Our neighborhood is so fortunate to have a unique lecture series geared to inform and educate us about the latest medical advice and findings for all different ailments and for the prevention of various diseases. Navigating the Medical System, founded and directed by Dr. Mel Breite, MD, brings top physicians and medical professionals to our community to educate us.

This past Sunday, November 24, the Young Israel of Plainview announced the upcoming commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its first minyan. The synagogue hosted a Shabbaton on Shabbos, November 23. Activities included a wonderful oneg featuring memories from the Young Israel’s community founders. Fittingly, the celebration will take place at the Young Israel of Plainview, which is located at 132 Southern Parkway in Plainview.

It was an exciting and impactful Shabbat for 65 students from Emet Outreach’s Forest Hills Leaders Fellowship.  Hosted by Rabbi Reuven Kigel, Emet’s Campus Director, and Mrs. Devorah Kigel, an Emet educator, women’s speaker and a dating and marriage coach, the students were warmly welcomed to the community of Passaic New Jersey. The theme of this memorable Shabbat was “Keeping Shabbat Together: Disconnecting in Order to Connect.”

The generation-long immigration wave that brought Soviet Jews to America and Israel followed a timeline where the religious and Zionist activists were the first to cross the Iron Curtain. They were followed by individuals with family members abroad and those fleeing in search of better economic opportunities. “Today in the former USSR, there are few Jews left who have two Jewish parents,” said Rabbi Avrohom Moshe Binsky of Kehilas Moreshes Yaakov in Brooklyn. He met such individuals on a visit to a summer camp in Belarus run by the Yad Yisroel organization.

 By Margie Pensak

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect as I disembarked the Baltimore coach bus to enter the Tiferes Rivka Hall in Boro Park, Sunday evening, November 24, for Agra D’Pirka’s Decade Dinner. But, from the minute I walked into the celebration of the flourishing unique national Morning Kollel learning program, I was greeted warmly and made to feel at home. I soon realized, having the experience of covering the Baltimore Agra D’Pirka Yarchei Kallahs for over a year as a journalist, that the warm ambiance of the evening was but a reflection of the program, directors, and participants.