This year’s Purim marks nearly a year since I’ve given up my prized two-bedroom rental in Kew Gardens Hills for the high taxes, car dependence, and social angst of Gardendale, a suburban community on Long Island that is a magnet for young families priced out of Queens. I remember that sunny and chilly morning last March when the moving vans blocked traffic on 70th Avenue behind Amazing Savings, a block known to all as Newlywed Row for its many young couples.

A trusted realtor is a must when seeking to purchase a property close to home, all the more so when you’re dealing with a different language, laws and culture. Tivuch Shelly, established in 1989 by native New Yorker Shelly Levine, is one of Israel’s most established real estate agencies, with current projects in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Beit Shemesh, Netanya, Ashkelon, Or Yehuda, and Ma’aleh Adumim. 

The international community has quickly divested itself of Russia, following its brutal invasion of Ukraine in an effort to reconstitute the Russian Empire. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin shot back at his critics.

So you see the title of this article, and a thousand things flood your brain. After all, we have a ton of weird traditions. Kaparos with a live chicken, whipping hoshanos until the leaves fall off, casting our sins into a lake (and that’s just Tishrei). What about having a specific order for tying shoes or having four different New Year’s Days depending on what it is you’re counting, or redeeming a first-born son or donkey!) from a priest?