He praised the IDF as a “human mosaic” that draws its power from the people, pledging to keep fighting, improving, and leading the next generation with responsibility at the core.
Thursday, November 27, 2025
IDF Honors David Ben-Gurion on 52nd Anniversary of His Passing
He praised the IDF as a “human mosaic” that draws its power from the people, pledging to keep fighting, improving, and leading the next generation with responsibility at the core.
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
AI opens a vast trove of medieval Jewish records from the Cairo Geniza
Researchers in Israel are hoping to make new discoveries about Jewish history by loading a digital database of manuscripts stretching back a thousand years into a new transcription tool that uses artificial intelligence.
The Cairo Geniza, the biggest collection of medieval Jewish documents in the world, has been the object of countless hours of study by scholars for more than a century, but only a fraction of its over 400,000 documents have been thoroughly researched.
Although the entire collection has already been digitized and is available online in the form of images, most of its items have not been cataloged, many are disordered fragments from longer documents, and only around a tenth have transcriptions.
AI can help researchers access, analyze collection more quickly
By training an AI model to read and transcribe the old texts, researchers will now be able to access and analyze the whole collection far more quickly, cross-referencing names or words and assembling fragments into fuller documents.
"We are constantly trying to improve the abilities of the machine to decipher ancient scripts," said Daniel Stokl Ben Ezra of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, one of the principal researchers in the MiDRASH transcription project.
The project has already made significant progress and could open up the documents - written in Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and Yiddish in a wide variety of handwritten scripts - to many different researchers, Stokl Ben Ezra added.
Transcriptions from more difficult manuscripts are reviewed by researchers for accuracy, helping to improve the AI training.
"The modern translation possibilities are incredibly advanced now, and interlacing all this becomes much more feasible, much more accessible to the normal and not scientific reader," he said.
Funded by the European Research Council, the project is based on the National Library of Israel's digital database of the Cairo Geniza documents and brings together researchers from several universities and other institutes.
One document transcribed by the project is a 16th-century letter in Yiddish from Rachel, a widow from Jerusalem, to her son in Egypt, with his reply written in the margins telling of his efforts to survive a plague sweeping through Cairo.
A Geniza is a synagogue's repository for significant documents that are ultimately intended for ritual burial, and the one found in the Ben Ezra synagogue in historic Cairo had a dry atmosphere ideal for the preservation of old paper.
Cairo surpassed Damascus and Baghdad in the Middle Ages as the greatest city of the Middle East, a center of global trade, learning, and science, and home to a thriving Jewish community, later expanded by refugees fleeing newly Christian Spain.
The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who was physician to the family of Saladin, the famous Muslim sultan who ousted the crusaders from Jerusalem, worshipped at the Ben Ezra synagogue while living in Cairo.
As dynasties and empires rose and fell, the community quietly went about its daily life, its religious authorities filling the Geniza with the rabbinical arguments, civic records, and other detritus of administrative and intellectual business.
The Geniza's astonishing haul of records and papers, including some written by Maimonides himself, was discovered by scholars in the late 19th century, but, although it has been studied ever since, its enormous size means huge gaps remain.
"The possibility to reconstruct, to make a kind of Facebook of the Middle Ages, is just before our eyes," Stokl Ben Ezra said.
Self-Hating Jew Peter Beinart Speaking in Israel gets Wacked by the Right as well as the left!
Progressive Jewish author Peter Beinart drew a volley of criticism on Tuesday from the boycott Israel movement as well as a right-wing Israeli group over an appearance at Tel Aviv University.
Beinart, who is an outspoken critic of Israel and a journalism professor at the City University of New York, spoke Tuesday evening in Tel Aviv with Yoav Fromer, a senior faculty member at TAU’s English department, in an event titled “Trump, Israel and the Future of American Democracy.”
A founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, publicly called on Beinart to cancel his visit after saying it had privately urged him to do so. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel is the BDS movement’s cultural arm and a leading advocate for boycotts of Israeli academic institutions.
“Palestinians condemn Peter Beinart’s event at complicit Tel Aviv University in the midst of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” PACBI said in a post on X. “Whitewashing genocide can never be reconciled with any claim to humanism or moral consistency.”
In a press release, PACBI accused the university of being “deeply complicit in enabling and trying to whitewash Israel’s US-armed and funded genocide as well as its decades old regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid.” Beinart declined to comment to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But he responded to the criticism on social media, where said he supports a boycott of Israeli academic institutions as well as a right of return for Palestinians and an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank — all principles of the BDS movement to which he has long subscribed.
At the same time, he said, while he supports “many forms of boycott, divestment and sanction against Israel and Israeli institutions,” he believes there is “value in speaking to Israelis about Israel’s crimes” by speaking at universities.
Trump needs to hit the reset button if the GOP wants to win the 2026 midterms
by Michael Goodwin NYP
As far as President Trump is concerned, T.S. Eliot got it all wrong.
April is not the cruelest month, November is.
As he barrels toward the end of his first year back in the White House, the president is beset by slumping poll numbers and a pileup of problems, some of which are self-inflicted.
Even a gaggle of normally obedient Republicans in Congress are growing restless, and his call for gerrymandering House district lines in red states to pad the GOP advantage in the midterms is in danger of producing the opposite outcome.
The sheer volume of mounting trouble reflects Trump’s supreme self-confidence, grand vision and his “let’s do it now” management style.
On any given day, the combination results in too many balls in the air competing for his attention.
The big picture suggests he needs a reset, and maybe a rest.
Armed Robbery Thwarted by Smoke Defense System in Ofakim Jewelry Store
Masked burglars tried to rob a jewelry store in Ofakim today, smashing the front windows and breaking display glass with an iron rod, but staff immediately activated the fogging system, filling the store with thick smoke and blinding the intruders, who fled empty-handed within seconds.
A gang of at least four masked men armed with crowbars attempted to rob a newly opened jewelry store in Ofakim on Tuesday, but were forced to flee empty-handed after an employee triggered a defensive gas and smoke system that blinded the intruders.
Security video shows the robbers smashing through the store’s front glass door and forcing their way inside. Two employees were present at the time. One escaped to a side room, while the other stayed in the store and ran to the cash register to press a panic button. Within seconds, the store filled with thick smoke and gas, rendering the assailants unable to see the jewelry display cases they had begun striking.
Disoriented and unable to continue the robbery, the masked attackers fled to a waiting getaway vehicle and sped off. Police have not confirmed whether arrests have been made.
This failed heist is the third robbery attempt in the same commercial center in just two months, according to local journalist and Ofakim resident Simi Spolter, raising growing concerns among business owners and residents about deteriorating security in the area.
MK Almog Cohen, a resident of Ofakim and a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s party, sharply condemned the situation following the incident.
“Zero governance, zero fear. There is no police in Israel! This situation cannot continue!” he said.
The robbery attempt comes amid nationwide complaints about police staffing shortages and a rise in organized theft targeting businesses.
Last of the ‘Bnei Menashe’ to be brought to Israel within five years
The government approved on Sunday a plan to bring the last 6,000 members of the so-called “lost tribe” of Menashe to Israel within five years.
While about 5,000 of the Bnei (sons of) Menashe currently live in Israel, having trickled in over the last 20 years, they have had great trouble bringing in the rest of their community, which is based in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur.
The decision will enable some 1,200 immigrants to hopefully arrive by the end of 2026, with an Israeli delegation leaving to start processing their immigration applications by next week.
The rest are expected to come by 2030, which will finally reunite all families who have been apart for years.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who submitted the proposal with Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, the Bnei Menashe will be settled in areas that were hit hard by the war in northern Israel.
“This is an important and Zionist decision that will also bring strengthening to the North and the Galilee,” he said.
There are already concentrations of Bnei Menashe in northern towns such as Maalot and Carmiel as well as in Sderot in the south and in villages in Judea and Samaria.
The cost of the project is estimated at NIS90 million, which will include immigration rights, housing costs, Hebrew instruction (ulpan), and an Orthodox conversion.
All Bnei Menashe who come to Israel must undergo conversion because the community was only recognized in 2005 as being “of Jewish descent” by Israel’s chief rabbinate.
They were mostly practicing Christians until late into the twentieth century, even if several of their ancient rites had some semblance to Judaism.
The group began keeping Jewish law and establishing synagogues and ritual baths after learning from Orthodox groups such as Shavei Israel, which supports Aliyah by descendants of lost tribes and took the group under its wing.
The community traces its ancestry to Menashe, the son of Jacob, believing that the tribe made its way to India after the Assyrian dispersion of the Ten Tribes prior to the destruction of the First Temple.
The Bnei Menashe are “passionate Zionists and care deeply about the State of Israel, its citizens and their security,” Shavei Israel chairman Michael Freund told The Jerusalem Post last year at the height of the War of Revival in the Gaza Strip.
More than 200 of its men were in the IDF fighting both Hamas and Hezbollah, the organization said, and Freund noted that “since the outbreak of the war, we have received hundreds of requests from young community members in northeastern India who wish to immigrate to Israel and enlist immediately in the IDF to fight shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters.”
Speaking outside Auschwitz, Polish MP says Jews have no place in the country
By World Israel News Staff
A Polish lawmaker sparked controversy over the weekend when he declared Jews have no place in Poland and condemned Warsaw for backing a comprehensive plan for combating antisemitism.
On Saturday, MP Grzegorz Braun, chief of the ultra-nationalist Confederation of the Polish Crown party, held a press conference in Oświęcim, near the Auschwitz death camp, castigating the Polish government’s decision to adopt a new five-year plan aimed at curbing anti-Jewish bigotry.
Braun argued that non-Poles have no place in the Polish Republic, urging Jews and others to go to “their own countries.”
“Poland is for Poles. Other nations have their own countries, including the Jews,” Braun said, warning that any measures facilitating a Jewish presence in the country were akin to “inviting Hannibal Lecter to move in next door.”
He vowed that if his party gained power, it would “scatter the International Auschwitz Council to the four winds.”
“The area of the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is de facto an extraterritorial zone. It is no longer Polish territory.”
The far-right lawmaker then accused Jews of seeking special treatment by Poland, with the goal of dominating the country.
“Jews want to be super-humans in Poland, entitled to a better status, and the Polish police dance to their tune,” Braun continued.
Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who also serves as prosecutor general, blasted Braun’s comments as “shameful” antisemitism.
“I will not leave this without a response,” said Zurek. “There is no place for antisemitism in Poland, and such statements cause significant damage to the Polish state internationally and within our country.”
“We will not allow anyone to express such views with impunity. We will pursue them resolutely. It is truly shameful for Poles that someone like this, in the 21st century, after what happened in Poland during World War II, is turning this place [Auschwitz] into some hideous political game.”
On Monday, Braun derided criticism of his comments as a “festival of ritual outrage and condemnation from politically correct press and party officials.”
Candace Owens: Macron hired Israeli assassin to kill me
By World Israel News Staff
Right-wing podcaster and conspiracy theorist Candace Owens has accused French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, of putting together a hit team to assassinate the 36-year-old American influencer.
In a post to her X account over the weekend, Owens claimed she had received a warning from a “high-ranking employee” of the French government that the French first couple had arranged for her assassination.
“URGENT Two days ago I was contacted by a high-ranking employee of the French Government,” Owens wrote.
“After determining this person’s position and proximity to the French couple, I have deemed the information they gave me to be credible enough to share publicly in the event that something happens.”
“In short, this person claims that the Macrons have executed upon and paid for my assassination. Yes, you read that correctly.”
Trump signs watered-down Muslim Brotherhood ban, drawing fire from allies
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday targeting the Muslim Brotherhood movement, instructing Cabinet members to investigate branches of the radical Sunni movement ahead of a possible terror blacklisting.
The measure tasks the State Department and the Treasury Department with gathering information on various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood to assess whether they should be designated as either Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) or Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).
Under Trump’s order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will have 30 days to file a report summarizing the joint investigation.
If the report determines that any Muslim Brotherhood chapters should be blacklisted as FTOs or SDGTs, the respective departments will be required to impose relevant sanctions within 45 days.
“The order’s ultimate aim is to eliminate the designated chapters’ capabilities and operations, deprive them of resources, and end any threat such chapters pose to US nationals and the national security of the United States,” the White House said.
The executive order said the Muslim Brotherhood chapters in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan would all be scrutinized, while the chapters in Turkey and Qatar – both key American allies with powerful influence inside the Trump administration – were noticeably absent from the list.
Some right-wing allies of the president expressed disappointment at Monday’s order, claiming it did little in practice and appeared to shield Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Today, the United States was Hoodwinked by Qatar,” right-wing activist and Trump booster Laura Loomer wrote on X Tuesday morning.
“United States of Qatar. Jihad is our way.”
“The Muslim Brotherhood designation signed by President Trump today doesn’t have any teeth, as it doesn’t include the Muslim Brotherhood in Qatar, Turkey, or Syria, which are the most aggressive ‘chapters’ of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Loomer noted that in two of the three countries listed in the order, the Muslim Brotherhood is already banned.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
In what most people say is a tragic Joke Satmar Rebbe Of Kiryas Yoel makes "choizik" and Gives $5 Million In Eretz Yisroel To Mosdos Who Don’t Take Money From Israel
DIN: For comparison, the March 2025 Zionist state budget allocated approximately 1.27 billion NIS for Yeshivas, 75 million NIS for Seminaries, and 60 million NIS for Yeshivas for overseas students.
In addition his statement that they don't take from the "Medina" is an out and out lie! They use the parks, they use the hospitals and they use the fire fighters, they use the subsidized transportation, they use the sidewalks, they use street lighting,...they are a bunch of liars!
A "major" distribution of five million dollars will take place this coming week for Chinuch institutions in Israel that do not receive any government funding. The funds are being allocated through Keren Hatzalah, the philanthropic organization established decades ago by the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum Zatzal.
The distribution will be held at the offices of the Badatz Eidah HaChareidis in Kikar Zupnik, Jerusalem.
Bichadrei reports that four million dollars of the current sum were donated by prominent Satmar (Reb Zalman Leib) philanthropists:
R’ Chaim Pesach Goldstein, one of the senior members of the fund’s leadership;
R’ Berel Weiss of Los Angeles;
R’ Yechezkel Schwimmer of Williamsburg;
R’ Yoeli Landau of Williamsburg;
R’ Mordechai Kahn of Montreal;
R’ Avraham Yirmiyash of Kiryas Yoel.
An additional one million dollars was delivered last night (Sunday) by the Satmar Rebbe, who personally handed a check to Badatz member HaRav Avraham Yitzchok Ullman during a ceremony of Hafrashas Terumos U’Maasros in Or HaGanuz.
This portion of the donation was contributed by Satmar (Reb Aron) philanthropists R’ Menachem Gershon Leibowitz, R’ Yechezkel Berkowitz, and R’ Shalom Yakubovitz of Williamsburg.
Keren Hatzalah, founded by the Satmar Rebbe Zatzal, is dedicated to raising and distributing funds exclusively to Chinuch institutions in Eretz Yisroel that refuse all Israeli government funding, and is jointly supported by both Satmar courts.
At the center of the Satmar Rebbe’s uplifting visit to the community of Or HaGanuz, near Meron — where he arrived to perform Hafrashas Terumos U’Maasros on the past year’s local wine — an unexpected and emotional moment unfolded.
During the visit, the Rebbe met with members of the Badatz of the Eidah HaChareidis. As the gathering reached its peak, and with all eyes on him, the Rebbe suddenly drew a sealed envelope from his pocket. Inside was a check for an "astounding" one million dollars.
He handed the check to Rav Ullman, directing that the full amount be distributed to “mosdos al taharas hakodesh in Eretz Yisroel,” institutions that steadfastly refuse any funding from the Zionist government.
This remarkable step (?) was carried out with complete discretion. Even the Rebbe’s closest confidants were unaware of his intention. He made the decision on his own — after already having left Jerusalem — to give the enormous sum quietly, without publicity, without any requests for honor, and without the usual ceremonies that typically accompany donations of this magnitude.
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