Community Corner

Few people realize that there is a whole community of hidden Jews in Puerto Rico who can trace their ancestry back to the Conversos in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. Can you imagine being brought up as a Christian and finding out that the family you never met and the quiet secret your family was hiding was that you were really a Jew and your family was descendants of Conversos from the 1400s?

On Wednesday evening, September 18, Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser wowed an audience at Congregation Anshei Shalom in Jamaica Estates with a shiur on how to do tikun ha’nefesh (repairing the soul).

He stated that “we all need a lot of refurbishing before the Y’mei HaDin. Sometimes a person doesn’t know where to start.”

On Motza’ei Shabbos, Hoshana Rabbah, Chazaq and TorahAnytime hosted two all-night learning events in Queens, one in the Young Israel of Forest Hills and one in Congregation Ohel Simcha.

On Motza’ei Shabbos, September 14, Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss spoke at Congregation Nachlas Yitzchok on the topic of not giving up. He began by lauding the organization Chickens for Shabbos. “It’s basics. It’s chayim.”

The Rambam taught that we are commanded to emulate Hashem. There are so many quotes in Tanach that illustrate how Hashem takes care of the poor and needy. It says in T’hilim 146, “He performs justice for the oppressed. He gives bread to the hungry.” In Mishlei, it states, “Blessed is he who is generous to the poor.” T’hilim 112 states, “Widely distributed charity he dispersed to the needy.” Leviticus says, “And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of the vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.”

An overflow crowd of women from all parts of Queens and beyond gathered at Congregation Ner Mordechai in Kew Gardens on Monday evening, September 23, to show support for Bikur Cholim D’Satmar and to honor the worthy honorees of the annual Bikur Cholim D’Satmar Queens Chapter Tea.