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It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah Rav Gedalia Yitzchak Liyush zt”l, who was 75.

His passing comes just one year after the tragic loss of his wife, who was killed in a car accident in Flatbush.

Rabbi Liyush was born in Hungary on the 3rd of Nissan, 5710, to his father, Rabbi Peretz Liyush, and his mother, Mrs. Ita.

As a young man, he studied at Yeshivas Knesses Chizkiyahu in Kfar Chassidim, developing a close bond with the rosh yeshiva, Rav Eliyahu Mishkovsky, from whom he absorbed much of his Torah and spiritual direction.

When he reached marriageable age, he wed his wife Chana a”h, daughter of Rav Meir Tzvi Fisher, one of the leading rabbonim of the Har Nof neighborhood in Yerushalayim. Her sudden passing last year, in early Kislev, left him shattered, yet he accepted the decree with profound faith and quiet strength.

After his marriage, Rav Liyush traveled to Romania, where he established a kollel dedicated to outreach and founded an organization focused on drawing Hungarian Jews closer to Torah and tradition. His commitment to kiruv became a lifelong calling.

For over fifty years, he served as a pillar of Torah education at Kiryat Noar in Bayit Vegan, shaping generations of students with devotion, humility, and constant immersion in learning. He never sought honor, living a life of unassuming piety and total dedication to his mission.

In recent years, he served as a professor of Talmud at a New York university, where he was a beloved lecturer known for his eloquence and clarity. His talks were treasured for their depth and beauty.

Rav Liyush was widely recognized for his extraordinary emunah, refined through difficult trials that he nevertheless embraced with love.

He is survived by a distinguished family of children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren.

The aron will be brought to Eretz Hakodesh, with the levayah scheduled for tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at the Shamgar Funeral Home in Yerushalayim, proceeding to Har Hamenuchos for burial.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Matzav.com}

BREAKING: NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani appoints Mysonne Linen, a former convicted armed robber, to his City Hall transition team.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is emerging as the early Democratic favorite for the 2028 presidential race, vaulting ahead of an undeclared field as a new national survey shows President Donald Trump facing an alarming generational backlash. The new Yale Youth Poll — a sprawling online survey conducted by Verasight — offers one of the clearest […]

Russia escalated its legal offensive against Kyiv by unveiling charges against dozens of Ukrainian public figures, accusing them of orchestrating what Moscow calls a “genocide” targeting ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s east, according to reporting from the Moscow Times.

In its declaration, Russian prosecutors alleged that the officials acted “with the intent of committing genocide” in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Moscow claims that since 2014, roughly 5,000 civilians were killed, and it further argues that the ethnic Russian population in those areas plunged by two million by 2022, the year Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

None of the names listed include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though the accusations clearly aim to widen the scope of Russia’s narrative about the conflict.

The Russian announcement coincided with a significant development from The Hague. The International Court of Justice ruled that Moscow’s counterclaims in the pending genocide-related case are permissible, including Russia’s longstanding assertion that Ukraine engaged in “genocide.”

The court outlined its position in a formal notice released Monday, stating: “By an Order dated 5 December 2025, the International Court of Justice has found that the counter-claims submitted by the Russian Federation in the case concerning Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation) are admissible as such and form part of the current proceedings. By that same Order, the Court has authorized Ukraine to submit a Reply and the Russian Federation to submit a Rejoinder. The Court has fixed 7 December 2026 and 7 December 2027 as the respective time-limits for the filing of those written pleadings.”

The ICJ further stressed its authority to evaluate those arguments, noting: “In respect of the first requirement, the Court concludes that it has jurisdiction to entertain the counter-claims of the Russian Federation under Article IX of the Genocide Convention.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. There have been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips to be sold to China as it could help the country better compete against the U.S. […]

US Senate approves Trump judicial nominee Robert Chamberlin, a conservative Mississippi Supreme Court justice, by a 52-44 vote.

TRUMP: “Mexico still owes the U.S over 800,000 acre-feet of water for failing to comply with our Treaty over the past five years. The U.S needs Mexico to release 200,000 acre-feet of water before December 31st, and the rest must come soon after.” “That is why I have authorized documentation to impose a 5% Tariff […]

Bruce Blakeman to Announce Run for NY Governor (NYP) Bruce Blakeman, Nassau County Executive, will officially run for New York governor, with an announcement expected Tuesday. * He will challenge Rep. Elise Stefanik for the Republican nomination. * Blakeman is described as a longtime Trump ally. * He aims to run on themes of making […]

BREAKING: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) as foreign terrorist organizations. DeSantis has ordered Florida agencies to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these groups, including denying privileges and resources to anyone providing material support.

The IDF confirms carrying out airstrikes a short while ago in southern Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah sites, including a Radwan Force training compound, several buildings used by the group, and a rocket launching site.

Opposition chief Yair Lapid unleashed a fierce critique from the Knesset podium during a 40-signature debate, using the moment to hammer Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu on issues ranging from the chareidi draft plan to the unanswered failures of October 7 and the ongoing controversy surrounding Netanyahu’s pardon request.

Lapid spoke immediately after Netanyahu’s address, and although coalition MKs repeatedly interrupted him, he plowed forward. He dismissed the government’s conscription initiative as a “draft-dodging law,” insisting that Netanyahu and those around him were intentionally skipping committee deliberations to avoid being tied to the legislation.

He pledged that the bill would be defeated in every scenario, promising that the opposition would battle it with full force and would not allow it to move forward in any form.

Turning to the government’s sudden enthusiasm for a commission of inquiry into the October 7 catastrophe, Lapid ridiculed the move as nothing more than “investigating yourselves,” demanding clarity about “who was prime minister on October 7, 2023.”

He then pivoted to Netanyahu’s bid for a presidential pardon, delivering an especially sharp criticism. Lapid argued that Netanyahu should “admit guilt, accept disgrace, and go home,” cautioning that anything less would “tear the country apart.”

“Without an admission and without disgrace, it’s not a pardon — it’s a prize. It means that for those with power, the laws simply don’t apply,” he declared, framing the pardon request as a threat to the country’s moral foundation.

{Matzav.com}

Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, considered a conservative justice who generally avoids public confrontation, delivered unusually severe criticism of the Supreme Court—and of its “president,” Justice Yitzchak Amit, in particular—in an article in the HaShiloach journal. In his remarks, he slammed the Supreme Court’s growing intervention in the other branches of government and called […]

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President Trump tells Chinese President Xi that the U.S. will approve shipments of NVIDIA H200 products to select customers in China.

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Trump on farmers: “They want to just have a level playing field. I’ve seen that more with farmers than anybody else… because if the have a level playing field, they’ll do better than anybody else. They’re better than anybody else—our product is incredible.”

NYC just went 12 straight days without a murder, a historic milestone. And now Mamdani wants to dismantle the very policing strategy that made this possible.

Trump on the Tariff case that SCOUTS is set to rule on. “Some of the wars I solved wouldn’t have been solved using those methods. The decision of the Supreme Court is an important thing.”

The IDF is investigating a grave operational failure after an IDF soldier—reportedly a member of the elite Maglan commando unit—was accidentally left behind during a mission near Kabatiya, a Palestinian town south of Jenin, the military confirmed Monday. According to details first reported by The Jerusalem Post, the soldier fell asleep during the operation and […]