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After approximately 11 years behind bars in Iraqi Kurdistan — including years under a death sentence that could have ended with his execution by hanging — Binyamin Chasin, Binyamin ben Limor, has been released from prison and is making his way to Eretz Yisroel.

The dramatic development marks the culmination of an extraordinary international pidyon shvuyim effort involving rabbonim, askonim, attorneys and thousands of Jews who contributed funds and tefillos toward saving Chasin’s life and ultimately securing his freedom.

Chasin’s ordeal stretches back more than a decade. Born in Iraqi Kurdistan before later living in Israel and Canada, he returned to Kurdistan in 2014 to visit his elderly grandparents, at a time when ISIS was expanding rapidly across the region. Reports from those involved in his case say that Chasin joined local Kurdish efforts to defend communities against the terror organization.

The following year, Chasin became involved in an altercation with a local taxi driver. Accounts circulated by those advocating on his behalf say that the driver heard Chasin speaking Hebrew, became hostile and threatened to turn him over to ISIS. A physical confrontation followed, during which the driver was seriously injured and later died. Chasin was arrested in 2015 and remained incarcerated from that point forward.

Those who worked on Chasin’s case have also alleged that he was subjected to severe mistreatment during his imprisonment and interrogations. Attorney and askan Avraham “Allen” Lowy, who became deeply involved in the effort and traveled to Iraq, previously described finding Chasin in severely deteriorated physical condition.

The case took an even more frightening turn in August 2020, when a Kurdish court sentenced Chasin to death by hanging. From that point onward, efforts to save his life intensified, with activists attempting both to protect him inside the Iraqi Kurdish prison system and to find a legal mechanism through which the death sentence could be overturned.

At one point, those working on his behalf succeeded in having him transferred from a prison in Sulaymaniyah, an area where activists feared Iranian influence posed an additional danger, to a facility in Erbil. The transfer improved his immediate security situation but did not remove the death sentence hanging over him.

A major public campaign titled “Zachreinu L’Chaim” was eventually launched to raise the money needed for a sulcha, a traditional reconciliation agreement with the family of the deceased. Under the arrangement being pursued, the family would withdraw its demand for Chasin’s execution in exchange for financial compensation, allowing the court to reconsider the death penalty.

More than 6,000 people reportedly participated in the fundraising effort, which sought $250,000 for the settlement.

The effort involved numerous askonim and legal advocates. A delegation including Lowy, Meyer Tzvi Tauber and Gershon Tzvi West traveled to Iraq in November 2025 to finalize the arrangement and ensure that the settlement funds reached their intended destination. Attorney Alan Dershowitz was also involved in advocacy surrounding the case.

Dayan Chaim Yosef Dovid Weiss of Antwerp also traveled to Kurdistan during the critical period and met personally with Chasin. According to reports from those involved, the sulcha was carried out according to local tribal customs in the presence of local elders.

The breakthrough finally came on November 13, 2025. After the deceased driver’s family formally granted forgiveness and the reconciliation agreement was submitted to the Kurdish court, a judge annulled Chasin’s death sentence. His punishment was reduced to a significantly shorter prison term, opening the door to his eventual release.

Following the annulment of his death sentence, an emotional Chasin was visited in prison by Dayan Weiss. According to a report at the time, Chasin recited the brachah of Hatov Vehameitiv and expressed his determination to enter yeshivah and embrace a fully frum life upon his release.

But although the immediate threat of execution had been lifted, Chasin was not yet free. He remained imprisoned for another 10 months as activists continued working through the legal and bureaucratic obstacles necessary to secure his release and permission to leave Iraq.

Recently, a renewed appeal was issued for Jews around the world to say Tehillim for Binyamin ben Limor. At that point, sources involved in the effort said they were cautiously optimistic that the final stages of the process could be completed within days or weeks.

Those hopes have now been realized.

Sources confirmed today that Chasin had finally left the Iraqi prison after more than a decade in captivity and had been granted permission to leave Iraq.

His arrival in Eretz Yisroel will also mark the beginning of an entirely new stage in his life.

Askonim involved in the case have arranged for Chasin to join the Foundations Program at Aish HaTorah in Yerushalayim. The yeshivah has already sent him a formal acceptance letter informing him that he has been admitted to the program and expressing its anticipation of welcoming him to Yerushalayim.

The plan is intended to provide Chasin with both a Torah environment and a framework as he begins rebuilding his life after 11 years of incarceration. Reports say preparations are also underway to help him obtain clothing, tefillin and other basic necessities and to assist him with the extensive process of readjusting to ordinary life after so many years in prison.

A targeted fundraising effort has also reportedly been opened to help cover his travel expenses and immediate rehabilitation needs following his release.

Israeli authorities had not publicly commented on the release as of Wednesday afternoon, and much of the information about the case has come from the activists and organizations who spent years working to secure Chasin’s freedom.

For the thousands who followed the case, donated to the pidyon shvuyim campaign and repeatedly davened for Binyamin ben Limor, Wednesday’s news brought an extraordinary saga full circle: a Jewish prisoner who once faced the gallows in Iraq is now free and preparing to begin a new life in Eretz Yisroel.

{Matzav.com}

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BREAKING: An Unprecedented Grassroots Movement Across 80 Seminaries

The energy across Eretz Yisroel is electric. In what has rapidly become one of the most inspiring grassroots mobilizations in Jewish history, 30,000 seminary girls across 80 seminaries have united with one singular focus: securing the future of Limud Hatorah in Eretz Yisroel.

Across buzzing call centers in Yerushalayim, Bnei Brak, and Modi’in Illit, thousands of young women are making calls day and night, many having undertaken ambitious personal fundraising goals. The campaign has already raised more than 20 million shekels.

Gedolei Yisroel on the Front Lines

This is far more than an ordinary campaign, it is an electrifying, historic movement sweeping across Eretz Yisroel. In an unprecedented and profoundly moving show of unity, Gedolei Yisroel are not watching from afar.

Torah leadership is fully and visibly involved, traveling from campaign center to campaign center across the country to stand directly alongside the girls. Offering personal chizuk and expressing deep gratitude for their tireless devotion, the Gedolim have ignited an extraordinary spirit in every room. Electrified by this historic backing, call centers nationwide have erupted with relentless energy and renewed passion as calls reach Jews across Eretz Yisroel and beyond.

The Current Financial Landscape: Closing the Gap

Over the past few months alone, Gedolei Yisroel have traveled to Brazil, Argentina, North America, Mexico, and Panama in an historic effort to confront the challenges facing Lomdei Torah in Eretz Yisroel. Through this united effort, 130,000 avreichim and bochurim remain immersed in Torah across 1,589 yeshivos and kollelim in Eretz Hakodesh, with support reaching 350,000 families, continuing uninterrupted despite mounting government decrees, funding freezes, and war.

Here is where the campaign stands right now:

– $10,882,890 has been pledged per month

– $12M is still needed per month

Klal Yisroel is now being called upon to close this remaining monthly deficit.

A Special Request from the Gedolim

When these dedicated young women call, please answer them with a warm smile.

They are our daughters, giving their energy and heart to uplift the Torah world on behalf of us all.

Claim Your Share Before Yom Kippur

As we approach Yom Kippur, there is no greater zechus than directly sustaining the learning of Torah.

With Gedolei Yisroel in the rooms and 30,000 girls leading the charge, the opportunity to participate is here. 

https://www.charidy.com/kerenolamhatorah/achinu

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Win the cover of the Vilna Gaon’s Tanach—a remarkable piece of Torah history!

Only 500 entries are available. Each participant receives a unique random number from 1–500 and donates that amount—possibly as little as $1.

Support Shaarei Yitzchak and enter for your chance to win!

Click HERE to enter!

An elderly Yid who lives on the sixth floor of an apartment building may continue using a noisy elevator at 4 a.m. to attend Selichos, despite a downstairs neighbor’s complaint that the elevator wakes him each morning, according to a ruling issued by Rav Roi Moshkovitz.

Rav Moshkovitz, a dayan and rosh kollel of Kollel Ro’eh Yisroel, discussed the unusual shailah during an interview with Ariel Berman on Kol Chai’s afternoon program, as part of a broader discussion about dinei mamonos and bein adam lachaveiro during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.

Rav Moshkovitz explained that dinei mamonos extend far beyond conventional financial disputes. The laws govern many disagreements between people, including conflicts that arise between neighbors over the use of shared property and disturbances caused by one resident to another.

The ideal way to resolve such disagreements, he stressed, is through conversation and compromise before bringing the dispute to a bais din.

Rav Moshkovitz cited the words of Chazal: “Eizehu mishpat sheyesh bo shalom? Hevei omer: zeh bitzu’a” — what form of judgment contains peace? Compromise.

He also referenced the Gemara’s teaching that Yerushalayim was destroyed because people insisted upon strict din Torah and did not conduct themselves lifnim mishuras hadin.

“It is always preferable to reach an agreement,” Rav Moshkovitz stressed.

Berman then presented an actual case that had been brought before the dayan.

An elderly Yid lives on a high floor of an apartment building and leaves his home every morning at approximately 4 a.m. to attend Selichos. Because of his age, he uses the building’s elevator to descend from his apartment.

There is just one problem: the elevator is old — and noisy.

A resident living on the first floor complained that each morning, when his elderly neighbor takes the elevator to Selichos, the noise awakens him. The downstairs neighbor therefore demanded that the man stop using the elevator during the early-morning hours.

Rav Moshkovitz compared the case to another shailah involving a newspaper deliveryman who routinely used an apartment building’s elevator at approximately 5 a.m. The sound of the elevator repeatedly awakened a baby living in the building.

When a disturbance is permanent and ongoing and regularly causes harm to another resident, Rav Moshkovitz explained, there can be grounds to require the person causing the disturbance to find another solution.

He pointed in this context to the halachic distinction between a recurring nuisance — comparable to smoke that regularly affects a neighboring property — and an occasional or temporary disturbance.

The Selichos case, however, was different.

Rav Moshkovitz ruled that the elderly man could not be prohibited from using the elevator. Selichos during this period represents a temporary and time-limited circumstance, and the elderly resident was physically unable to walk down six flights of stairs each morning.

At the same time, Rav Moshkovitz urged both neighbors to be considerate of one another and to seek a mutually acceptable arrangement rather than allowing the disagreement to become a serious dispute during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.

“You cannot force the upstairs neighbor to walk down the stairs and not use the elevator, at least during this period,” Rav Moshkovitz concluded.

And the dayan offered one more solution — this one with a smile.

Perhaps, he suggested, the downstairs neighbor should simply get up for Selichos as well.

Then the two neighbors could take the elevator and go to Selichos together.

{Matzav.com}

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As Lakewood prepares for Yom Tov, dozens of local Kollel families are facing a very different kind of Tishrei — wondering how they will cover even the basic expenses for their families.

For Keren Zichron Tzipora (KZT), the calls have been coming nonstop. The organization exists with one mission: to financially support and uplift Lakewood’s devoted Yungeleit and their families, with a simple message: “We are honored to support your Torah.”

For some families, the clothing gift cards provided by KZT will mean the only new clothing their children receive all year. Baruch Hashem, 20 families were assisted this past week alone — but dozens more are still waiting.

With Erev Yom Kippur quickly approaching, KZT is turning to the Lakewood community to help close the gap.

$500 can sponsor a Kollel family’s Yom Tov, but every amount can make a meaningful difference.

As the Yom HaDin approaches, it is an opportunity to bring tremendous relief to a local family — and enter the new year with the zechus of supporting Torah right here at home.

Who will tip the scales this Tishrei? 

Please Donate Here

Other ways to partner:
Call 24/7: 732-702-8100

Zelle / Venmo / Paypal: kerenzichrontzipora@gmail.com

Mail a check to:
Keren Zichron Tzipora
1511 Newport Drive
Lakewood, NJ 08701

All donations are tax-deductible. Tax ID 87-3452793

Thank you for standing with our Yungeleit. Wishing you a Kesiva V’chasima Tova.

In a stirring drashah ahead of Yom Kippur 5787, renowned mashpia Rav Elimelech Biderman delivered a powerful message about the extraordinary opportunities of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, stressing the unique power of tefillah, teshuvah, tzedakah and forgiveness during these precious days.

Rav Biderman opened by speaking about the exceptional power of tefillah during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, when Hashem is especially close to every Yid. During the rest of the year, he explained, a person does not know when his tefillos will be accepted. During these days, however, even the tefillah of an individual possesses a special power to tear up an unfavorable decree and bring about a yeshuah.

Rav Biderman cited the Tur and Bais Yosef regarding the custom of Sephardic communities to recite Selichos and sound an alarm even on Shabbos Shuvah. The reason, he explained, is that a person’s judgment is finalized on Yom Kippur, making preparation for the holy day a matter of the greatest urgency.

To illustrate the unique power available during these days, Rav Biderman related a mashal from Rav Shimshon Pincus zt”l. A person could never lift an enormous concrete wall with his own strength. Give him a crane, however, and suddenly the seemingly impossible becomes possible.

The Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, Rav Biderman explained, provide every Yid with just such a “crane” of Siyata d’Shmaya. With that extraordinary Heavenly assistance, a person can lift himself even from a place from which he might ordinarily believe there is no way to rise.

Rav Biderman then related a striking mashal involving a child from Bnei Brak who required an expensive eye operation from a renowned specialist in Texas. In an extraordinary turn of events, the specialist himself suddenly arrived at the family’s home in Bnei Brak. But the child’s father, who had been sleeping, mistakenly turned him away, failing to realize who was standing outside his door.

“This is ‘Dirshu Hashem b’himatzo,’” Rav Biderman said. “Hashem is knocking at the door now. We must not miss the opportunity.”

A significant portion of the drashah focused on the tremendous zechus of tzedakah and chessed during the Yemei Hadin. Rav Biderman cited the Shulchan Aruch and Rambam, who write that during the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a person should increase his giving of tzedakah and performance of good deeds beyond what he ordinarily does throughout the year.

But tzedakah, Rav Biderman stressed, is not limited to giving money.

Citing the Sefer Hachinuch, he explained that anyone who brings benefit or pleasure to another person — whether through money, food, sound advice, consolation or even a kind word — is performing an act of tzedakah. At times, he said, a smile, a word of encouragement or a few strengthening words can literally serve as a pidyon nefesh.

In that connection, Rav Biderman related a story involving Rav Itzele Charif zt”l. A young man once approached Rav Itzele because he feared being drafted into the army. His family had prepared money for a bribe in the hope of securing an exemption.

Rav Itzele instead took the money and gave it toward the wedding expenses of a penniless orphaned kallah. In the zechus of that tzedakah, Rav Biderman related, the young man ultimately received an exemption from the army on medical grounds.

Rav Biderman then turned to the obligations of bein adam lachaveiro, emphasizing that Erev Yom Kippur is not merely a day for preparing physically for the fast. It is a day for forgiveness, reconciliation and removing resentment between one Yid and another.

Citing the Sefas Emes, Rav Biderman explained that a central element of the kapparah is connected to the ninth day of Tishrei, when Klal Yisroel makes peace with one another.

A person must therefore seek reconciliation on Erev Yom Kippur even when he is absolutely convinced that he is right, Rav Biderman stressed.

He pointed to the account of a great Amora who went to appease Rav Chanina on Erev Yom Kippur for thirteen consecutive years. The lesson, he explained, is that the question is not simply who was right. The question is who is prepared to give in, lower himself and do what is necessary to restore peace.

Rav Biderman also related the story of a well-known baal chessed from Bnei Brak who had hurt the feelings of a divorced man who had been a guest in his home. Subsequently, the man felt that his children’s shidduchim were being held back.

On Erev Yom Kippur, he resolved to let go of the matter completely, call the man and seek reconciliation. Shortly afterward, the impediment appeared to disappear, and his daughter became engaged.

Another story concerned a father who traveled to the kever of Rav Shimon bar Yochai and wept over four of his children who were struggling to find their shidduchim.

As he poured out his heart, he suddenly remembered that members of his household had treated his son-in-law coldly. The family subsequently asked forgiveness from the son-in-law and their daughter, and the two sides wholeheartedly forgave one another.

Within the following year, Rav Biderman related, all four children became engaged, one after another.

Toward the conclusion of the drashah, Rav Biderman spoke about the extraordinary kedushah of Yom Kippur itself.

On this day, he said, Hashem Himself purifies Bnei Yisroel. A Yid rises above his ordinary physical existence and reaches a level comparable to the malachei hashareis. This, he explained, is why on Yom Kippur the words Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuso L’olam Va’ed are recited aloud.

Rav Biderman placed particular emphasis on the final moments of Ne’ilah, when the decrees of the Yom Hadin are sealed.

Until the very last moment, he said, a Yid can accomplish extraordinary things through tears, teshuvah and heartfelt pleading. Even severe decrees can still be overturned. A person must never give up and must never conclude that it is already too late.

Rav Biderman also discussed the mitzvah of eating on Erev Yom Kippur. Chazal teach that one who eats and drinks on the ninth of Tishrei is considered by the Torah as though he fasted on both the ninth and the tenth.

The eating of Erev Yom Kippur, he explained, expresses the joy of drawing close to Hashem and appreciating the extraordinary gift of kapparah that Hashem has given Klal Yisroel.

Rav Biderman’s message was one of both urgency and hope: These are not ordinary days. They are days to daven, to give, to forgive, to make peace and, above all, to open the door.

Hashem is close. The gates remain open. And every Yid still has the opportunity to begin anew and merit a gemar chasimah tovah.

{Matzav.com}

“Mommy, if I beat cancer once, why did it come back?” 💔

Chaim Rubin is only 7 years old.

A year ago, after more than a year of difficult treatments, his parents finally heard the words they had been praying for: Chaim had beaten cancer.

He went back to school, back to his friends, and back to simply being a child.

But at the beginning of Av, everything changed again.  

The seizures returned, and then came the devastating news:

The medulloblastoma was back.

Chaim has already started treatment to help control the disease, but to give him the chance he desperately needs, his family must now get him to the United States for advanced treatment.

The hospital requires a significant deposit upfront, and after already using their savings and everything they had available, the family simply cannot do this alone.

They need our help now.

Every donation can bring Chaim one step closer to the treatment he needs and another chance to fight.

🙏 Please open your heart for Chaim ben Yael.

Donate now

Thai authorities have launched a comprehensive review of Chabad’s activities in Phuket, with the provincial governor ordering officials to examine land ownership, construction permits and business licenses connected to Chabad of Patong. The development comes just days after a large Rosh Hashanah meal for Israeli travelers was canceled and amid a separate controversy involving a Jewish cemetery in Thailand.

Phuket Governor Chotnarin Kerdsom reportedly instructed relevant government agencies on Tuesday to complete the investigation within seven days.

The review will examine the ownership of the property used by Chabad of Patong, how the land was acquired, permits governing its use, construction approvals and licenses associated with commercial activities at the site.

Authorities will also examine corporate shareholder records connected with the Chabad operation to determine whether there is any overlap or business connection with a company involved in the establishment of a Jewish cemetery in Thailand’s Chachoengsao province.

The investigation follows heightened attention surrounding Chabad activities in Thailand in recent days.

On Friday, a large Rosh Hashanah meal organized by Chabad of Patong for approximately 2,000 Israeli travelers was canceled at the last minute. The cancellation came after a pro-Palestinian demonstration was held in the area for several hours.

Separately, Thai authorities have been examining issues surrounding a Jewish cemetery project. Thai Deputy Interior Minister Phonphirun Suwanchawee recently addressed the matter after authorities said that the company behind the project had been established by three Israeli nationals who also hold Thai citizenship and were registered as owners of the land.

Officials in Phuket are now seeking to determine whether there are corporate or business connections between that company and Chabad of Patong.

Phuket Vice Governor and provincial spokesman Ronnarong Thipsiri confirmed that the governor had directed government agencies to conduct an extensive review. According to the report, officials will inspect ownership documents, land-use permits, construction approvals and licenses governing commercial activities.

Thai officials emphasized that the investigation itself does not constitute a finding that Chabad or anyone associated with it violated the law.

Authorities also stressed that the review is not directed against any particular nationality, religion or community. Rather, they said, its purpose is to determine whether the activities being conducted and the ownership and use of the properties comply with Thai law.

Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, a longtime Chabad shliach in Thailand, responded by expressing confidence that the investigation would establish that Chabad’s operations are fully legal.

“We have been in Thailand for 30 years, and throughout all these years we have personally experienced the special hospitality of the Thai people, the mutual respect and the peaceful coexistence here among people of all religions and nationalities. We have always felt that we and our activities are respected, and we have great appreciation for the Thai people and the authorities of the kingdom,” Rabbi Wilhelm said.

“Our Chabad Houses are completely legal in every respect. We are very careful to abide by the laws of the country, to respect the local authorities and the citizens of Thailand, and therefore we have full confidence that the matters currently being examined will also be reviewed objectively and that everything will be found to be in order.”

The Phuket investigation comes as Chabad and Thailand’s Jewish community have also been dealing with a separate, sensitive issue involving a Jewish cemetery near Bangkok.

The cemetery had been purchased approximately five years ago by members of the Jewish community and Chabad in Bangkok. In recent months, however, difficulties arose with local authorities after officials declined to renew the cemetery’s burial license.

On Friday morning, shortly before Rosh Hashanah, Chabad representatives received a letter from the regional governor ordering them to vacate the cemetery, which contained four graves, by Tuesday.

Faced with the short deadline and the sensitive nature of relocating Jewish graves, Rabbi Wilhelm contacted ZAKA Chief Operating Officer Chaim Weingarten and requested the organization’s assistance.

Plans were made to transfer the graves to a new burial plot purchased by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, the chief rabbi of Thailand’s Jewish community.

Immediately after Shabbos, and following halachic consultations with ZAKA rabbonim, Weingarten and ZAKA volunteer Berale Yakubowitz traveled to Bangkok to assist with the operation.

A joint delegation of ZAKA representatives, Chabad rabbonim and members of the local Jewish community subsequently carried out the transfer. Participants included Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi, Yossi Goldberg and Davidi Haddad.

After hours of painstaking and highly sensitive work, the four graves were transferred intact to their new resting place. Those involved said the operation was conducted with careful attention to kavod hameis and all relevant halachic requirements.

The investigation in Phuket is now expected to proceed separately, with Thai authorities given seven days to review the documentation surrounding Chabad of Patong and determine whether its properties and operations comply with local law.

{Matzav.com}

Israeli motorists could increasingly find traffic tickets arriving in the mail without ever having been stopped by a police officer, as new enforcement methods allow officers to watch municipal surveillance cameras and issue citations based on what they see, according to Israeli traffic attorney Nir Shalom.

Shalom, a specialist in traffic law, discussed the changes during an interview with Kikar HaShabbat, warning that a broad overhaul of traffic enforcement is significantly changing how violations are detected and adjudicated in Israel.

According to Shalom, increased camera enforcement means that violations involving far more than speeding can now be detected remotely, including drivers using cellphones or failing to wear seat belts.

“The work of the police officers has become much easier,” Shalom said. “Police officers sit in the traffic division, connect live to the municipality’s security cameras, see a violation, and generate a ticket. Drivers have already come to me with tickets that state explicitly: ‘I watched the municipal camera, observed a violation committed in such-and-such vehicle — boom, ticket.’ Every innocent municipal camera intended for city security can potentially become a full-fledged police traffic camera.”

Shalom said the implications extend to a wide range of everyday driving violations. A driver may not know that an alleged infraction was observed until the citation arrives.

At the same time, he said, major changes are taking place in the process through which motorists contest certain traffic tickets.

According to Shalom, offenses that previously allowed motorists to request proceedings in traffic court are increasingly being moved into an administrative framework.

In the past, a motorist who believed that a ticket was unjustified could request a trial, appear before a judge and prosecutor, explain unusual circumstances, or challenge errors or technical deficiencies in the citation.

Under the new administrative system described by Shalom, much of that interaction has been replaced by written proceedings.

“They abandoned the criminal process and moved to an administrative process. Administrative adjudicators were appointed, administrative prosecutors were appointed, and there is no longer a judge,” Shalom said. “Today, everything is conducted in writing. You send a letter, the adjudicator sits and reads it like someone reads an email. There is no emotion, no looking someone in the eye, and no possibility of conducting a real hearing.”

Shalom also pointed to what he described as an important change in the evidentiary standard applied to such cases.

“In a criminal proceeding, it was enough for the defense attorney to raise a slight doubt — an error in the vehicle number, a mistake in the ID number, an inaccuracy in the location — and there was already room for an acquittal or an agreement. In an administrative proceeding, we move to a ‘balance of probabilities.’ The driver has to prove a greater than 50% probability that the ticket is wrong. The doors have simply been locked in the face of the ordinary citizen.”

Shalom also warned motorists about changes involving Israel’s speed-camera network.

According to him, whereas speed cameras were previously calibrated so that enforcement generally began only after a more significant departure from the posted speed limit, the threshold has been lowered considerably, potentially resulting in tickets for motorists traveling only several kilometers per hour above the legal limit.

He said this has resulted in longtime motorists with otherwise clean driving records receiving citations for relatively small speeding violations.

Another development expected to affect drivers is the introduction of average-speed enforcement cameras along stretches of roadway, similar to systems already used in parts of Europe.

Instead of measuring a vehicle’s speed at a single location, the system records the vehicle at one point and again farther down the road, then calculates its average speed over the entire distance. Such a system would eliminate the familiar practice of slowing down immediately before passing a speed camera and then accelerating afterward.

Shalom said the increased enforcement could have particularly serious consequences for professional drivers and others whose livelihoods depend on retaining their licenses.

He cited delivery drivers as an example.

“Take delivery drivers, for example. A driver unloads merchandise at one stand, gets into the vehicle and drives 100 meters to the next stand. During that short distance, he forgot to put on his seat belt. He gets a ticket once, gets another one a few months later — and suddenly he is accumulating points. In the past, you would come to court, explain that this involves his work and a continuous process of unloading and loading, and they would take it into consideration. Today, accumulating 36 points within four years results in an automatic three-month license suspension by an official, without discretion.”

Shalom concluded with a warning about what motorists say when they are personally stopped by a police officer.

He said drivers frequently believe that apologizing or explaining why they committed an alleged violation will persuade an officer to show leniency. Instead, he warned, their words can become evidence against them.

“An encounter with a police officer in the field is a criminal investigation in every respect. The biggest mistake drivers make is trying to appease the officer and saying: ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t notice, I was on my way to the doctor/I was under pressure.’ Drivers think the officer will have mercy on them, but in practice, the officer simply writes it down under ‘driver’s statement.’ Once the ticket reaches the administrative adjudicator, the adjudicator sees that you wrote ‘I’m sorry’ — and views it as a complete admission of guilt. From there, there is no way to cancel the ticket. It is better to remain composed, not rush to admit to an offense, and calmly examine the legal options.”

{Matzav.com}

Rebbetzin Freidel Schneebalg a”h, the longtime matriarch of a distinguished Torah family and the widow of Rav Shraga Feivish Schneebalg zt”l, the renowned Vizhnitzer rov in London and author of Shraga Hameir, was niftar suddenly in London at the age of 91.

The Rebbetzin was born in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, where her father, Rav Moshe Mund zt”l, served as rov. During the horrors of World War II, her father succeeded, b’chasdei Hashem, in escaping the inferno of Europe together with several of his children, including his young daughter Freidel.

The family attributed their miraculous survival to a remarkable bracha that Rav Moshe had received from his rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, Rav Aharon Rokeach zy”a. After escaping Europe, the family eventually established itself in London.

Upon reaching marriageable age, Rebbetzin Freidel married Rav Shraga Feivish Schneebalg zt”l, who would become a prominent rov and posek and serve as rov of the Vizhnitzer chassidim in London. Rav Shraga Feivish was the son of Rav Dovid Tzvi Schneebalg zt”l, the gaavad of Machzikei Hadas in Manchester.

Throughout the decades of their marriage, the Rebbetzin devoted herself with extraordinary dedication to enabling her husband to immerse himself in Torah, harbotzas haTorah and the leadership of his kehillah. She stood faithfully at his side as he built his reputation as the author of the multi-volume Shraga Hameir and as a respected halachic authority.

Rav Shraga Feivish was niftar on 20 Sivan 5760.

The Rebbetzin remained remarkably clear-minded until her final moments. Her petirah came suddenly on Monday afternoon, bringing to a close a life that spanned more than nine decades and began amid the upheaval and destruction of prewar and wartime Europe.

The levayah was held Monday in London, followed by kevurah at the Enfield Jewish cemetery.

Rebbetzin Schneebalg was zocheh to leave behind an extraordinary Torah legacy, with hundreds of descendants spanning several generations, including children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, continuing in the path of Torah and chassidus.

Her distinguished sons include Rav Eliezer Lieber Schneebalg, av bais din of Machzikei Hadas Edgware and a son-in-law of the Ratzferter Rebbe of Brazil zt”l; Rav Moshe Chaim Schneebalg, av bais din of Shraga Hameir in Monsey; Rav Yitzchok Isaac Shmuel Schneebalg, av bais din of Mykolaiv in Boro Park and a son-in-law of the Alesker Rebbe zt”l; Rav Avrohom Zev Schneebalg, a son-in-law of Rav Moshe Halberstam zt”l, dayan of Bobov in Antwerp; and Rav Dovid Tzvi Schneebalg, dayan of Vizhnitz in Yerushalayim and a son-in-law of the Deesher Rebbe of Yerushalayim zt”l.

Her sons-in-law include Rav Berish Meisels of Tzion-Veitzen in London; Rav Yosef Taubenfeld, av bais din of Chareidim in Monsey and a son of Rav Shmelka Taubenfeld zt”l; Rav Yechiel Michel Rottenberg, a son of the Kossoner Rebbe, Rav Meshulam Feish Rottenberg zt”l; the Strazhnitzer Rebbe of London; Rav Naftali Elimelech Leizer, av bais din of Pshevorsk in London and the eldest son of the Pshevorsker Rebbe; and Rav Yosef Halperin, a son of the gaavad of Hendon in London.

Over the years, the Schneebalg family became connected through marriage with numerous prominent chassidishe dynasties. These included the Satmar Rebbes; the Pshevorsk, Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok, Slonim and Machnovka-Belz courts; the Vizhnitzer Rebbes of London and Montreal; the Chernobyler Rebbes of Bnei Brak, Boro Park and Ashdod; as well as the Krechnif, Rachmastrivka Lakewood, Bohush and Kaliv dynasties, among others.

Yehi zichrah baruch.

{Matzav.com}

Following widespread tefillos on their behalf, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe and the Modzitzer Rebbe both underwent successful cardiac procedures on Tuesday, as Klal Yisroel continues to be mispallel for their complete refuos.

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe underwent the successful implantation of a cardiac pacemaker at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Yerushalayim, while the Modzitzer Rebbe underwent a successful cardiac catheterization at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak.

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe’s procedure was performed by Dr. David Luria, director of the Heart Rhythm Disorders and Pacemakers Unit at Hadassah Medical Center, and was completed successfully. The Rebbe was expected to remain at the hospital for observation and continued monitoring by his doctors.

Following the procedure, the Rebbe‘s home issued an update expressing gratitude for the positive outcome.

“The medical treatment of Maran Rabbeinu shlita was completed, b’siyata d’Shmaya, to the satisfaction of the doctors. The tzibbur of Anash and the multitudes of Acheinu Bnei Yisroel are asked to continue being mispallel on his behalf, for the health and complete recovery of the Rebbe, Rav Yisroel ben Leah Esther, so that he may return to his strength, b’siyata d’Shmaya,” the statement said.

The tzibbur is asked to continue saying Tehillim and being mispallel for Rav Yisroel ben Leah Esther, l’refuah sheleimah.

Meanwhile, the Modzitzer Rebbe successfully underwent a cardiac catheterization at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak.

The Rebbe had been transported to the hospital on the first night of Rosh Hashanah for medical examinations. He subsequently returned and was able to go before the amud and lead the tefillos.

On Tuesday, the Rebbe underwent the planned catheterization, which, b’chasdei Hashem, was completed successfully.

The tzibbur is asked to continue being mispallel for Rav Chaim Shaul ben Beila Rochel, l’refuah sheleimah b’soch she’ar cholei Yisroel.

Both Rebbes are members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the Chassidishe Agudas Yisroel faction of UTJ.

{Matzav.com}

The penny is another major step closer to disappearing permanently from American commerce after the House of Representatives passed legislation that would formally end production of the 1-cent coin and establish nationwide rules for rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel.

The House on Monday approved the bipartisan Common Cents Act without opposition. The measure would codify the end of penny production for general circulation while allowing the U.S. Mint to continue producing limited quantities for collectors. Existing pennies would remain legal tender.

Under the legislation, cash purchases would generally be rounded to the nearest five cents when the exact total cannot be paid without pennies. Transactions made electronically, by credit card, check or other non-cash methods would continue to be calculated to the exact cent.

The bill contains a separate provision covering wages paid in cash. If the amount owed to an employee cannot be divided evenly into five-cent increments, the payment would have to be rounded upward rather than downward.

The measure would not make the enormous number of pennies already in circulation worthless. Americans would still be permitted to spend and deposit existing pennies, which would continue to be recognized as legal U.S. currency.

The legislative effort follows the U.S. Mint’s decision to stop producing pennies for general circulation in November 2025, bringing an end to 232 years of continuous production of the coin.

But congressional action would make that change permanent. If the legislation is signed into law by President Donald Trump, a future administration would not be able to simply reverse the Treasury Department’s decision and resume routine penny production.

The cost of producing the penny has risen dramatically, reaching several times the coin’s actual one-cent face value. The increasingly expensive production process has been one of the primary arguments cited by lawmakers supporting its elimination.

The Treasury Department has estimated that ending routine penny production would immediately save the federal government approximately $56 million annually.

The legislation was spearheaded in the House by Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

The measure builds upon earlier legislation championed by McClain that also called on the federal government to stop producing pennies. That proposal previously cleared both chambers, but it did not contain the detailed provisions governing how businesses should round cash transactions once newly minted pennies are no longer available.

The new legislation attempts to resolve that issue by establishing a uniform system for cash payments, eliminating the need for retailers and consumers to rely on a steady supply of pennies.

Another provision would allow the U.S. Mint to change the materials used to manufacture nickels if a less expensive composition can be found. The goal is to reduce the cost of producing another coin whose manufacturing expenses have risen substantially.

Congress would also require the Treasury Department to monitor the effects of eliminating the penny and introducing cash rounding.

Particular attention would be paid to whether the change creates problems for Americans who rely heavily on cash, including low-income consumers, senior citizens and people who do not have conventional bank accounts.

Existing pennies, meanwhile, would not suddenly disappear. They could continue circulating for years, with consumers free to use them whenever they have them.

The measure would instead ensure that once those pennies gradually leave everyday circulation, businesses and consumers have a permanent system in place that allows cash transactions to continue without the need for the 1-cent coin.

If the legislation completes the congressional process and receives President Trump’s signature, the decision to stop minting pennies for everyday use would become federal law — formally bringing the long era of the American penny to a close.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump renewed his long-running feud with Republican strategist Karl Rove on Monday, delivering a blistering attack on the longtime George W. Bush adviser and accusing him of repeatedly getting major political calls wrong and working against the direction Trump has taken the Republican Party.

“Karl Rove is so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often. He suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome primarily because, for almost 10 years, I beat back and won against so many of the people and things that he wanted and espoused. Why does Fox News and the WSJ keep his RINO Voice alive. The guy is a stone cold loser!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The latest broadside was another chapter in a political battle that has stretched back more than a decade. Trump and Rove have repeatedly clashed over Republican candidates, campaign strategy and policy, with Rove criticizing Trump through his appearances on Fox News and his columns in the Wall Street Journal, and Trump frequently firing back publicly.

One of their early confrontations came in July 2015, when Trump branded Rove a “proven loser.” The dispute followed comments from Rove concerning gun violence and the Second Amendment. Trump also criticized Rove’s record of political spending during the 2012 election cycle. Trump described the Second Amendment as “a bedrock natural right of the individual to defend self, family, and property,” while arguing that Rove’s position reflected “a lack of respect for all of the freedoms in our Constitution and a complete ignorance of our shared American inheritance.”

Just two days later, Trump escalated the criticism, telling Breitbart News, “Karl Rove spent $430 million dollars on various campaigns last cycle. Didn’t win one. Which is pretty hard to do.” Rove subsequently disputed Trump’s characterization in a Wall Street Journal column, saying Crossroads organizations had spent $103 million during the 2014 cycle and had helped secure victories in 10 of 12 targeted Senate contests and 10 of 13 competitive House races. Rove also compared the potential effect of Trump’s candidacy on Republicans to the impact of then-Rep. Todd Akin on the party in 2012.

The war of words intensified at a Dallas rally in September 2015, when Trump called Rove a “totally incompetent jerk.” Trump declared, “He’s terrible. He’s terrible. He’s terrible,” and said anyone giving money to Rove and “the group of losers” was also a loser because “they don’t know what they are doing.”

By February 2016, Trump was openly questioning why Fox News continued putting Rove on television. Speaking with Sean Hannity, Trump said, “You’ve got some bad people at Fox,” while noting that the network also employed “some great people.” He specifically pointed to Rove and ridiculed his analysis on election night in 2012, concluding, “He shouldn’t be on the air.”

Another clash erupted in April 2016 after Rove wrote a Wall Street Journal column titled “Vanity Will Be The Donald’s Undoing.” Trump responded by calling Rove a “dishonorable guy” who “shouldn’t be allowed to write for the Wall Street Journal.” He accused Rove of attributing “things I never said” to him and charged, “He’s literally making up quotes.”

Trump said at the time that he believed Rove’s hostility stemmed partly from the knowledge that Rove would have no place in a Trump administration. “Because I want nothing to do with him,” Trump told Breitbart News. “Because I don’t respect him.” Trump further characterized Rove as “out of tune” and “out of touch,” while accusing him of “using language that I never used” and “giving ideas that are not even mine.”

Rove continued taking aim at Trump after Trump entered the White House. During the 2017 controversy surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, Rove predicted Trump would be “walking away from this a loser in the minds of the American people.” He also argued that Trump could have presented himself as an “aspirational figure” rather than a “condemnatory figure.”

The following year brought additional disagreements. In August 2018, Rove objected to Trump’s use of the term “enemy of the people” in referring to the press, describing it as “over the top” and maintaining that “calling names is not helpful to our country from any side.” Rove said the expression “just grates on me,” explaining, “I grew up during the time of the Cold War. That is a phrase that was used by Stalin against the enemies of the communist regime.” He said Trump would be “well-advised to tone down the rhetoric.”

Later that same month, Rove criticized Trump’s public pressure on the Justice Department, calling it “unwise for any president of any party to look like he is demanding that the Justice Department investigate his political opponents,” and adding, “It is just unseemly.” Rove asked Republicans to consider how they would have responded had Hillary Clinton won the presidency and urged her attorney general to investigate Trump. He concluded, “This isn’t how we do things or should do things in America. The president I think would be well-advised not to be making these kind of demands.”

Following the 2020 presidential election, Rove again criticized Trump, saying, “America likes comebacks, but they don’t like sore losers.” He added that Trump was “on the edge of looking like a sore loser and probably will look like it after January 6.”

Trump revisited his grievances against Rove during his March 2023 appearance at CPAC, placing the strategist among prominent Republicans whom Trump said represented an earlier version of the GOP that his political movement had displaced.

“When we started this journey, a journey like there has never been before, there’s never been anything like this, we had a Republican Party that was ruled by freaks, neocons, globalists, open-borders zealots, and fools, but we are never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush,” Trump said.

Their feud carried into Trump’s second administration. In a May 4, 2025 Truth Social post, Trump declared, “I don’t need Karl Rove telling me what to do,” while describing Rove as “a Loser who’s been wrong about almost everything.”

Rove also surfaced as a point of contention during Texas’s 2026 Republican Senate contest. Records publicized by Laura Loomer showed that Rove contributed $7,000 to the Cornyn Lonestar Victory Fund and $3,500 to Texans for Senator John Cornyn Inc. Loomer accused Rove of supporting candidates attempting to “Derail Trump,” while Ken Paxton had previously described Cornyn as “a puppet of the Bush and Karl Rove team.” Cornyn finished narrowly ahead of Paxton in the March primary, sending the contest to a runoff, where Paxton prevailed and became the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat.

The House on Tuesday rejected Democratic Rep. Al Green’s latest effort to impeach President Donald Trump, voting 232-147 to approve a Republican motion that tabled the resolution. Another 47 lawmakers voted present, including members of House Democratic leadership.

Green’s resolution sought Trump’s impeachment over the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. In making his case, the Texas Democrat pointed to the deaths of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in encounters with federal immigration agents this year.

Democratic leaders did not instruct their members how to vote. However, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar announced ahead of the vote that they planned to vote “present” on the motion to table Green’s resolution.

Explaining that position, Democratic leaders argued that the extensive groundwork they believe should precede an impeachment effort had not taken place.

“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust,” Jeffries said on Tuesday. “The effort traditionally requires a comprehensive investigative process, the collection and review of thousands of documents, an exacting scrutiny of the facts, the examination of dozens of key witnesses, Congressional hearings, sustained public organizing and the marshaling of the forces of democracy to build a broad national consensus.”

“None of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda,” he added.

Green brought forward the resolution as he approaches the end of his congressional career. The longtime Houston-area congressman lost the Democratic primary in his redrawn district and is scheduled to leave office in January. He has repeatedly sought Trump’s impeachment over the years and was censured by the House in 2025 after disrupting Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The latest vote also comes as Democrats debate how impeachment should factor into their plans if they gain control of the House. Jeffries has not ruled out pursuing impeachment during the final two years of Trump’s term, while other senior Democrats have said the issue is not currently their leading priority.

That debate includes questions about whether an impeachment drive would draw attention away from Democrats’ economic message and how voters who oppose some Trump policies but do not favor removing him from office would respond.

Some Democrats have also expressed concern that another impeachment effort could energize Trump supporters ahead of the midterm elections. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, have emphasized that any future impeachment push should follow a substantial investigative and congressional process rather than move forward without that groundwork.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer is calling on the Trump administration to publicly release any evidence it possesses concerning allegations that Rep. Ilhan Omar violated US immigration law, saying Congress should be able to consider the information and determine whether further action is warranted.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently alleged that Omar married her brother as part of an immigration scheme and said the matter is under investigation. Omar has long denied the allegation, which has not been publicly substantiated.

White House border czar Tom Homan has also confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations is conducting an investigation involving Omar. Homan declined to disclose details or say whether investigators have evidence of immigration or naturalization fraud.

“I think they should make it public. Absolutely, make it public,” Comer said Monday night on “Just the News, No Noise.”

“The evidence that I’ve seen would show that. They would be privy to a lot more evidence than I would have. Most of the evidence I have [is] public already, anyway. So, I think it should be made public, and I think the members of Congress should be the judge and the jury in this.

“Let us vote as to whether or not she needs to remain in Congress. If you violated the laws to become a citizen, should that make you ineligible to be a member of Congress? I think so. But put it up for a vote in Congress and let the American people see how their member of Congress would vote on that.”

Under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, the House has the authority to expel one of its members with the support of two-thirds of the chamber.

Omar, who was born in Somalia and became the first Somali American elected to Congress, arrived in the United States with her family after they received refugee status. She became a naturalized US citizen in 2000.

For years, Omar has rejected claims that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom she married in 2009, was her brother and that the marriage was undertaken to obtain immigration benefits. No public evidence has conclusively established that Elmi is her brother.

According to Omar’s account of her marital history, she and Ahmed Hirsi married in their Islamic faith tradition in 2002. Although they sought a civil marriage license that year, the civil marriage process was not completed, and the two separated in 2008.

Omar legally married Elmi the following year. She has said that their relationship subsequently ended with a faith-based divorce in 2011, after which she reconciled with Hirsi. Her legal divorce from Elmi was finalized in December 2017, and she legally married Hirsi the next month.

Omar and Hirsi later divorced in 2019. In 2020, she married political consultant Tim Mynett, who had previously worked on her congressional campaign.

Claims that Omar and Elmi were siblings first attracted broad public attention during her 2016 campaign, including through postings on the SomaliSpot online discussion forum. Subsequent reporting examined public records surrounding Omar’s marriage history but did not establish that Elmi was her brother.

The allegation received renewed attention after Minneapolis-based Somali blogger Abdihakim Osman, who described himself as an old friend of the couple, claimed that Omar had presented Elmi as her brother to people in the Somali community during the late 2000s.

“She said she needed to get papers for her brother to go to school,” Osman told the Daily Mail in 2020, according to the Washington Examiner. “We all thought she was just getting papers together to allow him to stay in this country. Once she had the papers, they could apply for student loans.”

Federal law provides criminal penalties for knowingly entering into a marriage for the purpose of evading US immigration laws.

Homan has said that immigration violations, including marriage fraud, should be investigated regardless of an individual’s position, while leaving the specifics of the Omar investigation to Homeland Security Investigations. No charges against Omar in connection with the marriage allegation have been publicly announced.

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of a man whose name may not have been widely known, but whose melody has been sung by generations of Yidden around the world, with the petirah of Tanchum Gershon Portnoy z”l, longtime resident of Lawrence, New York, and composer of the universally beloved tune to “Eitz Chaim Hi.”

Portnoy was 75.

For more than half a century, his haunting and uplifting melody has accompanied one of the most familiar moments in the davening: the return of the Sefer Torah to the Aron Kodesh. In shuls across continents and across the spectrum of Jewish life, a baal tefillah begins the familiar notes, the kehillah joins, and the words “Eitz chaim hi lamachazikim bah” fill the room.

Most of those singing it never knew who wrote it.

It was Tanchum Portnoy.

Remarkably, he was only 22 years old when he composed the melody in the early 1970s. It was recorded on his 1975 album, Tanchumim, with Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus, known musically as Avraham Yanon, singing the piece and Yisroel Lamm arranging and conducting it.

The album listed Portnoy as composer, producer and director. Its title, Tanchumim — consolations — was itself a play on Tanchum’s name.

The song would ultimately travel far beyond the album.

Its simple but deeply stirring structure made it particularly suited to a tzibbur. The phrases were short and memorable, the range accessible, and the melody seemed almost naturally wedded to the words. One person could begin singing and an entire shul could immediately follow.

Over time, congregations developed slight variations. Notes were stretched, rhythms changed and certain turns in the melody were simplified. But wherever it was sung, the tune remained unmistakable.

Eventually, something unusual happened: the melody became so familiar that people began assuming it had always existed.

Music publisher Velvel Pasternak once encountered liner notes that identified Portnoy’s “Eitz Chaim” simply as “traditional.” Pasternak corrected the attribution. But the mistake itself reflected just how thoroughly the song had entered the collective Jewish consciousness.

Portnoy once related that he would travel around the world, enter shuls, and suddenly hear congregations singing the melody he had composed as a young man.

On one occasion, he walked into a shul and heard the congregation singing it precisely the way he had originally intended it to be sung. He stood quietly listening, deeply gratified. Then, rather than announce himself as the composer, he simply joined the congregation, singing and davening alongside everyone else.

The melody was later embraced and popularized by prominent chazzanim and Jewish musicians, including Portnoy’s close friend Reb Shlomo Carlebach. With each passing year, another generation learned it — often without ever knowing there had been a composer at all.

But Tanchum Portnoy’s legacy was about far more than music.

Born on July 22, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York, Tanchum came from a family deeply rooted in Torah. His father, Rav Eliezer Portnoy zt”l, was a talmid of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Europe who played a significant role in the extraordinary efforts that ultimately enabled the yeshiva to escape Lithuania during the Holocaust.

Rav Eliezer had arrived in Mir at just 14 years old, an orphan with neither wealth nor a prominent family background to support him. He threw himself into Torah learning with extraordinary determination and eventually became one of the distinguished members of the yeshiva.

As Europe descended into catastrophe, Rav Eliezer became deeply involved in the desperate efforts to save the Mirrer Yeshiva.

Working with others, he pursued the documents, visas, government permissions and funding necessary to enable hundreds of bnei yeshiva to escape Soviet-controlled Lithuania. Those efforts eventually helped facilitate the Mir’s legendary journey across the Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Railway, through Vladivostok and on to Japan.

Rav Eliezer himself dealt directly with Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat whose transit visas became a critical part of the rescue.

After the American consulate refused visas to the Mirrer talmidim, Sugihara told Rav Eliezer, “The world says that America is civilized. I will show the world that Japan is more civilized.”

Sugihara proceeded to issue hundreds of visas for the Mir.

Obtaining the Japanese documents was only part of the danger. The talmidim still required Soviet permission to leave Lithuania and travel across the USSR, meaning that those attempting to escape had to deal directly with the feared Soviet secret police.

Rav Eliezer put aside his own learning and devoted himself for weeks to the work of pikuach nefesh, traveling between government offices, communal organizations and relief activists in Kovno in pursuit of whatever was needed to save the yeshiva.

He and a companion were among the first to leave Lithuania, around Chanukah of 1940. Rav Eliezer arrived in Kobe, Japan, in January 1941, with the remaining groups of Mirrer talmidim following.

The significance of those efforts was later expressed by Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l, who had himself escaped with the Mir and would become one of its roshei yeshiva.

“Were it not for Rav Eliezer, we would not be here. Were it not for Rav Eliezer, we would not have escaped the land of blood.”

After the war, Rav Eliezer became a marbitz Torah, teaching at Mercaz HaTorah in Montreal before serving as principal of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and later as a rov in Brooklyn. He passed away in 1975 at just 57 years old.

For decades, much of Rav Eliezer’s remarkable story remained little known.

Late in his own life, Tanchum made preserving that story one of his great missions.

In the summer of 2025, exactly 50 years after his father’s passing, Tanchum and his wife, Sara, published Or Eliezer, an extensive sefer that brought together Rav Eliezer’s Torah writings, hespeidim, photographs, historical documents, family memories and a detailed reconstruction of his role in the Mir’s wartime escape.

Tanchum understood that the generation that had personally known his father was disappearing and that even among Rav Eliezer’s descendants, the full story was becoming increasingly unfamiliar.

He was determined that it not be lost.

Included in Or Eliezer was Tanchum’s own English essay, “A Son Reflects,” in which he described his father’s extraordinary transformation from a lonely 14-year-old orphan into a Torah leader whose actions helped save hundreds.

“This is the story of my father — a man who arrived at the gates of the Mir Yeshiva at fourteen years old, utterly alone, and declared he would create his own lineage. It is the story of a boy who went hungry more often than not, moving from family to family for meals, bearing the physical scars of malnutrition beneath his collar. But more than that, it is the story of how one young man’s relentless pursuit of greatness positioned him to save an entire world.”

Tanchum wrote movingly about the lesson he drew from his father’s actions during the Holocaust: Emunah did not mean passivity. His father believed in miracles, but understood that human beings sometimes had to become the instruments through which those miracles occurred.

Describing his father’s memories of young men from other yeshivos desperately trying to escape Vilna without the necessary documents, Tanchum wrote that they “had trusted in miracles; he had trusted in miracles too, but understood that sometimes G-d’s miracles come through human hands holding pens and passports.”

For Tanchum, his father had done more than save hundreds of individual lives. By helping save the Mir, he had helped preserve a Torah world that would be rebuilt after the Holocaust and spread across the globe.

Rav Eliezer had once told his son that as an orphaned teenager, he had gone to Mir determined “to make his own lineage.”

Tanchum concluded his reflection with a powerful observation:

“He used to tell me he came to Mir to make his own lineage. He did much more than that. He ensured that hundreds of others would live to create their own.”

There was a striking symmetry between father and son.

Tanchum spent his final years working to ensure that the name of his father would not disappear from a story that remained alive.

His own story unfolded in almost the opposite way.

Tanchum’s name gradually disappeared from a melody that remained vibrantly alive.

He had composed “Eitz Chaim” at 22. More than five decades later, children who had never heard his name were singing it because their fathers sang it, and their fathers had heard it from their fathers or rebbeim. It had ceased to feel like a composition and had begun to feel like an inheritance.

The words themselves could hardly be more fitting.

“Eitz chaim hi lamachazikim bah, v’somcheha me’ushar. Deracheha darchei noam, v’chol nesivoseha shalom.”

And then:

“Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha v’nashuvah; chadeish yameinu k’kedem.”

Tanchum Portnoy was niftar over Rosh Hashanah, as Klal Yisroel entered the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, the days whose very essence is teshuvah — return.

“Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha v’nashuvah.”

Return us, Hashem, and we will return.

“Chadeish yameinu k’kedem.”

Renew our days as of old.

His melody is not ancient. Its origins are known. The original recording survives. His name appears on the album. And yet, for countless Yidden, the tune already belongs to the kedem of their memories. They cannot necessarily remember learning it. They simply remember knowing it.

Away from his musical legacy, Tanchum is remembered by family, friends and members of the Five Towns community as a man of tremendous warmth, kindness and generosity.  A longtime resident of Lawrence, New York, he was a beloved member of the Five Towns community.

He is survived by his wife, Sara; his children, Eli, Amichai, Ilan and Gali; and their families.

The levayah was held on Tuesday at Eretz HaChaim Cemetery in Beit Shemesh, where the kevurah took place.

Shivah on Thursday will be held at 1118 Warren Street in New Milford. Selichos and Shacharis will be at 7:15 a.m., with Mincha/Maariv at 6:45 p.m. Visitors are asked not to come between noon and 1 p.m., between 5 and 6 p.m., or after 10 p.m.

Shivah on Wednesday, Friday, Motzoei Shabbos and Sunday will be observed at 148 Sutton Place South in Lawrence, New York. Shacharis on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will be at 8 a.m., with Mincha/Maariv on Wednesday at 6:45 p.m.

For more than 50 years, Tanchum could enter a shul almost anywhere and hear something he had created as a young man being sung back to him. Sometimes, he would stand quietly and listen. Then he would join in, just another Yid singing as the Torah was returned to the Aron Kodesh.

Now, Tanchum will no longer be standing among those singing.

But the melody will be.

Yehi zichro baruch.

{Matzav.com}

An extraordinary and sensitive operation was completed in Thailand on Tuesday as ZAKA volunteers, Chabad shluchim and members of the local Jewish community successfully relocated four graves from a cemetery near Bangkok after local authorities ordered the burial ground evacuated within just days.

The cemetery had been purchased approximately five years ago by Bangkok’s Jewish community and Chabad. In recent months, however, difficulties arose with local authorities, who declined to renew the cemetery’s burial license.

On Friday morning, Erev Rosh Hashanah, Chabad representatives received a letter from the regional governor ordering them to vacate the cemetery by Tuesday. Four Jewish graves were located on the property, leaving the community with only a matter of days to arrange their relocation in accordance with halachah and with the utmost kavod hameis.

Faced with the urgent situation, Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm, a Chabad shliach in Bangkok, contacted ZAKA Chief Operating Officer Chaim Weingarten and requested immediate assistance.

ZAKA officials quickly conducted a halachic consultation with the organization’s rabbonim. Immediately after Shabbos, Weingarten and ZAKA volunteer Berale Yakubowitz flew to Bangkok to oversee the delicate operation.

A new burial plot had meanwhile been purchased by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, chief rabbi of Thailand’s Jewish community, providing a new resting place for the four niftarim.

On Tuesday, Rabbi Kantor, Rabbi Wilhelm, Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi and community members Yossi Goldberg and Davidi Haddad joined the ZAKA representatives for the operation.

After hours of painstaking and highly sensitive work, all four graves were successfully transferred intact to the new burial ground. Those involved took meticulous care to ensure that every stage of the operation was carried out in accordance with halachah and with the proper kavod hameis.

“When I received the request on Erev Rosh Hashanah and understood the urgency, it was clear to us that ZAKA would do whatever was necessary to preserve the dignity of the deceased,” Weingarten said. “Immediately after Shabbos, we left for Bangkok, following consultation with the organization’s rabbonim. Today, with the assistance of the Chabad rabbonim and members of the local community, we completed the complex mission and brought the deceased to their eternal resting place with the proper dignity.”

Rabbi Kantor described the situation as both extraordinarily sensitive and exceptionally urgent.

“This was a very complex and sensitive event that we were required to address within an extremely short period of time,” Rabbi Kantor said. “We thank the ZAKA organization and its personnel, who immediately responded to the call and came from Israel to assist us. Their cooperation and dedication made it possible to complete the transfer of the graves with dignity, sensitivity and in accordance with halachah.”

{Matzav.com}

Federal prosecutors have charged five people accused of participating in a Russian intelligence-linked network that allegedly sought to arrange assassinations in the United States and other countries and recruit individuals for violent attacks in European nations supporting Ukraine. All five defendants remain at large.

An indictment made public in Manhattan federal court alleges that people acting on behalf of Russian intelligence offered or attempted to offer payments to individuals in the United States and abroad to monitor selected targets before carrying out killings.

Prosecutors also allege that recruits were approached about conducting terrorist attacks against civilian and military infrastructure in European countries viewed as supportive of Ukraine.

James C. Barnacle Jr., who leads the FBI’s New York office, credited investigators with thwarting the alleged operations through “relentless work” as Russian intelligence personnel and associates “conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on U.S. soil and around the world.”

Darren B. Cox, head of the FBI’s Washington field office, similarly praised the “extraordinary work by multiple FBI field offices, components, and partner agencies that collectively disrupted Russia’s attempts to conduct violent acts in our nation’s capital and throughout the United States.”

Cox said investigators acted immediately after becoming aware of the alleged operation. According to the government’s statement, the Washington field office and other agencies “moved quickly to disrupt the plot and hold the Russian government accountable for its actions.”

Federal authorities said the network has been operating on behalf of Russian Federation intelligence services since at least 2024, allegedly organizing murders and other attacks in multiple countries, including the United States.

Officials characterized the intelligence network as “one arm” of a broader Russian apparatus allegedly used to conduct attacks overseas, including targeted killings.

According to authorities, the operation had previously concentrated on Russian dissidents and defectors. Its alleged targets have more recently expanded to include individuals and infrastructure in countries regarded by Moscow as supporting Ukraine.

Investigators said members of the network have also recently sought to recruit people located inside the United States.

During the summer, according to federal authorities, the network enlisted an individual in the United States to conduct surveillance on a prominent Russian dissident before allegedly offering that person $40,000 to kill the intended victim.

The indictment identifies the recruited person only as “U.S. Resident-1.” Prosecutors said the individual was directed to visit two locations connected to the intended target and received “explicit instructions on how to conduct surveillance” along with a promise of payment.

After carrying out the surveillance and sending photographs and video of locations linked to the target to one of the defendants, the US resident rejected an alleged $40,000 offer to “eliminate” or “disappear” the intended victim.

Prosecutors allege that after the individual refused the offer, the intelligence operative behind it attempted to recruit several other people in the United States, offering substantial payments in an effort to have someone else carry out the killing.

Alan Dershowitz says the Supreme Court’s decision preventing President Donald Trump’s new mail-ballot rules from taking effect before November’s midterm elections does not necessarily determine how the underlying legal dispute will ultimately be resolved. The Harvard Law professor emeritus described the ruling as “just the beginning” of the litigation.

Speaking Tuesday on “The Record With Greta Van Susteren,” Dershowitz emphasized that the justices were considering an emergency request to allow the US Postal Service regulations to take effect while litigation continues. The court declined that request Monday, leaving a lower-court injunction against the rules in place.

“The ballot issue will not affect the midterms,” Dershowitz said. “That’s what the Supreme Court held.”

Dershowitz argued that the opinions accompanying the court’s order contain indications that the administration could receive a more favorable hearing when the underlying legal issues are considered outside the immediate pressures surrounding the November election.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the rule should remain blocked for the upcoming election but wrote separately that there is “at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority.” He nevertheless concluded that implementing the requirements at this late stage would be “arbitrary and capricious.”

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Alito’s opinion argued that the government had satisfied the requirements for a stay and was likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal.

Dershowitz interpreted the positions of Kavanaugh, Alito and Thomas as giving the administration a potential foundation for a future Supreme Court victory. He said Kavanaugh had indicated that the administration “has the better of the legal argument,” although that wording was Dershowitz’s interpretation and does not appear in Kavanaugh’s opinion.

He also suggested that other justices who declined to permit the regulations to take effect immediately could nevertheless reach a different conclusion when considering the merits of the broader case.

“It’s certainly possible that the Trump administration could get five votes,” he said.

Dershowitz said Congress could address some of the controversy by establishing federal minimum requirements while leaving states with their constitutionally assigned role in administering elections.

He said a federal statute requiring voters to demonstrate citizenship “would probably be upheld as constitutional,” arguing that legislation could settle at least part of the legal dispute over federal election standards.

“Cheating in elections is as American as apple pie, unfortunately,” Dershowitz said, referring to historical allegations surrounding the 1960 presidential election in Illinois and the ballot controversy in Palm Beach County during the 2000 election. He also reiterated his view that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Dershowitz’s statement about 2020 is his position; official results and subsequent certification established Joe Biden as the winner of that election.

Monday’s Supreme Court order keeps intact a federal judge’s preliminary injunction preventing implementation of the Postal Service regulation. The rule would require ballot-mail envelopes to meet specific design and scanning requirements, including a specialized barcode for each voter, and would require states to upload specified voter information to a Postal Service portal.

The court’s unsigned order said the government was “unlikely to succeed on the merits” in its request for emergency relief. Kavanaugh’s separate opinion, however, distinguished the immediate dispute from the broader statutory issue and said there was a fair prospect that the Postal Service possessed authority to issue such a rule.

Dershowitz said the litigation will now proceed beyond the emergency stage, while cautioning against assuming how individual justices would ultimately rule once the underlying legal questions are fully presented.

The United Nations on Tuesday called for international investigators to receive access throughout the Gaza Strip “to assist with evidence-gathering,” as hundreds of bodies and human remains continue to be recovered from buildings destroyed during the war.

The UN human rights office said the discoveries raise concerns that war crimes may have occurred and asserted that many of the recovered bodies were those of women and children.

“The remains of what appears to be entire families are now being unearthed at locations that were pulverized by Israeli attacks,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Turk cautioned that the remains found to date might represent only a fraction of those still buried beneath destroyed structures. “I worry the remains recovered so far may only be the tip of the iceberg,” he said, noting that “much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives.”

He also accused Israeli forces of continuing demolition work in areas under their control without adequately safeguarding remains beneath destroyed structures. “Today, many areas in Gaza where the Israeli military is deployed continue to be leveled by bulldozers with no respect for the dead under the rubble,” he said.

Against that backdrop, the UN human rights office urged that “international investigators to be allowed into all parts of Gaza to assist with evidence-gathering.”

According to the UN office, the Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency says more than 630 bodies and other human remains have been retrieved from beneath ruined buildings across the enclave since November.

The UN cited the civil defense agency as estimating that more than 8,000 people remain missing beneath the destruction, saying it “estimates the total number of missing under the rubble at over 8,000.”

Turk called for systematic efforts to identify the dead and preserve potential evidence. He said “every feasible effort must be taken to document and identify these victims, preserve forensic information and biological samples, record their burial locations and inform their families.”

“The discovery of extensive remains under the rubble in Gaza City resurfaces concerns of war crimes and other atrocity crimes,” Turk said.