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Dear Matzav Inbox,

I am a regular guy, born and raised in Monsey, NY. I try hard to be kovea itim, to do chessed, to provide for my family, and to live with ahavas Yisrael. I have always pushed myself to love every Jew from every background, and when that love was difficult, I made it a point to give more in order to strengthen it. The kinds of Yidden that many people avoid are often the ones I try to get close to. If I see someone hitchhiking, I try to pick them up. For me, the philosophy is simple: when I don’t know how to act, I ask myself, “What does Hashem want?”

I am Litvish, but I have always been drawn to Chassidish Torah and sefarim. Many of my rabbeim are Chassidish, and few things bring me more joy than a Chassidishe tish, farbrengen, or Simchas Beis HaShoeva.

Another important piece of who I am is that I live within a mile of New Square. I’ve always considered it an honor to be their neighbor. I’ve gone to the mikvah there on Fridays, schmoozed with the Yidden, and built friendships through business connections.

Throughout the years in which Skver bought up houses in my neighborhood, I tried to stay positive and be dan l’kaf zechus. I told myself that I didn’t need to understand everything — it’s all in Hashem’s hands. But as the situation progressed, and as my rabbeim told me that I have a responsibility to stand up against what I believe is injustice, I began to see a side of Judaism that I never believed existed.

I see a community of thousands of families following rabbanim, dayanim, askanim, and ultimately a Rebbe — and yet it feels to me as though they are trying to destroy another frum community in a way I have never seen frum Jews treat each other. At first, I assumed they simply didn’t realize the impact of their actions. But as time went on, it became clear that not only do they understand, they believe they are doing the right thing — and they are doubling down.

So I ask myself: could it be that they never stop to ask, “Is this what Hashem wants?” Could it be that people can live their whole lives as frum Yidden without asking that question? Could it be that sinas chinam becomes justified simply because peers say it’s okay?

I have spoken to many gedolim from different backgrounds, to askanim, and to regular Jews on the street. The response I’ve consistently heard is that what’s happening is wrong and very difficult to comprehend.

I am trying hard to keep an open mind. I still give tzedakah every time someone from Skver knocks on my door collecting for a chasunah or for Shabbos food. I keep telling myself that this is what Hashem wants. But what I see is a community that externally follows Torah, yet seems to care more about currying favor with politicians, wealthy individuals, or anyone who can elevate their public image — while forgetting what Hashem truly asks of us, and the fact that the purpose of this world is to grow closer to Him.

This entire situation has left me sad and confused. For the first time in nearly forty years, I find myself struggling to see the good — not just in one Yid, but in thousands. It leads my mind to places and questions I wish I never had to think about.

I hope this all disappears like a bad dream. But one thing I know with absolute clarity is this: I am here in this world to do what Hashem wants from me. So when I see a Skverer Yid hitchhiking or collecting for a poor family, I will still give — even if the smile is forced — because I believe that is what Hashem wants.

But I beg my friends in Skver: please ask yourselves the same question. You have spent your whole lives striving to grow closer to Hashem. Please don’t throw that away for this.

A Standard Monsey Yid

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Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is suing the Trump administration over cuts to SNAP benefits for noncitizens and its intensified anti-fraud measures.

Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau on Thursday announced a new junta leader, cementing a forceful takeover of power that began after a disputed presidential election, in what the main opposition candidate called a ploy to prevent him from taking over power. The military high command inaugurated Gen. Horta Inta-A as the head of the military government, which […]

Dear Matzav Inbox,

It is no secret that כלל ישראל is going through very challenging times—spiritually, emotionally, and financially. We all feel the pressure, and we all know how much רחמי שמים we need.

There is one issue, however, that weighs particularly heavily on my heart, because it relates directly to the future of Torah: שלא תשתכח תורה מישראל.

The Gemara in Bava Metzia 85a tells the famous story of רבי חייא, who went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that Torah would never be forgotten. He planted flax, made nets, trapped deer, prepared parchment, wrote seforim, and then taught children—step by step, until Torah was firmly rooted.

One thing is clear: רבי חייא did not begin by investigating “who” the parents were, whether they were from “elite” backgrounds, or whether they fit a certain profile. If there was a Jewish child, there was a נשמה. A child of בני אברהם יצחק ויעקב. And that meant a responsibility to give that child access to תורה ומצוות.

Today, unfortunately, we are hearing more and more stories of Yiddishe kinderlach who are not accepted into mosdos, or whose parents are put through an emotionally draining and humiliating process just to receive a “yes.” Even when a child is eventually taken, the pain and stress leading up to that point can be enormous.

Many of us remember a different reality. When we were children, there were all kinds of families in every class. There were stronger homes and weaker homes, wealthier and simpler, more “yeshivish” and less. And yet, many children from the most “simple” homes grew into beautiful בני תורה and בעלי מידות. At the same time, not every child from the most respected families remained on the straightest path. Why? Because every person has כח הבחירה and unique nisyonos. We simply cannot judge a child’s future by the external package of the home.

Meanwhile, the tuition burden has reached staggering levels. Families are paying $10,000, $15,000, sometimes far more per child. Parents are sacrificing half—or even more—of their income for chinuch, because Torah is precious to them. And yet, instead of always feeling appreciation for that sacrifice, many parents feel examined and scrutinized, as if going through an X-ray or MRI.

This is not to ignore the complexity on the side of the mosdos. Running a school is extremely difficult. There are finances, staff, standards, legal issues, social dynamics, and real concerns about hashpa’ah. The menahalim and hanhalah are shouldering a heavy load for Klal Yisroel, and their avodah should be respected and appreciated.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the painful stories of parents crying at night because they don’t know where their child will be on the first day of school.

So what can we do?

A Humble Proposal

Without pretending to have all the answers, I would like to suggest a communal framework, and ask our גדולי ישראל and askanim to consider something along these lines:

• Every town or city with a frum community should have a clear, communal responsibility that every Jewish child who wants a Torah education has a place.
• Whether through one designated mosad, or through a coordinated system among all mosdos, there should be a no-child-left-out policy for families who are truly seeking a Yiddishe chinuch.
• Alongside this, there should be a communal, dignified system to help families who cannot pay full tuition—similar to how communities arrange funds for תומכי שבת and other basic needs.

This is not about forcing any specific school to change its entire system. It is about saying, as a community: “If there is a Jewish child who wants to learn Torah, we will find a place for that child. Period.”

Imagine the קידוש השם if parents knew: No matter what, if I am trying to do the right thing, my child will not be left without a school. Imagine the nachas ruach this would bring to Hashem.

I am not writing to criticize, חס ושלום, any particular mosad, nor to point fingers at specific individuals. I am writing as a fellow Yid, as a parent, and as someone who fears for the long-term impact if children feel rejected by the very system that is meant to embrace them.

Our grandparents and great-grandparents who survived the war would likely be shocked to hear that a frum family who wants to send their child to a frum school might face closed doors. After everything they went through to keep Yiddishkeit alive, can we allow this to be the experience of their descendants?

We have the ability—if we choose—to change this dynamic. With leadership from our גדולים, guidance from experienced mechanchim, and the heart of Klal Yisroel, we can create a structure in which every child who wants Torah has a makom in Torah.

May we be zocheh that through strengthening the dignity and inclusion of every Jewish child, we bring more rachamei shamayim and more siyata dishmaya upon our entire community.

A Concerned Community Member  

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The opinions expressed in letters on Matzav.com do not necessarily reflect the stance of the Matzav Media Network.

BORO PARK: FDNY firefighters are on scene at 4916 13th Avenue after a fire broke out inside a store. Firefighters moved quickly and brought the blaze under control shortly after arrival. No injuries reported.

New York Knicks star Josh Hart had $185,000 worth of watches and jewelry stolen from a SoHo hotel room earlier this year, according to The Post. Hart, 30, had dropped off his duffle bag inside The Dominick Hotel on Spring Street near Varick Street around 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 5 — but when he returned […]

Andrew Wolfe, 24, and Sarah Beckstrom, 20, are the two National Guards members that are currently fighting for their lives after being shot yesterday in a targeted attack.

A group of Israeli “activists” crossed the border from Israel into Syria near the Syrian village of Bir Ajam in an attempt to establish a new settlement. The IDF has already returned all the “activists” back to Israel.

A man has been taken into custody today at Manchester Airport as part of an ongoing investigation into the October terror attack outside a synagogue during Yom Kippur. The arrest follows significant investigative progress since the October terror attack outside a synagogue during Yom Kippur, and officials are now examining his terror plans and possible […]

The Knesset held its annual memorial session Wednesday marking the yahrtzeit of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the speech that drew the most attention came from UTJ MK Meir Porush, who used the podium to sharply criticize the legal establishment while invoking Ben-Gurion’s historic role in securing the status of bnei hayeshivos.

Porush opened by declaring that although he never supported Ben-Gurion or the Labor movement, the chareidi community owes him acknowledgment. “I never voted for Ben-Gurion or for the Labor Party — I have been an Agudas Yisroel man since birth — but there is no doubt that given the harmful behavior toward chareidim today, Ben-Gurion is among the few leaders deserving of praise from the chareidi public in recent generations,” he said. He cited Ben-Gurion’s authorship of the status quo agreement and his establishment of the yeshiva draft exemption framework as actions that “poured concrete foundations for the existence of the yeshiva world.”

Porush lamented that “75 years after Ben-Gurion hammered in the nails that secured the status of yeshiva students, jurists — utterly detached from any spark of Judaism — arrived and declared war on the world of Torah, and in my view, on Ben-Gurion’s own legacy.”

Porush went on to describe Ben-Gurion’s original motivation for the status quo agreement. “When Ben-Gurion sought to establish the state, he wanted to prevent opposition from Agudas Yisroel, which at the time represented chareidi Jewry. He knew the UN would weigh that position. That is why the status quo document was crafted — to guarantee the preservation of basic Jewish principles in Eretz Yisroel.”

Porush then escalated his criticism, arguing that had Ben-Gurion been told that, decades later, “a group of unelected jurists would seize control of the state, embark on a campaign against the world of Torah and erase the agreements he set in place, I am not sure his stance would have been the same.”

He then turned his fire directly at Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. “Yesterday, the Attorney General — who has already been dismissed but clings to the horns of the altar — sent a letter to the prime minister demanding the arrest of more Torah learners and economic sanctions on families of struggling avreichim.”

Porush added angrily that the Attorney General is now urging Netanyahu to bypass the Knesset legislatively. “The one entrusted with upholding the law proposes circumventing the Knesset. Why? Because she knows that despite all disagreements, there is no majority in this building for her program of persecuting and arresting Torah students. Is this democracy?”

He also attacked the rebranding of the Labor Party as “The Democrats.” “Recently, they changed the name of the party Ben-Gurion founded to ‘Democrats,’ even though Ben-Gurion spoke of a Jewish and democratic state — because a democratic state alone can be established even in Uganda. Are Ben-Gurion’s successors trying to erase his legacy?”

Porush concluded with an appeal to Labor MKs. “I call on members of the Labor Party: follow in Ben-Gurion’s path and work to resolve the status of yeshiva students through dialogue and consensus. From Lieberman and Lapid I have no expectations — they build themselves by persecuting chareidim — but you, what do you have to do with all this?”

After finishing his remarks, Porush recited a perek of Mishnayos in Ben-Gurion’s memory.

{Matzav.com}

Marking a year since the Lebanon ceasefire, the IDF says it has killed over 370 Hezbollah and allied terrorists for violating the ceasefire. The military has also conducted 1,200+ raids, targeting terror infrastructure, weapons, and rocket sites to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities.  

Israel has offered Hamas a rare deal: come out of the tunnels alive. According to a report by Channel 12, Israel conveyed a proposal last week through international mediators that would allow dozens of Hamas fighters trapped beneath the IDF-controlled sector of eastern Rafah to surrender and be transferred to Israeli prisons, with the possibility […]

About 10 Chareidi soldiers are being forced to serve at a mixed base together with female soldiers, contrary to regulations, Kol B’Rama Radio reported. According to the report, the soldiers were discharged from the Chareidi Tomer and Netzach Yehuda battalions due to a lowered profile or other reasons and were transferred about two months ago […]

The European Space Agency said Thursday it would increase its budget for the next three years to almost 22.1 billion euros ($25.6 billion). Ahead of an agency conference in the German city of Bremen, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher had expressed concern that Europe could be left behind in space travel if it didn’t invest […]

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is set to enter a high-stakes phase today as its chairman, MK Boaz Bismuth, prepares to present the latest draft of the controversial draft law and announce an intensive series of committee deliberations aimed at pushing the legislation toward final approval.

Once the text is publicly released, lawmakers and the broader public will see, for the first time, the complete and updated version of the proposed law regulating the status of yeshiva students. Coalition officials hope that the upcoming discussions will produce enough agreement on changes to move the bill forward to its second and third readings in the Knesset plenum.

Bismuth is expected to launch a marathon of debates in the committee, a move reflecting pressure from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, both of whom believe the coalition can ultimately secure a majority for the legislation.

However, in a direct challenge to Netanyahu’s demands, the heads of the chareidi parties have refused to commit to supporting the bill before committee deliberations conclude and the final text is reviewed by the gedolei Yisroel. Their hesitation has sharpened political concerns inside the coalition.

Knesset sources say that the sudden acceleration of the legislative timetable is driven partly by a looming deadline: in just over two weeks, six months will have passed since the last bill to dissolve the Knesset was voted down. Once that window closes, the opposition will once again be able to submit a new dissolution bill — raising fears in Netanyahu’s circle that the chareidi parties might use the opportunity to back early elections if they feel cornered over the draft law.

A senior chareidi figure involved in the negotiations said this week that the chances of the bill surviving the full legislative process are low. “The law — with high probability — will not pass second and third readings, and if it does, it will not withstand scrutiny in the High Court,” he said. He added that the version crafted by MK Yaakov Asher Atias was designed largely to demonstrate to rabbinic leaders that genuine efforts were made to regulate the issue — perhaps paving the way for the chareidi parties to re-enter the government even without actual legislation.

The same official warned that the committee discussions could still take a dramatic turn. One example he cited was the legal adviser’s demand to raise the first-year enlistment quota to 7,500 chareidim — a move that would require an additional 1,500 recruits in the first year alone.

Earlier this week, as reported by Matzav.com, Deri told Shas MKs that the committee is expected to begin debating the final language “in the coming days.” But he reiterated that Shas would not commit to supporting the legislation until the Moetzet Chachmei Hatorah reviews the final draft. Only after that ruling, he said, will Shas decide how to vote.

Deri nevertheless expressed optimism, insisting that if the gedolim approve the bill, the coalition will have enough votes to pass it, despite several coalition MKs already declaring they will oppose it. “It’s possible that in the near future, we’ll already be past all of this,” Deri added.

Meanwhile, Religious Zionism leader Betzalel Smotrich continued to press for a more substantive overhaul. He said: “Only a law that creates a real process where the chareidi public participates in the great mitzvah of defending the security of Israel and its eternity. That is essential. The situation cannot remain as it is.” He added, “Anyone who thinks I’ll be a rubber stamp doesn’t understand anything. In my worldview, there is no exemption from this mitzvah.”

Smotrich insisted on a genuine, rapid process that would draft “thousands of chareidim every year into the Israel Defense Forces, into combat service, into positions where they are needed.”

In contrast, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi argued that opposing the draft law is itself a security threat. “Anyone who opposes the draft law is harming the security of the state and harming the army,” he said, adding that political objections over the past two years — including by former officials — prevented the law from advancing before the war. Passing the bill, he insisted, would unquestionably lead to an increase in chareidi enlistment.

Karhi accused opposition leaders Avigdor Liberman and Yair Lapid of exploiting the issue for political gain. “They want the chareidim drafted for their election campaign,” he said. “If the chareidim pass a law by consensus, what will they sell to their voters? All they will have left is incitement against the chareidi public.”

The coming weeks in the committee are expected to determine not only the fate of the draft law, but potentially the fate of the coalition itself.

{Matzav.com}

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is defending his transition team after naming Tamika Mallory — an activist with a long history of alleged antisemitism — to the committee responsible for shaping policy on community safety, policing, and hate crime prevention. Mallory, a former leader of the Women’s March movement, stepped down from the group’s […]

A suspected terror attack just blocks from the White House has ignited a political firestorm, after law enforcement sources confirmed that the alleged gunman — a former Afghan soldier who worked with U.S. intelligence agencies — had entered the country under President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, allegedly ambushed two West […]

US officials have now acknowledged that the man accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House had previously been part of American-supported counterterror units during the Afghanistan war. The CIA confirmed that Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, served with forces aligned with the agency before the collapse of Kabul.

Authorities say Lakanwal entered the United States in September 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, the emergency entry track created for Afghans who worked alongside American personnel and were swept up in the frantic evacuation. His background with US-connected security units was not publicly known until Wednesday night, when CIA director John Ratcliffe addressed the matter.

According to The New York Times, Lakanwal was attached to multiple American agencies during the war, including a CIA-supported group operating out of Kandahar — a region that long served as a key base of Taliban activity. Ratcliffe, speaking to Fox News Digital, said: “The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA,” noting that Lakanwal’s role was “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation”.

In the wake of the attack, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a sweeping pause affecting Afghan nationals seeking immigration benefits. The agency stated on its social platforms: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

As Washington reeled from the incident, President Trump ordered hundreds of additional Guard members into the capital. He characterized the shooting as an “act of terror” and warned that immigration represents “the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”

{Matzav.com}

Firefighters battled a blaze at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong for the second day on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 75 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city’s modern history. Rescuers holding flashlights were going from apartment to apartment at the charred towers as thick smoke continued to pour out […]

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