A Norwegian parliamentarian has nominated Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Jerusalem memorial center is “one of the world’s most significant institutions in the fight against antisemitism, hate ideologies and historical distortion,” Joel Ystebø of Norway’s Christian Democratic Party wrote in a letter addressed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Tuesday.
“I believe that the Nobel committee should take a stand on antisemitism by issuing this award to Yad Vashem even though I understand it might be difficult because of all the politics involved,” Ystebø told JNS on Thursday.
The 24-year-old lawmaker, who was elected last year to the unicameral parliament for the conservative opposition party, noted that every Norwegian lawmaker had the right to nominate a candidate for the prize.
“There are many people in Norway who, like myself, are embarrassed by our own government after October 7 for being too soft on Hamas, and this nomination is also to show the people of Israel and the Jewish community that they have many friends in Norway,” he said in the interview.
He wrote in his letter that antisemitism has proven throughout history to be “one of the most persistent and destructive forms of hatred,” citing the rise in anti-Jewish violence around the globe following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which triggered the two-year war in Gaza.
“Today, Yad Vashem serves as a global anchor in the fight against antisemitism and other forms of hatred,” the letter states. “In a time when antisemitism is once again gaining a foothold in public discourse, Yad Vashem reminds us of what is at stake if hatred and lies are allowed to pervade.
“The Nobel Peace Prize has historically honored those who stand against hatred, oppression and injustice,” it continues. “Yad Vashem does precisely this by being at the forefront of the fight against antisemitism, one of the most serious threats to peaceful coexistence in our time. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Yad Vashem would be a clear recognition that the struggle against antisemitism is a struggle for peace, democracy and human dignity.”
Tel Aviv University Professor Dina Porat, a Yad Vashem senior academic adviser, told JNS, “We are witness today to how hatred caused by antisemitism is again ever so relevant to our very time. By its documentation and commemoration, Yad Vashem offers a clear historical picture and warning about the past and the present.”
Founded in 1953 on Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance, on the western slope of Mount Herzl, to commemorate the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, Yad Vashem has emerged as a top global tourist site for visitors and educators. JNS
{Matzav.com}
Sanctuary policies protect criminals and put communities at risk, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Thursday during his first press conference since arriving in Minneapolis, arguing that public safety must come before politics.
Homan explained that he was sent to Minnesota earlier in the week to help restore order and to target dangerous criminal illegal aliens living in local communities, stressing that his mission is focused on safety rather than publicity.
“I didn’t come to Minnesota for photo ops or headlines,” Homan told reporters. “I came here to seek solutions.”
He pointed to what he described as the consequences of border failures under the Biden administration, saying that more than 10 million illegal aliens entered the United States during that period, including millions of “gotaways” who avoided apprehension.
According to Homan, many of those individuals present serious risks to both national security and public safety. He said President Trump pledged to voters that he would undo those policies and make protecting American communities the top priority.
Over the past several days, Homan said, he has held meetings with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, along with law enforcement officials and other stakeholders, despite their political differences.
“We didn’t agree on everything. I didn’t expect to agree on everything,” Homan said. “But you can’t fix problems if you don’t have discussions.”
One point of consensus, he said, was recognition that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a legitimate federal law enforcement agency charged with enforcing immigration laws.
Homan also said the administration is developing a plan to reduce ICE’s footprint in Minnesota if cooperation continues and violence declines.
“As we drill down on these great agreements [with Minnesota officials] we’ve got, this great understanding we have means less so we can draw down those resources,” he said.
“When the violence decreases, we can draw down those resources. But based on the discussions I’ve had with the governor and the AG, we can start drawing down those resources.”
He added that the reduction could happen even faster if inflammatory language targeting ICE ends.
Homan emphasized that federal officials are not asking local leaders to act as immigration agents, but rather to work with ICE when criminal illegal aliens are already in custody.
“Jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities are sanctuaries for criminals,” Homan said. “Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and endanger the residents of the community.”
He praised the Minnesota Department of Corrections for honoring ICE detainers, saying that such cooperation has improved safety for residents and law enforcement officers alike.
Homan also said progress has been made in discussions with Ellison, who clarified that county jails may inform ICE of scheduled release dates for criminal illegal aliens so agents can take custody in a lawful and controlled manner.
“That’s common sense,” Homan said, arguing that making arrests inside jails is safer than tracking suspects after they return to the community.
He rejected claims that cooperation with ICE deters victims or witnesses from reporting crimes.
“Victims and witnesses don’t want the bad guy back in their neighborhood either,” Homan said.
Homan concluded by saying that continued cooperation will lower crime, conserve resources, and carry out President Trump’s promise to put American safety first, particularly in cities he said have suffered the consequences of years of failed border policies.
{Matzav.com}
A long-simmering and deeply contentious issue in the chareidi world burst into the open during a live Israeli radio broadcast, as noted maggid meisharim Rav Menachem Stein delivered sharp and emotional remarks about what he described as the unbearable state of wedding music today.
Rav Stein addressed the topic during his program Sichat HaYom on Kol Chai Radio. To add a professional and musical perspective, the renowned composer and musician Rav Chaim Banet joined the broadcast, leading to an extended, wide-ranging, and highly charged discussion. Listeners also called in, offering firsthand accounts from the “ground level” of wedding halls.
Opening the program the week of Shabbos Shirah, Rav Stein framed the conversation in stark terms. “This is the time when Klal Yisroel celebrates the power of niggun,” he said. “And yet this year, it has become a time for a painful reckoning in the world of weddings.” He asked pointedly when Jewish weddings had transformed from elevated celebrations of the heart into “deafening discotheques,” and whether authentic Jewish simcha had been lost along the way.
One of the most striking moments of the broadcast came from a deeply personal story shared by a caller identified as Daniel, an accomplished yeshiva bochur who described undergoing a severe spiritual crisis during his years in yeshiva gedolah. “I felt like a sealed wall, an iron barrier between me and the Gemara,” he said. At the time, Daniel was heavily immersed in modern, contemporary music for many hours a day, without realizing the connection between that habit and his spiritual decline.
The turning point came at a friend’s wedding, where the band played in an older, traditional style, using sacred niggunim with restrained, measured rhythms. “The next day,” Daniel recalled, “I felt as if a new soul had been planted within me. I dove into the Gemara like someone dying of thirst in the desert.” Rav Stein noted that the story echoed the well-known words of Rav Yissachar Meir zt”l, who would avoid loud weddings and famously said, “How can one attend such a wedding? The neshamos that come down from Gan Eden flee because of the foreign melodies.”
Rav Chaim Banet, the veteran composer who has been involved in chassidic music for more than fifty years, spoke with visible pain about the changes he has witnessed. “I played at weddings for decades,” he said. “Once, the heart was happy. Today, a friend told me: ‘It seems only the feet are happy — the heart is no longer there.’” Rav Chaim recounted a conversation with a secular musician who plays both in Tel Aviv clubs and at weddings in Bnei Brak. “He told me in shock: ‘Rav Chaim, there’s no difference. It’s the same discotheque.’”
Rav Chaim also recalled a gathering convened decades ago by Rav Yigal Rosen, who warned musicians about the spiritual erosion that lay ahead. “The tragedy,” Rav Chaim said, “is that a generation has grown up that no longer knows what good music is. This music has destroyed the inner world of feeling.”
Another caller, Avraham, shared a powerful contrast he had experienced just days earlier. He attended a wedding of a prominent rabbinic family but found the volume and trance-style music unbearable. “I had to step outside; I couldn’t tolerate the decibels,” he said. Wandering into an adjacent hall, he discovered a different wedding altogether — a live orchestra with a choir, gentle melodies, and songs of earlier generations. “The entire hall was dancing. You could talk. There was real simcha,” he said. “I went home carrying the joy of a wedding I wasn’t even invited to.”
Throughout the broadcast, participants offered practical suggestions for restoring dignity and spiritual depth to wedding music. Some emphasized the responsibility of the families making the simcha, arguing that those paying for the music must clearly define expectations in advance rather than surrendering to pressure from outside “event coordinators.” Others urged musicians themselves to take a stand and refuse to play foreign or destructive rhythms, even when requested by the crowd. Several speakers stressed that music is only a symptom, and that deeper chinuch is needed to rebuild a sense of kedusha and refined emotion within the yeshiva world.
In concluding the discussion, Rav Stein returned to a broader perspective. Citing the teachings of the Vilna Gaon and his talmidim, he noted that Moshe Rabbeinu brought down ten distinct forms of song from Har Sinai, later used in the Beis Hamikdash to awaken teshuvah and dveikus. “If a person would hear those precise niggunim,” he said, “his soul would depart from sheer attachment to Hashem.”
As Shabbos Shirah approached, the message of the program was clear and urgent. The choice, Rav Stein said, lies with the community itself: the “boom-boom of the jungle,” or song that pierces the heavens. Rav Chaim summed it up simply and starkly: “This touches our very souls — literally our souls.”
{Matzav.com}
Dear Matzav Inbox,
I don’t know when this happened, but somehow fundraising in the frum world went from something difficult but dignified to something that looks like a bad Purim shpiel that never ends.
Open WhatsApp today and what do you see? Grown Yidden — not kids, not bachurim fooling around — but married people, fathers, mothers, people who are supposed to have some seichel — turning themselves into jokes on their statuses. Begging. Singing. Dancing. Making faces. Doing shtick. All for what? To squeeze out a few dollars.
It’s embarrassing.
Mamish embarrassing.
People are making absolute fools of themselves in public, and we’re supposed to clap and say, “Ah, gevaldig, what mesirus nefesh for tzedakah.” Since when is throwing away kavod habriyos considered a mitzvah?
This whole thing has turned into a clown show. One guy ups the other. If last week someone danced, this week someone has to dance harder. If someone cried, the next one has to cry louder. If someone embarrassed himself a little, the next one has to embarrass himself completely. A race to the bottom, live-streamed for everyone to see.
Hours of nonsense. Paid for with maximum bizayon. What a joke.
Once upon a time, fundraising meant knocking on doors, making phone calls, sitting with people, explaining a need, having some basic derech eretz. It wasn’t easy, but it was normal. It had a certain menschlichkeit to it. Today? Today it’s who can make the biggest spectacle of himself on a status.
And don’t tell me “this is the matzav” or “this is the new way.” That’s nonsense. This isn’t a new way. It’s a lazy way. A cheap way. A way that trades dignity for attention and calls it hishtadlus.
If goyim were doing this, we’d be laughing at them. If some other community was acting this way, we’d shake our heads and say they’ve lost all self-respect. But when it’s us, suddenly it’s holy?
No. It’s mi’us. Yidden should have some self respect. And no, the ends don’t justify the means.
It makes the entire frum world look like bafoons. Like we have no גבול, no shame, no sense of what’s normal anymore. Everything is fair game as long as it’s “for a good cause.”
There are good causes. There are real needs. But turning ourselves into walking jokes is not the solution. Tzedakah doesn’t require turning into an imbecile on WhatsApp.
We can help people without humiliating ourselves. We can raise money without degrading ourselves. And we can stop pretending that this circus is healthy, normal, or something to be proud of.
Because it isn’t.
A very fed-up observer
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[COMMUNICATED]
by Rabbi Eliezer Sandler
The concept of the Yissachar-Zevulun Torah Learning Pact goes back well over 3,500 years, to the time of Yaakov Avinu and his sons. It is named for the Torah pact between two of his sons – Yissachar the scholar and Zevulun the merchant. Not only was it an equal pact but, Chazal explained, the deed of Zevulun/the Sponsor is considered even greater than that of Yissachar, because without the support of Zevulun, Yissachar would not have had the wherewithal to study Torah undisturbed.”
It is well-known that when it comes to learning Torah, people who sponsor the learning, often do so, not just as a donation. By financially supporting specific Torah scholars, they enter into a binding, written, signed and sealed learning partnership pact whereby the Sponsor (the Zevulun) is deemed by Halacha as if he personally studied the Torah completed by the Scholar (the Yissachar). (See below.)
Thus, those who support the Talmidei Chachomim at Shas Yiden via a Yissachar-Zevulun Pact merit a portion in every daf of the entire Talmud Bavli and associated texts that they study, and complete the entire cycle in the space of ONE year. Some of the Sponsors opt to continue sponsoring repeat cycles of Shas which accrue to them.
Sar Hatorah, Maran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Nasi Shas Yiden, emphasized: The most mehudar Yissachar-Zevulun pact to support in our times is that offered by Shas Yiden – it comprises the entire Shas, Rashi and Tosfos – all in just one year!
Rav Chaim explained why this pact with Shas Yiden is the most mehudar. Chazal say that the highest level of learning is when one understands what he is learning b’iyun u’ve’amkus. However, even higher than that is when one remembers b’al peh all what he has learned. I have farhered the Shas Yiden avreichim geonim many times and can attest ZEI KENNEN SHAS (they know Shas)!
YES! YOU CAN MAKE
your OWN SIYUM on the ENTIRE Shas, Rashi & Tosfos IN JUST ONE YEAR!
The Yissachar-Zevulun Pact in Halacha
The Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh De’ah Chapter 246 regarding the efficacy of the Yissachar-Zevulun Sponsorship Pact for the Zevulun (the Sponsor) states clearly: It is deemed as if he (the one sponsoring the learning) himself learned all the Torah studied under the pact.
All the learning under the Shas Yiden Yissachar-Zevulun Pact is yours בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב (in both This World and the World to Come)! Concerning this, the Netziv of Volozhin comments that in Olam Habah, the Zevulun sponsor will sit together with the Gedolei Torah of the past and merit to participate in their discussions and pilpulim on all the Torah learned.
Achieve Almost 7 million Mitzvos in One Year
The Vilna Gaon in Shnos Eliyahu Pe’ah 41 states that one should hold precious every word of Torah that he learns because each word is considered a mitzvah of its own.
Thus, since in Talmud Bavli, Rashi and Tosfos there are 6,608,891 words, that translates into almost 7 million mitzvos accruing through Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden.
Official Shtar from Shas Yiden
Each Yissachar-Zevulun pact is confirmed by an official contract (shtar) from Shas Yiden specifying the learning of the entire Shas, and is witnessed by talmidei chachomim.
All who wish to enter into a Yissachar-Zevulun Pact for the entire Shas during ONE year should contact Shas Yiden to make arrangements: 718-702-1528.
The opportunity to complete the entire Shas has been a cherished way to honor family members and others as a prized achievement. It has also proven to be a source of comfort for mourners to obtain such a zechus for their dear ones during the year of mourning – a siyum of the entire Shas can be completed on the yahrzeit!
Yissachar-Zevulun Pact –
Beyond the Grave
The legendary visionary and “Father of Yeshivos”, Reb Chaim of Volozhin, was the founder of the famous yeshiva in the town of Volozhin and the beloved talmid of the Vilna Gaon.
Reb Chaim had an ongoing Yissachar-Zevulun pact with a local shoemaker – a man who was not learned but who dearly valued Torah learning. They had a ‘deal’ whereby the shoemaker would pay the monthly financial support needed for Reb Chaim and his family. For this financial support, the shoemaker would have an equal share in all Reb Chaim’s daily Torah study – both in the mitzvah of Torah study בעוה”ז and that the knowledge of the Torah learned would continue to be his בעוה”ב (in the World to Come).
One day the shoemaker passed away suddenly. During the shiva period, Reb Chaim was facing a perplexing halachic question and researched high and low for a solution. That night the shoemaker appeared to him in a dream and gave him the full solution that he sought. Reb Chaim was amazed and commented, “Azoi gich, Azoi Gich – So quickly, so quickly has he acquired the zchus and knowledge of the Torah that I have studied!”
In the words of Gedolei Torah:
Maran Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, Nasi Shas Yiden:
“In just ONE year, through Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden, you can be zoche to the entire Shas forever – בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב (in olam hazeh and olam habah).
“Moreover, whoever supports Shas Yiden is zocheh to fulfill both Yissachar-Zevulun and support of aniyei (the poor of) Eretz Yisroel in the fullest sense of the word.
“Those who support Shas Yiden will be saved from chevlei (the travails of) Moshiach – spiritually and materially, and will be zoche to have ehrlicher bonim u’vanos yir’eishomayim ”
Maran Hagaon Harav Dov Lando, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva, Slabodka:
“Who compares to the Shas Yiden? Incredible talmidei chachomim geonim who raised the bar in limud Hashas b’iyun u’v’amkus. Blessed are those who enter a Yissachar-Zevulun pact with them.”
Hamashpia Hagadol Reb Meilech Biederman, shlit”a:
“Yissachar-Zevulun at Shas Yiden – best possible deal, and in just 1 year! 100% partnership! 100% Shas x 5 times! 100% Shisha Sidrei Mishna – בעוה”ז ובעוה”ב”
Sanzer Rebbe, shlit”a:
“A first in 2000 years of Jewish history! Until Shas Yiden, never a Torah institution where ALL the avreichim metzuyonim v’geonim know the entire Shas by heart”
Harav Yaakov Hillel, shlit”a:
“Therefore, the great mitzvah to support the efforts [of the Talmidei Chachomim] with generous donations in order that they should continue diligently with their studies to enhance the greatness of the Torah and its glory.
Rav Reuven Ravitz zt”l, a distinguished talmid chochom who devoted more than five decades to teaching Torah in Kfar Saba and Nechalim and was among the most respected elder figures of Petach Tikva, passed away on Wednesday evening at the age of 93.
Rav Ravitz was born in Tel Aviv’s Montefiore neighborhood as the eldest son of Rav Aryeh Leib Ravitz zt”l, who served for many years as av beis din of Tel Aviv. From a young age, he was known for his yiras Shomayim and deep commitment to limud haTorah.
In his youth, he studied at Yeshivas Chevron, where he became closely attached to the roshei yeshiva and mashgichim of the era, including Rav Yechezkel Sarna, Rav Moshe Chevroni, Rav Aharon Cohen, and the famed mashgiach Rav Meir Chodosh. He later continued his studies at Yeshivas Ponevezh, where he further developed his Torah scholarship under the guidance of the yeshiva’s roshei yeshiva.
Upon reaching marriageable age, Rav Ravitz married the daughter of Rav Yitzchok Pasternak, one of the founders of the Kfar Ganim neighborhood in Petach Tikva. The couple established their home in the city, where they lived for approximately seventy years.
For many years, Rav Ravitz taught at Yeshivas Nechalim during a period when many talmidim were continuing on to the major yeshivos. With great dedication, he worked tirelessly to draw numerous young men into a life of Torah and yiras Shomayim within the walls of the yeshivos.
He was also a longtime presence in the Beis Medrash Toras Eretz Yisroel in Petach Tikva, where he immersed himself in uninterrupted Torah study. In his later years, he learned at the Chevron Beis Medrash in the city, where he served as a living example of perseverance in learning and exemplary character traits. Known as a faithful transmitter of tradition, he shared countless accounts, teachings, and personal observations about Torah giants of previous generations with whom he had close קשר, including the Chazon Ish and the roshei yeshiva of Chevron and Ponevezh.
For roughly fifty years, Rav Ravitz delivered shiurim to members of the third generation in the Kfar Ganim neighborhood. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, he continued these shiurim by telephone and through individual study sessions, maintaining his commitment with remarkable devotion.
In the 1990s, he was active as a member of the association supporting the Montefiore nursing home in Petach Tikva. In that role, he advised on matters affecting the welfare of residents and assisted the institution’s leadership with financial issues. His warm demeanor and personal qualities made him a beloved figure and an integral part of the city’s communal landscape.
Two years ago, Rav Ravitz was awarded the title of Yakir Ha’ir, Honorary Citizen of Petach Tikva, by Mayor Rami Greenberg in recognition of his lifelong contributions to Torah and community life.
Rav Ravitz merited to raise generations of students, educating them in Torah and yiras Shomayim, and to build a family rooted in the traditions of Torah and reverence, seeing generations of ישרים מבורכים.
He is survived by his family. His brother was Rav Avraham Ravitz zt”l, the former Knesset member and the longtime chairman of Degel HaTorah.
The levayah took place Wednesday night at his home at 64 Trumpeldor Street in Petach Tikva. The procession passed the Chevron–Heichal Yechezkel Beis Medrash, with kevurah at the Segulah Cemetery in Petach Tikva.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}
Yeshiva University announced that Douglas Murray, a well-known British journalist, an outspoken supporter of Israel and one of the chassidei umos ha’olam, is joining its faculty in a newly created academic role.
Murray, who is not Jewish, is a familiar voice in international media, where he frequently comments on Israel and global affairs. University officials described his appointment as a significant addition that brings a prominent public intellectual into the school’s academic life.
According to the university, Murray has been named its first-ever President’s Professor of Practice, a role that, it explained, “recognizes leaders who have shaped public discourse and invites them to contribute that perspective to university life.”
As part of his appointment, Murray will teach within the honors program, offering lectures for a poetry course titled “The Values of Verse: Sacred and Secular Perspectives.”
“Great poetry is not an ornament of civilization,” Murray said in a statement. “It is one of the ways civilizations think, remember and endure.”
“I’m honored to join Yeshiva University in a setting where those questions are taken seriously and explored with intellectual rigor,” added Murray.
{Matzav.com}
The Knesset plenum approved the 2026 state budget in its first reading late Wednesday night, with 62 lawmakers voting in favor and 55 opposing.
The dramatic development of the vote, however, unfolded within the coalition itself, as United Torah Judaism split in an unprecedented manner, exposing sharp internal tensions tied to the draft law. In a rare move, all three Knesset members of Agudas Yisrael — Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, MK Meir Porush, and MK Yaakov Tessler — entered the plenum and voted against the budget.
By contrast, the members of Degel HaTorah, following the directive of Hagaon Rav Dov Landau and Hagaon Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, supported the budget after an intensive day of consultations with gedolim and discussions with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth. Shas chairman Aryeh Deri was notably absent from the vote.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sought to downplay the rift, saying the government would not have brought the budget to a vote without a chareidi commitment to support it through all three readings. According to Smotrich, “the chareidim are not linking the budget to the draft law.”
Degel HaTorah responded swiftly with an unusually sharp public rebuttal, rejecting the finance minister’s assertion. “The statement by the finance minister claiming that we supposedly committed to vote for the budget in the second and third readings — did not happen and was never agreed to, and everyone knows this,” the faction said in a statement.
{Matzav.com}
