Latest news with #Yeshiva
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu's coalition threaten to vote for Bill calling for early elections
Ultra-Orthodox parties in prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition are threatening to vote with the opposition next week in favour of a Bill calling for early elections. Elections must be held by October 2026. According to polls, Mr Netanyahu's right-wing and religious coalition is set to lose its majority. The Bill to be voted on in a preliminary vote next week would likely mean the election would be brought forward to later this year or early next year. The 20-month Gaza war , the longest in Israel's history, has caused a serious rift in Mr Netanyahu's coalition. Many of the voters of the right-wing parties have already served hundreds of days of army reserve duty, causing a huge strain on families and businesses. READ MORE The ultra-Orthodox parties, in contrast, serve a constituency that, with a few exceptions, does not serve in the army. Calls for a more equitable sharing of the burden have been rebuffed by ultra-Orthodox leaders, who fear that military service will be the first step towards the adoption of a more secular lifestyle. The fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community, which already makes up about 14 per cent of Israel's population, is angry that the government has failed to pass legislation enshrining in law an exemption from military service for yeshiva religious seminary students. [ International aid ship en route to Gaza will be stopped, warns Israeli military Opens in new window ] Israel's high court ruled a year ago that the draft exemption for the ultra-Orthodox community is illegal as it discriminates against other Israelis, who serve three years in the army from the age of 18. However, the overwhelming majority of ultra-Orthodox Jews, known in Hebrew as Haredim, or God-fearing, have simply ignored their draft orders – so far with impunity. Mr Netanyahu promised the ultra-Orthodox parties months ago that legislation would be passed enabling the community to continue avoiding military service, but he failed to deliver on that promise, partly due to fierce opposition from his own political base. Legislation being drawn up by Yuli Edelstein, the head of the Knesset parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, and a member of Mr Netanyahu's Likud party, calls for sweeping economic sanctions against those who avoid the draft and would also prevent offenders from receiving a driving licence or travelling abroad. In an effort to exert pressure on Mr Netanyahu, the ultra-Orthodox parties have, for the last month, refused to support coalition private members' Bills, effectively paralysing the work of the Knesset. The prospect of early elections is highly problematic for Mr Netanyahu. 'It looks like the beginning of the end,' a source involved in one ultra-Orthodox party said. 'The question is just how much time this end will take.' However, ultra-Orthodox parties will have to take into account the fact that early elections could also send them into opposition.
ITV News
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
Hard-hitting new film sheds light on mental health in the Orthodox Jewish Community
A new film based in Manchester's Orthodox Jewish Community aims to highlight the m ental-health issues felt by many young people there as they struggle to deal with the pressure to conform and succeed. "Levi" tells the story of Levi, a Jewish youngster, who arrives home from studying at a Yeshiva, a religious school. Desperately unhappy, Levi is unable to communicate how he feels to his family. He would rather study to become an architect but feels he is letting his family down by wanting to take a different path. Unable to express his feelings, he considers taking his own life. The film is the brainchild of Manchester-based political podcaster Eli Hassell. He says the idea came after he'd spoken to many people in the Orthodox Jewish community who were struggling with their mental health. Eli said: "I want young people in the community who are going through mental problems to be able to watch this film and realise there is a way out. "I've seen a lot of it, a lot of younger people suffering with mental health and sometimes really bad cases, talking about suicide, it's tough seeing this." Eli says while the community is self supporting, somewhere where everyone knows everyone else, that can also mean people can be apprehensive about sharing their problems in case others find out. It means mental health issues can be internalised and get worse. And for young people like Levi in the film, who have a very particular path mapped out for then by their family, expressing how they feel can be very difficult. Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Goldman was a consultant on the film. Avrohom runs a 24-hour Jewish mental health helpline, based in Manchester. He says that within the Jewish community, like the world at large, there is a stigma around talking about mental-health. B He said: "It's so close the small Jewish community so whenever anyone struggles, they feel that this might be impact who I'm going to marry, might impact my siblings, my family. So much so that a father or a sibling or a mother might feel that their family might be better off without them." He thinks the film is 'phenomenal' and will hopefully help to reduce the stigma around mental health. It's hoped that the NHS will soon be using the film as a tool to get people talking when they work in the Jewish community.
Forbes
11-04-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
Yeshiva University And Lehman College Broke 141 Games Of Losing Streaks
On a blustery day earlier this week, on a baseball field at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, history was made. Truth be told, before a single pitch was thrown, fans and looky-loos alike knew that they were about to witness something monumental. They simply didn't know in which direction. You see, taking the field for that day's double-header was Lehman College, based in the Bronx, living through a 42-game losing streak. On the other side of the diamond was Yeshiva University, based in Washington Heights, which had lost 99 games in a row. Barring some act of G-d, one team was going to break their streak and go home happy; and one team's futility would continue for at least another game. It should be noted that these two New York-based teams played these games in New Jersey, at a neutral site, not because of its historic nature; not because 'everything is legal in Jersey'; and not to avoid a Manhattan / Bronx border skirmish. Rather, it was because neither school's field was in playing condition after storms swept through New York last weekend. Yeshiva was the first to convince Fairleigh Dickinson to host the games at to the Naimoli Family Baseball Complex on its turf field, so they became the home team. In the first game, played under clear skies and at roughly 39 degrees in front of approximately 250 fans, the teams went back and forth. Yeshiva scored two in the bottom of the first, surrendered one in the top of the second, and then scored three more in the bottom of the second. Lehman struck back with three in the top of the third, but then surrendered one more in the bottom of the fifth. Going to the seventh (which would have been the last inning as double headers limit each game to seven innings), Yeshiva held a two-run lead and needed just three outs to break their 99-game streak. Since both of these of these schools are Division-III, they do not offer scholarships. These kids are playing for the love of the game. Most were not heavily recruited. In the case of Yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish school, most of the students could not have played elsewhere, as college baseball is known for Friday nights and Saturday afternoons – said differently, during Shabbat – when they could not participate. As the game moved to the seventh, the players began to show what the pressure of two massive losing streaks can do to your psyche. The first Lehman batter of the seventh walked, and so did the second (after a pitching change). The third was hit by a pitch, which put the tying runs in scoring position and the lead run on base – all with no outs. After yet another pitching change, a double tied the game. Anyone in attendance at that moment could have sensed this game was over – Yeshiva had given up the lead, Lehman had two runners in scoring position and there were still no outs. But a comebacker to the mound, followed by a strikeout, and then a fly ball kept the game knotted at six. Yeshiva wasted a single in the bottom half of the seventh, and thus the game went to extra innings. In the top of the eighth, the first three Lehman hitters singled, loading the bases with no outs. [But, here too the stress shone through. Lehman's Argenis Sanchez dropped a bunt to move the runners up, but when the Yeshiva players converged to field the ball, no one covered first, allowing the batter to reach. It went down as a hit.] In the bottom half of the eighth, Yeshiva went strikeout, ground out, strikeout, giving Lehman their first win since their current head coach – Chris Delgado – was a player on the team in 2023. The loss pushed Yeshiva's record of futility into triple digits. Winning pitcher Justin Chamorro, a biology major who is going into a PA program after the season, threw a complete game, striking out a career-high thirteen. According to Michael Clair, who was in attendance for both games, Chamorro said the following after the game: And when asked about that winning feeling, Chamorro said it was 'a sense of relief, a sense of joy.' The second game of the double dip started about 20 minutes after the first. Maybe coming so close in time to an extra innings loss took all of Yeshiva's angst away; maybe actually hitting the century mark in consecutive defeats was a release valve; maybe having the sun beginning to set and the crowd thin to a reported 70 onlookers took the pressure off. Whatever it was, Yeshiva came out swinging, scoring thrice in the bottom of the first, and then four more times in the bottom of the third. When the Maccabees scored two insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth, they led 9-3, and looked well on their way to getting off their own schneid. A walk and a double in the top of the sixth made the score 9-4. And a wild pitch in the top of the seventh gave Lehman their final run. When Noah Steinmetz (whose older brother Jacob plays in the Arizona Diamondbacks' system as the only Orthodox Jewish player in the minor leagues, and whose father coaches Yeshiva's basketball team) struck out Sanchez, the streak was finally over. After fielding the errant strike three and tossing it to first to record the final out, catcher Jacob Canner hugged Steinmetz in front of home plate, and the team quietly celebrated their victory – as if it was old hat, and not something that hadn't happened since 2022. In some ways, the outcome on Tuesday afternoon was perfect. Both teams broke their streaks. Yeshiva ran theirs to a cool 100 before changing the tide. The Lightning Bug of Lehman gave their 26-year-old coach a boost of confidence as he continues to build his alma mater program, and the Maccabees of Yeshiva got to ride off into the desert of their Passover break on a winning note. When these two schools ventured to New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon, they were sporting a combined 141 consecutive losses. Dayenu!
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
College baseball teams with 42- and 99-game losing streaks met in a doubleheader. Everyone left a winner
The Yeshiva University Maccabees had lost 99 games in a row. The Lehman College Lightning were winless in their last 42. Tuesday, these epic college baseball losing streaks collided in a doubleheader. Both teams ended the day as winners. Before the first pitch of the afternoon opener, Lehman coach Chris Delgado and Yeshiva coach Jeremy Renna met at home plate. The pair's shared hardship made for 'a certain harmony,' Renna said. Advertisement 'We often talk about not being able to understand what another person goes through in life without walking a mile in another man's shoes, and he can understand where I am, and I can understand where he is,' Renna said. Yeshiva, a Modern Orthodox Jewish school in Manhattan, entered Tuesday with 99 consecutive losses dating to Feb. 27, 2022. Lehman, a public university in the Bronx, had lost 42 straight games since May 9, 2023. Neither Delgado nor Renna had notched a win in their collegiate coaching careers. In the first game, Yeshiva blew a two-run lead in the final inning, losing 7-6 and extending its skid to 100 games. It was the Lightning's first win since Delgado was on the team as a pitcher, a victory shortstop Ryan Rosa called 'something magical.' 'I'm happy that all this adversity and triumph is happening at this moment, when we're so young that we can bring this out into our future selves and learn what it's like to be down and out and digging ourselves out of our own hole,' Rosa said about the last two years. 'Baseball's just another form of life. You go through many adversities, and you just have to build yourself out of it.' In the nightcap, Yeshiva again built another large lead before Lehman stormed back. But for the first time in more than three years, the Maccabees held on to win 9-5, much to the thrill of a rowdy Yeshiva fan base. Yeshiva strands the runners and they head to the bottom of the 7th with a chance to walk it off and end the 99 game losing streak. Fans are going WILD — Michael Clair (@michaelsclair) April 8, 2025 Delgado and Renna said the hardships and near-misses of early-season disappointments set the stage for Tuesday's triumphs. Renna repeatedly called it a quirk of math that made the games so monumental. Had Yeshiva not blown back-to-back doubleheaders in extra innings against John Jay in early March (the second of which ended on a walk-off passed ball on a strike three), its streak would not have received national attention. Advertisement 'I could tell you it's math, but as a believer in higher authority,' Renna said, 'I believe the math led us here to do good things and show off our university and the things we like to do well. 'God works in funny ways.' Lehman's Game 1 starter, Justin Chamorro, tossed a complete game with a season-high 13 strikeouts for his first career win. And though a matchup between winless Division III teams might have seemed like a low-stakes outing, he knew the losing streaks piqued interest around the college baseball world. 'My goal always when I pitch is to finish a game, no matter what, to give my team an opportunity to win,' Chamorro said Wednesday. 'That I did that yesterday, on a big stage with a lot on the line for both teams, I feel very happy. I feel very, very happy with how everything came to be. I wouldn't have it any other way. It has to be a top two (moment) in my college career.' In an email, Delgado said that although Tuesday's win was nice, the Lightning program is going through a rebuild and its main goal is to lay the foundation for years to come. The Maccabees, meanwhile, will get to enjoy their winning streak for more than two weeks, as the program is off until April 25 because of the Passover break. 'We have people pulling for each other not just as teammates but as brothers, and when you finally crest the mountain and finally get there, it's a lot of love and hugs and thank-yous and I-love-yous,' Renna said. 'The mountaintop for some guys in sports is the championship,' he added. 'For us, the mountain we've been climbing on is to win a baseball game, which is as elementary as it gets.' (Photo courtesy of Lehman College)
Fox News
09-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Oldest Jewish university in US 'rebounds' after October 7 tragedy with resilient men's basketball team
The Yeshiva University men's basketball team has accomplished many feats in the NCAA's Division III, including a 50-game winning streak. But coming back strong after the tragic October 7 attacks in Israel may arguably be their biggest yet. "Rebound: A Year of Triumph and Tragedy at Yeshiva University Basketball" — a new documentary streaming exclusively on Fox Nation — chronicles the journey of the 2023-2024 Yeshiva University Maccabees men's basketball team, and how they responded to the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel that claimed over 1,000 lives. In September 2023, the Maccabees were preparing for yet another run for glory in the NCAA Division III tournament. However, when tragedy struck at the hands of terrorist group Hamas, the team faced unimaginable York City's Yeshiva, the oldest Jewish university in the United States, had six Israeli players on the men's basketball roster. Forced to decide whether to cancel the season or play for their community after being stricken by horrors, the Maccabees chose to keep their season alive — their in-season visit to Israel following the attacks on their home country propelling them to keep playing the game. JEWISH STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS EXPERIENCE 'JEW HATRED' AT PROTESTS: 'F--- YOU, ZION NAZI B----'Head coach Elliot Steinmetz and leading scorer Zevi Samet are featured in Fox Nation's behind-the-scenes look at how the team overcame difficult obstacles as they aimed to maintain the program's success in the wind of immense grief. Steinmetz and Emmy award-winning director Pat Dimon joined "Fox & Friends," Wednesday, to discuss the new show and reflect on the Maccabees' 2023-2024 season. "It was definitely a challenge coming back from Israel and meeting with the guys," Steinmetz said, discussing the complex decision to continue the season. "Ultimately, our guys were all on board. We decided that we obviously wanted to have a season, but we wanted it to have more meaning." "Normally, I'm dealing with athletes and storylines, not of this kind of sensitivity and this kind of intensity really," director Dimon explained. "So yeah, I really had to take a different approach here." "I thank Elliot and the team and the university for trusting me. And I think I come at it from kind of a human perspective, and a storytelling perspective," he added. "But yeah, I mean, it was really a sensitive subject that we had to approach carefully." To learn more about the Yeshiva University Macabees men's basketball team and how they navigated the aftermath of the fateful Hamas attacks, subscribe to Fox Nation. Fox Nation programs are viewable on-demand and from your mobile device app, but only for Fox Nation subscribers. Go to Fox Nation to start a free trial and watch the extensive library from your favorite Fox Nation personalities.
