Shabsie Saphirstein

On Sunday evening, March 13, Dr. Elie and Golda Fried opened their home in honor of Congress Member Grace Meng in what has become an annual event on behalf of NORPAC. Always on the mission to promote and further the US-Israel relationship through fundraising efforts for Senators and Members of the House of Representatives who support the cause, NORPAC keeps its membership alert through emails and their annual Mission to Washington, this year presented virtually on the week of May 9. The May mission, chaired in part by Kew Gardens Hills resident David Steinberg of Summit Funding, will include meetings discussing critical issues affecting the US-Israel relationship with over 400 Congressional offices. Other issues set to be discussed include crucial security aid to Israel, how best to counter Iran, and combating anti-Semitism.

My child is falling behind in school. Where do I turn? The resource room does not seem to be enough for my youngster. My family needs direction.

The Project Inspire Convention held this past weekend at the prestigious Armon Hotel & Conference in Stamford, Connecticut, was in true form inspiring. Project Inspire believes in creating a movement of unity and mutual inspiration by sharing the beauty and wisdom of our common heritage and the gift of the Torah with our fellow Jews by creating one friendship at a time.

Last Wednesday, the Queens Jewish Link marked its ten-year milestone with a spectacular networking event in Kew Gardens Hills that brought out many from the Queens community and beyond.

At the 1997 Agudah convention, Rabbi Moshe Sherer announced the formation of Am Echad, with the intention to present Israeli leadership with a unified voice from American Orthodox Jewry and counter the propaganda of the Reform and Conservative movements. The rabbi soon led a mission with the theme of geirus. Rabbi Pesach Lerner, then executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, was the mission’s co-chairman. Rabbi Lerner has remained an active member and today is the Chairman of the Eretz HaKodesh party in the World Zionist Organization.

P’eylim Lev L’Achim has a longstanding relationship with the Queens community in their mission of bringing the families of Israel closer to Torah. As the largest kiruv organization in Eretz Yisrael, their work on saving the next generation of klal Yisrael is known worldwide. Their last Kew Gardens Hills fundraiser, at the home of Dr. Elie and Golda Fried, was held just as COVID was beginning to take shape in the last week of February 2020. At that event, Rav Aharon Walkin z”l took the podium for one of his final public appearances. The momentum from that evening held Queens strong during the past two years until we gathered again this past Wednesday evening, February 16, for an event that will long be remembered.