Matzav

A sweeping financial crisis is closing in on Steven Croman, the landlord long branded “the Bernie Madoff of landlords,” as newly filed cases reveal he has stopped paying nearly $170 million in debts and is now staring down foreclosure on dozens of Manhattan buildings, the NY Post reports.

The notorious real estate operator — infamous for his Rikers Island jail term and his long trail of legal troubles — is now caught in a fresh storm, this time in civil court, where a fast-growing stack of lawsuits claims he stopped paying an enormous slate of loans.

According to filings in Manhattan Supreme Court, Croman has allegedly fallen behind on a staggering $168 million in property loans, a sum spread across about 35 buildings scattered throughout the city.

Flagstar Bank, which inherited Croman’s mortgages after acquiring New York Community Bank in 2022, says the landlord has gone months without making required payments on multiple assets. In several cases, the bank claims the arrears have ballooned into the millions.

Before this latest mess, Croman already had a reputation for aggressive and dishonest tactics. Prosecutors noted that he controlled a vast portfolio of 140 buildings when he was charged in 2016 with submitting falsified documents to secure tens of millions in illegal loans.

It was then–Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who famously labeled him “the Bernie Madoff of landlords,” alleging that Croman even relied on an ex-NYPD officer to intimidate tenants into vacating their apartments so rents could be hiked for unsuspecting newcomers.

Croman admitted guilt in a mortgage fraud case the following year and ultimately spent a year incarcerated on Rikers Island.

Only last week, Crain’s revealed that Flagstar had taken him to court over what was then described as $71.5 million in unpaid loans attached to five buildings.

But the situation has deteriorated sharply since then. Court records now show approximately $100 million more in alleged defaults, bringing the total to about $168 million across 20 separate foreclosure suits filed in recent weeks.

Among the properties in trouble is 209 E. 25th St., a Kips Bay building with 44 apartments where rent can approach $5,500 a month. On that loan alone — $12.4 million — the bank says Croman is two months behind, owing $493,845, much of it late fees and penalties.

Flagstar is also seeking repayment of the full $10.37 million loan attached to 346 E. 18th St. in Gramercy Park, where units fetch between $7,500 and $10,000 monthly. Records say the October payment wasn’t made, leaving him owing $362,332 with fees.

The biggest chunk of the alleged defaults involves two buildings on Christopher Street in the West Village, where the outstanding debt totals $21.4 million. In that case, filings say payments stopped in August, leaving $1.2 million overdue by the end of October.

Crain’s also noted earlier this year that Croman was already fighting several other foreclosure efforts, representing another $45.5 million in alleged unpaid loans.

Attorneys for Croman and for Flagstar — which is pursuing these actions through an LLC known as Orange Owner — did not return requests for comment.

{Matzav.com}

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The anticipation is palpable across the olam haTorah. In batei medrash from Lakewood to London, Bnei Brak to Brooklyn, lomdim are counting down the final blatt of Maseches Chagigah, the culmination of an unprecedented six-year journey. The dream that began with a single amud is now reaching its magnificent climax: the historic Oraysa Siyum on Seder Mo’ed.

This is your chance to take part in a maamad kavod haTorah that will go down in history — a celebration of perseverance, of hasmadah, and of the eternal message that Yisroel v’Oraysa v’Kudsha Brich Hu chad hu.

A Revolution in Limud HaTorah

When Oraysa was founded just six years ago, it immediately transformed the way thousands approach limud haTorah. Its unique amud-v’chazara structure — learning one amud a day, reviewing consistently, and mastering masechtos in their entirety — brought clarity, retention, and excitement back into countless daily sedorim.

The results have been nothing short of revolutionary. Today, tens of thousands of lomdim across the globe participate in the Oraysa cycle, uniting baalei batim, yungerleit, and talmidei yeshivos in a single melody.

Kehillos across Lakewood, Monsey, and Chicago to Yerushalayim, London, and Antwerp now have established Oraysa chaburos. Each day, the same amud reverberates across continents, connecting Yidden of every background through the timeless words of the Gemara.

Now, for the first time in history, these lomdim will complete an entire Seder of Shas together — Seder Mo’ed — marking a monumental milestone for Torah v’lomdeha the world over.

A Siyum Like No Other

This will not merely be a siyum. It will be a majestic maamad kavod haTorah and a celebration of the power of hasmadah and the unbreakable bond between Klal Yisroel and the Torah.

Gedolei Yisroel and Roshei Yeshiva from across the Torah world will grace the event with their presence, including Rav Dovid Cohen shlit”a, Rav Shraga Shteinman shlit”a, Rav Noach Isaac Oelbaum shlit”a, Rav Avrohom Gurwicz shlit”a, Rav Malkiel Kotler shlit”a, Rav Aharon Dovid Goldberg shlit”a, Rav Yosef Elefant shlit”a, and Rav Dovid Ozeri shlit”a — along with many other prominent Rabbanim, Roshei Chaburos, and of course, thousands of lomdei Oraysa from around the world.

Under this one roof, talmidei chachomim, baalei batim, and families will gather to celebrate this momentous siyum, embodying Klal Yisroel’s achdus through Torah.

And as one Seder concludes, another begins: Seder Nashim. The simcha of the siyum will flow directly into the start of a new phase of learning and growth, inviting even more participants to join the Oraysa revolution.

Your Invitation to Be Part of History

If you’re reading this, you’re invited to join and be a part of history !

The asifa will take place in Cure Arena, located at 81 Hamilton Avenue in Trenton, New Jersey on 3 Kislev/November 23, 2025. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the program beginning promptly at 6:30 p.m.

The evening will feature stirring divrei chizuk, uplifting niggunim, and heartfelt shiros v’sishbachos led by Hershy Weinberger and Shloime Daskal.

With groups flying in from across the globe to be part of this unforgettable maamad, the window to secure your spot at this unparalleled maamad kavod haTorah is closing fast.

Don’t Miss This Once-in-a-Generation Maamad!

Every amud, every daf, every line of Gemara learned by thousands around the world has led to this moment. The Oraysa Siyum on Seder Mo’ed will be a living testament to what can be achieved when Klal Yisroel learns together, chazers together, and grows together.

Now, it’s your chance to be part of it.

And as Oraysa turns the page from Seder Mo’ed to Seder Nashim, now is the perfect time to join the movement that has transformed the landscape of being koveia ittim l’Torah.

Experience the simcha and sippuk that come from clarity, mastery, and consistency at a pace that works. Because with Oraysa, every amud is not just another page. It’s another step in a lifelong journey of aliyah, another layer of understanding, and another connection to Torah that will uplift your day and transform your life.

Be part of the simcha. Be part of the legacy. Be part of Oraysa.
Visit OraysaSiyum.org or email Siyum@Oraysa.org

Oraysa will begin Seder Nashim this coming Wednesday November 26th. For more information, or to set up or join a shiur or chaburah in your neighborhood, please contact Oraysa at 914.8.ORAYSA or email info@oraysa.org.

With just weeks before he steps into office, NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has launched an online push urging New Yorkers to chip in toward the cost of his upcoming transition. He explained that, while the campaign period brought in sufficient funds, the transition itself is not eligible for the city’s matching program, leaving a significant financial gap.

In a video message to supporters, Mamdani noted that his team has brought in $1 million thus far but must reach a total of $4 million to cover the full scope of transition operations. “We have less than 50 days until we take office, and we have a lot to do. We have to vet the 50,000 resumes we’ve received,” Mamdani begs. “We have to keep paying our incredible team … and we have to plan not just our inauguration, but our policy implementation.”

He stressed that many incoming administrations lean heavily on major donors at this stage, a route he insists does not reflect his campaign’s values. As he put it, “that’s not us.”

According to Mamdani, the people powering his transition so far number around 12,000, with an average contribution of $77. He pointed out the contrast with Mayor Eric Adams, who “received $1,219 in average donations from 884 donors to fund his transition.”

Mamdani argued that the additional funds are essential so that “January 1 can be the day we start to deliver, not start to prepare.”

President Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order that includes, among other items, an exemption to the reciprocal tariffs on “bread…used for religious purposes” (e.g., Matzah) and on the Arba Minim – the plant species used by Jews during the holiday of Sukkos.

As the overwhelming majority of these products come from Israel and other foreign countries, tariffs would have threatened access and increased costs of religious observance. This accommodation builds upon the precedent of other exemptions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for certain religious items and is consistent with the Trump administration’s focus on protecting religious freedom.

“Thank you to the Trump administration for once again accommodating religious practices by exempting the Arba Minim and Matzah from reciprocal tariffs and making it easier for Jewish families to celebrate their holidays,” said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israel’s national director of government affairs. “We appreciate that the White House took the matter seriously when we and others brought up these issues and worked with the relevant agencies to find a solution.”

{Matzav.com}

In a sweeping ruling, Israel’s High Court declared on Wednesday that the state must move immediately to put an aggressive enforcement system in place against those in the chareidi community who do not report for the draft.

The decision, issued by Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg together with Justices Dafna Barak-Erez, David Mintz, Yael Wilner, and Ofer Grosskopf, insists that the government implement a plan that deploys both criminal sanctions and wide-ranging financial and civil penalties.

The ruling presents an uncompromising demand: the government must begin “real criminal proceedings” against chareidi draft-evaders and must do so “diligently and swiftly.”

In the court’s view, the rate of prosecution in the chareidi sector may no longer lag behind that of any other group, and the judges made clear that the state must reach that point “as soon as possible.”

In place of the current system, the court ordered the government to design a comprehensive enforcement policy within 45 days. The plan, it ruled, must include a full array of complementary measures—especially economic ones—and these steps, when taken together, must be reasonably expected “to be effective and produce real change.” The justices also stressed that the government must heed the guidance of expert officials and cannot sidestep proposals that professional bodies deem essential.

The verdict includes a stern warning: any enforcement plan that allows “bypass funding channels” will be rejected as noncompliant. In the same vein, the court wrote that benefits “tied directly or indirectly to draft-evasion—such as benefits for yeshiva students whose yeshiva attendance indicates draft-evasion—must not continue.”

The petition that led to this dramatic ruling was submitted about eighteen months ago. It challenged the government’s failure to carry out an earlier High Court directive and argued that, without new legislation explicitly granting an exemption, the state “has no authority to refrain from enforcing punitive legal measures on draft-evaders.” The petitioners maintained that the state is obligated to enforce the law without hesitation.

The justices built their decision on four assertions. First, that the obligation of military service applies equally to all citizens, including the chareidi sector. Second, the already-deep inequality in the realm of conscription has intensified in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War. Third, that the IDF now faces an urgent manpower shortage—an estimated need for 12,000 soldiers, more than half for combat positions—which, in the court’s view, heightens the need to recruit chareidim. And fourth, that equalizing the draft is not just a military objective but “a national mission of the highest importance,” requiring full cooperation from all branches of government.

In reviewing the state’s conduct until now, the court’s assessment was scathing. It found that the government’s approach amounts to “a complete abandonment” of criminal enforcement against chareidi draft-evaders. According to the ruling, this neglect “violates the duty of state authorities to enforce the law, undermines the draft obligation, empties the law of substance, and constitutes selective enforcement.”

{Matzav.com}

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Chaim Lauer zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Kaminetz L’Tze’irim. He was 87.

The levayah took place this afternoon, departing from the Shamgar Funeral Home and continuing to Har HaZeisim for kevurah.

Rav Lauer devoted more than half a century to guiding and shaping talmidim at Yeshivas Kaminetz in Yerushalayim. Generations of bochurim were molded through his shiurim, his example, and his unwavering dedication to Torah and yiras Shamayim.

He was born in the United States on 21 Tammuz, 5693, to his parents Rav Yaakov z”l and Mrs. Dina a”h Lauer. In his youth, he became one of the prominent talmidim of Rav Aharon Kotler at Bais Medrash Govoah in Lakewood. He later continued his learning in Brisk under Rav Berel Soloveitchik.

Upon reaching marriageable age, he wed his wife, Mrs. Yehudis, who stood by his side throughout decades of harbatzas Torah.

At Yeshivas Kaminetz L’Tze’irim, Rav Lauer dedicated decades to teaching with clarity and heart, raising many talmidim who continue to walk proudly on the derech haTorah.

He is survived by a family of bnei and bnos Torah.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Matzav.com}

Against the backdrop of intense legal deliberations surrounding the proposed draft law and the looming implications for yeshiva bochurim, a powerful call has been issued by Rav Avraham Salim, Rosh Yeshivas Maor HaTorah. Citing the seriousness of the moment, Rav Salim instructed that this coming Thursday, Erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev, traditionally considered an auspicious day for teshuvah and kapparah, be observed across all yeshivos as a day of fasting, heartfelt tefillah, and communal outcry.

The appeal comes amid what Rav Salim described as an increasingly dire reality for the Torah community, with growing “persecution” directed toward bochurim who have committed their lives to limud haTorah. Those close to the Rosh Yeshiva explained that his message is part of a broader effort to strengthen the spiritual battle to defend the place of bnei Torah in Eretz Yisroel.

In addition to the fast itself, Rav Salim issued further instructions for the talmidim of Maor HaTorah to gather for a special tefillah on the day of the fast. Originally, plans were made to hold the Yom Kippur Katan tefillos at Kever Rochel on Erev Rosh Chodesh. However, Rav Salim directed that the tefillah be moved to the Kosel Plaza.

The talmidim will travel to Kever Rochel as well, where they will conduct a stirring tefillah gathering, invoking the merit of Rochel Imeinu, beseeching that her tears on behalf of her children be accepted favorably before the Kisei HaKavod.

Dear Matzav Inbox,

Can someone explain why Matzav continues to headline and amplify every bombastic proclamation that comes out of Satmar regarding Israel and the draft crisis? Outside of Satmar itself, almost no one in the broader Torah community subscribes to these extreme, incendiary positions, yet they’re being given prime real estate as if they represent the mainstream daas Torah of Klal Yisroel.

We have gedolim whom we follow—Rav Dov Landau, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the Belzer Rebbe, the Gerer Rebbe, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the Sanzer Rebbe, and many others who shoulder the responsibility of guiding the Torah world with clarity, balance, and responsibility. None of them use this kind of caustic language, and none of them traffic in the kind of absolutist rhetoric that Satmar’s public statements have unfortunately become known for.

So why the megaphone? Why the repeated spotlight? Why do you keep having reports on every harsh statement that the Satmar Rebbe has been making during his visit to Eretz Yisroel?

Why are we lending legitimacy to views that most of the Torah community does not share, does not follow, and does not consider representative of authentic leadership?

Matzav should not become the platform for fringe firestorms. Our gedolim have spoken, and their approach—measured, thoughtful, rooted in responsibility—is the path that guides the overwhelming majority of the Torah world. Let’s stop elevating voices that do not speak for us and do not reflect the direction of our manhigim.

Sincerely,
A Very Confused Reader

To submit a letter to appear on Matzav.com, email MatzavInbox@gmail.com

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{Matzav.com}

WATCH:

Degel HaTorah’s leadership delivered a major development on Wednesday, informing their representatives in the Knesset that the roshei yeshiva had given the “green light” to allow the controversial draft-law process to continue moving forward. The decision, conveyed directly from Hagaon Rav Dov Landau and Hagaon Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, reopened a legislative track that had been frozen for weeks.

Until now, progress on the proposal had stalled inside the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the body headed by MK Boaz Bismuth of Likud. Ever since the winter session began in October, the committee had been unable to push the legislation ahead, as it awaited guidance from the gedolei Yisroel.

According to Degel HaTorah’s announcement, “after the full bill is submitted, and even before the vote in the Knesset, the proposal will be placed on the table of the great Torah leaders” who will ultimately issue the final psak on how Degel’s representatives must vote on the matter. The faction emphasized that no step will be taken without their direction.

While Degel HaTorah now signals cautious readiness to hear the bill, Agudas Yisroel—the chassidishe half of UTJ—clarified that they have not yet authorized the process. Its chairman, Yitzchok Goldknopf, has still not received the formal outline, and without reviewing it, the faction is not prepared to advance anything.

Months ago, both UTJ factions—together with Shas—left the governing coalition after negotiations over the draft law collapsed. Their resignation left the Knesset evenly split, 60–60, a stalemate that has persisted since the summer.

MK Bismuth has been laboring on a revised version of the bill since assuming the committee chairmanship in July, shortly after the chareidi parties withdrew from the government. Earlier this month, his office disclosed that the Prime Minister’s Office instructed him to pause discussions because the outline had not yet received the necessary approval to be circulated.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid predictably blasted the development, claiming that approval from the Torah leadership was itself proof that the bill enables broad avoidance of the draft. “If anything definitively confirms that what has been placed before the Knesset is a full-fledged draft-dodging law, it is the rabbis’ approval,” Lapid said. “They would not have approved it if they didn’t know it was disgraceful draft-dodging.”

Benny Gantz also attacked the move, stating, “No matter what you tell yourselves, you do not have a green light to continue abandoning our soldiers and Israel’s security.” He continued, “You do not have a green light to enable mass draft-dodging for political survival.”

{Matzav.com}

After more than thirty years of tension and division at Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, a final ruling has been issued that will dramatically reshape the future of the yeshiva. Retired judge David Cheshin, who has served as the official arbitrator between the two sides for the past four years, released his long-awaited ruling this afternoon, establishing that the camp led by Rav Shmuel Markowitz must vacate the yeshiva’s hill in Av 5786.

The decision brings to a close one of the most prolonged and painful internal conflicts in the Torah world, dating back to the early 1990s, when tension erupted between the brothers-in-law, Ponovezh nosi Rav Eliezer Kahaneman and Rav Shmuel Markowitz.

For decades, the split cast a shadow not only over Ponovezh but across the broader chareidi community. On the yeshiva campus itself, the two groups have functioned as effectively separate institutions for close to twenty years, the Rav Markowitz camp in the beis medrash with the famed golden aron, and the Rav Kahaneman camp in the adjacent Ohel Kedoshim building.

Four years ago, both sides formally agreed to appoint Judge Cheshin as arbitrator. Over that period he heard thousands of hours of testimony and reviewed extensive documentation. His final ruling, spanning more than 160 pages, was emailed to both sides today.

The ruling states clearly that the Rav Markowitz camp—including Rav Markowitz himself, the mosad Masores HaTorah, staff, and talmidim—must fully vacate the Ponovezh hill, including dormitories and batei midrash, by July 30, 2026. This timetable was chosen to avoid disruption to talmidim in the middle of a zman. Judge Cheshin concluded that Rav Markowitz had violated the original “Psak 2000,” acted independently of the yeshiva’s hierarchy, and effectively established a competing institution on the grounds of the yeshiva.

The ruling also prohibits Rav Markowitz and his mosdos from using the Ponovezh name or logo, and bars him from presenting himself as a rosh yeshiva of Ponovezh. The ruling affirms that the name Ponovezh constitutes a recognized trademark belonging to the entities controlled by Rav Kahaneman.

In addition, the arbitrator ordered Rav Markowitz’s side to pay Rav Kahaneman’s entities a total of 10 million shekel plus VAT—7.5 million to the Ponovezh company and 2.5 million to the associated amutah. This amount represents “fair usage fees” for properties over many years, as well as a share in maintenance costs. The award is significantly lower than the original claim of approximately 45 million shekel due to the arbitrator’s authority to apply “compromise close to judgment.” Counter-claims filed by the Rav Markowitz side were dismissed.

Judge Cheshin noted that the attempt at forced coexistence since the year 2000 had failed completely, leading to repeated conflict and tension. His conclusion: full separation. Under the ruling, Rav Kahaneman remains the sole owner and administrator of the original Ponovezh Yeshiva and its properties, while Rav Markowitz and his group must relocate, cease using the Ponovezh name, and compensate the yeshiva financially.

A separate decision regarding the kever of the late rosh yeshiva, Rav Asher Deutsch zt”l, is expected later today.

{Matzav.com}

New York City’s incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani will begin his administration without shaking up the leadership of the nation’s largest police force. Instead, he is choosing continuity by retaining Jessica S. Tisch as commissioner of the NYPD.

His transition office revealed the decision on Wednesday, noting that “Today, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced the appointment of Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch to serve as the New York City Police Commissioner in his incoming administration,” and emphasizing that the two intend to “advance a coordinated approach to public safety built on partnership and shared purpose.”

The announcement outlined the administration’s broader vision, explaining that “That includes ensuring police officers remain focused on serious and violent crime, while strengthening the city’s response to issues like homelessness and mental health. A new Department of Community Safety will support this work while collaborating closely with the NYPD.”

Mamdani’s team highlighted Tisch’s record, pointing to sweeping changes she enacted from within. “As the 48th Commissioner of New York City Police Department, Commissioner Tisch has rooted out corruption in the upper echelons of the NYPD and led a department-wide focus on accountability and transparency, while delivering historic reductions in violent crime,” the statement said.

In his personal remarks, Mamdani praised her forceful leadership. “I look forward to working with Commissioner Jessica Tisch to deliver genuine public safety in New York City,” he said. He added his appreciation for her past work: “I have admired her work cracking down on corruption in the upper echelons of the police department, driving down crime in New York City, and standing up for New Yorkers in the face of authoritarianism. Together, we will deliver a city where rank-and-file police officers and the communities they serve alike are safe, represented, and proud to call New York their home.”

Tisch responded with her own commitment to the partnership, pointing to the success of current anti-crime strategies. “Thanks to the men and women of the NYPD, the strategies we deployed this year have delivered historic reductions in crime,” she said. She noted that the two have already spoken several times and added, “I’ve spoken to Mayor-elect Mamdani several times, and I’m ready to serve with honor as his Police Commissioner. That’s because he and I share many of the same public safety goals for New York City: lowering crime, making communities safer, rooting out corruption, and giving our officers the tools, support, and resources they need to carry out their noble work.”

Her elevation to commissioner took place in November 2024, when Mayor Eric Adams administered her oath, marking the start of her tenure atop the NYPD.

Mamdani’s office underscored the measurable impact of her first year in charge, citing major drops in violence and gun seizures. Murders, they reported, are down “nearly 20 percent citywide year-to-date,” and officials had taken “More than 4,800 illegal guns…removed from the city’s streets in 2025.”

{Matzav.com}

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The White House dinner held in honor of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became the backdrop for President Donald Trump’s announcement that the newly formed Board of Peace—tasked with directing Gaza’s administration through 2027—will be populated by an unusually high-profile roster of world leaders.

In welcoming the Crown Prince, Trump expressed his desire for Saudi participation. “I hope your highness will be on the board,” Trump said, adding that “everybody wants to be on the board, and it’ll end up being quite a large board because it’ll be the heads of every major country.”

The Board of Peace had been formally empowered only a day earlier, after the UN Security Council approved a resolution authorizing the US-led body to supervise Gaza for the next two years as a central component of Trump’s 20-point plan for stabilizing the region.

During the dinner, Trump acknowledged the Crown Prince’s involvement in helping secure last month’s ceasefire. He refrained from detailing the negotiations but voiced optimism about the ongoing efforts. “While it looks a little bit messy… [Gaza] is getting very close to being perfected,” Trump claimed.

He also highlighted the return of hostages since the end of the conflict, though his remarks misstated that Hamas still possesses two bodies of hostages rather than the confirmed total of three. Still, he emphasized the significance of the concessions achieved so far, saying, “A lot of work has been done by Hamas, and a lot of a lot of people said they wouldn’t be doing that.”

Earlier, Trump and the Crown Prince held a separate working meeting at the White House. According to the administration, the session concluded with both sides locking in a broad package of new accords intended to substantially expand and reinforce the strategic relationship between Washington and Riyadh.

{Matzav.com}

We are pleased to inform you that the sugya d’kallah of this year’s Agudas Yisroel Yerushalayim Yarchei Kallah is “אם כסף תלוה :מצות הלוואה – Im Kesef Talveh: Mitzvas Halva’ah.”

The Yarchei Kallah is set to take place be’ezras Hashem in Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh during President’s Week, from Sunday, כ”ח שבט תשפ”ו / February 15, 2026, through Thursday, ב’ אדר תשפ”ו / February 19, 2026.

This year’s limud will explore the many dimensions of this vital mitzvah, including the obligation to lend money, the borrower’s responsibility to repay, the halachic framework of loan collection, the role of the ערב (guarantor), and numerous practical scenarios. Topics will range from gemachim and bankruptcy to halachic discharge, as well as many other timely and challenging issues.

Below are two documents:

1. A memorandum authored by the head of our program, Rav Shlomo Gottesman, which outlines in greater detail the subtopics and methodology of this year’s limud.
2. A tentative schedule of hachanah shiurim, to be delivered by Rav Gottesman along with distinguished dayanim and rabbonim, both live and via Zoom. The schedule is still in formation, but we hope to begin shortly so that participants can be as well-prepared as possible. A preliminary list of mareh mekomos is also attached.

Please note that all Zoom shiurim will include scanned source materials for convenient limud. Everyone is invited to participate in these shiurim, even if one is unsure about attending the Yarchei Kallah in Yerushalayim, as the hachanah program itself provides a valuable Torah experience.

We also plan to establish a dedicated chat/text group to facilitate communication among the maggidei shiur, participants, and organizers.

If you have not yet registered for the Yarchei Kallah, we encourage you to do so by clicking HERE. Please note that the early bird registration special of $774, instead of $899, expires shortly.

If you would like assistance with purchasing a plane ticket, we can connect you with our recommended travel agent.

Looking forward to providing you with additional updates in the weeks ahead, be’ezras Hashem.

Sugya D’Kallah Overview

One of the defining features of the AIA Yarchei Kallah is its structured program of hachanah. Over the past two decades, we have consistently seen that the more yegiah that participants invest in preparing the sugyos beforehand, the more meaningful and enduring their limud becomes.

Despite the many Torah responsibilities that our participants already carry, a remarkable number devote significant time to advance study, an investment that yields extraordinary dividends. Coming prepared to a shiur from Rav Dovid Cohen, Rav Issamar Garbuz or Rav Nissan Kaplan transforms the entire experience. The geshmak in learning and the clarity achieved through prior preparation are immeasurable.

With the help of Zoom, lomdim have been able to engage in pre-program learning and discussion, building lasting relationships with maggidei shiur and fellow participants. Our goal is to maintain, and further expand, what has effectively become a four-month pre-Yarchei Kallah yeshiva. To date, this initiative has produced thousands of hours of limud b’iyun, and we look forward to continuing this avodas hakodesh in the months ahead.

Overview of the Sugyos

This year’s sugya, “אם כסף תלוה :מצות הלוואה”—the mitzvah of lending—encompasses many complex subtopics. While we will not be able to cover every detail, we have identified several core areas that will provide participants with a deep understanding of both the yesodos and the pratim of the halachos.

1. The Mitzvah to Lend Money

We will explore the yesod of this mitzvah and its sources in Chazal, both Shas and Medrashei halacha. The major shitos of the Rishonim, including the Rambam, Sefer HaChinuch, Sefer Mitzvos Gadol, and Rabbeinu Yonah, will be examined, along with the poskim—the Tur, Shulchan Aruch, and their commentaries.

The Acharonim have written extensively on this subject, particularly the Chofetz Chaim in Sefer Ahavas Chesed, which will serve as a central reference. Among the questions to be studied:

• To whom does the obligation to lend apply (including lending to the wealthy)?
• The relationship between lending and tzedakah and which takes precedence.
• The duty to lend even when it may entail financial loss (chayecha kodmim considerations).
• The heter iska and its place within this mitzvah.
• Related issues such as store credit, non-monetary loans, and gemachim.

While ribbis will not be the main focus, its intersection with halva’ah will be noted.

1. Loans and Collections

We will delve into the issur of “Lo sihyeh lo k’nosheh,” which governs the lender’s behavior toward the borrower, including taking a mashkon, entering the borrower’s home, and avoiding coercive collection tactics.

Additional discussions will include:

• The permissibility of requesting repayment when uncertain of the borrower’s means.
• Whether a lender may require the borrower to work to repay.
• The concept of mesadrin l’baal chov (arranging payment terms).
• The modern definition of assets in halachic terms.
• How these principles interact with priyas baal chov mitzvah.

1. The Role of the ערב (Guarantor)

This section will explore the lomdus behind the concept of ערבות, focusing on sugyos in Kiddushin and Bava Basra. We will analyze:

• Whether a kinyan is required and why ערבות is not considered an asmachta.
• Various classifications of ערב and their obligations.
• The shitos of Rishonim and Acharonim regarding acceptance of liability.
• The implications if the lender did not rely on the ערב.
• Potential issues of mazik and shlichus in assuming responsibility.
• Practical applications in modern finance, such as title insurance, corporate guarantees, and mortgage arrangements.

1. Forgiveness and Bankruptcy

We will study the halachic frameworks that dissolve debt, including shemittas kesafim, yei’ush, and mechilah. Each has distinct implications for both lender and borrower.

The modern issue of bankruptcy in halacha will be analyzed through the lens of contemporary poskim, considering how secular financial systems align—or conflict—with Torah law.

While the scope of this sugya is vast, we will, as always, strive to present it in an accessible, organized, and engaging manner, ensuring that every participant gains clarity, lomdus, and simchas haTorah at their own level.

Appendix B — Hachanah Shiur Schedule (Tentative) and Maareh Mekomos

Our goal is to accommodate the widest possible audience. This schedule will be updated as the program develops.

Segment 1: The Mitzvah of Lending Money

Opening Session:
Tuesday, November 18 — 8:00–9:00 PM

Subsequent Sessions:
Thursday, November 20 — 8:00–8:40 PM
Tuesday, November 25 — 8:00–9:00 PM
Thursday, November 27 — Thanksgiving Schedule

Special Live Shiur:
Bais Medrash Chayei Yisroel, Lakewood
Thursday, November 27 — 11:00 AM–12:00 PM
Maggid Shiur: To Be Announced

Continued Schedule:
Thursday, November 27 — 8:00–8:40 PM
Tuesday, December 2 — 8:00–9:00 PM
Thursday, December 4 — 8:00–8:40 PM

The weekly schedule will continue similarly, with additional special live shiurim announced as applicable.

מראי מקומות לימוד מצות הלואה

א. שמות כב, כד – כז, דברים ט”ו, ז-י”א וברש”י.

ב.מכילתא  פ’ משפטים פ’ יט

ג. ב”מ ע”א. “ותני רב יוסף”

ד. ספר המצות להרמב”ם מצוה קצ”ז

ה. ס’ החינוך מצוה ס”ז

ו. סמ”ג מ”ע קס”ב

ז. שערי תשובה (ח”ג אות ס”ז)

רמב”ם ה’ מלוה ולווה פ”א

שו”ע חו”מ ס’ צ”ז סע’ א.

חפץ חיים ספר אהבת חסד – מצות הלואה

{Matzav.com}

A team of Australian scientists has delivered a stark warning to academics leaning on AI to speed up their work: ChatGPT’s newest model, GPT-4o, still produces an alarming number of fake or flawed citations. The Deakin University researchers found that more than half of the references the system generated for mental-health literature reviews were either fabricated outright or riddled with inaccuracies.

In their experiment, the researchers asked GPT-4o to craft six literature reviews across three psychiatric conditions. The chatbot produced 176 citations. Of those, 19.9 percent were entirely made up. And even among the 141 references that actually existed, nearly half—45.4 percent—contained mistakes ranging from incorrect publication years to bogus page numbers and broken digital object identifiers.

Just 77 citations, or 43.8 percent, were both real and correct. The rest—56.2 percent—were unusable for scientific purposes, a finding the authors say should trouble any academic who relies on generative AI to support scholarship. The study, published in JMIR Mental Health, also examined when and why the model was especially prone to errors.

The fake citations frequently appeared legitimate at first glance. GPT-4o provided DOIs for 33 of the 35 fabricated entries, and 64 percent of those links sent users to actual published papers that had nothing to do with the AI-generated claims. Another 36 percent were pure fiction—non-functioning or invalid DOIs that went nowhere. In either case, the references were completely disconnected from the content ChatGPT had written.

Lead researcher Jake Linardon and his team tested how the accuracy shifted depending on topic familiarity and specificity. They chose major depressive disorder, binge eating disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder—conditions with dramatically different public profiles and research volume. Depression is widely studied, with hundreds of clinical trials on digital therapies. Body dysmorphic disorder, by contrast, has far fewer digital-treatment publications.

The differences were striking. When GPT-4o wrote about major depressive disorder, only 6 percent of the citations were fabricated. But when it covered binge eating disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, those numbers shot up to 28 percent and 29 percent. Even among the citations that were real, accuracy varied wildly: 64 percent for depression, 60 percent for binge eating disorder, and a mere 29 percent for body dysmorphic disorder.

The researchers then compared general summaries with narrowly focused reviews. For binge eating disorder, the specificity mattered enormously—fabrication jumped to 46 percent for specialized requests, compared to 17 percent when the AI wrote general overviews. This pattern did not hold uniformly across all disorders, but it demonstrated that precision prompts can dramatically increase the hallucination rate in some areas.

These findings come at a time when AI use in scientific work is exploding. Nearly 70 percent of mental-health researchers report using ChatGPT for tasks like literature summarization and early manuscript writing. Many praise the efficiency boost, but the risk of misleading content remains a serious concern.

The authors warn that citation errors aren’t minor inconveniences—they damage scientific integrity. Citations are the scaffolding of academic discourse, guiding readers to supporting evidence and linking new work to existing knowledge. When references point to unrelated or nonexistent material, the entire chain of scholarship falters.

The study highlighted that DOIs were the most error-prone element of AI-generated references, with a 36.2 percent failure rate. Problems with author lists were least common at 14.9 percent, but publication dates, journals, volume numbers, and page ranges all showed significant error levels.

Linardon’s team stresses that every AI-generated reference requires verification against original sources. They encourage academic journals to adopt more stringent safeguards—such as using plagiarism-detection software to flag citations that don’t match any known database entry. Universities, they add, should create clear rules around AI use in scholarly writing, including training researchers to spot fabricated references and requiring transparency about AI involvement.

Importantly, the study found no sign that more advanced AI models have solved the hallucination problem. While direct comparisons across versions are difficult, citation fabrication remained prevalent across every test condition, despite expectations that GPT-4o would perform more reliably.

The authors argue that topic maturity and public familiarity heavily shape citation reliability. AI may be safer for well-established subjects but becomes increasingly unreliable when handling niche or newly emerging research fields. Accuracy, in other words, is not random—it is tightly linked to the strength of the underlying training data.

For now, the researchers say ChatGPT should function only as a starting tool, one that can help outline ideas or generate draft material, but never as a source of dependable citations. Human oversight remains essential, and verification cannot be outsourced.

The study also raises broader questions about how generative AI systems should be designed for academic use. If topic-based predictability can indicate when hallucinations are more likely, AI platforms might incorporate built-in alerts or verification prompts for specialized or sparse research areas.

As journals and funding agencies increasingly require explicit AI-use disclosures, the findings underscore why these policies matter. Without strong editorial safeguards, fabricated references could pass through peer review, seep into published work, distort future research, and create long-term damage across scientific disciplines.

The researchers caution that the challenge isn’t merely individual—it’s systemic. Once false citations enter the academic ecosystem, they can spread through citation networks like contaminants. Preventing that outcome requires institutional policies, editorial vigilance, and a clear understanding that while AI can accelerate research tasks, it cannot yet be trusted to anchor the scientific record.

The Education Department said Tuesday that it will move several of its offices to other federal departments, a unilateral effort aimed at dismantling an agency created by Congress to ensure equal access to educational opportunity but long derided by conservatives as ineffective.

The department has signed interagency agreements to outsource six offices to other agencies, including those that administer $28 billion in grants to K-12 schools and $3.1 billion for programs that help students finish college.

There was considerable speculation that the $15 billion program to support students with disabilities would be included in the announcement, but it was not. Other major functions of the Education Department, including its Office for Civil Rights and the federal student aid program, also were not affected by Tuesday’s changes, but a senior department official told reporters that officials are still exploring options for moving those programs elsewhere in the government.

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to shut down the agency, created in 1979, and in March, he signed an executive order seeking its elimination. He asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon to work with Congress to do so, but lawmakers have not acted or seriously considered Trump’s request.

That is at least in part because to clear the Senate, any legislation would require Democratic support, which appears highly unlikely.

McMahon and her backers advocate a shake-up of the federal education role, saying that falling test scores show the agency is not delivering and arguing that Americans are tired of government bureaucracy.

Supporters of the Education Department counter that administering education programs under one roof helps coordinate policy and better serves schools and students. The agency, they say, helps ensure that priorities important to students, parents and schools are high on the federal agenda. And they say it is illegal for the Trump administration to break up the department without congressional approval.

McMahon has acknowledged that only Congress can eliminate the department, but she has vowed to work to dismantle it from within. She has said the agency’s functions can easily be carried out elsewhere in the government, perhaps more effectively. This fall, she took a first step and moved career and technical education programs, including adult education and family literacy initiatives, to the Labor Department.

“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” McMahon said in a statement Tuesday. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”

Shifting offices to other parts of the government will not by itself remove red tape or alter the power that Washington exerts over states and school districts. States and school boards already control most education decisions, but the Education Department enforces rules that are embedded in federal programs, such as requirements for grant funding.

Asked how moving offices to other departments will return education to the states, the senior official said states will have to work with fewer federal agencies. She argued that education’s purpose is to prepare students for the workforce.

“Nowhere is that better housed than the Department of Labor,” she said.

But most K-12 schools do not typically work with the Labor Department now. The K-12 grant programs that Labor stands to take on address a plethora of subjects not directly related to the workforce, such as support for children in poverty, after-school programs and aid for rural education. Critics noted that under this arrangement, states and school districts will be required to engage with more – not fewer – federal agencies.

“It is difficult to see how transferring cornerstone programs … out of the department will result in streamlined operations, especially for the nation’s small, rural and low-capacity districts,” said David R. Schuler, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) noted that federal law requires an act of Congress to close the department. She said in a statement that the administration is pretending that the constitutional separation of powers is “a mere suggestion.”

“This is an outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education,” Murray said. “And it is students and families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise.”

Under the new agreements, the Labor Department will inherit the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, including 27 K-12 grant programs, and the Office of Postsecondary Education, which administers 14 programs to help students enroll in and complete college. The Education Department will move the Indian education program to the Interior Department; child care access and foreign medical education to the Department of Health and Human Services; and foreign-language education to the State Department.

Some of these are lower-profile offices without large constituencies that might vocally oppose the moves. By contrast, there was an outpouring of concern among disability advocates amid rumors that special-education programs would be moved.

The senior department official said Tuesday that the interagency agreements will ensure that experts from the Education Department still manage the day-to-day operations of the programs.

Federal law requires that many of the programs be housed in the Education Department. The interagency agreements amount to a work-around under which policy decisions will remain with the Education Department but the programs will be administered elsewhere. Staffers who work on the programs are expected to move to the new agencies.

The senior official said these types of arrangements have been used many times before. But in this case, officials are hoping that the transfers will lay the groundwork for eventually closing the agency altogether.

The announcement was welcomed by House Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Michigan), who has noted that there is not enough support in the Senate to pass legislation to eliminate the department.

On Tuesday, he praised the actions as a much-needed break from the status quo at the Education Department, where, he contended, bureaucracy and liberal ideology have wasted taxpayer dollars and failed students.

“The Trump administration is making good on its promise to fix the nation’s broken system by right-sizing the Department of Education to improve student outcomes,” he said. “It’s time to get our nation’s students back on track.”

But public education advocates were furious.

“This administration is taking every chance it can to hack away at the very protections and services our students need,” Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement.

McMahon has made the case for eliminating the Education Department in appearances across the country. Last month, department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said the agency was exploring the move of special-education services to another agency.

“Secretary McMahon has been very clear that her goal is to put herself out of a job by shutting down the Department of Education and returning education to the states,” Biedermann said in October.

The Trump administration laid the groundwork for this change earlier this year when it signed an agreement to move career, technical and adult education grants out of the Education Department to the Labor Department. Under the arrangement, Education retains oversight and leadership while managing the programs alongside Labor, a way of sidestepping the federal statute.

“We believe that other department functions would benefit from similar collaborations,” McMahon wrote in an op-ed essay published Sunday in USA Today.

More broadly, McMahon argued that the recently ended government shutdown showed how unnecessary her agency is.

“Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes,” she wrote. “The shutdown proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.”

The agency has taken other steps to shrink itself, including reducing its staff, which stood at 4,133 at the start of Trump’s term. That number was cut by about half earlier this year through layoffs and incentives to resign or retire.

The administration also tried to lay off an additional 465 people during the shutdown, a move that was blocked by a court and then reversed in the legislation signed to reopen the government.

After the government reopened, the Education Department mocked itself as irrelevant.

On social media, it posted a fake out-of-office message that it jokingly suggested its workers use: “We might be away from our desks … creating more red tape, and doing nothing to improve student outcomes.” It was signed, “Bureaucratically Yours.” In another post, the agency asked, “Let’s be honest: did you really miss us at all?”

(c) 2025 , The Washington Post · Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel 

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, dismissed the idea of U.S. military action on Mexican soil after Donald Trump suggested he might authorize strikes against drug traffickers south of the border. Speaking at a press conference, she brushed aside the proposal entirely. “It’s not going to happen,” she said, responding directly to Trump’s vow to do “whatever we have to do,” including potential operations inside Mexico.

Trump had raised the possibility during remarks in the Oval Office, insisting fentanyl trafficking warranted extreme measures. “Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? It’s OK with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” he said. He then added, “I didn’t say I’m doing it, but I’d be proud to do it. Because we’re going to save millions of lives by doing it.”

His comments came as Washington continues a sweeping show of force in the Caribbean. Since September, the U.S. military has deployed the largest regional presence since the Cold War and carried out dozens of lethal air attacks on boats it claims were transporting narcotics. At least 83 individuals have been killed in those strikes, though U.S. officials have not released evidence proving the targets were involved in drug smuggling.

The escalating posture isn’t limited to maritime operations. Trump also signaled he would not eliminate the possibility of sending troops into Venezuela. Pressed on whether a ground invasion was off the table, he responded, “No, I don’t rule out that, I don’t rule out anything.” He also said, “At a certain period of time, I’ll be talking to [Maduro],” while arguing that the Venezuelan ruler “has not been good to the United States.” Emphasizing the scale of migration from Venezuela, Trump said, “We just have to take care of Venezuela. They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons.”

Shortly afterward, Nicolas Maduro responded on his weekly broadcast, announcing his willingness to engage directly with Washington. He said he was prepared to meet “face to face” with anyone in the United States “who wants to talk to Venezuela.”

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine contingent is training in Trinidad and Tobago—the second round of joint drills there in under a month. The island nation, less than ten miles from Venezuela at its closest point, has emphasized that it will not be used for offensive military operations. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a close ally of Trump, rejected any speculation that her country might serve as a staging ground. “The US has NEVER requested use of our territory to launch any attacks against the people of Venezuela,” she said. She added that “Trinidad and Tobago will not participate in any act that could harm the Venezuelan people,” and insisted disputes between Washington and Caracas must be resolved through dialogue.

Venezuela’s government, for its part, accuses the U.S. of trying to topple Maduro by amassing warships, stealth aircraft, and other assets near its shores. Washington counters by alleging that Maduro presides over a “terrorist” drug-trafficking operation—an accusation the Venezuelan leader firmly denies.

{Matzav.com}

WhatsApp’s effortless contact discovery—the feature that lets anyone plug in a phone number and instantly see if it belongs to a user—has long been touted as part of its appeal. But, Wired.com reports, the same mechanism that makes onboarding simple also created an enormous privacy gap: cycling through every possible number worldwide allowed researchers to gather the phone numbers of nearly every WhatsApp user on the planet, along with profile photos and public text for many of them.

A team from Austria demonstrated that by repeatedly querying WhatsApp’s contact system through the web interface, they were able to retrieve 3.5 billion phone numbers tied to WhatsApp accounts. For 57 percent of those numbers, the researchers could also view profile photos; for 29 percent, they could read public “about” text. They accomplished this because Meta had imposed no practical limit on how many lookups they could perform, allowing them to sweep through roughly 100 million numbers per hour.

The scale of the exposure stunned the researchers, who wrote that the trove of information would have constituted “the largest data leak in history, had it not been collated as part of a responsibly conducted research study.” One of the authors, Aljosha Judmayer, noted, “To the best of our knowledge, this marks the most extensive exposure of phone numbers and related user data ever documented.”

Meta was notified in April, and the researchers deleted all 3.5 billion numbers they had collected. By October, WhatsApp had implemented new rate limits to prevent such mass scraping from recurring. But until the fix was put in place, the researchers warn, anyone else could have performed the same type of data sweep. As Max Günther put it, “If this could be retrieved by us super easily, others could have also done the same.”

In a statement to WIRED, Meta thanked the researchers and emphasized that users who had set their privacy options to restrict their profiles remained protected. “We had already been working on industry-leading anti-scraping systems, and this study was instrumental in stress-testing and confirming the immediate efficacy of these new defenses,” wrote WhatsApp engineering vice president Nitin Gupta. He added, “We have found no evidence of malicious actors abusing this vector. As a reminder, user messages remained private and secure thanks to WhatsApp’s default end-to-end encryption, and no non-public data was accessible to the researchers.”

The researchers, however, say that they never encountered the “defenses” Meta referenced—pointing out that this isn’t the first time WhatsApp has been warned. In 2017, Dutch researcher Loran Kloeze demonstrated that the same enumeration technique could reveal numbers, profile pictures, and online status. At the time, Meta (then Facebook) argued the platform was functioning as designed and told him he did not qualify for a bug bounty.

Asked by WIRED what protections were implemented in the years that followed, Meta asserted that evolving measures—including rate-limiting and machine-learning systems to detect scrapers—had been deployed. Yet the University of Vienna researchers not only reproduced Kloeze’s discovery, they expanded it dramatically by enumerating all 3.5 billion global accounts. They also analyzed how many users publicly exposed personal information, with 44 percent of the 137 million identifiable American numbers showing profile photos and 33 percent including visible “about” text.

In countries where WhatsApp permeates daily life, even higher percentages left profile photos open. The researchers collected nearly 750 million Indian numbers, 62 percent with photos visible, and 206 million Brazilian numbers, 61 percent displaying profile images publicly.

Their discovery came accidentally last year when they were studying other aspects of WhatsApp’s metadata. They noticed the absence of rate limits and tried enumerating US phone numbers. Within 30 minutes, they had gathered 30 million. “So we were kind of surprised. And then we just kept going,” recalls researcher Gabriel Gegenhuber.

Such a dataset would be invaluable to spammers, scammers, and criminal operations. But the implications extend beyond nuisance calls. The researchers identified millions of WhatsApp accounts registered in countries where the platform is banned—2.3 million numbers in China and 1.6 million in Myanmar. Governments hostile to WhatsApp could have used the same enumeration technique to identify and potentially target citizens using the app illegally. Reports have suggested that in China, some Muslims have been detained simply for having WhatsApp installed.

The Vienna team also examined the cryptographic keys associated with each account—keys used in WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. They found an unexpected problem: many accounts shared identical keys. In some cases, hundreds of users were tied to the same key, and 20 US numbers even had an all-zero encryption key. The researchers suspect that these anomalies point to unauthorized or modified WhatsApp clients, possibly used by scam networks whose tools break standard encryption behavior.

At the heart of the issue, the researchers argue, is the flawed assumption that phone numbers make suitable identity tokens for a platform used by billions. Phone numbers simply do not contain enough randomness to serve as secure, secret identifiers—especially when the entire number space can be scanned. If WhatsApp insists on linking accounts to phone numbers for effortless discovery, they say, then no anti-scraping solution will ever feel airtight. WhatsApp is now testing usernames in beta, which could offer a more privacy-preserving alternative.

“Phone numbers were not designed to be used as secret identifiers for accounts, but that’s how they’re used in practice,” Judmayer says. “If you have a big service that’s used by more than a third of the world population, and this is the discovery mechanism, that’s a problem.”

A sweeping federal review has uncovered a massive breakdown in how Commercial Driver’s Licenses are being granted nationwide. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Fox Business interview that roughly 200,000 foreign nationals have been granted CDLs, and investigators believe that about 194,000 of those licenses may have been issued unlawfully under federal rules.

Duffy stressed that the issue goes beyond paperwork errors, noting that individuals are receiving CDLs despite failing to meet the English-language proficiency required by the Department of Transportation. “People can’t understand the English language, they can’t read signs, and they don’t know the rules of our road. That’s a problem,” Duffy said. “Americans aren’t safe.”

He warned that the problem has been compounded by the rise of “CDL mills,” operations that fast-track foreign applicants through the licensing process with minimal training. According to Duffy, these outfits are pushing through drivers who have barely any grasp of American road regulations.

“We also see that there are CDL mills … people aren’t being properly trained, they’re being pushed through and getting licenses and driving across the country,” Duffy said. He added that the economic fallout has been substantial as well. “It’s driving American truckers out of business. And American trucking companies, driving the wages down,” he continued. “That’s not why we’re taking this action, but that’s a real consequence of having all of those foreigners come in. What we’re going to see is those wages rise.”

The emerging details show just how widespread the problem has become. DOT officials recently disclosed that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles acknowledged improperly granting 17,000 CDLs to foreign truck drivers.

The safety concerns deepened further this week when ICE agents arrested an illegal alien in Kansas — an individual accused of terrorism ties in Uzbekistan — who had been issued a Pennsylvania CDL after being released into the country by the Biden administration.

{Matzav.com}