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Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!

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Dec 25, 2025

Mizmor Letoda - Shmuel (video)







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Dec 24, 2025

watch out for the Israeli pitching!

There has been a growing trickle of Israelis in American sports leagues, especially in the NBA. Even the NHL now has one Israeli athlete. I dont think any are in the NFL, and probably not even heading in that direction. I am not aware of any in MLB either, though there was a rare Israeli assitant pitching coach last year for the Miami Marlins and before that for the Cincinatti Reds.


That rare Israeli assistant pitching coach for the Marlins, Alon Leichman from Kibbutz Gezer, has now been given the head pitching coach position for the Colorado Rockies, a first ever for an Israeli!

Good luck Alon in your new position. the Rockies cant play worse than last year so by default you should already be an improvement for them!

Leichman is also expected to be head pitching coach for the Israeli teamin the upcoming World Baseball Classic tournament.

sources: Jpost and TOI






 


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VAT-free shopping

Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch yesterday signed into effect the order to expand the VAT exemption on personal imports to $150. It was $75 until now. The order is meant to go into effect today. I read somewhere that it can take 24-48 hours for online retailers to be fully updated, so be patient on your shopping sprees.

There is opposition from small business organizations who feel this is unfair competition to them as they have expenses and have to charge VAT while consumers are now being encouraged to buy more online VAT-free. Smotritch, justifying the expansion of VAT-free imports, said this is....
part of “a broad and significant series of steps” aimed at lowering the cost of living, alongside efforts to shake up the banking and dairy sectors.


All of these steps are predicated on the proposition that “it can be cheap here,” he said, arguing that “the Israeli economy is often dominated by a small number of strong monopolies,” giving consumers only the illusion of choice.

“There is no reason why an international chain’s garment should be sold here for” significantly more than abroad, he argued. “There is no justification for a shoe that is sold in the United States for half the price – to be sold here for double the price.”

First of all, yay! Amazon and AliExpress, take all my money!

Second, Smotritch is right. At least partially. Local retail does largely overcharge. But. But. But. But local retailers need to pay and to charge 18% VAT (increased last year from 17%, and is now being considered for another increase again to 19%). Local retail businesses need to pay a lot of taxes and regulatory fees, including arnona which is being increased again.

So yes, commerce in Israel is expensive, and the retailers take advantage when they feel they can and charge high prices, but some of those high prices come from the high taxes they have to pay and charge here in Israel. Smotritch can't really complain about them being expensive when he is comparing businesses with VAT and other taxes to businesses without VAT and those other high taxes..

While online retail is very popular, a lot of people also like to go into stores and buy thigns. Either they want to try the clothes on, or they want to buy something right now and walk out with it and not wait 2 weeks to get it and then see if it fits right or whatever. Many things don't ship to Israel. Many things are too expensive to ship to Israel. People will still go into stores. FM Smotritch should be helping and encouraging them to lower their prices as well by cutting their taxes - let local retail stores also sell up to a certain limit without VAT, or with lower VAT. 

Whenever I have been to Eilat, including a relatively recent trip, it s busy everywhere and at all the activities. The busiest places, by my observation, are the malls and shops. People vacationing in Eilat take advantage of the VAT free shopping. People will continue to buy plenty in store around Israel, especially if VAT is lowered or done away with locally as well.





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Modern Miracles of Chanukah: Seeing Hashem in Today’s Headlines | Rabbi Uri Pilichowski (video)







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4 Days in New York as a Jewish Singer (video)







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Walking Through Jerusalem at Night During Hanukkah ✨🕯️ (video)







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Min Elifflet: Ariel Horovitz (video)







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Dec 23, 2025

Special Interview – US Ambassador to Israel (video)








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let me show you my home, NAS (video)














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Night in Jerusalem: What No One Tells You. (video)







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(Shema Yisrael) | Shulem Lemmer | Chai Lifeline National Gala (video)







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Dec 22, 2025

Big Gedalya Goomper strikes again!

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission came down hard on Mavis Tire Co. for religious discrimination.

Mavis refused to hire a qualified candidate for a managerial psition when he said he would need Friday night and Saturday off as he is Shabbos observant.  They then offered him a more flexible technician position but retracted that as well for the same reason.

The candidate sued and was awarded a little over $300k for the discrimination he suffered. Mavis will also revise its policies about religious accomodation and train their relevant staff about these matters.

The Director of EEOC said
“We commend Mavis for their commitment to complying with Title VII’s requirement to accommodate job applicants’ and employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs and practices,” said Arlean Nieto, acting director of the EEOC’s New York District Office. “Employers cannot refuse to hire a job applicant to avoid granting a request for a religious accommodation. Employers need to take reasonable efforts to accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, unless such an accommodation would pose an undue hardship.”
source: EEOC

Discrimination is always bad, so good on them for coming down on Mavis for this.

based on Nieto's last statement, I am wondering what the legal requirements are - what is considered undue hardship? If the position requires the manager to work Saturday, why is it religious discrimiation to not hire an Orthodox Jew? Maybe they couldnt show that it was really a necessary work day and he couldnt do his job properly if he couldnt come on Saturday?






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foilishtik vs yiras shamayim

Very recently (was it 6 weeks ago or so?) Mishpacha ran ainterview with Yoeli Landau, a Satmar chassid billionaire. They even put him plugging the interview on the cover photo. They claimed then that while it is unusual to do so, to put a businessman on the cover and give him such prominence but they did it not because they are honoring a businessman who made lots of money but because of his story and how he grew up and then with honesty and yiras shamayim became a success and has complete fealty to his rabbonim... The interview, and especially the cover made waves and with it came a lot of criticism of Mishpacha choosing this and of Landau as well..

Personally I enjoyed the interview, even if I figured much of it was embellishment. For example, they sold him as having even been homeless at one point when he was younger and had to sleep in a shul..in the interview when he tells the story he describes how he slept in the shul so he could play homeless because he needed to qualify for welfare programs (like WICS or SNAP or whatever program it was at the time)...

Anyway, I am wondering if he now regrets having given the interview. it was supposedly a very rare interview as he normally stays away from the limelight and doesn't talk to media. I am wondering if he or those around him might think it caused him an ayn hara of sorts.


According to CBS News, Landau is in lots of legal trouble for playing foilishtik with his nursing homes. honesty and yiras shamayim are the name of the game...

A bankruptcy judge blocked an attempt by a nursing home chain's primary investor to shield himself from settlement payments and liability in lawsuits alleging hundreds of patient injuries and deaths, encouraging those pursuing millions in damages.

Genesis HealthCare, once the nation's largest nursing home chain, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in July with a proposal to protect its controlling investor, Joel Landau, from legal liability. In court papers, Genesis had originally estimated all its settled and pending cases — which it said numbered nearly a thousand — would cost $259 million to resolve.

KFF Health News reported this month that in the years before filing for bankruptcy, Genesis had settled at least 155 patient injury and death lawsuits with provisions that allowed it to delay paying, sometimes for more than a year. As a result, when Genesis filed for bankruptcy in July, it still owed $41 million out of the $58 million promised in those settlements with families of current or former residents, according to the bankruptcy and case records KFF Health News reviewed.

In hearings Wednesday and last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas, Judge Stacey G.C. Jernigan said she would not approve a sale of the company's assets that included legal releases from liability for Landau and a private equity associate, David Gefner. Landau, who was seeking to purchase the assets through another company he controlled, did not attend the bankruptcy hearings or respond to a subpoena, lawyers said in court.

ayin hara indeed... I hope he comes out of it ok and cleared and can make amends but maybe talking in public about how great he is was not a good idea when he is actually in so much trouble... I wonder if Mishpacha will relate to the latest news and regret having interviewed him and especially putting him on the cover


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"I Decided to NEVER Be Afraid Again" | Rep. Randy Fine | Behind the Bima #182 (video)








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Shlepping Nachas - Yivarechicha - יְבָרֶכְךָ - Live at Zappa Jerusalem - 12.29.24 (video)








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IDF Rabbanite Band Hanukkah Medley (video)








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Happy Hanukkah from Matisyahu (video)







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8 Nights – The Solomon Brothers (Official Music Video)







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Dec 21, 2025

for Bnei Chutz Laaretz

This event is being promoted in RBS for tomorrow night, to deal with the threats and temptations of the IDF against the Chareidim...



I have no problem with the content. I believe in the marketplace of ideas. They can argue their perspective...

I am just wondering if all these bnei chutz laaretz keep two days of yom tov



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Halacha Headlines: 12/19/25 – Shiur 540 – “Leil Shishi” & Friday “To’ameha” – Do they enhance Shabbos or detract from it? (audio)








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A Rare Lead Menorah Pendant from 1,300 Years Ago Discovered near the City of David (video)







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"8 Lights" (Official Music Video)







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Dec 16, 2025

Matisyahu's Hanukkah "Miracle" (video)

November 30, 2025 is the 15 year anniversary of "Miracle". The first of several Matisyahu Hanukkah songs, and by the singer's favorite music video to date. Do you believe in Miracles? Happy Holidays!






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The Hanukkah Song - We Are Lights, ft: NYC Children’s Chorus (video)







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Dec 15, 2025

Jerusalem Old City — Hidden Alleys, Timeless Beauty, Sacred Atmosphere | 4K Walk (video)







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Hanukkah Acapella Medley - Zusammen & Shalom Jacobs (video)







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Dec 14, 2025

Halacha Headlines: 12/13/25 – Shiur 539 – Narco Terrorist being blown out of the water – How does the Torah view it ? | The fascinating saga of the Bochurim in Japan | Dealing with suicide in our community (audio)







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Hassidic Jews React to Street Magic! (video)







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Miami Boys Choir - Chanukah Nights! (Official Music Video)







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Dec 11, 2025

A Day In The Life Of A West Bank Hill Top Violent (Re)Settler/Occupier (video)







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Six13 - Golden: A KPop Demon Hunters Chanukah (video)







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Hannukah - New York Boys Choir - ANI OHEV ET CHANUKAH (video)







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Dec 9, 2025

Interesting Psak: Fantasy Footbal coaches should not be witnesses

I have always been a fan and follower of various sports and teams, and when possible have also been pretty active in participaing in a variety of sports activities over the years... but I never got into the fatasy sports like Fantasy Football.. it just never interested me. I like sports but fantasy sports never seemed like being involved in sports.

And I guess it is a good thing. Until now I was not aware there was a halachic discussion about Fantasy Football and that it is such a big issue and debate in the frum community.

I just saw an article in JewishLink in which Rav Haim Jachter relates to some other articles on the issue and himself paskens that people who play Fantasy Football are not technically passul to be an eid, a witness, but such people should not be chosen lechatchila to be a witness.

Rav Jachter refers to recent public positions offered by Rav Yehuda Avner (probably not the aide to several Prime Ministers and auther) and Rav Rothwacs, so it seems to be a hot topic right now for whatever reason.

The issue is really about gambling and addiction, not fantasy football per se, but fantasy football is the manifestation of the gambling addiction that is currently under scrutiny in the frum community.

 Rav Jachter refers to several poskim over the years that have taken strong positions against any form of gambling and the strong addiction that follows such involvement. You can read the articleif that interests you.

Besides for the psak of preferably not taking someone involved in Fantasy Football as a witness, the more interesting conclusion from the article to me is that sports is good clean fun, both competing in sports activities and also ffollowing sports and teams.

I am used to rabbis talking about sports, especially following sports while playing sports has the redeeming factor of health and fitness, as narishkeit, as something to keep the goyim busy and off the streets, as being a big waste of time. In this article he refers to Rav Avner who complains that novody just watches sports nowadays (I do) but people watching sports feel they need to place a bet on the game to make it mroe exciting... and then Rav Jachter himself wanes nostalgic about his growing up enjoying sports with his sister and father and not understanding how his mother did not and calls it a reasonable and often necessary outlet, a happy diversion, but then explains it should not become a sick obsession with people wasting lots of time on especially with fantasy sports that causes them to spend many housr watching games and keeping up with whats going on so they can construct their teams and whatnot...

so the psak is interesting, and the rabbinic nod to sports is refreshing

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when Zeus caused a kiddush hashem...

Zeus, an African American in New York, created a tremendous kiddush hashem this week. 

Zeus, walking in the rain through the streets of NY, found a shtreimel, in the case, in a pile of garbage and leaves. 

Initially Zeus was excited with the treasure he had found. he said he always wanted one of those large fur hats he sees around Brooklyn. Funnily enough he calls it a shnitzel.

His viewers surprise him by telling him these shtreimels cost thousands of dollars. Stunned hearing the value, Zeus decided he would try to find the owner and return it. He found a phone number in the shtreimel case and called to say he found the shmeidel. The owner confirmed it is his shtreimel, not shmeidel, and explained he had been in an Uber a few weeks prior and he stepped out of the car to make a call and then the car drove off. He was unable to find his shtreimel and the Uber driver denied having seen it, btu clerly it had been discovered at some point and discarded.

Zeus said he wants to return it and cleaned it up and then told the owner where to pick it up from. He was verye xcited and emotional to return it. Funnily he says meeting the owner, he was a very sweet fellow, like a sweet elf, whatever that means.

The chassidishe fellow showed up to collect his shtreimel and gave Zeus a bottle of tequila as a gift fo gratitude for his good deed..
source: Matzav, Behadrei

Zeus, not the Greek god, caused a kiddush hashem!

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What Rav Chaim Kanievsky Felt About Eretz Yisrael (video)







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Michael Rapaport reacts to 200 celebrities signing to free Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti (video)





and no swearing!

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Hanukkah and Christmas are approaching, bringing ideal weather to Jerusalem. (video)







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A Very Jonas Hanukkah — Y-Studs x Jonas Brothers [Official Video]







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Dec 7, 2025

Interesting Psak: Haredi women bus drivers

A group of rabbonim in Tzfat (with the support of some national rabbonim) have decided to take on the phenomenon of Haredi women becoming bus drivers. The rabbonim have issued a psak that being that it is already prohibited for women to drive cars, how much mroe so it is prohibited to go down several levels and drive busses.

The rabbonim say that the gedolei yisrael consider it a breach in the guidelines of tzniyus for a woman to drive a car. They never even imagined that the women would go down so many levels backwards and be drivers for public transportation.

The truth is, they say, that even for gentile women it is inappropriate to be such drivers, and the best of them would not lower themselves to take such lowly work, and for sure, how much more so, Haredi women shouldn't. 

They then put out a call for those Haredi women who have already been susceptible and been seduced to take this lowly work to resign immediately and look for jobs more in line with the guidelines of tzniyus and halacha..
source: Behadrei

I can udnerstand them being against Haredi women drivers. They, the rabbis of the more extreme Haredi groups, always were, and driving a bus is much more out there than driving your own car, so it makes sense they would oppose it strongly.

But why is driving a bus such a lowly position? Talk aboutt zniyus and what is or isnt appropriate for a Haredi woman, but why put down all bus drivers and call it such degrading work?

As the expression goes,  .כל עבודה מכבדת את בעליה  - all work dignifies the person doing it. No matter the job, no matter the work, if the person does it with dignity and responsiblity and honesty, it is a dignified work to be done. No need to put down all bus drivers.







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found and returned money

A woman from Hod Hasharon owned an apartment in Bnei Braq that her sick brother lived in. Upon his recent death she sold the apartment and the buyer was an avreich from Bnei Braq.

While renovating the apartment, a bag of money was found sealed into one of the walls. The money was counted to the grand old sum of 150,000nis. 


There was no mention of the money in the dead brother's will, and the question is now who is the rightful owner of the money. Does the sister inherit it from the brother? Was it hers as owner of the apartment? Is it the avreich's who bought the apartment, which is sold "as is"? maybe the owner of the money had given up on ever finding it, not knowing it was sealed into a wall?  Maybe it has to be returned to her because she could not have given up hope of the money not even knowing it was there? 

The avreich went to the dayan Rav Yehuda Silman to ask what to do with the money.

Rav Silman paskened that he has to return the money to the woman, the previous owner of the house as she did not know about the money when she sold the apartment.

The avreich wated to turn the returning of the money into a kiddush hashem event so he asked the woman to come down to the rabbi's house and held an event there to return the money, inviting several friends. The woman was very emotional hearing the story and also realizing she had inherited money from her brother. Rabbi Silman conducted a "lachayim" with the participants and blessed the avreich with an overflow of blessings in his new house and that his children should follow the path of the Torah.
source: Behadrei

What would you do? I hope I would do the right thing, ask and return it accordingly if that would be the answer given. I wonder if I might not even ask and come up with a logical sevara of why it is is mine or hefker and does not need to be returned. 

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boycotts with or without war

Matnat Chaim, the organization that promotes and encourages altruistic kidney donation, wanted to put on an event in Jerusalem at which 2000 kidney donors would attend, thus making it the largest congregation of kidney donors in one place ever. 

Matnat Chaim contacted Guiness to turn this into an official World Record.

Guiness responded that at this time they are not accepting records submitted from this region, neither from Israel or from the Palestinian ruled territories. They hope to be able to restart soon they say.

not sure what they are waiting for - the war has basically ended already. Even most of the airlines have returned to flying their Israel routes...

On a similar note, Eurovision announced recently that it will not ban Israel from participating in the 2026 competition. As a result of that announcement four European countries said they would not compete due to Israel being included - Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia. 

I thought they wanted Israel to end the war. The protests just wanted Israel to end the genocide and then   we could all go back to kumbaya. The war is over, the "genocide" that never happened is over, but they are still boycotting Israel.







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Tweet of the Day






took a screenshot instead of embedding so I could include the original tweet The Mossad IL was responding to..




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Halacha Headlines: 12/5/25 – Shiur 538 – Ponevezh Yeshiva: Understanding the Machlokes and is it finally over? (audio)








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Bardak: The Committment (video)







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The Old City Awakens – Tourism Is Back in Jerusalem! (video)








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I'm a Lucky Ducky ft. Benny Friedman | An Oorah Original (video)







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Dec 4, 2025

Interesting Psak: original deal verified as valid for Satmar

Last week we mentioned an interesting case brought to beis din by tzimmer or guest house/hostel owners who felt duped by Satmar by renting at their regular price for the recent Satmar shabbos event in Meron rather than increasing the price as they would have had they known in advance that Satmar was planning to descend on their locale...

The beis din has now issued its ruling, and it is pretty much as expected.


First, they profited just fine, even if they could have profited more had they known and chosen to take advantage of that information.

Second, there is no cause to cancel the business deal retroactively and it is not a "mekach taus" - the agreements they signed are in effect, even if in hindsight it turned out to be a better deal for one of the sides rather than the other.

Third, the community looking for rentals is under no obligation to reveal its plans in advance and cannot be expected to knowing it would increase their costs unfairly. They have the right to conduct their business wisely to get reasonable prices.

It was a silly claim in the first place suggesting Satmar had to give the owner the opportunity to take advantage of them. 





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taxes going up again?

After a long war that looks like it might soon be restarting, at least on some of its fronts, it is understandable a government would raise taxes. it has an expensive war to pay for, and semeingly will continue to have to pay a lot for an unknown amount of time. Finance Minister SMotritch and Prime Minister Netanyahu have both been bragging how strong the Israeli economy is despite the war, and there are defintiely signs of it being strong, but inflation has also been higher hurting people in the pocket.

Smotritch has said he will not impose new taxes on the public (it is an election year) and when Netanyahu said he wants to increase the defense budget by 350 million shekels over the next ten years Smotritch basically said over my dead body and he wont agree to raising taxes to cover it - he said the PM himself can take responsibility for that.

The other day Smothritch signed an order allowing local municipalities to increase the arnona tax on residents. Today Smotitch explains himself saying that isnt a tax we put on residents, the local municipality does, so dont blame us - they are allowed to increase the arnona rate, but we suggested they dont. Blame them.

The other day Smotritch announced he will soon be signing an order to double the VAT exemption on personal imports (aka online shopping from Amazon and Ali Express, etc) to $150 or maybe even $200, though he has not yet signed the order, which make consumers happy. Then it becomes known that he is considering raising VAT to 19% (PM Netanyahu seems to be opposed to this at this time).

Recently the Ministry of Transportation announced prices are set to go up once again  in January after a very recent increase. After public outrage they cancelled that. Did they not think people would be upset when they initially announced it? 

This is very strange for an election year. I guess they feel confident their base will support them no matter what they do, even increasing already high taxes.




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dual citizenship no more?

A Republican senator from Ohio has proposed a bill that would make it illegal for Americans to hold dual citizenship.

I dont really care how this would affect Melania and Barron Trump as the American news media sites do, but if this passes it could affect a lot of people who have made aliya to Israel. And more so it could affect a lot of people who are thinking of or even in the stages of planning and applying for their aliya to Israel. People who make aliya don't necessarily want to give up their original citizenship. They usually want to keep it, either simply to make travel easier as olim often travel a lot (eg to visit family left behind or for work, etc), and then there is the old Jewish thing about having two passports just in case...


According to the proposal, an American citizen with dual citizenship would have one year to renounce the second citizenship. If by the end of the year one did not renounce, that person would automatically be stripped of their US citizenship.

The article linked above points out that this is in conflict with the 14th Amendmentso it has hurdles to overcome.

I also think President Trump, considering the ramifications to his family, will put forth some effort in getting this bill buried. 

I also think they wont do this considering how it would affect many other people and, probably more importantly, losing all that foreign tax money by American citizen expats who have moved to other countries and taken up citizenship where they live. Strip them of their citizenship and suddenly tens/hundreds of thousands of people no longer have to file, and [sometimes] pay, US taxes.

Still, it is a worrying trend that this si being proposed, and form the Republican no less!




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gold iPhones in Gaza "highlight" famine conditions

The news has been reporting over the past week that Israel finally approved entry of shipments of new iPhones into the Gaza Strip.


Yes, a People that is supposedly suffering from genocide and famine is tripping over itself to buy iPhone17s, including gold plated iphones with embedded diamonds. They can afford to pay upwards of $10000 for the newest fancy iPhone, or $2500 or so for more basic models, but they cant afford to buy food and are starving?

I hope Israel at least has these rigged for potential future "beeper" style use should it be necessary...



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talking big

PM Netanyahu is talking big now about ignoring the ICC order for his arrest. 

Netanyahu in an interview with the New York Times said he would ignore incoming Mayor of NY Mamdani's statement that if Netanyahu comes to NY he will arrest as per the international warrant. When asked if he will actaully test it, he said, wait and see, and reaffirmed that he plans to go to NY after Mamdani takes office.

Good for him.

I am not even sure the ICC ruling applies to the USA as the USA is not a signatory of the ICC. So I am not sure Netanyahu could be arrested there even if someone actually wanted to arrest him. Additionally, Mamdani is a mayor of a city - does that give him authority to make arrests?

Anyways, PM Netanyahu is talking big about going to NY. I assume it is because in the USA he feels he can rely on President Trump to intervene if Mamdani actually tries to do anything about that. He did not talk so big when he had the pilot change the route on his USA trip a little while back to avoid flying over European countries that said they would arrest him. He also did not talk so big when he canceled trips to European countries after they said they would adhere to the ICC ruling and arrest him...


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Tweet of the Day




Translation:
Blessings to the incoming Head of the Mossad General Roman Grofman.
Roman is an excellent officer who is not afraid to say the truth and engage with the enemy.
Roman is part of a very small group of senior leadership who before October 7 warned time and again about the conception and the dangers of buying quiet and a false sense of security.
I am certain he will take the amazing accomplishments of the Mossad and bring them to new levels..
--Betzalel Smotritch

Best of luck to Roman Gofman in his new position (I think he only starts it in June 2026) and we all wish him much success. His success is our success, is Israel's success.

so Gofman warned them time and again before October 7 and they didn't listen?  And now they are planning to listen to him or only when he says what they want to hear?

As an aside, didn't they used to never announce the names of the heads of Shabak and Mossad? They always referred to them as an initial, until recently. Now they annoucne the names and who the candidates are and who has been selected and appointed, though other senior positions are still only referred to by a letter...


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'You're a Spokesman For TERRORISM' Netanyahu Asks For Pardon | Dave Smith vs Jonathan Conricus (video)

this is posted here to honor Jonathan Conricus





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Douglas Murray in a minute (video)








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Israel. Eilat at Night — The Real Life in the City Between Jordan and Egypt. (video)








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Kippalive | Thank You Hashem (video)







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Dec 2, 2025

first orthodox jewish woman mayor in the USA

Mazel tov to Michele Weiss, a 50 year old Jewish Orthodox woman who was just elected to the position of Mayor of University Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

Mayor Weiss told JNS she grew up Conservadox and after going to NCSY she became Orthodox.

She was already midway through her third term on City Council so is not new to the local politics. She says she wants to be nonpartisan and deal with the issues in a unifying way, unlike the previous mayor who was mroe divisive as is common in today's political climate.


When asked if she is going to ask her rabbi everything that coems up, she said she was involved in many laws and issues on city council for nearly 15 years and did not call her rabbi every time they discussed an issue. People need to calm down, I guess. Though she is getting rabbinical guidance in how to deal with situations that will arise on Shabbos and holidays, and is meeting with the emergency services to understand when they need to be in touch with her so she can be prepared for those eventualities.

It seems Michele Weiss is the first ever Jewish Orthodox Woman Mayor in the USA!

Good luck to the new Mayor!




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cow free milk cereal

The other day I saw some of the Strauss brand cow free pareve milk so out of curiosity I bought a bottle to try..







I thought of having a bowl of cereal after a meat meal, but wasn't hungry and I let it go. Maybe I'll do that for kicks some time in the future, or maybe just a cup of chocolate milk. But this morning I did finally decide to try the cow free milk. I set myself up with a bowl of Raisin Bran cereal, and then added a cup of chocolate milk made from cow free milk with chocolate powder.




Now, I do not consume a lot of milk - the occassional cup of chocolate milk, and a bowl of cereal once every few months... so I cant really say I have had a cup of regular milk recently to have the taste and texture fresh in my mind while tasting the cow free milk, but I did try it and think it was pretty similar to milk and it was fine. The chocolate milk wasnt great but that could have been my fauktm will have to try it again. I also drank a little bit of regular milk after to compare.

I am not sure if I would know in a blind test which cup is which, but I think I would. There is that heavy full milky taste that is missing from the cow free milk. Even though both were 3% maybe the cow free milk is more similar to skim/lowfat milk. Or maybe in a blind test I wouldn't be able to tell the difference at all... In the cereal it tasted like milk and I probably couldnt tell the difference. Drinking it straight was fine but I think I could tell a difference.

It is definitely close enough to the OG milk that I might have some with my hamburger or chicken....


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