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What would have been the 50th Jubilee year of Dr. Paul Brody of Great Neck chanting Megillat Esther, and 20 years of Dr. Brody instructing students of the North Shore Hebrew Academy (NSHA) Middle School in Great Neck, in a program he instituted in 2002 - when he observed that almost no young people knew how to read the Megillah - took a strange “twist” when he unfortunately took a slip on an icy patch, landing him in extended rehabilitation after complex surgery. Dr. Brody has instructed approximately 400 seventh and eighth-graders, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, who have chanted Megillat Esther in a unique student-led service for their schoolmates, faculty and families, on Purim Day.

New Virtual Platform Facilitated Unprecedented International Participation

For the first time in its 14-year history, the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Community Home Relocation Fair was held virtually in mid-February, enabling attendees worldwide to take part. Even more remarkable, however, was that participants joined from 35 US states and 18 countries, including Austria, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, Nigeria, and Venezuela.

It was an evening of remembrance, and also an evening to remember, surely not to be forgotten by the nearly 2,000 attendees. It was an evening to see and hear moments that may have receded into our subconscious, to be awakened with the same degree of happiness, or, perhaps, to an even greater degree of joy than the first experience. So many of us in the audience, were delighting in — and for an all-too-brief time — returning to childhood memories, replete with adolescent obsessions with songs and, possibly also with the then young, enthusiastic, performers, whose glowing joy and spirituality echoed our own searching, tumultuous youthful fervor!  

On Monday, February 28, Agudath Israel of America filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in a case that could expand transportation services for many nonpublic school students across New York State. The case examines whether school districts in New York State must provide transportation to nonpublic school students on all days that their schools are in session, even if public schools are closed. Brought by the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove on behalf of students and their parents against the Washingtonville Central School District and the New York State Education Department, the case challenges the existing policy of only providing nonpublic school transportation when public schools are open.

In Megillas Esther, Hashem’s name is not mentioned, but He’s there – running the show behind the scenes. So, too, in every difficulty in our lives, Hashem is right there with us, even if we can’t see Him.

For its third annual comedy night, Fleetwood Synagogue went back to the man who started it all, British comedian Ashley Blaker.