Local

When 4,515 Jews aboard “The Exodus” attempted to break the British blockade of then-Palestine, a British Navy cruiser and four destroyers were there to stop them in 1947. However, it became a public relations disaster for Britain and paved the way for the creation of the modern State of Israel.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 2,000 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in matters of American public policy, last week castigated New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage for banning Florida Governor Ron DeSantis from speaking at the Museum as part of an upcoming event. The CJV rabbis criticized the Museum for using language of inclusivity to “demonize and exclude,” and politicizing a memorial to the Holocaust.

US Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens), New York’s senior appropriator on the House Appropriations Committee, encouraged local houses of worship and nonprofit organizations to start preparing their applications for the federal government’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program if they are interested in seeking funding from the initiative this year.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) last week called upon the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to retract its statement issued April 16 entitled, “ISNA Condemns Israeli Violence Against Palestinian Worshipers.” CJV pointed to numerous factual errors in the statement, which, taken together, could easily be characterized as promoting a false narrative, encouraging anti-Semitism, and even fomenting violence.

When most people think of a men’s night out, it usually revolves around sports, but Emet Outreach recently drew a crowd of almost 60 married men for an evening of conversation. Part of the ever-expanding programming in its Couples’ Division, the theme was “Asking for a Friend.” The forum was a Q&A session with Rabbi Akiva Rutenberg, LMSW, and Dr. Akiva Perlman, a noted mental health expert, which covered the topics of connection, intimacy, and creating meaningful relationships.

Yeshiva University partnered with Cross River, a local financial institution, to host an innovative Hackathon that saw 35 computer science students get creative and think outside the box to help improve healthcare technology.