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Yeshiva education reform activist launching independent haredi news organization
(JTA) — Naftuli Moster, the founder and former executive director of Yaffed, the advocacy group focused on improving secular education in haredi Orthodox Jewish schools, is launching a news organization focused on what he sees as a news desert in the haredi world.
With a board that includes seasoned Jewish journalists, Shtetl: Haredi Free Press will launch online in 2023, and Moster said he is exploring a print option as well. Shtetl’s online announcement said it had seed funding for two years; Moster declined to comment on who the funders are but emphasized that the media organization would produce independent journalism.
“Every community needs a free press,” Moster told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Members of this community, my community, deserve a free media as well. Shtetl’s existence is an exciting development in the Jewish and media spaces, and we are looking forward to making a big splash in early 2023.”
Moster, who grew up in a haredi Orthodox family in Borough Park, Brooklyn, stepped down from his position at Yaffed in September after a decade as its founder and leader. During that time, Yaffed got the attention of city and state education officials as the group filed multiple lawsuits meant to increase access to secular education in haredi yeshivas. In turn, he drew the ire of haredi Orthodox leaders, who resented an ostensible insider inviting scrutiny of their educational institutions.
The haredi communities of Brooklyn and New York’s exurban Rockland and Orange counties are currently served by successful print and online newspapers, in English and Yiddish, that tend to be protective of community interests, including the yeshivas.
Elad Nehorai, an ex-Hasidic writer and progressive activist, said these sites are more akin to community newsletters than journalistic enterprises, publishing local interest stories like death and wedding announcements, notices about community events and stories about construction of new synagogues or schools. National and world news coverage tends to focus on the haredi community in Israel and syndicated news copy about events outside of the religious world.
“The haredi world in general is not used to the kind of journalism that exists in the secular world,” Nehorai said. “In the secular world, investigating wrongdoing of leaders is a normal thing.”
For example, it was a secular newspaper — the Israeli daily Haaretz — that in 2021 reported on allegations surrounding Chaim Walder, a once-celebrated Israeli haredi children’s author, who was accused of having sexually assaulted more than 20 women, and several underage girls. Only after the allegations became a prominent topic of conversation in haredi communities did the press there begin to cover them — often with apparent sympathy to Walder.
“Very often if you look at the press there, it’s more about building community,” Nehorai said of the haredi world. By contrast, “If you open the New York Times it’s generally a lot of negative stories.”
Leaders of the haredi community were incensed when, in September, the New York Times published a major investigation that found that in New York’s Hasidic yeshivas, “generations of children have been systematically denied a basic education, trapping many of them in a cycle of joblessness and dependency.”Backlash from the Hasidic and other Orthodox communities began before the story was even published, with people claiming the New York Times and the Jewish reporters themselves were biased and even antisemitic in their reporting.
Moster envisions a role for Shtetl that will foster “important discussions that are crucial for the well-being of the Haredi community and beyond,” according to an online announcement. At the same time, “it will produce content that other outlets are unable, unequipped, or unwilling to provide to their readers, whether owing to the lack of resources, cultural competency, access to insiders or Yiddish language proficiency.”
The project is currently recruiting board members, full-time and freelance reporters, editors and marketing professionals. Its founding board includes journalists Larry Cohler-Esses of The Forward and Ari Goldman of Columbia Journalism School, neither of whom is haredi, as well as Adelle Goldenberg, a recent Harvard University graduate who grew up in the Hasidic neighborhood of Borough Park. Goldenberg was the winner of the 2021 Yaffed Changemaker Award for her assistance to haredi students who want to go to college outside of the yeshiva system.
Goldman, a former New York Times religion reporter who attends a Modern Orthodox synagogue, told JTA he became familiar with Moster’s work with Yaffed about five years ago. He said he was impressed by Moster’s efforts to get haredi young people a strong secular education and believed that haredi communities could benefit from improved journalism, as well.
“I want to be supportive of an effort that tries to shine more light on a community about which a lot is hidden and unknown,” Goldman said. “I’m also very interested in good journalism, which I think is a cornerstone of our society. And I want to see it put to the best of use in the haredi community.”
Critics of Shtetl, purporting to be from within the haredi and Orthodox world, have already voiced their opinions on social media, claiming that the new media endeavor has some sort of agenda to undermine their communities.
The backlash echoes the one that Moster has received for a decade already, when his education advocacy even earned him the label of “moser,” reflecting a dangerous accusation that he had inappropriately involved secular authorities in Jewish affairs.
“The people who are reacting negatively don’t see it as, ‘Oh they’re just writing negatively about us,’” Nehorai said. “They see it as traitorous. They see it as someone who’s turned on us. And what’s fascinating about that is that it doesn’t matter if you are haredi or you are ex-haredi, what occurs then is you are labeled as an outsider.”
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Freed hostage Alon Ohel plays piano on Israeli sketch comedy show ‘Eretz Nehederet’
The Israeli sketch comedy show “Eretz Nehederet” is famous for parodying every aspect of Israeli politics and culture. But the smiles were sincere on Wednesday night when a special guest took the stage: freed hostage Alon Ohel.
Throughout his two-year captivity, Ohel became widely known for his prowess on the piano. And earlier this year, the cast of the show sang a tribute to him with the Israeli singer Hanan Ben Ari, as part of a national campaign to keep attention on the hostages being held in Gaza.
On Wednesday’s episode, Ohel grinned as he played a rendition of Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza’s “Under the Sky.” An eyepatch covered his right eye, following an injury that was left untreated after he was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.
“We came here, from under the sky, two – like a pair of eyes, we have time, under the sky, in the meantime – we’re still here,” read the lyrics of the song, translated from Hebrew.
He was surrounded by his parents and sister as well as the show’s cast. “It was a moment the whole world had been waiting for, and not a single eye was left dry,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a post on Facebook.
Since the remaining 20 living hostages were released from Hamas captivity earlier this month as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, their emergence into public view has drawn emotional celebrations from Israelis.
On Friday, freed hostage Nimrod Cohen attended a memorial service at the Kfar Saba military cemetery for Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel, who was killed in Cohen’s unit on Oct. 7 and whose body has not yet been released during the ceasefire deal.
On Sunday, former hostages Segev Kalfon, Eitan Mor, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were met with parades as they returned to their homes after being released from Beilinson Hospital, which has shuttered its “Returning Hostages Ward.”
Some of the viral videos of the former hostages have captured their brushes with celebrity, including with Ben Ari, who sang with several of them while they were hospitalized.
Eli Sharabi, who was released in February to learn that his wife Lianne and daughters Noiya and Yahel were murdered on Oct. 7, walked the runway at Tel Aviv Fashion Week on Sunday where he was joined by the relatives of other freed hostages.
The following day, Sharabi’s brother, Yossi, who was killed in Hamas captivity in January 2024 and whose remains were returned to Israel as part of the ceasefire deal earlier this month, was buried in central Israel.
Sharabi said the funeral was “the beginning of delayed justice. Our hearts are broken but our heads are held high.”
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Hundreds of thousands of haredi Jews protest in Jerusalem against Israeli military draft
Hundreds of thousands of haredi Orthodox Jewish men joined a mass protest in Jerusalem on Thursday to rail against the Israeli government’s efforts to enlist yeshiva students into the military.
The mass prayer demonstration, called the “Million Man March,” was organized by the leaders of Israel’s different ultra-Orthodox groups in response to a spate of arrests of yeshiva students who had dodged the Israeli draft.
“The debate over the law is still ongoing, and it belongs in the Knesset,” one organizer told Haaretz. “If that were the only issue, we wouldn’t hold a rally. But following the arrests of yeshiva students and the persecution against us, it was decided to protest nonetheless.”
The protest comes one year after the Israeli Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Israel must draft haredi Orthodox Jews into its army, a decision welcomed by many Israelis who believe the haredi sector was not bearing its share of the burden of the war in Gaza. The ruling renewed demonstrations from haredi groups who have long argued that they should be exempt for religious reasons.
Earlier this month, upwards of 10,000 haredi Orthodox Jewish men staged another protest in New York City to oppose the draft.
At the demonstration Thursday, two ultra-Orthodox soldiers, a police officer and several journalists were attacked by protesters, including Channel 12 News reporter Inbar Twizer who had objects thrown at her during her broadcast.
Throughout the day, hundreds of protesters were seen entering construction sites, scaling roofs and climbing cranes. One 15-year-old boy died after falling from the 20th floor of a high-rise construction site.
One group of protesters were also seen carrying a banner from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which read, “Bringing back the hostages, bringing back hope.” The group has previously pursued legal action against a yeshiva that appropriating symbols for the hostages to rally for the release of jailed yeshiva students.
Israeli security forces disperse ultra-Orthodox Jewish men during a protest against conscription into Israel’s military in Jerusalem on October 30, 2025. (Fadel SENNA / AFP)
After the protests’ organizers called for an end to the demonstration on Thursday evening, some protesters remained near the entrance of Jerusalem and clashed with Israeli border police, according to the Times of Israel.
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Vance Says Israel ‘Not Controlling’ Trump, Fails to Defend Judaism in Response to Antisemitic Comments at Event
A screenshot of a question-and-answer session at the University of Mississippi in Oxford on Oct. 29, 2025, in which US Vice President JD Vance is questioned about his views on Israel and Judaism. Photo: Screenshot
US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday responded to a question from a right-wing student activist who made antisemitic statements against Israel and Judaism, arguing the Jewish state does not control American foreign policy while not countering the questioner’s remarks targeting the Jewish religion.
Vance appeared at the University of Mississippi for an event held by Turning Point USA, the influential conservative advocacy organization led for years by the late Charlie Kirk.
More than 90 minutes into the session, during the questions portion, a man wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap and a white “Ole Miss” hoodie was given the microphone.
“Thank you for the opportunity to speak,” the individual said. “I’m a Christian man and I’m just confused why that there’s this notion that we might owe Israel something or that they’re our greatest ally or that we have to support this multi-hundred-billion-dollar foreign aid package to Israel to cover this — to quote Charlie Kirk, ethnic cleansing in Gaza. I’m just confused why this idea has come around considering the fact that not only does their religion not agree with ours but also openly supports the prosecution of ours.”
The question — in which the student incorrectly quoted Kirk, an outspoke pro-Israel advocate —prompted applause from the audience.
“First of all, when the president of the United States says ‘America first’ that means that he pursues the interests of Americans first. That is our entire foreign policy,” Vance responded. “That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have alliances, that you’re not going to work with other countries from time to time. And that is what the president believes is that Israel, sometimes they have similar interests to the United States and we’re going to work with them in that case. Sometimes they don’t have similar interests to the United States.”
Vance used the example of the US-brokered ceasefire to halt fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to illustrate his point.
“In this example, the most recent Gaza peace plan that all of us have been working on very hard for the past few weeks, the president of the United States could only get that peace deal done by actually being willing to apply leverage to the state of Israel,” Vance said. “So, when people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States, they’re not controlling this president of the United States, which is one of the reasons why would we be able to have some of the success that we’ve had in the Middle East.”
The vice president, who was baptized into the Catholic faith in August 2019, then shifted to theological discourse, apparently wanting to respond to the student’s statement that Judaism “openly supports the persecution of Christians.
“Now you ask about, you know, sort of Jews disagreeing with Christians on certain religious ideas. Yeah, absolutely. It’s one of the realities is that Jews do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Obviously, Christians do believe that,” Vance said. “There are some significant theological disagreements between Christians and Jews. My attitude is let’s have those conversations. Let’s have those disagreements when we have them. But if there are shared areas of interest, we ought to be willing to do that, too.”
Vance continued, “One thing I really, really care about is the preservation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Christians believe that that is the site where Jesus Christ was crucified and also that his tomb is right there as well. My attitude is if we can work with our friends in Israel to make sure that Christians have safe access to that site, that’s an obvious area of common interest, I am fine with that.”
The vice president then emphasized to the student that he would not put Israel ahead of the United States, saying, “What I’m not OK with is any country coming before the interests of American citizens. And it is important for all of us, assuming we’re American citizens, to put the interest of our own country first. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we try to do every single day. I promise you. Thank you.”
Antisemitic sentiment on the American political right has surged in the weeks following the murder of Kirk, with prominent social media podcaster figures such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens suggesting Israeli involvement in the shooting without any evidence. This conspiracy theorizing inspired death threats against pro-Israel conservative figures and the arrest of a man now facing 140 years’ imprisonment.
On Monday, Carlson published a more than two-hour interview with neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes on X. Photos of Carlson with his arm around Fuentes’ shoulder and smiles on both their faces began circulating around social media.
Carlson apologized to Fuentes in the discussion, saying “I’m sorry I called you gay, by the way.” He also referenced the prominent political commentator Ben Shapiro, who is widely known to be an Orthodox Jew, adding, “I don’t think Fuentes is going away. Ben Shapiro tried to strangle him in the crib in college, and now he’s bigger than ever.”
In the interview, Fuentes contrasted himself with Shapiro, stating, “I didn’t come from some strange background. I come from a normal home. My parents are Catholic.”
Fuentes’s comments appear to differ with the views of Pope Leo XIV, the head of the Catholic Church.
Leo on Wednesday condemned antisemitism and affirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to combating hatred and persecution against the Jewish people, arguing his faith demands such a stance.
Speaking in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for his weekly “general audience,” the pontiff acknowledged the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a declaration from the Second Vatican Council and promulgated on Oct. 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI that called for dialogue and respect between Christianity and other religions.
Since the publication of Nostra Aetate, “all my predecessors have condemned antisemitism with clear words,” Leo said. “I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate antisemitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”