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Hundreds of spectators brought their blankets and lawn chairs to Cunningham Park last Thursday to hear Shulem Lemmer in the first outdoor Jewish concert in Queens since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. “It was difficult to set up, and it looks like we have 300 people here,” said Queens Jewish Community Council Vice President Judy Rosen, whose organization sponsored the concert. “He sings in Yiddish and Hebrew, a combination of acts in one show.”

A sign hangs on Rabbi Haim Alcabes’ home in Kew Gardens Hills and the rooms are nearly empty save for a table with a laptop and a sefer, where he participates and gives shiurim on Zoom. Having lived in Queens for more than four decades, Rabbi Haim and Francine Alcabes are making aliyah, fulfilling their life’s dream.

After two decades in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden did not waver from his promise to withdraw the military from this battle-scarred country, even as the Taliban were sweeping across the provinces, gaining territory and cities on their way to Kabul. The Panjshir Valley, once the stronghold of Taliban opponent Ahmad Shah Massoud that valiantly held out in the 1990s, was captured quickly this time. Likewise with Kabul, the relatively worldly capital city, where military and police personnel took off their uniforms and dispersed, while the international airport was crowded with refugees, and the American flag was removed from the embassy as a helicopter airlifted the last diplomats in a scene identical to the fall of Saigon.

Amid pressure from within his party and an impeachment looming, Gov. Andrew Cuomo submitted his two-week notice of resignation on Tuesday. “Wasting energy on distractions is the last thing that state government should be doing. I cannot be the cause of that,” the Holliswood native said in a 22-minute live speech at his Midtown office. “The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing, and therefore that’s what I’ll do.”

At a time when some urban lawmakers are rallying to defund the police, their suburban counterparts voted last week to empower them. On Monday, August 2, the Nassau County Legislature voted to allow police to sue for damages against individuals who harass, menace, or injure members of this profession. “It is the judgment of this legislature that the recent widespread pattern of physical attacks and intimidation directed at the police has undermined the civil liberties of the community at large,” the bill’s sponsors noted.

Rabbi helped launch and maintain popular ‘young families’ shul and community

Four years ago, the basement of the Yeshiva of Central Queens experienced a quiet Shabbos for the first time in many years. Kehilas Ishei Yisrael had disbanded after Rabbi Shmuel Marcus, and many of its members followed him to the Young Israel of Queens Valley. A sizable number of young families seeking to maintain the minyan in that space adopted a new name. Kehilah Torah Temimah was then founded, and secured this site with Rabbi Elan Segelman as its rav.