In a dramatic race against time, Chaverim of Rockland successfully stopped an elderly man from falling victim to a $7,000 scam on Tuesday afternoon—just seconds before he stepped into a Monsey bank to withdraw the funds and convert them into gift cards for the scammers. The heart-pounding rescue began when community activist Yossi Gestetner noticed something alarming. “I got a strange call from my father—he sounded startled and hung up quickly,” Gestetner told YWN. “When I called back, he answered briefly, clearly panicked, and said, ‘I’m going to the bank,’ before hanging up again. That’s when I knew something was wrong. I immediately contacted Chaverim of Rockland.” Recognizing the red flags of an active scam in progress, Chaverim of Rockland wasted no time. Volunteers were rapidly deployed to nearly every bank in Rockland County after Gestetner’s father said he was at a bank but couldn’t specify which one. Within minutes, a Chaverim team spotted the elderly man sitting in his vehicle outside Apple Bank on Route 59 in Monsey. He was just moments away from withdrawing $7,000—funds he was told to convert into gift cards and send to overseas scammers. “He was literally seconds away from walking into the bank and falling for the scam,” Gestetner told YWN. “Chaverim pulled up just in time, explained to him what was going on, and Baruch Hashem, they were able to stop it before any money was lost.” According to the victim, the scammers told him his identity had been stolen and that he needed to act quickly to prevent legal consequences. “They pressured him nonstop and filled his head with lies,” Gestetner said. “He thought he was protecting himself.” Ramapo Police responded to the scene to document the incident and begin an investigation. Gestetner expressed deep gratitude to those who helped. “Thanks to Chaverim’s incredible response and the Ramapo Police Department’s assistance, my father was saved from a devastating loss,” he said. “I hope others can learn from this and stay alert.” This incident marks yet another successful intervention by Chaverim. Similar stories previously reported by Monsey Scoop include: Chaverim of Rockland Saves Monsey Woman from $20,000 Scam (March 2025) Chaverim of Rockland Helps Rescue Local Woman from Scammer’s Trap (September 2024) Chaverim of Rockland Prevents $30,000 Scam Targeting Woman in New Jersey Near Monsey (May 2024) Scam Safety Tips: Never trust callers who demand secrecy or urgency. No government agency or bank will ask for payment via gift cards. Verify the legitimacy of any request by calling official numbers—not those given during the call. Consult with family or reach out to organizations like Chaverim or law enforcement before taking any financial action. Hang up immediately and report suspicious activity to authorities. If you or someone you know receives a suspicious call, contact local law enforcement or Chaverim of Rockland. Your vigilance could prevent the next scam. CLICK HERE SIGN UP TO THE MONSEY SCOOP WHATSAPP STATUS TO BE INFORMED OF MONSEY NEWS IN LIVE TIME (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
A major coalition crisis is looming over the government as the Chareidi parties have threatened to bolt the coalition in less than two weeks if the stalemate on advancing a Chareidi draft law continues after Shavuos. The office of UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf denied a Channel 12 report earlier in the day that stated that the Gerrer Rebbe had already decided that Goldknopf would resign from the coalition “even on the day after Shavuos” over the stalemate of the draft law. The statement said that “the Channel 12 report is not correct.” The statement added, “In recent days, the son of the Gerrer Rebbe, Rav Nechemiah Alter, met with the leadership of the Degel HaTorah party, HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau and HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, and it was agreed that if there is no progress in regulating the status of bnei yeshivos, a meeting will be held with party representatives to determine the next steps, either withdrawing from the coalition or promoting a bill to dissolve the Knesset.” Also on Wednesday evening, Chareidi media outlets reported that a surprising meeting took place between HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch and the Belzer Rebbe’s son, HaRav Aharon Mordechai Rokeach, in Bnei Brak. At the beginning of the meeting, HaRav Rokeach invited the Rosh Yeshivah to his daughter’s wedding, which will take place about two weeks after Shavuos in Jerusalem. Afterwards, the attendants were asked to leave the room, and the Rosh Yeshivah and HaRav Rokeach talked privately for an extended period about the draft law crisis and the various paths towards a resolution. According to sources familiar with the meeting, the two agreed that withdrawing from the coalition would only be carried out as a last resort. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, the convicted ringleader of an international human smuggling plot was sentenced in Minnesota on Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Federal prosecutors had recommended nearly 20 years for Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and nearly 11 years for the driver who was supposed to pick them up, Steve Anthony Shand, who got 6 1/2 years Wednesday. “The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,” U.S. District Judge John Tunheim said. “These were deaths that were clearly avoidable.” Defense attorney Thomas Leinenweber told the court before sentencing that Patel maintains his innocence and argued he was no more than a “low man on the totem pole.” He asked for time served, 18 months. But acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick said Patel exploited the migrants’ hopes for a better life in America, out of his own greed. “We should make no mistake, it was the defendant’s greed that set in motion the facts that bring us here today,” she said. Patel, in an orange uniform and handcuffed, declined to address the court. He showed no visible emotion as the sentence was issued. He is likely to be deported to his native India after completing his sentence. He cooperated as marshals handcuffed him and led him from the courtroom. The judge handed down the sentence at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota city of Fergus Falls, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November. Tunheim declined last month to set aside the guilty verdicts, writing, “This was not a close case.” The smuggling operation Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who they say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” and Shand, a U.S. citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the U.S. border. They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022. The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports said. So many villagers have gone overseas in hopes of better lives — legally and otherwise — that many homes there stand vacant. Harsh blizzard conditions The father died while trying to shield Dharmik’s face from a “blistering wind” with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi was wearing “ill-fitting boots and gloves.” Their mother “died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,” McBride wrote. A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius). Seven other members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two made it to Shand’s van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived […]
Two Secret Service agents assigned to protect the home of former President Barack Obama have been suspended after a heated altercation between them erupted into a full-blown physical fight — just steps from the Obamas’ residence in the early hours of the morning. The explosive encounter, which occurred around 2:30 a.m. last Wednesday, has sent shockwaves through the protective agency known for its intense discipline and discretion. The incident first gained public attention after RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree posted footage of the fight, which quickly went viral on social media. The video, which appears to have been recorded by a passerby or security camera, shows two female officers engaged in a shouting match that escalates into a physical confrontation. At one point, one of the agents is heard calling urgently for a supervisor, warning, “Come immediately before I whoop this girl.” According to sources within the Secret Service cited by Crabtree, the dispute began when one officer failed to report for her scheduled shift on time. Her tardiness reportedly infuriated the officer she was meant to relieve, sparking a verbal and then physical confrontation between the two. Despite the dramatic scene, no one inside the Obama residence was reportedly disturbed by the incident, and the former president and his family remained safely unaware at the time. The U.S. Secret Service confirmed the incident in a statement on Tuesday, acknowledging that both agents involved had been suspended while an internal investigation is underway. “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of an on-duty altercation that occurred between two Uniformed Division officers at approximately 2:30 a.m. on May 21,” the agency said. “The individuals involved were suspended from duty and this matter is the subject of an internal investigation. The Secret Service has a very strict code of conduct for all employees, and any behavior that violates that code is unacceptable.” The agency declined to release the names of the officers involved or any further details, citing privacy concerns and the ongoing nature of the investigation. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The Czech Republic has accused China of being “responsible” for cyberattacks against a a communication network of its Foreign Ministry, officials said on Wednesday. The Foreign Ministry in Prague said the malicious activities started in 2022 and targeted the country’s critical infrastructure, adding it believed the Advanced Persistent Threat 31, or APT31, hacking group, which is associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, was behind the campaign. It was not immediately clear what specific information were seized or what damage was caused by the attacks. The Czech ministry said a new communication system has already been put in place. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said in a separate statement that his ministry summoned China’s ambassador to Prague to make it clear to Beijing “that such activities have serious impacts on mutual relations.” “The government of the Czech Republic strongly condemns this malicious cyber campaign against its critical infrastructure,” the statement said. “Such behavior undermines the credibility of the People’s Republic of China and contradicts its public declarations.” The Chinese Embassy dismissed the Czech accusations as “groundless.” It said China fights “all forms of cyber attacks and does not support, promote or tolerate hacker attacks.” The United States denounced the Chinese activities and called on China to stop it immediately, the U.S. Embassy in Prague said in a statement. It said ATP31 previously targeted U.S. and foreign politicians, foreign policy experts and others. “APT31 has also stolen trade secrets and intellectual property, and targeted entities in some of America’s most vital critical infrastructure sectors, including the Defense Industrial Base, information technology, and energy sectors,” the embassy said. NATO and the European Union also condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the Czechs. “We observe with increasing concern the growing pattern of malicious cyber activities stemming from the People’s Republic of China,” NATO said. “This attack is an unacceptable breach of international norms,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said. “The EU will not tolerate hostile cyber actions.” In a separated cyberattack in 2017, the email account of then Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek and the accounts of dozens of ministry officials were successfully hacked. Officials said the attack was sophisticated, and experts believed it was done by a foreign state, which was not named then. (AP)
Get ready for several years of even more record-breaking heat that pushes Earth to more deadly, fiery and uncomfortable extremes, two of the world’s top weather agencies forecast. There’s an 80% chance the world will break another annual temperature record in the next five years, and it’s even more probable that the world will again exceed the international temperature threshold set 10 years ago, according to a five-year forecast released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.K. Meteorological Office. “Higher global mean temperatures may sound abstract, but it translates in real life to a higher chance of extreme weather: stronger hurricanes, stronger precipitation, droughts,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who wasn’t part of the calculations but said they made sense. “So higher global mean temperatures translates to more lives lost.” With every tenth of a degree the world warms “we will experience higher frequency and more extreme events (particularly heat waves but also droughts, floods, fires and human-reinforced hurricanes/typhoons),” emailed Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. He was not part of the research. And for the first time there’s a chance — albeit slight — that before the end of the decade, the world’s annual temperature will shoot past the Paris climate accord goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and hit a more alarming 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of heating since the mid-1800s, the two agencies said. There’s an 86% chance that one of the next five years will pass 1.5 degrees and a 70% chance that the five years as a whole will average more than that global milestone, they figured. The projections come from more than 200 forecasts using computer simulations run by 10 global centers of scientists. Ten years ago, the same teams figured there was a similar remote chance — about 1% — that one of the upcoming years would exceed that critical 1.5 degree threshold and then it happened last year. This year, a 2-degree Celsius above pre-industrial year enters the equation in a similar manner, something UK Met Office longer term predictions chief Adam Scaife and science scientist Leon Hermanson called “shocking.” “It’s not something anyone wants to see, but that’s what the science is telling us,” Hermanson said. Two degrees of warming is the secondary threshold, the one considered less likely to break, set by the 2015 Paris agreement. Technically, even though 2024 was 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, the Paris climate agreement’s threshold is for a 20-year time period, so it has not been exceeded. Factoring in the past 10 years and forecasting the next 10 years, the world is now probably about 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter since the mid 1800s, World Meteorological Organization climate services director Chris Hewitt estimated. “With the next five years forecast to be more than 1.5C warmer than preindustrial levels on average, this will put more people than ever at risk of severe heat waves, bringing more deaths and severe health impacts unless people can be better protected from the effects of heat. Also we can expect more severe wildfires as the hotter atmosphere dries out the landscape,” said Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office and a professor […]
This Memorial Day Weekend marked a historic milestone for NYC, with zero reported shootings on Sunday and the lowest number of shootings ever recorded for Memorial Day weekend.
QUESTION: Why is there a custom to serve dairy on Shavuos? ANSWER: The Rama (OC 494:3) offers the following rationale why we customarily serve dairy foods on Shavuos: The korban (sacrifice) of Sh’tei Ha-Lechem, the “Two Breads,” was brought on Shavuos. We serve both dairy and meat foods on Shavuos, as this necessitates eating from two different loaves of bread. Why is that so? Bread which is served at a dairy meal may not be served with meat (because some dairy residue may have gotten on the loaf of bread). By serving dairy and then meat, there must be two separate loaves of bread at the table (which symbolizes the mizbei’ach), and this commemorates the korban of Sh’tei Ha-Lechem. Rav Belsky, zt”l said that even those who follow the Zohar, and are careful not to eat dairy and meat at the same meal throughout the year (in fact, many will not even eat meat within an hour of eating dairy), do not follow this custom on Shavuos (in deference to the minhag), and may eat meat immediately after dairy. The Mishnah Berurah (OC 494:16) writes that there is no need to bentch between the two parts of the meal, and Rav Belsky would point out that it is preferable to not do so, since this would be an unnecessary bracha (bracha sheino tzricha). Though it is acceptable to eat meat after dairy on Shavuos, one must first clean one’s mouth by drinking some liquid and eating a solid food, such as a piece of challah (YD 89:2). It is important to note that some cheeses do require a full wait time. To view a listing of cheese varieties and their required wait times please refer to OUKosher’s list of Aged Cheeses.
The Houthis have issued a threat, warning all airlines to avoid flying to TLV Airport or any airports in “occupied Palestine” to ensure the safety of their aircraft and passengers, following this morning air strikes on the final aircraft at Sanaa airport.
The shooting that took place in central Gaza came after hundreds of Gazans stormed a Hamas warehouse near Al-Maghazi in central Gaza and seized bags of flour, which then led to Hamas opening fire at the civilians, killing at least five people.
Hamas terrorists fired on a crowd in Gaza City, where thousands had gathered near a warehouse for flour, resulting in the deaths of at least five Palestinians.
In a recent interview, Omer Shem Tov said that during the 505 days in Hamas captivity, he survived on one biscuit and salty water daily, losing over 50lbs, while witnessing large amounts of food in another room.
POTUS: “This isn’t my war, this is Biden’s war Zelenskyy’s war and Putin’s war… I’m here to end it and save lives and money… I went to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE, and we brought back $5.1 trillion. So I made that money in about two hours.
REPORTER: “Did you warn Prime Minister Netanyahu against taking some sort of actions that could disrupt the talks there?” POTUS: “I’d like to be honest: Yes, I did… I said I don’t think it’s appropriate right now.”
POTUS: “We’re dealing with the whole situation in Gaza. We’re getting food to the people of Gaza. It’s been a very nasty situation… October 7 was a very nasty day — People aren’t going to forget that either.”
As anticipation builds for this year’s Adirei HaTorah Ma’amad, taking place Sunday, June 8th, 2025 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Klal Yisrael prepares to witness a powerful display of kavod haTorah and achdus. At the heart of the Ma’amad will be a monumental Siyum HaShas—not only completed multiple times by the dedicated yungeleit in Yeshiva, but now, for the first time, opened to the broader public. This year’s communal siyum is being held l’iluy nishmas two cherished talmidim of the Yeshiva who were nifter in the past few months. Their sudden petirah was a heartbreaking loss for the Yeshiva and beyond: • Harav Baruch Dov z”l, ben ybl”ch Harav Moshe Avigdor shlit”a Zemba • Harav Chaim z”l, ben ybl”ch Harav Avraham Halevi shlit”a Lifshitz The Siyum HaShas is being extended beyond the walls of the Beis Medrash, inviting the entire tzibbur—not only yungeleit and bnei hayeshiva, but every member of Klal Yisrael—to join in this tremendous zechus and contribute toward the completion of Shas. Be a Part of It! Every daf counts. Every participant matters. The siyum is open to all—men, and children—who wish to take part in this great zechus. Reserve your daf today, and join thousands from around the world in this remarkable display of unity chizuk haTorah. https://www.adireihatorah.com/siyum (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
On Tuesday, Sam Sutton officially took the oath of office in Albany, becoming the newest member of the New York State Senate. He now represents the 22nd Senate District, which includes parts of Brooklyn such as Boro Park, Midwood, Flatbush, and Marine Park. Sutton’s swearing-in comes just one week after he won a special election to replace former Senator Simcha Felder, who left the seat after being elected to the New York City Council. Sutton, a well-known figure in the Sephardic community and co-founder of the Sephardic Community Federation, secured a resounding victory in the May 20th election, earning approximately 67% of the vote. He defeated Republican candidate Nachman Caller and made history as one of the first Sephardic Jews to serve in the New York State Senate. Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein warmly welcomed Sutton during the swearing-in ceremony, expressing confidence in their future collaboration. Both lawmakers represent districts with significant Orthodox Jewish populations and are expected to work together on issues such as yeshiva education, religious freedom, and public safety. Among those present in Albany was Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition (FJCC) Chairman Josh Mehlman, who joined to show his support for Sutton. Mehlman was greeted warmly by fellow Orthodox Jewish elected officials, including Assemblyman Aron Wieder and Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, further emphasizing the broad communal backing for Sutton’s new role. Sutton’s extensive background in nonprofit leadership and community advocacy positions him well to build on the work of his predecessor and address the needs of the diverse communities within his district. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
