SHIDDUCH CRISIS: US Roshei Yeshivos Ask HaRav Hirsch To Make Fateful Decisions ..Lakewood Roshei Yeshiva Refuse to Attend

 

A delegation of Roshei Yeshivos from the US landed in Eretz Yisrael on Wednesday in order to consult with Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, about the shidduch crisis in the US, Kikar H’Shabbat reported on Wednesday.

The report notes the fact that although there are shidduch issues in every country, including Israel, the US has the specific problem that bochurim start shidduchim at a later age than Israeli bochurim (who usually start around age 21) because most spend at least a year or two learning in an Israeli yeshivah. This results in the famous “age disparity” issue that places girls at a huge disadvantage.

The administrator of a US yeshivah told Kikar: “We have a real problem here and we have to solve it. Roshei Yeshivos held meetings a number of times in order to discuss the issue but nothing has really succeeded yet in solving the problem.”

“Roshei Yeshivos decided that the phenomenon of learning at a later age in Eretz Yisrael needs to end but they don’t want to take responsibility alone for such a fateful question. Therefore, a decision was made that a number of leading Roshei Yeshivos will travel to Eretz Yisrael for a few hours and consult with the one who leads the yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch [who is originally from the US], and whatever he decides is what will happen.”

Sources say that the Roshei Yeshivos also discussed the issue of eliminating one year of Beis Medrash in US yeshivos in order to allow bochurim to go to Eretz Yisrael at an earlier age.

The report noted that HaRav Hirsch is not only a native English speaker but is also very familiar with the Olam HaYeshivos in the US.

Four of the Rabbanim in the delegation are HaGaon HaRav Mordechai Dick, Rosh Yeshivas Heichel HaTorah in Monsey, HaGaon HaRav Mendel Slomowitz, Rosh Yeshivas Toras Chaim in Lakewood, HaRav Yehudah Svei, one of the Roshei Yeshivos of Talmudical Yeshiva Of Philadelphia, and the Novominsker Rebbe.

Lieberman: “I Believe Barak, Golan & Alsheich Joined Up Against Netanyahu”

 

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman was a surprising voice in the chorus of condemnations against former Police Chief Roni Alsheich after he admitted on Wednesday morning that the judicial system expected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to resign after criminal indictments were filed against him.

“I never believed in conspiracies but in the last few days I changed my mind when I hear Ehud Barak, Yair Golan and Roni Alsheich – I believe that they joined up against Netanyahu,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman then continued by condemning the calls by Barak and Golan for civil rebellion and even illegal acts. “The calls we’ve been hearing in recent days for civil unrest and breaking the law are outrageous and unacceptable. The protestors who take to the streets week after week are normative, law-abiding people who want the best for the country,” he claimed.

“Those people who take advantage of the protest in order to return to the stage and get a few moments in the media harm the protest and its legitimacy. These things were also reflected in the riots in front of Yariv Levin’s private home, something that harms more than Levin but also the neighbors around him, most of whom oppose the ‘legal coup’ but that type of protest, which impinged on their routine, precisely in the mornings when they need to drive their children and go to work, simply moves them to the other side.”

“I expect all those who claim to lead the protest to think about the protest and not about themselves and about their desire to stand out and earn a few minutes of fame. The dangerous calls they utter could drag Israeli society and the State of Israel into a difficult place that shouldn’t be reached.”

Abe Foxman Slams Biden

 

DIN: Just a reminder that it was Foxman who publicly criticized the new government’s right to make judicial changes after being democratically elected. It is voices like Foxman which help influence US policy, especially in the Biden White House

 Former ADL director Abe Foxman on Tuesday slammed U.S. President Joe Biden for his “boycott” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In comments to The Jerusalem Post, the American Jewish leader called the Biden administration’s policy of isolating Netanyahu since he took office at the start of the year for his sixth term “misguided” and “bordering on hypocrisy.”

Foxman explained that the White House refusing to extend an invitation to Netanyahu “also sends the wrong message [not only] to Israel’s enemies, but also to its friends and allies. When friends disagree, they need to, and should, meet, speak to each other. This lack of invitation has become a politicized issue.”

He questioned why the White House welcomes to Washington leaders of countries with less democracy than Israel, calling it hypocritical.

“If you will, the president of the United States just welcomed the prime minister of India, a certainly flawed democracy with serious religious and civil rights abuses. He just welcomed Jordan’s King Abdullah to the White House—not exactly the paradigm of a democratic country,” he said.

“If MBS [Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia] indicated that he would want to come to Washington, he would receive a warm welcome. This boycott… undermines the [U.S.-Israel] relationship,” he added.

Foxman called on Biden to invite Netanyahu to the White House to discuss their differences.

Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that he will be visiting China next month. Foxman said that the Israeli leader visiting Beijing before the U.S. was probably due to the lack of an invitation from the White House.

The Camp Took My Daughter’s Tips!

 

by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

L’chvod Rabbi Hoffman,

My daughter was a counselor in camp last summer.  The camp collected her tips from the campers as they do from all campers.  It was pulled from their bank accounts.

Later, when the summer came to an end, my counselor daughter did not receive any of the tips that were clearly collected on her behalf.  The claim was that because she received Summer Youth Employment Program (“Youth Corp”), she wasn’t included in the staff tipping pool.

In other words, whatever was collected from the parents toward her, was, without her knowledge or consent redistributed to other camp staff. 

She obviously was very upset. So were others who found themselves uninformed of this until after tips were handed out, only to find themselves un-included. None of this was mentioned prior to the summer.  They could have worked at another camp, had they known.

Parents also have a right to know that the tips collected is going to other staff and not their child’s counselor.  Let’s keep in mind that, it isn’t as though the camp paid her. She was chosen by lottery from the NYSEP program and earned minimum wage from the government.  She worked many more hours that were unpaid as well.  Is this halachically correct? What can she do when complaining about the unfairness (to the parents who thought they were tipping their child’s counselor, not others and her being withheld her rightfully expected tipping income), has yielded nowhere.   Please advise.

A Parent.

Harav Eliyshiv's Son Meets His Sister For The FIRST Time in 11 Years

Rav Eliashiv zt”l had 12 children, 4 of which are alive. Last night, Rav Binyamin Eliashiv shlita met his sister Rabanit Israelson whom he had not seen in 11 years due to his hakpada not to leave Yerushalayim. They met at a family wedding in Bnei Brak.

Israel ambassador to UN Security Council : Building in Judea and Samaria will not stop

 

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Gilad Erdan on Tuesday spoke at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, urging the Council's members to condemn the indiscriminate violence against Israeli civilians.

Erdan began, "Last Tuesday, Elisha Anteman, a seventeen-year-old who had just finished high school, was nearing the end of his shift at a restaurant near the town of Eli. This was Elisha’s very last shift. You see, he had been working there for nine months, he had saved up some money and made plans to spend his summer hiking."

"Last Tuesday was in fact Elisha’s last shift, but tragically, Elisha will not be taking a trip this summer. He will not be hiking. He will not be spending time with his high school sweetheart Maayan, with whom he discussed building a life together. He will no longer pick up any of his eight younger siblings from school, who he loved like the caring older brother that he was.

"Elisha will be doing none of these things, because Elisha, along with three other innocent Israeli civilians were murdered by Palestinian terrorists whose sole goal was to slaughter Jews.

"This is the heartbreaking reality that Israelis face every single day."

Shimon Brauer 25 Dies from Asthma Attack on NY-Bound Flight

 

 A Hasidic man from Stamford Hill died on Monday after suffering an asthma attack and was unable to locate his inhaler.

Britain’s Jewish News (bit.ly/3Xq3NJj) reported that Shimoin Brauer was traveling from London to New York to work as a volunteer at an unnamed summer camp. The 25 year old’s flight was 45 minutes from landing when tragedy struck, with Brauer dropping his inhaler as he struggled to breathe.

Social media posts by kosher travel site Vakazi said that the British Airways flight crew spent over an hour attempting to revive an unconscious Brauer, giving him oxygen because they were unaware that he had suffered an asthma attack that had closed his airway. Attempts by the flight crew to perform CPR on Brauer were also unsuccessful.

In-flight fatal asthma attacks are rare, but they do occur. A nine year old boy suffered a fatal asthma attack half an hour into a flight from Auckland to Samoa in 2018, with the pilot refusing to turn the flight around and perform an emergency landing, reported KidSpot (bit.ly/3pjkOsa). The boy died 20 minutes before the flight landed in Samoa.

And Olympic Airways was ordered to pay a California woman $1.4 million in damages after her husband died on a 1998 flight from Athens to New York when his asthma was triggered by secondhand smoke, with flight attendants refusing multiple seat change requests, reported Forbes (bit.ly/43hfAet).

But those with asthma can fly safely, says the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, which recommends that passengers inform flight attendants of their condition.

Netanyahu to Visit China, a Slap to Biden and Blinken

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no longer waiting for an invitation to the White House and plans instead to visit China next month, according to journalist Shalom Yerushalmi, reporting in Zman Israel. Advanced contacts are currently taking place between the office of the Prime Minister and the office of President Xi Jinping.

Yerushalmi cites senior Israeli political officials who told him that the extraordinary visit is intended to signal to Washington that Netanyahu has additional policy options, following President Joe Biden’s declaring him persona non grata in the White House.

“Netanyahu will not stand and wait for an invitation to visit the White House that never comes,” the source said, adding, “He works through parallel channels. China has been very involved in what’s happening in the Middle East lately, and the prime minister should be there and represent the Israeli interest.”

China has enormous economic investments in Israel. According to a December 2022 report on foreign investments issued by the Chief Economist at Israel’s Finance Ministry, China and Hong Kong are in third place in terms of the volume of incoming investments into Israel. In 2020, the total value of those transactions reached an estimated $26.5 billion. Among other prominent Chinese holdings in Israel is the Tnuva food production and marketing corporation which is among the top three or four vendors in the market, and the Haifa harbor, the largest free port in the Mediterranean basin, which is frequented by the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet.

China’s involvement in Israel has become so vast that the Biden administration is worried about protecting critical technology being developed by Israel and the US from the Chinese. The US sees China as the biggest geostrategic challenge it faces and wishes to restrict just how far Jerusalem can go in collaborating with Beijing.

Yerushalmi speculates that since last March, China mediated between Iran and Saudi Arabia to renew their diplomatic after a decade of hostilities between them, Netanyahu will try to promote Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia through China’s influence, which would make Washington very unhappy.

Last week, Xi Jinping hosted PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing and presented a new Chinese plan for settling the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Netanyahu last visited Beijing in 2017, to mark the 25th anniversary of Israeli-Chinese diplomatic relations. He brought with him a large delegation of Israeli business people eager to do business with China. There’s no reason to think Israel’s hurting hi-tech executives won’t see the visit as an opportunity to infuse their industry with some yuans.

On Tuesday, the value of 1 yuan is half a shekel (exactly the amount every Jew must pay for the upkeep of the holy Temple).

Paralyzed Man’s Dream Proposal in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter

 

Jerusalem’s Old City witnessed a heartwarming and meticulously planned marriage proposal last week as Alon Paz, who is fully paralyzed and reliant on ventilation to breathe, proposed thanks to the assistance of a United Hatzalah intensive care ambulance team.

The heartfelt ceremony took place last Tuesday in the square of the historic Churva Shul in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter.

Alon cannot recall the exact details of the terrible moment when he suffered a severe car accident while on his way to meet a friend in Netanya. The vehicle he was driving collided with a concrete partition wall, leaving him paralyzed and unable to move anything from the neck down.

For many years, Alon, who was a very active person prior to the accident, has not been able to leave his home aside from the occasional excursions that United Hatzalah’s ‘ambulance of dreams’ takes him on every few months. Recently, Alon approached the organization with a special request. He asked if they could help him plan a special excursion that would include him proposing in the old city of Jerusalem.

The emotional journey began in the morning, as Alon and the team of volunteers, including paramedics and EMTS, visited his mother’s kever. From there, they proceeded to the Me’aras Hamachpeila and Kever Rochel. Meanwhile, teams from the logistics and operations departments of United Hatzalah worked tirelessly to set up the square in the old city in order to fulfill Alon’s dream proposal.

Gradually, curious passers-by started to gather around the red carpet, adorned with a large sign, in the square next to the Churva awaiting the moment when the proposal would take place.

A short time later, the intensive care ambulance pulled up at the nearby parking lot in the old city and Alon was transported to the square in the ambulance bed. The team carefully transferred Alon’s bed and the ventilator from the ambulance, with his oblivious soon-to-be kallah standing beside him. Finally, the spectacular sight was revealed before her eyes.

As the music began playing softly in the background, confetti filled the air, and the medical team guided the bed down the red carpet, Alon held the special ring he had purchased, mustered his courage, and proposed. Without hesitation, she joyfully responded with a resounding “Yes.”

The gathering crowd came forward to offer their congratulations to the happy couple, and minutes of joyous dancing ensued.

Alon spoke about his constant fight to maintain optimism with his condition. “ If a person wants something, they have to fight for it. The Creator of the World will hear and the Creator of the world won’t say no… I love life and I want to continue my life. I want to establish a home, a Jewish home, a warm home, a kosher home, a home according to the Torah of Moshe and Yisrael.”

Alon’s fiance, Yaffit, thanked the organization profusely for their efforts on Alon’s behalf and in making the proposal as special as it was. “The whole thing was really terrific. I want to thank everyone who was involved in this, and who participated and brought us joy. Thank you so much.”

‘Make no mistake – US is embracing BDS says Former Ambassador

 

The Biden administration has ordered that any American government entity participating in scientific-technological ventures with Israeli companies located beyond the so-called Green Line end its collaboration. leading to a protest from Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

An unnamed State Department official told Kan News that the directive “simply reflects the position of the United States over the years, which has been reaffirmed by this administration, according to which the status of the geographical areas that were under the Israeli administration after June 5, 1967 is a matter which remains subject to negotiations on their final status.”

Participating in these joint projects is thus “inconsistent with American policy,” he told Walla in a separate call.

The official added that the U.S. “greatly appreciates” the scientific and technological cooperation “with the “start-up nation,” saying that this solid cooperation will continue, the Kan report said.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen criticized the move Sunday, telling reporters, “I object to the decision and think it is wrong.”

“In similar cases in the past, the Israeli government fully reimbursed parties damaged by such decisions,” he added.

Israel has agreements with other governments stipulating that their cooperative work would exclude companies in Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem. For example, the multi-year, $111 billion Horizon Europe program, in which Israeli institutions bid for EU research and development grants, has this limitation.

In 2020, during the Trump presidency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman signed a protocol removing these restrictions from three 1970s-era cooperative agreements.

“Plainly, this geographic restriction within these three agreements was an anachronism,” Friedman said at the festive ceremony, which was held at Ariel University in Samaria. “We are righting an old wrong, and we are strengthening yet again the unbreakable bond between our two countries.”

Friedman said on Sunday that the reversal was a mistake.

Israel has agreements with other governments stipulating that their cooperative work would exclude companies in Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem. For example, the multi-year, $111 billion Horizon Europe program, in which Israeli institutions bid for EU research and development grants, has this limitation.

In 2020, during the Trump presidency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman signed a protocol removing these restrictions from three 1970s-era cooperative agreements.

“Plainly, this geographic restriction within these three agreements was an anachronism,” Friedman said at the festive ceremony, which was held at Ariel University in Samaria. “We are righting an old wrong, and we are strengthening yet again the unbreakable bond between our two countries.”

Friedman said on Sunday that the reversal was a mistake.

The U.S. informed Israel of the change two weeks ago, according to the reports.