The forum where actions will speak loudest.
Get in on the Action!
Join us for two dynamic days where doers gather to share knowledge, forge connections, and take action on Klal Yisroel’s most pressing challenges. Across two engaging days, community doers from every corner of Klal Yisroel will convene for frank dialogue, valuable perspectives, and actionable insight.
From rabbonim, attorneys, kallah teachers, shadchanim, and mental-health professionals to caregivers, advocates, educators, and engaged community members — those who shape and serve our community daily are the ones invited to conversation.
Participants can choose to follow structured tracks or mix and match targeted breakout sessions on the topics closest to their hearts, alongside general discussions addressing devarim ha’omdim al haperek — the issues currently shaping Klal Yisroel’s wellbeing.
Tailored sessions explore the complexities of the shidduchim crisis, special-needs support, mental wellbeing, elder care, community growth, legal and ethical concerns, and the guiding voice of Torah leadership in today’s world.
Guests may also opt to stay overnight, enjoying on-site hospitality and amenities while continuing the conversations that matter.
The event will feature a grand gala dinner with keynote addresses from leading Gedolei Torah of the Moetzes, offering daas Torah, chizuk, and hadrachah.
MONDAY & TUESDAY · DECEMBER 1–2, 2025
Newark Marriott Hotel
1 Hotel Rd, Newark, NJ 07114
212-363-8941 | convention@agudah.org
Military prosecutors in Israel on Sunday said they’d indicted a Palestinian man for leading a failed plot to blow up passengers on buses near Tel Aviv in February.
Abed Alkarim Snobar conspired with several other defendants, who are also standing trial in Israel for their alleged actions, to plant explosive devices on buses in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, according to a statement released by the Israel Defense Forces’ Spokesperson’s Unit. Snobar is the main defendant, according to the IDF prosecution.
Snobar “made several high-powered explosive charges featuring nails and screws to maximize the harm” to victims, according to the statement. Snobar entered Israel on Feb. 20 and placed five charges in four buses in the Tel Aviv and Bat Yam area, timing them to go off at different times, according to the Spokesperson’s Unit.
However, some of the charges went off at night when the buses were parked and empty, resulting in no injuries. This alerted security forces to the plot. The remaining charges were located and neutralized. Snobar was caught in July after evading security forces in Judea and Samaria for months. He was preparing a new terrorist attack in Tel Aviv at the time of his arrest, and had contacted others to carry it out, according to the statement.
At least one of the bombs bore a note, in Arabic and Hebrew, that stated “revenge from the Tulkarem refugee camp,” a reference to the terrorist hotbed in Judea and Samaria where Israeli security forces have been conducting counter-terror operations, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported at the time. JNS
{Matzav.com}
Israel has granted permission for joint teams consisting of Hamas operatives and Red Cross representatives to enter IDF-controlled regions of Gaza, including areas beyond the so-called “yellow line.” Their mission is to search for and recover the bodies of hostages who were killed in captivity.
Reports from Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, both Qatar-based networks, indicate that these search groups are already active in Rafah and will soon expand their operations to Gaza City. According to the outlets, the unusual collaboration is part of ongoing humanitarian efforts connected to the hostage crisis.
Al Jazeera further disclosed that Hamas has provided the Red Cross with detailed maps pinpointing several locations believed to hold the remains of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin. Goldin fell in combat during the 2014 war, and his body was seized by Hamas. Current recovery efforts are concentrating in the Rafah region, where intelligence suggests his body may be located.
The same report noted that large construction and engineering vehicles entered Gaza on Saturday night to assist in the intensive searches for the remains of hostages in the Hamad neighborhood of northern Khan Yunis. These machines are being used to clear debris and dig through collapsed areas believed to conceal burial sites.
According to Israeli officials, Hamas is still in possession of the bodies of 13 hostages. Intelligence assessments indicate that the group has the ability to return at least eight of them without delay, yet no transfers have taken place. “Five days have passed since the terror group returned any bodies,” a source said, underscoring the ongoing tension surrounding the recovery efforts.
{Matzav.com}
A heartbreaking case has emerged from Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim, where a two-year-old girl passed away from severe complications linked to measles. Her death brings the toll of the current outbreak to eight — all children younger than two and a half.
Hospital officials reported that the child had been admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit about ten days earlier in critical condition. She was placed on an ECMO machine as doctors fought to stabilize her, but despite their efforts, she succumbed to the illness.
The Health Ministry has confirmed that more than 1,880 people across the country have contracted measles since the outbreak began in April, a number that continues to climb as new cases are identified.
“We know that the illness is being underdiagnosed, and there are a few thousand additional patients with the disease,” explained Sharon Alroy-Preis, Israel’s chief epidemiologist. She added that 562 individuals have required hospitalization so far, with 90% of them being children — most of whom were not vaccinated. “It is clear to us that the morbidity continues and will continue. We hope that we won’t see an additional increase in scope, but we need to remember that there are still thousands of unvaccinated children in Jerusalem and other localities.”
{Matzav.com}
At the opening of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu dismissed talk that Washington dictates Israel’s defense strategy. “Over the past month, we have been witnessing ridiculous claims regarding the relationship between the United States and Israel. When I was in Washington, it was said there that I control the American administration, that I dictate its security policy to it. Now, the opposite is being claimed – the American administration controls me and dictates Israel’s security policy. Neither of these is true,” Netanyahu stated firmly.
He emphasized that the bond between the two allies is one of cooperation, not control. “Israel is an independent country; the United States is an independent country. The relations between us are relations between partners, and this partnership, which has reached an all-time high, was also expressed in the operational cooperation in the second part of Operation Rising Lion. It is also expressed, and was expressed just recently, in the release of all the living hostages from Gaza, and of course in the effort to return all the fallen, and also in other areas in which we are changing the face of the Middle East together.”
Turning to Israel’s recent military activity, Netanyahu was adamant that Israel acts on its own judgment. “But I want to make one thing crystal clear: Our security policy is in our own hands. We are not prepared to tolerate attacks against us. We respond according to our own judgment against attacks, as we saw in Lebanon and most recently in Gaza. We dropped 150 tons on Hamas and the terrorist elements after the attack on our two soldiers. And of course, we also thwart dangers as they are being formed, before they are carried out, as we did just yesterday in the Gaza Strip.”
The prime minister wrapped up his remarks by underscoring Israel’s right to self-determination in all defense matters. “We do not seek anyone’s approval for this. We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate. This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days. Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves with our own forces, and we will continue to control our destiny.”
{Matzav.com}
Vice President JD Vance took aim at New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani after the left-wing candidate broke down while recounting his Muslim aunt’s fear in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
“According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks,” Vance wrote Shabbos morning on X, posting a clip of Mamdani’s emotional remarks about the bias his family faced following the terror attacks.
During a press conference outside the Islamic Cultural Center of The Bronx on Friday, Mamdani — a 34-year-old Queens Assemblyman and outspoken socialist — shared that his late aunt refused to take the subway in those tense days because she “did not feel safe in her hijab.” He pledged to continue standing up for Muslim New Yorkers, saying the community has long been forced to accept second-class treatment.
“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated as any other New Yorker, and yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive,” Mamdani said, declaring that he would not alter his faith or identity to please critics. “No more. I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own. But there is one thing that I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.”
The remarks came as Mamdani continued to spar with rivals, including Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, who have both branded him antisemitic over his harsh anti-Israel positions. The Assemblyman, who once smiled for a photograph alongside an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, accused his opponents of “slandering” him and inciting Islamophobia to derail his campaign before early voting began on Saturday.
Cuomo fueled controversy earlier in the week when he mused on WABC radio with host Sid Rosenberg about how Mamdani might respond if the city were attacked again. “Any given moment, there’s a crisis, and people’s lives are at stake. God forbid, there’s another 9/11. Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo asked. “He’d be cheering,” Rosenberg replied.
Mamdani blasted those comments as deeply offensive and dangerous, adding that Sliwa falsely accused him during the final debate of supporting “global jihad.”
He also condemned Mayor Eric Adams for echoing Cuomo’s rhetoric while endorsing his independent bid, after Adams said, “New York can’t be Europe, you see what is happening in other countries because of Islamic extremism.”
{Matzav.com}
The convenience of artificial intelligence is coming at a dangerous cost, as more people are turning to AI chatbots for medical guidance—with sometimes devastating results. In case after case, individuals who trusted these systems for health advice have ended up seriously harmed, hospitalized, or worse.
According to The New York Post, the surge of generative AI technology has transformed how people search for answers about their health. But while chatbots promise instant information, their medical recommendations have repeatedly proven unreliable. From botched self-treatments to ignored medical emergencies, the fallout from misguided AI advice continues to mount.
One case that stunned doctors involved a 35-year-old Moroccan man who consulted ChatGPT after noticing a cauliflower-like lesion near his anus. The chatbot assured him it was likely hemorrhoids and even recommended an at-home fix: elastic ligation. Following that suggestion, the man tied a thread around the growth himself, triggering severe pain that sent him straight to the hospital. Medical tests later confirmed that the diagnosis and the treatment were entirely wrong.
Another frightening example centered on a 60-year-old man trained in nutrition who asked ChatGPT how to limit his sodium intake. The chatbot advised him to replace table salt with sodium bromide—a compound that, when consumed over time, is highly toxic. For three months, he followed that guidance. He ended up in the hospital for three weeks with bromide poisoning, suffering from paranoia, hallucinations, confusion, excessive thirst, and a skin rash.
A third case turned nearly fatal. A 63-year-old man in Switzerland developed double vision following a minor heart procedure. When the symptom reappeared, he asked ChatGPT for advice. The chatbot reassured him that “such visual disturbances were usually temporary and would improve on their own.” Convinced he didn’t need a doctor, he waited—until a day later, when he was rushed to the emergency room after suffering a mini-stroke. Researchers later found that his care had been “delayed due to an incomplete diagnosis and interpretation by ChatGPT.”
These incidents make one thing painfully clear: AI chatbots can dangerously overstep their bounds when it comes to healthcare. While they may be useful for explaining medical terms or helping patients prepare questions for real doctors, they are no substitute for professional expertise. Algorithms can easily misread symptoms, provide misleading reassurance, or completely miss red flags that a trained physician would immediately recognize.
The threat isn’t limited to physical health. Chatbots have also shown alarming potential for psychological harm—particularly among teenagers. Breitbart News recently reported on the Raines family, who filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT became their son’s “suicide coach.”
The lawsuit alleges that “ChatGPT actively helped Adam explore suicide methods” and that “despite acknowledging Adam’s suicide attempt and his statement that he would ‘do it one of these days,’ ChatGPT neither terminated the session nor initiated any emergency protocol.”
After their 16-year-old son’s death on April 11, 2025, Matt and Maria Raine reviewed his chat history, uncovering more than 3,000 pages of conversations with the bot between September 2024 and his passing. In a chilling revelation, Matt Raine said, “He didn’t write us a suicide note. He wrote two suicide notes to us, inside of ChatGPT.”
{Matzav.com}
