Adam Dickter interviews John Liu, in episode #2 of The Jewish Week’s new vlog, “MetroPolitics.” John Liu is the comptroller-elect of New York City, and is currently a city councilman for the Flushing district. He’s also an incredibly nice guy! Enjoy the video — I think I did a much better job this time.

Not Immune From Mumps

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Stemming from an initial mumps outbreak that wreaked havoc at a Jewish camp this summer, 247 New York City residents plus 131 other state residents have since contracted the disease, which remains mostly contained among fervently Orthodox adolescent boys in pockets of New York, New Jersey and Quebec, according to official reports from the New York City and State Departments of Health.

The trigger case occurred back in June, when an 11-year-old boy returned to his Sullivan County summer camp after traveling in the United Kingdom, where an ongoing outbreak has now reached about 4,000 cases, the Centers for Disease Control reported.

From there, the mumps spread to 24 other boys at the camp and continued to plague their local communities when they returned home, and the median age of patients remains around 14. But perhaps the most frustrating news to some parents is that most of the affected patients had received their proper two-dose vaccination as children — 83 percent, according to the CDC.

“This is a very confusing issue not only for ourselves but for providers and parents,” said Cindy Schulte, vaccine-preventable disease surveillance officer at the New York State Department of Health. “If you have a population that’s fairly well but unevenly vaccinated, by logic, you’re going to end up having some disease in the effective population.” The Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine has an 85 to 91 percent efficacy rate among those who take the proper doses, she said.  Continue reading…

The East Village ‘Wailing Wall’

New beat in the Village: Rabbi Greg Wall has launched a new music series at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Surrounded by dustily stocked bookshelves, antique lamps and floral artistic screens, a jazz saxophonist jammed along with his ensemble for a small crowd that straggled in and out of a dimly lit East Village basement this past Monday night.

No, this wasn’t your ordinary subterranean jazz haunt.

Suddenly, the sax player paused his band between sets to relate the piece they had just finished to Vayishlach, the Torah portion of the week, where Jacob confronts Esau and speaks to him about his evil father-in-law Laban.

Rabbi Greg Wall, a noted saxophonist working at the intersection of jazz and Jewish music, was just installed as the new spiritual leader of the Sixth Street Community Synagogue, what he is now calling the “Wailing Wall of Sixth Street.” And the basement gig was the launch of his “Jazz Rabbi’s Monday Night Invitational,” part of his effort to transform the synagogue into an arts haven.

Rocking back and forth with his tenor and soprano saxophones as if he were davening, the rabbi joined pianist Shai Bachar, drummer Aaron Alexander and bassist Dave Richards as they played songs from John Zorn’s Tzadik label as well as new material from their upcoming CD. The new concert series is just one of many events in a wave of musical innovation that Rabbi Wall is bringing to the traditionally Orthodox synagogue that has always been steeped in arts and culture.

“I’m trying to come up with programming that will appeal to the East Village demographic,” said the rabbi, who is hoping to please older congregants while bringing in the neighborhood’s youth. “We have a full schedule coming up.”  Continue reading…