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It’s a regular Tuesday afternoon in Queens. Your child is coughing, running a fever — and you’re stuck between school pickups, Zoom meetings, and dinner prep. You call the doctor’s office, only to wait on hold, hoping to speak with a nurse and secure an appointment. Maybe you rush to urgent care instead — where the “quick visit” turns into sitting in a crowded waiting room for hours. By the time you’re seen, the day is gone.

 As anti-Semitism reaches levels not seen in decades, legal scholars, prosecutors, and community leaders gathered in Queens to confront this growing crisis and examine how the justice system can serve as a powerful tool to counter hate.

As the sun set on September 15, Sorolle and Shimmy Idels welcomed neighbors and community leaders onto the deck of their Kew Gardens Hills home for a campaign reception with a clear message: Queens cannot afford to lose its only Jewish voice on the New York City Council – Lynn Schulman.

For nearly three decades, there’s hardly an event in the Queens Jewish community where one wouldn’t see Rabbi Avrohom Hecht, the sociable activist, working the room among the elected officials, rabbis, and volunteers. Last Sunday, he took the stage in Rego Park to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of Project Lead, honoring local elected officials for providing funding that covers its food pantry, programs for youth, and senior events, in particular for Holocaust survivors. “We assist thousands of clients with human services, distribute over 200,000 pounds of food per year, visit dozens of homebound elderly, and a myriad of other services,” said Rabbi Hecht. “Youth activities, Holocaust survivor services, emigre empowerment, and community development.”

In a continued push to reclaim the streets and reduce crime, detectives from Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office teamed up with NYPD officers from the 107^th Precinct to execute a targeted scooter removal operation. Undercover and uniformed units moved in on a dozen illegally parked and unregistered scooters, removing them from public thoroughfares. In one case, investigators confirmed that the scooter was stolen, a reminder that these seemingly innocuous vehicles often play a role in broader criminal activity.

The Chazaq organization is renowned for its inspirational lectures and for its outreach to the unaffiliated offering life-changing after-school programs for public school youth and transferring hundreds of students to yeshivah.