Local

In Queens, the small things haven’t felt small: a car with no plates that never moves but always eats a parking spot, mopeds slicing down the sidewalk as parents yank strollers to safety, music that doesn’t quit (even when the block is begging for sleep), sidewalks bottlenecked by encampments. Even as violent crime fell to record lows, day-to-day frictions mounted. City numbers tell the story: Since 2017, panhandling complaints soared nearly 2,800 percent, calls about homeless encampments rose more than 500 percent, noise complaints nearly doubled, illegal-parking complaints more than doubled. The unspoken feeling across the borough was that unless it was violent crime, help might not come.

Since its inception in 1954, NCSY (formerly the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) has been lauded as a world-recognized organization that continues to play a vital role in shaping the lives of Jewish teenagers. Its sundry of programs, including in Israel, Europe, and the US, promote chesed (everlasting kindness) and serve as a viable antidote to confront malevolence and apathy in today’s troubled times.

Parshas Eikev reminds us that even the “small” mitzvos — the ones we might tend to tread upon — are beloved by Hashem. The Torah promises us incredible brachos when we guard them with care: “V’haya eikev tishme’un…”

One of the most iconic photos of the Jewish experience in New York is the 1953 photo of Kishke King, taken when Brooklyn’s Pitkin Avenue had a sizable Jewish community. It is the cover image of Henry Sapoznik’s new book The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City, which takes readers back in time on a virtual tour of places in the city where the mame loshen was spoken.

With roughly 200 YU students volunteering, working and studying in Israel for the summer, YU President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman sits down with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Ambassador Mike Huckabee in Jerusalem to discuss partnerships to build a bright future.

Since their arrival in West Hempstead in 2010, Rabbi Elon and Estee Soniker have grown in their roles at Congregation Anshei Shalom, as trusted sources for life events and spiritual questions. Initially under the leadership of founding Rabbi Yehuda Pearl, he was succeeded by Rabbi Soniker in 2016 as the shul continued to expand. The Soniker family was also growing. In 2022, they welcomed their seventh child, Uriel.