Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
I was recently sent an Instagram under the name Carlasesenco, in which a young Jewish woman with watery red eyes pitifully expresses how abandoned she feels as a Progressive Jew, which had been her world. As she states. “It is an incredibly sad and confusing time” for Progressive Jews.
The weather was perfect. The crowd was cheerful, enthusiastic, and sizeable. Aside from the ubiquitous but marginalized Neturei Karta members on Madison Avenue, there was a complete respite from pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian harassment. Much of the credit goes to the organizers of the event and to the NYPD. Of course, the crowd itself gets a lot of credit, as we Jews are not the rowdy bunch that populates similar events. I wore my “Build Israel Great Again” red and white cap, which drew some thumbs up reaction and a request for a picture of the hat. So, all was well.
I would often half-jokingly tell my children that it’s good that Hashem made me a Jew, or I would have been the worst anti-Semite around. I also told them it’s good Hashem made me a rabbi, or I would have been a horrible rabbi critic.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union, issued a weekly Shabbos message for last week that was quite remarkable for its candor.
It was June 27, 1976, around the 200th birthday of the United States, when the awful news broke that an Air France jet flying from Israel was hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda. Dozens of Israeli/Jewish passengers were held hostage by Idi Amin’s hateful army. A passenger, Dorah Block, was killed during the takeover. Things looked very bleak for the remaining passengers.
The news these days is stunning. Iran launches a barrage of rockets against Israel, leaving all unscathed, baruch Hashem. There are the deaths of precious Israeli soldiers by “friendly fire.” Thousands of Israelis attend the funeral of a Lone Soldier who was killed. A Jewish man, Rachamana litzlan, is scheduled to be executed in Iran. The president of Iran is killed in a helicopter crash. The International Criminal Court initiated by South Africa applies for a warrant to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant for war crimes. (For good measure, they threw in Hamas terrorist leaders. Same level as IDF leadership. Yawn.) Remember how Jews in South Africa and worldwide fought against Apartheid? Hey, that was yesterday.
