Community Corner

Dr. Minutello will lead the new Heart Valve Center, the only center in Queens to Offer TAVR

Robert M. Minutello, MD, an interventional cardiologist with a long history at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, has been named director of the cardiac catheterization lab and director of the structural heart disease program at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, where he will also lead the new Heart Valve Center.

Many of the tree-lined streets in Kew Gardens Hills will be getting an upgrade of sorts throughout the remainder of July. The annoyances of partial sidewalk closures, loss of parking, and blocked driveways will pave the way to brighter, fuller, and more vibrant city blocks with added greenery. The expansion of the green garden program will include installations along various roads in our area. Affected roadways include Parsons Boulevard between Jewel Avenue and 72^nd Avenue; 71^st Avenue between Park Avenue and Kissena Boulevard, and between 150^th Street and Vleigh Place; and 72^nd Avenue between 150^th Street and Vleigh Place.

Hadar Bet Yaakov, Queens’ newest Bais Yaakov high school for girls, is spanning its wings into summer time with HBY Connects events via Zoom on a variety of topics. Mrs. Malkie Ribowsky, Assistant Principal, Kodesh, led girls in an HBY Connects evening, focusing on Shabbat, and what we can do to connect and make Shabbat meaningful for us. She spoke about the “gift” from Hashem that Shabbat was for Jews everywhere, and went on from there to try to personalize that gift for students. Girls talked about what they were able to do to make Shabbat special: baking special cookies, cakes, sweet bakery delicacies, and even artistic table settings – all things that they were able to do themselves to “bring to the table” and make Shabbat beautiful.

“I have never seen anything like this at a Dirshu test! I have been taking Dirshu tests for twelve years straight rarely missing a test, month in month out, winter and summer,” said Reb Moshe Baum, “but I never saw such simcha as this time! The picture in my mind of the lomdim springing out of their seats and starting to dance was a snapshot that I will never forget.”

Think of it as a sukkah hop without the sukkos.

Moving into a new community can be difficult even in the best of times. During this pandemic, it is even harder to get to know your new friends and neighbors.

The three-week period that begins with the fast of the 17th of Tamuz and climaxes with Tish’ah B’Av, is known as The Three Weeks. It is a time of mourning and reflection for the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as many other tragedies that befell klal Yisrael over the course of history. In order to internalize and grow from the memory of these calamities, Chazal instituted increasing degrees of mourning practices during this period.