Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
The hobby that spins yarns into scarves, hats, and sweaters has a community of devotees, for whom Forest Hills’ Rose Girone, 113, who died on Monday, February 24, of old age, was a legend. “She would drive in her little red convertible, she was in her late 80s,” said Dina Mor, owner of The Knitting Place in Port Washington on her podcast in 2021. “Then she celebrated her 90th birthday and went on a cruise.”
The most effective method of passing on Jewish values to the next generation is with Jewish education. Since 2017, the Queens-based nonprofit Chazaq has touched the lives of thousands of public school students and guided over 1,800 to transfer from public schools to yeshivos that fit their individual needs.
The heartbreak of Ariel, 4, and the nine-month-old Kfir Bibas brought back to their family in coffins, along with their mother Shiri, who was initially misidentified with a Gazan woman, was felt by all of Israel and its supporters worldwide. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered 14 state-operated sites to be lit in orange last Motza’ei Shabbos, the color of the boys’ hair in an expression of solidarity.
In every creative endeavor such as art and writing, artificial intelligence tools make the job easy and enable the ideas of people untrained in painting or photography to produce a high-quality work. The same can be said about journalism, in which AI can begin with an open-ended question and then follow up based on the respondent’s answers. Should this writer feel threatened by software?
Returning to my childhood neighborhood, it is easy to see how much things have changed. The massive reconstruction of the Beth Gavriel synagogue in Forest Hills continues, as its exterior receives a palatial look and a dome. Inside, the labyrinth of hallways and stairs have not yet been altered. On the second floor, a set of rabbinic portraits on the wall lead to the beis k’neses and the office of Rabbi Emanuel Shimonov, the Rav of Beth Gavriel.
Earlier this year, in a bid to reassure Jewish voters doubting the Democratic presidential candidate’s support for Israel, Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, who then suffered a crushing loss to Donald Trump.
