Boro Park, Brooklyn – On Tuesday, Community Board 12 hosted a meeting, via zoom, with New York City’s Fire, Sanitation and Police Departments, along with community leaders, community organizations and elected officials, to review plans in anticipation of the upcoming Pesach Holiday. Although COVID restrictions have eased somewhat since last year Pesach, the pandemic remains, therefore procedures were adopted so a kosher Pesach can safely be celebrated. The meeting follows an annual tradition, first instituted by Rabbi Edgar Gluck in 1966, of hosting a multi-agency conference to facilitate the coordination of Passover planning.

The FBI arrested a former spokesperson for the New York City Police Department on Tuesday on charges she entered the U.S. Capitol – and shook a tambourine – during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Sara Carpenter, a retired police officer who lives in Queens, drove to Washington the night before the deadly siege and took video as the chaos unfolded inside the Capitol Rotunda, the FBI said in court filings. Surveillance footage showed her shaking a tambourine that agents later recovered during a search of her residence. She told the FBI she was “trampled and pepper-sprayed as she exited the Capitol building,” according to court filings, and drove back to New York hours after the riot. Carpenter, 51, was charged in U.S.

The New York Legislature’s impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo is likely to take “months,” the chair of the Assembly’s judiciary committee said Tuesday. Cuomo, a Democrat, has resisted calls for his resignation after multiple women accused him of harassment. He’s also facing outrage over his administration’s decision to withhold information about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

About 80,000 New York City municipal employees who have been working remotely during the coronavirus pandemic will return to their offices starting May 3, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. “We’re going to make it safe, but we need our city workers back in their offices where they can do the most to help their fellow New Yorkers, and it’s also going to send a powerful message about this city moving forward,” the Democratic mayor said, promising strict safety measures. The workforce of about 300,000 city employees includes many like police officers and firefighters who can’t work from home. A spokesperson for de Blasio said about 80,000 municipal office workers will begin a staggered process of returning to their work sites on May 3.

New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie was one of two lawmakers who said they tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, though both Democrats said they were experiencing only mild symptoms. Assembly member Ron Kim of Queens announced his positive test on Twitter, saying he was in quarantine. Kim has been one of the loudest voices calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be impeached as the governor faces scandals revolving around the classification of nursing home deaths and allegations of harassment. Kim said Cuomo had vowed to “destroy” him during a private phone call for nursing home criticism he felt was unfair. Cuomo has denied the allegation.

The Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva, Hagaon HaRav Malkiel Kotler was flown by Hatzolah Air to the Cleveland Clinic on Wednesday morning, where he will be seen by cardiac specialists. As YWN reported on Tuesday, the Rosh Yeshiva was taken to the Jersey Shore Medical Center by Lakewood Hatzolah. It was feared that he would require an emergency surgery, but doctors managed to stabilize the situation to provide some time so that a decision could be made where to treat the Rosh Yeshiva. An decision was made to fly him to Cleveland, and Lakewood Hatzolah transported him to the airport where a team from Hatzolah Air was touching down at 4:30AM ready for the emergency flight. The flight crew consisted of two specialized doctors and two Paramedics.

Chevra Hatzolah has launched a campaign to encourage the community at large to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Hatzolah has placed ads in Jewish print publications as well as online and social media, promoting the vaccine. The Medical Director of Chevra Hatzolah, Dr Shimshy Zimmerman, has now released a short, informative video encouraging everyone to get vaccinated. Watch the video below:   (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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Please say Tehillim for Hagaon HaRav Malkiel Kotler, Rosh Yeshiva of Lakewood’s Beth Medrash Gavoah who was hospitalized on Tuesday. He was taken to the hospital by Hatzolah Paramedics after suffering a cardiac episode. It was initially thought that he would require emergency surgery, but it appears doctors stabilized his condition and is not having surgery today. The Rosh Yeshiva has been admitted to the ICU. His name for Tehillim is Aryeh Malkiel ben Rishel. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Met Council brought the largest pre-Pesach distribution of free, kosher food in the country to its Boro Park Chesed Center and to UJO Williamsburg at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Thousands of families received 768,799 pounds of food between the two locations, a $3.9 million investment by Met Council to ensure Jewish New Yorkers would not go without food this Pesach. These distributions were just a piece of Met Council’s multi-week pre-Pesach push to get basic staples and seder essentials in the pantries and on the tables of struggling families. Thousands of pounds of large Idaho potatoes, onions, eggs, carrots, oranges, apples, and other fresh fruits and vegetables were given away at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, along with over 2,000 cases of grape juice.

Rockland County Legislator Aron B. Wieder was among a delegation of community leaders that visited Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan Thursday to offer thanks to the entire staff for their efforts throughout the pandemic. “One of the questions I had as a child was, ‘Why do doctors wear white coats,’” Legislator Wieder said. “Even as children, we all know that angels are fully dressed in white, from their halo to the tip of their wings. If there is anything the world has learned from COVID-19, it is that doctors, nurses, medical personnel, security guards, even the receptionist taking the distraught phone call, all are angels.