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Tefillos are being held throughout Vizhnitzer communities as the Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rav Yisroel Hager, prepares to undergo a procedure to implant a cardiac pacemaker tomorrow morning at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Yerushalayim.

The procedure is scheduled to take place in the hospital’s cardiology department at 8:30 a.m.

According to sources, the Rebbe had originally been scheduled to undergo the procedure before Rosh Hashanah, but personally requested that it be postponed until after Rosh Hashanah.

A statement issued by the Rebbe’s household called upon Vizhnitzer chassidim and Jews everywhere to increase their tefillos on his behalf.

“With Hashem’s help, tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8:30 in the morning, our Rebbe will undergo a special medical procedure at the hospital. The entire community and all of Klal Yisroel are asked to increase their prayers for his merit and complete recovery, and may we merit the fulfillment of the verse, ‘For through me your days will be increased, and years of life will be added to you, for our good all the days.’”

Vizhnitz officials announced that special minyanim will be held at 8:30 a.m., coinciding with the scheduled procedure, at several prominent locations.

“With Hashem’s help, at 8:30, prayer gatherings will be held at the resting place of our Rebbes, at the Kosel and at the holy site in Meron,” the Vizhnitz announcement said.

The public is being asked to daven and invoke rachamei Shomayim for the Rebbe’s complete recovery.

Despite his illness, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe spent Rosh Hashanah together with thousands of his chassidim and served as shaliach tzibbur for all of the tefillos over the course of the Yom Tov.

Throughout Rosh Hashanah, special Mi Shebeirachs were also recited for the Rebbe’s recovery in the courts of numerous other Rebbes.

All are asked to daven for Rav Yisroel ben Leah Esther.

{Matzav.com}

New York students will no longer have to pass Regents exams to receive a high school diploma beginning with the class of 2028, after the state Board of Regents voted Monday to approve a sweeping overhaul of graduation requirements that will shift much of the responsibility for assessing students to individual school districts.

Under the new framework, New York will also move away from its current three-diploma structure and establish a single high school diploma. Districts will be permitted to use locally developed assessments and other measures to determine whether students have demonstrated the knowledge and skills necessary to graduate, while advanced academic distinctions will remain available on an optional basis.

The Board of Regents formally approved the change Monday morning, marking a major departure from the system that has for decades required students to pass a series of state Regents examinations before earning a diploma.

The changes are part of the state Education Department’s broader Portrait of a Graduate initiative. Education Commissioner Betty Rosa has argued that the current system does not treat students equally, noting that students attending many private schools — including those serving affluent families — can graduate without passing Regents exams. Rosa and Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young Jr. have said the new approach is intended to prevent a student’s background or ZIP code from determining his or her opportunity to graduate.

With the board’s approval of the NY Inspires timeline, the state Education Department is expected to present formal regulatory amendments by February 2027. Those regulations will lay out the details of the new graduation system and the transition to a single diploma.

Instead of making passage of standardized Regents exams a prerequisite for graduation, individual districts will develop assessment and grading systems using multiple measures of student performance. Those could include teachers’ daily evaluations, classroom quizzes, state examinations and other demonstrations of academic proficiency.

The state’s goal is to place greater emphasis on students demonstrating critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities rather than relying predominantly on their performance on multiple-choice and other standardized test questions.

The Board of Regents is scheduled to vote in June 2027 on final adoption of the regulatory changes. If approved as planned, the new single-diploma requirements would take effect July 1, 2027. During the 2027-28 school year, districts would also be required to develop their initial implementation plans and make them available to the public.

Regents exams themselves, however, will not disappear entirely.

New York will continue administering high school assessments required under federal law, including the Every Student Succeeds Act. Students will still be tested in English, mathematics and science, while New York also requires social studies testing for state accountability purposes.

The state Education Department is expected to develop assessments in those subjects that can be used to monitor student achievement and evaluate the performance of schools throughout New York.

The key distinction under the new system is that the remaining state and federally required examinations will primarily serve as tools for evaluating schools rather than as individual barriers to graduation. State officials say the results will allow education authorities to identify districts that are struggling academically or may require additional resources.

Deputy Education Commissioner Angelique Johnson-Dingle has emphasized that the Regents examinations are therefore not simply being eliminated. Their role in the state’s education system is instead being substantially changed.

Moving away from standardized exams as a graduation requirement will also require significant changes in the classroom. State officials are studying pilot programs that assess students through career and technical education, student-directed research projects, practical assignments designed by teachers and other alternatives to conventional testing.

Districts will be expected to create oversight mechanisms to ensure that locally developed assessments accurately measure student achievement and remain consistent with statewide academic expectations.

The Education Department has also drawn a distinction between using Regents exams to measure whether students have mastered material in a particular subject and using the exams to decide whether a student deserves a high school diploma.

According to NYSED, “considerable evidence” supports the usefulness of Regents exams in measuring student achievement within particular subjects, but the department says comparable evidence does not support making passage of those exams a condition for receiving a diploma.

The department has also long advised schools against using Regents results to determine students’ course grades, a policy NYSED said “has been the Department’s position for over two decades.”

Regent Adrian Hale, discussing the changes at the state Education Department meeting, also spoke about his own experiences with the shortcomings of “teaching to the test” in public schools.

The latest changes represent the next stage of the New York Inspires initiative, which is intended to shift the state’s graduation system toward practical skills and different ways for students to demonstrate what they have learned. New York education officials have spent several years examining alternative graduation measures and considering an eventual end to Regents exams as a diploma requirement.

One unresolved issue is how districts with fewer financial resources will provide some of the advanced educational opportunities envisioned under the new framework. Young raised questions about how the state would finance programs such as International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement courses so that students in less affluent districts have comparable opportunities.

Supporters of eliminating the Regents graduation requirement have argued that the current system contributes to students dropping out of high school, with particularly significant effects on low-income students and students of color.

Maria Odom, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, praised the state for moving away from “the outdated idea that all young people must pass a set of high-stakes standardized tests in order to demonstrate their readiness for post-secondary life.”

Odom said some students complete their coursework despite overcoming significant obstacles but are nevertheless denied diplomas because they cannot clear the Regents requirement, “sometimes sitting for a single exam a half-dozen times to try to raise their score by just a few points.”

A 29-year-old Kansas man has been arrested in Florida after allegedly posting a series of antisemitic death threats against Jewish conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, including messages that appeared to count down to an intended attack around Yom Kippur, according to court documents and law enforcement officials.

Korby Aaren Strube, of Horton, Kansas, was arrested on Sept. 12 and faces 23 counts related to written or electronic threats to kill or inflict bodily harm, along with two counts involving the alleged use of a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony.

According to an affidavit obtained by JNS from the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller of Palm Beach County, Strube allegedly published threatening messages targeting Shapiro on social media on July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2. Among the posts cited in the affidavit were statements that he would be “giving the world a boost by killing Ben Shapiro for being Jewish” and that he was “killing this stupid Jew.”

Investigators said the alleged threats included explicitly antisemitic language and references to Israel.

“He invoked antisemitic conspiratorial themes as justification for the intended killing, attributing violence to ‘semites,’ to ‘Tel Aviv’ and to ‘a foreign government,’” the affidavit stated.

Authorities said the posts made on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 also contained countdowns of 52 and 51 days, respectively, until the threatened killing. According to the affidavit, the countdown appeared to point toward Sept. 21-22, corresponding with Yom Kippur this year.

The investigation began on Aug. 4 after Fortified Risk Group, a private security firm that provides protection for Shapiro, alerted authorities to the messages. Investigators subsequently worked to identify the person behind the social media account and determined that Strube was allegedly responsible for the posts. Shapiro told investigators that he believed he was being targeted because he is Jewish and that he wanted to pursue charges.

The affidavit states that Strube also admitted to posting a threat involving President Donald Trump and the Obamas, although he denied having any intention or desire to kill Trump.

Strube acknowledged that he controlled the social media accounts in question but claimed that his computer had been hacked and that his identity might have been stolen. According to investigators, however, that explanation conflicted with his own admissions and with evidence obtained during the investigation from technology, telephone and internet companies.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigation also drew on information from the U.S. Secret Service. According to the arrest report, a Secret Service agent and Brown County Sheriff’s Office officials had visited Strube’s Kansas home on Aug. 4 in connection with alleged threats involving President Trump and the Obamas. During that encounter, Strube allegedly admitted posting threatening material on social media.

Strube was subsequently taken into custody in Palm Beach County. Court records cited by local media show that a judge ordered him held without bail following a hearing on Sunday.

A video recorded outside the Islamic Cultural Center of New York on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is drawing attention after independent journalist Nate Friedman confronted an NYPD traffic enforcement officer about taxis that appeared to be double-parked near the mosque during Muslim prayers.

Friedman released the footage as part of a documentary about the Islamic Cultural Center, a prominent Manhattan mosque that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has previously visited. In the video, Friedman questioned why some vehicles were apparently being ticketed while taxis parked outside the mosque were being allowed to remain double-parked.

According to Friedman, the officer told him that the taxis were not ticketed while their drivers were attending prayers.

“During the time of salah, we don’t ticket the taxis,” the officer says in the footage, according to Friedman’s account of the exchange.

The interaction has prompted allegations online that parking regulations were being enforced selectively based on the religious activity taking place at the mosque. The available footage and reporting, however, do not establish the religion of motorists who received tickets, nor is there independent evidence showing that the officer was deliberately distinguishing between Muslim and non-Muslim drivers.

Friedman described the situation differently, saying that taxis outside the mosque were receiving an exemption because their drivers were praying. He wrote that “all the taxis double parked get a pass because they’re praying” and cited his conversation with the traffic officer as evidence of the practice.

The underlying parking arrangement may have a longer history than the recent video suggests. Academic research on Muslim taxi drivers in New York describes an apparent accommodation at the Islamic Cultural Center dating back years. Researchers reported that mosque officials had apparently negotiated with the city for special permits allowing drivers to double-park outside the mosque during heavily attended prayer periods. The same research noted that drivers reported inconsistent enforcement, with some saying they nevertheless received tickets.

It was not immediately clear whether such a permit or accommodation remains in effect today, what its precise terms are, or whether it applied to the vehicles Friedman recorded.

New York City traffic regulations generally restrict where taxis may stand while waiting for passengers. The rules do permit taxis and other for-hire vehicles in certain circumstances to stop alongside parked vehicles when picking up or discharging passengers, but that provision contains specific limitations and does not establish a general religious exemption for double-parking.

Friedman’s broader documentary focuses on the Islamic Cultural Center and includes footage of activity around the mosque. He also says members of his team were confronted while filming and that one individual threatened him, telling him, “next time I’ll pull my pistol out and shoot you.” That alleged threat was captured on video, according to Friedman.

The parking footage has since circulated widely on social media, with critics calling for the NYPD to investigate whether traffic laws are being applied uniformly.

There is currently no verified evidence supporting broader claims circulating alongside the video that Muslims are “conquering the police force” in New York City, nor does the footage itself establish such a claim.

The central question raised by Friedman’s video is narrower: whether taxis attending prayers at the Islamic Cultural Center are operating under an authorized city accommodation, an exercise of ordinary enforcement discretion, or an unofficial practice by traffic enforcement personnel.

As of Monday evening, publicly available information reviewed for this report did not establish that the NYPD had opened an investigation into the officer’s conduct or issued an explanation of the specific parking arrangement outside the mosque.

Officials in Skokie, Illinois, have extended the automatic pedestrian crossing time at a major intersection on Shabbos, addressing a safety concern for Orthodox residents who do not press electronic crossing buttons on Shabbos.

Mayor Ann Tennes said she became aware of the problem after visiting a shul last fall and seeing firsthand the difficulty Orthodox pedestrians faced when trying to cross the busy intersection. Without activation of the pedestrian button, the signal eventually allowed people to cross, but provided considerably less time.

“Without someone pressing the button, it will eventually go to a walk signal, but it’s a shorter walk signal—not as long of a walk signal as when the button is activated,” she told JNS.

Tennes said the shorter interval was particularly difficult for families, elderly residents and others who could not move quickly through the intersection.

“There were people trying to cross pushing wheelchairs and with small children, and it was difficult,” she said. “They just didn’t have enough time.”

After becoming mayor in April 2025, Tennes made addressing the crossing time one of her priorities. The intersection is located along Dempster Street, which she described as a “major thoroughfare” and which is near several shuls.

The modification has now been implemented. Ordinarily, pedestrians who do not press the crossing button receive approximately 30 to 40 seconds to cross the large intersection. During the automatic Shabbos cycle, however, pedestrians will now receive between 60 and 65 seconds.

According to Tennes, the village manager informed her that Skokie officials had discussed the issue with the Illinois Department of Transportation on several occasions in previous years, but those efforts had failed to produce a solution.

“There was just never a change, modification to the system at that particular intersection that was acceptable to the Illinois Department of Transportation that was also acceptable to the leaders of the Jewish community in terms of what types of activity were allowed on the Sabbath,” she told JNS.

When Tennes took office, she said she decided to approach the longstanding issue with “fresh eyes” and search for a solution that could satisfy both safety requirements and the religious needs of the community.

The approach that appeared most practical, she said, was to have the full pedestrian crossing signal operate automatically from late Friday afternoon through early Saturday evening, eliminating the need for Shabbos-observant pedestrians to activate the button.

“We were able to get to the right people at the Illinois Department of Transportation, and they made the change in late April,” Tennes said. “It’s been well received by the community. It’s certainly safe.”

“I’m very, very pleased that we persisted and we were able to put this change in for the community,” she said.

For now, the automatic extended crossing time is scheduled specifically for Shabbos. Tennes said it would be “ideal” to eventually have the same system operate on other Yomim Tovim, when Orthodox residents similarly refrain from using the crossing buttons and families, children and elderly residents are walking to and from shul.

Tennes also hopes the accommodation can eventually be introduced at “several other intersections in the community that are proximate to different observant synagogues,” she told JNS.

The pedestrian-signal change comes as Skokie, home to a substantial Jewish population, has also been confronting a series of antisemitic incidents. In April, three incidents, including some involving Jewish children, left members of the community “on edge,” the Chicago Jewish Alliance told JNS at the time.

Tennes acknowledged that the incidents were part of a broader problem the village has been working to address.

“There indeed was a series of hate incidents that included antisemitism in our parks starting last fall that involved children.”

In response, Tennes established the Skokie Faith Leaders Council, which has been working alongside the village’s Human Relations Commission to address antisemitism and other incidents of hate.

“Our public safety has been working with our schools. We have been working with our park district,” she said. “I’ve used my office to convene countless community discussions about how we, as a village, need to come together and address this.”

According to Tennes, combating antisemitism has been the Human Relations Commission’s primary focus since October 2025.

During the summer, the commission organized antisemitism training for local community leaders, with training provided by representatives of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

The village also held a community unity basketball clinic in July for Skokie children between the ages of 10 and 14. The event was held with the Chicago Bulls in cooperation with the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“We’re working on many, many fronts with our community partners to bring the community together,” she told JNS. “Hate has no home in Skokie.”