Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
The city’s largest Jewish nonprofit works closely with the mayor in assisting the neediest individuals with food, housing, and other services. With an election this year, it hosted six mayoral candidates in an online forum on Monday, where they spoke of their vision for post-COVID New York City.
When a candidate for City Council speaks out against anti-Semitism, such a statement is expected in the city with the country’s largest Jewish population. Likewise, when that candidate meets with a popular online Jewish news publication, she appears to be making the right moves in getting the word out among Jewish voters.
This past Monday, the Stop & Shop supermarket on Hempstead Turnpike in West Hempstead reopened following the killing of store manager Ray Wishropp on April 20 by a former employee. Neighbors of this popular supermarket expressed solidarity with Wishropp’s family, and the two shooting survivors who also worked at the store.
When one relocates from Queens to the suburbs, very quickly there is a realization that government functions are conducted differently across the county line. There are multiple units of government that each levies taxes, holds elections, and has overlapping boundaries. Certain public services are provided not by governments, but private companies, as in the case of West Hempstead’s water supply.
When North Woodmere resident Eytan Israelov, 24, was accepted to the nursing school at Columbia University, he was proud to be accepted to the Ivy League school but also noticed the school’s logo, a crown topped by a cross in the highly specific color called Columbia Blue. He was not offended by the logo that predates this country’s independence, but wanted to personalize his graduation gown in a way that celebrates his Jewish identity.
Sam Weinreich outlived the Nazis by decades and, at the age of 101, continues to share his story of survival with meticulous details. “Lodz had the most Jews in Poland after Warsaw. I was one of nine children, five brothers, four sisters. I was the only one who survived,” he said.
