Community Corner

It was announced earlier this month that the Nova Music Festival exhibit in Lower Manhattan would be extended until June 22. This occurred in light of, or perhaps because of, unprecedented anti-Semitic incidents nationwide, including nasty demonstrations just outside it at 35 Wall Street. The exhibit, which memorialized the lives senselessly killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, came to New York City on April 21, and just days ahead of its closing, “more than 100,000 visitors have walked through the Lower Manhattan space during its two-month run, according to organizers – with a notable uptick over the past week,” as reported by JTA.

HANC Middle School’s Eighth Grade Graduation took place on Wednesday, June 19, in the gym of our illustrious yeshivah. The gym was adorned with balloons and a “2024” arch. The graduates looked extremely proud as they walked down the aisle, and their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were certainly shepping a lot of nachas.

Thousands of children receiving special education services in New York State are now at risk of losing those services, due to an amendment proposed by the New York State Board of Regents.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 2,500 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in American public policy, Tuesday lamented the decision by Hebrew Union College (HUC), the flagship seminary of the Reform Judaism movement, to admit and ordain rabbinical candidates in interfaith relationships. This comes after the board of HUC dropped its ban prohibiting students from being in a relationship with a person of another faith.

On Tuesday night, June 18, community members gathered at the Bukharian Jewish Congregation of Hillcrest to hear an inspiring shiur by Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, well-known speaker and author, on the topic of watching our words.

For a decade and a half, Rav Wolfson made an annual visit to Kew Gardens Hills

The Torah world was thrown into mourning this past Motza’ei Shabbos shortly after midnight, with the p’tirah of Rav Moshe Wolfson ztk”l, 99. In the 1960s, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rosh HaYeshivah at Mesivta Torah Vodaath of Kensington, Brooklyn, appointed Rav Wolfson, a beloved magid shiur, to be Mashgiach Ruchani at the Torah citadel where he had been one of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz’s closest talmidim. Rav Wolfson was also the longtime mara d’asra at the Yeshiva’s summer getaway Camp Torah Vodaath, as well as at Beis Midrash Emunas Yisrael of Boro Park, which gained its namesake off the Rav’s everlasting principle of stressing the unique value of faith in our generation. Rav Wolfson, one of the most revered rabbinic figures of our time, delivered a down-to-earth experience to all he encountered.