News

Hamaspik expands to the Five Towns, filling a great need in the community

“For so many parents of children with special needs, getting services meant dealing with agencies from other communities who didn’t get our culture,” says Chava Laufer, OPWDD-HCBS regional manager in the Five Towns.  “We needed a local agency that can provide services catered to our every nuance. Hamaspik, ever on the lookout to service even more people even better, saw the opportunity to help people in the Five Towns.”

Central Queens Jewish Community Circle, CQJCC, founded in 2019 by Rebbetzin Mushky Mendelson of Congregation Machane Chodosh, began distributing the first of its 100 Thanksgiving/Chanukah gift packages to neighbors in Forest Hills and Rego Park earlier this week. The packages include Thanksgiving-themed challah rolls courtesy of Rashbag Challah.

Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal joined volunteers and community members to help distribute over 100 turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 1,500 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in American public policy, called this week for 450 progressive rabbis, organized by the New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA), to apologize for endorsing lockdowns against New York’s Orthodox community last year. Though supposedly intended to stop the spread of COVID-19, recently released testimony revealed that Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods were declared “hot spots” by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s political office against the determinations of New York State’s Department of Health.

Chazaq’s life-changing work is known throughout the Jewish community. Since their inception in 2006, tens of thousands of people from all backgrounds are inspired by their events and lectures each year. In fact, in the last 12 months alone, Chazaq organized over 545 lectures on a wide variety of topics from relationships to raising children, from anger management to overcoming addictions, and everything in between.

Congresswoman Grace Meng has long been an advocate for Jewish causes, especially those affecting her constituents. Ahead of Chanukah, Rep. Meng hosted an annual Chanukah reception this past Sunday at Union Plaza’s Flushing-based outdoor balcony. Attendees ran every gamut of the Queens political scene. Much appreciation is due to Meng's Jewish liaison Rabbi Daniel Pollack and her congressional staffer Anthony Lemma.