News

The lopsided special election result in favor of Councilman Jim Gennaro could have been a story about anti-Semitic tweets, social media expectations versus reality, and a community that pulled above its weight in voter turnout. But that’s not what the public read on Gothamist this past weekend in its coverage of the February 2 special election for Council District 24.

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, 90, the internationally-acclaimed psychiatrist and author, died in Israel last Sunday after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He is remembered as a talmid chacham, born to a family of distinguished chasidic lineage, and at the same time an expert in his professional field who addressed substance abuse, domestic abuse, and self-esteem in more than 80 books and articles.

Every movement needs a publication to bring its voices together and disseminate its ideas to a global audience. For religious Zionists, HaMizrachi Magazine provides this connection with articles on mitzvos that relate to the land of Israel, such as the fruits of Tu BiSh’vat, and the Israeli holidays of Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom HaZikaron. The movement also has a bureau of speakers and tools for educators to connect the religious diaspora with the Land of Israel.

When a Queens resident chooses to relocate to West Hempstead, one can think of the many ways that these two communities are similar. The World’s Borough has Flushing Meadows, with its two lakes as the largest open space within walking distance of the neighborhood. West Hempstead has Halls Pond, which is tiny in comparison to Meadow Lake, but within a five-minute drive from this pond is a much larger waterway inside a park. When my friends on Long Island ask for things to do during a week off from school, I remind them that there are scenic spots close to home, ideal for a hike during a pandemic.

 Emboldened by their recent electoral gains within the Democratic Party, leftists are tweeting angrily that we’ve called out their anti-Israel views in this publication. “I didn’t think I’d have to call out bad faith attacks using antisemitism as a weapon against progressives twice in one month, but here we are,” Mel Gagarin tweeted on Monday.

 In my ongoing research on the ancestry of my family, certain cities and individuals inspire days of reading before I return to the main focus of my genealogy. Between the Russian Revolution and the outbreak of World War II, the Kadinsky family lived in Gomel, Belarus, known in Yiddish and Belarusian as Homel. During this period, religious observance in my family had gradually lapsed, but in this city there were two notable rabbis who stared down the communists, and I’ve wondered whether my ancestors had any interactions with them.