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Dear Matzav Inbox,

We are watching Klal Yisroel unravel before our very eyes, and instead of addressing the collapse, everyone keeps pretending that all is fine. It is not fine. It is not fine at all. The system — the very structure that is supposed to uphold us, guide us, protect us — has failed. Completely. Catastrophically. And we are the ones paying the price.

Families are drowning in financial ruin. Tuition is sky-high, rent and mortgages are crushing, food prices are unbearable, and every simcha becomes a test to see if the baalei simcha can make it to the finish line without having a heart attack. And that’s not an exaggeration.

Parents max out credit cards just to survive, and the mosdos don’t care — they claim they’re choking as much as the families choke. Where is the compassion? Where is the accountability? Nothing.

Our schools’ financials are in shambles. Teachers, the lifeblood of our children’s chinuch, are treated like beggars, underpaid and undervalued, while administrators often play power games. The classrooms are overcrowded, and if a kid doesn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold, he’s tossed aside like yesterday’s garbage.

Is this what we call chinuch? Is this what we’re so proud of? We are sacrificing entire generations because the system refuses to adapt, to care, to see every child as a neshama.

And let’s talk about the shidduch crisis — a crisis that everyone cries about and no one actually solves. Girls sit waiting, with no solution in sight.

Broken hearts pile up. Broken homes pile up. And broken dreams pile up.

Shalom bayis? Forget it. We are surrounded by couples on the verge of collapse. Financial stress, lack of guidance, emotional exhaustion — it’s a recipe for disaster, and it’s everywhere. How many homes are filled with silence, tension, or outright warfare? How many children are growing up in households where love has been replaced by resentment? Too many. Far too many.

Machlokes is the air we breathe. Shuls are split, neighborhoods divided, institutions at war with each other. Ask yourself: when was the last time you saw true achdus? We hide behind slogans of unity, but in practice, it’s jealousy, politics, control, and ego.

Simple Yidden are left confused, disillusioned, and bitter.

Our youth are walking away. Why shouldn’t they? What do they see? Hypocrisy. Double standards. Parents who preach values they don’t practice. Schools that break children’s spirits instead of raising them up. Why are we shocked when boys and girls run from it all? The only surprise is that more haven’t yet.

We’ve turned simchos into competitions. Instead of celebrating milestones with humility, we are pressured into outspending our neighbors. The photographer, the flowers, the gowns, the catering — it’s a bottomless pit of expenses that bury families alive. We’ve replaced meaning with show, joy with debt.

Our kollelim and yeshivos — where is the money to sustain them properly? We build monumental buildings, but we can’t pay rabbeim on time. We have wealthy donors funding all types of funds around the world, but our own communities in the Diaspora are drowing. Literally.

Chessed? Too often it’s become a photo-op, a brand, a fundraiser. Chesed is often drowned out by glossy campaigns and PR stunts.

Leadership? Don’t get me started. Where is it? Who is standing up and addressing these crises head-on? Who is gathering Klal Yisroel and saying enough is enough? Instead, we get silence. Or worse — meaningless speeches and soundbites.

The system keeps spinning its wheels, protecting itself, while families, children, marriages, and entire communities collapse.

And what about mental health? Swept under the rug. How many teenagers and young adults are crying themselves to sleep, suffering from crushing anxiety, depression, and trauma, while we keep pretending everything is perfect? How many suicides will it take before the silence ends?

We are a nation spiraling — addicted to money, divided by egos, choked by dysfunction, crippled by a system that no longer works. We are sick. And the sickness comes not from the bottom but from the top. The system is broken. And worst of all, the will to change is broken.

Yes, there are bright spots. Yes, there are beautiful families and acts of greatness. But stop telling me about the bright spots when the house is burning down. Stop distracting us with slogans and photo-ops while Klal Yisroel falls apart.

It is time to stop pretending. It is time to start screaming. It is time for accountability, for courage, for truth. Because if we keep going like this, there won’t be anything left to hold together.

Sincerely,
A Member of Klal Yisroel

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{Matzav.com}

Israeli FM Gideon Sa’ar: “Emmanuel Macron will not be able to come to Israel as long as France persists in its anti-Israeli actions.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty to Fed Board nominee Dr. Stephen Miran: “I applaud the President for nominating you. You’ve been very clear that you want… the Fed to get out of the political arena it’s been operating in… I very much appreciate that.”

FDNY members are currently operating at a 3-alarm fire at 108 Taylor Street on Staten Island.

Rep. Jeffries on investigation into Fed Gov. Lisa Cook: “The Department of Justice continues to try to weaponize the federal government against people who have declined to bend the knee to Donald Trump and his extremism. We will not be intimidated by the Department of Justice.”

Syrian media reported that an international coalition airstrike targeted a vehicle en route to Aleppo Airport.

Sen. Mark Warner: “You’re saying the Biden Administration politicized all of the [COVID] data?!?” RFK JR.: “Yeah! … They fired all of the people who questioned the orthodoxy!”

Zelenskyy: Trump is not happy that Europe buys Russian oil. Among others there are two countries, Hungary and Slovakia.

In the past week, the Air Force intercepted five UAVs and two ground-to-ground missiles launched from Yemen.

RFK JR. scorches Sen. Ron Wyden: “You’ve sat in that chair for how long — 20, 25 years? — while the chronic disease in our children went up to 76%, and you said nothing. You never asked the question, ‘Why is this happening?'”

RFK JR.: “[CDC] changes were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world’s gold standard… The people at CDC who oversaw [COVID] — who put masks on our children, who closed our schools — are the people that will be leaving.”

Zelenskyy: Putin will be forced for peace. We need to take away from the Russian war machine. Their means to produce weapons.

As RFK JR. enters Senate hearing, reporters ask if he will resign, while supporters chant “We love you Bobby”

During a Thursday call with European leaders as part of the Coalition of the Willing, President Trump urged them to halt their purchases of Russian oil, a White House official confirmed.

During an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “The Chris Salcedo Show” Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, describing him as a “disgusting, racist bigot.”

The day before, at a press conference, Pritzker had commented on the treatment of immigrants. “In a circumstance where they’re simply celebrating their heritage, they shouldn’t be interrupted in this way. This is the aim of this government. They don’t actually care if you’re here and undocumented, they just care if your skin color is a little off of theirs and that you’re Latino, they’re going to just target you. All of us need to speak up and speak out about the assault on just regular residents who are following the law, who are going to work, paying their taxes, who’ve been around in our city for ten, 20, 30 years. We ought to be protecting those people. And if they want to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, they ought to be able to do that without being terrorized by ICE.”

Responding to that statement, Cruz said on the program, “Yeah, look, I got to say, I had not heard that particular clip. Chris, you really know how to piss me off. What a disgusting, racist bigot J.B. Pritzker is. You and I are both Latino and listen, I don’t want to get between J.B. Pritzker and the Domino’s Pizza line, but I’ll tell you what I am willing to get between is him and his open doors for every human trafficker, every drug trafficker, every MS13 and Tren de Aragua gang member.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

⏰ The raffle is almost over, and the drawing is just around the corner — making this your very last chance to enter! For only $36, you could take your entire family to Yerushalayim for Succos with 7 round-trip tickets, 11 days of luxury accommodations, and $1,000 spending money, or choose $12,000 cash instead. Don’t wait — once it’s over, it’s over. Enter now and grab your chance today!

The Haifa District Attorney’s Office on Thursday filed an indictment against a resident of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, an Arab town in northern Israel, for pledging allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS) and planning an attack on Israeli security forces. In a joint statement, the Israel Police and Shin Bet warned that the case highlights a “worrying rise in Israeli Arab involvement in terrorism, influenced by the ongoing war.” The suspect, 25-year-old Najib Dick, was arrested in recent weeks. Investigators said he joined ISIS after swearing allegiance, watched ISIS content online—including execution and beheading videos—and, amid his increasing religious fervor and the war in Gaza, began considering an attack on Israeli security forces. This case follows a series of recent indictments tied to ISIS support. In May, two brothers and a 15-year-old from Arara were charged after allegedly pledging allegiance to ISIS, contacting a Syrian handler for instructions on building explosives, and planning a car bomb attack in Tel Aviv. Two months earlier, a 17-year-old from Jisr a-Zarqa was indicted for repeatedly pledging allegiance to ISIS and plotting an attack in Hadera. Police found documents on bomb-making in his possession at the time of his arrest. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

More than 1,000 present and former staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have endorsed a public letter calling on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to step down from his position as Health Secretary.

The statement, issued under the banner of Save HHS, charged Kennedy with undermining the well-being of Americans while also assisting in what they described as constitutional violations. Copies of the letter were forwarded to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the Senate Committee on Finance, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“We swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution and to serve the American people. Our oath requires us to speak out when the Constitution is violated and the American people are put at risk,” the letter declared. “Thus, we warn the President, Congress, and the Public that Secretary Kennedy’s actions are compromising the health of this nation, and we demand Secretary Kennedy’s resignation.”

The document also outlined what it said were Kennedy’s specific failings, among them dismissing CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez, selecting appointees hostile to MRNA vaccines, and opposing the use of coronavirus shots.

“Rescinding the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines without providing the data or methods used to reach such a decision,” the letter charged. “Disparaging the American Academy of Pediatrics for recommending the COVID-19 vaccine in children.”

Responding to the criticism, HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon told ABC News that the CDC “has been broken for a long time” and emphasized that “sustained reform and more personnel changes” would be needed to rebuild confidence in the institution.

“From his first day in office, [Kennedy] pledged to check his assumptions at the door — and he asked every HHS colleague to do the same,” Nixon’s statement continued. “That commitment to evidence-based science is why, in just seven months, he and the HHS team have accomplished more than any health secretary in history in the fight to end the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

In addition, Kennedy authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday in which he accused the CDC of having wasted “public trust,” noting that he had been appointed by Trump to “restore that trust and return the CDC to its core mission.”

{Matzav.com}

Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from houses destroyed by a major earthquake in Afghanistan last week, pushing the death toll to over 2,200, a Taliban government spokesman said Thursday. A 6.0 magnitude quake struck several provinces of the mountainous and remote east on Sunday night, levelling villages and trapping people under rubble. The majority of casualties have been in Kunar, where many live in steep river valleys separated by high mountains. Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, who provided the updated casualty figure of 2,205, said rescue and search efforts were continuing. “Tents have been set up for people, and the delivery of first aid and emergency supplies is ongoing.” The rough terrain is hindering relief efforts. Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help survivors. Aid workers have reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall. Funding cuts are also having an impact on the response. The Norwegian Refugee Council said it had fewer than 450 staff in Afghanistan whereas it had 1,100 in 2023, the date of the last major quake in the country. The council only had one warehouse remaining and no emergency stock. “We will need to purchase items once we get the funding but this will take potentially weeks and people are in need now,” said Maisam Shafiey, the communications and advocacy advisor for the council in Afghanistan. “We have only $100,000 available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of $1.9 million.” Humanitarian organizations have called the latest disaster a crisis within a crisis. Afghanistan was already struggling with the impact of climate change, particularly drought, a weak economy and the return of some 2 million Afghans from neighboring countries. (AP)

After a week of hospitalization and recovery, the Belzer Rebbe was released Thursday afternoon from Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim. He returned to his residence in Kiryat Belz to continue resting and recuperating following surgery on his leg performed on Sunday.

Upon his arrival back home, chassidim greeted him with heartfelt singing of “Ki Orech Yamim Ushenos Chaim.” For the time being, there will be no kabbalas kahal during the month of Elul, with future schedules to be announced by the chassidus.

During the Rebbe’s hospitalization, Belzer chassidim poured out their hearts in prayer for his recovery.

The Rebbe also received a personal visit from his brother-in-law, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, who was at Hadassah for medical treatment of his own.

All are asked to continue their tefillos for Rav Yissachar Dov ben Miriam.

{Matzav.com}