News

“A great book is a life-enlarging journey of the mind.” - Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Rabbi Sacks lived a life surrounded by books, those he read and those he wrote. In this spirit, Dr. Erica Brown, Vice Provost for Values and Leadership and inaugural Director of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership, announces the creation of Yeshiva University’s Sacks Book Prize, generously funded by the Rohr family. “Rabbi Sacks believed profoundly in the power of the written word,” said Dr. Brown. “Presenting a new literary award in his honor is an important recognition of his commitment to the flourishing of the Jewish bookshelf.”

Following Mayor Eric Adams speech outlining his plan to end gun violence, Met Council CEO David Greenfield released the following statement:

The Lev Aharon Community Food Pantry at 72^nd Avenue and Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills held a PPE giveaway with local elected officials on Tuesday afternoon, January 27. The location, a partnership of the Chazaq Organization and Met Council on Jewish Poverty, is distinguished as a center for vital communal resources. “With COVID concerns still a serious threat across the nation, the Chazaq staff undertook a comprehensive drive to distribute an array of personal protective equipment to our neighbors in Queens,” stated Rabbi Yaniv Meirov, CEO of the organization. “The involvement of our governmental affair bureau and the partnership of our representatives in lawmaking, underscores the need for our community members to take precautions when amongst others.”

On Sunday, January 30, amid the aftermath of a snowstorm that battered New York, Sarah Huckabee Sanders partook in a fundraising effort for her run to be the next governor of Arkansas, a position once held by her father, Governor Mike Huckabee. The effort was the brainchild of Dr. Joe Frager, a longtime Jamaica Estates resident and QJL columnist.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 2,000 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in matters of American public policy, this week castigated the ADL for repeating the same “misuse of anti-Semitism for partisan purposes” that CJV slammed last year, after the ADL again accused Fox News Host Tucker Carlson. According to a story in the Daily Beast, the ADL claimed that Carlson “echoed antisemitic tropes” when he asserted that George Soros wants a society that is “more dangerous [and] dirtier.”

Transformative gift to Rise Up campaign to fund Furst Hall renovation,
which will be renamed the Belz Building.

Dr. Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, announced this week that the Belz family of Memphis, Tennessee, has signed a $20 million gift agreement to launch a comprehensive renovation of the cornerstone academic building on Wilf Campus in Washington Heights. In recognition of this transformative gift, the building, currently known as Furst Hall, will be renamed the Belz Building. With the full support of the Furst family and the Sol and Hilda Furst Foundation, a permanent memorial to Sol and Hilda Furst will be established within the lobby of the Belz Building.