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The countercultural ice cream company, famous for “punny” flavor names, took a dip into Middle Eastern politics on Monday in a tweet announcing its boycott of Israel. “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.”

With a cast holding up his left arm, Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky, 41, of Boston, spoke in Hebrew at a rally against anti-Semitism on Sunday in Washington. “I was born in the Soviet Union, in the city of St. Petersburg; I remember how even as a young child I experienced terrible anti-Semitism. Never in my darkest dreams did I imagine that I would experience it here in the United States.”

Three weeks after the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union representing City University faculty, passed an anti-Israel resolution that urged the nation’s largest urban public university to boycott Israel, an anonymous letter authored by NYC Educators for Palestine, seeks to do the same for the city’s public schools.

Among the alphabet soup of organizations representing the Jewish population of New York, there are a few that originated in a time when consensus existed despite the religious and political divides. Rabbi Michael Miller of the Jewish Community Council of New York (JCRC-NY) is respected across the Jewish spectrum for his pro-Israel advocacy, outreach to elected officials, and combating anti-Semitism.

For three days last week, the West Hempstead community celebrated the new building of Bais Torah U’Tefilah (BTU) at 401 Hempstead Avenue. It began on Thursday evening with the first Minchah minyan that was followed by Rabbi Eytan Feiner as the guest speaker. “Hashem trusts us even when we don’t necessarily trust ourselves. He trusts us to turn this mikdash m’at into a place of k’dushah,” said Rabbi Uri Lesser, mara d’asra of BTU. “There are too many nissim that happened over the past year that show HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted this.”

With the ranked choice vote being used for the first time in citywide races, it is too early to declare a winner in the races for mayor, comptroller, and public advocate. Across the five boroughs, there are 5,901 voting precincts where Tuesday’s ballots are counted, along with absentee and early votes submitted ahead of time. Also in play are the second and third choices of voters that could determine the outcome if there is no candidate with the majority of the votes. We may have to wait until the middle of July to know the next mayor of New York.