Community Corner

Around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, April 27, NYPD Highway Patrol 3 Officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, was killed when he was violently struck and thrown over 100 feet by a passing vehicle as he was diverting traffic from a previous fatal collision on the Long Island Expressway in Fresh Meadows, in a portion of the 107^th police precinct. Tsakos’ death marks the first line-of-duty death for the NYPD this year. He was a 14-year veteran of the NYPD and leaves behind his wife Irene, a six-year-old daughter, and a three-year-old son. “They will never see their father again because somebody did the wrong thing, and we have to understand, every day our officers go out looking to do the right thing. But here’s a good man who won’t be home. Just so much pain,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

All who enter the doors of Queens Borough Hall will be reminded of the late borough president Claire Shulman, the first woman in this role, who served her constituents proudly from 1986 until 2002. Shulman passed away last August. On Monday, April 26, Donovan Richards, who now operates as our borough president in the same corner office Shulman once used, held a ceremonial address renaming the entranceway “One Claire Shulman Way” in a fitting tribute to permanently and prominently remember her nearly 16 years of service in its hallways.

On Tuesday, the leadership of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU), the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, issued the following statement in the wake of five violent attacks on synagogues in the Bronx in the past few days, including a new attack on the Riverdale Jewish Center on Monday:

On Sunday evening, April 18, Coach Menachem offered the 50^th shiur with Rabbi Daniel Kalish, Menahel of the Mesivta of Waterbury, on proper chinuch for our children.

Beginning this past Thursday, April 22, 3,600 students from four time zones and two countries came together to celebrate Go Purple Day, a day that Shalom Task Force established to promote awareness around healthy relationships and domestic abuse within the Jewish community.

On Tuesday evening, April 29, the Navigating the Medical System presented an eye-opening virtual lecture hosted by Congregation Etz Chaim. Dr. Mel Breite, Founder and Director of the Navigating the Medical System Lecture Series, introduced the guest speaker, Sirikishan Shetty, MD, the director of New York Presbyterian Eye Center in Fresh Meadows, Queens.