R' Chaim Kanievsky: Men are not allowed to wear watches

because of the prohibition of לא ילבש.

Source: Kikar Shabbat

I believe that this opinion of R' Chaim has not bee accepted by any of the poskim and in fact there are pictures of many great Rabbanim including R' Elyashiv his father wearing a watch.

Does Stanley Fisher hate Charedim?

Stanley Fisher (the outgoing Head of the Bank of Israel) commented today that the State of Israel is facing a demographic problem, given the current projections the Chiloni population in Israel will be a minority in 50 years due to the growth of the Charedi and Arab populations. Given the low participation level of both of those populations in the workforce, this will cause economic issues and affect the quality of life in Israel.

The Charedi politicians immediately attacked Fisher as a racist and hater of Charedim and that he wants to destroy the Charedi population.

IMHO, they are completely wrong. Fisher remarks were not predicated on hate or racism, but based on cold hard facts. At some point as the Charedi population grows larger and larger, the shrinking tax base will be unable to provide the social benefits. The money will simply not be there. This has nothing to do with hate, it is pure economics.

Can you believe anything said in the name of the Gedolim?

I would have to say that the answer today is probably not.

As many of you know, there was an anti-draft rally in Manhattan yesterday sponsored by Satmar. Satmar tried very hard to get other groups to join, and because of that over the past week, there was much discussion about what R' Chaim Kanievsky's opinion was. Was he for or against the rally?

R' Elya Ber Wachtfogel, Rosh Yeshiva of South Fallsburg wrote in a letter on Thursday that R' Chaim Kanievsky was for the rally.

However, on Friday, R' Chaim's sons publicized a letter saying that he did not support the rally.

Even more interesting is that on Sunday at 3PM some people produced another letter supposedly from R' Chaim Kanievsky supporting the rally.

This letter turned out to be forged.

The bottom line is that it is impossible for the average person to know what is true and what is not. 

There needs to be a better way for the Gedolim to get their message out to the people because the current system is just not working.

Great billboard on the Prospect expressway in Brooklyn