Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
Congregation Etz Chaim filled with community members on Wednesday evening, June 5 (Yom Yerushalayim), anxious to hear from the speaker, Shabbos Kestenbaum, a graduate student at Harvard University. As part of the Yom Yerushalayim program at the shul, Shabbos Kestenbaum spoke about his extremely challenging experiences of anti-Semitism at Harvard Law School this year.
This writer had the honor to interview Staff Sergeant Mordechay Shenveld, an IDF soldier and accomplished violinist, who was wounded in Gaza. He is someone with a mission and, baruch Hashem, he has a beautiful message he wants to spread, and he is speaking all over North America and Israel. He spoke in Montreal, Kingston (Ontario), Miami, Chicago, and New Jersey, and he is heading to Los Angeles.
The weather was perfect on Sunday, May 26, as runners and walkers gathered in the public school yard near the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates for the 22nd annual L’Chaim 5K Run/Walk for Israel. The Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was the main sponsor, as always. Boots for Israel, a chesed organization that has sent 52,000 pairs of new boots with personalized notes to Israeli soldiers, was set up next to a table for the organization Israel Chesed Center, which also sends gear to soldiers.
On Wednesday evening, May 29, community members gathered at the Schwartz Brothers-Jeffer Memorial Chapels for a fascinating lecture by Nick Hirshon, author, journalism professor, and media historian.
Can you imagine adopting six babies with Down syndrome?
On Sunday night, May 19, an overflow crowd of community women gathered at the home of Sima Mandelbaum to show support for the Erna Lindenfeld Hachnosas Kallah Fund of Queens and to hear an inspiring lecture paying tribute to the beloved mothers in our lives. Mrs. Brenda Katina, a mother par excellence, shared her experience of raising six special-needs children with Down syndrome.
On Sunday night, May 19, Rabbi Joey Haber, Rav of the Magen David Shul (in Flatbush) and well-known speaker, spoke on behalf of Chazaq at the Torah Cener of Hillcrest on the topic of “Anti-Semitism, the Jewish Perspective.” The shiur was l’ilui nishmas Eliyahu ben Stam, Liza Brachah bas Ketziya, Rabbi Michael Haber z”l, and HaRav Menachem ben Chanah.
