Local

Less than two months remain before voters in the 24^th Council District in central Queens will be the first in the city to conduct a ranked choice election. On Tuesday, February 2, 11 candidates will appear on the ballot for the seat vacated last month by Rory Lancman. In preparation for the historic election, Assemblymembers Nily Rozic and Daniel Rosenthal held an online lecture last Thursday with the advocacy group Rank the Vote NYC.

Very early into the coronavirus pandemic, the Daf Yomi chaburah at the Young Israel of Queens Valley decided to continue its daily learning regimen as close as possible to its timetable. “We wanted to keep to our schedules,” said shul president Elliott Strauss, a participant in this group.

Dana Aderet Brody, an attorney and pro-Israel from Great Neck, made aliyah this past Rosh Chodesh Kislev, inspired by her parents, Dr. Paul and Drora Brody, whose activism for Israel extends to a variety of causes and events.

This past Saturday, November 14, the Democratic Socialists of America, via Zoom, endorsed six candidates for New York City Council seats in a daring bid to take over New York City. The NYC-DSA is a leading political force in both New York City and New York State politics. All five candidates on their New York State legislative slate won their respective races earlier this month. Jabari Brisport in the New York State Senate, and Phara Souffrant Forrest, Marcela Mitaynes, Zohran Mamdani, and Emily Gallagher in the New York State Assembly.

Under normal circumstances, the lifting of Jonathan Pollard’s parole on November 21 would have resulted in much celebration among Jews who spent the last 35 years engaging in the mitzvah of Pidyon Sh’vuyim on his behalf. One could imagine the packed seats in Five Towns when Rabbi Kenneth Hain of Congregation Beth Sholom and Rabbi Yaakov Trump of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst hosted Eliot Lauer, who has been the attorney for Pollard for the past 20 years. Under the conditions of the pandemic, the two rabbis hosted Lauer on Zoom in a public lecture this past Sunday.

The annual event that provides spiritual inspiration for Chabad rabbis across the world for the coming year usually gathers thousands of them in hangar-sized meeting venues with world-renowned keynote speakers followed by a farbrengen, breakout sessions, and visits to Crown Heights and the Rebbe’s Ohel. This year’s Kinus HaShluchim, held this week, had more people in attendance than any of its previous conventions, on account of the coronavirus pandemic.