Please note that not one of these attendees ever went to the IDF!
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Zionists have constantly been out to destroy Yiddishkeit.
from EMAILIM BATORAH
בשלטון הכופרים אין אנו מאמינים ובחקותיהם אין אנו מתחשבים
The secular Zionists have constantly been out to destroy
Yiddishkeit. They wanted to eradicate the Torah and its
followers. They keep trying to שמד ח"ו all of כלל ישראל and
turn them ככל הגוים ר"ל.
והקב"ה מצילנו מידם
Hashem turned the tables on them.
Instead of Zionist stopping
us from learning Torah they became the largest financial
supporters of Torah. They spend billions of Shekalim to
build חדרים, ישיבות, כוללים, בית יעקב, סמינר, etc.
They also spend billions to support the בני תורה who learn Torah.תורת ארץ ישראלOver the past two thousand years,(maybe even beyond)
there has never been so much Torah learning anywhere in
the world as it is done now תחת שלטון הכופריםl. There never was
such a large ציבור of תלמידי חכמים, בני תורה, שומרי תורה ומצותשמירת המצוותThe secular Zionists try to make it difficult to remain a Torah
observant Yid, yet they are the ones who are paying billions
of Shekalim for Rabonim, Dayanim, Mashgichim, Shuls,
& Mikvaos in every city & town in the country, alleviating the
financial burden of Torah observant Yidden.
Despite the Zionist claim of כחי ועוצם ידי, etc., especially during
the Six-Day War, the whole בעלי תשובה movement we know of
today started during the war. For the past few thousand years,
there have never been so many בעלי תשובה as we have today.
We could have had way more בעלי תשובה had we tried a little
harder not to make the non-Frum have reason to hate us.
Russian Jewry, which seemed to be totally lost in the sixties
was part of the Six-Day War miracle.
Instead of the Zionists converting the Frum, the opposite is
happening, the non-Frum become Frum.
Ben Yehudah created the modern עברית so that the Frum
Yidden will give up their old-fashioned religion and become a
modern non-Frum society with its own modern language.
Today, the language used to learn Torah is mostly עברית. In most Chadorim, Yeshivos, Kollelim & Bais Yakovs, the Shiurim & Schmussen are given in עברית. Chavrusos in the Bais Midrash
argue & shout at each other in the language that was intended
to keep them out of the Bais Midrash.
According to the חקותיהם of the Zionists, it is illegal
to intermarry in the land with the שלטון הכופרים
In every country in the world, the גזירת שמד today is rampant. Intermarriage is between 70%-85% in every country except in the Zionist State, where intermarriage is less than 2-3% (still too many)
As much as the secular Zionists try to שמד Klal Yisroel, the
Ribono Shel Olam made sure their wishes wouldn't come true.
Almost 100% of the European non- and anti-Zionist Maskilim
converted and abandoned Yiddishkeit. Their
descendants are all Goyim who don't even know of
their Jewish heritage.
The only Maskilim descendants who are still Yidden
today are the Zionist Maskilim who made Aliyah &
live in Eretz Yisroel.
HOW IRONIC!
The Secular Zionists who tried so hard to Shmad all
of כלל ישראל ended up being the ones who saved millions
of Yidden from total Shmad.
Yes, indeed, it is not yet a perfect world out there, but when
was the last time that it was? Even during בית ראשון, some
Kings were עובדי עבודה זרה.
Monday, February 9, 2026
IDF Apologizes After Haredi Draft Dodger Prevented From Wearing Tefillin During Detention
מי כעמך ישראל
Only a Jewish State would apologize for a criminal that was prevented from putting on tefillin, In the USA this is a daily occurrence, and no one would ever apologize!
The Israel Defense Forces apologized Monday to a Haredi man arrested as a draft dodger after he was prevented from wearing tefillin for several hours during his detention.
Avraham Ben Dayan, 23, a recent yeshiva graduate and newlywed, was taken into custody Saturday night at a police checkpoint in southern Israel. The IDF said he remained in detention overnight and was only allowed to don tefillin late in the afternoon.
“The detainee was ultimately unable to wear tefillin due to an unexpected delay in processing,” an IDF spokesperson said. “This is an extremely rare case and not in line with IDF regulations. We regret the distress caused and have clarified procedures to prevent similar incidents.”
Ben Dayan’s family said they were repeatedly denied the ability to deliver his tefillin during transfers between detention facilities in Netivot, Ofakim, and Sde Teyman. They described the delays as a severe violation of religious practice.
Lawmakers and religious leaders criticized the handling of the case. MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of the Degel HaTorah party, called it “hatred towards everything Jewish” and said he would raise the matter with the defense minister.
Ben Dayan was sentenced to 10 days in military prison. His attorney, Shlomo Hadad, has filed an appeal seeking his early release.
Rabbi David Stav: 'Charedi draft law is all a bluff'
Rabbi David Stav, chairman of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization and Chief Rabbi of the City of Shoham, sharply criticizes the Israeli government’s proposed legislation on the recruitment of haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces, calling the bill misleading, ineffective, and morally indefensible in the wake of Israel’s ongoing security challenges.
Speaking with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Rabbi Stav rejected claims that opposing the government’s proposal amounts to an attempt to topple the coalition. While acknowledging that political stability is a legitimate concern, he argued that the current legislation sacrifices fundamental values while pretending to achieve reform.
“It is a legitimate position to say: I want more haredim to serve, but I prioritize the survival of the government," Rabbi Stav said. “What is not legitimate is to present a bill as historic and transformative when everyone knows it will not draft anyone who does not already intend to enlist."
According to Rabbi Stav, the proposed law falsely promises the enlistment of tens of thousands of haredi men while quietly ensuring that no real change will take place. He accused politicians of privately admitting the bill’s ineffectiveness while publicly promoting it as a breakthrough.
“No one who does not intend to go to the army will go because of this bill," he said. “Everyone knows this."
Charedi rabbi: Ashkenazic Charedim are racists
A senior haredi rabbi harshly attacked the attitude of Ashkenazi haredi society toward marriages between different ethnic communities.
In an interview on Kol Barama Radio, Rabbi Aharon Butbul, son-in-law of the late Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, was asked by a teacher from the Religious Zionist sector to advise him on how to respond to religious students who ask why there is such a large gap in inter-ethnic marriages between Ashkenazim and Sephardim in the haredi sector.
In his response, Rabbi Butbul, who also serves as regional rabbi of the Hevel Modi’in area and heads the “Yabia Omer" rabbinical court in Modi’in Illit, spoke bluntly.
“The Ashkenazi public is racist - this is the absolute truth," he said. “There is no way to sugarcoat reality."
He also noted that significant changes have taken place in other parts of religious society.
“In the Religious Zionist public, racism has been abolished, and also in the Chabad hasidic community," he said, adding, “In the haredi public, they are still living in the era of Antiochus the Wicked."
7 (guess who?) detained for allegedly defrauding state war-relief funds
Officers from the National Economic Crime Unit at Lahav 433, together with National Insurance investigators, this morning detained seven suspects (guess who?) involved in a large-scale fraud network.
The seven are suspected of pocketing millions of shekels from the state treasury while impersonating residents of northern border communities.
The undercover investigation, conducted over recent months, uncovered a corrupt method of operation: according to suspicion, the suspects bribed an employee at the Population and Immigration Authority to make false changes to their addresses in government databases.
Using the falsified northern addresses, the suspects created the false impression that they were eligible for relocation and assistance grants provided by the National Insurance Institute to citizens forced to leave their homes due to the war. In reality, according to the investigation, the suspects had never lived in those communities.
In a joint statement by the police and National Insurance, the severity of the actions was emphasized, noting that they cynically exploited a national emergency:
"These are serious suspicions that caused damage to the public coffers amounting to millions of shekels, particularly given that the actions were carried out during a national emergency and a state of war."
The investigation, which includes suspicions of bribery, aggravated fraud, and conspiracy to commit a crime, is still in its early stages. According to developments, the police are expected to bring the suspects to a hearing for an extension of their detention at the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court.
Lahav 433 and the National Insurance Institute clarified that they will continue to act firmly against anyone attempting to exploit state resources intended for war victims.
The cost of Human Life in Iran is rising Because of Trump's wavering
Pouria Hamidi, 28, from Bushehr, took his own life yesterday.
— 𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) February 8, 2026
Why? Because President Trump decided to enter a nuclear negotiation with the regime in Iran, breaking everyone's hopes and dreams, and rendering their sacrifices for nothing.
This is the real human cost of what the… pic.twitter.com/ST7vqyog0a
Kushner, Witkoff giving Trump ‘bad ideas,’
A senior Israeli government minister warned over the weekend that some of President Donald Trump’s top advisers are pushing him into making major policy mistakes regarding the Gaza Strip.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke Monday morning with the country’s public radio broadcaster, Kan Reshet Bet, about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to the United States, during which he will meet with President Trump to discuss plans to demilitarize the Gaza Strip and American talks with Iran.
Ben-Gvir, a hawkish member of Netanyahu’s government who has often criticized the 76-year-old premier, praised Netanyahu during the interview, emphasizing that the prime minister is well positioned to present Israeli concerns to Trump regarding the Iran talks.
“The prime minister is acting excellently on the Iran issue. I think his demands are very clear. He has proven that he knows how to speak with Trump. This time as well, he will bring achievements,” Ben-Gvir said.
However, Ben-Gvir added that Netanyahu needs to do more to highlight Israeli objections to the present situation in the Gaza Strip, noting the failure of the Trump administration to secure the disarmament of Hamas.
Ben-Gvir blamed Trump’s chief negotiators for the issue, White House special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“The Americans are very naive, especially Kushner and Witkoff. They are feeding Trump incorrect ideas. I am not willing to accept a situation in which there are tens of thousands of armed terrorists in Gaza, driving around in pickup trucks with Kalashnikovs.”
On Saturday night, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu will meet with Trump next Wednesday, adding that the two will discuss American negotiations with Iran.
“The prime minister believes that any negotiation must include restrictions on ballistic missiles and an end to support for the Iranian axis,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Long-lost rivers of the Bible found in satellite images point to the Garden of Eden
 |
| Complementing this, Iran's Karun River, a twisting waterway flowing through the Zagros Mountains, may correspond to the Gihon |
For centuries, the Garden of Eden has been a symbol of paradise in the Bible, a lush, perfect world where Adam and Eve once walked.
Many have dismissed it as a myth, but now, resurfaced satellite images have suggested that the story may have a very real geographical basis.
A series of orbital scans has revealed an ancient, now-dry riverbed in Saudi Arabia that some scholars believe aligns with the biblical description of Eden's main river, the Pishon.
The Book of Genesis describes Eden as a paradise watered by a single river that split into four: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.
While the Tigris and Euphrates are well-known rivers in modern-day Iraq, the Pishon and Gihon have long been lost to history, until now.
The dry riverbed, called Wadi al-Batin, stretches from the western highlands of Hejaz near Medina northeast to the northern Persian Gulf near Kuwait.
Its winding course corresponds closely with the biblical description of the Pishon, which Genesis states 'compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.'
Modern satellite imagery spotted Wadi al-Batin's delta near the Gulf, with dunes and depressions marking the river's former grandeur.
Complementing this, Iran's Karun River, a twisting waterway flowing through the Zagros Mountains, may correspond to the Gihon. The Hebrew word 'sabab,' meaning to circle or twist, aptly describes the Karun's meanders.
Historically, the river ran through the Kassite territory, identified by some scholars as the land of Cush mentioned in Genesis.
The discovery of Wadi al-Batin as a potential Eden riverbed dates back to the early 1990s, when Boston University geologist Farouk El-Baz analyzed radar images from NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavor.
However, the images were revisited on Patheos this month, reigniting attention to what had been lost for thousands of years.
The data revealed a fossilized river up to three miles wide, active during a wetter Holocene era before drying between 2000 and 3500 BC due to climate shifts.
'These satellite images give us a window into landscapes that have vanished over millennia,' said Dr El-Baz.
'We can now trace rivers that once shaped human settlement and perhaps even inspired ancient biblical narratives.'
The alignment of these rivers with biblical text is striking, as together with the Tigris and Euphrates, Wadi al-Batin and the Karun would have converged into the Persian Gulf, forming a fertile cradle of civilization.
James A Sauer, a biblical archaeologist who analyzed the satellite data, said that the dry riverbed’s features best match the biblical description of the Pishon, though he stops short of declaring this proof of Eden itself.
However, according to archaeologist Juris Zarins, satellite imagery showing ancient riverbeds near the Persian Gulf corresponds with descriptions from Genesis, suggesting the Eden narrative may reflect real ancient geography even if its spiritual elements remain interpretive.
Environmental data has also supported this theory, showing Arabia's arid transformation after the last Ice Age and rising sea levels that may have submerged parts of Eden's delta.
Not all scholars agree, however. Some argue the land of Cush may refer to regions in Africa, connecting the Gihon to the Nile instead.
Others cautioned that biblical texts blend spiritual allegory with historical memory, making precise mapping speculative.
Despite these debates, the discovery has reignited interest in the geography of Genesis.
Satellite maps of the Fertile Crescent, including Wadi al-Batin's path, reveal a landscape that once supported early human settlements.
The ancient rivers' courses align with archaeological evidence of early farming communities and trade networks, providing a tantalizing glimpse of a pre-flood world described in biblical texts.
There have been many theories about where the Garden of Eden was located, with a recent suggestion putting it in Africa.
Mahmood Jawaid, a chemical engineer based in Texas, argued Eden was actually in Bahir Dar, a fertile region in northwestern Ethiopia near the southern end of Lake Tana, where the Blue Nile begins.
Jawaid based his research on a careful reading of both the Bible and the Quran, analyzing descriptions of Adam and Eve, the rivers and the garden itself.
The 2025 study, which has not been peer-reviewed, noted the Blue Nile could correspond to the Biblical Gihon, and Lake Tana's outflows divide into multiple waterways, potentially forming the four rivers described in Genesis.
Early human evolution also played a role in this theory, proposing that Adam may have evolved from Homo habilis or a late form of Australopithecus in the East African Rift Valley near Olduvai Gorge, a region considered a cradle of humanity.
From there, Adam and Eve could have been 'placed' in the highlands of Bahir Dar, a paradise at a higher elevation, before descending, what the Quran describes as 'habata,' to settle in the Rift Valley.
This is because the region sits about 6,000 feet above sea level, boasting lush vegetation, abundant wildlife and the flowing Blue Nile, features that align with both the Biblical description of Eden's rivers and the Quranic concept of a garden on Earth.
DIN Sets Up Tzedakah Account!
Many people have asked how they can donate to DIN. Baruch Hashem, at this time the Ribbono Shel Olam is providing for us, and I am deeply grateful to my Creator.
What you can do, however, is support a fund I established for widows and orphans of IDF families.
This fund will provide:
Wholesome Shabbos food
Tefillin for children who need them
And, as the need grows, Hachnasas Kallah for children reaching marriage age
Right now, I am in the process of purchasing 15 pairs of tefillin that are urgently needed.
You can give whatever amount you feel comfortable with — and you can be confident that every shekel goes exactly where it should. It can be as low as $5.00
The following is just a guide!
A meal for Shabbos for 5 is: $200.00
Tefillin: $1,800
The link is on the upper right in the side bar!
UPDATE: If you have a smartphone, you need to scroll down until you see "View Web Version," click on that, and you will be able to access
ברצוני להודות מעומק הלב לכל התורמים היקרים
,הקב״ה יברך אתכם בשפע ברכה והצלחה, בריאות, נחת ושמחה.
תזכו תמיד להיות מן הנותנים
ותראו רק טוב וחסד כל ימיכם
באהבה
דאת איז נייעס
Charedie Transformation to Chilonie 13 year old to 38
Unfortunately, there are thousands like him, and the Chardeie leadership better start dealing with it !
Click on the arrow on the left of the photo
Let the morally and financially bankrupt UN perish
“Imminent financial collapse,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres hysterically predicted in a Jan. 29 letter to all UN member states, saying his reputationally challenged organization is so cash-strapped that it will run out of money by July, close its iconic Manhattan headquarters in August and cancel its annual General Assembly meeting in September.
Most UN functions, including its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which claims to coordinate responses to global emergencies, may also sunset in the coming months due to lack of funds.
This gushing cavalcade of good news sounds more like a promise than a warning.
The institution in December foolishly approved a $3.45 billion budget it can’t afford, and less than a month later Guterres lamented “the urgency of the situation we now face.”
Cuts and layoffs are already underway. Morale is reportedly low.
“It’s now or never,” one UN spokesman told The New York Times. “We do not have the sort of cash reserves and the sort of liquidity to keep functioning.”
Paring down the diplospeak and cushy coverage in the former paper of record, Guterres and his broke lackeys sound more like spoiled teenage girls who maxed out their dads’ credit cards than competent leaders of the world’s largest diplomatic organization.
Yet the only solution that can keep the privileged globalist caste dipping fondue at average and, often, tax-free salaries of $95,600 with generous benefits (while not having to suffer the indignity of paying millions in city parking tickets) is an urgent influx of cold, hard cash — your cold, hard cash.
A towering 95% of its projected $2.2 billion shortfall is money the UN says the United States owes in unpaid dues from 2025 and as-yet-unpaid dues for 2026, per a senior UN official who briefed the press on the would-be world government’s rapidly impending insolvency.
On top of that, the official said without a trace of embarrassment, American taxpayers owe his fellow overpaid third-world bureaucrats another $1.9 billion to fund those oh-so-successful peacekeeping missions, $528 million for “closed missions” and, incredibly, a $43.6 million tab for the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, global judicial bodies whose jurisdictions we do not accept and in the ICC’s case we don’t even belong to.
Seeing international organizations for the corrupt, inefficient piles of waste they usually are, the Trump administration has wisely scaled down American involvement.
On his first day back in office, President Trump pulled us out of the World Health Organization by executive order, in part because it demanded “unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.”
Days later, he withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council, a laughably ineffective body whose current members include top human-rights violators China, Cuba and South Africa.
Trump also cut funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is supposed to help needy Palestinians but employed dubious locals who were accused of fighting with Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Trump in July pulled out of UNESCO, the UN’s educational and cultural organization, which is openly antisemitic, blames world conflict on “patriarchal masculinities” whose “mindsets” its programs seek to “change” and advocates “systemic changes” to solve “structural racism.”
In early January, Trump withdrew from 66 other international organizations and agreements determined to be “contrary to the interests of the United States.”
“I’ve always felt that the UN has tremendous potential,” Trump said when withdrawing from the Human Rights Council last year. “It’s not living up to that potential right now.”
If that was true then, when the UN was at least solvent, it’s still true now that it’s broke.
If the UN can’t survive without billions more in handouts from the American taxpayer, the time has come to let this failed 80-year embarrassment in world governance succumb to its own mismanagement.
After the likes of Guterres have squandered whatever “potential” Trump saw in their disastrous organization, the president might well consider that the UN headquarters’ six celebrity-architect-designed buildings offer 2.6 million square feet of easily convertible space across 18 acres of prime Manhattan real estate in a city with a notorious housing shortage.
With a $2.15 billion renovation completed as recently as 2015, surely the complex could be put to better use under the brand of a certain well known New York developer.
And those late September traffic jams would be a thing of the past.
In any case, the do-nothing United Nations will not be missed.
Paul du Quenoy is Palm Beach Freedom Institute president.
Is Chamberlain’s “Peace for our Time" resurrected in President Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan ?
by Gerald A. Honigman
The setting for Trump's Peace Plan is today's Middle East:
Iran
President Trump is currently engaged in yet more useless “dealings" (aka, negotiations) with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s tyrannical mullahs, who’ve mastered the art of deliberate lying and obfuscation, known in a variety of manifestations, such as taqiyya and kitman.
The aim is simply to deceive one’s enemies for any number of reasons.
In this case, with despised kafir infidels, it will involve President Trump’s lackluster Middle East point man, Steve Witkoff and his team, being bamboozled into permitting the Ayatollah Supreme Leader to stall for more time.
This will certainly result in the slaughter of tens of thousands of additional Iranian civilians who believed Trump when he said real help was on the way, tens of thousand of dead martyrs ago. The mullahs will surreptitiously assign the IRGC’s special terror and executioner unit, fanatic Basij henchmen, to do the murdering.
No good can result from these negotiations.
With scores of thousands of Iranians eliminated already, and with many more yet to come, the time for blowing hot air is over.
We’ve been doing this with the mullahs since they kidnapped sixty six Americans in the Iranian Embassy, were responsible for their Hezbollah proxies blowing up hundreds of American marines in Lebanon, etc. since 1979. Each time, they outmaneuvered America.
This time the people of Iran are pleading and crying out for America to end the violence As Hamas will never consent to disarm on its own, despite being required to do so in Trump’s Gaza “deal," with powerful Chinese, Russian, and North Korean friends supplying the mullahs with additional ballistic missiles and perhaps even ICBMs along with replacement anti-aircraft radar and missiles, what incentive do the mullahs have to make any true concessions at all this time around?
None.
That’s why it’s time for this game, which taqiyya-practicing mullahs excel in, to come to an end, and for Iran to once again become the great nation, with the forced Arabization and Islamization noose removed from around its various peoples’s necks, to return to tthe great nation (kingdom, future democracy) that existed for thousands of years prior to the jihadi invasions.
Arab hordes spreading jihad (Islamic religious war) poured into Iran and numerous other places from a fast desiccating Arabian Peninsula literally in search of other peoples’s greener pastures fourteen centuries ago, and began, stealing, settling, and colonizing hundreds of millions of native, non-Arab peoples’s homelands, claiming them as “purely Arab patrimony," solely for themselves, and forever part of the Dar ul-Islam.
This moment in history will not likely come again anytime soon, if at all, and the current American President, unless he wants to repeat what President Obama did in 2009, with Iranian civilians outraged over a stolen election being slaughtered while Obama did nothing.
A New Crazed Chareidie Chumra! Rabbis Oppose Integrating Charedi Drivers Into Public Transport
Chareidi leaders have adopted an approach that keeps their communities tightly controlled under extremely strict guidelines. They are Control Freaks!
They discourage their followers from entering most professions—often limiting them to a narrow set of “acceptable” jobs, like being a cashier or stock shelves in a grocery store.
Now they are even opposing Chareidim becoming bus drivers. This reveals a deeper issue: a lack of confidence in their own chinuch. If they truly believed their educational system produced strong, grounded Jews, why would exposure to other Jews—who don't look like them—be seen as a threat?
This raises a serious question about the kind of chinuch being promoted in these isolated communities. Instead of empowering people to build stable livelihoods, they are encouraged to rely on communal support and schnoor even for basic needs.
Most bus drivers here in Israel are Arabs, and when they have holidays, the entire transit system slows down or shuts down. People can wait hours for a bus. In Beit Shemesh, we are fortunate—many drivers are Jewish, including Chareidim, so the impact is smaller. Expanding Chareidi participation in the transit system would actually help solve a real, practical problem.
A new controversy has emerged regarding a Transportation Ministry program designed to integrate public transport drivers from the charedi sector in Israel. The ministry intends to recruit 500 charedi drivers during 2026, who will receive 15000 NIS per month after completing a preliminary course.
Rabbi Meir Kessler, the rabbi of the city of Modi’in Illit, expressed his firm opposition to recruiting city residents as drivers in public transportation due to concerns about the drivers’ spiritual level and the character of the city. In the meantime, another significant front has now joined the opposition, this time from the Eda Charedis in Jerusalem.
During his regular shiur held last weekend at his home, Rabbi Yehoshua David Turtzin, president of the Perushim communities and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva La’Metzuyanim, addressed the new initiatives seeking to recruit drivers from charedi communities. In his remarks, Rabbi Turtzin voiced strong opposition to the project and leveled sharp criticism at its organizers.
“Some of those involved in this matter are not acting for the sake of Heaven,” the Rosh Yeshiva said during his shiur, adding that this is why such initiatives fail time and again. His remarks were made against the backdrop of concerns about the infiltration of foreign influences and changes to the traditional way of life of drivers, who are required to work in an environment that does not align with the spirit of the community.
Rabbi Turtzin’s statements reverberated widely among members of the “Old Yishuv,” and some communities that had already begun examining the possibility of joining the project or had cooperated with the recruiting bodies are now reconsidering their involvement and may announce their withdrawal from the program.
It should be noted that the Perushim community across the country refrained from participating in the project from the outset, as did other Old Yishuv communities that maintain spiritual isolation with regard to employment and the transportation sector.
Officials involved in these initiatives expressed concern that the combined opposition of city rabbis and community leaders in Jerusalem could lead to a complete halt in driver recruitment in the charedi sector, precisely at a time when the shortage of public transportation in charedi population centers is at its peak.
On the other hand, among the project’s initiators and supporters, voices are emphasizing the project’s original goal: providing a way for kollel members and family men to earn an honorable livelihood without falling into financial distress that would force them to go door to door collecting donations ahead of their children’s weddings.
According to the supporters, this model has already proven itself overseas for many decades. In the United States, particularly in charedi centers in Brooklyn and Monsey, the sight of a Hasidic kollel member, fully dressed in traditional garb, driving a public bus is entirely routine. Thousands of charedi drivers, God-fearing and dignified, staff routes connecting Borough Park, Williamsburg, Monsey, and Lakewood.
Moreover, the school transportation systems for chederim and schools in the U.S. are largely operated by Hasidic drivers who meticulously observe religious standards, demonstrating that it is indeed possible to combine work in public transportation with maintaining a high spiritual level and genuine fear of Heaven. The current dispute highlights the gap between differing approaches to integrating charedim into the workforce in Israel versus the reality commonly accepted abroad.
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