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When a new Chabad House opens in any community, it often plants a large menorah on the front yard as a sign of visible Judaism. They stand long after the last candle of Chanukah blows out to inform Jewish passersby that there is a couple in town who can answer their questions about Yiddishkeit and serve their religious needs. Last October, Rabbi Mendel and Rivka Gurkov settled in Rockville Centre, setting up the newest Chabad House on Long Island.

The student body of the Yeshiva of Central Queens extends far beyond its namesake area, with dozens commuting from eastern Queens, Great Neck, and West Hempstead, among other neighborhoods. This past Sunday, one second grader from Howard Beach had a birthday party at her local Chabad, where I learned about the story of a Conservative temple that was transformed into a kiruv center.

On the weekend of Shabbos HaGadol, the largest Bukharian shul in the country, Beth Gavriel in Forest Hills, hosted a concert by the Atid Boys Choir, a unique ensemble led by Conductor Itzhak Haimov and Chazan Ezro Malakov, a veteran of radio and stage for many decades. “After many centuries, Bukharian Seder songs have returned to a new generation of children. Along with songs, I also teach them the customs of the Seder,” Malakov said. “We will record our model Seder with the songs on video.”

More than 200 young families reunited this past Shabbos at a hotel in Fairfield, New Jersey, to host Rabbi Moshe Fhima, the director of the Yad Yisroel yeshivah in Pinsk, Belarus. For the past 27 years, under the leadership of the Karlin-Stolin chasidic community, Jewish life was revived in Ukraine and Belarus.

I’ve never taken the groundhog’s shadow seriously, especially when late March gave us cold rain and wind with temperatures that were hovering close to the freezing mark. At the same time, there are signs of optimism in the cherry blossoms blooming next to the New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows, a long-neglected World’s Fair structure that is undergoing a restoration: better weather, reopened museums, and restored landmarks. If you’re home for Pesach or visiting family members in the suburbs, there’s plenty to see around the city and its vicinity.

As his country is hit with horrors unseen since World War II, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky used Holocaust terminology in his virtual speech to the Knesset last Sunday.