Community Corner

There are many ways to get chizuk when life gets confusing or difficult. But sometimes the biggest chizuk can come from within. The following ten Jewish meditations can help keep us on track. Filling our minds and hearts with these ideas will keep our minds clear so that we don’t lose focus on the most important things in life.

District 24 is once again formally represented in the New York City Council. James F. Gennaro, a Jamaica Estates resident, was sworn in this past Thursday, February 18 – 6,970 days after he was originally sworn in back in early 2002.

Just days before the Biden administration took office, the US Labor Department recognized the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce for bringing about a crucial policy change that opens federal job training grants to fund job training programs run by small and midsize community based organizations across the country helping all communities and Chambers of Commerce stimulate Job Creation throughout the United States.

Some time ago, I was at a shiur in which the speaker asked, “Why is Pirkei Avos called Pirkei Avos (Ethics of Fathers) and not Pirkei Tzadikim or Pirkei Chasidim (Ethics of the Righteous)?” I honestly do not remember the answer. What I do remember is thinking how lucky I was that in all the years I knew my father, Rabbi Mendel Kaufman zt”l, it never once occurred to me to ask that question.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 1,500 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in public policy, denounced calls by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on a Qatari TV channel for the prosecution of Israeli leaders before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced an ICC investigation of Israel for fake “war crimes” as “pure anti-Semitism,” which the rabbis called “entirely applicable” to Omar’s support.

A citywide mainstream media headline that shook Queens was first reported in the Queens Jewish Link’s WhatsApp groups. This past Wednesday afternoon, shortly after 3:30 p.m., a pedestrian noticed despicable graffiti scrawled on public-facing signage alongside the entranceway to the Rego Park Jewish Center at 97-30 Queens Boulevard. Outraged, the individual found confidence in calling Avi Cyperstein, Chaverim of Queens’ co-founder and a City Council candidate in the district of the hate crime. Cyperstein wasted no time in jumping into action, first alerting Queens Borough Safety Patrol-Shmira of the incident and arriving on-scene shortly thereafter.