Susie Garber

On Wednesday evening, October 22, community women of all ages gathered at Ohel Simcha for an uplifting and inspiring Rosh Chodesh shiur hosted by Chazaq and delivered by the well-known inspirational speaker, Charlene Aminoff.

Strolling in the Beis David neighborhood in Yerushalayim, this writer and her husband passed a building with a plaque and stopped to read it. We discovered it was the Rav Kook House Museum. When we stepped inside, we were transported back in time to explore the life of the great tzadik, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook.

On Sunday evening, September 14, Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, well-known speaker and author, shared a beautiful shiur on behalf of Chazaq at Kehilat Ohr Ve’achdut in Jamaica Estates.

“This is the spot where Rav Yitzchak Luria first sang the famous nigun for L’cha Dodi on Friday night,” a tour guide for a Birthright group shared as he recounted history and miraculous stories that took place in Tzfat.

On Sunday evening, September 15, the Kew Gardens Hills community gathered at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills to dedicate the new Congregation Mikveh Israel, the Beverly Blisko Women’s Mikveh. The scene was alive with warmth and an ruach, as neighbors, rabbanim, and supporters came together to mark a true simchah for the community.

“When I heard the horrific news on October 7, I wanted to jump on a plane from America and be there for my brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael!” Although she wasn’t able to do that then, two years later, Audrey Abramowitz, educator and New Jersey resident, shared her recent experience volunteering with her fiancé, David Newton, a realtor and New Jersey resident, at the Shuva Achim Junction at the entrance of Shuva near the border of Gaza.