State Senator Simcha Felder has been elected to the New York City Council, securing the seat for the 44th District in a closely watched race against Heshy Tishler. The district includes portions of Boro Park, Midwood, and Flatbush. Felder fills the vacancy left by former Councilman Kalman Yeger, who was elected to the New York State Assembly earlier this year. Felder’s City Council term will run through the end of 2025, after which he will need to compete in the June primaries and November general election to win a full four-year term. The outcome marks Felder’s return to the City Council, where he previously served before moving on to the State Senate.

The Aleph Institute’s education initiative, Project 432, recently delivered its Compass Workshop to 150 students at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. The workshop is a groundbreaking initiative designed to teach teenagers and young adults the principles of financial integrity through the lens of Torah and halacha. Since its inception two years ago, the workshop has reached over 2,560 students at 58 high schools and yeshivas in North America and Israel. As part of efforts to equip their talmidim with the tools to lead a life of yashrus, the yeshiva partnered with Project 432 to guide students in navigating financial challenges through Torah-based principles.

In an inspiring act of honesty and integrity, a yeshiva bochur from Boro Park, returning home from Eretz Yisroel for Pesach Bein Hazmanim, made a remarkable Kiddush Hashem when he returned a bag filled with over $100,000 in valuables that had been mistakenly left in the Uber he took home from the airport. The bochur, who had just landed at Newark Airport after an overseas flight, was handed a backpack by the Uber driver while unloading his own luggage. In the fog of travel, he assumed it belonged to one of his fellow travelers. However, after realizing that none of them could claim the bag, he opened it to investigate.

On the eve of the special election for the open City Council seat representing Borough Park and parts of Flatbush, a large group of Chassidic leaders and community organizations has united behind Simcha Felder, throwing their full support behind his candidacy. A broad coalition of Chassidic leaders and school administrators, calling itself “Ichud Kehillos,” issued a joint endorsement on Monday, emphasizing the urgency of electing an experienced leader at a time when the frum community faces major challenges. “At this crucial moment, when so many issues affecting our community are at stake, we need the right, experienced leader to fill this seat,” the coalition said.

On Friday morning, Community Board 12 held its annual Pre-Pesach meeting, uniting key community leaders and city agencies to coordinate preparations in Boro Park ahead of and throughout Pesach. Among the main topics discussed were the safe and organized execution of Serifas Chametz, increased NYPD presence, garbage collection efficiency—particularly on Erev Pesach, and ongoing roadwork during this busy season. The meeting, spearheaded by Community Board 12 Chairman Yidel Perlstein and District Manager Barry Spitzer, brought together representatives from the NYPD’s 66th Precinct, FDNY, EMS, Sanitation Department, Department of Transportation, as well as leading volunteer organizations including Hatzolah, Shomrim, Chaverim, and Misaskim.

Staten Island Shomrim has enhanced its emergency response capabilities with the addition of two new light towers, generously donated by Menchy Cleaning & Restoration Inc. The donation, facilitated by Menchy’s Operations Manager Herschy Axelrod, is part of a new initiative aimed at supporting community safety efforts. The light towers are already being put to use, bolstering visibility during night patrols, community events, and emergency situations. “At Shomrim, we take great pride in our role of safeguarding the community,” Shomrim’s Coordinator Ari Weiss tells YWN. “These light towers are a valuable addition to our fleet and will greatly enhance our capabilities in the field.

A large section of the facade of Yeshiva University’s Belz Building partially collapsed Sunday morning, sending debris crashing onto a sidewalk shed and causing significant damage. The incident occurred around 9:20 a.m. at the five-story building on 185th Street near Amsterdam Avenue, prompting an emergency response from the FDNY and Department of Buildings (DOB) inspectors. A 6-foot-by-70-foot section of the building’s facade broke away, causing a 70-foot portion of the sidewalk shed below to collapse onto Amsterdam Avenue, according to the DOB. Despite the dramatic collapse, no injuries were reported. Videos from the scene show a massive pile of rubble in front of the building, surrounded by police tape.

In the wake of the March 2024 catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sounded the alarm on dozens of bridges nationwide that could be one vessel strike away from disaster—including six major bridges in New York City. The newly released NTSB report, prompted by the March 2024 tragedy, warns that these critical structures possess “unknown levels of risk” when it comes to vessel collisions.

Yeshiva University (YU) has officially recognized “Hareni,” a toeiva student club, after years of legal wrangling. The decision, finalized following a contentious battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, perhaps puts the final stroke on the school’s surrender to secular ideology—and a blatant rejection of the Torah principles that YU once claimed to champion. For decades, YU positioned itself as a stalwart defender of Orthodox Judaism, proudly resisting pressures to conform to progressive societal trends. It steadfastly opposed recognizing the YU Pride Alliance, arguing that such a move would violate its deeply held religious convictions.

New York State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein penned a sharply worded letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and to NYC Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, expressing his strong opposition to the decision to place a shelter for homeless families in Boro Park at a location that would adversely affect the surrounding area. While Assemblyman Eichenstein acknowledged the importance of addressing the needs of the homeless in New York City, he said he is disturbed to have learned about the plan to place a shelter in the area without having been consulted previously. “Why weren’t our community leaders or local elected officials informed and engaged in advance?” Assemblyman Eichenstein asked.