Good news! (Or is it?) New York City beats San Francisco … in having the most expensive rent in the country. Take that, 2020’s dire predictions! And good morning to you all.
RESOLUTION A Fort Lee, New Jersey, condo building will again set its elevators to stop on each floor on Shabbat after settling a lawsuit filed by Orthodox Jewish residents. (New York Jewish Week)
MASK MANDATE Gov. Kathy Hochul, on her first day in office, said she is directing state authorities to impose a mask mandate for all public and private schools, including Jewish schools. (New York Times)
JAB LAG Far Rockaway, a Queens neighborhood with large Orthodox and Black populations, has the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the city. (Gotham Gazette)
VAX STATUS As city houses of worship weigh vaccine requirements, many Reform synagogues are rolling out mandates while Orthodox leaders say they think the unvaccinated should not be excluded from religious life. (New York Times)
PING PONG PRO Among the Jewish athletes competing in the Tokyo Paralympics is Tahl Leibovitz, a New Yorker who attended Hebrew school in Ozone Park and is looking to add to his table tennis medal tally. (JTA)
HAITI RELIEF Orthodox and Hasidic Jews in Rockland County gathered supplies Tuesday to send to Haiti, which experienced a devastating earthquake last week. (The Journal News)
HOME SICK Twenty yeshiva students returning to New York from Ukraine were rushed to the hospital after falling ill on their plane, possibly because of food poisoning. (ABC4 NY)
AROUND THE WORLD, VIA JTA
- Ahead of his first meeting as prime minister with President Joe Biden, Naftali Bennett said Israel would neither annex West Bank territory nor allow it to become a Palestinian state under his watch.
- The Paralympics were started by a Jewish doctor who fled the Nazis and pioneered lifesaving treatments for paralyzed patients.
- Zoombombers interrupted an online memorial service for a Jewish teacher in Rio de Janeiro with antisemitic comments.
WHAT’S ON TODAY Want to drop in on a unique local synagogue and discuss a classic of the High Holiday season? Consider joining Temple Beth-Israel of City Island, also called Your Shul By the Sea, on Zoom at 7:30 p.m. for a book club discussing Rabbi Alan Lew’s “This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared.” Find the details here.
Photo, at top: Israeli-born table tennis player Tahl Leibovitz competing for the U.S. team in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. He’s competing again this month in Tokyo. (Gaël Marziou)
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