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Shavuos is the culmination of the seven-week-long “Counting of the Omer” that occurs following Pesach. The very name “Shavuos” means “weeks,” in recognition of the weeks of anticipation leading up to the Har Sinai experience. Shavuos commemorates Hashem giving the Torah to B’nei Yisrael. During the holiday prayer services, we read the story of the Revelation on Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments. On the second day of Shavuos, we read Megillas Rus.

At Bell Academy in Queens, first term Councilwoman Vickie Paladino delivered her State of the District address to a capacity crowd.  Paladino, one of only 6 Republican members of the 51 seat City Council, has always been a political outsider in the deep blue New York City.  In her years of political activism, she has managed to flip her neighborhood to become a red dot in a blue ocean.

From videos of Rabbi Leo Dee discussing his recent losses and the story of the Gush Etzion massacre in 1948 to a speaker asking for the inclusion of all Jews, Queens Jewish Center celebrated Israel. More than 60 people came to the two-hour event for Israel’s Memorial and Independence Days.

In Honor of Yom HaAtzmaut and Israel’s 75th Anniversary, with Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm

There are people who are so brilliant, knowledgeable, and articulate that one would go out in the pouring rain and walk many blocks to hear him or her speak. This is what happened twice on Shabbos Acharei Mos-K’doshim (April 29) when, despite the fact that it had been pouring for hours, flooding the streets and sidewalks, and continued to rain all day, dozens of people who do not usually attend the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills joined a very large number of shul members to hear Rabbi Ari Lamm, Chief Executive of the Bnai Zion Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that produces media that introduces Israel and Jewish ideas to audiences around the world, speak during a special Shabbos in honor of Yom HaAtzmaut and Israel’s 75^th anniversary.

Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal’s legislation, Hate Crime Reporting on College Campuses (A.3694), which will require colleges that receive state funding to modernize and enhance their disclosure of hate crimes that occur on campus, has passed the New York State Assembly.

Shame on those who voted against it

The Queens Jewish Community Council expressed appreciation to the US Congress for passing – on Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day – a resolution honoring the 75th anniversary of U.S.-Israel relations and calling for the expansion and strengthening of the Abraham Accords.