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Rav Yitzchak Yosef, the former Rishon LeZion, issued a powerful letter to yeshiva bochurim at the opening of the summer zman, urging them to remain strong in their Torah study despite mounting external pressures and internal challenges.

The message comes at a sensitive time, as a ceasefire in the war with Iran holds, tensions continue along Israel’s northern border, and legal battles and government actions affecting yeshiva bochurim remain ongoing.

In his letter, Rav Yosef emphasized the tremendous privilege of being part of the yeshiva world, describing bochurim as soldiers in Hashem’s army who carry the banner of Torah. He stressed that even those who feel they are not succeeding in their studies are still part of this mission and play a vital role.

He warned that the yetzer hara seeks to weaken bochurim, especially during uncertain times, including the current security situation. Nonetheless, he called on them to strengthen themselves and recognize the immense value of every individual who dedicates himself to Torah study, even when progress feels limited.

Addressing the growing criticism directed at yeshiva bochurim, Rav Yosef wrote: “We have many enemies from within and without, and there are those who spread contempt and hatred against yeshiva students out of a lack of understanding of their eternal greatness. Those unfortunate individuals have not merited to see the light, and deep down they know they are in darkness.”

He urged bochurim to appreciate the importance of Torah learning, particularly during difficult times, and called on those studying abroad to return to Israel. “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Torah is the greatest protection,” he wrote, encouraging them to return to the study halls as soon as possible.

Citing the Rambam, Rav Yosef explained that those who dedicate themselves to Torah are comparable to Shevet Levi, who were set apart for spiritual service and exempt from military duty. He quoted: “All the tribe of Levi is warned not to inherit… because they are set aside to serve Hashem… therefore they are separated from the ways of the world; they do not wage war like the rest of Israel.”

He added that this concept extends beyond that tribe, applying to anyone who chooses to devote his life to serving Hashem through Torah study, thereby attaining a uniquely elevated status.

To illustrate the impact of Torah learning, Rav Yosef shared a well-known story about the Chofetz Chaim. At a fundraising event for a hospital, wealthy donors pledged to sponsor beds. When asked how many beds yeshiva bochurim had contributed, the Chofetz Chaim replied that each student had donated fifty beds, explaining that through the merit of their Torah learning, they prevent illness and suffering.

Rav Yosef concluded by encouraging continued support for Torah study and praising the rabbanim who dedicate themselves to guiding bochurim with patience and care, emphasizing that the entire world exists in the merit of those who learn Torah.

Two suspects were arrested Tuesday evening in Beit Shemesh after being caught tearing down Israeli flags that had been placed throughout the city ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers.

According to a police statement, officers observed the pair in the act of removing and desecrating the flags, disrupting public order. Police units at the scene quickly identified the suspects and apprehended them.

The two were taken to the local police station for questioning, and authorities will later determine whether to request an extension of their detention in court.

Police strongly condemned the incident, describing it as “a disgraceful and despicable act,” and emphasized the severity of the offense given the timing—on the eve of Memorial Day, when citizens across Israel pause to remember those who fell in the country’s wars.

Authorities added that they will continue to act decisively against any harm to state symbols or disturbances of public order, particularly during such sensitive days.

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rav Yehoshua Betzalel HaKohen Kaplan zt”l, a longtime menahel at Yeshivas Or Somayach, who was known for his lifelong dedication to Torah, chesed, and his unwavering commitment to Birchas Kohanim. He was 88.

The niftar, who lived on Rechov Panim Meiros in the Matersdorf neighborhood of Yerushalayim, served for decades as one of the מנהלים of Yeshivas Or Somayach, where he played a key role in sustaining the mosad through tireless fundraising and devotion.

Rav Kaplan, a son of Rav Yisroel Isaac HaKohen Kaplan zt”l, was deeply connected to Torah from a young age. In his youth, he learned at Yeshivas Telz in Cleveland. Upon reaching marriageable age, he married the daughter of Rav Tzvi Yaakov HaKohen Isbee zt”l.

Throughout his life, he remained closely connected to his rabbeim from Telz Cleveland, from whom he also received semichah.

He invested tremendous effort in raising funds for Ohr Somayach with true mesirus nefesh. He was known as a rodef tzedakah v’chesed, quietly assisting many and dedicating himself to helping others.

He was particularly meticulous in his עבודת התפילה, ensuring to daven vasikin regularly. Most notably, he was known for never missing an opportunity to participate in Birkas Kohanim, traveling between multiple minyanim in order to both give and receive the brocha. For many years, he was careful that no brachah would leave his lips without others answering amein.

In recent months, his health declined, and he was hospitalized several times due to pneumonia. In his final days, his condition worsened, with increasing weakness and difficulty breathing, until he was niftar Monday morning.

He is survived by a distinguished family of children and sons-in-law who continue in the path of Torah and mitzvos. Among his sons-in-law is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Keter Torah, Rav Avrohom Moshe Ziskind.

He was also the brother of Rav Shlomo HaKohen Kaplan zt”l, a R”M at Yeshivas Aish HaTorah.

The levayah was held at his home at 5 Rechov Panim Meiros in Matersdorf, proceeding to Har Hazeisim for kevurah.

Tehei nishmaso tzerurah b’tzror hachaim.

{Matzav.com}

An antisemitic sign reportedly posted at a hotel in the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan, declaring that entry is forbidden to both animals and Jews, has drawn strong condemnation from Israeli officials.

According to a report by Ynet, the sign explicitly stated that “no entry is allowed for animals and Jews,” and included images of a dog and a Star of David crossed out.

Israel’s embassy responsible for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan issued a sharp response, denouncing the display and its offensive message.

In an official statement, the embassy described the sign as a deeply offensive and unacceptable expression that contradicts fundamental principles of human dignity, equality, and tolerance. The statement emphasized that the message contained clear antisemitic content and labeled it “a serious act that harms universal values.” Officials stressed that any form of discrimination—whether based on ethnicity, religion, or any other factor—must be met with a firm and unequivocal response.

The embassy also stated that Israel expects local authorities in Kyrgyzstan to take appropriate action to address the incident and ensure that similar occurrences do not happen again.

Osh, the country’s second-largest city, has a predominantly Muslim population. Israel does not maintain a permanent embassy in Kyrgyzstan, with diplomatic relations handled through its embassy in Kazakhstan.

{Matzav.com}

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) delivered an impassioned speech in Detroit over the weekend, warning of what he described as a “storm” facing the nation and calling on supporters to take action ahead of upcoming elections.

Speaking at the Michigan Democratic Women’s Caucus Legacy Luncheon, Booker sought to energize Democrats ahead of the midterm cycle, portraying the current moment as a critical test for the country.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is a storm in our nation!” Booker yelled. “There is darkness and wind! People are getting hurt!”

He then emphasized the need for grassroots political engagement rather than outside intervention. “What we need is not from on high!” the Democrat continued, pointing his finger upward toward the sky. “We need foot soldiers of our democracy, who, in times of trial, are willing to stand up.”

Booker continued by urging the audience to mobilize and take an active role in the political process. “Will you stand for our democracy? Will you stand to get out the vote? Will you stand for our children? Will you stand up for our elders? And will you stand together, unified, strong. Be the hope that people need. We are Democrats. It’s time for a new deal, it’s time to redeem the dream of America.,” he said, adding, “God bless you” after essentially admitting that he believes Democrats do not need God’s help.

Booker, who has served in the U.S. Senate and previously ran for president in 2020, has continued to draw attention with his high-profile appearances and political messaging. Last year, he made headlines for delivering a marathon Senate speech that lasted 25 hours and 5 minutes.

His extended address raised concerns among family members about his health and safety during the ordeal. His wife, Alexis Booker, spoke about the experience in a TikTok video.

“It’s not super safe to stand for 25 hours,” Alexis Booker, whom he wed last year, said in a TikTok video. “Like, your body kind of just like breaks down. And if you fall over, you could hit your head. So those are the things that were going through our head.”

“Like, yes, I wanted him to break the record, but I also wanted him to not die or like get injured,” she continued.

“He wasn’t going to eat for a really long period of time — just being dehydrated alone was worrying me,” she said, explaining that she and Booker’s mother could not be there, so she would call his mother because “everybody was just nervous.”

“At that point, I was living in L.A. and I was preparing to move to live with Cory. And so I didn’t want to bother him, but I would send cute messages or I made a cartoon with my face on it,” she added.

{Matzav.com}

The Trump administration has begun re-evaluating immigration cases approved under President Joe Biden, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now reviewing individuals who were granted green cards, asylum, and other benefits, according to agency leadership.

USCIS Director Joe Edlow said over the weekend that the agency has significantly ramped up its fraud investigations, focusing in particular on cases processed during the previous administration.

“In terms of the people that are perpetrating fraud: Stop, because we are going to find you,” Edlow said during an interview with One America News, which he later posted on X.

“And even if you’ve already [committed fraud], and you think you’ve gotten away with it, we’re going back,” Edlow said. “As you noted earlier, we are looking at old cases, we are going back and re-vetting cases for people who were granted green cards and granted other benefits during the Biden administration, when there was no vetting. There’s vetting now, and we’re looking at these old cases, so be prepared to face the consequences.”

Edlow had previously told lawmakers in February that investigators were finding high rates of fraud in the cases they reviewed.

“Since January 20, 2025, USCIS officers have made nearly 33,000 fraud referrals to our Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate — a 138% increase compared to the average yearly referrals of the previous administration,” Edlow said.

“Our Fraud Detection and National Security team completed investigations into more than 21,000 cases, identifying fraud in 65% of them,” he revealed. “Our officers conducted over 7,000 site visits and more than 26,000 social media checks to identify national security, public safety, fraud, and anti-American concerns.”

Earlier this year, the agency also launched Operation PARRIS, a targeted effort to reexamine refugee cases in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region, with a particular focus on applicants from Somalia, which officials have identified as a source of widespread immigration fraud.

The Justice Department is demanding all ballots from the 2024 election in the Detroit area, a highly unusual move that comes shortly after prosecutors seized 2020 ballots in Georgia and obtained 2020 election records in Arizona.

The push to collect thousands of election records in swing states is part of a sweeping effort by President Donald Trump and his administration to scrutinize elections that has cast doubt on how they are run. Trump has spent more than five years stating that the 2020 election was rigged against him. In recent months, he has shifted his focus to this fall’s midterm elections by seeking to restrict voting by mail and urging Republicans to “take over” voting in “at least 15 places,” such as Detroit.

The latest demand is for ballots, ballot envelopes and ballot receipts in Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit. It came from Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who oversees the Civil Rights Division and is widely viewed as auditioning to replace Pam Bondi as attorney general. Dhillon sent her letter Tuesday, and Democratic state officials released a copy of it Sunday.

Those officials – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, state Attorney General Dana Nessel and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson – decried the demand as a baseless attempt to undermine the public’s confidence in elections.

“If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote,” Nessel said in a statement.

Dhillon wrote in her letter to Wayne County that DOJ wants the 2024 ballots so it can determine whether election laws were followed that year in a place with a “history of fraud convictions and other allegations.” She cited three examples of voter fraud in 2020 and a lawsuit alleging election officials did not properly process absentee ballots that year. A judge dismissed that lawsuit, finding the allegations were “not credible.”

Voting fraud is very rare, and Nessel noted it has often been caught in Michigan by election officials. Courts rejected dozens of lawsuits over the 2020 election, and independent reviews have found Trump lost that year to Joe Biden.

Dhillon asked that the ballots be produced within two weeks and said the Justice Department might sue to get them if they are not.

The Justice Department is seeking about 865,000 ballots and hundreds of thousands of other records, according to a letter Nessel sent to the Justice Department on Friday. Dhillon made her demand to the wrong place, Nessel said, because the ballots are held by 43 municipal clerks, not Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett (D).

A spokesperson for Garrett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. A Justice Department spokesperson had no comment.

In statements, Benson called the demand the administration’s “latest attempt to interfere in our elections” and Whitmer said it was a “poorly disguised attempt to justify more doubt and misinformation about our elections.”

(c) 2026, The Washington Post · Patrick Marley 

After Henry Stern found swastikas drawn on his backpack and faced threats at his Malibu, Calif., school, the then eighth grader readied for a fight. He asked a Jewish friend, who knew karate, to stand by him and use his martial arts skill if necessary and he intended to run a tape recorder to document the violence.

“We had this whole plan,” the now California state senator, told JNS. “I thought I was going to get beat up that day.”

Stern described his identity as a teen as he “happened to be Jewish.” He told JNS that he is “good at talking my way through things” and is “not a super tough guy, but I at least can joke my way around stuff.” He didn’t need to, though, because the class was learning about the Holocaust at the time, and his teacher stopped the regular schedule to invite survivors to come address students.

“I met all these survivors, and they changed my life,” Stern said. “Not every kid has that magical bullying-into-leadership redemption moment. A lot of other kids have to duck it, take their Magen David off and lay low.”

“Going through all that stuff made me realize it doesn’t really matter if you’re religious or not,” he told JNS. “You’re still vulnerable just being a Jew,” and “someone’s going to come for you.”

The swastikas weren’t a once-off. “There was a whole weird thing that was happening at the school newspaper at the time, and they were embedding swastikas into the school newspaper cartoons,” he said. “We found there was a whole crew of guys who were really getting into neo-Nazi stuff, and we had a whole intervention in my eighth grade social studies class where we basically stopped class for the week.”

“That’s my own personal origin story,” the 44-year-old Democrat, who represents about 1 million people, including in heavily-Jewish parts of Los Angeles and Ventura County, in the state Senate.

The Malibu native, whose father is the actor Daniel Stern, graduated from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He worked as an environmental lawyer and as a senior adviser on energy policy before being elected to the state Senate in 2016 as the youngest member elected at the time.

In his nine years in the state legislature, Stern has focused on climate policy and Holocaust education. He has also become more religiously observant.

“I wear a kippah now and keep Shabbat much more strictly,” he told JNS.

‘Shabbos island’

The issues of antisemitism and Jewish identity prompted Stern to introduce SB 1387, which would require state agencies to recognize Jewish identity as an ethnicity in demographic data collection, on April 15. If passed, it would help document increasing threats against Jews, he told JNS.

The state senator started observing Shabbos more intentionally in his 30s. “I started sort of experimenting with it on my own, and then I would have these very contemplative, meditative, but somewhat lonely Shabbats by myself,” he said.

He felt at the height of his personal career. “I was a real hot shot. I felt so cool. I’m on TV and all this stuff’s happening,” he told JNS. But observing biblical and rabbinic prohibitions would mean having to “back off” and skip Shabbos events and things like press conferences on Pesach.

“I found a way to be beautifully humbled by it all,” he said. “The world actually goes on without me, even when I step back a little bit.”

He married Alexandra Kaufman, an Israeli-American whose parents were Holocaust survivors, and they have two children, ages 3 and 4, and live in the Jewish community in the Valley where they attend the Orthodox shul Shaarey Zedek.

“Shabbat took on this other dimension,” Stern told JNS. “Everyone’s around. There’s all these people. It wasn’t a lonely experience at all when I integrated into her life.”

“I wasn’t on a lonely Shabbos island by myself,” he added.

Living in the Valley, Stern has befriended “so many types of Jews: Iraqi Jews and Syrian Jews and different types of folks and backgrounds,” he told JNS. “I’m in the Valley cholent.”

‘Great influence’

Jewish lawmakers in California are in a strong position, according to Stern, who is one of 18—a fortuitously Jewish number—members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus.

“We’re a really diverse group of people,” he told JNS. “We have really great influence.”

That strength has helped the caucus advance legislation, including a major Jew-hatred bill signed into law last year, even amid what Stern described as “very nasty objections and threats.”

“We’re kind of strong right now,” he said. “The governor’s got our back over the last few years in a big way, so we feel we’re in a pretty confident position at the moment.” He’s not sure how long that will last though, so he figures “in a weird way, we gotta get as much done as we can right now.” (The current legislative session ends in September.)

Stern told JNS that he endorsed the billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democrat, for governor.

Steyer described AIPAC as “dark money” recently, and Stern responded on April 5 and told the governor candidate that his rhetoric was “dangerous.”

“We can win Tom Steyer without making Jewish Californians like me feel like we don’t belong just because we believe in Israel’s right to exist and that we can eliminate the leverage of petro-states like Iran through clean energy, not with dog whistles about AIPAC and dark money,” he wrote.

Stern told JNS that Steyer is a “very good guy” who will be an “excellent governor.” He also said that “we’ve had this whole trendy thing of everyone wanting to dog whistle about ‘I don’t take AIPAC money,’ or ‘AIPAC is dark money.’”

“There’s a war going on. There’s a lot of weird trends, and you can get advisors that pull you in a lot of strange directions,” he said. “I’m deeply committed to the team. I’m in there as the religious Jewish guy. There’s got to be room for me, too.” JNS

Tasi Malala was driving with his friend to grab some breakfast outside Scottsdale, Arizona, last month when he noticed that his Toyota pickup was very low on gas and quickly getting lower. He pulled into a station and started to fill up with premium. That’s when he spotted the leak.

“I looked under my truck, and it’s literally gas just pouring out the bottom,” said Malala, 31. “It’s pouring out like crazy. I was freaking out.”

It turned out he had been a target of a newly popular way to steal gas: just drilling a hole. All the thief would have required was a few minutes alone with a handheld electric drill and a gas can – or even some milk jugs. Malala was left with a perfectly round hole in his tank and a nearly $3,000 repair bill. His truck was in the shop for about a week.

This sort of drilling-and-draining thievery appears to be increasingly common as the war with Iran has pushed gasoline prices to their highest level in four years, and as older – and less-destructive – methods of stealing fuel have gotten harder to pull off.

In Los Angeles, where gas prices are among the nation’s highest at about $6 a gallon for regular, service adviser Lupes Armas said his repair shop is fixing a drilled-out gas tank about once a week these days. It used to be a couple times a year at most.

“It’s definitely a problem,” Armas said.

Insurers are starting to see more damage claims, too, although at this point, just weeks into the war and spiking gas prices, the reports are mostly anecdotal, according to the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. It will take time to see how bad it gets.

“Let’s hope this is a short-lived phenomena,” said Brett Odom, policy vice president at the insurance group.

The repairs are covered by comprehensive auto policies, experts say.

The drilled-out gas tanks are similar to the occasional waves of stolen catalytic converters, which can be removed from vehicles with a power saw and then sold for the precious metals inside, said Bob Passmore, vice president of personal lines for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

That, too, is an expensive repair.

The shift to drilling holes in fuel tanks comes as an old method of stealing gas has faded: siphoning.

In the 1970s, the country’s chronic gas shortages led to a surge in people dropping plastic tubing – even garden hoses – into the gas tanks of parked cars to drain their fuel. The image of someone sucking on the end of a hose to initiate the suction (and spitting out the gas when it reached their lips) became a pop culture trope.

The ploy was annoying, but it didn’t cause permanent damage.

Car owners responded by buying locking gas caps and keeping a watchful eye on their parked vehicles.

Malala said he definitely would’ve preferred that the thief who struck his pickup had gone with the older method.

“I wish they would’ve just siphoned it,” he said.

But siphoning today is much harder than it used to be.

Most newer vehicles have narrow, curved filler necks leading to the gas tank, making it difficult to force a tube inside. Some vehicles also have internal flappers or baffles to thwart siphoning. And anti-pollution regulations mean fuel systems are often better sealed.

Gas thefts of all kinds tend to follow pump prices. Filling stations report more drive-offs, although that, too, has gotten harder thanks to prepay pumps. Some people have been caught dropping tubes into the underground storage tanks at service stations to steal gas. Others have used electronic tools to trick pumps into dispensing fuel for pennies on the dollar.

There have been sporadic reports of thieves drilling into car gas tanks going back at least a decade.

But high gas prices spur more incidents, such as when the national average price briefly reached an all-time high of $5 a gallon in mid-2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Now, high gas prices are back – along with the consequences.

One morning this month, workers at the Catholic charity St. Vincent de Paul in St. Louis noticed a dark stain on the ground next to the panel truck they use as a mobile food pantry.

Someone had drilled a hole in the gas tank, draining the pricey diesel.

Michael Meehan, the charity’s executive director, said they lost a full tank of gas. And the damage meant they would be without their truck for a while. They had to find a replacement to use for their mobile food pantry in the meantime.

Meehan said he was sympathetic to whoever did it.

“This is just another indication that these are difficult times for lots of people,” he said.

But he wished they’d chosen a different way to get what they wanted.

“Siphoning probably would’ve saved us some money,” he said.

Federal agents arrested Shamim Mafi at Los Angeles International Airport before the Iranian national boarded a flight out of the country, for allegedly trafficking weapons for the Iranian regime, the Justice Department said.

Mafi, 44, of Woodland Hills, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, was charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and faces up to 20 years in federal prison, the department said on Monday.

“This individual came from Iran and gained legal status under the Obama administration,” stated Todd Blanche, acting U.S. attorney general. “While enjoying a life in the United States, this woman was allegedly breaking the law by brokering lethal weapons deals with Iranian adversaries. This will not stand, and anyone who breaks our laws and threatens national security will be prosecuted to the fullest extent.”

According to the department, Mafi, who owns and runs a company in Oman, became a lawful permanent resident in October 2016.

“In early 2025, Mafi brokered weapons deals on Iran’s behalf through her company,” including a contract worth more than $70 million “for the sale of the Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drone from Iran’s defense ministry to Sudan’s military,” the Justice Department alleged. “She coordinated the Sudanese delegation’s travel to Iran and was paid more than $7 million.”

“She also brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to Sudan and submitted a letter of intent to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to purchase the bomb fuses for Sudan,” per the department. “Mafi also brokered the sale of millions of rounds of ammunition from Iran to Sudan.”

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Americans must receive permission from the U.S. Treasury Department to do business with goods or services tied to the Iranian government, and they cannot work with people whom the federal government has blocked, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated terror group, and the Iranian defense ministry.

“At no time did Mafi apply for or obtain the required licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department to engage in any transactions alleged in the complaint’s affidavit,” the Justice Department stated. “She also never registered with or applied for approval from the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls to engage in brokering activities with respect to U.S. or foreign defense articles.”

The Justice Department added that records, which the federal government obtained after executing a search warrant, showed that Mafi and an Iranian intelligence officer contacted one another 62 times between December 2022 and June 2025. JNS