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At the White House Chanukah Party on Wednesday, December 11, President Donald Trump hosted Chabad rabbis and rubbed elbows with Jewish-American patriots like Alan Dershowitz, Robert Kraft, Rosalee Glass (a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor), Israel’s Ambassador Ron Dermer, and Jewish members of Congress.

Every year around this time, we all ask the same basic question: “What do I want to give for shalach manos this year?” But no one really asks, “What do the people around me want to get?”  Isn’t it about the receiver? 

The cold temperature did not deter nearly 25,000 people from expressing solidarity against anti-Semitism in a historic rally that began in downtown Manhattan. Billed as the “No Hate, No Fear Solidarity March,” the rally kicked off at Foley Square, with a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, concluding with speeches and performers at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn. “Thousands of New Yorkers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge today to send a message: We have no tolerance for anti-Semitism and hate,” Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted, with a video of the march.

In a cavernous conference hall at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Downtown DC last week, over 18,000 delegates from across the US and Israel and around the world thundered with cheers over highly partisan addresses by an all-star roster of Trump administration-affiliated speakers, including Vice President Mike Pence, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. During their speeches and others, the crowd gave standing ovations for mentions of President Donald Trump, while references to leading Democrats like Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Representative Ilhan Omar, and former President Barack Obama drew resounding boos.

A week after the massive rally against hate that marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, a smaller but equally vocal demonstration took place at MacDonald Park in Forest Hills, put together by young political activists in the Queens Jewish community. “Never did I imagine that in a modern and accepting society that I would be speaking to denounce anti-Semitism in New York City, the most diverse place in the world,” said organizer David Aronov.

On Motza’ei Shabbos, February 29, almost 800 parents, community leaders, faculty members, family, and friends gathered to celebrate the 79^th Anniversary Dinner of the Yeshiva of Central Queens at the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation. It was an evening celebrating a distinguished group of honorees.