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A WhatsApp group of eight-to-ten minutes a day completed the Talmud tractate of Megillah. The Young Israel of Forest Hills celebrated with a siyum and a Chanukah party on Wednesday, December 1. Rabbi Shmuel Marcus of the Young Israel of Queens Valley, who is president of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, was the guest speaker.

Chanukah ended with a big celebration outdoors in Forest Hills. Bicycle stunts on ramps, a DJ, the lighting of an 18-foot menorah, and hundreds of chocolate coins and mini-parachutes tossed from a 30-foot FDNY Tower Ladder were just part of Chabad of Forest Hills North’s Seventh Annual “Chanukah on the Park,” which took place on Sunday, December 5. Hundreds attended, many of them children.

The Young Israel of New Hyde Park celebrated simchas Chanukah with holiday treats and divrei Torah. The shul also hosted a Sunday morning breakfast to coincide with Rosh Chodesh. At the program, a siyum on the first volume of Talmud Yerushalmi Masekhes Sheviis was recited. This celebration culminated the most recent portion of the shul’s longstanding “Sunday-morning Shiur.” This week, the shul’s rav, Rabbi Lawrence Teitelman, also led the “4 Minutes of Torah” series recently established by the Department of Synagogue Services for the National Council of Young Israel. These classes include a short four-minute thought on the parshah or inyanei d’’yoma shown via video led by a rabbi of Young Israel’s network of branch rabbanim. Join close to 20,000 Young Israelites in learning and enjoying these classes by signing up at www.youngisrael.org/signup4minutestorah.

“I am still in shock,” admitted Victoria Zirkiev to the Queens Jewish Link about the antisemitic attack she and her husband Shalom experienced while deplaning in Florida. “It was just insane.”

On the final day of Chanukah, Project Lead, under the helm of Rabbi Avrohom Hecht, uplifted 94 Queens children on the afternoon of Monday, December 6, for a fun-filled ice skating trip sponsored by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. Here, a school bus of youth is seen boarding at K’hal Adas Yereim, Rav Wolpin’s shul.

On the fifth night of Chanukah, a public menorah-lighting took place on the Queens College campus, hosted by Chabad On Campus of Queens and the QC Hillel.