YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav Elya Meir Sorotzkin ZATZAL, the Rosh Yeshiva of Springfield Yeshiva in NJ. He was approximately 62. Rav Sorotzkin took ill a number of years ago, and despite his illness kept delivering Shiurim with great Mesiras Nefesh. Unfortunately he contracted COVID-19 a few weeks ago, and his condition deteriorated until his Petira on Erev Shabbos. The Rosh Yeshiva was a son of Hagaon HaRav Boruch Sorotzkin ZATZAL, the late Telzer Rosh Yeshiva, and a son-in-law of Hagaon HaRav Shmuel Berenbaum ZATZAL, the late Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva. Rav Sorotzkin founded Yeshiva Tiferes Boruch in Springfield around 30 years ago. It relocated to North Plainfield NJ a number of years ago.

Chof Alef Kislev is a special day in Satmar. It marks the day that Hagon HaRav Yoel Teitelbaum ZATZAL, the founder of Satmar Chassidus in America, escaped from the Nazis YM”S during the Holocaust in 1944. The day is usually marked with celebrations held around the world. In New York, there are two massive annual events each attended by thousands upon thousands of people – led by each of the Satmar Rebbes. This year, Hagaon HaRav Aharon Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe from Kiryas Yoel has just announced that the event will be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is not only a day of celebration, but is the annual fundraiser for the Mosdos.

Two NYPD officers who were shot and wounded Tuesday while responding to a domestic violence call in Queens were released from a hospital on Thanksgiving. Video shows officer Christopher Wells, 36, and officer Joseph Murphy, 33, in wheelchairs as they left Jamaica Hospital to bagpipes and cheers from NYPD members on Thursday. Wells was shot in the leg and needed surgery to repair a fractured femur, while Murphy was wounded in the hand and also required surgery. .@NYPDShea talks about the release of the two injured @NYPD105Pct officers from @JamaicaHospital. Today, we’re thankful they will be able to spend Thanksgiving with their families as they begin their recoveries.

A Satmar twitter account @HQSatmar (“Satmar Headquarters”) tweeted their thanks to an individual for offering to pay the $15,000 fine given to them after making their “secret wedding” in Williamsburg. The Tweet reads “THANK YOU! Our Congregation appreciates the gracious gesture of @TruNews of donating $15k to pay the harsh fine imposed on our Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar by @NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio which discriminated against #ReligiousFreedom & Liberties.” The issue is, the individual offering to pay the fine is a rabid anti-Semite named Rick Wiles. Wiles has been saying vile anti-Semitic things for years.

As YWN reported last night, in a landmark vindication of religious rights, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an injunction, just minutes before midnight late Wednesday, against New York State’s arbitrary limit of 10 or 25 individuals in houses of worship with capacity for hundreds in Red and Orange zones. In so doing, the High Court sided with Agudath Israel of America and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn in their legal challenge against such limitations.

A Jewish man was assaulted in Monsey Glatt on Thursday afternoon. Sources tell YWN that a delivery truck was unloading at the store, when a Hispanic male told the driver he needs to move so he can get out. The victim told him that his lift in the middle of unloading the truck, and it will take a minute or two and he will move. The suspect refused to wait, and began punching the victim in the head. A crowd quickly gathered, and the suspect attempted to get away. Thanks to the fast response by Rockland Chaveirirm and the Ramapo Police, the suspect was apprehended and taken into custody. Rockland Hatzolah was called to treat the victim who suffered a concussion and required multiple stitches for some serious facial trauma.

New York may permanently expand voting by mail — something it tried on a wide scale for the first time this year — while also trying to reform its molasses-slow and opaque process for counting absentee ballots. A proposed constitutional amendment would do away with the rule limiting absentee voting to people who are ill, have a physical disability or will be out of town on Election Day. The proposal cleared one round of legislative approval in 2019. Senate Elections Committee Chair Zellnor Myrie said he is optimistic it will pass a second required round as soon as January, which would clear the way for the amendment to be put before voters in a referendum as soon as next fall. “I think absentee ballot voting is very much a part of New York’s voting culture now,” Myrie said.

New York City prosecutors are seeking to have the state’s highest court revive state mortgage fraud charges against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort after striking out twice before in lower courts. The Manhattan district attorney’s office sent a letter Tuesday to the state’s chief judge asking permission to challenge an intermediate appeals court’s ruling last month, which upheld a judge’s decision to dismiss the case on double jeopardy grounds. In New York, the highest court is called the Court of Appeals. A four-judge panel in the intermediate court ruled Oct. 22 that the DA’s office failed to demonstrate that the state charges warranted an exception to state double jeopardy protections.

An off-duty New York Police Department sergeant accused of shooting a man outside his Long Island home and the man who was struck have both been indicted by a grand jury in connection with the October 2019 shooting, authorities announced Wednesday. Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said the off-duty officer, Justin Ellis, 35, of Seaford, New York, was indicted on an assault charge, while Patrick Catania, 30, of Point Lookout, New York, was indicted on attempted assault. Both men pleaded not guilty at their arraignments on Wednesday and were released on their own recognizance. Singas said Ellis had arrived at his home, which he shared with his wife and children, early on Oct. 25, 2019, and found Catania, whom he knew.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned of a post-Thanksgiving uptick Wednesday that could stress hospitals across the state, which has recorded the highest seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases since late April. New York recorded 6,265 new positive cases Tuesday, the highest for a single day since April 24. About 3% of tests over the past week have come back positive, more than double the rate a month ago. New infections have been on the rise in New York this fall, and state and county public health officials say Halloween parties have helped fuel the latest surge this month. Hospitalizations rose to nearly 3,000 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday. The state has averaged 2,599 patients daily over the past seven days, an 82% increase from compared to 1,428 two weeks ago.