News

I must begin by mentioning Rabbi Moshe Hauer z”l. Rabbi Hauer, National Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union (OU) for the last five years, died suddenly in his home on Sh’mini Atzeres night. His loss is incalculable. Although I had frequent disagreements with Rabbi Hauer over policy issues, he nevertheless was a first-class gentleman.

The election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City is total insanity. Electing a Muslim whose only regret about 9/11 is that his supposed aunt was uncomfortable wearing a hijab on the subway following the destruction of the World Trade Center by extremist Muslims says goodbye to the “We will never forget” slogan adopted by New Yorkers. We have forgotten.

There is the Satmar of unsurpassed chesed. No one parallels Satmar when it comes to charitable causes. Whether it is lending a helping hand to the less fortunate, or it is bikur cholim – visiting and providing for the sick – no organization surpasses Satmar. Satmar has also created two wonderful communities in Williamsburg and Monroe. They are communities rich in services and charity. They also have batei midrash – study halls – in which there is a constant presence of men sitting and learning Torah.

For supporters of Israel, this was long overdue. The BBC was caught red-handed doctoring the news. In this case, it was the editing of Donald Trump’s remarks at the gathering in front of the Capitol at the famed January 6, 2020, event. At the event, Trump did say we will have to “fight like hell” to assure our democracy by making sure that only certified electoral colleges were accepted to approve the election results against Joe Biden.

Last week, Kevin Roberts, the President of the Heritage Foundation, a prestigious conservative think tank, issued a video in which he made it very clear that they will stick by their association with Tucker Carlson, despite his anti-Israel and anti-Semitic stances. Worse, Carlson invited as a guest the virulently anti-Semitic Nick Fuentes.

Sometimes you wonder what Hashem makes of all this.