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Warm weather brought back the crowds at the Celebrate Israel Parade on Sunday, which was interrupted in the past two years by the pandemic. Having marched for many years as a participant and a reporter, this year I was quarantined at home as a result of a positive COVID test. No symptoms, and nearly everyone in my social circle is vaccinated, but such are the rules. So, my family went without me, and I relied on the words of my daughter’s classmates, friends, and elected officials on this year’s parade experience.

For decades, the bus map of Queens has seen few changes, but with a decline in revenue resulting from the pandemic, the MTA released a set of proposed routes designed to increase ridership and speed up commuting. In central Queens, which has the largest Jewish population in the borough, the changes will connect the communities and offer new options for transfers to the subway. Last Thursday, the agency held a virtual session where residents of Community Board 8 offered feedback on the proposed routes.

In light of the uptick in anti-Semitic incidents nationwide and polls showing ignorance of the Holocaust in the post-millennial generation, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic of Fresh Meadows sponsored a bill requiring the State Education Department to survey how the Holocaust is being taught across the state. This week, it passed in the Assembly and Senate after a five-year effort, awaiting the Governor’s signature to become law.

Following a lawsuit filed by New York Republicans to undo this year’s Congressional and State redistricting last month, court-appointed expert Jonathan Cervas released a new map on Monday that gives an edge to the city’s lone Republican in Washington, puts two longtime Manhattan Democratic incumbents in the same district, and gives Jewish voters an opportunity to decide the future of this party in competitive primaries between centrists and leftists.

Blue and white will run up Fifth Avenue this Sunday after a three-year break resulting from the pandemic. The Celebrate Israel Parade will host dozens of schools, synagogues, nonprofits, companies, and elected officials expressing support for the Jewish state.

Less than a year after Beth Torah U’Tefila vacated the small home at 416 Hempstead Avenue for a larger space across the street, a new k’hilah was dedicated at this address. “The idea was always out there. We were waiting for more people to move in who would be receptive to it,” said Rabbi Avichai Bensoussan, the rav of the House of Torah Sephardic Congregation, also known as Yismach Yisrael. “Our members are very engaged in doing the right thing al pi halachah.”