News

The Bukharian community in Phoenix, Arizona, is thriving, with hundreds of families settling in the Grand Canyon State over the past two decades. The economy and housing market has grown dramatically during this time, and the Jewish community has benefited greatly.

Nearly seven decades after he founded the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, a decade after he retired as the synagogue’s full-time spiritual leader, and six months after he passed away, Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld zt”l was honored in a virtual tribute event this week.

This past Friday evening, June 25, congregants and neighbors of the Bukharian shul Ner Mordechai Congregation in Kew Gardens were left in alarm after a homemade boxed firework, similar to an M-80 firecracker, exploded just outside its gated enclosure at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard around 7:45 p.m. There were no known injuries or damage to infrastructure. As a precaution, the bomb squad, fire marshal, and police remained to investigate.

Residents of Kew Gardens Hills and Forest Hills have been subjected to the harassment of Alexander Anthony Soto for many months. The 50-something-year-old would regularly torment passersby as he stood at busy intersections holding high a handmade sign reading, “Jews pay police to kill children.” The signage depicted his convoluted conspiracy theory and suggested an array of proof to his assertion. Back on April 13, I personally responded on behalf of Queens Borough Safety Patrol-Shmira to the Main Street bus stop just off Jewel Avenue after a call of a disturbance was phoned in. At that time, and in the many that followed, due to the nature of freedom of speech laws, the NYPD has been unable to significantly intervene. Shmira volunteers and NYPD officers would regularly urge the man to carry on his day and eventually he would board a bus. Soto was often seen traveling via an MTA bus, affixing the sign into the window for onlookers to notice as he traveled along the predominantly Orthodox Jewish areas of Main Street towards Jewel Avenue, and Jewel Avenue towards Continental Avenue.

The Gluck Beis Midrash Minyan of the Young Israel of Forest Hills conducted its annual exciting basketball tournament on Saturday night, June 19. The program, held in the Bnos Malka Academy gymnasium, attracted eager players for the three-on-three matchups. Each team competed quite hard, but alas only four were allotted playoff slots.

AMIT is holding its annual Yom Iyun, a day of learning for women and by women on Wednesday, July 14, at 9:30 a.m.