In a powerful letter, Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl, rov of the Old City of Yerushalayim and noted posek, has issued a public call urging Torah Jews around the world to vote for the Eretz HaKodesh slate in the current WZO elections.
The rov describes Eretz HaKodesh as “a clear and strong voice from the bnei haYeshivos and the Torah-faithful communities who seek to increase holiness in the Land, to spread Torah and prayer, and to reinforce the voice of Torah that resonates throughout the batei midrash in Eretz Yisrael.”

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rav Yisroel Hager, who was in Los Angeles for the past two and a half months following a complex surgery, departed last night on a private jet bound for Switzerland, where he will be staying for a period of rest and recuperation.
The Rebbe took off from Los Angeles at 10:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday night, en route to Davos, where he is expected to remain for ten days.
Barring any changes, the Rebbe is scheduled to return to Eretz Yisroel at the start of the week of Lag BaOmer.

In a heartfelt interview with Arutz Sheva during their Yom HaZikaron broadcast, Rabbi Yoram Eliyahu, father of Sergeant First Class (res.) Yedidya Eliyahu Hy”d of Karnei Shomron, who fell in battle in Gaza, shared his perspective on loss and resilience.
Rabbi Eliyahu expressed his discomfort with the term “bereavement,” stating, “We are not the families of bereavement, but the families of heroism. If you call it bereavement, it already has a negative effect on you, and this is not the right message that we should be conveying to the people of Israel. I say this both personally and nationally, the purpose of the Heroism Forum is to bring life back to the people of Israel, until we achieve our military victory and the collapse of Hamas.”​

As devastating fires continue to rage across Israel, many were reminded of the massive blaze that swept through Los Angeles just a few months ago. At the time, numerous Jewish communities in California reached out to their spiritual authority, the Raavad of Yerushalayim, Rav Gideon Ben Moshe, with a pressing question: Why had such destructive fires struck their city?
The response they received was nothing short of remarkable.
In a detailed letter addressed to Rabbi Ezra Dwek, the rav of Kehillas Torah Ohr in Los Angeles, Rav ben Moshe offered two spiritual reasons for the fires—and a call to action.

The moment headlines revealed that the Food and Drug Administration would be halting federal testing of commercial milk, the Orthodox Union’s kosher hotline was flooded with concerned inquiries, JTA reports.
“The flood of inquiries was off the hook … crazy: emails, calls, WhatsApp, everything,” Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, who leads the dairy division at OU Kosher, told JTA.
People were reaching out to express fears that the change in federal policy might jeopardize the kosher status of standard supermarket milk. Since 1954, many frum Jews in America have relied on a ruling by Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l that federal monitoring of the dairy industry suffices to ensure its kashrus.

Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yitzchok Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism announced on Wednesday morning that he would not be attending the Memorial Day ceremony scheduled in Kiryat Gat. His decision came after concerns were raised that his presence might provoke demonstrations, which he said could lead to a breach of the day’s solemn atmosphere.
Instead of appearing at the event, Goldknopf stated that he would head to Yerushalayim, where he planned to spend time reciting Tehillim in remembrance of those who died in Israel’s wars and in acts of terror.

In a moving tribute on Memorial Day, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu donned the tefillin that belonged to Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz, who was killed in battle. The gesture was meant to honor Hershkovitz’s legacy and the values he stood for.
“On this Memorial Day, I am honored to put on the tefillin of the Hero of Israel, Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz. Yossi, a wonderful educator, was imbued with true love of Israel. The moment he was called up, he said goodbye to his devoted wife Hadas, and to his children, Ari, Hillel, Tal, Shira and Neta, in order to protect the home of all of us,” Netanyahu wrote.

Philadelphia educator Heather Mizrachi walked into her city school district office following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, only to be greeted by a poster with the slogan, “Free Palestine.”
For Mizrachi, who is Jewish and the daughter of an Israeli, the image was jarring, to say the least. She continued to see the poster daily in her job in the central office as a curriculum specialist for middle-school students. Her complaints were ignored, she said.
“Each of those encounters left me in tears, in complete despair, and left me feeling dehumanized and undermined because of my religion and shared national origin,” the New Jersey resident told JNS via Microsoft Teams.

Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yitzchok Goldknopf stated on Tuesday that he planned to take part in the Memorial Day service at the military cemetery in Kiryat Gat, brushing aside objections from mourning families in the city who expressed discomfort over a chareidi figure attending the event.
A group of bereaved relatives sent a letter to Goldknopf, pleading with him not to appear. “We, several bereaved families from Kiryat Gat, ask you in every way possible not to attend the Memorial Day ceremony for IDF fallen soldiers in Kiryat Gat,” the letter read.