The Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva, Hagaon Rav Shaul Alter, is continuing his historic, whirlwind visit to the United States, visiting various rabbanim and mosdos, and meeting with numerous chasidim eager to be in his presence. Rav Shaul on Tuesday visited Yeshiva Yagdil Torah, the flagship Gerrer yeshiva in Borough Park, where he delivered a shiur and spoke to the yeshiva’s younger talmidim, followed by visits to the elder of the admorim, the Rachmastrivka Rebbe. The Rosh Yeshiva also held meetings with the Bobov-45, Bobov-48, and Kossover Rebbes, and attended a massive kabolas panim event in Borough Park, attended by well over 1,000 people.

Last month, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kratz, the shamash of 770, and Rabbi Yehuda Pevzner, the director of Mitzvah Tank NYC, parked their tank at a busy street corner in Lower Manhattan for the day, Chabad.info reported. When an elderly priest approached them, they relaxed from their misson of kiruv for a moment and began joking around with him. “The truth is that when we asked him if he was Jewish, it was a joke. Why would we ask a priest, dressed in long flowing white robes, with a huge cross dangling across his chest, if he was Jewish?” said Rabbi Kratz. The priest’s answer was shocking. “Yes, I’m Jewish.” “What do you mean? Was your mother Jewish?” He answered: “My parents were both Jews.” The priest explained that his parents has entrusted him to the church during the Holocaust.

Askanim in Orange County, NY, are accusing the Board of Elections of deliberately withholding the results of the write-in votes in South Blooming Grove’s Ward 4 district election after a major grassroots voter turnout effort and write-in effort by the Chasidic community. As of Wednesday afternoon, the other races in the entire county had already been tabulated and publicized but for the Ward 4 District. A federal civil lawsuit is also reportedly being considered over allegations they say amounts to voter suppression, intimidation, and blatant discrimination by officials in the Board of Elections.

Democrat Alvin Bragg was elected Tuesday as Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, a position that will give him oversight of prosecutions and ongoing investigations involving former President Donald Trump. Bragg, a 48-year-old civil rights lawyer and former federal prosecutor, defeated Republican Thomas Kenniff to join a growing wave of progressive, reform-minded prosecutors across the country. Bragg will take over in January from the current district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., who is retiring after a final term in which he prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for rape and brought tax evasion charges against the Trump Organization and its longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey narrowly won reelection in his reliably blue state while a Republican political newcomer delivered a stunning upset in the Virginia governor’s race, sending a warning Wednesday to Democrats that their grip on power in Washington may be in peril. In Virginia, Glenn Youngkin became the first Republican to win statewide office in a dozen years, tapping into culture war fights over schools and race to unite former President Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters with enough suburban voters to notch a victory. Meanwhile, Murphy barely eked out a victory against GOP challenger Jack Ciattarelli, who mounted a surprisingly strong campaign on issues including taxes and opposition to pandemic mask and vaccination mandates.

No injuries were reported Wednesday in an apartment building fire that sent dark smoke billowing over Brooklyn. Firefighters worked for more than an hour on the blaze at 222 Lenox Road in the borough’s East Flatbush neighborhood. The fire department said the blaze on the upper levels of the seven-story apartment building was first reported at around 11 a.m. About 170 firefighters and EMS personnel responded, the fire department said. FDNY urges New Yorkers to NEVER park on a fire hydrant. It is illegal to park within 15 feet of either side of a fire hydrant. See more #FDNYSmart tips at https://t.co/NpwdRdlElY pic.twitter.com/HsE7iCedjp — FDNY (@FDNY) November 3, 2021 (AP)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to strike down a restrictive New York gun permitting law, but the justices also seemed worried that a broad ruling could threaten gun restrictions on subways, bars, stadiums and other gathering places. The court was hearing arguments in its biggest guns case in more than a decade, a dispute over whether New York’s law violates the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.” Chief Justice John Roberts and other conservative members of the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, suggested New York’s law goes too far. Why, Roberts asked, does a person seeking a license to carry a gun in public for self defense have to show a special need to do so.

New York City mayor-elect Eric Adams pledged Wednesday to be a practical and progressive mayor who will “get stuff done” for the nation’s largest city. “Listen, you can be as philosophical as you want,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” ”I’m not going to be a philosophical mayor. I’m going to be a mayor that’s going to be a GSD mayor. Get stuff done.” Adams, a 61-year-old Democrat and former police officer who will be New York City’s second Black mayor, defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday and will take office on Jan. 1. Adams, who narrowly won a June Democratic primary over a field that included candidates to his left on issues including tax policies and policing, said his own agenda is progressive. “I am practical and I am progressive,” Adams said.

As votes in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race continue to be counted, several pollsters are now projecting Governor Phil Murphy to have won the race, despite having a tiny lead and thousands of ballots remaining to be recorded. Election forecasters say that, although there are technically enough outstanding votes remaining to tip the election towards Republican Jack Ciattarelli, the votes still uncounted come primarily from Democratic strongholds and mail-in ballots, and are expected to skew towards Murphy. There are numerous discrepancies in the data, and the exact lead Governor Murphy currently holds over Ciattarelli remains unclear, but it appears to be somewhere in the range of 1,000 to 7,000 votes.

As the vote between incumbent New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelly comes down to a razor-thin margin, the numbers from the overwhelmingly frum city of Lakewood were released, showing that Ciattarelli won it by a landslide. Despite endorsements from the Lakewood Vaad and numerous askanim, Governor Murphy was unable to gain the support of the majority of Lakewood’s voters, who lean conservative and in general feel that Murphy’s policies do not align with their values. Ciattarelli won 61.6% of the Lakewood vote, with a total of 11,644 votes. Lakewood has over 50,000 registered voters, but saw less than a third of them turn out to vote in Tuesday’s election. {YWN World Headquarters – NYC}