The Kiryas Joel School District ripped into reporting from the New York Times on Monday, in which the outlet wrote up a hit piece spinning the town’s school officials as being corrupt and improperly funneling taxpayer money to their preferred schools. Interestingly, the story was published by the Times on Monday. The day prior, community activist Rabbi Yisroel Kahan predicted it. “It’s been a while since @NYTimes last hit piece targeting the #Orthodox community. What are the odds that they drop another one tomorrow, given that it’s a legal holiday???” he wrote on Twitter. Moshe Gluck replied, saying, “Very good odds…” to which Agudath Israel’s Chaskel Bennett wrote, “Take the bet. It’s pretty much a guaranteed hit piece.” Apparently, the odds were indeed high.

Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis and exiled Chief Rabbi of Moscow, has responded to a chilling message in a Russian Telegram group called, “Disclosed”. The group has almost 23,000 subscribers. The message called, among other things, for consideration of the proscription of Chabad as an “undesirable” organization in Russia and the banning of its activities across the Russian Federation. It also called for an investigation into the Tanya, Chabad’s foundation text, “for signs of extremism: propaganda of the exclusivity and superiority of Jews over other peoples, the inferiority of non-Jews, racism, Nazism and misanthropy, consider recognizing it as extremist material and banning it on the territory of Russia”.

An earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude along the Syrian-Turkish border on Monday night caused tremors to be felt in various communities across Israel, including Bnei Brak, where initial reports indicated some minor damage to buildings. The Geological Institute confirmed that an earthquake was felt in Israel at around 7 p.m. on Monday. The disaster response agency of Turkey, AFAD, has reported that the earthquake occurred in the southern province of Hatay, which was also the hardest hit by a tremor on February 6, resulting in over 41,000 fatalities. It isn’t yet clear how much additional damage the new earthquake caused, though several unconfirmed reports state that several buildings have collapsed. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Mass protests were held on Monday against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plans to enact judicial reforms, with thousands of protesters making their way to Jerusalem and demonstrating outside the Knesset, where preliminary votes on two of the judicial reform laws will be held at about 10 p.m. Beginning early in the morning at about 6 a.m., groups of protesters tried to block some coalition members from leaving their homes to travel to the Knesset, including the chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Simcha Rothman, Education Minister Yoav Kisch and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter. A group of protesters also sat outside the apartment of Likud MK Tali Gottlieb.

President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit Monday to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a gesture of solidarity that comes days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country. Biden delivered remarks and met with Zelensky at Mariinsky Palace to announce an additional half-billion dollars in U.S. assistance and to reassure Ukraine of American and allied support as the conflict continues. The U.S. leader recalled the fears nearly a year ago that Russia’s invasion forces might quickly take the Ukrainian capital. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden said, jamming his finger for emphasis on his stand decorated with the U.S. and Ukrainian flags. “Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.

YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Harav Shmuel Shmelke Leifer zt”l of Boro Park. Throughout his life, Rav Shmuel was a sought-after speaker, whose sagely advice was absorbed by thousands of people. He was particularly vocal about his opposition to yeshivos turning bochurim away, which he strongly believed them astray. He was also the rav hamachshir on many kosher eateries in Boro Park for several decades. The levayah is scheduled to take place Monday morning at his Beis Medrash at 16th Avenue & 55th in Boro Park. Baruch Dayan Ha’Emes. PHOTOS VIA HESHY RUBENSTEIN (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Yeshiva Torah Temimah, a bastion of Torah in Flatbush for decades, has sold one of their buildings to Satmar. The purchase of the building was revealed at a Motzei Shabbos dinner benefiting the Mosdos of Satmar in Boro Park under the leadership of the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg, HaRav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum. The building being purchased by the chassidus is located on the corner of Ocean Parkway and Ditmas Avenue, and housed Torah Temimah’s Mesivta and Bais Medrash for decades. YWN notes that the building being sold has already been occupied by Satmar Yeshiva for the past few years. Yeshiva Torah Temimah was founded and built by the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Lipa Margolis, in 1958. The yeshiva grew to prominence between 1980 and 2000. He was Niftar in January 2022.

A chosson was found murdered in his vehicle in North Miami Beach on Sunday, in what investigators currently believe was a strongarm robbery that turned violent. Hershy Schwartz z”l was a 39-year-old resident of North Miami Beach, and was set to get married in Lakewood next Wednesday. He was found in his vehicle on Sunday morning after being shot and killed sometime overnight in a parking lot located at the corner of 1st Avenue and 167th Street in North Miami. A longtime active member of Chesed Shel Emes, Hershy z”l was a ben bayis for many years the home of Rabbi Marc Rosenberg, the head of Chesed Shel Emes of Florida. The son of R’ Nuchem Schwartz of Monsey, the family of Hershy z”l are Nickolsburger chassidim. Levaya details will be published when they become available to YWN.

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said last week that the Biden administration is telling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to slow down his government’s planned changes to Israel’s judicial system. Speaking on CNN’s The Axe Files podcast, Nides said: ” That’s what we’re doing now, we’re telling the prime minister, as I tell my kids, pump the brakes, slow down, try to get a consensus, bring the parties together. It’s very complicated, they’re trying to do things way too fast and pump the brakes.

Hundreds of people gathered on Motzei Shabbos at the Ohel Yosef shul in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem for an atzeret chizzuk and tefillah following the end of the shiva for the kedoshim of the Ramot terror attack.