Dear YWN, The Gedolim of Torah Umesorah are trying to correct a problem in the calendar that we have had for decades. When Rosh Chodesh Elul is early, camps are forced to end early in order to have counselors who are Bnei Torah – counselors must leave before Rosh Chodesh to get back to yeshiva. If left uncorrected, this year there would be a huge gap of literally three weeks between the end of camps and the start of yeshiva. I think we can all agree that having three weeks of unstructured time off after camps are over before yeshiva starts is not a good chinuch idea. I believe every mechanech and bal habos will agree with that premise. Torah Umesorah’s is to simply shift the calendar by one week (not one and a half weeks) and have it based upon Rosh Chodesh Elul and not Labor Day.

To whom it may concern. I am a longtime Rebbi in a Brooklyn Yeshiva. I never in a million years thought I would have to be writing such a letter, but I am left without a choice. A few weeks ago, hundreds of Rabbeiyim and Morah’s were informed – via a letter on YWN – that our summer vacations would be shortened, and that the Yeshivas would be starting earlier than it had been for the past 60 years. The letter was released by Torah Umesorah, and signed by the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva, all of whom I have the utmost Kavod for. Yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs in Brooklyn have reached an unprecedented “consensus” to begin the 2023-2024 school year around the start of Elul, rather than with the secular start date of Labor Day.

I’m somewhat shocked at the way YWN has been covering the Jordan Neely story. Instead of describing what truly happened and who Neely really was, you seem to have been at least somewhat sucked in by the mainstream media to think that he was some poor, helpless, and innocent man. He wasn’t. Just to refresh: Neely was on a subway when he was tackled by several bystanders and put in a stronghold by one of them, with Neely ultimately dying from being placed in that chokehold. Now leftists are calling for demonstrations, insisting that he was “lynched” and “murdered.” Let’s get the facts straight. Neely was no innocent man and it is almost certain that he posed a serious danger to fellow subway riders.

There is an issue I have now twice encountered at Nyack Hospital that I believe is critical to share with your audience. Three years ago, I gave birth at Nyack Hospital. During my time at the hospital, I noticed that one of the kosher meals given to me was a fleishig one, but contained a dairy cookie for dessert! Following my stay, I gave the hospital a call to let them know that they were erroneously serving dairy with meat! They profusely apologized and assured me that the problem would be rectified. Well, it’s now three years later, and b”h I gave birth to another child at the hospital. And guess what? A full three years after my first stay, I once again got the exact same fleishig dinner with the same dairy cookie!

I was pleasantly surprised upon recently seeing an ad dedicated to bnos melech – frum Jewish girls and women – exhorting them to be more careful in the area of tznius. The ad, placed in a widely read Jewish paper, had a simple message: don’t wear a cross-body bag when you’re not wearing a coat or jacket. Doing so can unnecessarily delineate certain body parts that are attractive to men, putting them in serious danger of being nichshol. Fighting back against even innocuous instances of pseudo-pritzus is to be applauded. However, I was also left troubled. My concern is not with the ad, but rather in the fact that similar advertisements aimed at boys and men simply don’t exist. And they should.

An open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: Dear Mr. Netanyahu, I am writing to you for a very simple reason, the reason being that I assume you would like to win the next election. As I am sure you are more than aware, for five elections the right and left blocks ended up in a stalemate. This past election the right wing finally reached a majority – primarily due to a left-wing party missing the electoral threshold. What if I suggested an idea that would simply increase the right-wing voter bloc? Surely it would make your life easier, and would hopefully ensure your future political legacy, and the long-term success of the right-wing. I don’t know if you’ve taken at the number of frum Israeli yordim on your recent trips to various European capitals.

Dear Editor, I am writing to express my deep anger and frustration about the recent idea being promoted in an ad by a local paper. As a single girl within the Orthodox Jewish community, I have experienced firsthand the difficulties and frustrations of the shidduch crisis. It is disheartening to see so many of my peers struggling to find a suitable match and to see the community at large struggling to address this issue. However, the idea of being promoted by an organization calling themselves “RedSeaSingles” is nothing short of horrifying. For those who may not be aware, the idea is that Pesach programs should host eligible young men free of charge on the condition that they are there to date.

To the mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, sisters, and brothers of Bnos Yisoel, It was reported that there were serious discussions recently among senior Roshei Yeshiva regarding the shidduch crisis and the indisputable fact that the age gap plays a major role in creating and perpetuating the crisis. Many options were on the table on how to deal with the problem, but no conclusion has yet been reached. I plead with each one of you to approach every Rosh Yeshiva you know and very respectfully explain to them what you are going through. Don’t be ashamed to tell them that your amazing daughter is in the parsha for a year, two, three or more and she has not gone out on even one date.

If anyone had any doubt about it, today confirmed what we already subconciously knew: Yair Lapid, like his father Tommy, yemach shemo, is a self-hating Jew who hates us all with sinas maves. Tommy regularly referred to religious Jews as “parasites,” “barbaric primitives,” “idle fanatics” and “enemies of progress.” On Thursday, Yair echoed his father’s vitriolic hate in condemning the government over its heavy-handed tactics to control often violent leftist protesters. “The violence against protesters this morning is growing. Government of Israel — the responsibility is on you,” he tweeted after at least one incident in which protesters were attacked with pepper spray.

We’ve all laughed, but what was once a harmless joke is just not funny any more. Today, with the explosion of social media, there’s really no such thing as a “private” joke. Nothing is private and a joke is no longer just innocent. Sadly, it’s not us but the times we live in. A cute or semi-insulting picture or WhatsApp post often finds its way onto social media and is immediately misconstrued as frum Jews as being racist, xenophobic, or worse. The unthinking actions of one individual cause many of us to shake our heads and hide in shame. We can & must do better. It’s no longer just a “Frum” thing. By now we really should understand that every action, big or small, has a potential reaction.