The Moment: Issue 1068
| July 1, 2025Not only a legislative victory but a kiddush Hashem of epic proportions
Living Higher
T
he Educational Choice for Children Act, or “ECCA” for short, is a federal school choice bill that would create a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for individuals and corporations who donate to nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). These SGOs would then distribute scholarships to students, allowing them to attend private schools or access other educational services. Considering how prominently tuition payments feature in frum families’ budgets, the proposed legislation is arguably among the most consequential pieces of legislation to affect American Torah Jewry.
On Friday, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that the provision was ineligible to be included in the reconciliation bill. With a vote scheduled for Saturday afternoon, the school choice coalition and supportive lawmakers sprang into action advocating for its re-inclusion. Rabbi Yossie Charner, Agudah’s director of congressional affairs drove down to the Capitol and spent the day knocking on the doors of supportive senators. Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudah’s national director of government affairs, spent the entire day on the phone coordinating and communicating with coalition partners as well as lawmakers and their staffers. As the hours ticked by, the work reached a fever pitch… and then shkiah came.
The school choice coalition, of which the Agudah is an integral member, kept on working through the night. The Catholics continued, Invest in Ed carried on, and the American Federation for Children didn’t stop. But the Orthodox Jews were nowhere to be found. Rabbi Charner had gone home and Rabbi Motzen had powered off his phone. It was Shabbos, and they, together with Klal Yisrael, were giving testimony that Hashem created and runs the world and our efforts are not the determination of outcome.
The single most vital piece of legislation that Agudah has spent literally decades advancing and advocating for was at its most pivotal moment, at the crossroads of success or failure. And the only words on the lips of Agudah employees were “Ki vo shavas mikol melachto asher bara Elokim la’asos….”
On Motzaei Shabbos, they found out ECCA had been reinserted into the bill — marking not only a legislative victory but a kiddush Hashem of epic proportions.
Stamped for Eternity
On Sunday June 22, the Telshe Yeshivah celebrated 150 years since its founding. That’s 150 years of building Torah grandeur and spreading it throughout the world. Alumni from across the country and beyond flocked to Cleveland for the grand event; gedolei Yisrael, elderly rabbanim, and roshei yeshivah joined more recent talmidim in the Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel for an evening of reconnecting, rejuvenating, and reliving.
One of the event’s highlights was the address delivered by Rav Moshe Mendel Glustein, the rosh yeshivah of Yeshiva Gedolah of Montreal and a Telshe alumnus. Rav Glustein prefaced his remarks by saying that he felt unworthy to represent 150 years of glorious mesorah. “I only accepted,” he said, “because, as one of the seniors, I remember the mesirus nefesh of the roshei yeshivah for Torah and for their talmidim.”
He then shared a personal anecdote. “I’m Canadian by birth,” he told the audience. “My father is Canadian by birth — my grandparents came in 1904. I had to cross the border to come to yeshivah. I was thirteen-and-a-half years old.” He then reached for something on the podium and held it up for all to see. “Here is my passport,” he declared, his voice thick with emotion. “August 22, 1949. Seventy-six years ago.”
For all these years, Rav Glustein kept the document that had granted him access into the United States of America, and into the yeshivah whose mesorah he continues to embody, 150 years after its founding.
One 2 3
Seeach Sod, an Israel-based institution centered around individuals with special needs, has a special program called Olamos, geared to men above the age of 21. These men are encouraged to take on significant responsibilities, including participating, and even overseeing, daily minyanim, as well as attending daily shiurim.
But the vastness of their determination and development can best be depicted by a siyum held just a few weeks ago. Three members of the program completed all of Maseches Megillah after six months of rigorous learning.
Numerous rabbanim participated in the event and even tested the mesaymim — who passed with flying colors.
More astonishing is that this is actually not their first siyum — they completed Maseches Succah earlier this year.
The sheer determination of these three men obligates us all to overcome our hurdles and inhibitions and to constantly strive to greater heights.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1068)
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