Sergey Kadinsky

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, 90, the internationally-acclaimed psychiatrist and author, died in Israel last Sunday after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He is remembered as a talmid chacham, born to a family of distinguished chasidic lineage, and at the same time an expert in his professional field who addressed substance abuse, domestic abuse, and self-esteem in more than 80 books and articles.

 Emboldened by their recent electoral gains within the Democratic Party, leftists are tweeting angrily that we’ve called out their anti-Israel views in this publication. “I didn’t think I’d have to call out bad faith attacks using antisemitism as a weapon against progressives twice in one month, but here we are,” Mel Gagarin tweeted on Monday.

Every movement needs a publication to bring its voices together and disseminate its ideas to a global audience. For religious Zionists, HaMizrachi Magazine provides this connection with articles on mitzvos that relate to the land of Israel, such as the fruits of Tu BiSh’vat, and the Israeli holidays of Yom HaAtzmaut and Yom HaZikaron. The movement also has a bureau of speakers and tools for educators to connect the religious diaspora with the Land of Israel.

The block of Queens Boulevard between 65^th and 66^th Avenues in Rego Park has been an anomaly for decades, with its single-story storefronts rather than towers befitting of a major traffic artery. In the past year, one such business that will likely be replaced with a high-rise is Parkside Memorial Chapels, which has been serving the funeral needs of many Jews in Queens since 1961.

When a Queens resident chooses to relocate to West Hempstead, one can think of the many ways that these two communities are similar. The World’s Borough has Flushing Meadows, with its two lakes as the largest open space within walking distance of the neighborhood. West Hempstead has Halls Pond, which is tiny in comparison to Meadow Lake, but within a five-minute drive from this pond is a much larger waterway inside a park. When my friends on Long Island ask for things to do during a week off from school, I remind them that there are scenic spots close to home, ideal for a hike during a pandemic.

 In my ongoing research on the ancestry of my family, certain cities and individuals inspire days of reading before I return to the main focus of my genealogy. Between the Russian Revolution and the outbreak of World War II, the Kadinsky family lived in Gomel, Belarus, known in Yiddish and Belarusian as Homel. During this period, religious observance in my family had gradually lapsed, but in this city there were two notable rabbis who stared down the communists, and I’ve wondered whether my ancestors had any interactions with them.