Elizabeth Holman

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

This is fitting. Dolly Parton is American royalty.

She easily could've been a billionaire, but she just kept giving away her money. She gave over $600M to charity, without any fanfare. When Gatlinburg got decimated by wildfires, she didn't give to an NPO...she paid $1,000 a month directly to families who lost their homes, totaling over $12M in direct cash aid to the victims. She also paid 100% of the tuition & books for the kids of any of her 11K employees. Dolly was the ultimate icon of American greatness: be great so you can do great.

She simultaneously built a formidable business empire, and fostered a universally-beloved reputation that spans every clique in America. I've literally never heard a single disparaging word about Dolly from anyone. I know everyone will try to "claim" her for their pet political issue, or whatever...but she transcended politics and petty partisanship her entire life, and we should honor that now that God has called her home. She was just a genuine blessing to our country, and perhaps the best example of what an American should aspire to be. Faithful. Great. Prolific. Kind. Generous. Humble.

[Ihtesham Ali @ihteshamali]

An MIT professor taught the same math course for 62 years, and the day he retired, students from every country on earth showed up online to watch him give his final lecture.

I opened the playlist at 2am and ended up watching three of them back to back.

His name is Gilbert Strang. The course is MIT 18.06 Linear Algebra.

Every machine learning engineer, every data scientist, every quant, every self-taught programmer who actually understands how AI works learned the math from this one man. Most of them never set foot on MIT's campus. They just opened a free playlist on YouTube and let him teach.

Here's the story almost nobody tells you.

Strang joined the MIT math faculty in 1962. He retired in 2023. That is 61 years of standing at the same chalkboard teaching the same subject to 18-year-olds.

The interesting part is what he did when MIT launched OpenCourseWare in 2002. Most professors were skeptical. They worried that putting their lectures online would make their classrooms irrelevant. Strang did not hesitate. He said his life's mission was to open mathematics to students everywhere. He filmed every lecture and gave it away.

The decision quietly changed how the world learns math.

For decades linear algebra was taught the wrong way. Professors started with abstract vector spaces and proofs about field axioms. Students drowned in the abstraction. Most never recovered. They walked out believing they were bad at math when they had simply been taught in an order that nobody's brain is built to absorb.

Strang inverted the entire curriculum.

He started with matrix multiplication. Something you can write down on paper. Something you can compute by hand. Something you can see. Then he showed his students that everything else in linear algebra eigenvectors, singular value decomposition, orthogonality, the four fundamental subspaces was just a different lens for understanding what the matrix was actually doing under the hood.

His rule was strict. If a student could not explain a concept using a concrete 3 by 3 example, that student did not actually understand the concept yet. The abstraction was supposed to come last, not first. The intuition was the foundation. The proofs were just confirmation that the intuition was correct.

The second thing Strang changed was the classroom itself. He said please and thank you to his students. Every single lecture. He paused mid-derivation to ask "am I OK?" to check if anyone was lost. He never used the word "obviously" or "trivially" because he knew exactly what those words do to a student who is one step behind. He treated 19-year-olds learning math for the first time the way he treated his own colleagues. With patience. With respect. With the assumption that they belonged in the room.

For 62 years.

The result is something that has never happened in the history of education. A single math professor became the default teacher of his subject for the entire planet.

Universities in India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, every country with a computer science department, started telling their own students to just watch Strang's lectures. The University of Illinois revised its linear algebra course to do almost no in-person lecturing. The reason was honest. The professor said they could not compete with the videos.

His final lecture was in May 2023.

The auditorium was packed with students who had never met him before. He walked to the chalkboard, taught for an hour, and at the end the entire room stood and applauded. He looked confused for a moment, like he genuinely did not understand why they were cheering. Then he smiled and waved them off and walked out.

His written comment under the YouTube video of that final lecture was four sentences long. He said teaching had been a wonderful life. He said he was grateful to everyone who saw the importance of linear algebra. He said the movement of teaching it well would continue because it was right.

That was it. No book promotion. No farewell speech. No legacy management.

The man whose teaching is the foundation of modern AI just thanked the audience and went home.

20 million views. Zero ego. The entire engine of the AI revolution sits on top of math that millions of people learned for free from one quiet professor in Cambridge.

The course is still on MIT OpenCourseWare. Every lecture, every problem set, every exam, every solution. Free.

The most important math course of the 21st century is sitting one click away from you. Most people will never open it.

[Awesome Jew @Awesome_Jew_]

Erika Kirk announced that TPUSA will host a Shabbat dinner at its AmFest

[Frum TikTok @FrumTikTok]

Erika Kirk, in tears, condemns antisemitism: “How could you hate Jewish people?”

She recalls Charlie saying clearly: “Jew hate was brain rot.”

She said she’s been to Israel twice and asks, “How could you hate that place [Israel]?”

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Huge shoutout to Ronnell Hewitt Jr. and Mateo Bilaver on signing to play Division I football at UNLV! Hard work pays off — the future is bright. Go Rebels! 🏈🏈

[⭕️Faerie ❤️ @LiquidFaerie]

In March 1959, at the age of 27, Elizabeth Taylor stood before Rabbi Max Nussbaum at Temple Israel in Hollywood and formally converted to Judaism, taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel. She later explained that the decision was not prompted by marriage, Mike Todd had died the previous year, and she was about to marry Eddie Fisher, but by a profound spiritual search that had begun years earlier.

“𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘑𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦”

Her embrace of Judaism was neither casual nor fashionable. She studied Torah and Jewish history with seriousness, collected antique menorahs, and kept a kosher home for periods of her life. When she died in 2011, she was buried in a strictly Jewish funeral at Forest Lawn, with Rabbi Jerry Cutler reciting the mourner’s Kaddish.

Almost immediately, her new identity intertwined with an equally passionate love for Israel. In 1959, only months after her conversion, she purchased $100,000 in Israel Bonds (the equivalent of nearly $1.1 million today)

The gesture enraged several Arab governments; Egypt and Syria banned her films and placed her on a blacklist of “supporters of Zionism.” In 1962, Egypt refused her entry to film Cleopatra because she was Jewish, forcing 20th Century Fox to relocate the production to Rome at enormous cost.
Taylor never flinched. In 1967, during the tense weeks before the Six-Day War, she and Richard Burton organized a star-studded fundraising gala in London that raised $840,000 for Israel in a single night. She canceled a planned trip to the Moscow Film Festival that same year in protest of Soviet anti-Israel policies. In 1975, when the United Nations passed its infamous “Zionism is racism” resolution, Taylor signed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times denouncing the resolution alongside Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and other prominent women.

A year later, after Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France plane and separated Jewish and Israeli passengers at Entebbe, Taylor offered herself in exchange for the hostages. She wrote directly to Idi Amin and told the press:

“𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥.”

Israel declined the offer, but Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin later thanked her personally, calling her “a true daughter of Israel.”
In interviews throughout the 1970s and 1980s she repeatedly described Israel as “the one place on earth where I feel completely at home.”

Elizabeth Taylor’s love for Israel was never abstract or diplomatic; it was visceral, defiant, and deeply Jewish. At a time when many in Hollywood urged silence on the subject, she chose to speak louder, give more generously, and stand more visibly, because, as she often said that being Jewish was the core of who she was.

Her legacy remains one of the most luminous examples of a convert who did not merely join the Jewish people, but embraced them, and their homeland, with fierce and unapologetic pride.

May her memory forever be a blessing.

[Frum TikTok @FrumTikTok]

How to get @SHAQ to wear your suits. 🤵

Brilliant move by Twillory.

Now let him try the breathable beketshe! 😜

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Chaminade beats Windward 63-43 in the 10th Annual West Valley Boys Basketball Tip-Off Classic!!!

#GoEagles 🏀🏀

@Tarek_Fattal @latsondheimer

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Number one fans at the State Meet!

[Rich Gonzalez @PrepCalTrack]

🚨 CIF-State Meet Rankings! 🚨 Here are the CIF-State Rankings before this weekend’s year-end showdown at Woodward Park!

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Boys Cross Country makes history and finishes 7th place in the State in Division 4

[eric sondheimer @latsondheimer]

Running back Darnell Miller of Santee has rushed for 3,100 yards. He’s a perfect gentleman taking care of his 10-year-old brother Frederick. No offers. If anyone needs a terrific talent with character Darnell Miller is that person.

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

"My name's Raymond. I'm 73. I work the parking lot at St. Joseph's Hospital. Minimum wage, orange vest, a whistle I barely use. Most people don't even look at me. I'm just the old man waving cars into spaces.
But I see everything.

Like the black sedan that circled the lot every morning at 6 a.m. for three weeks. Young man driving, grandmother in the passenger seat. Chemotherapy, I figured. He'd drop her at the entrance, then spend 20 minutes hunting for parking, missing her appointments.

One morning, I stopped him. "What time tomorrow?"
"6:15," he said, confused.
"Space A-7 will be empty. I'll save it."
He blinked. "You... you can do that?"
"I can now," I said.

Next morning, I stood in A-7, holding my ground as cars circled angrily. When his sedan pulled up, I moved. He rolled down his window, speechless. "Why?"
"Because she needs you in there with her," I said. "Not out here stressing."
He cried. Right there in the parking lot.

Word spread quietly. A father with a sick baby asked if I could help. A woman visiting her dying husband. I started arriving at 5 a.m., notebook in hand, tracking who needed what. Saved spots became sacred. People stopped honking. They waited. Because they knew someone else was fighting something bigger than traffic.
But here's what changed everything, A businessman in a Mercedes screamed at me one morning. "I'm not sick! I need that spot for a meeting!"

"Then walk," I said calmly. "That space is for someone whose hands are shaking too hard to grip a steering wheel."

He sped off, furious. But a woman behind him got out of her car and hugged me. "My son has leukemia," she sobbed. "Thank you for seeing us."

The hospital tried to stop me. "Liability issues," they said. But then families started writing letters. Dozens. "Raymond made the worst days bearable." "He gave us one less thing to break over."

Last month, they made it official. "Reserved Parking for Families in Crisis." Ten spots, marked with blue signs. And they asked me to manage it.

But the best part? A man I'd helped two years ago, his mother survived, came back. He's a carpenter. Built a small wooden box, mounted it by the reserved spaces. Inside? Prayer cards, tissues, breath mints, and a note,

"Take what you need. You're not alone. -Raymond & Friends"
People leave things now. Granola bars. Phone chargers. Yesterday, someone left a hand-knitted blanket.
I'm 73. I direct traffic in a hospital parking lot. But I've learned this: Healing doesn't just happen in operating rooms. Sometimes it starts in a parking space. When someone says, "I see your crisis. Let me carry this one small piece."

So pay attention. At the grocery checkout, the coffee line, wherever you are. Someone's drowning in the little things while fighting the big ones.

Hold a door. Save a spot. Carry the weight no one else sees.
It's not glamorous. But it's everything."

Let this story reach more hearts....

Credit: Mary Nelson

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Boys Cross Country qualifies for the State Meet!! Great job Boys!!

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Today we celebrate 5 of our student-athletes as they take the next step in their baseball careers!

⚾️ Maslin Bennett – Haverford
⚾️ Anthony Costa – Chapman
⚾️ Isaiah Hearn – Oregon
⚾️ Jackson Schroeder – USC
⚾️ Eli Stephens – Trevecca

We are incredibly proud of their hard work!

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Congrats to Boys Cross Country for finishing third at Mission League Finals. Off to CIF!

[Chaminade Athletics @Chaminadesports]

Congrats to Girls Cross Country who took first place in League Finals. They not only took first they had a perfect score! They took places 1-5! Incredible. Off to CIF

[Rich Gonzalez @PrepCalTrack]

🚨BREAKING: @CIFSS Rankings. This week's expanded divisional rankings are now up! These also will be used to determine at-large qualifiers into postseason, where necessary. https://t.co/fbZX1l9NY2

[Rich Gonzalez @PrepCalTrack]

BREAKING: This week's "expanded" @CIFSS XC Rankings (13 deep per division) are up. Any team that does not advance into postseason from its final league standings but is ranked in 2 of the last 4 rankings is invited to postseason as an at-large qualifier. https://t.co/bzG9l34mWH

[Reuven Goldstein @curatorWH]

Chabad of Midtown, has a large public sukkah on Fifth Ave near Bryant Park. Visited by thousands, it’s city approved and known as the central Sukkah spot in Midtown Manhattan.