Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to undermine NATO for nearly two decades. Now, as President Trump pushes to control Greenland, Moscow is cheering from the sidelines.
BS"D
Urgent: re S8835/ A9515:An Open Letter to NY State Legislators
January 21, '26/ 3 Shvat 5786/ Parshas BoDear Legislator,
We hereby express our deepest objections to looming Assisted Suicide legislation, A9515 /S8835, "Chapter Amendments" demanded by Gov. Hochul* to enable her to sign the Assisted Suicide bill for which the NY Legislature voted last year (S138/A136).
These objections are shared throughout all of our communities. See, for example, the broad based Rabbinic Statement posted here: https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2025/05/psak- halacha.html, and the OU statement:
We also know that together we can do better than that for the terminally ill than this - with advanced pain-control and appropriate emotional person-to-person support.The Torah Perspective on Suicide:In addressing the parameters of murder, Judaism unequivocally forbids suicide. The prohibition against suicide is one that extends to all Mankind. When G-d commanded Noach - to relay to all Mankind - the prohibition of murder (Genesis 9:5), He started by saying:"... [For] Your [spilt] blood - {the taking of} your lives - I will demand justice ..."Our Sages (in Midrash Rabbah (Beraishis Rabbah)) on that verse, as quoted by Rash"i, received a Divine Tradition elucidating this verse as referring to the prohibition of suicide.The severity of the prohibition of murder is such that even to kill a person on death's doorstep in order to save a young, healthy person with many healthy years ahead of them is unquestionably prohibited as murder, akin to any other form of murder.Judaism deems murder so repugnant that even those loosely associated with it earn the stigma articulated by the Targum Yonoson Ben Uziel (in the elucidated Aramaic translation, dating back millennia), on The Ten Commandments, elucidates the verse "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13), as follows:"My Nation, the Children of Yisrael: You shall not be murderers, nor shall you be friendly acquaintances or partners with murderers, nor shall there appear amongst you those who are associated with murderers - in order that your children not follow your example and learn to associate with murderers, ..."*{* loose translation}From Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah (Code of Law), in The Laws of the Murderer and Preservation of Life, 1:15-16, we learn that if someone is capable of saving someone's else life and fails to do so, then the Torah deems it as if he actively "destroyed the entire world." (See Avos D'Rebbi Nosson 31:2.)Consequently, if we fail to do everything within our power to stop this Assisted Suicide legislation - then it is we who would earn the dishonor of being deemed destroyers of the entire world.
As bad as murder is, institutionalizing any form of murder is infinitely worse.Additionally, our objections are not limited to our opposition to murder in principle. This legislation poses many real and present dangers to us, practically speaking. The most vulnerable members of our communities, along with members of the general community - such as the mentally ill and the severely depressed - stand at gravest risk of victimization and exploitation under this legislation.For example, the mentally ill are not protected before (due to the bill's weak definition of "capable") - and certainly not after (there is no provision to remove the poison from a person with dementia) - the lethal prescription is filled.• This bill allows the doctor to suggest poison to a patient in distress. That enables the doctor to take advantage of a vulnerable patient who was just informed that they are going to die. The doctor would have the legal right to offer the forlorn patient an option of suicide. In that bleak circumstance, that's akin to directing - if not even coercing - the patient into taking the poison.
• There is much potential for fraud and abuse that is hardwired into this legislation explicitly, and far more so by omission of obviously necessary safeguards. For example, it doesn't even require checking the signatures for forgeries• The bill forces both religious and conscientious objectors to collaborate in the killing process, by requiring them to forward medical records, thereby enabling the murder. A Jewish doctor had sued NJ over just such a provision - and lost. (See "Addendum: How Assisted Suicide In Fact Constitutes an Antireligious Edict," below.)• This legislation also raises alarms of degrading care, particularly by medical staff, and insurance companies. As medical standards degrade, so will the medical care that the insurance covers.• This bill redefines defines the word "Medication" - from something that is per se beneficial - to include poison. This mutation will fundamentally alter the way medicine is practiced, endangering many in the long-term.• A doctor who multitasks in both healing and killing will never be the same doctor who will go to all lengths to save. We insist on our autonomy - the right to have a doctor who only heals. Under this legislation, will be unable to identify and choose doctors who never collaborate in killing.• Legislation like this discourages religious people from entering the medical profession.• It also proliferates distrust of medical professionals within our communities, distrust which has recently hit alarming, all time highs - both in our communities, and in the state at large.• The Torah exhorts us that one sin leads to another. We observe this playing out in actual practice. In all other locations in which assisted suicide has passed, protections and other conditions always get changed - for the worse. This could occur by a court deciding that certain safeguards are undue burdens (a hazard that this bill's Severability Clause enables). It could also occur via future legislation weakening protections.In reality, such legislative degradation is guaranteed - since proponents of this bill are unhappy with this compromise. Many controversial laws pass with certain conditions to appease some of the less intense opposition. However, generally, those conditions are subsequently voted away with little to no news coverage.We beseech you, please do not partake in the wanton self-destruction of Civilization - please vote against all forms of Assisted-Suicide and/or Euthanasia. We cannot vote for those who advance this evil.Our Sages observe:"Some acquire their share in the World-To-Come in a single moment ..."
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
845.642.1679
Direct: 771.215.8892
Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337
Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]:
Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2
Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
PS: Addendum: How Assisted Suicide Legislation Constitutes an Antireligious Edict
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Governor Hochul’s Amendments make this lethal legislation more passable by making it ostensibly "safer." Those Amendments just passed the Senate Rules Committee last week (January 12) - making it possible for the full Senate to vote on the bill, S8835, any day now.
The Amendment bill in the Assembly, A9195, has been sitting in the Assembly Health Committee, and is not scheduled for a vote this week. However, it is possible that could change. If it doesn’t change, it is likely that they will vote on it in the Assembly Health Committee - and in the full Assembly - next week, Parshas BeShalach.
The Governor pledged that IF S8835 and A9515 pass, she will sign Assisted-Suicide into Law. IF either S8835 or A9515 do not pass, it's extremely unlikely that she will sign it into Law.
Thus, THE only realistic way to stop Assisted Suicide now is to stop A9515 and S8835 from passing.
It's crucial to realize that even with Governor Hochul’s proposed changes in A9515 and S8835, this legislation would not only “legitimize” assisted suicide - as terrible as that is from the Torah perspective - it would also enable the outright homicide of vulnerabl
The legislators supporting this need to realize that this legislation undermines personal autonomy in the very name of advancing it.
This is due to the remaining loopholes, and due to the absence of a non-severability clause - which would disable the entire bill if any part is declared void -
בטלה מקצתה בטלה כולה.
In a bill without a non-severability clause, even meaningful protections are ultimately worthless, because they can be easily eliminated over time by an activist court - leaving the bill's killing machinery operating at full speed, without those protections.
Thus, these protections in the Amendments ultimately serve to "Aid in Killing," by enabling initial passage of Assisted Suicide. They do not at all protect the vulnerable - in the long term - because the protections/amendments will likely be removed from the bill, over time. This is being done in other places that have passed such bills, due to the absence of a non-severability clause, as explained above, or by subsequent legislation, with little fanfare.
Accordingly, "the Road to Assisted-Suicide is Paved with Amendment Protections."
Reject the Medical Aid in Dying Act (S138/A136)
To the Honorable Members of the New York State Senate:
Our organization, Ematai (www.ematai.org), is a New York-based non-profit organization that helps Jews navigate their healthcare journeys with Jewish wisdom. We assist members of the Jewish community in dealing with the difficult emotional and ethical dilemmas of aging, end-of-life care, and organ donation. We also guide Jewish healthcare professionals in addressing ethical qualms regarding their holy profession. The potential legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is of grave concern to the Jewish community. We urge you to vote against the Medical Aid in Dying Act (S138). One of the basic principles of our worldview is that the fundamental goal of medicine is to heal. We all have an obligation to care, in a wide variety of ways, for the ill and those in need. Doctors have a unique responsibility to heal, i.e., to use their skills toward curing their patients to the greatest extent possible. As the Bible teaches, “And you shall surely heal” (Exodus 21:12). Physician-assisted suicide is a distortion of this great calling. It will undermine the unique role of a physician as healer, whose primary responsibility must remain to "Do No Harm." Healthcare professionals did not enter this great field
for the sake of actively helping people die. We cannot sully this great profession. Another great concern is that PAS will be used by the most vulnerable people in society. The National Council on Disability published a study that detailed the dangers of assisted suicide laws to people with disabilities. It found that "safeguards" in these laws are, “ineffective and often fail to protect patients.” On many occasions, they are simply being dismissed as “barriers” to the (cheaper) alternative of helping someone end their life. This is a well-founded fear that should be heeded by conservatives and liberals alike. The introduction of PAS, moreover, can undermine patient trust that their
physician always has their best interest in mind. We cannot allow for the breakdown of this sensitive and crucial relationship. Another area of concern is that the legalization of PAS will trample on the liberties of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and physicians of all faiths or no faith who are conscientiously against helping someone kill themselves. Doctors who entered this holy profession for the sake of healing cannot be asked to participate, even indirectly, in someone committing suicide. Finally, the introduction of PAS may become an unacceptable “quick-fix” to offering true palliative care measures toward suffering patients. Physicians have made great strides in palliative care and pain control, and only rarely do patients request assisted suicide for intractable pain. In fact, pain does not even make it into the top five reasons that patients seek out assisted suicide. According to data from Oregon, the state where assisted suicide has been legal the longest, the top five reasons include: being less able to engage in enjoyable activities, loss of autonomy, loss of dignity, being a burden on family/friends, and losing control of bodily functions. These are serious existential concerns that must be addressed - but with multidisciplinary care, not assisted suicide. We should not be terminating life because of these issues. Instead, we must increase the full range of medical and social services, in partnership with faith-based initiatives and other local communal resources. Let us refuse this technical fix and rise to the occasion by acting humanely in the presence of finitude. The dying need our presence and our encouragement. In the face of death, the treatment of choice is and always will be company and care.
Respectfully,
Rabbi Shlomo Brody, PhD Rabbi Aaron Glatt, MD
Executive Director Chair, Department of Medicine
Ematai Mt Sinai South Nassau Hospital
brody@ematai.org Ematai Rabbinic Advisory Board
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/421194
A haredi youth has died after being struck by a bus at the entrance to Komemiyut this afternoon (Tuesday) while returning from a protest against a plan to perform autopsies on infants who died at a daycare center, Zaka reported.
An initial investigation indicates that the boy was walking with his friends on the side of the road as they returned from the protest, and for a reason that has not yet been determined, the bus hit him.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-883961
The High Court of Justice has blocked the plan perform autopsies on the two infants who died in Monday's Jerusalem daycare disaster, ZAKA rescue and recovery said in a Tuesday post to X/Twitter.
"Attorney Dror Shoshayim, Chair of ZAKA's Legal Department, represented the families of the toddlers, and after hearing the arguments, it was determined that no post-mortem autopsy will be performed, while emphasizing the need to preserve the dignity of the deceased," ZAKA's post read.
The director of Hadassah-University Medical Center, Professor Yaniv Sherer, where many of the injured children were taken to for treatment and observation, told Maariv that the injuries and deaths probably resulted from "some kind of poisoning, with or without a combination of crowding, fever, or dehydration."
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox extremists clashed with police in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh on Monday night as they protested authorities’ plans to perform autopsies on the bodies of two babies who died in an overcrowded, unlicensed daycare center in the capital.
Police and the State Prosecutor’s Office are pushing for the autopsies in order to uncover the exact cause of death for 4-month-old Leah Goloventzitz and 6-month-old Aharon Katz, whose bodies were found on Monday morning, along with 53 other babies and toddlers with varying degrees of injuries at the Haredi daycare center.
BS"D
January 19, '26/ Parshas Bo El Pharaoh
Looming In NY, Any Day: NY State Legislature To Vote on DOCTORS LEGALLY Helping Kill Their Patients
Dear Editor,
Everyone in the esteemed NY tzibbur over 17 is beseeched to please call their own state senator and assembly member NOW, to demand that they vote AGAINST bills A9515 and S8835. Those are Gov. Hochul's "Chapter Amendments" to the Assisted Suicide bill (voted on in June). Their passage would enable passage of Assisted Suicide and Stealth-Euthanasia in NY.
Prominent Rabbonim have urged us to do all we can to stop this murderous legislation from passing. Tell your reps that we cannot vote for anyone who in any manner advances the institutionalization of murder.
Call now: NY State Senate: (518) 455-2800 and NY State Assembly: (518) 455-4100, open Mon - Fri. 9-5.
Even if you don’t know their names, they'll direct you. Urge every Republican rep to ensure that their leadership "enforce Party Discipline" - to ensure every Republican votes NO.
•• Important clarification for those misled by reports to the contrary: Despite mistaken news reports [confusing Governor Hochul’s “pledge” to sign Assisted Suicide after Chapter Amendments S8835 and A9195 pass, with her actually signing it into law] - Assisted Suicide has NOT become law yet.*
(* In order for the original Assisted Suicide Bill to become law, it must be signed within 30 days of delivery to the Governor, which occurred on Dec. 31, 2025.)
Governor Hochul’s Amendments make this lethal legislation more passable by making it ostensibly "safer." Those Amendments just passed the Senate Rules Committee last week - making it possible for the full Senate to vote on the bill, S8835, any day now.
The Amendment bill in the Assembly, A9195, has been sitting in the Assembly Health Committee, and is not scheduled for a vote this week. However, it is possible that could change. If it doesn’t change, it is likely that they will vote on it in the Assembly Health Committee - and in the full Assembly - next week, Parshas BeShalach.
The Governor pledged that IF S8835 and A9515 pass, she will sign Assisted-Suicide into Law. IF either S8835 or A9515 do not pass, it's extremely unlikely that she will sign it into Law.
Thus, THE only realistic way to stop Assisted Suicide now is to stop A9515 and S8835 from passing.
It's crucial to realize that even with Governor Hochul’s proposed changes in A9515 and S8835, this legislation would not only “legitimize” assisted suicide - as terrible as that is from the Torah perspective - it would also enable the outright homicide of vulnerable individuals who do not wish to die.
The legislators supporting this need to realize that we see through the "Autonomy" mantra. This legislation undermines personal autonomy in the very name of advancing it.
This is due to the remaining loopholes, and due to the absence of a non-severability clause - which would disable the entire bill if any part is declared void -
בטלה מקצתה בטלה כולה.
In a bill without a non-severability clause, even meaningful protections are ultimately worthless, because they can be easily eliminated over time by an activist court - leaving the bill's killing machinery operating at full speed, without those protections.
Thus, these protections in the Amendments ultimately serve to "Aid in Killing," by enabling initial passage of Assisted Suicide. They do not at all protect the vulnerable - in the long term - because the protections/amendments will likely be removed from the bill, over time. This is being done in other places that have passed such bills, due to the absence of a non-severability clause, as explained above, or by subsequent legislation, with little fanfare.
Accordingly, "the Road to Assisted-Suicide is Paved with Amendment Protections."
To for a copy of the broad-based Rabbinic statement urging everyone to do what they can to stop such legislation, please email TorahJewsForDecency@gmail.com.
Also realize that even if it passes R"L, the more controversial we make Assisted Suicide/ Stealth Euthanasia, the harder it will be to implement, in the face of an uncooperative community.
May we merit the Ultimate Redemption in the merit of countering its' impediments.
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
845-642-1679
Monsey, NY
Two infants died and 53 babies and toddlers were injured to varying degrees in an incident at an unlicensed Jerusalem daycare on Monday, prompting the arrest of three of the caregivers working there.
“We heard children screaming, we went in and checked and what did we find? That there were children in closets, in strollers, everywhere, hidden on top of one another with blankets,” he said.
Other medics and paramedics recounted similar information, telling news outlets that at least one child was found sleeping in a bathroom, close to the toilet.
The National Council for the Child, in a statement issued as the incident unfolded, demanded an immediate investigation by the Israel Police and Education Ministry into “not only the serious negligence, but the issue of the daycare’s operating license, as well.”
|
9:37 PM (1 hour ago)
|  | ||
| ||||
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/19/ice-immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-protests/
Donald Trump likes visual proof of his influence and legacy. In the business world, this meant putting his name on the towers he built (or selling his name to adorn some he didn’t) and making cameo appearances in movies filmed on his properties. In government, it has also meant putting his name on things, like the Kennedy Center and the TrumpRx website, which is supposed to connect patients to cheaper drug options.
According to a YouGov/Economist poll of U.S. adults, almost 70 percent of respondents say they have seen a video of Good’s shooting. In a poll conducted that day, a majority of Americans already thought ICE’s tactics were “too forceful.” Since the shooting, they say ICE is making the country less safe — 47 percent, compared with 34 percent saying more safe — and that they would support “abolishing ICE” altogether, 46 percent to 43 percent. This marks a fast and notable change: Last summer, just 27 percent of respondents supported abolishing the agency.
This is not a government strategy so much as it is a spectacle — one that has little to do with the president’s promise to deport violent criminals. The performance starts at the recruitment stage. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out” reads the current ICE sign-up page. “CHOOSE YOUR MISSION.” Deportation operations are being treated like a video game — one that comes with a signing bonus of up to $50,000, significantly scaled-back training and the federal government’s full backing.
Many Americans see something different. They see masked agents, armed to the hilt, demanding passersby provide proof of citizenship. That ICE agents are not supposed to target U.S. citizens no longer seems to matter. Agents appear emboldened, so much so that they are going door to door, car to car, abandoning both their remit and the law as they demand papers, please.
The closing of the southern border to illegal immigrants has been Trump’s great victory in the eyes of voters since he returned to office. Yet the more he shows off his deportation strategy, the more the public becomes wary. The president has succeeded in drawing national attention to what his federal forces are doing, and millions of Americans are horrified by what they see.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/19/europe/trump-norway-nobel-prize-snub-intl
US President Donald Trump told Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that he no longer feels bound “to think purely of Peace” because the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not award him the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/our-impossibly-small-souled-president/
This week the president of the United States finally achieved a lifelong dream, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. No, not from the Nobel Committee — they will never give anything to Donald Trump. Instead, Trump did what he is naturally best at: He extorted it from its rightful owner, and then posed with it as a trophy.
Once again, there is nothing to be done about it except lament the unspeakably small-souled trashiness of our president, a man who needs to be bribed and publicly flattered to maybe do the right thing. Spare me your defense of “She gave it to him! She even said he earned it!” Nobody is fooled by the pretense. Donald Trump took office in 2025; Machado has devoted her entire adult life to opposition to Chávez and Maduro, and her party won an overwhelming election long before he retook power. Trump earned this prize in the same way that he earned the addition of his name to the Kennedy Center: by being vain enough to demand it beyond all reason.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-883730?dicbo=v2-6BjTYbi
Several ministers in Israel’s small security cabinet blamed Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, for the composition of the Executive Board for the Board of Peace, which includes Turkish and Qatari representation that Israel firmly opposes.
According to remarks made during a closed discussion on Sunday, participants alleged that Kushner was “taking revenge” on Israel for its refusal to reopen the Rafah Crossing, and that his ties in the region were shaping the plan’s structure.
Ministers said Kushner “derailed” Israel’s 2020 sovereignty declaration and continues to pose obstacles because of close political and economic links with Arab leaders.
Israeli officials stressed they work routinely and effectively with the American administration. In a past cabinet session, one participant claimed Kushner has “fantasies about world peace” that do not always align with Israeli interests.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-883825
Two toddlers are in critical condition, and some 55 sustained injuries in an incident possibly involving carbon monoxide at a kindergarten in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood on Monday, Magen David Adom confirmed.
The number of children treated was not immediately released, and the cause of the incident remains under investigation.
The Education Ministry told Maariv that an initial assessment indicates the scene is a private daycare for toddlers operating inside a private apartment in the haredi Romema neighborhood.
