Harav Shmuel Shmelke Leifer zt”l of Boro Park, passes away.
Throughout his life, Rav Shmuel was a sought-after speaker, whose sagely advice was absorbed by thousands of people. He was particularly vocal about his opposition to yeshivos turning bochurim away, which he strongly believed them astray.
He was also the rav hamachshir on many kosher eateries in Boro Park for several decades.
The levayah is scheduled to take place Monday morning at his Beis Medrash at 16th Avenue & 55th in Boro Park.
A dedicated volunteer for Chesed Shel Emes Florida was found dead Sunday morning in a North Miami Beach parking lot, the victim of what is believed to be an apparent robbery.
40 year old Hershy Schwartz was fatally shot in his car near North Miami Avenue and NE 167th Street.
Chesed Shel Emes director Mark Rosenberg learned of the homicide when North Miami Beach Police contacted him at 12:30 PM and told him that he was listed as Schwartz’s emergency contact.
Schwartz was engaged to Rosie Brustowsky of Lakewood, New Jersey, and his wedding was to take place next week in Lakewood.
“He was a person who didn’t know how to say no,” Rosenberg said. “He was literally a walking chesed shel emes and he took pleasure in bringing relief to others.”
Originally from Monsey, Schwartz had been living in Florida for more than 10 years and worked for an electric company.
Rosenberg said that Schwartz, who ran CSE’s shiva gamach that lends out Torahs, chairs, tables, water coolers and other items to mourners, was like family.
“Everybody knew that if you needed something done, you went to Heshy,” said Rosenberg.
Police are continuing to investigate Schwartz’s death, which does not appear to be an anti-Semitic attack.
There will be a 12 AM funeral for Schwartz at Yeshiva Toras Emes in North Miami Beach, 1051 North Miami Beach Boulevard, with a second funeral to be held on Monday in New York at 12:30 PM at Spring Valley’s Nikelsburg Shul, 6 Milton Place.
Schwartz will be laid to rest on Monday afternoon in Kiryas Joel.
Under attack by transgender radicals from inside and outside the paper, top editors of The New York Times face a problem so difficult, I feel sorry for them. Well, almost.
The hesitation is warranted because the editors have only themselves to blame. After abandoning standards of fairness to push a crazy woke agenda, they are suddenly discovering that appeasing the far left is impossible.
The crash course in common sense comes with the lesson that the more you give the radicals, the more they want. And they don’t ask, they demand and make threats.
How did the Gray Lady not see this coming?
The pot boiled over last week when thousands of activists, celebrities and supporters, who include some staff writers and occasional contributors, blasted the paper’s coverage. They claimed in a letter there is a pattern of “editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people.”
A second letter from more than 100 groups, including GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, accused the paper of publishing “fringe theories” and “dangerous inaccuracies.”
NBC reported that a billboard truck drove around the paper’s headquarters with messages such as, “Dear New York Times: Stop questioning trans people’s right to exist & access medical care.”
At first glance, the allegations seem preposterous, even a joke. After all, the paper’s coverage of transgenders is generally so fawning that it feels as if it belongs to a cult. Exhibit A was a gushy November profile under this headline: “For Ghana’s Only Openly Transgender Musician, Every Day Is Dangerous.”
Well, folks, that’s all the news from Africa!
If that isn’t woke enough, what would be? But too much is never enough for the activists, and the last thing they want is fair coverage because that would give legitimacy to critical views. In their absolutist world, there is only one acceptable view: theirs.
And so the mob is coming for the Times because the editors had the gall to publish less-than-cheerleading articles about gender surgeries on minors and other issues. An op-ed defending author J.K. Rowling, Public Enemy No. 1 in TransWorld, also made heads explode.
Despite the absurdity of the attacks, which include the demand that the Times hire four transgender writers within three months, the stakes are high for media outlets everywhere. Given the Times’ prominence, if the editors fail to defend independent journalism, other newsrooms will face pressure to fall in line and most will surrender.
Some already have. Take NBC. At the end of its article on the Times, it added an editor’s note that reads: “The writer of this article is a member of the Trans Journalists Association, one of the supporting signatories on the open letter penned by former and current Times contributors.”
That used to be called a conflict of interest and the writer wouldn’t be permitted to cover the story. Now it’s simply disclosed as if that absolves the perception of bias.
Meanwhile, the Times already faces a similar test of standards involving some black employees. Although it has operated on a virtual quota system for years to hire nonwhite journalists and corrupted its coverage to spot white supremacists behind every tree, the head of the union representing newsroom employees nonetheless calls the paper a racist bastion.
During a one-day strike over stalled contract talks, Susan DeCarava said no black employee, including 1619 Project guru Nikole Hannah-Jones, ever received the highest possible rating from managers. That proves, she told Fox News, the review process “is weighted against people of color.”
Fortunately, there is some reason for hope on the transgender front. Responding to the criticism, top newsroom editor Joe Kahn and opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury defended the coverage and fired back at employees and contributors who joined the barrage.
“Participation in such a campaign is against the letter and spirit of our ethics policy,” they wrote in a staff email obtained by The Post, adding: “We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by Times journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums.”
It was an appropriately tough response, but guild leader DeCarava quickly struck again. In a letter, she said employees have a right to protest the coverage, claiming it was a violation of federal law for editors to “threaten, restrain or coerce employees from engaging in such activity.”
That sounds like an overstatement of worker rights in a private company, but it adds to the pressure on management. Yet the reality remains that if punishments are not forthcoming, sound rules against employees participating in social and political movements are meaningless.
If, however, the participants are penalized, the editors are likely to face a larger staff revolt and perhaps suffer subscription cancellations by far-left readers.
Recent history shows editors at the Times serve at the mercy of the staff. Respected op-ed editor James Bennet was canned by the publisher after running a piece by Sen. Tom Cotton in 2020 that urged then-President Donald Trump to call in the military to put down urban riots.
Newsroom activists denounced the article, and publisher A.G. Sulzberger, after initially supporting Bennet’s decision, buckled and Bennet walked the plank.
Similarly, acclaimed science writer Donald McNeil was fired in 2021 after 150 colleagues signed an angry letter when they learned he had been lightly disciplined for using the N-word in a conversation with teenagers on a Times-sponsored trip two years earlier. According to McNeil, then editor Dean Baquet said he knew McNeil was not a racist but forced him out, saying, “Donald, you’ve lost the newsroom. People are hurt.”
In another era, Times editors ran the newsroom instead of letting it run them. The legendary A.M. Rosenthal would listen to critics inside and out, including big advertisers, then usually tell them to buzz off because the paper couldn’t be bought or bossed.
His job, he famously said, was “to keep the paper straight” instead of letting reporters tilt coverage to the left. He had that passion inscribed on the footstone of his gravesite.
As for the staffers and contributors who publicly attacked their colleagues over the paper’s transgender coverage, Rosenthal wouldn’t have hesitated to hand out pink slips.
Indeed, he had a firm, clear view of conflicts of interest, which he demonstrated by firing a top female reporter who slept with and received expensive gifts from a politician she covered. The misconduct took place when she worked for another paper, but became public soon after she joined the Times. Rosenthal asked her if the report was true, she said yes and he told her to clean out her desk and never come back.
Staff members who requested a meeting were making a case the firing was too harsh when Rosenthal interrupted them to explain his unforgettable rule:
“You can screw elephants if you want to, but then you can’t cover the circus.”
The Movement for Quality Government (MQG) in Israel is the far-left organization at the epicenter of the Israeli left’s war against the Netanyahu government. MQG began its current campaign of delegitimization, subversion and demonization immediately after the Netanyahu government was sworn into office on Dec. 29. The next day, MQG petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent Shas leader Aryeh Deri from serving as a minister in the government.
There was no legal basis for the petition. But that didn’t bother the lawyers at MQG.
In its petition, MQG claimed that the terms of a plea deal Deri reached with the State Prosecution last year on tax reporting errors barred him from serving as a minister. Never mind that nothing in the plea deal stipulated anything of the sort or that 400,000 Israeli voters cast their ballots for Shas with the full expectation that Deri would serve as a senior minister.
Just over two years ago, C, then a very recent new immigrant to Israel, met D, a native Israeli man and the two began dating. Just weeks later, D proposed and convinced his fianc̩ that they should marry privately, outside of the authority of the Israeli Rabbinate Рas required by law. Despite her initial insistence to proceed with the official channels, C eventually relented, and the marriage went ahead.
Already in the early days of the marriage, D began to abuse his wife, and the violence only intensified over time. About a year and a half ago, despite being in the latter stages of pregnancy, C realized that she couldn't suffer any longer and needed leave the marriage. She turned to the local branch of social services for assistance.
To C's great shock and dismay, after sharing her story with the office’s social worker, she was informed that another woman had approached the same office with an incredibly similar story. To everyone's surprise, further investigation confirmed that D was in fact married to both women – having married both women in private, unofficial ceremonies.
“From the very beginning he said that he wanted to marry another woman, but I never believed he’d actually do it,” C said. “In retrospect, I can even point to the exact day that he got married. It was just before Chanukah, and he had gotten all dressed up, like a groom. He left the house and didn’t come back for a week. When he finally returned, he announced that from now on, he would only be spending every other week with me.”
With these shocking new details in hand, C contacted the Ohr Torah Stone organization's Yad La’isha, the world’s largest, most comprehensive and experienced advocacy center for agunot. “Our first motion was to open a personal status file at the Rabbinical Court, to prove that C was indeed a married woman despite the fact that because of the private ceremony, she was still listed as single by the Interior Ministry,” explains Yad La'isha staff Adv. Dina Raitchik. “During the court proceedings, the man admitted he had a number of wives and even had the audacity to complain to the court that he wasn’t able to manage all of his marriages.”
In a hearing that took place last week, D conceded to quickly grant C a get, or traditional Jewish writ of divorce, freeing her from the marriage to begin a new life.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a number of concessions to the Palestinian Authority, as part of the Biden administration’s push to broker a deal between the two sides to lower tensions during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Walla reported Sunday evening.
According to the report, two Biden administration officials say that the US has secured “understandings” with Jerusalem and Ramallah, under which both Israel and the Palestinian Authority will refrain from unilateral moves over the next few months.
The understandings, disclosed earlier this month, were reportedly finalized only following heavy pressure from the Biden administration.
Under the tacit agreement, the Palestinian Authority will hold off on its plans to have the United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria.
The resolution, drafted following the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to authorize nine communities in Judea and Samaria, is slated to be brought up for a vote by the 15-member council on Monday, and would demand Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory."
The text "reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."
The United States hinted Thursday it would likely veto the resolution, with State Department spokesman Vedant Patel calling the resolution “unhelpful.”
To avoid being forced to use its veto in the Security Council, the Palestinian Authority is expected, under the new arrangement, to call to have the vote on the resolution dropped from the Council’s agenda.
In exchange, Israel has reportedly agreed to freeze construction projects in Judea and Samaria and to halt or significantly reduce the demolition of illegal Arab structures in eastern Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
The duration of the construction freeze and reduction in demolitions is unclear, though the report claimed the US is hoping to reduce tensions during the upcoming Islamic month of Ramadan which lasts from March 22nd to April 20th.
An Israeli diplomatic official quoted in the report denied that any understandings regarding construction freezes in Judea and Samaria were reached.
Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, is calling for an end to the "cover-up" of President Biden's health after the president's physical earlier this week claimed that he is healthy and fit to serve as commander in chief.
"The majority of Americans can see that Biden's mental health is in total decline, yet there is no transparency from the White House on what’s going on, if anything, to address this issue and his inability to do his job," Jackson told Fox News Digital. "Yesterday's written physical exam report released by Biden’s physician, Kevin O'Connor, further confirms that this administration is still adamant about concealing the truth."
Jackson also took issue with the fact that the report from Biden's physical, the second one he's taken since entering office, made no mention of the president undergoing a cognitive test amid his "deteriorating mental health."
Against the background of the protest against the judicial reform and the growing concern in the legal community and the left-center politicians, there have been quiet, unofficial talks recently between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s associates and representatives of the circles opposed to the legislation, with the aim of reaching a solution, Maariv reported on Friday.
Anyone reading the Maariv report is instantly reminded of the “Greek island affair” of 2001, where businessman David Apple employed Ariel Sharon’s son Gilad as an extremely highly-paid consultant – which the police and the prosecution believed was Apple’s way of bribing Sharon Sr. In 2004, the case against PM Sharon was dropped, and shortly thereafter, Sharon decided, after decades as the “father of the settlement enterprise,” to turn into the executioner of the settlement enterprise, by expelling some 10,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.
Look out, Jewish brothers and sisters, we may be treated to a remake of the same movie, this time starring defendant Benjamin Netanyahu who is facing three criminal indictments.
Border Guard Superintendent Yasser Asadi, who was documented this week blocking Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har Melech to stop her from interfering with the uprooting of a Jewish vineyard in Binyamin, was active in the election campaign of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, Makor Rishon reported on Friday.
In an incident recorded during the evacuation of Kerem Ben-Eliyahu in Shiloh, Binyamin, four Border Guard officers surrounded Har Melech to prevent her from protesting in front of the bulldozers that uprooted the trees or trying to block them with her body
