News

Met Council on Jewish Poverty owns and operates 19 buildings of affordable housing across New York City. This week, for the first time since the waiting list was closed five years ago, Met Council is reopening their waiting list for a beautiful building in Canarsie to allow seniors the chance to live in affordable housing with great amenities including a laundry room, community room and park-like grounds with a garden area. Council Towers III is a 122-unit, 12-story building located in the heart of the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. Met Council’s affiliated Jewish Community Council of Canarsie is also located in the building complex. As a subsidiary of Met Council, they provide a wide array of services to both seniors living in Council Towers and the rest of the neighborhood.

QJA registers over 500 voters in two weeks

Residents from Far Rockaway, Kew Gardens Hills, Kew Gardens, and Rego Park came together to launch the Queens Jewish Alliance (QJA) with a free community concert at the beach on Thursday evening, July 11. Their weather outlook of rain and thunderstorms did not stop the over 250 people who came to hear the eloquent notes of Shea Rubenstein and Joey Newcomb at O’Donohue Park, off Seagirt Boulevard, between Beach 15^th and Beach 17^th Streets.

Tuesday, July 15, seemed like any other Tuesday at the eight a.m. Shacharis minyan at the Young Israel of Hillcrest. But this day held a special significance. On this day, Mr. Aron Beidner was to celebrate his 102^nd birthday – only he had no idea that a celebration was about to take place after davening. I only found out about this special birthday because our chief gabbai, Yossi Lebovitch, told me so the day before.

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens has achieved The Joint Commission’s Advanced Disease Specific Certification for Primary Stroke Centers. The program was recently recertified for two years.

While the Book of T’hilim was composed mainly by King David, the Gemara (Maseches Bava Basra 14b) enumerates ten authors who composed individual psalms other than King David. The Gemara speaks of these men as “Asarah Z’keinim,” ten great scholars endowed with profound wisdom and prophetic insight, which enabled them to compose such sacred texts. Psalm 139 was attributed to Adam HaRishon. Another psalm was composed by King Malki-Tzedek. Psalm 89 is attributed to Avraham Avinu. There are 11 hymns composed by Moshe Rabbeinu. There are several chants composed by the L’vi’im who officiated as singers in the Beis HaMikdash.

Dr. Sheldon Schwartz, a long-retired healthcare innovator, turned 100 on July 21. 

 At the age of 95, Dr. Schwartz took up playing bridge at his local JASA senior center. It was there he met and soon married his bridge partner Marlene Wadler, 86, his second wife.