Local

From his home in Riverdale, Dr. Avraham (Avi) Henoch can see the Palisades and the Hudson River, where he sails as a hobby. Seven years ago, he applied his love of the ocean in service of the country and the Jewish community, serving as a volunteer medical officer for the US Coast Guard.

To an outside observer, a Chabad located in a thriving Orthodox community with multiple shuls seems counterintuitive, but the Chabad of West Hempstead inspires observant families as it reaches out to unaffiliated Jews.

Among the friends in Kew Gardens Hills whom I’ve known for many years are Michael and Chipper Perlman, whose lives are as local as it gets. He grew up in Hillcrest and she is from Monsey. They attended Queens College, got engaged on the Brooklyn Bridge, and settled in Kew Gardens Hills. Last month, they moved out of their apartment and reappeared in West Hempstead, where many of their former neighbors have relocated.

With the resignation of Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal earlier this month, the 27th District, which covers Kew Gardens Hills, College Point, Whitestone, and a part of Forest Hills, will have its special election on Tuesday, September 12, to fill the vacancy. By law, the candidates of the major parties are selected by district leaders, and they run to fill the remaining portion of Rosenthal’s term. They can then run again next year for a full term.

The most diverse borough in the world twice hosted the World’s Fair - in 1939 and again in 1964. The first Fair was the largest in the history of such expositions, but it was overshadowed by World War II, in which the Czechoslovak and Polish pavilions were orphaned as their homelands were snuffed by Nazi Germany. The second Fair, at Flushing Meadows, had its own controversies, which related not as much to war as the rules governing a World’s Fair.

This past week, there were two Jewish individuals in the news on account of their captivity by hostile forces. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 31, marked his 100^th day under arrest by Russian authorities on the accusation of spying, while Princeton doctoral student Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, a dual Israeli-Russian citizen, was captured by Islamic militants in Iraq.