Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
On the hundredth day after Hamas breached the Gaza border and murdered the largest number of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, the Young Israel of West Hempstead hosted the volunteers who spent the past 15 weeks identifying the dead, comforting their survivors, and themselves.
Rabbi Chaim Isaac Flink, 76, the very humble tzadik who lived much of his life in Queens, died last Friday. On Motza’ei Shabbos, a crowd of mourners bid their farewells to the niftar in the borough where he learned, married, and built his Jewish home that hosted countless individuals from all walks of life.
For many couples living in West Hempstead, their careers have been established and they earned their home in the suburbs, but within themselves an emotional void developed, as work, parenting, and daily responsibilities leave little time for spouses to focus on each other. Perhaps that’s why, when the House of Torah shul recently hosted Rabbi Ben Zion Shafier of the Shmuz lecture series, the room was packed, and he was warmly welcomed by his talmid Rabbi Avichai Bensoussan.
With less than two months before the special election to fill the seat covering Long Island’s North Shore and the northeast corner of Queens, Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi flew to Israel on a solidarity visit as he seeks to regain his former seat.
In the days following the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Jewish communities across the diaspora mobilized to pray and donate funding and resources to the Israeli military, nonprofits, and affected communities. West Hempstead resident Michael Mandelstam joined these efforts, but he felt in this crucial moment, there was no substitute to being physically present in Israel to bear witness or offer assistance and encouragement. “Five or six of us were interested in going from day one, but we decided to wait until the last week of December when we were able to go with a strong group of 20 guys.”
The uptick in anti-Semitic incidents that followed the Hamas attack on Israel was evident in West Hempstead this past Halloween, when a minivan was sprayed with anti-Semitic words, and last month when a Chabad menorah was vandalized. Damage done to posters of captives held by Hamas also worried residents that such behavior could indicate potential for violence against people.
