A new poll conducted by the Smith Institute for the Olam Katan newspaper showed that over half of Israelis would like to see Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat and the son of former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, become the next Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.
The poll results show that 56% of respondents would like to see Rabbi Eliyahu appointed to the role. Among these are 55% of secular Israelis, and 74% of Dati Leumi Israelis. The poll also showed significant support for Rav Shmuel Eliyahu amongst Charedi respondents. The poll showed that if one of the Rabbanim from Shas left the race, even more people would support Rav Eliyahu’s candidacy.

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of Rabbi Nesanel Hakohen Kasnett zt”l, longtime resident of Boro Park and a distinguished editor at ArtScroll/Mesorah. He was 78.
Rabbi Kasnett embraced Torah in his youth, becoming a baal teshuvah, and developed a deep love for limud haTorah, becoming a brilliant talmid chochom. Though he was a licensed attorney, he chose to dedicate his life to Torah and related projects.
As a young man, he studied at Yeshiva Beis Hatalmud in Eretz Yisroel and later at Yeshivas Novardok in Boro Park.

“Squad” members Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Cori Bush (D-MO) appeared to confuse Memorial Day — a day to honor fallen American service members — with Veterans Day, a day to honor those who have served.
Omar posted on X from her congressional account:

On #MemorialDay, we honor the heroic men and women who served our country.
We owe them more than our gratitude — they have more than earned access to quality mental health services, job opportunities, housing assistance, and the benefits they were promised.

Bush posted on her congressional X account:

Rabbi Avraham Kroizer, 80, who was violently thrown to the ground by a policeman in Meron last night, detailed this morning the sequence of events leading up to the incident.
“I was there to see if they would open the barricades or not, and in the meantime, I sat on the side and read chapters of Tehillim,” Rabbi Kroizer said.
He described how he ended up at the scene: “I thought that maybe they would open the barrier for me to cross later, because a few moments earlier, I saw an old man accompanied by his two children being allowed to pass. So, I thought they would allow me as well, considering I am also old.

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchok Yosef on Sunday harshly criticized the Supreme Court justices for their decision to stop funding for yeshivas after the exemption that allowed yeshiva students to avoid military service expired.
At a Lag Ba’omer event in Yerushalayim, he remarked, “These are foolish judges. Instead of increasing funding for the yeshivas, they provide only a pittance to the married yeshiva students.”
“Rather than increasing the funds, they reduced them. For nearly two months, the yeshiva world has received no money. Where is your common sense? We are in a difficult situation, and during times of war, we need merits for the nation of Israel. Instead of supporting that, you are undermining the very foundation you rely on.”

Key kosher food industry stakeholders met on Wednesday with officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in an effort to unwind bureaucratic restrictions on procuring food for emergency pantries and school lunch programs.
As part of the USDA’s Jewish American Heritage Month celebrations, the “Kosher Supply Chain and Food Insecurity Dialogue” event at the USDA’s Washington, D.C., headquarters featured panel discussions on improving the coordination between the kosher industry and the Biden administration. The event comes as this year’s annual farm bill goes through revisions ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives.

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