For the third year running, the Queens unity Sukkos concert drew a massive crowd in central Kew Gardens Hills. The free Simchas Beis Hashoeivah experience was once again held along Vleigh Place in front of the Queens Public Library and attracted an energetic audience of 2,500 spanning a myriad of Queens communities, including many unaffiliated Jews waiting for their spark to ignite. Thirty-year-old Israeli music sensation Itzik Dadya wowed the crowd with popular Jewish tunes new and old as well as several of his own masterful songs. Beginning shortly after seven in the evening on the third night of Chol HaMoed, festive dancing in the spirit of the chag quickly ensued with jubilation all around.
Community rabbonim, including Young Israel of Forest Hill’s Rabbis Elisha Friedman and Zalman Mergui, and leading Queens Jewish personalities, dotted the streets. Local Assemblymember Sam Berger, whose office staff was quite helpful with arranging for the required permits, graced the stage with a powerful message. The elected official noted that one year ago he stood at the same crosswords decrying the heinous Hamas atrocities carried out on Simchas Torah and now with a difficult year in the rearview mirror was able to celebrate in the holiday spirit, as the bulk of those who bore responsibility for the terrorist activities have been eliminated.
The program included a video presentation of Sukkos highpoints from the perspective of HaRav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz, a Queens-based disciple of The Rebbe and the program’s lead organizer, led the crowd in T’hilim for the merit of the ongoing war effort in Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Horowitz is well known throughout the Rego Park community for his tireless Jewish activism, bringing Jews closer to Hashem. At the start of the show, community children graced the stage, loudly proclaiming a dozen Torah passages found within Jewish literature, following the Chabad tradition based on the selection of The Rebbe for every child to memorize internalizing that the Torah was given to us through Moshe Rabbeinu. As such, every single Jewish boy or girl inherits the Torah for themselves.The outdoor program follows the direction of The Rebbe, who encouraged the celebration of a Simchas Beis Hashoeivah to include music and dancing in the streets reminiscent of the Beis HaMikdash.
Another event pinnacle was when Dadya called Nataniel Khafizov, founder of NY Film Production, to the stage for the music video release of his cover “Tamid Ohev Oti,” filmed in Crown Heights.
This year sponsorship was arranged from the NYC Cultural Affairs through the generosity of the QJCC, Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Boulevard ALP Assisted Living. Public safety was coordinated by Community Affairs Police Officers Kevin McCarthy and Tim Gorman, alongside officers of the 107th police precinct formally represented with the presence of Captain Michael D. Black-Larkins, who worked in tandem with a contingent of Queens Shmira volunteers.
Rabbi Shraga and Sarit Zalmanov, shluchim at Chabad of Flushing, deserve special recognition for their tireless efforts in ensuring a successful event. Planners thank BJCC, JIQ, Ohr Avner, Ganeinu, Burger Spot, Payment Help, and Victoria Zirkiev of Hoshen Media Group for their partnership.
The concert was additionally sponsored in memory of the late Dr. Yoel Leviev z”l, 24, son of Shalom and grandson of legendary humanitarian Lev Leviev, President at Ohr Avner and World Bukharian Jewish Congress, who was struck by a motorist while on an e-scooter on Rechov Weizman near Yehud, Israel, on October 14. Yoel, who had a great love and appreciation for authentic Torah Judaism, had only just graduated from a European medical school and subsequently gotten his doctorate. May his memory and those who have fallen in Israel this past year be for a blessing.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
