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Orthodox influencer ‘Flatbush Girl’ seeks arrest of man who flashed her Instagram session
(New York Jewish Week) — A Brooklyn-based Orthodox activist wants her community to be the last one targeted by a possible serial flasher who crashed an online chat she was leading last week.
Adina Miles-Sash, who is known to her 61,000 followers as Flatbush Girl, also says her community’s reaction to the flashing incident underscores the changes needed if women are to feel respected and secure.
In the past, Miles-Sash has battled for women’s representation in Orthodox media, where their faces are frequently blurred or omitted; advocated for Orthodox victims of sexual assault, and joined an Orthodox women’s ambulance corps that fought for its right to operate. So after a man exposed himself to more than 3,000 viewers on an Instagram chat she was hosting with Shifra, a support group for Jewish women with unplanned pregnancies, she knew just how to spring into action.
She gathered information about other online sessions that had been infiltrated by a flasher in an apparently identical space and pose — even finding one featuring “Bachelor” contestant Chelsea Vaughn. She contacted both the NYPD and FBI, concerned that the presence of minors among the viewers elevated the disturbance into a more significant crime.
She even floated hiring a forensic analyst to try to piece together other clues from the limited view captured on tape — though she moved away from the idea after posting that it would require a $15,000 retainer just to subpoena Instagram to find the flasher’s IP address and when the majority of her followers said they would not donate to cover the costs.
On Tuesday night, she revealed a breakthrough: screenshots from a third event interrupted by what appeared to be the same man. This time, the host was Daryl-Ann Denner, a Christian influencer in Southern California with 1.3 million Instagram followers.
“I’m assembling soooo much evidence you have no idea,” Miles-Sash told someone who messaged her with praise about her detective work, according to a screenshot she shared.
For Miles-Sash, the incident and its aftermath suggest both the strength and the challenges of the tight-knit online Orthodox community.
“I just really hope we can crack this case as a COMMUNITY cause he has done this to NUMEROUS other groups but he messed with the wrong crowd!!!” she messaged the fan.
But she also has been vocal about how the reaction to the initial interruption from some quarters of Orthodox social media had disappointed her. A handful of commenters blamed her for the interruption, citing what they said were her transgressions of mainstream Orthodox norms, and some even suggested that she had fabricated the incident to draw attention to her favored issues.
“Sorry, but u had this coming,” said one message that Miles-Sash shared with her followers. (Miles-Sash did not post the names of the accounts that sent the messages she shared.) “U knew eventually things like this would pop up. Esp the fact that you talk about sex and bisexuals on ur platform.”
“You definitely set that up on purpose to try and make men look bad,” read another direct message that Miles-Sash received, sent from an account whose profile picture showed a man praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. “We’ll expose you for exposing the young and innocent to such horrible acts.”
Miles-Sash and her allies also said they expected more denunciation of the incident from rabbinic figures and other Orthodox leaders.
“Here’s a presumably Orthodox guy who’s literally naked and swinging himself in front of a camera,” said Shoshana Keats-Jaskoll, an American-Israeli activist on Orthodox women’s issues. “And instead of the Orthodox world screaming that is not OK, they’re actually accusing Adina of having set the whole thing up.”
Miles-Sash reserved particular scorn for Laibel Weiner, the host of the Orthodox comedy podcast MisLaibeled, who joked about the size of the man’s “shlong” on his Instagram page the day after the event. Many comments on that post condemned Weiner’s comments, including YeahThat’sKosher, a popular food blog in the Orthodox community.
“There is nothing humorous about this,” the comment said. “Get your priorities in check.”
Weiner said later in the week that he continued to find the whole situation humorous — but that he also valued Miles-Sash’s advocacy.
“There are times in life where jokes surrounding bad things that occur can be funny. I think this is one of those situations,” Weiner said. “That’s my personal opinion. I appreciate that Flatbush Girl has been able to use her platform to bring attention and awareness to important issues in our community. It doesn’t matter what her opinion is on a particular matter, I am glad she has the opportunity to share what she feels is right.”
Many of Miles-Sash’s followers expressed support all along, and particularly after she criticized the response from within Orthodoxy, some produced videos denouncing attacks on women, which she shared.
“Please know that you are in the eyes of so many women a true warrior,” wrote Melissa Chapman, an Instagram influencer with over 100,000 followers. Using a Hebrew name for God, she added, “May Hashem continue to give you the strength and fortitude to continue doing the life changing work you are so committed to doing.”
Whether the flasher targeted an Orthodox women’s event in particular and whether the flasher has any connection to the community is unclear. He used the name of a friend of Miles-Sash to enter the Instagram chat — but he had done the same thing in previous interruptions, she said. Nothing in the limited view of the man’s room indicated a Jewish identity.
To some, the incident was a reminder of lessons learned during the pandemic’s pivot to online events: Be wary of Zoombombing, as it takes only a single bad actor to derail thousands of people’s experience.
“I tried to kick him off the screen as fast as I could, but even within that full five or six seconds, a lot of damage was done,” Miles-Sash said.
Others are left reflecting on the potential of the Instagram pulpit, which Orthodox women have wielded to fight racism and antisemitism, share medical information and build businesses.
“These women have more followers than any rebbe,” Keats-Jaskoll said. “If Jewish leadership was smart, they would harness the power, passion and potential of Jewish women to improve the community.”
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The post Orthodox influencer ‘Flatbush Girl’ seeks arrest of man who flashed her Instagram session appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.