Local

How did a homeless teen sleeping at a Starbucks in Times Square become a Chabad shliach, husband, and father of three with a fourth on the way? The story of Rabbi Matisyahu Devlin was shared on Tu BiSh’vat earlier this week, when he spoke at the Chabad of Forest Hills North, hosted by Rabbi Mendy and Chaya Hecht.

When there is an open election that does not directly involve the voting public, political reporters search for the scoop that reveals how the next City Council Speaker is selected. Based on recent history, that choice depended on the Queens delegation and the borough’s Democratic Party chair. With Corey Johnson leaving office at the end of the month, two contenders from this borough emerged as the frontrunners, Francisco Moya from Corona and Adrienne Adams from South Jamaica.

A dozen local doctors, and a nearly matching number of local yeshivos, sponsored a free Zoom presentation this past Monday, given by Dr. Paul Offit, a renowned authority on children’s immunizations. Nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic, there are millions of Americans who refuse to be vaccinated, despite evidence that doing so can keep people out of the emergency room.

Since her early childhood, Estee Ackerman has been climbing the charts as a champion in table tennis, never compromising on her observance of Shabbos. For more than a decade, the 20-year-old junior at Stern College has been making headlines for her stellar scores and then fleeing the court as the sun descended to the horizon on Friday afternoons.

A month ago, many Jewish bookshelves around the world still had volumes of inspirational books that quoted children as an empowerment and teaching tool. When multiple allegations emerged that the author behaved inappropriately with women and children, Jewish institutions and homes worldwide tossed the books away. Then came the difficult part of explaining the absence of the once-popular books, the allegations against its author, the lives that were damaged, and preventing such incidents from happening to our children.

The practical pasuk in Parshas VaY’chi for all generations is found in last week’s parshah, VaY’chi, where two of our patriarchs speak of their own deaths. It signifies an awareness that life comes to an end, applying it towards logistics involved with estate planning, and ensuring that the body is brought into the ground in a halachic manner. “Yaakov realized that he was going to leave his world... He wanted something to be sure to happen,” said Rabbi Paysach Krohn. “He specifically asked Yosef to swear to him that he would be buried exactly where he wanted to be buried.”