Community Corner

The annual event that provides spiritual inspiration for Chabad rabbis across the world for the coming year usually gathers thousands of them in hangar-sized meeting venues with world-renowned keynote speakers followed by a farbrengen, breakout sessions, and visits to Crown Heights and the Rebbe’s Ohel. This year’s Kinus HaShluchim, held this week, had more people in attendance than any of its previous conventions, on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

Term-limited Councilman Rory Lancman resigned his seat on Wednesday for a new position created by Governor Andrew Cuomo - Special Counsel for Ratepayer Protection - which represents the interests of consumers in relation to utility companies and telecom providers. With his departure from City Hall, a nonpartisan special election will determine the next Council Member to represent the district with the largest Jewish population in Queens.

In the election earlier this month, there were many positions on the ballot, including a line for judge to the Queens Supreme Court, where a familiar last name appeared: Lancman. But this time, it was Mojgan Cohanim Lancman, who was elected to the bench, making her the first Persian Jew in this position. “In New York, the Supreme Court is a trial court, with two appellate levels after it. It is a court of general jurisdiction, and it hears all kinds of matters,” she said.

There is a mountainous region populated by an ethno-religious group with centuries of history but not one country recognizes its claim to that region. If you thought that I was referring to the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, you may not have heard that there is a war happening at this time in Nagorno-Karabakh. Internationally, this Caucasus region is regarded as part of Azerbaijan, but nearly all of the people living there are ethnic Armenians who have their own self-declared state, the Republic of Artsakh. In the course of the past month, Azerbaijan has been fighting a war to recapture Karabakh and restore land to ethnic Azeris who were expelled from there a quarter century ago.

This past Motza’ei Shabbos, the social hall of Congregation Ner Mordechai in Kew Gardens had the look of a thrift shop, with ample clothing, household items, toys, and shoes. The free items distribution was organized by Chazaq in partnership with Chickens for Shabbos, to benefit teachers at local day schools.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has shaken many long-held assumptions about the Jewish community as it confronts a crisis of leadership, finance, and faith. In Queens, the divisions within the Jewish community were laid bare last Monday when Governor Andrew Cuomo declared in a press conference, “We’re going to close the schools in those areas tomorrow, and that’s that.”