Harav David Shlitah is a very well-respected Rav and Posik in Beit Shemesh. Finally a prominent Rav in a major Jewish Charedie City, not afraid to tell the truth!
I see a slow change in the Chardeie culture finally speaking out and refuting the lies and propaganda of Yeshivishe R"Y!
Listen to his lecture:
The highway is closed from Aluf Sadeh to Em HaMoshavot in both directions, with traffic diverted to alternate routes.
Similar protests blocked traffic in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh where people were stuck in buses and cars for hours!
The story has been spreading across WhatsApp groups and frum news sites for the past several days. The details vary depending on which version one encountered. A family in the Lakewood area was without parents at home one evening. Dinner was ordered through Uber Eats. The intended restaurant was Smash House Burgers — a kosher establishment with locations in several cities, well known to many. The actual restaurant the order went to was Smashburger, the national chain that serves bacon, cheeseburgers, and milkshakes.
In one version, the family caught the mistake when the packaging looked unfamiliar and the food was not eaten.
In another, three children sat down and ate before anyone realized what had happened. The differences matters, and should not be glossed over, but for what needs to be said now, the discrepancy is almost beside the point. Because in either version of the story, the same critical safeguard was missing.
There was no kosher seal – or rather: there was no checking for one.
Other conversations abound:
“Kosher restaurant shouldn’t use a confusing name!”
“Why do we need to follow goyisha names for restaurants?”
“Uber Eats should label kosher establishments more clearly!”
“Hashgachos shouldn’t permit menu items that resemble cheeseburgers!”
And more.
But maybe, in this modern era, we should retool our Chinuch. Maybe we should create a curriculum that addresses the underlying issue – something that Chazal had addressed long, long ago – The concept of Chosamos.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday issued a sharp criticism of Israel over what he described as the arrival of a vessel carrying “stolen" Ukrainian grain to an Israeli port.
“In any normal country, purchasing stolen goods is an act that entails legal liability. This applies, in particular, to grain stolen by Russia," Zelenskyy said in a statement. “Another vessel carrying such grain has arrived at a port in Israel and is preparing to unload. This is not - and cannot be - legitimate business."
Zelenskyy added that Israeli authorities “cannot be unaware of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying."
According to the Ukrainian president, Russia has been “systematically seizing grain on temporarily occupied Ukrainian land and organizing its export through individuals linked to the occupiers," describing such actions as violations of Israeli law.
“Ukraine has taken all necessary steps through diplomatic channels to prevent such incidents. However, we see that yet another such vessel has not been stopped," he stated.
It is no secret that the shidduchim world within the Hasidic community has been experiencing a serious crisis in recent years. Many older bachelors remain unmarried for long periods, while their peers have already built families, raising children and guiding them in a life of Torah and Mitzvos.
The situation in which one young man remains single from an entire class is heartbreaking. Beyond the personal pain of the unmarried individual, his friends also face a difficult reality. On the one hand, they want to maintain their relationship with him; on the other, it’s hard to ignore the feelings of jealousy that may arise when meeting or speaking with someone who has not yet had the chance to establish a home.
While there is no single explanation for why some individuals do not become engaged even after dozens or hundreds of dates, recent accounts suggest an interesting phenomenon that may be contributing significantly to the crisis.
From conversations with older singles and parents, a concerning picture emerges, as reported on the Emess (Kol Chai) site. In some Hasidic circles, it has become common to send the handwriting of a prospective couple to a graphologist before finalizing a match, in order to analyze personality traits and determine compatibility.
This practice is especially widespread in one of the larger chasidic groups in Israel. In many cases, families consult well-known graphologists, sometimes considered among the best in the country, to decide whether to proceed with a proposed match.
“What’s holding the sector back in recent years is this issue of graphology. Ninety percent [of matches] are rejected,” says “A,” who has experienced the crisis firsthand and asked to remain anonymous. “I understand that in Gur Hasidic dynasty they’ve only recently begun to scale this back.”
He adds: “This has led to a large number of unmarried young men within the community. People have become almost addicted to it. It’s a miracle it hasn’t spread to the Lithuanian or Sephardi sectors. I personally had several good matches this past year that could have progressed, but the graphologist said they weren’t suitable.”
Another individual, “T,” shared a similar experience: “I once dated a girl who wouldn’t move forward in any match without approval from a certain graphologist. Eventually she got fed up and switched to someone else, because the first one rejected all her matches.”
He added: “At one point I met that graphologist and told him: ‘Stop destroying homes that could be built in Israel. Even if it’s your livelihood, there are other ways to make a living without harming people like this.’”
“B,” a parent of two older sons navigating the matchmaking system, offered further insight: “A very senior graphologist told me that those who say whether to go ahead with a match or not are charlatans motivated by money. A graphologist can analyze personality, but should never determine compatibility.”
He continued: “He even told me that if he had analyzed his own handwriting and that of his wife, he would have concluded they were completely incompatible, yet thank G-d they’ve been happily married for 40 years.”
These testimonies come from people directly affected by the matchmaking crisis, who have chosen to speak out in hopes of raising awareness and perhaps contributing to at least a partial solution.
Online reaction was swift and intense. Avi Glaserman questioned, “How the hell was she elected into office if she thinks (II) in Roman numerals equals 11?”
Lakewood Resident, Rabbi Yechiel Farkash, Facing Extradition to Israel for Alleged Sexual Abuse of Students at Bnei Brak Yeshiva Where He Taught, Denied Bond Ahead of Extradition Hearing
Nearly 19,000 Jews immigrated to Israel over the past year, arriving from 103 countries despite ongoing war and regional tensions.
Russia, the US, and France led in numbers, with rising immigration from Western countries linked to growing antisemitism.
Most newcomers settled in central Israel and Jerusalem
According to a new report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 742 Jews from the United Kingdom made aliyah in 2025, the highest annual total since the mid-1980s.
Over the past two decades, aliyah from the UK has remained stable, typically ranging between 400 and 740 people per year, with a long-term average of about 566 annually.
In practical terms, that means roughly 2 out of every 1,000 British Jews make aliyah each year, higher than other countries like Canada but still far below places like France, where migration levels are significantly higher.
So this is not, at least yet, a mass exodus. But something is changing.
Firstly, this marks two consecutive years of growth, rising from 561 immigrants in 2024 to 742 in 2025.
Secondly, since October 7, studies show British Jews are more likely than before to consider aliyah, even if many have not yet acted on it.
That change is especially pronounced among younger Jews, Orthodox communities, and those who have personally experienced antisemitism.
Many British Jews find that there are many factors to consider regarding aliyah. Economic opportunities, family, and connection to Israel all play a role.
Antisemitism in the UK has surged in recent years, which reshapes how many Jews view their place in British society.
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| The late Cult leader Eliezer Shlomo Schick. |
The report cited current and former members of the Bratslav community in Yavne’el, officials with knowledge of the matter, and the previously unpublished findings of a government panel established in 2023 to look into the closed community.
The panel that looked into the community reportedly found “cases that give rise to suspected crime,” “multiple cases of dysfunctional parenting,” and “sexual abuse, part of which goes unreported.”
“It’s straight-up rape,” said a current community member . “Nobody asks a 14-year-old girl if she wants to get married. A year later she’s taking a baby to the playground.”
According to the government panel, the weddings are mainly between children aged 15-17, who are taught from an early age to get married young
“The community perpetuates and is permeated by a religious and cultural outlook that says early marriages of minors are desirable and, among other things, help keep youth away from various dangers,” said the government report, without elaborating,
The newspaper cited current and former community members as saying the “dangers” that the community fears are non-procreative seminal emissions, which are prohibited in halacha, or Jewish ritual law.
Current community members agreed to speak only on the side of the road, far away from the town, and were wary of approaching cars, Haaretz said.
It quoted one female community member as saying, “Whoever talks risks ruining their and their family’s lives.”
The government panel that looked into the Yavne’el community was established by the Welfare Ministry with representatives of the police and of the justice, education, and health ministries following an interview by the Kan public broadcaster with a woman who escaped abuse in the sect.
The woman, Mika Maimoni, was wed at 14 to a 19-year-old husband and got pregnant in three months. Maimoni was sent to give birth in Bnei Brak and was instructed on the way there to memorize a cover story to explain her pregnancy, she told Kan. She escaped the sect in 2015 when it was grieving the death of its spiritual leader Eliezer Shlomo Schick.
Marriages like Maimoni’s are common in the Yavne’el Bratslav community, according to Haaretz. Community members cited by the newspaper said the weddings take place at a rate of one or two a month.
In 2003, Tiberias police uncovered about 20 cases of marriages arranged by Schick of young girls, some of them aged 12, to grooms as young as 15.
And in its report, the panel established in 2023 found child marriages to be “very widespread” in the community of roughly 500 families, which accounts for over half the residents in the 5,000-odd town, according to Haaretz.
But the panel reportedly said it could not give exact figures because of conspirators’ “synchronized and systematic cover-up technique and subterfuge.”
Those were said to include holding weddings in secret, changing child spouses’ addresses, giving authorities false information, appointing loyalists as teachers and counselors, and getting doctors to register adult mothers as the patients of fertility treatments performed on young girls.
According to initial reports from Colombian authorities, Eber was kidnapped in an attempted robbery and was later killed by his assailants, who fled the scene.
His body was found in a remote area bearing signs of severe violence, days after contact with him was lost and he was reported missing.
Family members, concerned for his safety, appealed to community activists and authorities for assistance in locating him. Following intensive searches conducted in cooperation with local officials, his body was located.
Eber is survived by an extended family, including 16 siblings, who are part of the Belz Hasidic community in the United States, Canada and Israel.
At the same time, leaders of the Jewish community in Colombia, along with international aid organizations and community activists from the United States, are working to ensure proper respect for the deceased and to arrange for his burial as soon as possible.
Colombian authorities have opened a murder investigation, while community representatives are applying diplomatic pressure to expedite the transfer of his body for burial in Israel
Over the weekend 240 members of India’s Bnei Menashe community arrived in Israel, marking the latest convoy of immigrants brought as part of a government-backed effort to relocate the entire community.
The flight, which landed at Ben Gurion Airport, was welcomed by a delegation including Israel’s Aliyah minister and the chairman of The Jewish Agency for Israel.
It was the first of three flights expected over the next two weeks that will bring roughly 600 members of the Bnei Menashe community.
First lady Melania Trump called for ABC to "take a stand" against Jimmy Kimmel and his "hateful" language on Monday after the liberal late-night host referred to her as "an expectant widow" days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was interrupted by a suspected attempted assassin.
"Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America," Melania Trump posted on X.
"People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough," the first lady continued. "It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community."
Kimmel had mocked President Donald Trump and his wife in a White House Correspondents' Dinner parody last week, calling her "an expectant widow" and joking about her marriage.
"Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow," Kimmel said in his parody of the event on Thursday.
The joke didn't age well after authorities say 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif., rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, armed with multiple weapons, and opened fire, striking a Secret Service agent. The officer survived and Allen was taken into custody.
The statue is incomplete, missing both its legs and base, yet remains an imposing find. According to initial assessments by Hisham el-Leithy, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the statue weighs approximately five to six tons and stands roughly 2.20 meters — just over seven feet — tall. Even in its damaged state, the remaining features display what el-Leithy described as “artistic and royal features,” suggesting the statue was once part of a larger sculptural grouping known as a Triad, similar to ones previously uncovered across the Sharqia Governorate.
Tel Faraon — known in antiquity as the city of Imet, the ancient capital of the 19th Nome of Lower Egypt — is located south of Tanis along the Nile Delta. Archaeologists believe the statue was originally transported from Pi-Ramesses, the capital of Egypt’s 19th dynasty, to Imet, where it was repurposed for use in a local temple. El-Leithy said the discovery “sheds light on aspects of religious and royal activity in the eastern Delta region” and helps historians better understand how royal statues were transferred and reused during the New Kingdom period.
Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities’ Egyptian Antiquities Sector, said the find reflects the “religious and historical significance of the site across different eras.” The statue has since been transferred to a museum storage facility in the San Al-Hajar area for preservation and further study.
The discovery adds to a string of remarkable finds at Tel Faraon. In September 2025, archaeologists at the same site uncovered a sandstone stele bearing a complete hieroglyphic text of the Canopus Decree — a document issued by Egyptian priests in 238 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy III. The decree addressed matters of military affairs, grain distribution during drought, tax relief, and religious festivals. Notably, it proposed adding an extra day to the calendar every four years — foreshadowing what would later become the Julian calendar. Ministry officials called that find a discovery that “opens new horizons for understanding the ancient Egyptian language.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the cancellation of this year’s large-scale Lag BaOmer celebrations at Mount Meron, limiting the annual Hillula of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to a symbolic format only, Israeli officials said Sunday
The decision was driven by security concerns over the fragile ceasefire with Lebanon and the site’s proximity to the border with Hezbollah strongholds. Officials cited the risk of rocket fire into the area and the challenges of evacuating large crowds in the event of an attack.
Netanyahu’s directive comes as government ministries involved in organizing the event have been instructed to freeze preparations for a mass gathering, according to reports. The hillula, which typically draws hundreds of thousands of participants to the tomb of the second-century sage in northern Israel, has been a focal point of Lag BaOmer observances for generations.
“Fear of an event with many victims due to the fragility of the ceasefire with Lebanon,” the prime minister’s office indicated as the background for the order. The site’s location near the Lebanese border, combined with the potential for rocket attacks and difficulties in timely large-scale evacuation, factored into the assessment.
The move aligns with broader security evaluations amid ongoing tensions in the north, even as a U.S.-brokered ceasefire extension between Israel and Lebanon remains in effect. Police have been directed to prevent pilgrims from arriving at the site, officials said.
No immediate comment was available from organizers or religious leaders on the scaled-back plans. In past years, the Meron celebrations have drawn massive crowds, though a deadly crowd crush in 2021 that killed 45 people led to heightened safety scrutiny.
