Community Corner

After over a month of being confined to our homes, school children have shown their dedication! Keeping up with school remotely is a major challenge for both children and parents trying to assist in their children’s learning! Thanks to a pop-up global initiative called “Beshivticha B’veisecha” (commonly referred to as The Beshivticha program), hundreds of children got the motivation they needed to bring out their best in these trying times!

A deeply moving virtual Yom HaShoah program for the faculty and students of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls was held on Zoom on Tuesday, April 21.

MTA hosted a meaningful virtual Yom HaShoah program on Tuesday, April 21, which focused on faith and resilience during difficult times. The program featured NYC Council Member Mark Levine, who represents the 7^th District, including parts of Washington Heights, and chairs the Council’s Committee on Health. Councilman Levine discussed the importance of resilience in fighting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and also shared the living examples of resilience he has seen in the Holocaust survivors he works with through the Council’s Holocaust Survivor Initiative, which he founded.

Since the pandemic started, JEP/Nageela has still been providing original and fun interactive content to dozens of Jewish children each week. Some of the popular programming include the “WhoDa Thunk?!” bi-weekly game show with prizes; “Phoneg” Shabbat onegs, and online reunions that have brought kids together from all over the country.

Central held a very meaningful Yom HaShoah program on Tuesday, led by Rabbi Joshua Strulowitz and the seniors from his History of the Holocaust elective. After a brief introduction by Rabbi Strulowitz, the student body was divided into breakout groups. Each group heard from three groups of seniors, each senior group speaking about a European city that was deeply affected by the Holocaust.

At a time when the world is quiet, people are scared and confused, and personal lives have become isolated, remembering those who have perished in the Holocaust and those who survived and the strength they conjured to get by each minute takes on an even greater meaning. As time distances us from the Shoah, our connection to living survivors also becomes distant. On Tuesday, April 21, the Yeshiva of Central Queens presented two Yom HaShoah programs on Zoom to remind us of the importance it is to be Jews, to fight and stand up for what we know is right, and to take accountability for our obligation and our responsibility to really listen to their stories, to learn from those stories, to remember them, and to pass the stories of living testimony on to our children.