In West Queens, New Blood Raises Hopes for Jewish Revital.

Young Jews in Long Island City celebrate Sukkot on a condo rooftop. Rabbi Zev Wineberg

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

When Cara Bernstein walked down the aisle a month ago to meet her fiancé under the chupah, she knew her wedding day was a crossroads not only in her life, but in the life of her Queens synagogue, which had not hosted a bride and groom for 22 years.

Nearly the entire congregation at Astoria Center of Israel celebrated her marriage that day, whether or not they knew the couple personally.

“A fellow congregant told me that I’m part of a new wave of congregants,” said Bernstein, who is 38.

Astoria Center of Israel is just one pocket of many in northwestern Queens where residents say they are seeing a revitalization of their historic Jewish populations. For 20- and 30-somethings who crave cheaper rents in close proximity to Manhattan, Astoria has become somewhat of a mecca, with popular restaurants, shops and nightlife options.

In Long Island City, brand-new yet pricey condominiums are attracting a slightly older crowd — young families in their 30s and 40s who find the East River waterfront an attractive place to raise small children. Other young singles and families are choosing nearby Jackson Heights and Sunnyside, which offer even more affordable real estate than the riverside neighborhoods.

Yet as young people — both Jews and non-Jews alike — continue to flock to northwestern Queens, they often lack the infrastructure necessary to accommodate Jewish community, area experts agree.

“I felt very good about Jewish life beginning here, but I don’t see any push to set up synagogues there,” said Jeff Gottlieb, president of the Queens Jewish Historical Society. “I see a lot of young Jewish people there, but I don’t see any real sparkle of any organizational Jewish life.”

Spiritual leaders like the Astoria Center’s Rabbi Jonathan Pearl are trying to combat this notion and reinvigorate their aging populations by pulling in younger crowds.

“There was an amazing sense of revitalization coming back into the sanctuary when we had a marriage taking place here,” said Rabbi Pearl, who has been at the synagogue for a little over a year. “The place was full.”

Last Sunday, Astoria Center of Israel received landmark designation status from the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places, for its beautiful interior décor and history of civic leadership since the 1920s. Today, the Conservative synagogue is egalitarian with about 100 members, most of whom are the elderly remnants of a neighborhood that was once home to seven synagogues and multiple kosher butchers.  Continue reading…

Green Day For AJC

A Tesla electric sports car parked outside of San Francisco’s JCC, site of an environmental conference. Right, AJC “green” mission participants at Solazyme, a biofuel company in Silicon Valley.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

San Francisco — In its effort to elevate the issue of energy independence, the venerable American Jewish Committee has pushed for policy change in Washington, “greened” its own New York headquarters and even offered cash incentives for its employees to buy hybrid cars.

Now, the group is trying to tap the power of a new generation of young leaders, for whom green issues are central to the expression of their Jewish identity. Earlier this month in this hub of West Coast environmentalism, the AJC’s young leadership umbrella (ACCESS) held its first conference on environmental issues, dubbed “J-REC, the Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge.” The daylong event at the Jewish Community Center here drew more than 200 people, many of them environmental experts from the Jewish community.

As the conference was taking place, simultaneous live Web casts took place in Jerusalem, Kibbutz Ketura in Israel’s Arava Desert, Chicago, Denver and New York drawing another 200 people. Conference organizers set for themselves a lofty — and likely difficult — goal: to unify the Jewish community in combating the global energy crisis.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen in one room a Jewish farmer, Jewish venture capitalists, and everyone coalescing around this one major issue,” said political analyst Ari Wallach, a speaker on one of the conference panels. He organized the “Great Schlep” campaign for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election.

When budding clean-tech lawyer Jonathan Axelrad moved from New York to San Francisco last year, he immediately began work on the AJC conference and mission, believing that clean energy and U.S. energy independence were issues young people would be charged up about. But he knew he couldn’t do it alone.

In a stroke of luck, recent Stanford University graduate Lyuba Wolf happened to walk into Axelrad’s office in search of a pro-bono attorney for her student greening organization, Energy Crossroads. Instantly, Axelrad realized he had met his environmental other-half.

“That’s when the mission became a movement,” Axelrad told The Jewish Week. “We went back to AJC ACCESS and said that we want to organize a unified movement in the Jewish community to respond to what we’re calling the ‘energy challenge,’ which is transforming an oil- and fossil fuel-based economy to clean and secure energy sources.” In the end, the mission attracted 20 AJC young leaders to San Francisco for the conference, post-conference round tables and site visits to clean-tech business in the Bay Area.  Continue reading…

Evangelist Postpones Birthright Appearance

by Sharon Udasin

Evangelical leader Gordon Robertson has postponed a speaking engagement that was scheduled for this Thursday at an event for Birthright Israel alumni, sponsored by Birthright NEXT and the Jewish Enrichment Center (JEC).

Robertson, who is the CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network and son of the Rev. Pat Robertson, was supposed to discuss Christian Zionism and the strength of evangelical support for the Jewish State. Though Robertson has openly declared that Jews can accept Jesus and still be Jewish, Birthright NEXT staff say that he had no intention of touting these beliefs at the event.

The cancellation occurred only because Birthright NEXT lost their original venue, according to Rebecca Sugar, the organization’s director. Meanwhile, CBN is looking to reschedule the Robertson speaking event to mid-December, when Robertson next travels to New York, confirmed network spokesperson Chris Roslan. Click here to read original JW version of this brief.