Agudath Israel of America proudly celebrates a historic victory for parents and students across the Lone Star State as the Texas Legislature passes a landmark universal school choice bill.
On Thursday, the Texas Senate voted to concur with the House and pass SB2, finally giving families the educational freedom they have been asking for. SB2 is an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that would provide parents with approximately $10,000 per student to spend on a wide range of educational expenses, including private school tuition. Students with special needs could receive up to $30,000 per year. The bill allocates one billion dollars to the program. If the number of applicants exceeds available funds, low-income (see chart here) and special education students will be prioritized.
“Agudath Israel thanks Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Speaker Dustin Burrows, House Education Chairman Brad Buckley, and Senate Education Committee Chairman Brandon Creighton for their leadership,” said Rabbi Ari Weisenfeld, director of state relations for Agudath Israel of America. “More importantly, this couldn’t have happened without the countless parents and community members who have advocated alongside Agudath Israel and our coalition partners for the last two decades.”
“This ESA program will have a tangible positive impact on our families and community” said Rabbi Avi Pekier Head of School of Torah Day School of Dallas.
“I have had the privilege of joining Agudath Israel’s missions to Austin since 2007,” said Yakov Polatsek a Houston community leader. “We are grateful to Agudath Israel of America for representing our community in Texas, session after session, and for refusing to give up.”
“School choice is on the rise,” said Rabbi A. D. Motzen, Agudah’s national director of government affairs. “With Texas becoming the 16th state to enact universal school choice in the last four years, the next step is for President Trump and Congress to bring school choice to all 50 states with the federal passage of the Educational Choice for Children Act.”
{Matzav.com}
The official Trump merchandise store is now selling caps embroidered with “Trump 2028.” Retailing for $50, the cap comes in President Donald Trump’s signature “MAGA” red and also features a flag detailing on the side.
“Make a statement,” the Trump Store’s description of the product reads, advertising that it “will become your new go-to hat.”
Trump’s War Room account on X also hard-launched the cap’s release with a photo of the president’s son, Eric, wearing it.
Trump told NBC News last month that he was “not joking” about running for a third term, saying there are “methods” that would allow him to do so despite the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” “I’m not joking. I’m not joking,” Trump told NBC. “But … it is far too early to think about it.” He continued, “A lot of people want me to do it … But we have—my thinking is, we have a long way to go. I’m focused on the current.”
Read more at Axios.By Tal Ariel Yakir
The complete and extraordinary story of police officer Yaakov Biskowitz was never fully revealed until now.
As a young boy, Biskowitz became one of the few people who survived for an extended period in a death camp, participated in the revolt that led to the camp’s closure, and was the last Jew to leave Sobibor alive.
He testified at the Eichmann trial, taking the stand in police uniform and presenting the camp map he drew himself, which became the most detailed documentation of the site to date. The camp map he meticulously created contributed significantly to exposing Nazi atrocities and assisted in archaeological excavations that uncovered gas chambers and crematoria that had remained buried and hidden underground for decades.
Eighty-two years after his escape from the camp and 13 years after his death, the Israel Police Heritage Center has produced a virtual reality exhibit dedicated to his work exposing the mass murder at Sobibor.
Simultaneously, an academic article titled “Reassessment Based on Archaeological Excavations and Documentation as Tools for Reconstructing Sobibor Camp: The Testimony of Yaakov Biskowitz as a Test Case” will soon be published by Chief Inspector Dr. Yossi Hemi from the History Department of the Heritage Center and archaeologist Dr. Yoram Haimi, who excavated the area for 15 years and revealed the remains of the death camp to the world.
Sobibor was one of three death camps, along with Treblinka and Belzec, established as part of “Operation Reinhard,” a comprehensive plan to exterminate Polish Jews. The camp was established in 1942, and shortly afterward, 15-year-old Biskowitz arrived there with his parents and sister Hinda. His mother and sister were immediately sent to the gas chambers, while his father was selected to work in the camp as a carpenter.
“I, being a child, was dragged by my father,” he recounted during the Eichmann trial. “From that transport, they took about 12 people. From the first day, I worked with everyone. Initially, it was building the camp and barbed wire fences, and we dragged branches running from a distance of about 1.9 miles.”
With his father in the killing valley, Biskowitz witnessed how those who didn’t work were shot or sent to gas chambers, and he worried constantly about his father, who had fallen ill with typhus. “I would carry him to work every day,” he recounted. “We worked in the Ukrainians’ casino. He sat in the corner, and I worked for him too. I did my best, but the day came when I could no longer carry him. That day, two SS men came, removed him from the barracks, and led him to the shooting pit, accompanied by beatings and shouting. They shot him in front of me. I wanted to run after him, but the workers who were with me held me back.”
Biskowitz remained in Sobibor for one year and four months, making him one of the few Jews who survived so long in a death camp, as the average life expectancy in these facilities did not exceed two months.
Revolt in Sobibor
On Oct. 14, 1943, the famous revolt broke out that was later immortalized in the film, “Escape from Sobibor,” with a screenplay written by camp survivor Thomas Blatt.
“With the cessation of frequent transports to the camp, towards spring 1943, the Jews understood that the place would be closed and all its inhabitants eliminated,” Dr. Hemi explains. “Then the Jewish underground members began to organize for the revolt, in which hundreds of prisoners participated.” The Jewish prisoners set an ingenious trap for the Nazis, inviting them to try on new leather coats, shoes, or to inspect items they had crafted for them. Every SS man who entered was attacked with axe blows or knife stabs. Sixteen camp staff members were eliminated through this strategy. Biskowitz himself stabbed one of them.
The guards eventually recovered from the shock and shot hundreds of the Jewish prisoners. Those who managed to escape to the forests were caught and executed. Only 47 camp residents survived, but Biskowitz’s survival story is truly miraculous. Due to the commotion during the revolt, he failed to reach the fence and was forced to flee toward the crematoria. He hid in a shooting pit until after midnight, when only guards remained in Sobibor. Under the cover of darkness, he managed to escape and became the last living Jew to leave the camp.
In his testimony at the Eichmann trial, he described his harrowing escape from Sobibor: “I remained in the Lazarett, the shooting pit, until after midnight. After jumping over a fence two meters high, through the yard where people undressed before the gas chamber, several shots were fired at me from the guard on the tower. Since it was already dark, no bullet hit me. Later, many SS men came and started running in my direction, but they thought no one was running and left the place. Only at night did I start to penetrate through wire fences, tearing barbed wire with my hands. The guard wasn’t there by chance. Finally, I managed to get out of the camp.”
The hardships Biskowitz endured did not weaken his resolve. At about 17 years old, he joined the partisans and later enlisted in the Polish army, working in mine clearance. About a year later, he deserted the army following an antisemitic dispute and was sentenced to death. The army ultimately decided to grant him clemency, and he served four months in prison before returning to his position. A few months later, he deserted again, joined the Betar movement, and with its help relocated to a refugee camp in Germany.
Immigration to Israel
In 1947, he boarded an immigrant ship bound for Palestine that the British intercepted and diverted to Cyprus. He immigrated to Israel two years later and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. In 1952, he was discharged and joined the police force. During his law enforcement career, he served as a patrol officer, traffic policeman, embassy guard, member of the prisoner escort unit, and in the national headquarters guard.
In 1959, Biskowitz was called at night to a street in Tel Aviv following a report of a man threatening to jump from his apartment window. When he arrived, the man jumped, and Biskowitz extended his hands to catch him. While the man was saved, Biskowitz suffered severe injuries that required a month of hospitalization.
The incident was reported in newspapers at the time, and much was said about the police commissioner’s commendation awarded to him, but Biskowitz deliberately concealed the fact that he was a Holocaust survivor. Only with the opening of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in May 1961 did he reveal what he had endured, describe his role in the Sobibor revolt, and disclose that a friend from the death camp had managed to save some photographs from the crematoria – the only memento of his parents and sister. On his own initiative, he also presented his drawing of the camp to the court without realizing the historical significance it would later hold.
Throughout his life, Biskowitz married twice, to Bella and Tova, and left behind two children, Aryeh and Yechiel. He retired from the police force and passed away in 2002 at the age of 76. Four years after his death, the map he had drawn became one of the key tools that exposed what had transpired in the camp. The process began when archaeologist Dr. Yoram Haimi from Kibbutz Mefalsim in the Gaza border region discovered that his uncles had been murdered in Sobibor.
“I went there to see if there was a museum or archive, but there was nothing,” Haimi recalls. “There were only three monuments and a forest. As an archaeologist, I thought it was a place worth investigating. I met with the manager of a synagogue museum in the town near Sobibor, and he said if I get funding, he would arrange the permits.”
Haimi located Biskowitz’s map in the state archives, and it guided him throughout the excavations that began in 2007 and concluded in 2021. “We found 220,000 artifacts there, including jewelry, watches, tableware, perfume bottles, and teeth,” he says. “Unfortunately, the Polish authorities placed most of them in storage and didn’t allow us to bring them to Israel. Biskowitz’s map proved remarkably accurate and was enormously helpful. Wherever he indicated barracks or gas chambers had stood, that’s precisely what we found. Everything had been buried in the ground.”
As someone who experienced Oct. 7, 2023, in Mefalsim, Haimi commented on conducting similar excavations in the Gaza border region in the future. “I need to recover from the trauma, and since that Saturday I’ve taken a break from excavations.” JNS
{Matzav.com}
Hod Hasharon Mayor Ami Kochavi sparked a political firestorm Wednesday night with remarks delivered during a Holocaust Remembrance Day event, where he appeared to link current Israeli actions to the potential for committing atrocities, warning of a “lust for revenge” as hostages remain in Gaza.
“Jewish morality dictates, ‘Never again’ — not just to us, but to all peoples, as an ethical and moral command on a just and healthy society,” Kochavi said during his address.
He continued by cautioning that moral clarity demands speaking out against abuses worldwide, regardless of who is responsible. “We must not be silent in the face of atrocities carried out against people of other nations in the world — even if they are carried out in our name,” he stated.
Drawing attention to those still in captivity, Kochavi said, “59 of our brothers and sisters are still held hostage in Gaza. Their ‘never again’ is still ongoing,” referencing the living and deceased held by terror groups. He added, “And the lust for revenge, for blood and destruction won’t bring us back the dead, or the living.”
Reflecting on history and responsibility, he said, “As the descendants of survivors of the Holocaust, who together with other pioneers founded the State of the Jews — it is incumbent on us to ensure that the memory of the Holocaust, the steps that led to it, the legal and ethical justifications that were given to it, and the silence that accompanied it — all of them will be made into warning signs to the entire world, and also to us, to remember and to warn.”
Kochavi’s speech, which lasted six minutes, included a moving quote from a Holocaust survivor who lost grandchildren in the Hamas assault on October 7, 2023. He described the country as “at war” on multiple fronts and underscored the urgent need to bring home the hostages.
Though Israel firmly rejects accusations of genocide in Gaza, the speech came amid global scrutiny and quickly gained traction in Israeli media and social platforms, igniting fierce backlash from politicians.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar condemned the speech on X, writing, “The embarrassing words of the mayor of Hod Hasharon are a spit in the face of Holocaust survivors — those who immigrated to the Land of Israel, established a state and survived the terrible massacre committed by ‘other peoples.’” He added, “I have no doubt that the vast majority of Hod Hasharon residents repudiate these outrageous statements.”
Energy Minister Eli Cohen joined the criticism online, accusing Kochavi of undermining Israel’s military. “The same hatred of Jews that led to the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis and their helpers, still flows in the blood of our enemies, whom the soldiers of the IDF are fighting at this very moment,” Cohen wrote.
Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman also slammed the remarks, tweeting, “On Holocaust Remembrance Day, while 59 hostages languish in the hell of Gaza, the mayor of Hod Hasharon, Amir Kochavi, incites against the IDF and actually sides with the terrorists.” He urged Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, with whom Kochavi is politically aligned, to publicly denounce the statements.
In response to the uproar, Kochavi took to X on Thursday to defend himself, condemning what he described as political manipulation. “The ugly spin” being spread, he wrote, aims to distract from the real crisis. He stressed, “There are 59 hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for 565 days and the prime minister on whose watch they were kidnapped.”
“They must be returned now, in one fell swoop. The dead for burial and the living for rehabilitation. Anything else is a distraction,” Kochavi concluded.
{Matzav.com}
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The International Criminal Court’s Appeals Chamber has overturned a prior decision by a lower court that dismissed Israel’s objection to the court’s jurisdiction in a case involving the Jewish state. The appellate judges determined that the lower chamber mishandled the matter and have now returned it for reconsideration.
Israel initially challenged the court’s legal standing to preside over the case, asserting that the ICC lacked jurisdiction. That challenge was rejected by the Pre-Trial Chamber, which claimed it was premature to address the issue. In response, Israel filed an appeal.
On Thursday, the Appeals Chamber ruled that the Pre-Trial Chamber erred by failing to fully examine Israel’s jurisdictional claims. The appellate body overturned the earlier decision and directed the lower chamber to re-evaluate and issue a proper ruling on the ICC’s authority in the case.
Following this development, the Appeals Chamber also dismissed Israel’s separate request to freeze existing arrest warrants and other legal measures tied to the initial ruling. The chamber reasoned that with the jurisdictional question reopened, the request had become irrelevant.
Additionally, Israel had asked the court to compel the Prosecutor to issue a revised notification concerning the investigation. That motion was denied by the Pre-Trial Chamber and subsequently appealed. However, the Appeals Chamber threw out that appeal as well, stating it did not meet the threshold for consideration. Two of the judges dissented from this decision.
Reacting to the court’s ruling, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reaffirmed Israel’s stance: “We said it from the start: The International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) doesn’t have, and never had jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and its former Minister of Defense. Israel is not a member of the ICC and is not party to the ‘Rome Statute.’ The ICC Appeals Court instructed the Court today, to do what it should have done from the start: to make a determination with respect to jurisdiction. On this topic, there is only one correct answer: the Court has no jurisdiction over Israel. The warrants were issued unlawfully. They are null and void.”
{Matzav.com}
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was originally slated to deliver a speech this coming Shabbos at the Young Israel of Woodmere in Long Island, New York.
Today, the shul, which boasts more than 2,500 members, announced that the event would no longer take place.
No official explanation was issued by the shul, but individuals close to the minister indicated that the rov who was supposed to host the gathering experienced a petirah in his family, which led to the cancellation.
There has not yet been any update on what alternate plans Ben Gvir may have made for his time in the United States.
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday night, Ben Gvir spoke at Yale University, addressing an audience of students and faculty. As he exited the venue, he was confronted by demonstrators critical of Israel, who shouted slogans and threw water bottles. In response, Ben Gvir stood his ground and raised his hand in a “V” sign for victory.
“The minister is doing well and was not injured,” stated a spokesperson for Ben Gvir.
Ben Gvir’s U.S. visit began in Miami, Florida, where he was the guest of honor at a private dinner attended by numerous high-level business figures.
That gathering took place at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate of US President Donald Trump. During the event, Ben Gvir was asked to address Republican lawmakers, including Senators and members of Congress. He was met with a warm reception and spoke extensively.
While at Mar-a-Lago, Ben Gvir also met with Congressman Tom Emmer. In their discussion, Ben Gvir emphasized the importance of targeting Hamas’ food supply caches. Emmer replied that he is keeping up with Ben Gvir’s efforts and backs his stance.
{Matzav.com}
