Community Corner

To my dear brothers and sisters in Kew Gardens Hills,

Please recite Psalms 20, 30, 88, 121, and 130. Gavriel ben Geulah

Eliezer Nasan ben Tzirel

Yaakov ben Yaffah

Olam Chesed distributes goods to needy families through a network of volunteers and partner charities, empowering them to lead healthy and productive lives. On Wednesday, March 18, Olam Chesed delivered over 50 packages to New Rochelle families under COVID-19 quarantine. A week later, Olam Chesed offered the same services to over 100 SAR families in Riverdale.

     People, especially the most vulnerable, are worried how they will survive this Coronavirus pandemic.  Hopefully, these resources will help.

     Instead of going to a hospital to get tested for the virus, one can go to go to the Northwell Health Urgent Care, 102-29 Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills, (718) 502-9798.  Call before going to make an appointment.  Staff will provide protective gear, like a mask, before allowing the person inside.

Life will always be filled with challenges – sometimes big, sometimes small. The key to staying calm and positive in challenging times is doing what we can to seek out and connect to the Source of simchah – to Hashem and the hidden light within ourselves, and those around us and the situations we find ourselves in.

The turn of world events that have unfolded since late December 2019 reportedly began in the commercial center of Central China’s Hubei province of Wuhan. Most of us here in the United States take kosher food for granted. Little do we know that much of the origins of our food’s raw ingredients originate at manufacturing plants from cities including Wuhan. The Queens Jewish Link had the opportunity to discuss the chronology of the events that unfurled in China, and the glimmers of hope that emerged, along with ideas of hashgachah pratis (divine intervention), with Rabbi Mordechai Grunberg, the Orthodox Union’s longtime rabbinic field representative in China. Rabbi Grunberg spent 12 years post high school in both Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim’s Forest Hills and Israel branches, earning semicha in 1981 and launching his career as a Rabbinic Coordinator in the OU under Rabbi Menachem Genack, the head of OU Kashruth, the same year. Rabbi Grunberg, known to friends simply as Motty, is no stranger to the Queens community, having sent his first three sons to Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe (YTM) and four daughters to the Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens before making aliyah to Eretz Yisrael in 1994. His daughter Tziporah married Yoni May, son of Rabbi Yaakov May (Menahel of YTM), further strengthening their family’s connection to our area. 

Like much else in our world, food technology has taken dazzling leaps forward, but the ever-present need of human touch has long been a pivotal tool behind kosher food production. With over 500 OU-certified Chinese plants, Rabbi Mordechai Grunberg’s hands have been full for over 25 years, taking about 15 overseas trips yearly, spending almost 200 days a year abroad. This translates to Rabbi Grunberg knowing the ins and outs of Chinese society, spending one Shabbos at home and then 11 days apart from his family. For their part, the Chinese plant workers have long recognized rabbinic certification as an integral part of daily life and one they take pride incorporating. Rabbi Grunberg explained that mastering the art of forming exemplary workings relationships with the Chinese took much time but, in the end, allowed for the cultivation of a serious adherence to kosher standards.