NEW YORK NEWS

 The Board of Regents approved a new set of regulations that require private schools to prove that they are teaching the same core subjects that public schools are. The unanimous vote occurred without debate.  The decision, which comes after increased scrutiny on Ultra-Orthodox schools, requires that the “substantially equivalent” education in math, reading, writing, science, and history must occur in English and taught by a competent teacher, although that teacher does not need to receive a license by the state.  A group of rabbis are threatening to take the state to court, basing their case on a 1972 Supreme Court precedent which allowed religious exemptions for school curriculum.  

NEW YORK NEWS

 Lee Zeldin has tightened the race for Governor to just 4 points, according to a Trafalgar Group Survey.  Zeldin, who is trailing incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul, touted the poll results on Twitter. “This latest poll shows that New Yorkers are starting to see who the real Kathy Hochul is, a corrupt, out-of-touch, weak Governor driving the state in the wrong direction,” he said.  Hochul is hitting back, trying to tie Zeldin to former President Trump.  “Lee Zeldin continues to embrace the most far-right fringe elements of his party,” she wrote on Twitter, “and he wants to be Governor of New York. I won’t let him drag our state backward.”

NEW YORK NEWS

 R’ Shimmy Benabou, a well-known Crown Heights businessman and entrepreneur in the food retail business, passed away Shabbos at the age of 49. Benabou was the founder of Koshertown on the corner of Albany and Empire, which turned from a corner store to a block supermarket with a cafe and Shabbos takeout. Benabou, who was known as a tremendous ba’al tzedakah, was honored as hundreds of people lined up on the service lane of Eastern Parkway to mourn his passing.