Community Corner

Recently, at a Shalom Task Force educational workshop that I gave at a college, a student asked: “How does someone know how to have a healthy relationship?”

The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) last week denounced a new pro-BDS resolution put forth by Rep. Ilhan Omar that affirms that “all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”

The Rabbinical Alliance of America (Igud HaRabbonim), representing over 950 American rabbis, publicly corrects United States House of Representative Rashida Tlaib’s inaccurate comparison of Israel to United States segregation. Representative Tlaib stated that “there is continued dehumanization and racist policies by the State of Israel that violate international human rights, but also violate my core values of who I am as an American.” Tlaib’s comments were published in an interview this past Saturday by Jacobin, a Democratic Socialist magazine based in New York that offers leftist perspectives on American politics.

The word t’hilim is the same lashon as the words “tahel or” (“flash forth light”) (Iyov 41:10), because in T’hilim there is only a Great Light. There is no power for din [judgment] to be m’katreig [prosecute]; there is pure rachamim [compassion] and it “sweetens” everything. Therefore, the songs of David HaMelech are called t’hilim, through which it’s possible to work wonders, and there is found no Satan and no bad mishap” (Noam Elimelech, Likutei Shoshanah).

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens has received the Mission: Lifeline® Gold Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks. NewYork-Presbyterian Queens is the only hospital in Queens to receive this distinction. This marks the second year in a row that the hospital has received this gold level award.

Over the past week, klal Yisrael united in prayers upon hearing about a rabbi in Virginia who jumped into the ocean to save a 13-year-old student and then was swept up by a rip current and out to sea himself. We held our collective breath during the dramatic five days of the search for him, first as a rescue mission led by the US Coast Guard, and eventually in a recovery mission. On Sunday afternoon, his body was finally found by a Misaskim boat off the coast of North Carolina. But who was this rabbi, previously unknown to klal Yisrael at large, who gave his life to save a student, who united us in prayer?