The mission of Sam Fried’s life began in childhood, instilled by the Zionist values of his family, community, and schools. From an early age, he dreamed of wearing the IDF uniform in service of Israel. Like many reservists abroad, the Hamas attack on Simchas Torah caught him by surprise and he rushed to catch the flight to Israel to reenlist. Last Sunday, he returned to his parents in Jamaica Estates and met with Rabbi Josh Goller, who invited him to speak at the Young Israel of West Hempstead on the impact of the support of prayers on the soldiers.

In the “world’s borough,” every language can be heard, and for Jewish languages, the epicenter of this diversity is Rego Park. I experienced it in my youth, in which the barber spoke Bukhori, the baker spoke Hungarian, the rabbi spoke German, elders spoke Yiddish sprinkled with Romanian and Ukrainian words, classmates spoke Russian, and many other such anecdotes within a short walking distance.