turn after Belgium’s Court of Appeals postponed a decision on whether to bring them to trial, following a request by the complainant for additional investigative steps and new evidence to be examined.

The case centers on two mohelim accused of performing circumcisions on 98 infant boys without authorization from the public health system between December 2023 and March 2025. Prosecutors are seeking to bring the men to trial on allegations of assault, causing bodily harm to minors, and engaging in the unauthorized practice of medicine.

Earlier in the investigation, authorities had also considered charges related to violence against minors. However, the public prosecutor’s office later dropped those allegations, citing insufficient evidence. The complaint that triggered the investigation was filed by a man who was once part of Antwerp’s Jewish community and claimed that the circumcisions were being performed in violation of Belgian health regulations.

The probe into the mohelim began in October 2024. During the investigation, authorities reportedly monitored their telephone conversations, reviewed emails, examined financial records, and conducted a number of searches connected to the Jewish community.

The two mohelim declined to answer investigators’ questions regarding the circumcisions themselves. Instead, both submitted identical written statements asserting that bris milah is an ancient religious and cultural practice observed throughout the world and cannot be classified as a medical procedure.

The matter has now been returned to the investigating judge, who must determine whether the requests for additional investigative measures are relevant and should be carried out before the case proceeds further.

The defendants are 76-year-old Rabbi Aharon Eckstein and 47-year-old Rabbi Dovid Moshe Landau, both highly experienced mohelim who are well known in Jewish communities across Europe. Prosecutors allege that they performed dozens of circumcisions on eight-day-old infants during the period covered by the investigation and are seeking to charge them with intentional assault, bodily injury, and the illegal practice of medicine.

A ruling on whether the case will move to trial has now been postponed indefinitely after the complainant submitted a request seeking further investigation. He claims to possess additional evidence against the mohelim and is demanding that authorities question several individuals whom he alleges are involved in coordinating circumcisions within the Jewish community.

At the same time, the two mohelim have filed their own petition challenging the complaints against them, arguing that the allegations are baseless. That petition will be addressed before any decision is made regarding possible criminal charges.

The case has generated significant concern within Antwerp’s Jewish community and has revived memories of previous European campaigns targeting bris milah. Community members and advocates have long argued that efforts to restrict circumcision under the banner of protecting children have, in some instances, been driven by hostility toward Jewish religious practice and attempts to limit the ability of Jews to observe their faith.

{Matzav.com}

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Among the many tragic episodes recorded in the Torah, few are as perplexing as the story of Korach. Korach was no ordinary man. Chazal tell us that he was exceptionally wealthy, exceptionally wise, and among the distinguished leaders of Klal Yisroel. He witnessed the greatest revelations in history. He stood at Har Sinai, accepting the Torah and hearing Hashem’s voice call out. He experienced Yetzias Mitzrayim. He lived among a generation that saw open miracles daily.

We learn the parsha and wonder how a person such as he could fall so low.

The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos teaches that any dispute conducted lesheim Shomayim, for the sake of Heaven, will endure, while one that is not for the sake of Heaven will not endure. The Mishnah then presents the ultimate example of a dispute not for the sake of Heaven: “The dispute of Korach and his congregation.”

What was the root of Korach’s rebellion?

The Torah hints at the answer. Korach could not accept the position that had been given to others. Moshe Rabbeinu was chosen as the leader of Klal Yisroel. Aharon had been selected for the kehunah. Elitzofon ben Uziel was appointed nosi. Korach looked around and saw honor bestowed upon others, and he was sickened.

People possess many different types of taavos and desires. Some are relatively harmless, while others can be profoundly destructive. The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos teaches, in the name of Rav Elazar Hakappar, that “hakinah v’hataavah v’hakavod, jealousy, lust, and the pursuit of honor, remove a person from the world.”

Of the three, the pursuit of honor is often the most destructive. A person recognizes physical temptations and understands the dangers they pose, but the desire for honor is so blinding that it often disguises itself as virtue. People convince themselves that they seek leadership for the sake of a worthy cause, to enable them to influence for the public good, or recognition to advance an important goal. In reality, it is the craving for honor that becomes all-consuming, blinding a person to reason and driving him to sacrifice everything in its pursuit.

Korach is a perfect illustration. He possessed virtually everything a person could desire, yet he could not accept that the honor he coveted was instead bestowed upon others. His obsession with attaining a position that was not his clouded his judgment and led him to challenge Moshe Rabbeinu. The honor he sought became the cause of his destruction, dragging him down along with his followers and leaving Korach as the Torah’s enduring symbol of how the lust for power can consume even the greatest of men.

Korach convinced himself that his rebellion was noble. He spoke in the language of equality and justice. “For the entire congregation is holy,” he declared. Yet, beneath the lofty rhetoric was a personal grievance. He wanted the position that had been given to someone else.

The Torah demonstrates how destructive this impulse can become. Korach did not merely challenge Moshe. He turned people against one another. Ultimately, the earth itself opened and swallowed him and his followers.

Chazal ask, “Korach, who was wise, what did he see to pursue this foolish endeavor?” The question itself is telling. His downfall was not due to ignorance. It was due to desire. Once a person’s ambitions take control, wisdom becomes powerless, and the desire becomes all-consuming.

The Mesillas Yeshorim addresses this taavah in the eleventh chapter, where he discusses the trait of nekiyus, the obligation to cleanse ourselves of subtle character flaws that ensnare people without them realizing it. Among the most dangerous of these flaws, he writes, is the pursuit of honor.

At first glance, honor seems harmless. Unlike wealth or physical pleasures, it appears noble and refined. A person may convince himself that he seeks a position of influence only to help others, leadership only to serve a worthy cause, or prominence only to advance a noble goal. Yet, the Mesillas Yeshorim warns that the desire for honor possesses extraordinary power to distort judgment and destroy people.

He writes that countless people have been destroyed by their quest for authority and recognition. The craving for honor can be so overwhelming that a person will sacrifice wisdom, relationships, principles, and even his spiritual wellbeing in order to satisfy it.

The Mesillas Yeshorim states that the desire for honor can never be satisfied. No matter how much a person possesses, he focuses on what remains beyond his reach. Instead of appreciating his blessings, he becomes consumed by the success of others. Instead of serving Hashem with joy, he becomes preoccupied with status and recognition. He says that a person can overcome his yeitzer hora for money or other enjoyments, but someone who desires honor can never overcome the awful feeling he experiences when he sees someone else possessing more than he does.

To illustrate the point, the Mesillas Yeshorim cites Korach. He had everything a person could want, yet it wasn’t enough. There was someone with a higher position than his, and that drove him past the breaking point.

The Mesillas Yeshorim’s words are as relevant today as they were when they were written centuries ago. Careers, families, communities, and institutions have been fractured because individuals became more concerned with prominence than purpose. The desire to be important becomes more important than doing what is right—or anything else.

Moshe fled from honor. Korach pursued it. Moshe became the greatest leader our nation has ever known. Korach became a symbol of the destruction that results when ambition is allowed to eclipse humility.

The person who seeks honor rarely finds satisfaction, while the person who seeks to serve Hashem discovers a greatness far beyond anything honor can provide.

There is a well-known, oft-repeated story about the Chofetz Chaim that captures the Torah’s perspective on leadership and greatness.

A visitor once came to Radin and entered the humble home of the Chofetz Chaim. Looking around, he was astonished. The furnishings were sparse. There was little evidence that one of the most revered Jews in the world lived there.

“Rebbe,” the visitor asked, “where is your furniture?”

The Chofetz Chaim responded with a question of his own.

“And where is yours?”

The man explained that he was merely traveling and had only temporary accommodations.

The Chofetz Chaim smiled and replied, “I, too, am only traveling.”

The Chofetz Chaim understood something that Korach had forgotten. This world is temporary. Positions are temporary. Titles are temporary. Influence is temporary. A person can spend his life fighting for honor and authority only to discover that both disappear with the passage of time. The only lasting achievements are the Torah, mitzvos, and maasim tovim that accompany a person into eternity.

The Chofetz Chaim fled from honor, viewing it as a poison that must be avoided. So many of our gedolim were exceedingly humble, and many stories are told of their remarkable humility.

Nations have been plunged into war because leaders could not relinquish authority. Families have been torn apart over questions of status and inheritance. Communities have been divided because individuals sought positions of prominence.

The pursuit of honor has toppled countless people who otherwise possessed remarkable talents and virtues.

Chazal teach that honor pursues those who flee from it and flees from those who pursue it. The more desperately a person seeks recognition, the more elusive it becomes. The less he thinks about himself, the more genuinely respected he becomes.

Moshe Rabbeinu embodied this principle. No one ever sought leadership less than Moshe. When Hashem appeared to him at the sneh, he repeatedly resisted accepting the role. He viewed himself as unworthy and begged Hashem to send someone else. Yet, no leader in history attained greater stature than Moshe. Because he did not seek greatness for himself, Hashem entrusted him with the greatest responsibility imaginable.

Korach was the exact opposite. He pursued greatness relentlessly, subjecting all of Klal Yisroel to a bitter machlokes in his bid for honor. In the end, not only did he fail to attain honor, but he lost everything.

Every person has a unique mission in this world that only he can fulfill. Hashem provides each individual with the talents, strengths, and abilities necessary to accomplish that mission.

Rav Yisroel Bunim Schreiber, whom we featured in these pages several weeks ago, is currently visiting the United States on behalf of Keren Olam HaTorah. Wherever he goes, he captivates bnei Torah with his remarkable shiurim, delivered with astonishing mastery and clarity, seemingly without preparation and often without opening a single sefer.

Following one such shiur last week, Rav Schreiber shared a powerful message of chizuk. He said that if every person would focus on becoming the best version of himself, everyone would succeed. The problem, however, is that people spend their lives trying to become someone else. Since they can never truly be that other person, they end up frustrated and disappointed.

To illustrate the point, Rav Schreiber related a story about the Chazon Ish.

Someone once approached the Chazon Ish and remarked that it was well-known that the Vilna Gaon slept only two hours a day, taking a series of brief naps of fifteen minutes each over the course of twenty-four hours. The man then asked, “If that was the case, how much did the great Amoraim Abaye and Rava sleep?”

To most of us, that sounds like a reasonable question.

The Chazon Ish’s response, however, was profound.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe they slept eight hours a day.”

The point is that every person is given the particular strengths, abilities, and circumstances he needs in order to fulfill his unique purpose in life. One person’s path is not another’s. One person’s strengths are not another’s. Success comes not from imitating someone else, not from trying to be someone else, but from developing the gifts Hashem has given us and using them to accomplish our own mission.

Korach’s mistake was that he stopped focusing on his own mission and became consumed with Aharon’s mission. Instead of appreciating the extraordinary role that Hashem had given him, he obsessed over the role that had been given to someone else.

A person receives Hashem’s brachos but cannot enjoy them because he is focused on what someone else has. He is blessed with wealth, but it’s not enough, because the person down the block has more than he does. The person down the block isn’t happy with his wealth because further down the block is someone with even more money, a bigger house, and a nicer car. And it never ends, because that person also isn’t happy. He can’t get over the fact that Elon Musk is worth a trillion dollars and he only has fifty million.

Hashem blessed each of them with more success than they ever dreamed they could achieve, but they aren’t happy because they covet someone else’s prominence. A person has unique gifts, but fixates on talents that belong to someone else.

Comparison is too often the thief of contentment.

Perhaps this is why the Torah places such emphasis on humility. Humility does not mean that a person denies his talents. It means recognizing that every gift, every position, and every opportunity comes from Hashem. A humble person is able to celebrate another person’s success because he understands that every individual has a unique mission. He does not view life as a competition, but rather as a lifelong mission to maximize the strengths Hashem gave him in pursuit of the proper purpose.

Korach could not accept that lesson. He saw another person’s appointment as his own demotion. He measured his worth by comparing himself to others. Once he adopted that perspective, resentment became inevitable.

This challenge is not limited to leaders or public figures. It exists within everyone who doesn’t study mussar and whose life doesn’t revolve around Torah. People seek recognition, honor, and respect. People compare themselves to neighbors, colleagues, relatives, and friends.

The story of Korach reminds us that such thinking is spiritually dangerous. Happiness begins when a person embraces the role Hashem has assigned him rather than coveting the role assigned to someone else.

The greatest people in Jewish history were not those who sought power. They were those who sought purpose. They were willing to lead when necessary, but they never confused leadership with personal honor and glory.

The gedolei hador throughout the generations have demonstrated this. Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach became the gadol hador after spending decades cocooned in the bais medrash, struggling over sugyos of Shas. Similarly, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv spent his days and nights learning in a small locked bais medrash in Meah Shearim. The furthest thing from their minds was assuming power and control or seeking kavod and recognition for their Torah greatness.

As we learn Parshas Korach, we are reminded that the desire for power can blind even the wisest of men. It can transform talent into destruction and potential into tragedy. The antidote is humility, gratitude, and the recognition that every person has a place uniquely designed for him.

Korach wanted someone else’s position and lost his own. Moshe accepted his mission with humility and became Moshe Rabbeinu.

The earth swallowed Korach, but his message remains buried beneath the surface of every human heart. Whenever we feel jealousy at another’s success, resentment at another’s prominence, or frustration that we have not received the recognition we think we deserve, the challenge of Korach reappears.

And whenever we respond with humility, gratitude, and faith that Hashem has given us what we need for the role we are meant to play, we achieve what Korach never could.

May we all be zoche to fulfill our missions in life, to help others pursue theirs, and thereby find success and happiness in our lives while helping prepare the world for the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our day.

Violent clashes erupted overnight in Yerushalayim’s Meah Shearim neighborhood during a protest against the arrest of draft resisters and their imprisonment in military detention facilities. Police said two demonstrators were arrested as security forces moved to restore order near Kikar HaShabbos.

According to police, officers from the Yerushalayim District, Border Police personnel, and special patrol units were dispatched to the area after protesters blocked major intersections, set fires, and disrupted traffic.

Police stated that “a disturbance of public order developed overnight in the Kikar HaShabbos area of Yerushalayim, when violent rioters began blocking traffic routes while attempting to damage vehicles and disrupt public order.”

Authorities said a police commander formally declared the gathering an unlawful disturbance and instructed participants to disperse. However, according to police, demonstrators refused to comply with the orders.

Police alleged that protesters began throwing objects at security forces while continuing to block the roadway. In response, Yerushalayim District officers, Border Police troops, and special patrol units moved to clear the area using force and crowd-control measures, including a water cannon and stun grenades.

The operation was aimed at freeing vehicles trapped by the protest, reopening roads to traffic, and restoring public order, police said.

Video footage from the scene showed chaotic confrontations between protesters and police, including the arrest of one demonstrator. Additional footage circulated from the protest appeared to show loudspeakers collapsing into the crowd during the disturbances.

In a statement, police emphasized that they support the right to protest but argued that the events crossed the line into unlawful conduct.

“Israel Police respects and allows freedom of expression and protest for every person in accordance with the law,” the statement said. “However, in this case, this was not freedom of expression or a legitimate protest, but rather a blatant disruption of public order, the blocking of major transportation arteries, and direct and severe harm to the daily lives of city residents and the general public.”

Police added that they would continue to act “with determination, zero tolerance, and professionalism” against acts of violence, vandalism, and violations of the law.

The two arrested protesters were taken into custody and transferred to a police station for questioning. Authorities did not immediately release additional details regarding possible charges.

{Matzav.com}

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